Sorry that I’ve been away from my keyboard for so long. A lot of crazy things have happened in the interim, like a near coup in Moscow that threatened to take Vladimir Putin out like a second-rate Muammar Gaddafi. The truth is that I took some time off to go see one of the last-ever Dead & Company shows in Queens, and then I’ve been preoccupied with trying to start a podcast with my longtime buddy, Brendan Skwire (here seen creating Speed Metal Bluegrass version of Bill Monroe’s Wheel Hoss).
Nothing makes you appreciate the talent and work required for something like trying to do it yourself. We’ve been laboring to put the pieces together for a podcast for months, and it feels like a Herculean task. We finally have all the required equipment and a grasp on the editing skills we need. We’ve listened to a lot of radio shows and podcasts to get a feel for how these things are put together and what makes for compelling content. We’ve sat down with successful podcasters to pick their brains. And we’ve done a couple of dry-runs now. The last segment we did will probably serve as the bulk of our introductory episode, but we still have more to do.
To start, we’re going to be audio only. And we won’t be taking any callers. We just need to get our feet wet. If we wait around to have everything we want ready, we’ll never get off the blocks.
Brendan and I met through political activism, and we’ve both written about politics for years, but we don’t want our podcast to be limited to that. We’re both looking for a bit of a change of pace. He’s a musician and public school teacher, and I’m a bit burned out on the political grind I’ve been doing exclusively for the 18 years since I launched Booman Tribune. So, we’ll talk about sports, music, culture, history or whatever else we want to talk about in addition to the big political stories of the week.
Having said that, you Progress Pond readers are the primary audience for this, and we want to know what you’re interested in. Eventually, we’ll let you call in to the show, but for now maybe you can just let us know in the comments. Whether it’s a personal question or something about an article one of us has written, or something else, it’s basically just a matter of what you’d like to ask. Also, what kind of content are you interested in?
I can already tell you, that I have gained a lot of respect and appreciation for people who do professional podcasting. It’s a lot of work, and getting good at it will take some time. But it’s also fun, and we all need more fun, right?
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I’m interested to hear it. I don’t have any suggestions yet, but with time and a sense of how you two work together, maybe I’ll have some ideas later down the road. For now, I like pretty much everything you’ve listed in your post, although I don’t know much about sports.
I used to know a lot more about sports than I do now.
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It’s really cool that you guys are collaborating on this. Much like you, the political grind has kind of burned me out, too. I love podcasts, and the variety of subjects you mentioned are all interesting in their own right, so I don’t think anything you guys tee up will disappoint me. I’ve gravitated in recent years toward an interest in history, mainly because most of our actual history is not really taught or talked about in most public spaces. Science, music, culture, philosophy are all subjects that appeal to me. I have an innate curiosity about almost everything, so just bring it on. I love learning new things.
we may need a southwestern Ohio correspondent from time to time, like an old school Samantha Bee.
Heh…that sounds like fun.
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I’m not much into sports these days, but I’m looking forward to hearing the podcast! I hope you both enjoy doing it, too.
Looks like you have a solid set of topics already. I am not sure I have anything to add at the moment. I’ll look forward to hearing what you have to say when the podcast is ready. Hopefully it will also drive some more traffic to this blog.
I’ll definitely listen in.
Have experts come in for interviews and for collaboration on the topics y’all discuss.
If it’s a politics show, don’t go too far out into the weeds on tertiary topics. Maybe have segments like other shows where you can go off on topics that the majority of listeners aren’t super invested in.
Otherwise, good luck. A good podcast isn’t easy to pull off, but I think you can do it.
You will be excellent! I also live in the Philadelphia suburbs and enjoy when your posts talk about politics and life here. Would be great if you continue to do that in the podcast.
For sure. Brendan still lives in the city and has plenty to say about what goes on there.
Congratulations! Sounds like a great idea. Good on both of you for branching out to learn something new.
Hey, this is great news! I’m really into podcasts and would love to listen to you guys.
A couple of thoughts off the top of my head…Jeff Jackson, a Democratic congressman from NC has done a great job of explaining some of the nitty gritty details of how Congress (and being a congressman) works, and I find that stuff really fascinating. Similarly, the guys at Pod Save America will sometimes talk about discussions and decisions that took place behind the scenes during their time in the Obama administration and that’s also interesting. I think the major media outlets tend to focus on results but these explanations of process are really valuable to me.
One of my regular listens is a sports podcast that does a non-sports segment called Life Advice. They have an email address dedicated to having listeners write in with their questions, then spend anywhere from 15-30 minutes answering a few of them on the show. It seems like a good way to crowd-source topics while still allowing the hosts to do prep-work and keep the production quality high, which I think is sometimes a challenge if you’re doing live call-ins.
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Check out the first episode of our Progress Podcast.