"Upstairs Neighbors" Podcast on Tour
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia
Aug. 7, 2025
When my favorite LA influencer pair announced they would be taking their podcast “Upstairs Neighbors” on the road, I couldn’t wait to get tickets. However, my enthusiasm dampened as labor disputes grew at the Philadelphia venue, World Café Live, where the show was originally scheduled to be held. I wondered whether a traveling podcast tasked with speaking nationally-relevant cultural commentary into the void could hear out hyperlocal issues.
“Upstairs Neighbors” is a weekly pop culture and yap podcast hosted by friends Dom Roberts and Maya Umemoto Gorman. The two have successfully amassed an adoring fan base with their conversational ease and charisma. They effortlessly chronicle the earworms of our digital age while spinning a library of inside jokes designed to pull in a parasocial crowd. I find them raucously funny; they’re so skilled at influencing that they could rip off my big toenail and sell it back to me.
The event was, in the end, relocated to the First Unitarian Church. It was also, ultimately, a sweet testament to the dual dialogues that exist between podcasters and their audiences. The staged version of a typically behind-the-scenes audio series showed how an unedited conversation series can be more than a one-way project; the phenomenon of podcasting actually relies on the engagement of an unusually plugged-in populace.
This wasn’t the impression you might get from a first glance at the night’s audience. Before the show kicked off, everyone in attendance was in their own world; people around me were playing “Dress to Impress” and Tetris or editing Instagram posts rather than making friends with fellow fans. Once Roberts and Umemoto Gorman took the stage, however, we were all on the same team; we were all enraptured by the pair’s energetic performance, which welcomed a measured amount of audience participation and comradery.
The duo didn't talk about the local labor dispute on stage at their show; they riffed as usual on traveling mishaps, dating conundrums, and reality TV drama in their usual fashion. But they still demonstrated an allegiance to the values and interests of their Philadelphia base.
Every city has to feel like they are special, and Dom and Maya made sure of that by asking who was born and raised in Philadelphia, conducting a survey for where they should get a cheesesteak (Dalessandro’s with 32 votes), and saluting the Eagles with a “Go Birds” at the end of the show.
The podcasters on stage — and the cheesesteak survey they passed around the crowd.
Behind the scenes, their manager worked with local promoter Dan Kiss to advocate for local arts and culture workers. Kiss has led the effort to relocate shows slated to take place at WCL amid mass firings and worker protests that have occurred since new management arrived at World Café Live (WCL) this year; read more about that on Midbrow here and here. Besides finding a new venue for the podcast tour, he helped ensure that ex-WCL employees were given opportunities to run the “Upstairs Neighbors” Philly pitstop and facilitated a tabling session with fliers and pamphlets about the local controversy, which included details about how show-goers can act in solidarity with affected workers.
On the inside flap of the pamphlet there is a quote from the WCL’s new CEO Joe Callahan: “Philly is nowhere in our mission statement.” Whereas WCL’s polemic leadership has started preaching the potential of Artificial Intelligence to reach broader audiences, “Upstairs Neighbors” utilized their nation-wide fan base to empower local institutions and people.
Late in the night, First Unitarian started to get hot from the huge crowd that had gathered in support of these two down-to-earth podcasters. As we all searched for strategies to cool off, I noticed the majority of the audience using the WCL-boycott flyers as fans; whether subconsciously or knowingly, I took this as proof that the audience had effectively been influenced.
A pamphlet from the show — for those of you who want to take action!
