For topic-casters only

[WildeGeek]

A lot of the popular podcasts are entertainment shows of various sorts. Whether they're about comedy, music, or a showcase for the charisma of the host(s), their main goal is to somehow amuse their listeners. Other programs present editorial commentary, or observations with a clear sense of the personality of the producer. Some are simply audio diaries of someone who assumes that their life will be interesting to the rest of us. If you're such a podcaster, this thread is not for you.

If you ARE a topic-caster: I'd like to start some discussions among podcasters who's series of shows intend to educate and inform about a clearly delineated topic. Obviously, a lot of the tech podcasts do this, but there are certainly a lot more worthwhile and interesting topics outside of tech.

What ideas, skills, and techniques have you developed to tell your stories? How do you plan and prepare your shows? Is your content spontaneous or carefully scripted? What do you think is the correct mix of off-topic banter versus direct, on-topic information. How much of the show is your voice versus the voices of others or related sounds or sound-effects? Do you prefer to present yourself as the expert (when you are), or do you prefer to have other voices provide their expertise?

In short, how do you do your show?

(I'll answer these questions about my show in a follow-up post.)

[WildeGeek]

Each of my shows is a single documentary story. I'm always experimenting with different ways to tell a story. I try in almost every show to avoid following some kind of formula. But I always start with a single question I want to answer. Sometimes it's a complex question, or a simple, open-ended one.

Then I collect either phone interviews and/or field recordings to get answers to the question. At that point, I still have no idea what the narrative of the show is going to be like. Next comes a lot of listening to the source material several times, while I use outlining software to develop the script. I highly edit the sounds and interviews I want to use. Then I have my co-editor transcribe them. She polishes the script, and edits mercilessly anything that doesn't directly make the point of that episode. Then I edit again the original recordings to match her script. It's a little like being the sculptor who once said that he made statues by chipping away everything that wasn't the statue.

After all of that, I record the narration, and assemble the show in editing and mixing software. I use BIAS PEAK (http://www.bias-inc.com/products/peakPro5/) and Apple Garage Band (http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/).

Though I have a reasonable amount of expertise in my subject matter, I don't present myself as the expert. Instead I use my expertise to judge the value of my sources. I use my source's voices to inform the listeners, positioning myself as someone who, like them, is just learning (or at least learning more) about the topic.

Since I myself would rather hear a host get to the point, I don't think it's fair to my listeners to waste their time with off-topic banter. So I make my programs very direct and concise. I also want to make my guests and interviewees sound as articulate and easy-to-listen to as possible, so I edit them to fix stammers, fix re-statements, remove redundant comments, and remove filler-words like "Umm".

How does this compare with what you do?

[deadwhiteguy]

I do two education oriented podcasts. Dead White Guys consists of a reading from some ancient writings. The intro and outro for those is not scripted anymore, but at the same time I basically just say hi and bye.

For my other podcast The Sci Phi Show, where I am to explore philosophical ideas found in Science Fiction, I sitdown and watch the material I am using as a basis and then do some more research. When it comes to recording I script the lot of it. Otherwise I um and ah to much and editing it is a nusiance. I've not done a show that has a guest host yet, but soon.

I mainly just seek to ask questions and provide some background thoughts on the topic to stimulate further thinking rather than trying to "educate" people. I try to mostly sit in the background.

Jason

[jeffbearer]

Since we are a show about beer, people may be surprised but I do a lot of prep work and research for the show.

I have to gather brewery statistics, style guidelines, information about the history of the style, compile beer industry news, prepare the feedback segment, and there are a few other rotating segments. In total each episode takes about 20 hours from start to end. You can just listen to a show to get a feel for the balance of everything.

We save our off-topic banter for the after-show segment that we post in the Craft Beer Radio Extras feed.

[docsnavely]

my show is about life in japan as a foreigner.....

each week i pick a topic to discuss, and go with it......

i jot down notes on points i want to cover, do a news headline from here in japan, and the best part is that i do about 20 minutes of answering feedback and questions from listeners.....

sometimes i'll mix it up with a soundseeing tour, or a show of just email if it stacks up to much to be covered in just 20 minutes....

[SFEley]

If you ARE a topic-caster: I'd like to start some discussions among podcasters who's series of shows intend to educate and inform about a clearly delineated topic. Obviously, a lot of the tech podcasts do this, but there are certainly a lot more worthwhile and interesting topics outside of tech.

Cool question. My podcast isn't about "educating and informing" so much as entertaining within a very specific context, but I'm going to say Escape Pod is close enough to your requirements. >8->


What ideas, skills, and techniques have you developed to tell your stories? How do you plan and prepare your shows? Is your content spontaneous or carefully scripted? What do you think is the correct mix of off-topic banter versus direct, on-topic information. How much of the show is your voice versus the voices of others or related sounds or sound-effects? Do you prefer to present yourself as the expert (when you are), or do you prefer to have other voices provide their expertise?
Most of these questions are already addressed by my purpose: I narrate (or have other people narrate) and podcast science fiction and fantasy short stories. That activity, which is the dominant part of my show, is "scripted" by its nature and very carefully produced. Any mistakes are edited out, pacing is carefully managed to fit the story's style, etc.

