Greetings, intrepid Good Tape readers. We hope the July weather is inspiring you to toss some fruit in your drink. We’re celebrating some wins over here, like our recent partnership with Goat Rodeo to launch the longform review series Ear Stuff and our podcast “This Is TV Now” appearing on Apple Podcast’s main discovery carousel. We’re also happy to report that our recent guest Holly Brown’s own show, “Everyone Knows But Me,” was named one of Apple Podcast’s Best So Far 2026. Holly’s interview is below.

Since the team is striving for a semblance of work-life balance, this newsletter will be on a very brief hiatus for some retooling. When we return in mid-August, you’ll notice a couple of changes:

1. The free version of this newsletter will drop once a month, and will be written by our managing editor Becca. 
2. The version Katie writes (this one!) will continue to be published every other week and will be available to paid subscribers only.

This is the first time in our history that any version of this newsletter will go behind a paywall. Our goal is 150 subscribers, which will be enough to sustain this biweekly missive. 

We’ve thought about this decision a lot… so we’re sharing a Q&A that reflects our internal considerations:  

Katie: Hi Becca, thanks for joining me in print here. 

Becca: Hi. Happy to be here.

Katie: All right. It’s not like a paywall is some foreign concept to anyone reading. In fact, we’ve covered podcasting’s paywall quandaries in this very newsletter. But I’m feeling some personal awkwardness about rolling out this change. Are you experiencing that too? 

Becca: I’m originally from the Midwest, so yes. However, as a reader of the newsletter, I think its value is apparent, and this is the natural next step for a publication that began as a print-only paid product before expanding to include more and more content. 

Katie: Well, also, we should mention that our monthly subscriptions start at $5/month… or $36/year, a better deal than literally any other newsletter I subscribe to, including the shitty ones. 

Becca: Right. And again, what doesn’t feel awkward for me is saying that your work has value. Your takes on the industry for $5 are a steal. 

Katie: Genuinely blushing. Thank you. What are you most excited about covering in the free monthly edition?

Becca: I’m looking forward to showcasing our writers and their work, musing on how podcasts are portrayed in pop culture, and sharing what industry takes the team is seeing elsewhere. What are you most excited about covering next? 

Katie: I’m excited that this change will provide resources for more in-depth coverage all around — not just from me, but from other reporters we’ll be able to hire. More interviews with the people in our industry making waves, more live events coverage, more research. Assuming this all works, that is, and 150  people sign up. 

I guess there’s also another future where it flops, and the subscriber newsletter just gets weirder and weirder until people have to tune in to watch the car crash. 

Becca: El oh el. It’s going to be good. Your version of weird is also worth something, so either way, the sub will be a solid investment. 

Help us write Good Tape’s next chapter.

“Who Blew Up The Guidestones?”

A deceptively ambitious whodunit brings receipts.

Words by Katie Clark Gray

“What are you trying to get at?” a man on the phone demands. “What is your goal?” 

He’s speaking to — berating, really — reporter Tyler McBrien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. McBrien’s response is as gentle as his subject is combative. “Like I said, it’s just to get to the bottom of who blew up the Guidestones.” 

This fascinating, frustrating exchange happens late in McBrien’s seven-part series, “Who Blew Up the Guidestones?” By this point, listeners will be familiar with the question, as McBrien repeats it dozens of times while talking to law enforcement or swapping theories with locals. Sometimes he invokes it as a rhetorical aside, a naked plea for the truth to appear.

Read the rest

Holly Brown Is Open to a Haunting

And other musings from the “Everyone Knows But Me” host.

Words by Dane Cardiel

Holly Brown’s new podcast — “Everybody Knows But Me” — was recently named one of Apple Podcast’s Best So Far 2026. Using a unique blend of reporting and adapted sitcom-style segments to unpack a deep personal trauma with her signature smile and wink, her show draws on the experience she gained from years spent helping others make their podcasts.
This week on “This Is TV Now,” we talk to Brown about the struggle of giving her best work to herself, the joys of writing for podcast audiences, and the reality of launching a podcast that isn’t celebrity-driven. Afterward, we extended the conversation and and workshopped a new job title.

What makes you optimistic about the future?
Holly Brown: This is a weird answer, I guess, but being optimistic in general is new to me. I’ve lived my whole life thinking that because of the trauma I’ve experienced, nothing will ever get better. And I hate that when you shift your mindset, it actually kind of works. I’ve been able to be like, maybe if I think that good things will happen to me, they will, and there is proof in that. So I think my optimism lies in people being optimistic [and thinking,] “Yes, we can do this.”

Who is the most underrated person in your industry right now?

HB: My showrunner, Pete Musto, and I do not give flowers to men normally. He is just so talented, and he doesn’t realize he is the best, so [that’s how I] know he is. He is so gifted as an audio producer, and I’m like, “How are you not producing the biggest podcasts?” I don’t understand.

Read the rest

Some other stories that have our attention, brought to you by Good Tape’s Off The Record — an event series creating real-time dialogues between podcast executives, creatives, and brands on hyper-relevant topics to evolve the medium.

• • New shingle alert: From the ashes of Pineapple Street comes Please and Thanks Productions, cofounded by Pineapple emeriti Joel Lovell and Henry Molofsky. As reported by Deadline, their debut project will be the limited series “Dan Taberski’s Manifesto!” Also on the horizon: projects with Amy Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions and Patrick Radden Keefe.
• • Over at Bloomberg, Ashley Carman analyzed a recent report digging into Apple Podcasts’ numbers post-video pivot. The short version: There’s reason for some very cautious optimism…
• • Arielle Nissenblatt’s Well It Depends Labs is hosting a virtual Podcast Growth Open House on August 3 at 12 p.m. The Labs is also midway through July’s 30-Day Podcast Challenge, which you can still jump into.
• • Some rare good news in the anti-AI fight: As reported by 404 Media, Patreon is blocking web crawlers from stealing its creators’ content for AI training. And some publishers are considering opting out of Google Search if it doesn’t separate their AI training bots from their “multi-purpose crawlers.”
• • One of our favorite tech shows, Kaleidoscope’s “Kill Switch,” hung up its spurs a couple of months back. But host Dexter Thomas is back with a new indie tech show, “what’s this button do?” — if you wish you knew more about all the niche internet things you don’t have time to research, this is for you.
• • Not podcast-related, but worth your time: The Onion’s takeover of InfoWars shall not be stopped, legal shenanigans be damned. This includes weekly live broadcasts every Thursday at 8 p.m. ET with Tim Heidecker in the captain’s chair and a wild theme song by musician and comedian “Big Nick” Lutsko. Stream it loudly, preferably near an open window, and impress your friends.

Good Tape is proudly independent yet deeply rooted in community. If you value our work exploring the ideas, people, and forces influencing podcasting, share this newsletter with a friend. Or, better yet, become a subscriber. Your support helps sustain our commitment to elevating cultural and critical coverage of the podcast industry.