Pod Crashing episode 372 with Anna Sinfield from the podcast The Girlfriends Spotlight season 3.
In Season 1, The Girlfriends told the story of how a group of incredible women came together to bring down one bad ex-boyfriend and seek justice for the murder of Gail Katz. In Season 2, we found the truth about a torso washed up on Staten Island, and gave Heidi Balch the memorial she deserved. Now, we want to introduce you to a global gang of girlfriends in our new show, The Girlfriends: Spotlight. Each week, Anna Sinfield is bringing you stories of women winning. EPISODES AVAILABLE HERE: Https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-girlfriends-spotlight-118226591/
In Season 1, The Girlfriends told the story of how a group of incredible women came together to bring down one bad ex-boyfriend and seek justice for the murder of Gail Katz. In Season 2, we found the truth about a torso washed up on Staten Island, and gave Heidi Balch the memorial she deserved. Now, we want to introduce you to a global gang of girlfriends in our new show, The Girlfriends: Spotlight. Each week, Anna Sinfield is bringing you stories of women winning. EPISODES AVAILABLE HERE: Https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-girlfriends-spotlight-118226591/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome back to the conversation. Let's do some pod crashing.
Episode number three seventy two is with Anna Sinfield from
the podcast The Girlfriend's Spotlight, Season three.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Absolutely fantastic. First of all, fans of The Girlfriend's Spotlight,
they have to understand that this has been going on.
Now this is the third season, but it's a change
of hosts, and I want them to understand that when
they go there expecting to hear what they've heard for
the past couple of years, this is a completely different
approach and I love it. I love the what you
guys are doing. Is it's different energy.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh I'm really pleased. Yeah, I mean it's so obviously
different hosts. But I've been involved with The Girlfriend since
the very beginning, and true fans hopefully will have gotten
used to my voice because I have appeared in the
first two series as the kind of on mike producer,
and so I was always the one in the background,
you know, pulling all of the strings, and sometimes you
(00:54):
can hear me doing that a little bit. So hopefully
I won't be a total surprise to people who love
the show. But you're right, it is a different energy.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I am British and I'm.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Nothing like Carol's, so I guess things are going in
a different direction.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
But the thing about it is, though, is that you're
like that person in a band that comes up and
starts singing the lead vocals. You know, it's like Ace
Freely singing a shock me and it's not Paul Stanley.
You're now at the front of the band.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I know. There's been a bit of a change of lineup.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, so now how did you adjust to that? Because
the writing has changed. You're now sharing the story and
you do a brilliant job when it comes to sharing
a story. It's almost like you see me while you
while you're speaking of the story.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, I mean, so it's been a bit of a
change because this Girlfriend's Spotlight is more of an interview format.
There's still the sort of narrative bones, so we still
have some of the scripts writing in there.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
That feels kind of as scenic as it used to.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
But it is kind of really focused on one just
great conversation with a great and compelling and courageous guest,
and so we still have that structure, but it is
slightly different. And the cool thing about what's happening with
The Girlfriend's Podcast in general is in between the Spotlight series,
there's going to be more narrative series that are more
(02:14):
like the first two shows that people have gotten used to.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So there'll be a lovely mix of this.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
More conversational style and also the more sort of narrative
film mixed storytelling style that people have heard before.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
What is your go to in the way of expressing
what happens between Tracy and Frank, But you could have
taken it into an area that was more frank. But
the thing is, though, is that we felt the emotions
without using such bad words.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
So, I mean that's a really important part of The
Girlfriend's ethos that I'm pleased that you've noticed, is that
we stay with the idea that a woman is more
than just the suffering that she's experienced. She's more than
just a victim. She is in fact a survivor, and
so we don't want to overly kind of dwell on
(03:04):
gory details. I mean, if you go out and read
Tracy's story from kind of other articles and stuff that
you can find online, you'll find there's some pretty horrific
details in there that we could have made an entire
scene out of but instead we decided to tell the
listener what happened to Tracy through the moment when she
learned about it in hospital, and so we kind of
(03:27):
didn't make it a scene about her suffering. We made
it a scene about her waking up and having this
chance of life on the other side and what that was.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And what's fascinating about this is that when I learned
what happened to Tracy, all of a sudden, I became
even more emotionally involved. I mean, because you don't see
it right off the start, and you just sit there
and you think, okay, well, she's shooting arrows and okay,
she missed the arrow and there was a clink and
people look at her blah blah blah. And then all
of a sudden, when you start finding out why that
was so important and the way you set us up,
(03:58):
it's like, holy crap, I knew exactly what she was
doing by putting this together.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, And we always do that so
the cold opens the bits that you hear right at
the start. We try and make sure that at the
end you do have a sense that this this woman
does win something. You know, this isn't just a story
of her, you know, hurtling towards disaster and becoming just
this kind of victim like beat in the story. She's
(04:24):
going to end up being the lead character in her
own story, and she's going to win. And we get
we all like to get invested in someone's journey, and
so yeah, of course you're going to learn about her
suffering and you're going to learn how she got there.
