By Michael Lallo
How Long Gone podcast hosts Jason Stewart (left) and Chris Black.
Save articles for later
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
“I don’t look quite as good in Dior as Meghan Markle but somehow we have more people listening,” says Chris Black, who co-hosts the popular How Long Gone podcast with Jason Stewart (it’s the one “all your cool friends” subscribe to, according to Vulture).
“When you’re on a platform where being young and attractive is so important … podcasting is the antithesis to that – and celebrity podcasts continue to fail,” Stewart says. “People just want to hear if you’re good at talking.”
Our chat over Zoom – with Black, 40, in his New York apartment and Stewart, 42, in his Los Angeles home – occurs less than a week after Spotify cut ties with Markle, whose Archetypes podcast topped the charts before dropping out of the top 20 within two months.
“[Archetypes wasn’t renewed] because they’re boring,” Black says of Markle and her husband, Prince Harry. “They’re not real people, they can’t behave in any relatable way – and how could they? Especially him; this motherf—-r literally could have been king. That’s a completely unrelatable premise.”
“We’ve both been sober and we’ve both been on drugs and we can talk about it in an honest way that doesn’t hurt each other’s feelings.”
“You’re not going to hear a critical word coming out of their mouths; everything is ‘amazing’ and ‘awesome’,” Stewart adds. “A lesson I’ve learned from being a DJ for so long is that podcasting is a career path. Much like DJ-ing, every single person says, ‘I can do that and make a lot of money!’ Then two months in they’re like, ‘We’re awful at podcasting, the ratings are bad and we’re losing sponsors – but I don’t care because [I’m already a rich celebrity]’.”
Had Markle been bold enough to divulge titbits such as, “We stayed at Oprah’s house and I gotta be honest, it ain’t all that”, Black believes Archetypes would still be going strong.
“Just be your rich, authentic self!” Stewart says. “If Prince Harry was talking about real rich motherf—-r royalty shit, people would love it!”
In October, Stewart and Black will visit Australia to perform a live show at Melbourne’s Thornbury Theatre.
“If you walk up and talk to someone, whether it’s friendly or not, their guard is already up,” says Black (left).Credit: James W Mataitis Bailey
“Why Melbourne?” I inquire, anticipating a volley of flattering cliches about coffee, laneways and galleries.
“Because that’s what was offered to us by the promoter,” Black deadpans. “I had my heart set on the Gold Coast but it didn’t work out.” He says the show will probably include a guest or two and will challenge Australians’ peculiar pride in trendy cafe breakfasts (“It’s just eggs, avocado and bread!”) but will otherwise be loosely sketched with plenty of free-flowing banter.
As we’re talking, Stewart begins nibbling a cannabis-infused gummy while the now-sober Black, who spent years battling an opioid addiction, watches on. This might seem insensitive to some but in many ways, it illustrates the widespread appeal of How Long Gone, which counts Australia among its top five countries by listenership. (All up, the duo have recorded 530 episodes, attracting more than 900,000 monthly listeners.)
“We’ve both been sober and we’ve both been on drugs and we can talk about it in an honest way that doesn’t hurt each other’s feelings,” Stewart says. “We’re not brushing it under the rug and letting it fester into something unhealthy.”
“Sobriety is more talked about now than ever,” Black observes. “It’s almost as much of a trend as it was for us to do coke in our 20s. I can’t do it any more because I took it too far but it would be weird not to talk about it because it’s something people are encountering more in their own lives.”
Having become friends 15 years ago after crossing paths in the music industry, they started How Long Gone as an experiment in 2020, shortly after the pandemic took hold. As one critic described it, they built the podcast “into something compelling and unique … a comedy show, in-depth interview and niche scene report rolled into one”.
Guests span the media, fashion, literature, music and business industries; the only requirement, Stewart says, is that they’re “down to clown … to hit the ball back to us, have a fun conversation and entertain people.” Politics comes up only occasionally, work is never discussed and trivial arguments get a good airing.
“It allows people to turn off their smart, professional brain for one hour,” Stewart says. “It’s a calm, soothing release where people can speak freely and there’s no need to get too crazy or mentally challenging.”
Data provided to him and Black by Spotify show that for every 100 listeners, almost 60 are men, nearly 40 are women and two are non-binary. While the streaming giant doesn’t document sexual orientation, Black and Stewart estimate a roughly even split between straight and gay fans, despite being dubbed a “bro-cast” because they are heterosexual men.
“Gay people are usually more funny, women are usually more smart so why not try to be more like them?” Stewart says. “I don’t blame people for stereotyping us into that category but it just gives us a fun hole to climb out of.”
Taking offence to a remark or argument, both insist, should signal the start of a conversation, not the end.
“When Chris disagrees with something I believe in strongly, I’m instantly excited,” Stewart says. “We can engage in a fun, playful discourse versus, ‘You just said something that makes me want to dox your family and kill your pets’.”
Starting the podcast as adults, they believe, has been crucial to its success.
“When you’re younger, everything is life or death,” Black says. “Growing the show the way we have is about the wisdom of age, the wisdom of having careers, living life, failing and succeeding.”
I put a theory to them: How Long Gone is a hit, in part, because it echoes the conversations strangers used to initiate in public long before it was considered creepy.
“Our episodes will be preserved in the Smithsonian as a perfect example of how people talked to each other in a bygone era,” Stewart jokes.
Black adds: “Where we’re at in society, if you walk up and talk to someone, whether it’s friendly or not, their guard is already up.
“It’s like, ‘Why would I talk to a person in real life when I can just communicate with them through my phone?’ Anything to promote classic conversation is something we’re willing to do.”
How Long Gone Live is at Thornbury Theatre on Sunday, October 29. Tickets at frontiertouring.com. howlonggone.com
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
Most Viewed in Culture
Source: Read Full Article
