Many of our regular listeners and readers will recall (you WILL recall, I demand it!) that we launched a contest at the end of August designed to bring new blood into the careening mass of weirdness we call The Podcast. We asked listeners to become contributors by pitching us segment ideas. Part of the reasoning was to provide a different persepctive and also to take some of the production pressure off of Scott and me. We love what we’re doing, of course, but it’s a lot of work. So if there were people out there who were interested, we thought we’d exploit them.

And, like a bunch of fame-seeking lemmings, many of you responded.

Oh sure, some of you called us crazy. Others were happy to simply watch from the sidelines and say nothing — or so we assume, since we never actually heard from any of those people, BUT WE CAN FEEL YOU LOOKING AT US, DAMMIT!

Six groups did take the time to respond and try and sell their vision for an Unknown Studio segment. We read proposals, we listened to demo reels, we slept under fleece blankets and ate marshmallows while talking about our latest crushes… and we arrived at a decision.

We’re pleased to welcome Jonn, Matt and Simon to the Unknown Studio family as our newest show contributors. Starting with our next episode (which will feature an interview with self-published poet Kasia Gawlak who many of you know as @confessionality), the Trio of Terror will… Well, I’ll let them explain it — this is text taken directly from the pitch that sold Scott and I:

If you ask an Edmontonian about their relationship with their city, you’re likely to get a mixed response.

“It’s nice during the summer time,” one might respond.

“The River Valley looks pleasant today, but just look at the traffic on the High Level,” says another. “And why won’t anybody do anything about these potholes?”

And finally, “I hate this goddamn place, and I hope it and its inhabitants burn in the foul vestiges of hell,” says a man who will spend the rest of his life here.

But regardless of whether people love it, hate it, or are slightly irked by ETS not showing up on time causing them to be 5 minutes late for hot yoga, it would be hard for anyone to argue: this is a city. Such logic can’t be denied.

This segment will be in the vein of This American Life and will talk about the frustration, blandness, awkward situations, ennui (because let’s be honest, we have a significant hipster demographic) and occasional awesomeness that comes with living in Alberta’s capital city. It’s not that bad of a place. At least sometimes. There are interesting stories that occur in this city.

A mix of the irreverent and the serious, three former Gateway editors will go after the curious stories and quaint Edmontonia that is all around us, yet goes unacknowledged except for a brief muttering to yourself. In doing so, we will try to create an informative and captivating take on what makes our city both average and aspiring.

So there you have it, our very own version of The Edmontican Life (we won’t call it that). We’re expecting great things from these self-proclaimed carbon-based life forms. AND GREAT THINGS WE SHALL HAVE. Because it’s, like, totally in their contract.

Just kidding. Do Scott and I look like the kinds of people who know the first thing about contracts?

A huge thanks to everyone who pitched us a segment. We’ve invited all of these people to contribute at some point and really hope they take us up on the offer!

edmonton podcast, jonn kmech, kasia gawlak, this american life