Has hosting Engagement Party shaped what you’re watching, reading or scrolling?
ARI: I think one of the good things about Engagement Party is that Audie and I have different algorithms and different feeds — and that also goes for the staff of the show, as well — and so as we have conversations about RushTok, or romance shows that are dropping on Amazon, or Summer House — those are three examples of things that were not in my algorithm — that I consumed to get up to speed for the show, and it's funny because that has now skewed my algorithm. I'm getting different stuff in my feed than I did before we started making this show.
AUDIE: It's changed. I have more skepticism about things that are considered “trends." This week we were prepping for a story that a commentator called “three TikToks in a trench coat,” and I think that's correct. There are some things that are sort of described as trends, and it's nice to get on the show and just say, “Is this a thing? Is this even real?” Instead of just sort of doing something I think a lot of people do when they cover pop culture, which is to take those three TikToks, make them a trend and publish a story. It's been really fun to sleuth a little bit and have some skepticism.
ARI: Also, this is not the question, but it's fun to disagree with Audie. Part of the reason the show works is that the two of us come down on different sides of things. If Audie comes in trying to argue that this trend is not an actual trend, I've got numbers, I've got data to back up the argument that it is a real thing.
AUDIE: Well two journalists doing a show like this, we prep for it, and we really think about it. We basically take the skills we use in the hard news space, and we still apply them here and have fun with it.
How do you make each episode feel like a conversation with the audience rather than just adding to the already-nonstop commentary online?
AUDIE: I think that we come at it with curiosity, and online culture is a lot of times about certainty. Like, I have the definitive answer on X. And the algorithm rewards that. And we're just like everyone else. We come at it as people who are also in the audience. I feel like I'm approaching it like a person who uses the internet and not a person who's trying to game the algorithm and be “on” the internet.
ARI: There is also a literal conversation with the audience that has been emerging over the last two months that we've been doing this, where the show has some regular features — one called "Touch Grass," and one called "Scroll and Tell.” Those are opportunities for people who watch and listen to the show to tell us what they are experiencing and what they are seeing, and for Audie and I to then bounce off of that. One of the things that has been fun as this show finds a bigger audience and figures out what we're about every week is to incorporate more of that episode by episode.
After years of working together, what have you learned about each other’s cultural tastes?
ARI: Audie’s obsession with love-based reality TV competitions is deep and real, and there's real meat on the bones there. It's interesting! It is not just junk TV you watch to turn your brain off. This actually reflects something about society and our country, and our culture. Before we started making this show, that was something that I was vaguely aware of, but now I really understand it.
AUDIE: For me, I feel like how Ari has expanded his world through Pink Martini and it’s really amazing. When he first started singing for them, it was like, “You can sing? Oh, that's kind of a cool hobby.” And now it's turned into this globetrotting world tour, and Ari is the one who brings the world back to the pod. He's the one who's better at doing our segment “Touch Grass” because he really walks the walk. He’s not online all the time. And it's been wonderful to see that part of him in full bloom.
Who is more likely to:
Pretend they understand a viral trend?
Ari: Audie is likely to actually understand.
Send the other a story at 2 a.m.?
Ari: Audie because she’s already up, but she tries to use the “Send Later" feature.
Read the comments?
Ari: The Spotify comments are very engaged!
Come to the planned episode with an unexpected obsession?
Audie: The point is to surprise each other.
Jump on the latest trend?
Audie: Neither. We’re just likely to go consume something that the other said was worth consuming.
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