JOSHUA CUTCHIN

Hello there!

Thanks for your interest in having me on your radio show or podcast. I genuinely appreciate it—you provide an amazing service to our community. Podcasts, in my opinion, constitute the backbone of the contemporary paranormal scene.

Having said that, there are a few things to consider before reaching out to me.

First up, the positive things!

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1. There is no podcast too small. If you have five listeners or 5,000,000 listeners, I'd love to chat. I enjoy meeting new folks. Some of the most insightful thinkers I have spoken with have shows that don't reach a lot of people, or have just started up.
    

2. Please be patient with my response time. I respond to every email that I receive, but it may sometimes take a while—up to a couple weeks. I'm quite busy nowadays, between writing and performing, and I want to offer a genuinely thoughtful response. This means your email may go unanswered for a little while. If you haven't heard from me after a few weeks, feel free to drop me a reminder.
    

3. I happily provide PDFs of my books to interviewers. Just let me know and I will pass it along. To discourage piracy, however, it will include a watermark with your name on it.
    

4. We can discuss just about any paranormal topic. If you want to focus on my work, great. If you want to talk about something entirely unrelated, that's fine too. Generally speaking, I have a working knowledge and opinions about most of these topics.

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Okay, now time for some disclaimers. Sorry if some of this sounds curmudgeonly, but (as I mentioned), I'm extremely busy. I've learned the hard way that I have to start setting some boundaries. 

None of these are strict rules, but I'll show up happier to the interview if we avoid them.

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1. If at all possible, don't ask me to send pre-scripted questions. I understand that there are some shows where this inevitable or is simply the policy. That's fine, and I will send questions over to you if they are truly necessary.
   
   However, I'll let you in on a secret: I've yet to meet an author who doesn't find this bothersome. It feels like you don't care enough to learn about our work. That isn't to say that you have to read any of our work—but at least listen to another interview that we've done and come up with some talking points.
   
   I find that the best conversations I have do not include pre-scripted questions. Just pick a fun topic of conversation. Don't worry about me being able to chat—there will never be any dead air. We have plenty to talk about, even if you don't realize it.
    

2. Don't bother sending technical specs. This is something that I jokingly call Cutchin's Law: the more fretting someone does about an interview beforehand, the less enjoyable the conversation will be. What I mean to say is, let's nail down a date, a time (including how early I should be), and how to communicate (phone, Skype, Zoom, etc.). Maybe whether or not I can swear, too.
   
   Beyond that, don't bother sending a lengthy list of what audio equipment I should use. I know you're proud of your show, but this ain't my first rodeo. I'll be as professional as possible regardless of your show's size, and am all set up on this end with my microphone, headphones, and a hair-trigger for my mute button.
   
   (Having said all this, I know every situation is different, and things change often—so don't shy away from sharing something if it's really important, or uniquely different from other shows.)
    

3. If your podcast starts after 9:00 p.m. EST, I may have to decline. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, so go ahead and ask anyway. I make exceptions all the time, especially if we've already been in touch. But I will say that, having toddlers at home, sleeping late is no longer a luxury for me, so I have to be more picky regarding start times than I once was.
    

4. No pre-show phone calls or paperwork. Again, I break this rule sometimes—but I reiterate that I'm a busy father who does podcast interviews all the time. If what you need to say can't be conveyed over an email, maybe we should reconsider our chat.

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Finally—and it grieves me to even have to say this—but it's the state of things nowadays:

My appearance on a podcast in no way signifies that I share any beliefs with the host or previous guests, nor that I endorse said beliefs. This is more for listeners than podcasters. I talk to podcasters about the supernatural and the paranormal, and our shared opinions typically start and end there.

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I will reiterate: Just because I appear on a podcast does not mean that I share any political, religious, or ideological views with the host or previous guests.

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Thanks for taking the time to read through this policy. If all of the above seem reasonable, then let's set up a chat! Looking forward to having a fun conversation. 

Send an email over to foodtaboo@gmail.com and we'll get started.