Another Round (podcast)

Another Round
Presentation
Hosted byTracy Clayton and Heben Nigatu
GenreComedy, Interview, Pop culture
LanguageEnglish
LengthVaries
Production
No. of episodes113, plus bonus episodes and "Shots" (mini episodes)
Publication
Original releaseMarch 24, 2015 (March 24, 2015) –
December 20, 2017
ProviderPanoply Media

Another Round is a culture podcast co-hosted by Tracy Clayton and Heben Nigatu. Debuting on BuzzFeed on March 24, 2015, Another Round featured interviews with guests such as writer and MacArthur Genius Ta-Nehisi Coates and U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as segments on topics ranging from race, gender to pop culture. BuzzFeed ceased production of the podcast in 2017.[1][2]

About

The premise of the podcast was that the two hosts, Clayton and Nigatu, talk to each other and guests while both having fun and tackling serious topics, like mental health, feminism and racism. In their debut episode, they described the podcast: "Another Round is basically happy hour with friends you haven't met yet. Grab a drink and yell along."[3] The hosts always had drinks throughout the taping and it was a central theme of the show, helping give it a casual vibe. At the same time, the show had multiple prepared segments, topics, and interviews with many notable guests. It mixed corny jokes with journalism, heavily researching guests and often asking difficult questions.[3] The hosts described their approach and reason for creating the podcast, "We believe in the power of listening, of bearing witness and sharing each other's stories."[4]

Guests

In addition to Coates and Clinton, Another Round episodes featured many episodes with interviews of notable guests including New York Times best-selling author Roxane Gay,[5] Hamilton writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, comedian Margaret Cho,[6] writer and First Lady of New York City Chirlane McCray,[7] and NPR's Audie Cornish. Many others have become well known in the time after the interviews, such as writer and comedian Issa Rae and musical artist Lizzo.[8][9]

Segments

In addition to interviews and Stacy's Career Corner, segments on Another Round included Drunken Debates, Tracy's Animal Corner, Is This Real Life?, What Had Happened Was, Rapid Fire ("Pew Pew Pew!"),[1] Nichole's Nookie Nook, Tracy's Joke Time,[10] and White Devil's Advocate.[11] At the end of every episode, there is also the repeating segment where the hosts would "buy a round" for something or someone that they appreciate.[6]

Production team

Buzzfeed's Tracy Clayton and Heben Nigatu hosted Another Round. Occasional guest hosts sat in for Nigatu after she joined The Late Show with Stephen Colbert staff in July 2016. Stacy-Marie Ishmael, Buzzfeed's Managing Editor for Mobile News, hosted Stacy's Career Corner as a recurring guest.[11]

Another Round was one of five podcasts produced by BuzzFeed's audio team. Producers included Jenna Weiss-Berman,[12] Eleanor Kagan, Julia Furlan and Meg Cramer, collectively referred to as the Pod Squad.

Accolades

Another Round episodes were rated "Best of 2015" by iTunes,[13] Slate,[14] Vulture,[15] and The Atlantic.[16] In 2016, Forbes named Nigatu to its annual 30 Under 30 list, citing her work on "the popular and influential BuzzFeed podcast Another Round...which has monthly listener numbers in the hundreds of thousands."[17] Writing for The Guardian, critic Sasha Frere-Jones described hosts Nigatu and Clayton as "leading American cultural critics."[18]

Hiatus

In late 2017, BuzzFeed announced the decision to stop producing Another Round, but that Nigatu and Clayton could take ownership and production of the show after a hiatus.[19] BuzzFeed canceled not only Another Round, but by late 2018 cancelled its two other shows Thirst Aid Kit and See Something Say Something and laid off the entire podcast production team. The other two shows both eventually resumed production under different models, unrelated to BuzzFeed. Another Round has not returned and the hiatus is indefinite.[20]

Both hosts of Another Round went on to take other jobs, Clayton going on to host multiple podcasts and Nigatu as a staff writer for Desus & Mero. Clayton explained in an interview to Vice that they could have continued after being given the ownership of the podcasts, but both were too tired. Clayton said, "It wasn't easy to be in the position to take away this thing that you all love and that we gave birth to for a little while. But we were tired and we needed to rest and lay down because invisible illnesses like anxiety and depression are things that even HR departments don't always acknowledge."[21] There has been significant and continued interest in its revival, with many fans being vocal about missing the show.[21]

