This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Our cities and towns are deceptively simple. You flip a switch, and the lights come on. You turn a faucet, and water flows. You tap “buy,” and a package lands at your door.

Usually, we don’t think about how these systems work or how we interact with them… it all feels effortless. But behind each of those ordinary moments are invisible systems and the people who keep them running.

From 99% Invisible and Campside Media, Service Request is a new series that starts small: a call to 311, a traffic jam or a single flipped switch. We then zoom out, tracing that moment through the networks that keep a community organized and comfortable.

Delany starts at the beginning, when Campside approached 99% Invisible (99PI) with the idea of making a show about infrastructure. Together we developed the format: a question from a listener leads us into a system, and we dissect how it works.

Shoshi goes back even further, when Delaney started at 99PI more than ten years ago. Delaney didn’t arrive fascinated with architecture and design, but appreciated the lens that Roman Mars and other colleagues brought to storytelling: the ordinary world is really interesting and worth exploring.

Shoshi asks about episode one of Service Request, noting that 311 is not a typical example of infrastructure. Indeed, Delaney and Shoshi both settle on the idea that the show’s definition of infrastructure includes public services and systems that contribute to the public good.

Delaney then describes something that stuck with her when making the first five episodes. It’s an approach to preparation that one guest calls, “remembering the floating luggage.”

Finally Shoshi and Delaney discuss the Service Request episode suggestions already coming in from listeners, including elevators, toll roads and the pipes that bring us water. It turns out that many listeners are well aware of the importance of infrastructure and the consequences of a system not working!

Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

We are living in a golden age of deception. It feels like everyone has an angle and that, everywhere you turn, someone’s trying to scam you.

Chameleon is a weekly show hosted by veteran journalist and Campside co-founder Josh Dean. It takes you inside the incredible, stranger-than-fiction stories about people pretending to be something they aren’t.

And today, hear about the band that’s not quite human, not quite machine: The Velvet Sundown.

They were a hot new band and storming up the charts. But something seemed off. Was this the work of AI? When someone behind the band came out denying it, this looked like mystery solved. But this was only the beginning of an internet hoax with many layers.

Here’s more from Josh:

The episode is set last summer (2025), a long time ago in AI time. Even then, there were many people questioning whether AI could fool us into believing it was real. AI music, for better or worse, almost definitely worse, is now ubiquitous.

As a kind of proof of concept, part of our investigation, and a fun easter egg, we asked AI to go to town and come up with a version of our theme (originally created by two brilliant, real-life musicians, Mark McAdams and Yi-Wen Lai-Tremewan) as if written and performed by the band featured in this episode.

The AI take on Chameleon’s theme music:

And then we went further and asked it to make tracks about other episodes in this season of Chameleon. Check them out here.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck. Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

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This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Origin Stories is a show for anyone curious about the workings of the creative mind.

Hosted by veteran journalist Matthew Shaer, every episode takes you behind the scenes of your favorite book, magazine article, TV show, podcast, or movie - from the initial spark of curiosity to the long sessions in front of a white board.

Nothing is off the table: not the frustrations and the joys, not the setbacks and the successes. Hear from Patrick Radden Keefe on Say Nothing, Mimi Leder on The Morning Show, and Connie Walker on Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s.

And today, hear from Mo Amer on Mo.

Mo Amer is a stand-up comedian, actor, and writer whose work blends raucous humor with serious conversations about borders, identity, and belonging. Spanning two wildly funny and deeply moving seasons, Mo follows a lightly fictionalized version of Amer navigating family, work, and love while also navigating the U.S. asylum system.

In this episode, Amer talks to Matthew about concluding the series’ second season, building a show that’s both a meditation on belonging and a sharp commentary on what it means to be American right now, and carrying the emotional weight of telling a story so close to home.

Origin Stories is a Campside Media production. Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

What if someone close to you just… vanished one day?

That happens to tens of thousands of families a year in Japan, and it happened to Jake Adelstein too. In 2017, his friend and accountant disappeared just before tax day.

Adelstein, the author of Tokyo Vice, and co-host Shoko Plambeck go in search of that missing accountant, and take us on a journey into the fascinating and bizarre world of Japan’s jouhatsu, or “evaporated” people.

