Vogue to play host to popular podcasters

Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark want you to know they’re not experts.

The hosts of Stuff You Should Know, the second-most popular podcast in the world, prefer to be thought of as researchers. It’s a strategic choice.

“I think one of the things that has allowed us to make it through to almost 1,000 episodes is, from the get-go, we have made clear that we’re not experts in anything, that we’re just researchers,” said Clark. “People like to take down experts, take them down a peg, and the fact that we’ve never purported to be experts really helps us a lot.”

The duo, who will be hosting a live podcast at Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre on Tuesday, have been manning the microphones for their informative show for almost a decade.

Josh and Chuck find themselves elder statesmen of a medium whose popularity continues to grow at a surprising rate. The non-experts have an explanation for that.

“I think it made sense to me because on-demand entertainment has become such a ingrained part of our lives these days,” said Bryant. “We’re so used to being able to queue up whatever television show or movie and stream it whenever we want. (Podcasting) felt like an extension of that.”

And people are busy. Podcasts can be consumed on the go.

“The modern podcast listener — which is to say all podcast listeners — I think generally consume while they’re doing things. While they’re jogging, while they’re on the treadmill, while they’re commuting, while they’re cleaning their house,” said Bryant.

Their show at the Vogue will be a return, of sorts, to where it all began. Stuff You Should Know’s first four live shows ever were recorded in Toronto and Vancouver.

“The idea that we sold out all of our first four shows in Canada was really great.”

Vancouver will feature in an upcoming episode of Stuff You Should Know as well. Josh and Chuck were hesitant to say too much, for fear of spoiling the surprise, but it’s about nude beaches.