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The Black Effect Podcast Network made history with its first-ever podcast festival. The inaugural event was not only a complete success, but it's also a testament to the impact podcasting has made on the culture over the past decade.
On Saturday, April 22, the growing podcast network, founded by The Breakfast Club's Charlamagne Tha God, took over Pullman Yards in Atlanta for a day full of live podcasts and insightful panels. The festival's lineup consisted of the network's biggest podcasts from WHOREible Decisions to The Trap Nerds Podcast. Each live episode, panel discussion and interactive segment entertained fans while providing fellow content creators with the guidance and support they've been looking for.
“It feels good because it shows how far podcasts have come,” Charlamagne Tha God explained. “10-12 years ago, people were saying ‘What is a podcast?’ Now, 12 years later, we’re able to say we’re having a podcast festival and bring some of the dopest Black podcasts together hosted by Black people from The 85 South Show to WHOREible Decisions to We Talk Back to Reasonably Shady to Big Facts to Michelle Williams’ Checking In all hosted by me and Jess Hilarious. Just for us to be able to throw an event like this and have a sold-out crowd in Atlanta just shows how far podcasts have come.”
“It was so dope man,” Karlous Miller of The 85 South Show said. "The crowd showed us so much love. A lot of people from a lot of different platforms got to get together in one building. It was very interesting to be apart of.”
From the moment fans walked in to Pullman Yards, they were greeted by a slew of exciting activations and food trucks. The massive crowd was a mixture of podcast fans and content creators of all ages who came equipped with phones and cameras to record history, and take notes. Hotboy Tony and Dirt Dawg, hosts of the Raw Table Talk podcast, came to festival to network and pick up on pointers and tips on how to make their show "bigger and better.”
“When I heard about it on the radio, Charlamagne made it sound so good like it was going to be a great opportunity we couldn’t miss out on," Tony said.
Newcomers, like the Raw Table Talk podcast and other shows who were in the building, also had the opportunity to meet with seasoned podcast producers at the Black Effect Career Corner. They could also shoot their shot at developing a hit show at the "Pitch Your Podcast" booth. Black Effect producer Aaron "A King" Howard, who's credits include iHeartPodcast's 50 Years of Hip-Hop, shared the benefits of giving an equal opportunity to all creators at the festival.
“Black Effect put on this festival to engage with the people, the people who support the podcast on this network,” Howard said. “We want to talk to the people. That’s the real goal. People want to get that information and find out how to do this thing. They may have started a podcast and stopped a podcast. So we’re here to lend our expertise however we can.”
Photo: Alyssa Pointer for iHeartRadio
Of course, the main focus of the festival was to give fans a chance to see their favorite shows deliver rare, live episodes. While 85 South and Big Facts have put on live shows in the past, others like We Talk Back hosted by TamBam and AJ Holiday, held their first-ever live show at the festival. It was was all the way lit thanks to their outrageous conversations and an appearance from surprise guest Porsha Williams.
“I’m excited because now I can’t wait to do our own live show,” AJ Holiday said. “We can do it how we want it, but this was just a prerequisite and I loved it. I love Charlamagne. That’s my brother. I love all the Black women he surrounds himself with because the divine feminine is what you need, and he’s a smart man.”
There were other unforgettable moments that went down during the festival. Reasonably Shady and Checking In With Michelle Williams joined forces for a rare joint episode in which they touched on usual shady topics along with mental health discussions that everyone could benefit from. The Trap Nerds hosted their own video game tournament right outside the venue, which allowed them to bring one of the various elements of their show to life. Towards the end of the festival, WHOREible Decisions had the crowd cracking up during Jess Hilarious' appearance and the duo's hunt for the nastiest sex groan. Let's just say the venue turned into a Clubhouse moan room for a hot minute.
In between the live podcasts, interactive panel discussions helped give more perspective of the podcasting industry as a whole and Black Effect's initiatives within the community. The Nissan Thrill Of Possibility panel allowed Charlamagne to catch up with three students [Maya Lynch of Howard University, Marcus Scott, Jr. from North Carolina A&T State University and Tierra Simms of Norfolk State University] who previously participated in the Black Effect's Thrill of Possibility Summit Presented by Nissan. Other panels like "Women in Podcasting" and "Business of Podcasting" were a real eye-opener for some aspiring content creators in the audience. WHOREible Decisions host Weezy WTF, who co-owns podcast studio WTF Media in New York and L.A., was a guest on the latter panel alongside her business partner Alexx Media, Chad Oubre of The 85 South Show, Black Effect's Dollie Bishop and moderator Coline Witt.
"It really felt good to finally do a podcast with a partner that I do podcasting business with," Weezy said. "Because most of the time people just want to know about my journey and I loved being able to talk about numbers. Expose that we may only make a few thousand from YouTube ads but we make seven figures doing other stuff so I felt really good to talk to people that may be starting their show because I been there and it took me two almost three years to quit my other job, and we've been doing it for seven years now."
The first-ever Black Effect Podcast Festival also drew out other notable podcasters and influential voices like Street Politicians podcast host and rapper Mysonne, Power 105.1's DJ Nyla Symone, and others. Big Loon of the It's Up There Podcast said the festival was a "trailblazing" event.
“It puts us in a position to get like-minded individuals in the same spot and share valuable information as this space is a very new industry," Loon said. "So I feel as though this is paramount for the space and for our culture because we’re so present in podcasting but we don't have enough information and things like this bridges those gaps and I’m lucky to be a part of it.”
See below for more scenes from the inaugural Black Effect Podcast Festival.