Campside co-founder Josh Dean asks Jake to take us back to the beginning of the story, when Jake went searching for his accountant. Shoko joined the team and was able to find a service that helps people “disappear,” often leaving their homes in the middle of the night (Night Moving).

Josh wonders why this industry exists in Japan. Why are there guidebooks and companies that help you “evaporate”?

Shoko and Jake discuss how debts, stalking and the Yakuza helped to shape the Night Moving industry in Japan.

They describe the woman behind a Night Mover business featured in Evaporated. And Jake wonders if you can forgive someone who has chosen to disappear rather than face the consequences of bad decisions.

Would you ever choose to run, leaving behind friends and family forever?

Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on Evaporated and all of Campside’s hit shows.

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This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the weekly series So Your Parents Are Old, Campside co-founder Vanessa Grigoriadis talks to friends, experts, and celebrities about the chaos of dealing with aging parents.

From Medicaid nightmares to emotional meltdowns in storage units, it’s a brutally honest, often hilarious look at one of life’s most disorienting stages. If you’re currently the parent to your parents, this show is your group chat in podcast form.

You’re sure to find catharsis in the unfiltered conversations and gallows humor. And this week on Inside the Tent, we are sharing an episode of So Your Parents Are Old.

Nobody Should Live This Long, with Comedian Lewis Black

It’s an episode where Lewis and Vanessa get mad! Lewis cared for his elderly parents, who lived to 101 and 104. He talks about something nobody wants to even think about: what he'll do when he's too old to care for himself.

So Your Parents Are Old is a Campside Media production. Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

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This is part of Inside the Tent, a series going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning podcasts and business.

Tell Me Lies for Hulu. Percy Jackson for Disney+. White Lotus for HBO. Producing companions that delight a show's fans is an exciting part of Campside Media’s business.

Alongside our weekly and limited series, we have the pleasure of working with the spectacularly talented casts of these shows and more. And it’s always a close collaboration with the hardworking companion teams at Disney, Hulu and HBO.

Here’s where it all starts: we’re already huge fans of these shows! Catch up now.

Tell Me Lies

Each week, host Stassi Schroeder digs deep into the drama with the cast, crew, and select superfans of Tell Me Lies season three on this cozy, lively, and slightly chaotic audio and video podcast.

Tune in to hear from stars Grace Van Patten, Jackson White and more; showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer; and Tell Me Lies diehards like Lauren Mayberry and Katie Maloney on the latest relationship drama and each week’s most jaw-dropping scenes.

Watch on Hulu and YouTube. Listen on Spotify and Apple.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Step behind the scenes of season two of the hit Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians with host Aryan Simhadri, who plays Grover Underwood.

Joined by cast members like Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Daniel Diemer, the podcast shares stories of bringing Rick Riordan’s books to life. Hear about friendships, adventures, and challenges at Camp Half-Blood, plus candid cast and crew interviews—including Rick Riordan.

Each weekly episode uncovers set secrets, the creative process, and untold myths, offering fans laughter, insights, and a personal window into the Percy Jackson universe.

Watch on Disney+ and YouTube. Listen on Spotify and Apple.

White Lotus

Join Jia Tolentino and Josh Bearman, the hosts of The White Lotus Official Season 3 companion podcast.

Every week they will break down each episode of the HBO Original Series with the cast and crew. They’ll get an exclusive look behind the scenes, examine the guests and staff, and ask the burning questions we all want answered.

Watch on HBO Max and YouTube. Listen on Spotify and Apple.

And check out an interview with Campside’s White Lotus companion producing team.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

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This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

How do you fake your own death? Can you deploy a swarm of bees to get rid of the cops? And if so, how (theoretically) would one do that?

These questions and more are answered on Crimeless, a weekly talk show that breaks down crazy crimes and answers the questions that you’re too embarrassed, or too afraid, to ask, lest it land you on an FBI watchlist.

(Should a show this silly use the word ‘lest’ in its description? You be the judge.)

You might know Rory from TV (Physical, Based on a True Story), movies (Babylon, Old Dads) or his standup specials (Religion, Sex, and a Few Things in Between). Now you’ll hear him wonder just how stupid criminals can be.

