Most weeks, Conor McQuivey sits down with another Reno citizen for an informal yet educational conversation on the Renoites podcast. Guests have included event coordinators, school-board members, journalists, teachers, government officials, artists and many others.
RN&R readers selected Renoites as the Best Podcast in the Best of Northern Nevada readers’ poll this year. During a recent phone interview, McQuivey was excited to hear the news.
“I put a lot of time and a lot of energy into making a show that, I think, has broad appeal and is potentially interesting to a lot of folks in town,” he said. “It’s really kind of validating and rewarding knowing that enough people are paying attention to it and have learned about it in the last couple of years for it to be making a connection.”
Podcasts that are both educational and interesting are hard to come by, especially when you add in the local niche.
“The reason that I started the show initially was that I didn’t think there was anything quite like it in our local media market,” said McQuivey. “I’m a fan of longish interview podcasts, and we didn’t have a general-interest, long-form interview show.” Local podcasts tend to be specific to politics, news or events.
“I don’t think that we really had a something-for-everyone show. I think that I’ve done a pretty good job of having a wide variety of guests of different backgrounds and different topics.”
With each episode, McQuivey tries to strike a balance between a casual chat and a well-researched interview. He aims to come in prepared, but not overthink and over-plan.
“I like to come into the conversation with good questions and some understanding of what I’m talking about, but again, my show is geared for the everyday person who may or may not know anything about the guest who I’m having on the show,” McQuivey said. “Even if I do have some familiarity with the topic, I generally ask a lot of very basic questions that a random Joe Schmo might ask if they were to meet this person.”
The Renoites podcast sometimes features guests who invite difficult discussions—with the police chief, the city manager and school officials, for example. McQuivey, in an attempt to ensure his podcast is for everyone, tries to stay neutral in these conversations.
“I definitely don’t want to alienate a huge chunk of our local population by being too explicitly political in a way that will turn people off or turn people away,” he said. “I don’t want to shy away from important or controversial topics, but at the same time, I don’t want to come into those episodes in a way that I clearly have an agenda. … I think that there’s enough really contentious and aggressive or in-your-face media nowadays. I follow the news, so I know who’s controversial, or what people are saying about whoever, so that definitely crosses my mind, but I don’t like for that to shape what my show looks like.”
However, that doesn’t mean Renoites is completely opinion-free.
“If there are things that I strongly agree on, I’m definitely going to agree with my guests,” McQuivey said. “LGBTQ issues are really important to me, so when I have guests on, and we’re talking about discrimination and things that are happening that are of a concern, I’m definitely going to weigh in on those things.”
Nor does he require himself to state an opinion.
“There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t really know enough about to have a qualified, strong opinion,” McQuivey said. He cited homelessness as an example.
“I’ve had several guests who work in or around that space, and I follow the news, but I’m not the expert on those things, so I tend to not participate in the debates about what’s the right way to do things,” he said. “I’m happy to have guests on who can share their experience and their knowledge on those topics. Those are fun ones for me, because I know it’s an important issue. I know enough to have a substantive conversation, but I’m also enough of a listener and thoughtful enough to take a step back myself and let the audience hear the guests for what they have to say.
“A lot of people are not going to read long-form journalism, and the substance that you get out of an hour-long conversation—that’s the equivalent of a very, very, very long article.”
Conor McQuivey
McQuivey said he’s not a “trained reporter,” but he thinks carefully about the role of an interviewer.
“I understand there is a lot of conversation about the responsibility that journalists have to take a stand on certain things,” he said. “Sometimes, if you’re trying to stay in the middle, or stay out, or make it a both-sides kind of conversation, then you’re really favoring people who are already in power. I’m conscious of the kind of responsibilities that journalists have, but I try to keep a step back from that, or have a little bit of separation between the concept of myself as a conversationalist and a podcast host, versus being an activist or someone who’s trying to directly influence what happens.”
McQuivey is proud of what Renoites has accomplished since he started it in March 2021.
“A lot of people are not going to read long-form journalism, and the substance that you get out of an hour-long conversation—that’s the equivalent of a very, very, very long article,” he said.
The transcript for a full-length Renoites interview can run around 20 pages.
“No one’s going to sit down and read for that long, or at least a lot of people won’t, so it’s filling in that gap for people who like the format, who like the amount of time, who like the depth of the conversation,” McQuivey said.
Learn more at www.renoites.com.