But you're already invested at that point because you know
she's going to win. You're not just heading towards doom
and gloom. You know, you know from the cold open
it's going to turn out.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I felt like a true father though when she met
up with Ricky. I'm going, come on, Tracy, you were
just here not too long ago. What's going on here?
Ricky a bar again?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
What?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
No? Woll come on?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, I know I felt a bit like that, But
then I got to meet Ricky and he's so lovely
and they're doing is just the sweetest thing.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
That Oh I'm glad you brought that up, because oh,
I don't want to spoil the ending of the first episode,
but oh, you guys knew you were going to pull
on our heartstrings.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I know.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Well, to be fair, actually I didn't know that the
baby was going to make an appearance, but then I
could hear her throughout the recording, sort of burbling in
the background, and ask like, you've got to show me
the baby.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You've got to show me.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah. But isn't that part of the texture of podcasting,
you know, It's like you bring in the realisms like that,
and now all of a sudden, I have an emotional
connection to you and what you're doing with each and
every one of these episodes because I'm going to expect
it on all the episodes.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's you know, one of the
special things about podcasts is it's so intimate, and so
getting those little details of someone's life at home feel
really important for kind of establishing who they are and
really getting under the skin of the people that you're meeting,
which is something podcasts do better, I think than any
other medium.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
How do you show up? Because I am a show
prep whore. I mean, I have got to have my
stuff together weeks before I even get in here to
be with you. So if you saw my note, you
would think I'm a total insane cow and the thing
is is that how are you show prepping for your conversations?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Well, I mean, I have to say it's hard because
you know, we're doing a lot of these interviews back
to back in the space of six months, doing about
thirty two of them, and so prepping for the shows
these long two hour three hour interviews is tough. But
there's an amazing team of producers and they do sort
of research calls with them and they put together these
(06:37):
documents and then I read about their whole lives and
think about the questions I want to ask them, and
I go and find kind of other articles or if
there's been like a movie made about them or a
book written about them, I'll try and read those and
watch those as well. But I mean, it's also a
tough balance, isn't it, Because I'm sure you find this
you want to know enough to get there and to
(07:00):
you understand them enough to ask the right questions, But
I also want to be surprised so that my reaction
can be genuine.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So that's a tough balance.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
How do you deal with that though in the way
that it takes up so much time. Just the other
day when we were out camping, I got into my
show prep and all of a sudden it was nighttime,
and it's like, how did this happen? It's like my
day just went and now it's nighttime.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I know, Well, I just don't think that there's any
solution for that. You can try and be disciplined about it,
but I think maybe you care about your job as
much as I do, and so you just you prep away.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
See. That's what I'm feeling in the show, is that
you want to be there. It's not because you have
to be there. You want to be there to share
these stories such as Tracy and I mean, I mean,
here's a woman that does not regret anything, and when
she said that, I'm going, oh my god, what can
I learn from this?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, well that's I mean, it's such a privilege to
meet these people, and I love talking to people and
getting being in a position like I am being, you know,
hosting this show and doing such intimate interviews. I get
the option to ask them really intimate questions that are
(08:12):
hard to ask people. And I think it's amazing that
I get that opportunity to build that trust with people
and that people do open up to me.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I feel very lucky so I don't take that for granted.