Since we're a paying fiction market, about 60% of my prep work is editorial or administrative. We've got to maintain a slush pile for submitted stories, send out contracts to authors and then pay them, manage listener donations and send thank you notes, answer other e-mail, etc. We have some volunteers to help with the slush pile, but I still do most of the other stuff myself. The other 40% is audio production -- if I'm not narrating a story, I'm directing other narrators, listening to their recordings and commenting via Skype or e-mail.

I also have a scripted 3- to 4-minute intro and a 3-minute outro each week, which take up a surprising amount of time. This is the only part where "my voice" comes in. The intros always contain an editorial, where I'll talk about some aspect of the genre, or about my family, or whatever else occurs to me at the moment. Sometimes it relates to the story, but often not. Although a couple of listeners have complained about them, they moslty seem to be quite popular.

I do my production work on a Mac Mini, with a Shure SM57 microphone and an M-Audio MobilePre USB interface. I was using Audacity until about a month ago; I've now switched to Soundtrack Pro.

Is this the sort of thing you wanted to know?

[WildeGeek]

Is this the sort of thing you wanted to know?Yes! Let's see who else chimes in.
There have to be a lot more than these five.

[Wintersheart]

Our show which is still new but I did LD Planet before that is totally scripted I write almost every day for it, in my lunch break at work. So does my co host.

I research topics and read uptodate news stories on technology,space exploration , science and pick a story to rewrite.

But I guess I find that fun I like hanging out at the NASA web site because I actually enjoy it.

But I've desided to keep most of my personal life of limits otherwise your doing your own reality show nothing bad in that but after my first experince of podcasting I desided its not for me.

If its all about you and your life you dont have to script you just go off the top of your head its very easy to do, then to actually prepare something.

I usally try and do layers of sound effects and background music after the audio I'm still learning how to mix stuff together getting better each time.

I enjoy finding sounds that match what I'm talking about thats the fun part after the hard part voice audio is done.

I also delete ums and spaces . We try and leave a space instead of saying um there easier to delete.

O my now I feel like I should go back to work and write something now;)-

-Lynne

[SteveRunner]

My weekly thirty minute PodCast is all about Running, and Training for Marathons. I’m a distance runner, having run 12 marathons including Boston four times. Because my show is specific to runners, I only really promote it on running websites and forums.

To produce it, I actually record while I’m running my “long run” of 12 to 20 miles every Sunday morning. I chose a specific topic for the show each week, write up some talking points after I research the subject…or, if I’m running a race I’ll write down a few talking points or “bits” to do when I’m running the race (or marathon) and I record the raw audio (I use an iRiver into a Geffin lapel microphone tucked behind my tee-shirt “windsock”). I copy all the “bits” on my laptop, add some compression, record narration and an outro script (answer emails/skypemail, etc.) and throw a theme behind it…edit in a PodSafe song (specifically about running) and PRESTO, the episode is complete.

The audio recorded while I’m actually out running sounds surprisingly good…I was worried about the quality until I received a significant amount of email telling me that other runners actually enjoyed the sound of my “beating foot strikes” and “heavy breathing” (I’m slightly asthmatic).

So far, the response has been excellent from my listenership. Without a lot of promotion, and dedicating myself to mostly the production of the show, my ratings on PCA have been in the low 30’s. In April I’ll be running the Boston Marathon, and will be recording my PodCast as I run the race itself (edited down to an hour)….and I’ve already recorded my show while running the Bay State Marathon in Lowell MA and the Cape Cod Marathon in Falmouth MA. The response has been great from other runners.

Running is my passion. I live to run marathons, and the PodCast is a creative extension of that. Someone recently asked me: if I had to give up either running or PodCasting, which would I choose.

Were it not for running, I’d not have a good reason to produce a PodCast…thus the answer is clear.

Sorry for the long post…but my theme is “running”, and I think the runners who subscribe to my show are enjoying it. (At least I hope so!)

[SFEley]

To produce it, I actually record while I’m running my “long run” of 12 to 20 miles every Sunday morning.
All right. There's a new winner. You are the hardest-working man in podcasting.

I don't really care much about running, but I'm going to grab your show now just to see how it goes. This is one of the coolest concepts I have heard in a long time.

[SteveRunner]

Thanks Steve! I'm pretty passionate about running...and I don't know if I'm the "hardest working" PodCaster...if HAVE to run anyway...as part of my training, but I run in a fairly rural part of New England, by myself...and recording the PodCast while I run, is like having a training partner.

