We had the good fortune of connecting with Sally Brooks & Jen O’Neill Smith of the Dumb Love podcast and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sally & Jen, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
We have the same philosophy when it comes to taking risks— if it’s a question of putting ourselves and our work out into the world– it’s always a risk worth taking. As stand-up comedians, we’ve learned to be okay with failure. If you’re not failing occasionally, you’re not trying new things! When we decided that we wanted to start a podcast together, of course we wanted it to be good. We talked a lot about the format, the sound, the design, the marketing, etc. Eventually though, we knew we just had to hit record and send it out into the universe. Even if it wasn’t 100% perfect, we just needed to take the risk and get started. More than 80 episodes later, we’re so happy we did.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community? What are you most proud of?
Dumb Love is a comedy podcast about all the ridiculous things people do for love. We start each episode with quick stories —like the one about a man who says he’s made love to over 1,000 cars or the dumb couple who robbed a bank and then posted about it on Facebook— before launching into the heart of the podcast. Every episode, we share one true crime story with love at its core and one true love story that will restore your faith in humanity.

We’re most proud that we’ve built a podcast community of lovely, generous listeners. We try to create a podcast that’s fun and positive and part of that is giving back to organizations that are doing good in the community. Every time we’ve asked our listeners to support an organization, they’ve stepped up.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’re both stand-up comedians, so we would always recommend catching a live stand-up show. In non-covid times you can catch a fantastic line-up of professional comedians any night of the week in Atlanta. Definitely check out a show at the Laughing Skull Lounge, the Punchline, Highland Inn, Star Bar, Argosy for Date Night…there are too many great shows to name! You might just catch one of us performing. Even now, you can find great outdoor shows at Ponce City Market or many breweries around town.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We’d love to shoutout our good friends over at Forth & Ten Podcast– Damon Sumner, David Perdue and Nathan Owens. Not only are they great stand-up comedians and excellent podcasters, but they are all lovely human beings. When we started our podcast, they were some of the first to offer advice and support. We love those guys!

Website: dumblovepodcast.com
Instagram: instagram.com/dumblovepodcast
Twitter: twitter.com/dumblovepodcast
Facebook: Facebook.com/dumblovepodcast

Image Credits
Lola Scott

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutAtlana is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.