I do enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
But your art though, is that, yes, you do get
to ask the questions, but you're also taking us forward.
You're also the narrator. The interviewer and the narrator are
two completely different personalities, but you're making it work.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, And I mean the narration is always there to
be propulsive, and so that's where you can get into
the fun of the script writing and really kind of
figure out how to move something along and then craft
their story in a way that feels true to what
they gave you, but also in a way that kind
of makes it compelling for a listener.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
And then you can also lean.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
On those moments of interview where you get kind of
a really lovely personal connection between me and the guest
in that specific moment, and I think because of the
contrast between the narration and the interview, those bits feel
even more kind of compelling to me.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
This is modern day realism when it comes to journalism.
There's more with Anna Sinfeld coming up next. Hey, thanks
for coming back to my conversation with podcaster Anna Sinfeld.
When you put all these stories together, because this is
different this year around this season, because because there's several
different stories all wrapped up into this one season, how
do you keep your focus? I mean, is it the
(09:36):
team around you that that's making sure that Okay, don't
get Tracy's story mixed up with June's story. Okay, well
now we're going to talk about this one, this one,
So how do you keep all of those stories moving forward?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
So, I mean, luckily, we have a really big team
who are full of some fantastic producers. So we've had
about kind of five or six producers working on the
show any one time, and they've all kind of taken
charge of individual episodes and therefore individual interviews. We also
have a great editor who kind of hovers over the
(10:12):
whole thing, and I just sort of come in and
appear and medal with every single one of them.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So it can be tough.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
We we had a bit of a problem when it
came to naming conventions because for a while they were
named after first names, and then we had to put
in the titles, and then it was kind of which
episode was going to come out when, and we were
getting confused with what scripts was which. So it is
all a little bit chaotic sometimes, But I think we've
managed to sort it out.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Feels quite slick now.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
In production, when you headed off to the editor, I mean, whoa,
that's got to be trust because you're relinquishing your art
to an editor who's going to chop chop, chop, chop chop,
so that it so that it comes off, you know,
comes together.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that that that is trust. But
also that's when you get the magic, isn't it. It's
in the collaboration. No one's good on their own. It's
always my philosophy.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So when you go into the project that because I
never know what the final piece is going to be
until after the editor and me goes through it and
then cleans things up. I mean, is it just basically
going in like a band and just dropping down a
few vocals and then all of a sudden you have
to trust what's coming out the other side.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
So for us, the producers will kind of obviously we
do the interview and there's a lot of prep to
go into that as we spoke about, and then the
interview happens, and then the producer takes it away, this
kind of two three hour interview and cuts it all
into pieces and writes the kind of framework scripting that
will hang the episode together. So it's got to go
(11:43):
from about two to three hours to about forty minutes,
and then it should be pretty tight. We lay down
the narration that gets chopped up, we do pickups, and
then after that it goes to the editor who starts
putting the little bits of sound design and are really cool.