The conversation begins with Josh acknowledging that Crimeless is quite a departure from shows he’s hosted like Hooked and White Devil, which are fairly described as dark, serious journalism.

But the common theme is true crime. And where else but Crimeless can you learn how many black widow spiders it takes to equal the weight of a rattlesnake? Or explore the finer points of monkey gangs and Amish beard shaving?

Rory wonders if he might make a more capable criminal than many of the culprits discussed on the show. And considers why the series couldn’t be called ‘Funny Murders.’

The discussion moves from the crimes listeners won’t believe were committed to the crimes Josh and Rory might commit if they crossed to the wrong side of the law.

To hear their thoughts on cults, road rage and golf, listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on Crimeless and all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers, both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes the third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang.

Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship.

But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other the toughest of questions.

Matt and Sean begin by discussing how Sean and Gabe Ortiz first connected. There was little press coverage of the brothers’ story, and Gabe may have found recounting the story was therapeutic.

Matt asks how to convince people to speak about their private lives and how to respect the wishes of those who won’t participate.

Sean highlights the surprising source for videos of Larry and how the small production team decided on the best way to structure the show.

And Sean considers the questions at the heart of The Brothers Ortiz: Can you be a career criminal and good person at the same time? What lengths will you go to protect your family?

Finally, Matt and Sean wonder what it takes to keep a listener interested and acknowledge that you have just a few minutes each episode to convince someone to stick with it.

Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

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This is part of Inside the Tent, a series going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning podcasts and business.

Are you obsessed with cons, frauds, and impostors? Then this is the podcast for you.

Chameleon is the new weekly show from veteran journalist Josh Dean that takes you inside incredible, stranger-than-fiction stories about someone — or some people —pretending to be something they aren’t.

Here’s your chance to catch up on the top episodes:

The de Kooning Job

In 1985, a priceless painting vanished from a university museum in Arizona. The FBI had no leads. 32 years later, it turned up behind a bedroom door in a suburban New Mexico home.

Turns out the retired couple living there may have pulled off one of the most audacious art heists of the 20th century.

Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Spine Collector

For years, someone was tricking publishers into handing over yet-to-be-published manuscripts—from bestselling authors and total unknowns alike. There were no ransom demands. The books were not leaked. The motive was unclear. An international mystery that baffled the publishing world for years.

But two journalists in lockdown set out to solve the mystery and uncover the peculiarly obsessed culprit.

Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Barefoot Bandit

Colton Harris-Moore was just a teenager when he began breaking into homes across the Pacific Northwest. But soon, he was stealing cars, boats... and then planes.

This is the unbelievable true story of a kid outrunning the cops to become one of the first folk heroes of the internet age.

Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Catch up now on all the Chameleon episodes, and hear from Josh about the origins of the series here. Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on Chameleon and all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Obsessed is a weekly series about the things that consume us, the things we can’t let go of, and why it all matters.

Every week, David Greene — the long-time co-host of NPR’s biggest show, Morning Edition — sits down with a new guest, to confront and discuss the things that consume them.

David Greene is Obsessed is a show about connecting with people, sharing stories of our obsessions, and working through them. From politics to pizza, karaoke to knitting, name just about anything, and someone out there has an obsession with it.

For David, wanting to host the show comes from an authentic place. His obsessions with Pittsburgh sports, Soul Cycle and karaoke say a lot about him. And he talks with Josh about blowing up our stereotypes about who is likely to be obsessed with what.

From Barbie to public toilets to pedicures, David talks about unexpected insights and feeling a bit richer for having learned about something he might typically take for granted.

Josh notes that famous guests in particular relish the chance to talk about their obsessions. Whether it’s comedian Tig Notaro (plant-based eating!), actor David Arquette (Bozo the Clown!) or musician Billy Corgan (wrestling!), the focus on something they wouldn’t normally discuss energizes and humanizes them.

To be clear, these are not sad laments. These interviews are joyous celebrations of what makes us unique. And what is Josh obsessed with? Listen now to find out.

Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

You think you know the NXIVM story. The secretive self-help empire. The sex cult headlines. The downfall of its leader, Keith Raniere.

But the most famous woman at the center of the story has remained largely silent. Allison after NXIVM tells the story of Allison Mack: former Smallville actress, high-ranking NXIVM member, and convicted felon.

