Hi, everyone! Glad you made it through all 479 days of January. It’s been three weeks since we’ve seen the sun in New York City, but I remain buoyed in spirit by the promise of spring and the vitamin D supplements my mom shipped me.

—Kinsey, cofounder and head of editorial

Friends of Smooth: The Highlights

Every quarter, we send a mass text/email/DM to our growing list of “cool people in NYC” to invite them to our Friends of Smooth Soiree. We love the chance to say hello to old friends, meet interesting people, and, best of all, introduce smart connections to one another.

Last week, we hosted our winter Friends of Smooth Soiree, and the conversation felt disarmingly good. I mean, how often do you get to talk about the realities of building a B2B podcasting business over soft pretzels? (If you drew a Venn diagram of my personal interests, it would just be those two things plus dogs.)

So today, I recruited some of our team to share some highlights from their own conversations during our little soiree—because the people who attend our events really are doing the coolest work, sharing the best perspectives, and helping us zero in on what makes Smooth Smooth.

Let’s roll the tape:

Who: Caitlin Stower, Director of Partnerships at Entreprenista (a fabulous Smooth partner)

What: First, we got so jazzed about The Entreprenista 100 Awards, recognizing trailblazing women in business and oh, uh, sponsored by Chase? So much to be excited about. Then, I got to flex my (not so terrible) Australian accent to Caitlin and she loved it! She made me read off a list of Australian slang words to work into conversation. It was heaps of fun! —Ali

Who: Kameron Buckner, Lawyer and Content Creator

What: Talked about her experience running her company, The Legal Tea, as a lawyer for creators. Kameron also vlogs about her work and life in NYC, where she just moved from Alabama. She said she’s loving NYC, but she’s still learning to understand the subway. Aren’t we all? —Ali and Jenna

Who: Vivek Ramchandani, Director of Digital at Superline Wholesale

What: Superline Wholesale is a really cool company that connects creators with wholesale garments they can then turn into merch of their own. They’ve also built a very impressive social audience. We chatted about how Vivek is building out the digital presence at Superline Wholesale and got to swap notes on ad ops best practices. —Ali

Who: Michael Valentino, Head of Content at Fallen Media

Fallen is the superpower behind your favorite social-first originals like What’s Poppin? with Davis and College Cribs, and Michael is the head of content (who also brings the excitement to every Smooth Soiree he attends). We talked about Fallen’s major upcoming launch of a short-form cooking series! —Jenna

Who: Gil Kruger, Talent Manager

What: Spent most of our conversation talking about how much we love our mutual creator partner Tommy Geoco (DesignerTom). We also talked about Wawa. Important things only. —Jenna

There you have it. Some really awesome conversations with some really awesome people.

We’re sharing these highlights as a way to show our gratitude for the community we’re cultivating here in NYC. If you’ve ever come to one of our events, met with us for coffee, or laughed at our Partiful invite jokes…we’re really grateful for you. 

And if we haven’t yet had the pleasure? Hit reply and we’ll put you on the list for the next Friends of Smooth Soiree. 

• Not impeded by reports that Spotify’s podcast buying spree isn’t panning out, SiriusXM just bought SmartLess Media (home to the SmartLess podcast hosted by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes) for $100M.

• TikTok is already influencing policy, and it’s primed to seriously impact the 2024 election.

• In his great newsletter, Garbage Day, Ryan Broderick explores what he calls “Taylor Swift vs. the manosphere” and how media (fringe or otherwise) impact ideology.

• If I had to write a recap of all the recent media doom and gloom, I’d need a calendar week and a stiff drink or 16. To sum it up, The Atlantic asks: Is American Journalism Headed Toward an ‘Extinction-Level Event’?

• Is this—millions of profitable niches—the next iteration of the 1,000 true fans theory?

#digibuzzcodevoxious is a term we coined back in our Morning Brew days—a portmanteau of Digiday, BuzzFeed, Recode, Vox, and Axios. Obviously, the year was 2018 and the interest rates were zero. But still, the sentiment of “interesting media trends and news” remains. So the name stays.

Thanks for reading! See you next time. Have a good week, wash your hands, and take your vitamins!