In the lush, softly lit studio where nearly 60 years ago the Beach Boys recorded “Pet Sounds” and changed pop music forever, the hosts of the “Podcrushed” podcast are preparing to interview their latest guest: Chase Stokes, star of the Netflix teen-treasure-hunting drama “Outer Banks.”

Those hosts — Nava Kavelin, Sophie Ansari and Penn Badgley — check their mics and headphones as videographers adjust their cameras. An engineer in the control room futzes with the sound. Chase, whose publicist is also named Chase, announces that he has never done a podcast before. “You’re taking my podcast virginity,” he tells the group. Badgley, the TV star formerly of “Gossip Girl” and currently of “You,” assures Stokes, actor-to-actor, that he prefers the “longform format” and expects that Stokes will, too.

There is a glut of celebrity-interview podcasts these days, all positioned as spaces where guests can speak freely and be, in the parlance of the moment, their most authentic selves. Many of these podcasts are hosted by other celebrities; you, a lowly non-famous person, are invited to eavesdrop as guests share what they’d never reveal in any other context. Though these back-and-forths can have their delights, the results are about what a savvy listener would expect: the illusion of intimacy with the absence of accountability, ancient gossip proffered as breaking news, meandering filler that begs to be played at 1.5 speed.

“Podcrushed” approaches the genre from a different angle, and the results are surprisingly poignant. The show is primarily about adolescence, zeroing in on the coming-of-age stage. “Podcrushed” interviews linger on tween triumphs and traumas, probing for the tender, vulnerable places beyond adult defenses.

Matthew McConaughey talked about having his heart broken by his eighth grade girlfriend, who dumped him the day after he told her that he loved her. Ramy Youssef reflected on the fear he felt as a Muslim middle schooler in America after Sept. 11. Adam Brody, who found fame portraying the aspirational teenage experience on “The O.C.,” admitted that, in reality, “junior high and high school were the darkest period in my life.”