With exclusive access following her release from prison, this series traces her astonishing path from Smallville fame to NXIVM’s inner circle - and her effort to rebuild a life in the wreckage.

Natalie begins by admitting she was reluctant to host the show given what she’d read about Allison. But she agreed to a meeting arranged by Campside co-founder Vanessa Grigoriadis, who wrote a key 2018 story in the New York Times Magazine about NXIVM.

And Natalie found someone charming and beautiful - this is Hollywood after all - and seemingly willingly to take responsibility for her actions.

Lily then wonders how you can interview someone compassionately, while also asking intensely personal questions. Is a traumatized person stable enough to tell their story? And are they telling the truth?

Natalie describes spending hours and hours interviewing Allison, learning about controlling behavior and sexual abuse that began even before NXIVM.

The conversation then touches on fact checking, unexpectedly tracking down one of the cult’s leaders, Lauren Salzman, and the potential healing powers of a new tattoo.

Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

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This is part of Inside the Tent, a series going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning podcasts and business.

Have you ever wondered exactly how your favorite movie, book or podcast got made? Origin Stories has you covered. Each week, veteran journalist Matthew Shaer talks to a different writer or director about the creation of a work close to their own hearts (and to ours).

Here’s your chance to catch up on the latest episodes:

Steve Burns on Alive with Steve Burns

Steve Burns is best known as the first host of the groundbreaking kids TV show “Blue’s Clues,” which debuted nearly three decades ago, in 1996.

After leaving “Blue’s Clues,” Steve worked as a voiceover actor and a musician; his song “Mighty Little Man” became the theme song for “Young Sheldon.”

Matt says, “I was excited to talk to Steve Burns because of the fascinating path his career has taken, and because of his ability to speak directly to his audience in a compelling and authentic way.”

In this episode, Burns talks to Matthew about the creation of his new podcast, “Alive With Steve Burns,” and the learning curve involved in experimenting with a new medium. “I watched like 40 hours of Dick Cavett and then I realized that was not useful to this forum in any way,” he says.

“And that I’d probably be better off taking some improv classes and understanding what journalism is. Right now, it seems like it’s improvisational journalism if it’s anything. But I’m still flailing around in a sea of fear when I’m here.”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Mitch Albom on Twice

Mitch Albom is a journalist, playwright, and the author, most famously, of “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” Before scoring his breakout hit with “Tuesdays With Morrie,” Mitch was a longtime sports reporter for The Detroit Free Press, where his column still appears every week.

I was excited to talk to Mitch Albom because of how he thinks about his books, which all explore a single theme – to Mitch, as opposed to a lot of other writers, the ideas come first; the characters, second.

In this episode, Mitch talks to Matthew about his new novel, Twice, and the importance of putting theme first. “The ideas always come before the characters and even the plot,” he says of his creative process. “So I always start with, ‘What theme do I want to write about?’ Never what plot, or what’s the story, or an idea for a character.”

“It’s, ‘What do I want to tackle?’ Because I know I’m going to have to live with that theme for a long time. Plots come and go. Characters can come and go. But if I’m not happy about what it is that I’m writing about, or what I’m trying to sail towards – my North Star as I’m writing – I can’t live with it for that long.”

Mitch says he writes every day, for no more than three hours. “You need to fill your heart back up again. It’s a regenerating thing, like blood. Like Red Smith said about sports writing: ‘It’s easy. You just sit down and open up a vein and bleed out a story.’ But if you close the vein, you put a bandage on it, the blood eventually comes back in and you get back what you lost. I think it’s the same thing with ideas and words.”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Roy Wood Jr. on The Man of Many Fathers

Roy Wood Jr. is a comedian, actor, and former correspondent for The Daily Show. He talks to Matthew about his new book, “The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir,” which is structured as an extended letter to his young son.

I was excited to talk to Roy because I think creatives who work in a different medium (in this case stand-up and TV comedy) have a lot to teach other sorts of writers about their process. For the record, I wasn’t wrong!

Early drafts of his book, Wood recalls, were composed by voice note, while walking to the set of The Daily Show – a process that helped give the book its emotional power and irreverent humor.

