Meet Beth | Host of the True Crime BnB Podcast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Beth and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Beth, why did you pursue a creative career?
I have never really had a choice; I have a compulsion to be creative in all aspects of my life. I’m an Architect by profession, I make paintings and crochet in my downtime, and writing has always been a part of my personality, too. So when my daughter, Bailey, and I started talking about starting a podcast together, I was excited about all of the different types of creativity that would bring out.

Truly it has taken time away from my other creative pursuits, but I try not to let the time pressure stress me out. I do it as a hobby, so if the podcast episode needs more time in editing, I’m going to give it the time it requires to be done. It’s a product, and a medium, but it’s also a creative process. And the longer I do it, I feel that I’m getting better and doing more justice to both the subject matter and to the end product in terms of episodes.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
True crime podcasts can get overwhelming. Most shows are covering really terrible things that happened to real people, and to hear that on every episode of every podcast you follow can cause a person to feel despair and hopelessness. Most podcasts will have an occasional, what we call “palate cleanser” to refocus on something positive, but those are few and far between, with brutality as the norm. During the planning stages of our podcast, the format Bailey and I developed was intended to create a built-in palate cleanser in every show.

So, the episodes with the two of us consisted of one of us telling a true crime case story, which we call ‘the bad guy’ story, and the second half of the show is the other person telling a survivor story, which we call ‘the good guy’ story. We wanted to leave people with information about a crime case they most likely had never heard before, but to also give them something positive to carry with them: The strength of a survivor. The good deeds of an advocate. Laws that were changed to help prevent future tragedies.

With Bailey leaving the show, I began doing solo episodes sometimes where I cover one case that was never widely covered in the news, or on other podcasts. I want to share people whose stories weren’t famous, but still those people mattered. But not all of my episodes are solo. I have done really well-received collaborations with other podcasters the rest of the time. In these collaborations with one of my podcaster friends, they will bring their own story to tell, and we will continue to honor the original format created for the True Crime BnB.

Not only does this allow people to leave the episode with something positive, it also gives my listeners an example of the storytelling of my collaborators, and they can find new podcasters to follow and listen to.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m the wrong person to put in charge of any kind of excursions in Atlanta. I don’t go out on the town or have a list of places I regularly go. When people want to do something on a weekend, I never have a suggestion, but I’ll go along for just about anything–especially if it’s karaoke. The things I enjoy are canoeing, kayaking, bonfires, amusement park rides, working on my house, painting, and crocheting.

My best friends and I always say we’re going to drive up to the Biltmore Estate and spend a few days touring, which would be relaxing and there’d be good wine. I also love to travel internationally. I’ve been to Italy a few times, Germany, Ireland, Chile…I love to go places where no one speaks English so that I have to try to speak the local language.

But in the city itself, home with my cat is my favorite place to be. My cat, Puss, is a Norwegian Forest Cat who likes to make herself known on my episodes by loudly meowing at random times. In fact, she’s the intro and outro for the podcast, and she’s so revered that she is also the logo for the True Crime BnB Podcast.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have made so many friends in the True Crime Podcast community. The indie podcasters, especially on Instagram, have been so supportive as we started the podcast, we made a group of friends there, and those with more experience were helpful in guiding us if we had questions. We all shared the unkind reviews we got so that others would know it happens to everyone. And when my daughter decided to step back from the podcast, that community encouraged me to continue recording and continue growing, even though it was awkward to be solo at first.

But I want mostly to thank my daughter, Bailey. She is no longer with me on the show, but without her for the first year, I very much doubt I would have set out on this journey alone.

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