Audible.com
Pistons F Blake Griffin’s new podcast, “Pursuit of Healthiness,” launched today on Audible. The 10-episode series features a wide array of non-athlete guests, including Michael B. Jordan, Chelsea Handler, Arianna Huffington and Deepak Chopra, discussing various aspects of health and wellness. It is being produced by OBB Sound, a subsidiary of OBB Media. “We both recognized about a year and a half ago that the podcast space was booming, and there were more and more listeners, and you were seeing the ad revenue dollars go up,” said OBB President & CEO Michael Ratner, who had previously collaborated with Griffin on a number of projects, including the "Comedy. By Blake." charity stand-up events and mockumentary series “The 5th Quarter.” However, the duo planned for the podcast to steer away from both basketball and comedy. “We wanted to do something that was unexpected but authentic to Blake’s voice,” said Ratner.
OPEN SPACE: Griffin: “The coolest thing about this is we’ve sort of tried to hit every facet of health and wellness. I’m talking with athletes, mental health gurus, meditation people, people that are more into recovery. It sort of runs the gamut.” Griffin began recording in July '19 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he interviewed nutritionist Scott Smith (the team also brought in a small film crew to record shoulder content that will be released in the coming weeks). The first season had largely been recorded by October, with the ensuing months being used to finalize production.
ALREADY RENEWED FOR SEASON TWO: Audible announced in June that it had renewed the show for a second season, which is currently in the midst of production. Griffin says they have recorded eight episodes since March. He and Ratner are tight-lipped about next season’s guests, though they are teasing a big reveal. “Blake felt really strongly that it didn’t become a basketball podcast … so we had a rule that we wouldn’t have any NBA stars on for Season One,” said Ratner. “But we definitely broke that in a big way, and we’re excited to announce some of the guests we have in place for Season Two."