Controversy about the ending of the show was reignited in June 2020, when Clayton and Nigatu shared that while they have ownership over the name they did not own any of the back catalogue. This is in contrast with the other two BuzzFeed shows, Thirst Aid Kit and See Something Say Something, which both own their back catalogue. Many people involved in the creation of Another Round have also come forward in the aftermath to say that even during production and the height of its popularity, the podcast was not given much support or resources internally. BuzzFeed has since acknowledged its lack of support, with the CEO Jonah Peretti, saying that the business was "bad at selling podcasts to clients, and [...] bad at selling content focused on Black audiences. This is inexcusable and cost us dearly. We should have developed those skills."[20][22]

Episodes

Episode # Date aired Title Content
23 September 1, 2015 The Audacity of Despair (with David Simon) Talk with David Simon, creator of The Wire and Show Me a Hero.[23]
22 August 25, 2015 A Dude Named Hot Sauce (with Yassir Lester) Interview with Yassir Lester, comedian and writer for 'Girls.'[24]
21 August 18, 2015 The Reverse Jackie Robinson (with Chris Hayes) Interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes (the first white guest). First episode with Stacy's Career Corner segment.[25]
20 August 11, 2015 Peak Blackness (with Rembert Browne) Drunken debates with Grantland's Rembert Browne.[26]
19 August 4, 2015 Was That a Microaggression or Just Tuesday? (with Audie Cornish) Interview with Audie Cornish, host of NPR's All Things Considered.[27]
18 July 28, 2015 Unstoppable (with Lianne La Havas) Interview with Lianne La Havas and the hosts interview white men on the street.[28]
17 July 7, 2015 Caribbean Vibez (with Stacy-Marie Ishmael) Interview with Stacy-Marie Ishmael, who was then BuzzFeed's News App Editor, and listeners call in their microagressions.[29]
16 June 30, 2015 Another Read (with Crissle West) Interview with Crissle West of The Read and the debut of Tracy's animal corner.[30]
15 June 23, 2015 Crush that Rage Into A Diamond Interview with Jay Smooth[31]
14 June 16, 2015 Multitudity (with Tiq Milan) Interview with Tiq Milan.[32]
13 June 9, 2015 Another Round LIVE! (with Roxane Gay) Interview with Roxane Gay.[33]
12 June 2, 2015 Casual Negro Spirituals (with Jean Grae) Interview with Jean Grae.[34]
11 May 26, 2015 Bob Loblaw (with Chirlane McCray) Interview with NYC's First Lady Chirlane McCray[35]
10 May 19, 2015 You Tickled Whitney Houston?! (with Brandy) Interview with Brandy Norwood[36]
9 May 12, 2015 You're Gonna Be a Boss One Day (with Kaya Thomas) Interview with Kaya Thomas.[37]
8 May 5, 2015 Shmoney For The Ancestors (with Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah) Interview with Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah.[38]
7 April 28, 2015 Living in America Self-care and police violence[39]
6 April 21, 2015 Lit Like Bic (with Desus Nice) Interview with Desus Nice[40]
5 April 10, 2015 Young East African Girl (with Hannah Giorgis) East African feminism[41]
4 April 7, 2015 A Podcast of One's Own (with Gene Demby) Interview with Gene Demby, lead blogger at NPR's Code Switch team[42]
3 March 31, 2015 Oh, the Racism! (with Issa Rae) Interview with Issa Rae[8]
2 March 26, 2015 You Know White People (with Jazmine Hughes) Origin stories[43]
1 March 25, 2015 Unlearning (with Durga Chew-Bose) Interview with writer Durga Chew-Bose[44]