The music comes in and then it's not so much
(12:03):
that we don't know what it's going to sound like,
because it is quite kind of planned and collaborative.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
But it always comes out sounding so.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Much better than you think it's going to because the
editors are just so good at putting that final gloss
on it at the end.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So one episode requires how much time? Then? Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I couldn't even hazard a guess, but I think a
good three or four days of the whole team doing
various jobs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And the reason why I bring that up is because
I'm a broadcast instructor and all the time I face
these students, they go, all right, man, I went in
the room for fifteen minutes, I got a podcast. You
what are you? What are you talking about? And that's
why I want to you know, I try to talk
deep with you. So that you can, so you show
people that, hey, look, it's not a fifteen minute project,
it is a team effort as one.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Oh one.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah, everything I made when I was making shows on
my own sucked, whereas since I've been making shows with
like these big teams where you really allow people to
become experts in a certain area. You know, experts sound
designers and mixed engineers. I'm good at the interviews, I'm
(13:14):
really good at the script writing, so people really let
me do that. And everyone's got their own little skills,
and if you allow people to specialize in those, and
you collaborate together and you respect each other's craft, then
you end up with something that's just magnified good on
good on good on good, because you're just using everybody's
skill set to the best of its ability. So yeah,
(13:35):
be a team player, for sure, and everything takes way
longer than you think it does.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
What were you doing before podcasting became cool?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Before podcasting became cool, I was actually working as a
singer before I got into podcasting.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
So do you still do your music?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I don't it kind of I got into I worked
as a singer for about nine years, and I started
to think I didn't really wanted to do it anymore
because it was a lot of travel and my voice
always hurt, and you know, it's tough to make ends meet,
and so I started training in radio and then and
then just got into that, and I think my last
(14:17):
gig was sadly scheduled for the summer of twenty twenty,
and of course that got canceled with COVID, and so
I never really had the last Hurrah.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Any any reason to go back to it, because I mean,
because once an artist, always an artist, you can you
can't shake this stuff. It's an addiction.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
It is an addiction.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
But I mean that's why the show sounds the way
it does, because I was so obsessive about the sort
of music that I wanted in the podcast, and so
we've got this very unique soundtrack that's focused around female voices.
And that was all because of my history as a
singer and my work as a musician, and then of
(14:56):
course being the host of the series is just another
way of using my voice, and so you know, I
kind of feel like I'm still there. It feels like
a very similar energy. It's a focus on storytelling, which
of course being a singer is and how you put
that across and how you put across emotion.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I think there's a lot of crossover.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Still, Yeah, you speak so well when it comes to
being in tune as a novelist. I mean in the
way that when you share that story, you're in tune.
And that is so important to me as a listener
because in a heartbeat, if you're out of tune, Oh,
then all of a sudden, I feel like I'm out
of tune.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
It's all with a lot of painstaking effort. I wish
I could say it was because I was just really
cool and natural, but I try quite hard.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
What are you learning from being the front band of
the band right now? In other words, you being the
host of this show. I mean it's got to come
with new weight on your shoulders.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, I think it's a really big transition to become
the front man of the band because I've spent a
long time working as a still always doing the interviews,
but you'd spend most of the time in those interviews
having to do the silent not and you're not meant
to step on the tape because your voice isn't meant
to be in it, and so it's taken me quite
(16:14):
a long time to actually, you know, remember to talk
and to respond to things, and to respond to things fast,
because you know, I would often if someone got upset
or something, I would I would say something, but you'd
have to wait a beat so that you didn't step
on the tape. Whereas now I'm remembering to actually just
open my mouth and have an opinion and talk more
(16:37):
kind of freely. I couldn't so centering myself it has
been hard.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I left hand, right hand everything. So in other words,
I'm in the right side of the of the of
the editor. You're in the left hand. So if I
if I walk on you, then I can go in
there and just take my junk out, I mean, because
I have to respond to everything because I'm so emotionally involved.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
I think it's it's a tough balance to strike. But
that was just what I was taught at radio school,
you know, is to you're the last person who's important
in the room when you're just just producing the show.
