Beyond Binging with Media Path Podcast

Santa Barbara’s Louise Palanker Co-Hosts Long-Running Show with Fritz Coleman

Fritz Coleman, left, and Louise Palanker host the Media Path Podcast, taking a deep dive into a huge array of topics. | Credit: Courtesy

No matter what the delivery format is (radio, TV, webcasts, streaming services, podcasts), there’s always a hunger for deep conversations about meaningful subjects. Media Path Podcast co-hosts Fritz Coleman and Louise Palanker use their weekly shows as an opportunity to flesh out the subjects that they find interesting and compelling — everything from pop culture to politics.

They recently released their 112th episode — featuring award winning documentarian Joyce Chopra, author of Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond, and Jan Perry, Executive Director of Shelter Partnership, which helps provide essential needs to the unhoused in Los Angeles.

A veteran radio producer, comedian, and filmmaker who spends about half of each week in Santa Barbara, Palanker began podcasting in 2005. Media Path is her fifth podcast. She and Coleman are old friends — with a shared mastery of topical comedy — but he had to retire from his almost 40-year career as a weatherman for NBC for them to be able to partner on what she calls “the podcast of my dreams.”

Since launching in the summer of 2020 with an episode focused on their shared obsession with Turner Classic Movies, Media Path has covered the gamut, from Donald Trump and Russia, to true crime, reality TV and music. The show has found a special niche with what Palanker describes as “baby boomer favorites” like the Happy Days trifecta (Marian Ross, Henry Winkler, Anson Williams), Peter Noone, Cindy Williams, Johnny Whitaker and Marty Croft, among others.

One of the things Palanker loves is reading a book and “then getting to ask all the questions. That part is really really fun for me. … We’re really enjoying learning more and going on these discovery journeys.”

As for the delivery method, which includes an impressive visual component on the YouTube version, “podcasting has become the streaming media of audio — you can get what you want, when you want it. It’s there for you when you’re ready. You can press pause … and you can pick it up where you left off. … People can curate exactly what interests them. And that’s kind of exciting,” Palanker says. For more information, visit mediapathpodcast.com.

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