The two co-hosts of a nationally known podcast come to Tallahassee on Thursday, June 6. The weekly production. called "Surviving
the Survivor," already has a very important link to Florida's Capital City.
Joel Waldman, who lives in South Florida, spent more than a quarter of a century in broadcast journalism. When COVID hit in 2020, he decided to explore other career possibilities, while not straying too far from his previous vocation. He thought he'd try his hand in the exploding podcast arena. And he had the perfect person to serve as a cohost.
"And I said, I know exactly who will be a megastar in the podcasting world. I called my mother, Karmela Waldman who I call 'Mom' and 'Karm' and said, do you want to get out of your Miami Beach condo and work on something? And she said sure. The rest as they say is history."
At age 85, 'Karm' Waldman is among the oldest regular podcasters in the country.
"And we started out with a very broad spectrum of programming. And then slowly we evolved into this niche of true crime," she explained.
Joel Waldman said the very first episode following that format spotlighted a crime very familiar to Capital City residents.
"It was actually Tallahassee that put us on the map! It was the Dan Markel murder. He was a very prominent Florida State fast-rising legal scholar. He had gone to Harvard undergrad and Harvard Law School. And the Dan Markel story really propelled us and got us recognized and that's how we grew as fast as we did."
The latest stats from the online analytics service HypeAuditor pegs the number of "Surviving the Survivor" podcast subscribers at more than 112,000. As for the title of the show, the survivor in question is Karm Waldman who escaped the Nazi Holocaust. But she brings much more than that horrid experience to the program.
"Since I was a psychotherapist and marriage counselor, I'm fascinated by the psychological aspects of crime. So while we interview different experts on different cases, I very modestly contribute the psychological aspects of crime."
In the Markel case, for instance, she dissected the tragic circumstances and internal family dynamics that led to the murder at the hands of two hit men and their female accomplice. Joel and Karm Waldman will return to the scene of that crime - literally - this Thursday evening, starting at 5:30, at Hearth and Soul on Market Street.
"We're going to bring our podcast to Tallahassee. We're going to do a live podcast, but we'll also talk about my new book, which has the same title, 'Surviving the Survivor.'"
That work, he said, provides more personal background on himself and his mom. But it also has a lot of practical life lessons to help folks deal with challenges and conflicts.