You know, it's all about getting their emotion and getting
their story out, which is still something actually I think
I take into my current interview style is that I
(17:19):
spend a lot of time really focusing on the guest
in a way that I think if I'd always been
a host, maybe I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Wow. I love where your heart is. Where can people
go to find out more about everything that you're doing,
not just the podcast, but what you're doing because you're
a creative soul.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Oh well, of course, if you want to find the
podcast where you will hear my voice and hear little
updates about me, you can find that wherever you get
your podcasts, And that's the Girlfriend's spotlight. But if you
want to find out about me and my creative soul
and the DIY that I'm doing and the food that
I like to eat, you can find me on Instagram,
(18:00):
on Anna Sinfield and LinkedIn and wherever you want to
find me.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I love it. Please come back to this show anytime
in the future. Anna. The door is always going to
be open for you.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Thank you so much. It was lovely talking to you.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Will you be brilliant today? Okay, thank you too.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Thank you
Hey, welcome back to the conversation. Let's do some pod crashing.
Episode number three seventy two is with Anna Sinfield from
the podcast The Girlfriend's Spotlight, Season three.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Absolutely fantastic. First of all, fans of The Girlfriend's Spotlight,
they have to understand that this has been going on.
Now this is the third season, but it's a change
of hosts, and I want them to understand that when
they go there expecting to hear what they've heard for
the past couple of years, this is a completely different
approach and I love it. I love the what you
guys are doing. Is it's different energy.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh I'm really pleased. Yeah, I mean it's so obviously
different hosts. But I've been involved with The Girlfriend since
the very beginning, and true fans hopefully will have gotten
used to my voice because I have appeared in the
first two series as the kind of on mike producer,
and so I was always the one in the background,
you know, pulling all of the strings, and sometimes you
(00:54):
can hear me doing that a little bit. So hopefully
I won't be a total surprise to people who love
the show. But you're right, it is a different energy.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I am British and I'm.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Nothing like Carol's, so I guess things are going in
a different direction.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
But the thing about it is, though, is that you're
like that person in a band that comes up and
starts singing the lead vocals. You know, it's like Ace
Freely singing a shock me and it's not Paul Stanley.
You're now at the front of the band.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I know. There's been a bit of a change of lineup.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, so now how did you adjust to that? Because
the writing has changed. You're now sharing the story and
you do a brilliant job when it comes to sharing
a story. It's almost like you see me while you
while you're speaking of the story.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, I mean, so it's been a bit of a
change because this Girlfriend's Spotlight is more of an interview format.
There's still the sort of narrative bones, so we still
have some of the scripts writing in there.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
That feels kind of as scenic as it used to.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
But it is kind of really focused on one just
great conversation with a great and compelling and courageous guest,
and so we still have that structure, but it is
slightly different. And the cool thing about what's happening with
The Girlfriend's Podcast in general is in between the Spotlight series,
there's going to be more narrative series that are more
(02:14):
like the first two shows that people have gotten used to.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So there'll be a lovely mix of this.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
More conversational style and also the more sort of narrative
film mixed storytelling style that people have heard before.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
What is your go to in the way of expressing
what happens between Tracy and Frank, But you could have
taken it into an area that was more frank. But
the thing is, though, is that we felt the emotions
without using such bad words.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
So, I mean that's a really important part of The
Girlfriend's ethos that I'm pleased that you've noticed, is that
we stay with the idea that a woman is more
than just the suffering that she's experienced. She's more than
just a victim. She is in fact a survivor, and
so we don't want to overly kind of dwell on
(03:04):
gory details. I mean, if you go out and read
Tracy's story from kind of other articles and stuff that
you can find online, you'll find there's some pretty horrific
details in there that we could have made an entire
scene out of but instead we decided to tell the
listener what happened to Tracy through the moment when she
learned about it in hospital, and so we kind of
(03:27):
didn't make it a scene about her suffering. We made
it a scene about her waking up and having this
chance of life on the other side and what that was.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And what's fascinating about this is that when I learned
what happened to Tracy, all of a sudden, I became
even more emotionally involved. I mean, because you don't see
it right off the start, and you just sit there
and you think, okay, well, she's shooting arrows and okay,
she missed the arrow and there was a clink and
people look at her blah blah blah. And then all
of a sudden, when you start finding out why that
was so important and the way you set us up,
(03:58):
it's like, holy crap, I knew exactly what she was
doing by putting this together.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, And we always do that so
the cold opens the bits that you hear right at
the start. We try and make sure that at the
end you do have a sense that this this woman
does win something. You know, this isn't just a story
of her, you know, hurtling towards disaster and becoming just
this kind of victim like beat in the story. She's
(04:24):
going to end up being the lead character in her
own story, and she's going to win. And we get
we all like to get invested in someone's journey, and
so yeah, of course you're going to learn about her
suffering and you're going to learn how she got there.
