Meet Chrissy Newton & Marie Nicola of Alt.Pop.Repeat
Chrissy: Almost a year ago, Marie and I started on a journey together to create a podcast concept that has never been done before. Ever! (trust me, we were shocked too). On Alt.Pop.Repeat we dive deep into how counterculture, sub and alternative cultures “connect” (or what we like to call a “sync”) together to influence current pop culture. Our podcast baby has developed and evolved overtime and it’s something Marie and I are really proud to call our own. It’s a labor of love and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Marie: We started like most great projects begin… friends reconnecting over drinks and great conversations. I was looking for a new media project after a hiatus and Chrissy wanted to try her hand at production. Without much hesitation our show was born. The subject matter was the easiest part, we both love mainstream culture and are naturally curious. Integrating celebrities to weigh in was a natural progression, as was our choice to begin with an audio only product to begin. Then it took a lot of tenacity, patience and determination to get to where we are today – which truthfully is only just the beginning!
Chrissy: Oh man, when you’re building something from scratch, it’s never a smooth road. Some of the struggles started at the beginning. Mainly, trying to create an RSS link that feeds into our streaming platforms. You would think distributing a podcast to all platforms would be as easy as upload and press send but that’s not the case.
Marie: To kick off a project, we’re bootstrapping with the most lean model we can. The struggles we face are usually in the time necessary to troubleshoot and develop the foundational technology we rely on to fuel the show. This involves adapting our existing tools to support self-hosting as well as automating as many of our processes so that we have the freedom to research, market and develop the full culture of the show.
The secondary struggle is lack of sleep.
Chrissy: Our show takes listeners on a journey via a talk radio style format where Marie and I specialize in showing the “syncs” between counterculture and pop culture. Counterculture is created today by groups of people all over the world. It never stops, it’s always ever evolving and shaping how we see the world.
Marie: Our business is the business of inspiring people to consider mainstream culture as a valid cultural product. Pop culture should not be undermined because it’s mainstream – it should be regarded as one of the most powerful collection of cultural products we can experience as a society. It is incredible to sync up something that was developed in ancient Mesopotamia (like astrology for example), and to see how it has not only persisted but how things we thought were unrelated – like our calendar – actually exist because of it.
Beyond our format, I think I’m most proud of our way on the mic. We’re real. We’re unscripted, and we fearlessly go into places with our conversations that rarely happens on other podcasts. To me, the mic disappears completely and we’re having a conversation. I hope one day that conversation will include our listeners who will be inspired to interact with us via social. Because I would love to bring more of them into the culture of the show.
Chrissy: I believe success come in many different forms but mainly success to me is believe in yourself. Tones of people don’t ACTUALLY believe in their abilities. If you can push the ego aside and do what makes you happy and fills your heart everyday, that’s success to me.
Marie: I personally define success in my own satisfaction on the project. I feel like external factors are changeable and can help support the continuation of a project. But, if I’m satisfied with the quality of the work, it’s a personal accomplishment unlike anything else I have ever worked on and that’s the best for me!