It's worth mentioning that Escape Pod is one of my absolute favorite PodCasts. I've been a subscriber for some time, and I listen to your show while I'm out running through the back roads of Central Massachusetts.

Run long, and taper.

[Marilynfan]

I do a bi-weekly 20 minute show about Marilyn Monroe. I've been a collector/fan for over 15 years and I have maintained my website Marilyn and the Camera (www.marilynmonroe.ca) for 5 years. My vision for the show is to bring in new people that aren't fans as well as entertain people that have been fans for years. The show definately stays totally on topic...there is no discussion of my non-Marilyn life.

I don't really plan out the show until I sit down to record it. Then I just come up with a couple topics off the top of my head. It helps that I belong to alot of MM online communities so I can keep up on what is being discussed. I answer questions that listeners send in. I also talk quite a bit about collectibles that I purchase on Ebay.

I record the show in order, stopping to play clips, songs, etc. Finding the clips I want to use takes the longest. I will literally have an audio clip pop into my head while I am talking about a certain topic and then spend an hour looking through all my Marilyn footage to find it :)

I am thinking of adding some skype interviews with other fans in the future (I haven't played around with recording skype at all yet).

[theperfectsong]

Our Mansfield University Pod Cast just went live a month ago. At the beginning of the semester I found four freshmen and interview them each week about their experiences. I want to track them from the moment their parents left them and headed home right through classes, meeting people, food, illness, the works. The goal is to share with high school students and parents what college is like straight from the person experiencing it.
The show is not scripted. I'm looking for a straightforwardness that comes from no rehearsing.
I try to keep the whole conversation relaxed and informal. I do go back later and edit a lot of the spaces, uhs, umms, etc. I talk with each student for 5-7 minutes and try to keep the show to 16-20 minutes,
I also add music beds, (loops that I commissioned so they are pod safe). I have the looping software but have just plain run out of hours. . . .
Software; Adobe Audition
Mixer: Mackie

I also did a sound seeing tour following our fisheries students into the field as conducted research on brook trout. I used my iPod and iTalk. I'm not happy with the quality of iTalk and am getting a different mic for other sound seeing tours.

you can find the shows at www.mansfield.edu on the home page or go straight to podcast.mansfield.edu

Great discussion and comparison of notes! Reading the descriptions of your programs has given me the initiative to listen to them!

[pokepark]

I started a Podcast with my son we call Poke Park. We live in Oak Park IL. I started as much to have fun with him as anything else. I agreed to do HIP HOP music Cast since I didn't know much about it and he was into it. Since I'm learning about it it turns out that we naturally go by topic. e.g. Episode 1 featured songs explaining Hip Hop Culture, Episode 2 WHy Hip Hop is a serius music, Episode 3 How some Hip Hop is much better than others and Episode 4, How Funny Hip Hop can be.

This seems a little unusual for Music Casts. I know a lot of music Casters like to jump around and think that's a freedom they have that Radio doesn't. I don't mind that, but I think Music by Topic (20-30 minute topic) is more interesting than jumping around. What do you think?

Jame http://pokepark.libsyn.com

[guscave]

My weekly show is about alternative health and fitness, and many of my subscribers listen to it while at the gym or working out, so I try to play at least 2 uptempo songs thru-out the show, and have some kind of music in the background so they don't fall asleep just listening to my voice. :wink:

My show is 80% scripted and 20% off the cuff. I usually spend about 4 days researching the topic I'll be discussing the following week. I try not to come off as a doctor or medical professional 'cause I am not one (nor do I play one on tv.). I'm a songrwriter/producer who loves alternative medical research, so this podshow kind of falls in place for me.

[shepdave]

The vast majority of the time we spend on The Word Nerds is research and preparation. Once we choose a weekly topic, we communicate by iChat or Skype or telephone and determine an outline and structure for the show. We try very hard to make it hang together. This can take many hours for a half-hour show.

We also spend quite a good deal of time selecting music for our shows. We have up to now mostly used material from GarageBand.com, and we have lately used a lot more songs from the Podsafe Music Network. Some weeks music selection takes almost as much time as other research.

Our intro and outro scripts are standard, and they are merely billboards and closing credits. These are generally done "live," i.e., on-the-fly rather than inserted later. (Before I figured out how to do a 'cast with my brother via Skype, I sometimes inserted intros and outros in post.)

Since I have the setup all ready in my "studio," time spent in advance on the technical aspects is not great. But when I do a long-distance podcast with my brother (200 miles away), post-production is a challenge. I record our conversation on Skype, and he simultaneously records his half on an iRiver. He uploads his file to our server, I download it and cut it into the conversation.

After editing and applying some software compression and reverb (via Blockfish and Freeverb) in Amadeus II, I bring the file into Audacity to do music overlaps and fades. I also encode to MP3 from Audacity.

Dave