But you're already invested at that point because you know
she's going to win. You're not just heading towards doom
and gloom. You know, you know from the cold open
it's going to turn out.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I felt like a true father though when she met
up with Ricky. I'm going, come on, Tracy, you were
just here not too long ago. What's going on here?
Ricky a bar again?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
What?
Speaker 1 (04:52):
No? Woll come on?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, I know I felt a bit like that, But
then I got to meet Ricky and he's so lovely
and they're doing is just the sweetest thing.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
That Oh I'm glad you brought that up, because oh,
I don't want to spoil the ending of the first episode,
but oh, you guys knew you were going to pull
on our heartstrings.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I know.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Well, to be fair, actually I didn't know that the
baby was going to make an appearance, but then I
could hear her throughout the recording, sort of burbling in
the background, and ask like, you've got to show me
the baby.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You've got to show me.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah. But isn't that part of the texture of podcasting,
you know, It's like you bring in the realisms like that,
and now all of a sudden, I have an emotional
connection to you and what you're doing with each and
every one of these episodes because I'm going to expect
it on all the episodes.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's you know, one of the
special things about podcasts is it's so intimate, and so
getting those little details of someone's life at home feel
really important for kind of establishing who they are and
really getting under the skin of the people that you're meeting,
which is something podcasts do better, I think than any
other medium.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
How do you show up? Because I am a show
prep whore. I mean, I have got to have my
stuff together weeks before I even get in here to
be with you. So if you saw my note, you
would think I'm a total insane cow and the thing
is is that how are you show prepping for your conversations?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Well, I mean, I have to say it's hard because
you know, we're doing a lot of these interviews back
to back in the space of six months, doing about
thirty two of them, and so prepping for the shows
these long two hour three hour interviews is tough. But
there's an amazing team of producers and they do sort
of research calls with them and they put together these
(06:37):
documents and then I read about their whole lives and
think about the questions I want to ask them, and
I go and find kind of other articles or if
there's been like a movie made about them or a
book written about them, I'll try and read those and
watch those as well. But I mean, it's also a
tough balance, isn't it, Because I'm sure you find this
you want to know enough to get there and to
(07:00):
you understand them enough to ask the right questions, But
I also want to be surprised so that my reaction
can be genuine.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
So that's a tough balance.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
How do you deal with that though in the way
that it takes up so much time. Just the other
day when we were out camping, I got into my
show prep and all of a sudden it was nighttime,
and it's like, how did this happen? It's like my
day just went and now it's nighttime.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I know, Well, I just don't think that there's any
solution for that. You can try and be disciplined about it,
but I think maybe you care about your job as
much as I do, and so you just you prep away.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
See. That's what I'm feeling in the show, is that
you want to be there. It's not because you have
to be there. You want to be there to share
these stories such as Tracy and I mean, I mean,
here's a woman that does not regret anything, and when
she said that, I'm going, oh my god, what can
I learn from this?
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, well that's I mean, it's such a privilege to
meet these people, and I love talking to people and
getting being in a position like I am being, you know,
hosting this show and doing such intimate interviews. I get
the option to ask them really intimate questions that are
(08:12):
hard to ask people. And I think it's amazing that
I get that opportunity to build that trust with people
and that people do open up to me.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
I feel very lucky so I don't take that for granted.
I do enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
But your art though, is that, yes, you do get
to ask the questions, but you're also taking us forward.
