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My Open Letter To Dan Savage

Dear Dan: I never thought I'd be writing to you, a known sex columnist. Because I've never had one of those, you know, problems. But now I hear you've taken issue with my recent blog post, where I asked "Is Podcasting Dead?" I hear you even trashed me on your Savage Love Podcast, saying, "You're clearly dead from the waist down, that's why my podcast doesn't appeal to you."

So here's my question to you, Dan: Can't we all just get along? Signed, Den Denizen.

Dear Denny:

It's true that I said bad things about you in the Jan. 22 edition of my Savage Love Podcast, and I also piled on a bit more in the Jan. 29 show. On the other hand, I did mention your full name about 20 times. I bet that's the first time that's happened to you in a sex podcast (given your waist-down deadness and all that.) Still, I've got nothing personal against you. As I e-mailed your colleague Mitch Wagner when he pinged me: "Tell Alexander there are no hard feelings."

OK, so maybe you don't feel that way, especially after, on the Jan. 29 'cast, I read the e-mail from "David," who wrote: "I know you don't need me to tell you this so I'll simply agree with you that Alexander Wolfe is full of sh** and his suggestion that Savage Love is the death of podcasting is bullsh**."

Still, in mentioning you, I was only doing what comes naturally. Which is mentioning me. Now that I'm actually reading your "Is Podcasting Dead?" post, I see that you didn't really write that my Savage Love Podcast was an example of the death of podcasting. You said that you were surprised to find that tech podcasts weren't the top audience grabbers, and that they were mainstream offerings like YOGAmazing, Ask A Ninja, and -- my favorite -- Savage Love Podcast.

What, am I actually supposed to follow your argument all that way through? That post must've been 700 words long. No one reads anymore; haven't you heard of USA Today? Hey, I can't put my opinion any more clearly than I did it in my podcast, so let me repeat again what I said in the Jan. 22 Savage Love Podcast:

"Alexander Wolfe has decided podcasts are dead because they're not kind of tech-geekie as Alexander Wolfe himself. So you've been very naughty, you podcast listeners obsessed with sex and yoga and putting questions to Ninjas. I'm not upset or hurt by this column by Alexander Wolfe holding up Savage Love as an example of the death of podcasting. Because my Savage Love column has been held up for years as the death of newspapers, the death of sex, the death of love. So I'm used to this.

But I am a little hurt. I'm really a little defensive to be held up as the end of podcasts, just because a lot of people want to listen to me talk about sex. I want to say to Alexander, people are downloading my podcasts because sex is important and sex is a part of life. You're clearly dead from the waist down, that's why my podcast doesn't appeal to you.

You know what, sex has universal appeal. Tech geek podcasts, believe it or not Alexander Wolfe at InformationWeek, do not have universal appeal. So I have this advantage when I'm out there peddling my podcast, is I'm talking about sex and sex appeals to everybody, and tech info geekery behind the scenery sh*t does not. So maybe we can all just get along. So maybe we can recognize that there's gonna be a big audience for sex podcasts, a not so big audience for tech podcasts. But it's not the end of this new medium. It's just a big, happy shared environment. And we can all enjoy it while it lasts and not accuse innocent, well-meaning sex advice professionals of having murdered this new medium."

Dear Danny:

You know what? I have to admit, you have a point. Not about that waist-down deadness stuff, but about the popularity of podcasts. Clearly, I was hasty in my "Is Podcasting Dead?" post where I conflated the middling popularity of tech podcasts with the obviously widespread audience for 'casts like yours, where people call in with questions about [deleted], [deleted], and [deleted]. And that's only stuff they're doing with their clothes on. So, Dan, podcast away; cable TV surely awaits. Dr. Drew has nothin' on you. Love and kisses. . .

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