Netflix

Netflix Launches The Gay Agenda, an Original Podcast Celebrating Queer Joy

~ jen

Netflix has launched its first LGBTQ+ podcast, The Gay Agenda, produced by MOST, the home of LGBTQ+ storytelling. The new podcast takes an entertaining and honest look into the lives of LGBTQ+ creatives at the top of their fields across different industries and celebrates their success stories in the community through a loving and humorous lens. The Gay Agenda will launch on January 10, 2022.

The podcast is created and produced by lesbian actress, singer/songwriter and podcaster Jasmin Savoy Brown (she/her), (The Leftovers, Yellowjackets, new Scream reboot), who is also currently recording her fist EP. She co-hosts the show with producer and nonbinary actor, comic and playwright Liv Hewson (they/them, Santa Clarita Diet, Yellowjackets, Let it Snow, Bombshell). On the show, Brown and Hewson interview queer trailblazers in the community and explore the wonderful, funny (and sometimes ridiculous) parts of the LGBTQ+ experience. The show is also produced by Multitude, a podcast production company in Brooklyn.

Gabrielle Korn (she/her), Netflix Editorial & Publishing Manager for MOST said, “With our first foray into the podcast space, MOST is entering a new era — one where the gay agenda continues to expand into all corners of our audience’s lives, making it easier and more fun than ever to discover Netflix’s LGBTQ+ talent, titles, and storytelling. I love this podcast so much; it’s truly a joy to listen to, and I hope it brings that same joy to our followers.

Savoy said, “I’m proud of The Gay Agenda. It’s joyful, it’s inquisitive, it’s welcoming. I think it’s a real reflection of the LGBTQ+ community and I hope our listeners feel the same. Interviewing guests this season made me a better person. Hearing people’s unique stories and perspectives on life and happiness was a learning experience and I don’t take that for granted.”

Hewson added, “The first item on The Gay Agenda is, of course, for our guests to have fun and be themselves. There’s room for all of it, for connection and healing and irreverence and silliness. It’s serious and it isn’t. We contain multitudes! Part of the impetus behind this podcast was creating a space to talk about being LGBTQ in entertainment that centered on something other than pain. The pain is there of course, but the joy is too! We want to live in joy.”

The inaugural season has 45-minute episodes released consecutively over eight weeks. The first episode, launching January 10, kicks off with co-hosts Brown and Hewson expressing the importance of celebrating queer joy and welcome nonbinary actor Ben Taylor-Klaus (they/them), who proudly and humorously identifies as a “problem”. The candid episode dives into their love of Shakespeare and Tegan and Sara, softball and growing queer and Jewish in the South. Regarding coming out to themself, Taylor-Klaus declares on the show, “Let’s stop sitting in a little box that feels comfortable… stick m hand out and make sure the sun’s not going to melt me.”

Episode 2, launches on January 17 with director, writer, actor, actor Natalie Morales (she/they, Director of Language Lessons), who waxes nostalgically about the various queer characters have portrayed including an asexual axolotl on BoJack Horseman, their mother’s deep friendships with gay men, along with a spirited bonus rapid-fire game of Gender This!

Additional guests with more humorous personal revelations, life stories and how they will further the gay agenda this season includes actor Ally Beardsley (they/them), actor Java Leslie (she/her), comedian Caleb Hearon (he/him), author Carmen Maria Machado (she/her), actor Leo Sheng (he/him), and writer/comedian/actor Fortune Feimster (she/her).

Netflix Hired Their First Head of Podcasts

~ jen

Netflix hired N’Jeri Eaton to lead podcasting for the streaming giant’s marketing division, Variety reported. Previously, Eaton was the head of content for Apple Podcasts.

“I’m thrilled to join @netflix as the Head of Podcasts. 16 years ago, I watched three DVDs from Netflix a day while working the late night lab shift at a university. My obsession for storytelling has taken me all kinds of places, but this is truly a dream!”, Eaton tweeted on July 8, 2021.

Eaton is joining Netflix as director of podcast programming, according to a spokesperson, Variety reported. She will be part of the company’s editorial and publishing team, which will be headed by Michelle Lee, former editor in chief of Allure who is joining the company this month. Lee reports to Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John, the marketing veteran whose past stints include Apple Music, Endeavor, and Uber hired by Netflix a year ago.

Netflix has produced podcasts that are promo companions for its original TV series and movies. Netflix produced podcasts for Martin Scorsese’s film “The Irishman”, TV shows including “The Crown,” “The Witcher,” “Shadow and Bone,” and “Stranger Things,” as well as “Netflix Is a Daily Joke,” a short-form podcast that is literally a joke (or comedy bit) each day.

Prior to Apple, Eaton worked at NPR for four years, most recently as senior manager of program acquisitions. At NPR, she sourced new talent, partnerships, and content including “Believed” (a Peabody Award winner), “White Lies,” (a Pulitzer Prize finalist), and “No Compromise,” an investigative podcast about gun rights activists (which won the 2021 Pulitzer for audio reporting.)

Netflix Acquires Rights to Mur Lafferty Novel

~ shawn

Shambling Guide Book CoverNetflix, the popular video on-demand service, has acquired the rights to a novel by veteran podcaster and Podcast Hall of Famer Mur Lafferty. It’s unclear at this time how Netflix will approach the production of Lafferty’s The Shambling Guide to New York City or whether it’ll be produced like a TV-series or a feature-film series. Guide to New York is the first in a series of The Shambling Guides. It was published in 2013 and the book’s listing on Amazon describes it as:

A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city – for the undead!

Because of the disaster that was her last job, Zoe is searching for a fresh start as a travel book editor in the tourist-centric New York City. After stumbling across a seemingly perfect position though, Zoe is blocked at every turn because of the one thing she can’t take off her resume — human.

Not to be put off by anything — especially not her blood drinking boss or death goddess coworker — Zoe delves deep into the monster world. But her job turns deadly when the careful balance between human and monsters starts to crumble — with Zoe right in the middle.

The Shambling Guide to New York City was followed up by a second guide in 2014 called Ghost Train To New Orleans. Again, it’s unclear as to what Netflix plans for the series, or whether or not Ghost Train was also covered in the rights acquisition.