You're also the narrator. The interviewer and the narrator are
two completely different personalities, but you're making it work.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, And I mean the narration is always there to
be propulsive, and so that's where you can get into
the fun of the script writing and really kind of
figure out how to move something along and then craft
their story in a way that feels true to what
they gave you, but also in a way that kind
of makes it compelling for a listener.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
And then you can also lean.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
On those moments of interview where you get kind of
a really lovely personal connection between me and the guest
in that specific moment, and I think because of the
contrast between the narration and the interview, those bits feel
even more kind of compelling to me.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
This is modern day realism when it comes to journalism.
There's more with Anna Sinfeld coming up next. Hey, thanks
for coming back to my conversation with podcaster Anna Sinfeld.
When you put all these stories together, because this is
different this year around this season, because because there's several
different stories all wrapped up into this one season, how
do you keep your focus? I mean, is it the
(09:36):
team around you that that's making sure that Okay, don't
get Tracy's story mixed up with June's story. Okay, well
now we're going to talk about this one, this one,
So how do you keep all of those stories moving forward?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
So, I mean, luckily, we have a really big team
who are full of some fantastic producers. So we've had
about kind of five or six producers working on the
show any one time, and they've all kind of taken
charge of individual episodes and therefore individual interviews. We also
have a great editor who kind of hovers over the
(10:12):
whole thing, and I just sort of come in and
appear and medal with every single one of them.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So it can be tough.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
We we had a bit of a problem when it
came to naming conventions because for a while they were
named after first names, and then we had to put
in the titles, and then it was kind of which
episode was going to come out when, and we were
getting confused with what scripts was which. So it is
all a little bit chaotic sometimes, But I think we've
managed to sort it out.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Feels quite slick now.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
In production, when you headed off to the editor, I mean, whoa,
that's got to be trust because you're relinquishing your art
to an editor who's going to chop chop, chop, chop chop,
so that it so that it comes off, you know,
comes together.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that that that is trust. But
also that's when you get the magic, isn't it. It's
in the collaboration. No one's good on their own. It's
always my philosophy.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So when you go into the project that because I
never know what the final piece is going to be
until after the editor and me goes through it and
then cleans things up. I mean, is it just basically
going in like a band and just dropping down a
few vocals and then all of a sudden you have
to trust what's coming out the other side.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
So for us, the producers will kind of obviously we
do the interview and there's a lot of prep to
go into that as we spoke about, and then the
interview happens, and then the producer takes it away, this
kind of two three hour interview and cuts it all
into pieces and writes the kind of framework scripting that
will hang the episode together. So it's got to go
(11:43):
from about two to three hours to about forty minutes,
and then it should be pretty tight. We lay down
the narration that gets chopped up, we do pickups, and
then after that it goes to the editor who starts
putting the little bits of sound design and are really cool.
