We recently connected with Torry and have shared our conversation below.

Torry, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

When I first started my podcast, Ready to Be Petty: A Pop Culture Podcast, I was searching for a space where I could talk about the ins and outs of my favourite celebrity news stories. And I’m talking the INS and OUTS. I felt like I had tapped out my friends – they didn’t want to re-litigate how Hailey Baldwin and Justin Bieber had gotten together for the hundredth time. So I decided to create the space myself!

Ready to Be Petty is so meaningful to me because it is something that I’ve built from the ground up. Before starting the podcast, I had never done anything of the sort. I had never interviewed anyone, produced a show, edited sound, etc. I had no prior audience and I had to learn all the skills myself. The first few years were really tough. It was only really my family and friends listening and maybe a handful of pop culture junkies that stumbled across my show. In 2020, when the pandemic started, I had a bunch of free time on my hands, I decided to lock-in and really put all my effort behind the show. I reached out to potential guests that were more popular than me, I was posting episodes on a weekly, consistent basis, and I was connecting with people over social media. With all this hard work, I was able to grow my audience ten-fold. I was carving out a space on the internet for like-minded people to come together and reflect and laugh over pop culture stories. In 2022, I was able to launch my Patreon and in 2024, I launched my second show, Ready to Be Romanced: A Romance Novel podcast.

RTBP is something that merges all my interests, which makes it meaningful. The culture around celebrities and its discourse has shifted since I started my show, but at the time, there wasn’t a lot of accessible content/online communities that looked at pop culture the way I wanted to discuss it. The world often deems women’s interests as superficial and regards fan girl culture as unintelligent and I am always attempting to be real and honest about my passions and interests, in hopes that other people will join in. I always felt like I lived a bit of a double life – going to work and being serious and then coming home and binging The Bachelor. I thought it would be embarrassing to bring these types of topics up at work because I would be seen as less professional or immature. I now know most people do consume the same type of content as me and there’s nothing to be ashamed of! Though RTBP is mostly fun and games, it is important to analyze and dissect the implications of pop culture on society through an intersectional feminist lens. RTBP has covered racism/colourism, body image and diet culture, misogyny and sexism, 2SLGBTQIA representation in media, harmful stereotypes, toxic relationships, and much more. Merging the fun, light-hearted discussions about who wore what on the red carpet with some analysis on why its important and what it means as viewers, has kept my content unique, accessible, and merges two things that are so important to me: enjoying life and making meaning of it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a a young professional working in Victoria, BC, Canada, but in my spare time I love to discuss reality tv, celebrity gossip, pop culture, as well as stories that have happened in my own life. I started my podcast, Ready to Be Petty: A Pop Culture Podcast, in 2018 and my second show Ready to Be Romanced: A Romance Novel Podcast in 2024. I wanted to create an online community/space where I could talk about these topics in the way that I wanted to talk about them. At the time, podcasting seemed like an easier skill to learn versus YouTube videos. Even though things have shifted in the last 7 years, I wanted to maintain some privacy between my podcast persona and my real life. I’ve been fortunate to learn now that you can adjust your boundaries with what feels good to you at the time. When I started podcasting, I had recently moved to a new city and didn’t have a ton of friends. I used podcasts as a way to feel less alone and hope that my shows do that for others as well.

I am always proud when a listener messages me and says that they laughed, felt seen, or learned something from my show. I think starting a new project can be so scary – what will people think of me? what if they see me trying? what if this “fails”? – but the biggest disservice you can do to yourself is not try. I really admire people who decide to try new things, whether that be to post a Tiktok or other content creation, travel by themselves, or start a new hobby. It takes guts, but it is always worth it.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew how important it is to meet peers and create your own support network. For the first two years, I did everything by myself (production, research, recording, promotion, etc.), but when I met a few peers working on similar projects to me, I purposefully started connecting with them outside of them just being a guest on my show. I asked them questions, set-up Zoom calls, provided them resources that I had used, and after awhile, I had a collective of podcasters in a support network. Now we share best practices, industry updates, swap promotion and guest spots, etc. My podcast would not be what it is today without the support of these people.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I was posting free, weekly, public episodes of Ready to Be Petty for five years before I started a Patreon (which is pay-walled content). I thought this would be a great way to compliment my free content. I would be able to cover current news on the public show and then deep dives on Patreon. I did this consistently for two years and then in 2024, I wanted to pursue a new creative endeavour which is my second podcast about romance novels. I had been hosting my pop culture podcast for six years and felt like I needed a new way to be creative with a different passion of mine. For a few months, I was posting three episodes a week! But I quickly realized this was way too much for one person to manage and my personal life was really taking a hit. I made the tough decision to just keep my Patreon and second show and stopped posting weekly free episodes of RTBP. What helped me a lot is knowing that this isn’t a permanent decision. I can always come back to it when my circumstances have shifted. It was really hard to make that choice, but I leaned on my support network and talked to my audience about it. That transparency and support really helped the transition.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/rtbppodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rtbppodcast/
• Other: https://www.patreon.com/rtbppodcast
  https://linktr.ee/readytoberomanced

Image Credits

Mariah Burchell https://www.mariahburchell.com/