Apply to be a Quest Fellow

Let’s do podcasts differently

Justin Kan
3 min readJan 5, 2021
Join my Reddit AMA on Jan 5th, 12PM PST to ask me anything you want!

Closed doors

I saw this tweet the other day.

It got me to think a bit deeper about what we are trying to accomplish at The Quest.

The Quest is a podcast I made to bring the world stories of the people who have struggled and fought and finally made it, and how they have actually found happiness and deeper meaning beyond success.

Some The Quest S1 guests: Michael Seibel (CEO of Y-Combinator), The Chainsmokers (EDM music duo) and Steve Huffman (CEO of Reddit).

Therapy is done in a small, closed room. Therapists talk softly, as it is meant to be a private business. Because of this, we haven’t normalized being vulnerable in public. Vulnerability is often equated with isolation, weakness and shame.

Podcast Therapy

The past 13 episodes of The Quest have been an experiment in open-door therapy. There is power in being able to tell your stories of struggles and successes. I love it when I’ve gotten feedback from listeners that they feel empowered by hearing the struggles guests went through.

One of our top-performing S1 episodes: EP 13, with Amitt talking about his life after launching Farmville.

Find The Quest on any podcast network (Apple Podcast & Spotify) 📻
Follow for updates on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook 📍

I think we can do more. A lot of things around the podcast still happens behind closed doors. The process of choosing who to talk to, how the conversation is edited, what we talk about.

We’ve decided to pivot and try something new.

The Quest Fellows

The Quest Fellows is an invitation from us to you to co-create the world’s best podcast. We are looking for founders and creators walking their own paths and finding their own purpose.

We want to give you VIP access to our guest conversations and get you involved in some of the exciting work we do.

As a Fellow, you will do a rotation where you:

  • Get paired with a guest who fits your own goals;
  • Help research the guest and learn from their life journey;
  • Prepare talk points and brief me over a 1:1 FaceTime;
  • Be in the room when the conversation happens, for a live uncut experience
  • Pen a takeaway piece which we will: (1) feature across major publications (including The Startup and Curious, with ~1m followers) and (2) send to the guest, with your bio and byline

We also make sure the Fellows are connected. You will benefit from a handpicked network of individuals on a noble journey, lead-climbing for each other. We will be sourcing guest ideas from this community — you also get to hear about other exciting initiatives earlier than anyone else.

This is uncharted territory, but I am excited to see how it unfolds.

Let’s Get Started

Quest Fellows can be from anywhere in the world and any walks of life.

You can be a founder, an artist, a creator, a community organizer, but whoever you are, you are making it up as you go along. There is no manual for what you are doing. You are going to do what you care about or die trying.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We can’t promise when exactly we can get back to you, but we will read every single application and follow your journey to see what happens next.

Apply here to be a Quest Fellow.

Let’s do podcasts differently.

*We are also launching a newsletter for more cool opportunities like this. You can sign up here for our Substack!

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