The music comes in and then it's not so much
(12:03):
that we don't know what it's going to sound like,
because it is quite kind of planned and collaborative.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
But it always comes out sounding so.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Much better than you think it's going to because the
editors are just so good at putting that final gloss
on it at the end.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So one episode requires how much time? Then? Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I couldn't even hazard a guess, but I think a
good three or four days of the whole team doing
various jobs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And the reason why I bring that up is because
I'm a broadcast instructor and all the time I face
these students, they go, all right, man, I went in
the room for fifteen minutes, I got a podcast. You
what are you? What are you talking about? And that's
why I want to you know, I try to talk
deep with you. So that you can, so you show
people that, hey, look, it's not a fifteen minute project,
it is a team effort as one.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Oh one.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah, everything I made when I was making shows on
my own sucked, whereas since I've been making shows with
like these big teams where you really allow people to
become experts in a certain area. You know, experts sound
designers and mixed engineers. I'm good at the interviews, I'm
(13:14):
really good at the script writing, so people really let
me do that. And everyone's got their own little skills,
and if you allow people to specialize in those, and
you collaborate together and you respect each other's craft, then
you end up with something that's just magnified good on
good on good on good, because you're just using everybody's
skill set to the best of its ability. So yeah,
(13:35):
be a team player, for sure, and everything takes way
longer than you think it does.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
What were you doing before podcasting became cool?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Before podcasting became cool, I was actually working as a
singer before I got into podcasting.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
So do you still do your music?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I don't it kind of I got into I worked
as a singer for about nine years, and I started
to think I didn't really wanted to do it anymore
because it was a lot of travel and my voice
always hurt, and you know, it's tough to make ends meet,
and so I started training in radio and then and
then just got into that, and I think my last
(14:17):
gig was sadly scheduled for the summer of twenty twenty,
and of course that got canceled with COVID, and so
I never really had the last Hurrah.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Any any reason to go back to it, because I mean,
because once an artist, always an artist, you can you
can't shake this stuff. It's an addiction.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
It is an addiction.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
But I mean that's why the show sounds the way
it does, because I was so obsessive about the sort
of music that I wanted in the podcast, and so
we've got this very unique soundtrack that's focused around female voices.
And that was all because of my history as a
singer and my work as a musician, and then of
(14:56):
course being the host of the series is just another
way of using my voice, and so you know, I
kind of feel like I'm still there. It feels like
a very similar energy. It's a focus on storytelling, which
of course being a singer is and how you put
that across and how you put across emotion.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I think there's a lot of crossover.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Still, Yeah, you speak so well when it comes to
being in tune as a novelist. I mean in the
way that when you share that story, you're in tune.
And that is so important to me as a listener
because in a heartbeat, if you're out of tune, Oh,
then all of a sudden, I feel like I'm out
of tune.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
It's all with a lot of painstaking effort. I wish
I could say it was because I was just really
cool and natural, but I try quite hard.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
What are you learning from being the front band of
the band right now? In other words, you being the
host of this show. I mean it's got to come
with new weight on your shoulders.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, I think it's a really big transition to become
the front man of the band because I've spent a
long time working as a still always doing the interviews,
but you'd spend most of the time in those interviews
having to do the silent not and you're not meant
to step on the tape because your voice isn't meant
to be in it, and so it's taken me quite
(16:14):
a long time to actually, you know, remember to talk
and to respond to things, and to respond to things fast,
because you know, I would often if someone got upset
or something, I would I would say something, but you'd
have to wait a beat so that you didn't step
on the tape. Whereas now I'm remembering to actually just
open my mouth and have an opinion and talk more
(16:37):
kind of freely. I couldn't so centering myself it has
been hard.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I left hand, right hand everything. So in other words,
I'm in the right side of the of the of
the editor. You're in the left hand. So if I
if I walk on you, then I can go in
there and just take my junk out, I mean, because
I have to respond to everything because I'm so emotionally involved.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
I think it's it's a tough balance to strike. But
that was just what I was taught at radio school,
you know, is to you're the last person who's important
in the room when you're just just producing the show.
You know, it's all about getting their emotion and getting
their story out, which is still something actually I think
I take into my current interview style is that I
(17:19):
spend a lot of time really focusing on the guest
in a way that I think if I'd always been
a host, maybe I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Wow. I love where your heart is. Where can people
go to find out more about everything that you're doing,
not just the podcast, but what you're doing because you're
a creative soul.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Oh well, of course, if you want to find the
podcast where you will hear my voice and hear little
updates about me, you can find that wherever you get
your podcasts, And that's the Girlfriend's spotlight. But if you
want to find out about me and my creative soul
and the DIY that I'm doing and the food that
I like to eat, you can find me on Instagram,
(18:00):
on Anna Sinfield and LinkedIn and wherever you want to
find me.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I love it. Please come back to this show anytime
in the future. Anna. The door is always going to
be open for you.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Thank you so much. It was lovely talking to you.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Will you be brilliant today? Okay, thank you too.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Thank you
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