Spotlight On: JENNY OWEN YOUNGS
ABOUT this week’s podcast guest + radio hour featured interview:
If you've been tuning in for a while, you’ll know that the SHEROES mission isn’t just about amplifying women’s voices who are musicians, it’s also about spotlighting women’s voices on the airwaves - ie radio and podcast hosts. My guest this week is both a musician and a podcast host, and before I tell you more about her, it’s important to point out that in both spaces, we are still not heard in equal numbers. Data on the gender split of both radio and podcasting is pretty tough to get your hands on. But in one report from Sounds Profitable, just 29% of podcast creators in the us identified as women compared with 69% men. 2% of those surveyed identified as non-binary. In another study, women were 50% of podcast listeners, but men hosted 79% of the top podcasts - that’s according to The Wrap. And radio is only slightly better. Current U.S. Census data shows that out of over 11,542 radio hosts currently employed, 39.3% of all radio hosts are women, while 60.7% are men, and 72.6% are White. Just 10% of all radio hosts identify as LGBTQIA+. So you can imagine how excited I am to have this week’s guest with us, who is a bit of a unicorn. She is not only an extraordinary singer and songwriter, she is also a hit podcast host (see previous note on why that is such an extra big deal as a queer woman in that space). Jenny Owen Youngs put out her debut album Batten the Hatches in 2005, a song from it was picked up by the TV series Weeds (the first of many songs she’s now had in film and TV), and she landed a record deal with Nettwerk Records, who re-released the album along with her 2009 follow-up, Transmitter Failure. After parting ways with Nettwerk, Jenny released 2012's An Unwavering Band of Light, which was the last full length album until this year. Jenny released an instrumental collection called From the Forest Floor, and more recently, her first album of “Jennysongs” in a decade, Avalanche. But she’s been far from idle. With a list of writing credits way too long to recount here, she’s written hit songs for the likes of Pitbull and Panic! At the Disco, and by my count, she’s also released 10 EP’s since 2007. And back to where this episode intro began, she created and co-hosts the hit podcast Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure - an episode-by-episode podcast devoted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The eX-Files, about - you guessed it - The X-Files, with her ex-wife, Kristin Russo. It’s a fascinating and fun conversation with Jenny Owen Youngs, as this week’s SHERO in the Spotlight.
A condensed version of the Jenny Owen Youngs interview is featured this week during the SHEROES Radio hour. Here’s what else you’ll hear:
We celebrate some SHERO BIRTHDAYS:
9/29 - Julien Baker
9/30 - Marilyn McCoo’s 80th, Patrice Rushen
10/2 - Brittany Howard
10/3 - Gwen Stefani
Listen to the syndicated public radio SHEROES Radio hour, below: