Portland podcaster reaches the big time, gets picked up by top network

Megan Tan (Ben Severance photo)

Megan Tan (Ben Severance photo)

I first spoke to Megan Tan almost exactly a year ago, at Hilltop Coffee. She’d started her podcast, “Millennial,” about five months earlier and was four episodes in, but she’d already turned heads in that short time.

All sorts of media and new media pundits were gushing about her work, with the British newspaper The Guardian calling her “consistently engaging,” well-known podcast producer Alex Kapelman calling her a “budding superstar” and The Timbre calling her “the voice of a generation.”

You can read some nuggets from that interview by clicking here.

Since that conversation, the praise has kept coming. The Atlantic magazine ranked her No. 14 in its top 50 podcasts of the year in December and her episodes — she’s up to at least 17 now — have been played more than a half million times.

Now, she’s got even bigger news: “Millennial” has been added to the Radiotopia network, founded by public media content producer PRX and radio host Roman Mars.

Radiotopia is one of the biggest names in podcasting, and features 14 of the most popular podcasts in circulation, including Mars’ “99% Invisible,”  as well as audio drama “The Truth” and one of my personal favorites, “The Memory Palace.”

“I feel like I’m living a modern Cinderella story where instead of the prince, the girl gets the podcast,” said Tan in a statement. “I am so excited to join the Radiotopia family and to continue doing what I love: making a podcast with honesty and sincerity while I continue to grow and experiment. This certainly doesn’t mean I’ve figured out my 20s, but I am feeling pretty good about this podcast thing right about now.”

“Millennial” is something of an audio journal, in which Tan talks candidly about the trials and tribulations of navigating that uncertain period right after college. She’s trying to find a career she loves and make ends meet, something folks of any generation can relate to, really.

If you’re not already listening, you can find her podcasts at her website here, or by searching for “Millennial” through your podcast app on your iPhone, among other regular podcast stomping grounds.

I’m not sure about the exact details involved in joining Radiotopia, but the added exposure (the network gets more than 12 million downloads a month) as well as revenue opportunities (the network takes donations from all over the world and has stable sponsors) should go a long way toward making “Millennial” sustainable for Megan.

Megan Tan (Contributed photo by Demetrius Freeman)

Megan Tan (Contributed photo by Demetrius Freeman)

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.