“I don’t believe you type the way you talk because you’re constantly thinking about grammar and sentence fragments. Whereas I’m just walking down the street, and I’m like, ‘This dude, he snorted cocaine, he stank, he looked like a gorilla, his shirt was sweaty, had brown teeth. He had one tooth that was more yellow than the other. How you get extra tartar on one tooth?’”

“These are abstract, weird thoughts and if I’m in a flow of talking aloud, they’re gonna come out. And I can take those, transcribe them, and then at night, really look at this story and go, ‘Okay, this part should go here. This is disjointed, let’s move this around.’”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Bonnie Tsui on Why We Swim

Bonnie Tsui is a veteran journalist and the author of several critically-acclaimed books, including On Muscle, American Chinatown, and Why We Swim, which was published in 2020 by Algonquin Books.

I was excited to talk to Bonnie because she writes with such versatility, mixing elements of memoir, reporting and scientific research. As expected, she had a lot to say about how she manages to switch between those modes – and always keep her writing fresh.

She talks with Matthew about the challenges of writing Why We Swim, which mixes rigorous scientific reporting, history, and long passages of essayistic exploration. “It’s an instinctive way of writing,” Bonnie says of the latter.

“I mean, you know you have to come back to the points that you’re trying to make, with the chapter or the piece or whatever, but it is not the same as going to report something, or interview a person, and get all those details in. It’s about feeling your way forward and finding your way to some truth.”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Evan Ratliff on Shell Game

Evan Ratliff is a magazine writer, podcaster, and author of Mastermind: Drugs, Empire, Murder, Betrayal, which was released in 2019 by Random House. In addition to co-founding Longform and The Atavist Magazine, Evan was also one of the founding editors of Pop-Up Magazine.

I was excited to talk to Evan largely because he’s one of my oldest friends in the journalism business, and it’s always energizing to catch up with someone who’s seen a lot of the same developments and trends and challenges as I have. But I was also pumped because Shell Game, Evan’s new podcast, just plain rules.

Evan talks to Matthew about Shell Game, a hit narrative podcast Evan funded, created, and distributed independently, working with a small team that included Evan’s wife, Samantha Henig, and the independent producer Sophie Bridges.

“I’ve had pretty good experiences doing projects with friends,” Evan says. “And enough of those projects have worked out that I feel like it’s worth taking some risks, especially in this environment where like the media industry is constantly devolving in new and unexpected ways that you didn’t even think about last year, where you were like, ‘Oh, well that’s solid,’ and now it’s gone.”

Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Catch up now on all of Matt’s Origin Stories interviews. Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on Origin Stories and all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is part of Inside the Tent, a series going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning podcasts and business.

If you’re currently the parent to your parents, this is your group chat in podcast form. The Campside original series, So Your Parents Are Old, is a brutally honest, often hilarious look at one of life’s most disorienting stages.

Here’s your chance to catch up on the latest episodes:

When Your Parents Are Hoarders with Amanda Uhle

Amanda Uhle, writer and publisher of McSweeney’s, joins Vanessa to talk about her new book Destroy This House. She reflects on her parents’ lifelong struggles with hoarding and the lessons she carried forward after clearing the home they left behind.

Amanda Uhle grew up in a house overflowing with her parents’ hoarded things (truly overflowing), and yet she now cultivates clarity and elegance in the way she lives and works.

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

My Mom Celebrated Life with Erika Christensen

Actress Erika Christensen joins Vanessa to talk about her new film After All, where she plays a daughter caring for her ill mother. Together, they explore the unexpected intimacy of birth, death, and everything in between.

Erika talks in a genuine way about how her mom handled death with matter-of-fact flair: declaring she was “done,” refusing a funeral, and insisting everyone go have a blast at her son’s wedding instead of hovering around her. This interview is so real that Erika even posted a clip of it on Instagram with the caption, “we got real!”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Singing To My Mom with Amara Walker

Journalist and former CNN anchor Amara Walker opens up about her mother’s Alzheimer’s - how she found support in community, how she talks to her children about their grandmother’s illness, and how she arrived at the difficult decision to move her mother to a nursing home.

I love how Amara, in our interview, goes from polished CNN anchor to a daughter singing half-forgotten Korean hymns into her mom’s face, praying the pronunciation holds while her mom just beams at her anyway.