References

  1. ^ a b Cruz, Caitlin (October 12, 2015). "Clinton Talks Reparation Checks, Black Lives Matter With BuzzFeed (AUDIO)". TPM. Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  2. ^ Locker, Melissa (December 13, 2015). "Listen To This: Another Round podcast changes the world one drink at a time". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on January 4, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Listen To This: Another Round podcast changes the world one drink at a time". The Guardian. December 13, 2015. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  4. ^ Van Schilt, Stephanie (October 4, 2017). "These Women Are Making Podcasting Less Bro-y". Vice. Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  5. ^ Hare, Kristen (July 1, 2015). "5 times journalists should have been listening to BuzzFeed's podcast 'Another Round'". Poynter. Archived from the original on April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Gorce, Tammy La (March 31, 2017). "How Podcasters Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton Spend Their Sunday". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 2, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  7. ^ Blay, Zeba (October 9, 2015). "11 Black Podcasts Leading The Golden Age Of Audio". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  8. ^ a b "Oh, the Racism! (with Issa Rae)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on June 3, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  9. ^ "Episode 86: The Spicy Double Down (with Lizzo) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  10. ^ Blaine, Adrienne (February 13, 2016). "Podcast, Will You Be My Galentine?". KQED Arts. Archived from the original on April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  11. ^ a b Verdier, Hannah (January 21, 2016). "Another Round review: Queens of the one-liners Heben and Tracy host a party of a podcast". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on April 7, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  12. ^ Dale, Brady (December 6, 2015). "Why Buzzfeed and the Financial Times Chose Acast to Host Their Podcasts". New York Observer. Archived from the original on August 7, 2016. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  13. ^ "Apple's iTunes Best of 2015 list for podcasts includes a ton of LA-based favorites". Time Out Los Angeles. December 9, 2015. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  14. ^ Onion, Rebecca (December 14, 2015). "The 10 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  15. ^ "The 10 Best Podcasts and 10 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015". Vulture. December 11, 2015. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  16. ^ McQuade, Laura Jane Standley, Devon Taylor, and Eric (December 22, 2015). "The 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on April 7, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ Inverso, Emily. "Heben Nigatu, 24 – In Photos: 2016 30 Under 30: Media". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  18. ^ Frere-Jones, Sasha (June 25, 2016). "'We love you Beyoncé': what Queen Bey means to her fans now". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  19. ^ Quah, Nicholas (January 2, 2018). "Apple Podcast Analytics is finally live (and with it, the ability to see how many people are skipping ads)". Nieman Lab. Archived from the original on May 5, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  20. ^ a b "The Case of Another Round's Archives". Hot Pod News. June 23, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  21. ^ a b "Tracy Clayton Is Returning to Podcasting with 'Strong Black Lead' on Netflix". www.vice.com. February 11, 2019. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  22. ^ "Jonah Peretti Tweet". Twitter. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  23. ^ "Episode 23: The Audacity of Despair (with David Simon) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  24. ^ "Episode 22: A Dude Named Hot Sauce (with Yassir Lester) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  25. ^ "Episode 21: The Reverse Jackie Robinson (with Chris Hayes) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  26. ^ "Episode 20: Peak Blackness (with Rembert Browne) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  27. ^ "Episode 19: Was That a Microaggression or Just Tuesday? (with Audie Cornish) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  28. ^ "Episode 18: Unstoppable (with Lianne La Havas) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  29. ^ "Episode 17: Caribbean Vibez (with Stacy-Marie Ishmael) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  30. ^ "Episode 16: Another Read (with Crissle West) | Another Round". WNYC. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  31. ^ "Crush That Rage Into A Diamond". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  32. ^ "Multitudity (with Tiq Milan)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  33. ^ "Another Round LIVE! (with Roxane Gay)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  34. ^ "Casual Negro Spirituals (with Jean Grae)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  35. ^ "Bob Loblaw (with Chirlane McCray)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  36. ^ "You Tickled Whitney Houston?! (with Brandy)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  37. ^ "You're Gonna Be a Boss One Day (with Kaya Thomas)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  38. ^ "Shmoney For The Ancestors (with Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  39. ^ "Living in America". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  40. ^ "Lit Like Bic (with Desus Nice)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  41. ^ "Young East African Girl (with Hannah Giorgis)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on June 24, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  42. ^ "A Podcast of One's Own (with Gene Demby)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  43. ^ "You Know White People (with Jazmine Hughes)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  44. ^ "Unlearning (with Durga Chew-Bose)". Buzzfeed. April 28, 2017. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2017.