Lee Terrill received her BA degree in Early Childhood Education, has taught 2nd grade and been a professional cake decorator, and now enjoys working an office job with a small, local business.

Logan Jenkins has his BA degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Graphic Design, has worked as a Graphic Designer and Flash Developer, and currently works as a Frontend Web Developer.

Both live in South Carolina, USA, are avid board game players, and decided to team up to co-host the podcast titled, ASMR Newscast.

The ASMR Newscast launched on September 7, 2015 and they have been releasing weekly episodes with content quite fitting to their podcast’s description;

“we will bring you news from around the ASMR community along with a few relaxing sounds to give you the best tingles.”

In my interview with Lee and Logan they share how they met, how ASMR is helpful to each of them, their motivation to create a podcast, details about their podcast, challenges they have encountered so far, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, their replies in italics, and links to their podcast and other resources.

How did you two first meet?

Lee & Logan, “We met in English class in 9th grade. We’ve been close friends ever since!”

How would you each describe the other?

Lee, “Logan is super funny! He’s great at art.  He’s super kind and thoughtful.”

Logan, “Lee is level-headed, logical and kind.  She’s a nice person and very creative.  She also has cool hair.”

How did each of you first learn about or discover ASMR?

Lee, “I learned about ASMR from Logan.”

Logan, “I’ve always had it.  My first memories are in the library in elementary school when the librarian read to us!  The first time I intentionally searched for videos to trigger the feeling was in 2009 watching tutorial videos on design.”

How would you describe your ASMR sensations and favorite triggers?

Lee, “I like crinkles and tapping.  I also really like hair brushing and washing.  I like most any sound if there’s a lot of crossing from one ear to the other- that effect triggers me.”

Logan, “I’m big into whispers from ear to ear, especially unintelligible whispering.  I like mouth sounds like clicks and pops.  I also like ear cupping and soft grinding metal noises… I know that sounds like it would be loud and unpleasant, but I swear it’s awesome if done right.”

How does ASMR help each of you?

Lee, “I mostly use it when I’m having trouble sleeping.  It’s really soothing and almost always gets me to sleep.”

Logan, “I listen to videos throughout my workday to help me get into a flow state to write code and just to calm my anxiety and stress related to my job.  Rarely, I’m able to fall asleep to a video, and I enjoy that very much as well.”

How have you seen the understanding and awareness of ASMR change over time?

Lee & Logan, “It’s gone from a feeling without a collective definition to being nationally recognized.  Lots of news stations and podcasts have had features on ASMR and the community surrounding it.  

Millions of views and lots of press have made our isolated feelings into this amazing thing we share with a ton of like-minded folks.  It’s been wonderful!”

What motivated you to create a podcast?

Lee & Logan, “We feel like there is a definite lack of content as far as ASMR podcasts go, so we felt like it is a good place to reach out to people.  We want to use the podcast as a way to contribute to the community.    

Also, in high school, we used to joke a lot about having our own radio show.  So in some ways, this is just us fulfilling a long standing dream of ours.  Except it’s a podcast instead of the radio. Because it’s the future.”

What type of content can listeners expect to hear in your podcast?

Lee & Logan, “We’ll be talking about new ASMRtists, new videos, and any other kind of news.  We’ll also just sort of talk about anything ASMR related that we find interesting.  In terms of triggers…I don’t know, the sky’s the limit on this one!”

How did you come up with the Newscast & Tinglecast concept?

Lee & Logan, “We started with the Newscast first.  We quickly realized that while there is plenty of stuff to talk about in the ASMR community, there’s not necessarily enough “news” to warrant a weekly podcast.  

But we still wanted to create content every week.  Having a way to listen to ASMR triggers without having to play a video is one of our goals, so the Tinglecast is our way of doing that as well as making the podcast weekly.”

What do you think listeners will enjoy the most about your podcast?

Lee & Logan, “Hopefully it will give them tingles while listening, but the main point is to let people know what new content is out there that we’re excited about.  Hopefully our podcast is a gateway to discovering new ASMR content all around the web!”

What challenges have you had recording your own ASMR trigger sounds?

Lee, “I have never even been in the same room as a microphone.  I’m a complete novice, so I’ve really been teaching myself a lot these last few weeks.  

Right now my biggest problem is the table I’ve been using is actually hollow so a lot of my sounds come out weird sounding.  I’ve tried a few different fixes –everything short of just recording on the floor- and I think I’ve hit upon the right one.  I have a few pieces of cardboard and a piece of foam that I’ve sewn up inside some cute fabric.  It’s like a weird cardboard pillow.  But it deadens the hollow sound of the table, so…whatever works, right?”

What other challenges have you had creating/recording your podcast?

Lee & Logan, “Every noise matters in ASMR content, so we’re now keenly aware of every sound in a ‘quiet’ room.  

Similarly, we’re aware of our vocal patterns and times when we click our teeth before making a statement.  We want to say ‘um’ less, but do appreciate that sometimes, especially for ASMR, it’s a very pleasant sound.”

If you each could design an experiment to reveal something specific about ASMR, what would it be?

Lee, “I’d like to be able to see what is happening in the brain when you have ASMR, but specifically what happens in your brain when the sound goes from one ear to the other in a binaural recording.”

Logan, “Visual maps of the brain while someone is being triggered just to get that ‘is this a real thing?’ out of the way.”

What do you think the future holds for the understanding and application of ASMR?

Lee & Logan, “We think there will be studies to show what is actually happening with this.   Relaxation and relief from insomnia, anxiety and stress seem like pretty noble goals, so we’d like all that relief to continue to spread throughout the world.”

Click or explore the links below to connect with Lee, Logan, and the ASMR Newscast:

• ASMR Newscast Podcast
• ASMR Newscast Website
• ASMR Newscast YouTube
• ASMR Newscast Soundcloud
• ASMR Newscast Twitter: @ASMRnewscast
• Lee’s Twitter: @Yosaphbridge
• Logan’s Twitter: @LoganJenkins

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This post brought to you by ASMR University.  A site with the mission of increasing the awareness, understanding, and research of the Art and Science of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.