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Laughing Through Medicare Appeals with Kathleen Madigan

Comedian Kathleen Madigan has turned the trials of caring for her parents into some of her sharpest material. She joins Vanessa to commiserate about Medicare and creepy porcelain basement dolls—and to show how humor can help you through the hardest moments.

It’s hilarious how Kathleen treats elder care like a battlefield - her mom as a “Civil War nurse” ready to hand out whiskey and a stick, her dad on his “world tour” to the hospital - and somehow it all becomes a family comedy instead of a tragedy.

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

WTF Is Hospice with Ann Neumann

Most of us fear the word “hospice,” but author and hospice volunteer Ann Neumann wants to change that. From morphine spoons to lottery tickets, she shares stories from the bedside that show how hospice can help us reclaim an ancient, almost forgotten skill: caring for each other at the end.

Vanessa says, “What I love about this conversation with Ann Neumann is that she somehow takes the word “hospice” — which usually makes everyone stare at the floor — and turns it into something comforting and even a little hilarious.”

Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Catch up now on all of Vanessa’s So Your Parents Are Old interviews. Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on So Your Parents Are Old and all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

It feels like everyone has an angle. Everywhere you turn, someone’s trying to scam you. Campside’s newest weekly series, Chameleon, takes you inside incredible, stranger-than-fiction stories about people pretending to be something, or someone, they aren’t.

Josh and Jo go back to the beginning, to talk about Campside’s first-ever limited series podcast Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen and how it gave rise to a franchise. Over multiple seasons, the Campside team learned there is an endless fascination with cons and frauds.

Jo starts by wondering what drives someone to pretend to be something they’re not. It might be about money, sex and power. But Josh flags there’s not always a clear reason why.

Still, listeners are sure to be fascinated by the scammer. And sympathize with the victim.

Josh and Jo jump into the range of stories you’ll hear in the new weekly show. While today, it’s easier than ever to scam and be scammed, there are endless stories to be mined from the past.

Sadly, of course, it starts with trust, a willingness to be betrayed.

You’ll hear about fake Zombies - the band, not the undead - and a teenager who posed as a police officer. You’ll travel around the world and wonder why scammers and frauds - chameleons! - take these risks, often for very little upside.

Josh even teases an update on Hollywood Con Queen, the story that launched the franchise five years ago.

Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Crimeless: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer in this case includes diamond rings, mansions and velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.

It starts in 1996 in rural North Carolina, where an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there.

The show’s host Johnny Knoxville unspools a wild tale about a group of regular folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life.

And this episode of Inside the Tent goes back to the beginning of the show Hillbilly Heist, when Liz and Stewart both found themselves looking for what’s next. Liz’s documentary background and Stewart’s comedy background proved to be the perfect combination for a story that combined true crime and levity.

Layne speaks with the producers about rooting for a character, a desperate person, who committed a serious crime. And they ask whether a ‘would-be assassin’ can be a sweet guy.

That naturally ties back to the unholy trinity of cocaine, hookers and hot tubs - and leads to a story about Knoxville struggling to get through his lines without laughing.

Things turn serious when they discuss how to avoid caricatures and tell a story, even an absurd one, with respect.

And the episode ends with an answer to the age old question: is there such thing as a funny FBI agent?

Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

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I recently interviewed Debora Cahn, a television writer, producer, and showrunner. She launched her career as a writer on The West Wing and Grey’s Anatomy; later, she served as a writer and executive producer on Homeland. In this episode, we talk about The Diplomat, the hit drama series Debora created for Netflix.

I was excited to talk to Debora because she’s cracked a pretty difficult code: Creating a hit show that is compelling and plot-driven and also full of emotional depth.

“The game that we’re trying to win is to stay in a viewer’s life for years,” she says of The Diplomat, which is now entering its third season. “Make this story interesting to people for years. And to do that, you plant all of these things in the garden, to use a simple metaphor. And some of them grow and some of them don’t.”

She continued, “And some of them are just sort of sitting there waiting for you to take advantage of them somewhere down the line.”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you haven’t joined the Origin Stories community:

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And send me questions or guest ideas at originstories@campsidemedia.com.

Thanks,

Matt

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

On So Your Parents Are Old, Vanessa talks to friends, experts and celebrities about the chaos of dealing with aging parents.

