The Read


The Read is a weekly pop culture podcast based in New York City. One of several podcasts affiliated with the Loud Speakers Network headlined by The Combat Jack Show, The Read is hosted by vlogger Kid Fury and internet personality Crissle West.

History

The first episode was released on March 4, 2013. The Read is distributed via the iTunes Store, iHeartRadio Talk, SoundCloud, Spotify, and Stitcher. On iTunes, the podcast peaked at number three in the "New and Noteworthy" section charts and at number one in the comedy section charts. As of 2019, the podcast had over 85 million listens around the world, and received over 1.5 million unique listens every month.

Format

During podcast episodes, Kid Fury and West discuss and analyze pop culture and current events. The two hosts have been friends for many years, and this camaraderie adds to the banter of the podcast. Both Kid Fury and West are open about their lives and sexuality. The podcast's format has five sections:
  1. Black Excellence where Kid Fury picks someone in the Black community who has accomplished something worthy of recognition.
  2. Hot Tops, previously Sick Sad World, also selected by Kid Fury consists of entertainment news items that the hosts discuss and dissect.
  3. Listener Letters as curated by West and the hosts offer advice to listeners.
  4. Crissle's Couch, where West shares some of the wisdom she has learned from her mental health therapist. This segment was added to the show in July 2018 but does not appear every week.
  5. The Read concludes every episode, where Kid Fury and West "read" a person or topic.

    Guests

Special guests have included Kelly Rowland, Trina, Franchesca Ramsey, LeVar Burton, Shaun Ross, Charlamagne Tha God, Estelle, Jenifer Lewis, Jazmine Sullivan, Reagan Gomez, and Roblé Ali. The hosts of fellow Loud Speakers network podcast The Friend Zone - Dustin Ross, HeyFranHey, and Assanté - also make regular collaboration appearances.

Television show

On March 13, 2019, it was announced that Fuse had greenlit a variety/talk show based on The Read, titled The Read with Kid Fury and Crissle West. Kid Fury and West will serve as executive producers, as will Chloe Pisello, David Martin, Jon Thoday, and Richard Allen-Turner.
The show premiered on October 11, 2019 on Fuse.