This week on The Occasional Podcast, a very special conversation with Julie Mullins, a longtime voice in the audio press whose byline has appeared across Stereophile, Analog Planet and a healthy stretch of high-fidelity publishing history.
Her career has crossed audio journalism, arts writing, freelance reporting and the sort of deadlines that can make a turntable setup look relaxing by comparison. In this episode, she sits down with host Brian Hunter to talk about where listening begins, how writing changes the way we hear, and why the hi-fi community remains both wonderfully passionate and, on certain days, impressively determined to make things complicated.
The conversation moves through her early audiophile roots, her path through major audio publications, and the broader world of arts coverage. The episode digs into the craft of writing, the value of careful listening, and the increasingly unavoidable subject of AI, which now hovers over journalism like a robot editor with questionable taste in adjectives.
What makes the episode click is the balance between industry history and the human side of the hobby. Mullins has spent much of her life around music, words and the occasionally peculiar rituals of audiophiles, and that perspective gives the hour a grounded, lived-in quality. There is gear talk, naturally, but the better thread is about communication: how we describe sound, why those descriptions matter, and what gets lost when the community talks more about certainty than curiosity.
The Occasional Podcast recently interviewed Steve Guttenberg And Andrew Jones Together, the current TAS editor-in-chief Robert Harley, covered AXPONA 2026, the History And Ongoing Legacy Of The Quad ESL 57, Pro Audio Vs. HIFi – how they might be more alike than you think, and also an interview with teenage speaker designer Lucca Chesky. There is a huge list of 2026 recommendations for Best Value in Hifi, New products for 2026 and covered Capital Audiofest. They also interviewed Stereophile’s Michael Trei, The Best Vintage Amplifiers To Buy At A Garage Sale, chatted with Jason Stoddard of Schiit Audio, and covered the future of digital and class D with Michal Jurewicz of Mytek. Previous episodes include how tos, tips, tricks and education in all things high fidelity audio from episodes like an Interview With John Devore, Measurements explained with Andrew Jones, 3 things to know about streaming audio, 5 things to consider when buying a tube amplifier and an interviews with Steve Guttenberg.
Options to stream this week’s interview with Julie Mullins, direct from the embed below or subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, Android, Google, Deezer, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube and more.