Podcast Spotlight: The East Side

As listeners, we know podcasts can be addictive. You listen to a great one, then another, then another, and you’re hooked. You start looking for areas in your life where you can cram more podcast time in. You start speed listening just to satiate your habit. Well, as it turns out, creating podcasts can be a fun addictive creative endeavor as well. We recently featured Paul Bae, co-creator of The Black Tapes, on his second project, The Big Loop. Today, the focus is on Dale Wiley who we spotlighted in the past with his semi-fictional podcast, Soutee, based on a real lawyer who may have murdered his wife. Wiley is now on his second project, The East Side, a fiction podcast about the underground world of strippers.

The East Side enters the world of upper-scale gentleman clubs and tells the lives of the people who frequent them — both dancers, staff, and patrons alike. Though loosely based on a swanky strip club in rural Illinois, the fictional Pinnacle Club is meant to be a stand-in for similar clubs you’d come across throughout the midwest.

I’ve listened to a few episodes and I can say The East Side delivers on its promise. The story is pulpy, engrossing, and all the way entertaining. It should be obvious, but this isn’t the podcast you put on in the car on the way to dropping your kids of at school. The subject matter is very adult by nature.

We got a chance to catch-up with Wiley to see what he’s been up to since Soutee and discuss the differences and challenges between the two projects. See below for our Q&A.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

Discover Pods: As an experienced podcaster now, what are some lessens you’ve learned along the way?

WILEY: Budget more time, and then budget more time on top of the more time you’ve budgeted.

DP: How does The East Side differ from Soutee?

WILEY: Soutee is delving into the real side of the fact and fiction question. He was a real man, who was almost fictional. The East Side is an all-too-real place, but the characters are composites of people I knew while I was over there. It has been interesting to work with actors and have them deliver the feel of the place. That is challenging.

DP: In your own words, why should listeners tune into East Side?

WILEY: Get in on the ground floor of the world. See it expand. All the characters, all the dark alleys, maybe even contribute and be a part of the world. My friend called it “Stripper Narnia.” That’s actually an awesome description.

DP: Where do you hope to take the podcast?

WILEY: With this whole project starting as a script for TV, that’s where I see this. It is a multi-faceted world, and the people who have come into contact with it see it that way.

DP: What’s the most difficult part of podcasting for you?

WILEY: Knowing when you’ve got everything you need. It’s harder for me to know when to stop, so to speak.

DP: What podcasts are you listening to now?

WILEY:

The Ryan Kelley Morning After
My Brother My Brother and Me
Crimetown
Homecoming

DP: Anything else you’d like to add?

WILEY: This is a challenging project. To learn how to tell what started as a visual story with just sound. We’re just getting our sea legs and I think if you stick around, you’ll like what you see.