Interesting discussions from the world of news, sports, politics & more, with guests from all walks of life

Hosted by Mike Leon & Nick Zaveri, two friends since their college days on the campus of Rutgers University. Mike has worked across the television & radio landscape for 20+ years (from HBO, Fox, ESPN, Discovery & more), while Nick has worked in the field of education for 20+ years. Each week, the fellas deep dive on a new topic, with some surprise guests joining them to further the conversation. We want to get back to fact-based discussions, insightful conversations. We have had people from all walks of life join us to discuss topics in news, sports, politics & more. From NY Times best-selling author Michael Eric Dyson to fmr. President Obama aide Reggie Love, to former DHS official Olivia Troye, federal prosecutor Elie Honig, grammy-nominated music producer Clinton Sparks, we cover it all on our show. Our listeners are well-rounded individuals that love to learn, and learn more about topics that are not only being discussed, but topics that are not being discussed, like an episode we did about the theatre industry with award-winning narrator & playwright Erin Mallon. We feel our audience can handle their own in a conversation about any & everything, and that's how we approach our show topics & discussions.
 

We started the show over the summer because Mike noticed on his travels to the south specifically, a lot of people were just misinformed on a lot of issues, the majority of which lacked either news judgement or were just lazy in terms of searching for the correct information. So he used his years of experience in television, news media & his journalistic background, enlisted his friend who is a CSB graduate and had a stint in local radio, and the two combined forces to while giving some opinion on a topic, could be a new home for factual information that removes the "both sidesing" that exist with issues & topics today. Along the way, guests have joined them based on previous relationships or hearing about the show from another source, to really expand on that topic and give people an added viewpoint & source they can trust. We started in mid November with our first three ep release, and the show has taken off ever since.
 

We release new episodes each week (once a week). Mike is the executive producer, guest booker and promoter, having done all of these roles at other places in the television industry. The show is structured like most shows you see on tv, with pre-taping, shoot times, real audio & editing equipment, and more. We are currently offsetting promotion costs thru sponsorships we have with a podcast ad network. We do have day jobs both hosts, as Nick still works in education, and Mike currently works in music television at VEVO.
 

We do take sponsorship, as our show is currently at a flat CPM per ad, but also do one-off deals with sponsors on social promotion, pre/mid roll reads, etc. We found sponsorships thru connections Mike has had in the industry that led to landing with a podcast ad network. Podcasting has been so beneficial because of not only the fans commenting (both good and bad about the topic or episode), but it has made us both value our platform, and understand that people are now turning to us for news & information, so we have a responsibility to be factual, vet guests & info.
 

We currently use Adobe premiere for editing our video & audio mixing, Zoom for recording, we use Shure microphones & have podcasts office spaces set up for all. We interview our guests via Zoom with the ongoing pandemic, but have plans to do some in person. We prepare similar to shows Mike has worked on, with a prep sheet that has questions, an outline of interview direction, and keeps track of everything going on with the pod (i.e. shoot time, guest PR contacts, etc).
 

We market via all big social platforms (IG, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn), with the majority of our guests having retweeted the program or episode to over 2.5m followers! We use email to continue conversations, we dont currently offer a newsletter, but we do have a Patreon page where users can sign up and get all of the latest episodes before they are released on free platforms, show merchandise, suggest fan topics, etc. Listeners find our show we are noticing through social the most, google searches after, related, etc.
 

It is not as easy as it looks. Mike is going to be guest speaking at Fordham University later in the year for a class that will be doing a project on creating/hosting a podcast. First thing is to be organized. Mike had the benefit of having produced tv shows, so bringing over all aspects of a show, i.e. need for good mics, purchasing an audio/video editing equipment, a guest booker template to send to guests, so you have to come prepared if you want the show to succeed and invest in the program before you see any real profit. Visit Grow The Show podcast, those guys there are great at teaching people how to really grow their audience.
 

Show link - https://linktr.ee/canwepleasetalk
Email - canwepleasetalkpodcast@yahoo.com
IG - @canwepleasetalkpodcast
TikTok - @canwepleasetalkpodcast
Twitter - @CANWEPLEASTALK
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=52915535