“Seeing how it all started and seeing where I am now, one of the things that’s so different than before is that now it’s fancy.”

If you had an iPod in 2006 and synced podcasts from iTunes, you might have seen Elsie’s Yoga Class. The class was one of the first female-led yoga podcasts available. Remember, this was a time when you could browse most of the podcasts that existed fairly quickly.

“I came into the scene, recording my yoga classes because I wanted to record something — I wanted to have a show,” recalls Elsie Escobar, creator of Elsie’s Yoga Class. “I didn’t know how to make it work. I didn’t know how to do it, so I thought, you know what, I’m just gonna start doing something. I just wanted something to record so that I could understand the process.”

Fast forward 100+ episodes of Elsie’s Yoga Class and it’s 2013 and she works at a podcast hosting company, Libsyn. By 2014, Elsie joins forces with Jessica Kupferman to found She Podcasts, now the largest network of women in podcasting.

In this special episode of MetaPod we talk to Elsie Escobar, Co-founder of She Podcasts and Community Manager at Libsyn. We learn from Elsie what it’s been like to be part of podcasting’s professionalisation. She recounts the early days where everyone was “starting from zero” vs. now where more money and brands are involved.

Elsie also explains a few things that new podcasters should understand about the heart and soul of the medium’s origins. We also discuss the time and commitment that “doing all the things” as an indie podcaster requires.

We also hear about Elsie’s personal journey to becoming a more visible woman and role model, particularly for marginalised people and communities in podcasting.

About Elsie Escobar

Elsie Escobar is a podcasting community expert, advocate and mentor.

She is a 15-year veteran in the podcasting industry and inductee to the Academy of Podcasters Hall of Fame. Elsie is also the co-founder of She Podcasts, a podcasting community for women + non-binary that has 20k members with a corresponding podcast and conference.

If that’s not enough, Elsie is also the community manager at Libsyn and co-host/producer of The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast. 

Elsie has been a podcasting advocate, pundit and mentor to primarily women podcaster leaders. Her thing is driving dialogue in the podcasting industry, focusing on podcasts’ impact on society, culture and their power to drive social change.

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