McElroy Brothers

Brothers Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy make so many podcasts that when asked to say how many they were actively producing, they needed to think a while before they settled on "nine" as the answer.

"What does it say about us that it took about a minute of arithmetic to reach that number?" Griffin joked.

Together, the siblings host the comedic advice show My Brother, My Brother and Me. 11 years after its inception, the show still ranks high among Apple and Spotify's Top 100 comedy podcasts. Its success led to something of a McElroy podcasting empire. Their Dungeons & Dragons podcast The Adventure Zone spawned a graphic novel and a TV show in-development. Justin co-hosts the medical history podcast Sawbones with his wife, Dr. Sydnee McElroy — a show that also became a New York Times bestseller.

Their new book, Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You), is a how-to guide for the increasingly few people out there who don't already record their own podcasts. Among its topics: A beginner's tutorial to the free audio-editing software Audacity, and a chapter on monetization that, they joke, "most people can skip right over."

The book also gives advice on how to develop an on-air rapport, for those who happen not to have grown up with that as the family business. "Our dad was in morning radio for years and doing tons of comedy stuff with that," Justin said. "Our dinner table discussion was very much like, 'Who can one-up the other one?'"

The McElroys joined us for three Ask Me Another games. In this segment, they go head-to-head-to-head in a speed round about delicious-sounding American towns. Will vacation bookings to Toast, North Carolina jump after this episode airs? Only time will tell.

Elsewhere in this episode, you can hear the McElroys --

Try to remember how many podcasts they make, and play a game called "David Bro-ie"

Play a Dungeons & Dragons trivia game where answering correctly is only half the battle.

Interview Highlights

On whether they talk to each other outside of doing podcasts

Travis: The only other time is when our kids Facetime with each other and occasionally our big faces will like, lean in and be like "that's true!"

Griffin: Even when we're talking and our kids are talking, we'll lean in and we will throw it to an ad break. Like, it's just reflexive, at that point.

Heard on Justin, Travis And Griffin McElroy: My Podcast, My Podcast And My Other Podcast [Copyright 2021 NPR]