Payment Policy for Podcast Guests, Co-hosts, and Producers

I Am Committed to Justice.

My anti-diet work is fundamentally about ending oppression and creating body liberation. I am committed to dismantling white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, heteronormativity, and all dehumanizing systems of oppression, so that we all truly can be free.

In addition to being an anti-diet dietitian and an author, I’m also a journalist with more than 18 years of experience. I practice advocacy journalism, which means I have a clear justice-oriented point of view. That’s why I started the Food Psych podcast.

I’ve been thinking and reflecting deeply about my own work as a result of the recent uprising for racial justice.


Protecting Media Integrity

Journalism is an essential tool in advancing justice in a free society. Through careful reporting and powerful storytelling, journalists can shed light on systemic inequalities and draw public attention to voices that are too often unheard.

We’re now in a cultural moment when right-wing politicians routinely hurl accusations of “fake news” at legitimate media outlets that report on their wrongdoing, so that they can discredit the media and maintain their hold on power. 

In the face of this denigration, it’s more important than ever that we protect the integrity of journalism.

I’m not talking about trying to protect the notion of “objectivity”—I agree with many journalists that there’s no such thing as a truly objective position, and that the pursuit of objectivity can actually impede the pursuit of justice. That’s why I’m an advocacy journalist. What I’m concerned with is keeping content truthful, accurate, and free from undue influence. 

One form of influence that can come into play in media is financial: if a journalist pays a source for their story, that source might feel pressured into saying what the interviewer seems to want to hear. And that calls into question the truthfulness and accuracy of the information being reported.

This is why part of the journalistic code of ethics says journalists cannot pay sources for interviews. This ethical principle aims to protect people’s ability to speak their truth—and I think that’s valuable.

At face value, that means journalists who have podcasts, like me, can’t pay our guests. 

And at the same time, there’s a long-overdue reckoning happening in our world and industries right now. For too long in America, the labor of Black and Brown people has been exploited to build profits for white people. 

This is what I’m personally thinking about and navigating, as a white, cisgender, thin podcaster. I regularly book and interview people with less-dominant identities than mine. It’s part of my mission to create an inclusive show and an inclusive world.

This collective reckoning has me interrogating my own practices, too. That’s what’s needed.


The Double Bind for Journalists

Here’s where I’ve landed: it is crucial that white people and people with dominant identities not exploit the unpaid or underpaid labor of people with non-dominant identities. 

At the same time, journalists have to protect the integrity of our work by allowing our sources to speak their truth without feeling financially obligated to tell us what we want to hear.

That creates a double bind for journalists who are committed to liberation:

  1. We can’t pay sources for interviews;

  2. We oppose exploiting people’s unpaid labor. 

How do we resolve this?


I think there’s a huge, creative opportunity here to achieve both aims.

We can preserve journalistic integrity AND create paid professional opportunities. Here’s how:

Journalists can’t pay sources or guests, but we can pay hosts, writers, producers, and editors. 

Doing that would mean we’d be 100% within the journalistic code of ethics, AND in solidarity with community members of all identities.  

So here’s my policy and practice going forward: 

  • When I’m interviewing people about their life, their work, and their thoughts on the culture, that’s an interview and will remain unpaid. 

  • For my Ask Food Psych segment, I will hire co-hosts to help answer listener questions. 

    • Previously I was the only host of this segment, but this is where I can leverage the podcast to create paid co-hosting opportunities. 

  • I will continue to pay my audio editor, transcriptionist, associate, and assistant a living wage for their work on my podcast, as I’ve been doing for years.


How To Discern 

MAIN TAKEAWAY: if you are a journalist with a dominant identity, and you’re going to adhere to the journalistic code of ethics and NOT pay guests/interviewees/sources, then you might consider how to create co-host and producing opportunities so that you CAN pay people with non-dominant identities to be a part of your content.

  • When I’m interviewing people for my podcast and having conversations about their life experiences, their points of view, and our culture, they’re sources giving interviews. In order to preserve the journalistic integrity of my show, these interviews must be unpaid per the journalistic code of ethics. 

  • If someone is guest-lecturing in one of my courses, or co-hosting or producing a segment on my podcast, that is not an interview. It is a paid position. 

So if you’re producing a TV or radio show or a podcast as a journalist committed to dismantling oppression and creating justice, perhaps this policy might be useful in deciding when and how to compensate people. 


Our Next Steps Together

If you are interested in being an interviewee (unpaid) or a co-host (paid), I hope this policy can help us find an opportunity to work together and create a more just and equitable culture. 

In solidarity,

Christy Harrison