Welcome to the next in the Podcast Showcase series, where we share podcasts with you in the words of the podcasters themselves. This time, we talk to By the Book.
Sum up your podcast in three sentences
In each episode of By The Book, comedian Jolenta Greenberg and culture critic Kristen Meinzer live by the rules of a different self-help book for two weeks straight, following every rule down to the letter, while recording themselves, at home, in the world, and in their marriages, to see which ones might actually be life changing. It’s half reality show, half self-help podcast, and one wild social experiment.
Who is your ideal listener? Who loves your show?
We’re in the comedy category, which means our ideal listener is open to a good laugh. But many of our listeners are also legitimately interested in self-help books, betterment, and learning how to be a little happier.
What made you start this podcast?
It was all Jolenta’s idea! At the time, we were both working for a radio show. She was the admin, and I was the culture producer.
One of Jolenta’s jobs was to open all the mail, and half the mail happened to be self-help books from publishers who wanted coverage on our show.
For the most part, our show had no interest in self-help books. But Jolenta did. And she approached me (Kristen) one day, saying, “Hey, I know you’re really critical of these kinds of books, but I really want to believe their promises, and I think it would be fun if we lived by them together and made a podcast.”
Fast forward a year and a half, and we were making the show.
4. What have you learned about your subject thanks to this podcast?
We’ve learned a lot! But one of our favorite horrible facts is about authors versus readers of self-help books: according to a study by Good Reads, two thirds of self-help readers are women, and two thirds of authors are men.
In short, it’s an industry filled with men telling women what to do.
What has your experience of podcasting been? What do you love / hate about the process?
We’ve been really fortunate. In addition to By The Book, we’ve been able to host other shows together (most notably, We Love You & So Can You), and separately (Kristen currently hosts Movie Therapy with Rafer & Kristen and several other podcasts).
We’ve also landed book deals that are directly related to our podcasting work. In 2020, we cowrote How To Be Fine: What We Learned From Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books. And in 2019, Kristen wrote So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community that Will Listen.
6. If someone wants to start listening to your podcast, which episode would you recommend they start with? Why?
A lot of people start with The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up because it’s a book they’ve heard of, and they feel they could stand to be a bit tidier.
It’s a really fun episode for lots of reasons – we throw out half of what we own, we fight with our husbands, and at least one of us feels happier in the end as a result of living by the book.
7. Which other podcasts do you love listening to?
We both really love The Dream by Jane Marie. It’s about MLMs (pyramid schemes) which cross over a lot with the self-help world. Jolenta is also a huge fan of Bitch Sesh. And I’ve lately been listening to the Chippendales podcast, Welcome to My Fantasy.
8. If people want to find you online, where can they do so? Drop your links here (social media, podcast subscription, etc.)
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/by-the-book/id1217948628
- Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/by-the-book
- Web: bythebookpod.com
- Twitter: @bythebookpod
- Instagram: @bythebookpod
- Patreon: patreon.com/listentobythebook
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