An Interview with Adult ISH Hosts Nygel Turner and Dominique French

In preparation for YR Media’s Eco-Party Hour, a KQED Live event, we spoke to Adult ISH hosts Nygel Turner and Dominique French about the event, podcasting, and more (this interview has been edited for clarity and length): 

Tell us a bit about the Eco-Party Hour. What can attendees expect and what are you most excited about? 

Dominique French:

If you come out, you can expect to leave with a sense of newfound hope and community in what can feel like an overwhelming climate crisis a lot of the time!

We really want people to feel a sense of togetherness and a light at the end of what feels like a really long tunnel. I'm personally really looking forward to getting to hear some musical stylings and getting to interview some very cool players in the climate world.

Nygel Turner:

I'm really excited to do our first live show! We've been trying to do one for a minute now, and I'm happy it's all coming together, and even happier it's happening with KQED. We've had a super long standing relationship with them and we’re just coming off working on a collaboration with their Rightnowish podcast last season, and now we get to have our live show there, too. It just feels natural.

Speaking of natural – as in the event’s about the environment – I hope it will help get rid of the stigma that comes with talking about anything environment-related. People normally associate that with a certain gloomy tone, and that's not how it has to be. We really want to counteract that current narrative that everything is hopeless.

How did you first get into the Podcasting/audio world? 

NT

I got into podcasting in my Senior Year of High School. I started a podcast with a bunch of my friends called Not Your Father's Podcast, and it did pretty well – we even won a small podcast award for that show. After that I just knew I still wanted to continue podcasting, and one of my college lab mates applied to YR to be a host. They said they hadn't heard back, and they were like, “honestly, I'm familiar with your old show and I think that they're looking for someone like you and I think that you should apply!”

So shout out to my boy Aldane for that.

I applied. I got the job, and I've been here ever since!

DF

I started studying podcasting at Northwestern right before I graduated, and after that I was lucky enough to become one AIR’s 2020 New Voices Scholars. That chunk of scholarship money set me up to be able to buy my own recording equipment which led to me being able to take on freelance jobs and do tape syncs.

That connected me to a mentor, Rachel, who really really believed in me, as well as a whole cohort of people who also created really amazing art through New Voices.

Eventually I came across this job and was interviewed by that guy [Nyge], and I was able to find a home here at YR Media that's been so welcoming and so unbelievably fast paced and exciting.

Dom, what was it like to come into Adult ISH as an already established show, and how does it feel now to be a Co-host?

DF

I loved it! Though it definitely could have been a sink or swim kind of situation. I think my very first week we were pitching ideas for the new season, but as I like to say, I'm gung ho for the talent show! So it was really exciting to have something to sink my teeth into as soon as I got there. I think when you start a new position you can oftentimes feel like you're kind of aimlessly floating around in an organization for a while until you find your footing. But it was not like that at all. I felt like I was a part of the team so quickly.

To go from that Associate Producer position to now co-hosting with Nyge – when I take a step back and look at the trajectory of it it seems very fast and like almost kind of scary, but it felt so natural to develop this rapport with Nyge, and I feel so lucky to be able to explore that rapport for a living on subjects that we think matter to a wide youth-based audience.

Nyge, where do you see Adult ISH going next?

NT

It's evolved and grown in so many different ways! For one we have a totally totally different team than when I started here, but also just the different stories that we tell now. We've gotten a ton of new perspectives, like Dom’s and [Producer] Georgia [Wright’s], and that has led us to do a lot of different episodes that we would have never been able to do, or never even thought to do.

I really like that even through having different people here, we've kept the same culture in our group, and we've kept the same team spirit. I think that is what makes it so amazing to work here and the work on this team.

Looking forward, I really just see us telling more stories of adulting because there are still so many things that keep coming up. We have everything ready for next season, and on top of that we have enough pitches to make another season already done at the same time. There's so many more stories to tell. We’re also working on a few ways to incorporate more young people into the show, and that's what we're really focusing on for these next 2 seasons.

What can we look forward to for Season 9 (dropping this Spring!)?

DF

Like some recent seasons, we want to continue to push the boundary of what's considered to be a taboo subject by daring to talk about it in great detail in front of a huge audience. I think that's what lights the fire beneath our team – trying to figure out what we're embarrassed about, struggling with, or scared of, and then running toward it at full speed!

Is there an episode you’re particularly proud of? If someone hasn’t listened to Adult ISH before, where should they start? 

DF

From our most recent season, Black Enough, Part II is a great exploration of the sort of things that Nyge and I want to approach with this show, and the collaboration we were able to have with Leila [Day] and Hana [Baba] from The Stoop is really indicative of the ways in which we want to have intergenerational conversations about huge subjects like blackness. We approached it with levity and bravery, I think, and that's the sort of duality that we like to bring to Adult ISH.

NT

Yeah, it was really fun talking to two black hosts who were also further in their career than us, and I hope it was interesting for them to talk to two black hosts who are younger and earlier in their careers. Hana was actually my first interview ever on radio! She interviewed me on KALW’s Cross Currents, so I love that team and that episode. 

I'm also gonna say Behind the Fits with Avery Truffleman. We have had a really long- standing relationship with Roman Mars and the whole 99 Percent Invisible team so we've known Avery for a while.

It was really great doing an episode with them and just talking about fashion. So if you're into fashion, if you're into clothes – you don't have to be fashion snob or anything like that – if you enjoy outfits and why people pick out what they wear, it's a really cool episode. And of course, if you like that, then Avery has a whole podcast about fashion you should listen to - check out Articles of Interest too!  

What are some of your other favorite shows?

DF

You're Wrong About, Still Processing, Maintenance Phase, Scam Goddess, I think all those shows in their own different ways encompass being able to come at a subject with a great sense of humanity and making room for all of the many shades that any topic has to offer. Nothing is as simple as we like to make it seem when we're pitching it in an elevator. I’ve learned so much from those shows and I simply can't get enough of how much they let the subjects that they're digging into be diverse and complicated and challenging. I think that makes for great great listening.

NT

I'm gonna say Leaving the Theater by my good friend Ronald Young, Jr. I love movies, I love TV, and he breaks down both of those especially well. After I watch anything I look to see if he has an episode on it, just so I can hear his review. He’s my guy.

Anything else people should know about the Eco-Party Hour? 

DF

Be there, or… 

NT 

Yeah, there's no other choice, just be there! It's gonna be a good time. I can't wait to just see everyone in person and do a show with my good friend Dom in front of everybody. We all work from very different places – Dom is in Atlanta, Georgia is in Rhode Island, I'm in California, so It's gonna be a big family reunion with everybody who shows up! 

Season 9 of Adult ISH launches this Spring! Follow the show on IG and Twitter to be the first to hear the release date, and you can follow Nyge on IG and Twitter, and Dom on Twitter