Some More Thoughts On Podcasting

(NOTE: Based on time elapsed since the posting of this entry, the BS-o-meter calculates this is 14.472% likely to be something that Ferrett now regrets.)

So podcasts have shot to the top of my hobbies list with a stratospheric speed, thanks to two factors:
1)  I have to spend an hour a day walking the dog.
2)  I have to spend three hours a week doing cardio rehab at the hospital.
All of this has meant that I have a lot of time walking, and I need something to occupy my ears.  And I gotta say, there are two podcasts people have referred me to that are stellar:
99% Invisible is a beautiful little oddcast of investigations into the background.  It’s supposedly about design, and yet it never feels restrictive; each podcast is an NPR-style investigation that feel like illuminations of some area I’ve never seen before.  A guy who’s drawing every building in New York.  The ethical conundrums of architects.  The guy who drew backgrounds for Chuck Jones.  Every time I listen to one of these, they’re perfect for the twenty-minute amble around the block, as I’m pulling to a halt just as the piece closes.  It’s wonderful.
The Memory Palace has these beautiful, bite-sized chunks of forgotten history.  They’re all about five to seven minutes, and deal with these weird little eddies of the past that people seem to have forgotten about.  And the wonderful thing about it is that since I too love these backwaters of history, I usually know the details, but Nate DiMeo tells the tale so well that it’s like hearing about The Piltdown Man all over again.  His piece “O How We Danced” will take you five minutes, and it is flat-out the most beautiful thing I have heard in months.  I’d listen if I were you.
As it is, I’m sufficiently interested in podcasting that I bought a microphone.  On the advice of some lovely people on Twitter, I bought a Blue Snowball USB Microphone, as it was the cheapest of the most recommended options, and it’s pretty imposing: on its stand, it looks like a Magic 8-Ball ready to broadcast.  The tentative name of my podcast is “We Will Steal Their Souls,” and I don’t intend it to be a huge thing or a regular one: just whenever I have an interesting thought on the topic, I’ll record a short broadcast.  I did a regular schedule for Home on the Strange, and while HotS was very successful in many ways I often felt constrained by the deadlines, and there are certain storylines that were ZOMG WE HAVE TO HAVE SOMETHING FOR NEXT WEEK that I just hated in retrospect.
The regular schedule is really a good thing, if you intend to be popular.  The best way to become popular (in addition to being really good, of course) is to become one of someone’s habits, and I know that Home on the Strange was increasing in popularity in part because folks had conditioned themselves to tune in Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  But if I do a podcast, having to do it every week or every other week might make it a more popular podcast but would make it less fun for me.  I don’t even know when I’ll start it.  Could be tomorrow, could be next month.
When the muse strikes, I’ll put my voice to her.  And we’ll see what happens.

2 Comments

  1. Charity Froggenhall
    Nov 10, 2013

    Hi! Have you found good podcasts that happen to feature a lot of women? I listen to a lot of tech stuff, so it’s mostly dudes, with the occasional female guest. I’m not OPPOSED to podcasting dudes, but I just need a little more balance. Thanks!

    • TheFerrett
      Nov 11, 2013

      I have not, and it’s vaguely irritating. A lot of white dudes. Very charming and erudite white dudes, but largely a dudefest nonetheless.

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