It’s a look at one of life’s most disorienting stages. Come for the catharsis, stay for the gallows humor and unfiltered conversations.

Shoshi starts by asking what led Vanessa to make the show? Well, it started with the sudden shock of becoming a caretaker to her mom and having it take over her life.

And realizing there are millions of people taking care of their parents while also trying to care of themselves (and, often, their own kids).

Shoshi, who has not (yet) been through it, realizes that everyone will be a caretaker or be on the receiving end at some point. And Vanessa offers some practical advice based on the interviews she’s conducted so far - including one with a comedian whose dad was a… mobster.

After reflecting on how an AI Vanessa might help with all the administrative tasks that come with being a caretaker, the conversation turns to an SNL skit with Amy Poehler that captures all the feelings of So Your Parents Are Old.

Remember to breathe in, breathe out and listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

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Welcome back to So Your Parents Are Old. This is an episode where we get mad!

Comedian Lewis Black cared for his elderly parents, who lived to be 101 and 104.

I’ve always loved how Lewis can take the worst, most absurd human experiences and turn them into something hilarious, cathartic, and weirdly comforting - like he’s yelling on our behalf.

In addition to his centenarian parents, Lewis talks about something nobody wants to even think about: what he’ll do when he’s too old to care for himself.

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you haven’t joined the So Your Parents Are Old community:

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And send me questions or guest ideas at parents@campsidemedia.com.

Thanks,

Vanessa

This is part of Inside the Tent, a series going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning podcasts and business.

Campside Media’s Origin Stories is a show for anyone curious about the workings of the creative mind. And just a month in, the range of guests and insights is inspiring.

Here’s your chance to catch up:

Start with Patrick Radden Keefe, author of the book Say Nothing. Matt says Patrick is “the best structural architect working in journalism today – a true wizard when it comes to making complex narratives sing.”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Then there’s director and producer Mimi Leder. Matt says, “I jumped at the chance to interview Mimi because of The Morning Show, which I consider to be a wildly sharp depiction of the modern media landscape. But also because I’m inspired by the arc of Mimi’s career and her ability to transition ably between feature film and prestige TV.”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

You can also hear from John Hoffman (Only Murders in the Building) and Noah Hawley (Alien: Earth).

Matt also spoke with writer and Hysterical podcast host Dan Taberski, whose interview style was top of mind. Matt said, “It almost always yields unexpected responses from his sources. There’s a connection between Dan and the people he’s writing about – a clear one – and I wanted to understand how he goes about achieving it.”

Watch now or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

You should then listen to Matt’s interview with Connie Walker (Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s), a veteran Cree journalist, and the first podcaster to win both the Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award in the same year.

Enjoy catching up on all of Matt’s Origin Story interviews. There’s many more to come. Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on Origin Stories and all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now

This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the surface, the modeling industry in the 80s was about parties and pretty clothes, but underneath the flash, there were drugs, sex, and violence. And Paul Fisher, a former straight-A student from the San Fernando Valley, rose to prominence amidst the turmoil.

After a chance encounter with an alleged mobster, Paul suddenly found himself with a million dollars in funding and the chance to start a modeling agency in New York City. The city was then embroiled in a “model war” between industry titans Eileen Ford and John Casablancas, and Paul tried to make his mark.

But even as Paul thrived in the party-heavy culture of the time, burning cash like a furnace, he came face to face with the darkest forces in the industry.

Vanessa and Anthony start by giving credit to film producer Rachel Winter (Dallas Buyers Club) who brought Paul Fisher to Campside to tell his unbelievable story.

Paul took the unusual step of truly opening up, telling wild stories about the modeling industry that make him look unsympathetic, to put it mildly.

And they tackle this confounding question: how do you end up rooting for someone you definitely shouldn’t root for? It starts with the surprising number of people willing to participate in the show, who give a sense of all the sides of Fisher, for better or worse.

And Vanessa discusses the goal of entertaining listeners without exploiting the characters in the story, many of whom were women preyed upon.

They finish up by wondering who is the Paul Fisher of today, in the world of influencers.

Listen to Inside the Tent on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with questions or comments: questions@campsidemedia.com.

We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.

Subscribe now