‘It’s a full-circle moment now, because I was teaching at the same school in the class that’s now called Radio Doc and Podcasting — and I’m referencing my own book’
Rooted is all about the people and the places that make us proud to call our community home.
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When Amanda Cupido first stood in front of a crowd to deliver a podcasting workshop in Toronto nearly a decade ago, she never imagined she’d one day be on a book tour because of it.
“There was a publisher in the audience who came up to me afterward and said, ‘Just turn this workshop into a book. I’ll publish it,” she recalls. “In my head, I thought, oh, that’ll be easy! It was so much work.”
That hard work became Let’s Talk Podcasting, first released in 2018 at a time when podcasting in Canada was still finding its legs. “It was a really good time to release the book,” she says. The response was immediate — post-secondary programs across the country began incorporating the book into broadcasting curricula, and aspiring podcasters reached out to thank her for helping them launch and sustain their shows.
Nearly seven years later, the former Morning Show Co-Host on Moose FM (Now Jet FM) is coming to North Bay later this month with not one, but two books. A second edition of Let’s Talk Podcasting came out last November, with updated insights to reflect a rapidly evolving industry. And in March, Cupido released a new children’s book, “Let’s Talk Podcasting for Kids,” to inspire a younger generation of audio storytellers.
Cupido’s love for the medium goes back further than most — all the way to her final year of journalism school at Toronto Metropolitan University. “We were allowed to submit our final stories in whatever medium we wanted, and I submitted what I called a podcast,” she says, laughing. “My professors were like, ‘What is this?’”
That was 2011 — three years before Serial helped bring podcasting into the mainstream. “I was already dabbling with the medium and making a podcast for a magazine I was interning with,” she says. “It’s a full-circle moment now, because I was teaching at the same school in the class that’s now called Radio Doc and Podcasting — and I’m referencing my own book.”
For Cupido, it’s not just a personal milestone — it’s a sign of how far podcasting has come. “It’s an audio nerd’s dream come true.”
Long before she became a published author or ran her own production company, Cupido was behind the mic at Moose FM in North Bay. It was 2013, and while she was still relatively new to radio, her interest in podcasting had already taken root.
“I had already made a couple of podcasts by that point,” she says. “And right when I moved to North Bay, I actually picked up a client who wanted me to produce her podcast. I didn’t even call myself a podcast producer — I looked back at my emails and I called myself a ‘media coordinator.’”
The project was for a Toronto-based client producing a show focused on women’s empowerment and stories of resilience. It was Cupido’s first paid podcasting gig — remote work before it was commonplace — and a taste of what was to come.
When she left North Bay, her next stop was a video production agency in Toronto. She pitched the idea of creating a podcasting arm for the company. “They said, ‘Sure, let’s try it out. See if you can sell some branded podcasts,” she recalls. “I did manage to sell and produce a few, but honestly, it was too early. I’d be pitching clients and they’d say, ‘Wait — what’s a podcast?’”
It was a tough sell, but Cupido didn’t give up. Instead, she began watching the industry more closely, analyzing its business potential and looking for market gaps. That mindset served her well when she moved into the non-profit sector, joining World Vision’s communications department and producing three podcasts for global audiences.
By then, she had published her first book, and offers to produce more shows were pouring in. “It was getting to be too much,” she says. “I had all these side projects, and then the pandemic hit, and everything changed.”
Cupido saw a crossroads ahead. World Vision offered voluntary buyouts during the uncertainty of COVID-19, and she took it. “I put my hand up and said, ‘I’ll take the severance,’” she says. “That money gave me the cushion to launch my business.”
In September 2020, Cupido incorporated Lead Podcasting, and within six months, she hired her first full-time employee. “It’s been growing ever since,” she says. “It’s wild to think that something I started on the side in North Bay eventually became a full-fledged company.”
Lead Podcasting now supports a range of clients with a mix of full-time staff and freelancers. But Cupido’s early experience in the industry also taught her something important: not everyone wants a traditional job.
“I was teaching at the time and offering students full-time roles,” she says. “And they’d say, ‘We don’t want full-time. We want to work on the stuff we love.’ That’s not just podcasting — that’s the industry at large now.”
Cupido has spent much of her career helping adults understand the power of podcasting, but her latest passion project is aimed at a much younger crowd.
While writing the second edition of Let’s Talk Podcasting, Cupido stumbled upon something unexpected: a sharp increase in podcast listenership among kids under 12.
“I had no idea the numbers were that high,” she says. “Disney had just invested a ton of money in research around kids’ listening habits, so I knew something was happening.”
At the same time, Cupido was being invited to run podcasting workshops for Girl Guides and summer camp groups, some as young as eight years old. She began testing audio-only storytelling with them and was surprised by just how engaged they were.
“I’d push it, see how long they’d sit and listen — and they wanted more. I realized there was nothing out there to help kids understand podcasting. So I decided to write it myself.”
The result is a brand-new picture book, designed for kids ages 5 to 8. It introduces children to the world of podcasting in a playful, accessible way — from explaining what a podcast is, to teaching them how to plan their own show.
“It encourages them to interview family members, talk about what they love — nature, food, anything,” Cupido says. “It brings the production process to life, but in a way that’s totally age-appropriate.”
The book even includes worksheets in the back, allowing kids to map out their own ideas and start thinking like creators. The response so far has been overwhelming.
“It went to number one on Amazon on release day,” she says. “And now I’m hearing from parents whose kids say they want to be podcasters when they grow up. That’s so special.”
Cupido will be returning to her old stomping grounds of North Bay for a book signing at Coles in Northgate Mall on August 16 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Both books — the updated edition of Let’s Talk Podcasting and the new kids’ version — will be available for purchase and signing.
“I love coming back to North Bay,” she says. “I actually wrote big chunks of the second edition at Twiggs last summer. It will feel really good to share this book there and reconnect with people.”
If you have a story idea for “Rooted,” send Matt an email at [email protected]