How to Start a Podcast
Grad school is a grind and I like to make the analogy that it’s like a second job that you have to pay for; I’ve made that analogy several times here. I was doing all my classes at night so I could work during the day, reading hundreds of pages for each class of the driest topics of my entire life (if you ever need someone to talk global economics post-World War II, I’ve got you covered), and writing in-depth essays about the whole thing. I don’t say this all as a complaint, this was stuff I’m very interested in, writing my graduate thesis on the effect of social media on revolutionary movements in the 21st century, getting published in tech journals around the world on the changing face of cyber security and the practical applications of info tech in developing world agriculture.
But I needed a break.
More accurately, I needed an outlet; somewhere I could talk about my less intellectual interests and endeavors. The first thing that came to mind was doing a blog but I was kind of burned out on writing; turns out I actually have limits as much as I hate to admit it. A podcast though, something where I just had to hit record before sitting back and talking into a mic, that seemed perfectly feasible. In a cool bit of kismet, I had just met my buddy Jake for the very first time as I was wrapping up my penultimate semester of grad school. To quote The A-Team, I don’t really believe in chance, everyone and everything builds to something and Jake is just one of those dudes I was meant to meet (we are literally born on the exact same day; Jake likes to remark that the universe distilled all of its idiocy that day into two individuals and I’m hard pressed to disagree). We hit it off straight away and it turned out he was looking to start a podcast too.
We bought some cheap sound equipment; I had traded in some Crate guitar amps I wasn’t using anymore for a really good microphone which is the single biggest expenditure I made on equipment. It turned out Jake and I had a mutual friend that had a soundboard and wanted in on the action too so everything just locked into place.
You listen to those early days of the show and it really is just us catching up and kind of moving down a literal checklist of topics. Chris is trying to put on an NPR voice for some fucking reason. Look, we don’t become remotely listenable for like a year and a half when we make a shift to becoming comic book press. That was something we stumbled into; Jake and I have a friend that works for a big indie publisher that liked our show and asked if we wanted to be in their press list. We agreed because why the hell not and eventually started interviewing their talent. It started slow and infrequent but when Samurai Jack writer Jim Zub came on, people started to notice and (to my continued surprise) people started to listen.
We get thousands of listeners from around the world every month now and sometimes we record as many as 4 interviews in a single week; people actively want to come on the show. In terms of distribution, I always laugh when I see on our Facebook page that we advertise we’re now available on iTunes; we’ve always been available there, you just have to have an active feed to get approved.
And that’s the key really to anything. Stay active, stay consistent, and put in the work. Even if it’s just a flight of fancy, people will start to take notice and it’ll open doors. These days I’m consciously trying to mix up the kinds of guests we have from just comics. I want stronger representation from minorities, women/non-binary, and LGBTQ guests. It may not seem like a whole hell of a lot but it means a lot to them so it means a lot to me. Never would I have expected this little hobby would get me to where I am today, the bored grad student longing for a fun outlet, but here we are. Let’s see how far the rabbit hole goes.
But I needed a break.
More accurately, I needed an outlet; somewhere I could talk about my less intellectual interests and endeavors. The first thing that came to mind was doing a blog but I was kind of burned out on writing; turns out I actually have limits as much as I hate to admit it. A podcast though, something where I just had to hit record before sitting back and talking into a mic, that seemed perfectly feasible. In a cool bit of kismet, I had just met my buddy Jake for the very first time as I was wrapping up my penultimate semester of grad school. To quote The A-Team, I don’t really believe in chance, everyone and everything builds to something and Jake is just one of those dudes I was meant to meet (we are literally born on the exact same day; Jake likes to remark that the universe distilled all of its idiocy that day into two individuals and I’m hard pressed to disagree). We hit it off straight away and it turned out he was looking to start a podcast too.
We bought some cheap sound equipment; I had traded in some Crate guitar amps I wasn’t using anymore for a really good microphone which is the single biggest expenditure I made on equipment. It turned out Jake and I had a mutual friend that had a soundboard and wanted in on the action too so everything just locked into place.
You listen to those early days of the show and it really is just us catching up and kind of moving down a literal checklist of topics. Chris is trying to put on an NPR voice for some fucking reason. Look, we don’t become remotely listenable for like a year and a half when we make a shift to becoming comic book press. That was something we stumbled into; Jake and I have a friend that works for a big indie publisher that liked our show and asked if we wanted to be in their press list. We agreed because why the hell not and eventually started interviewing their talent. It started slow and infrequent but when Samurai Jack writer Jim Zub came on, people started to notice and (to my continued surprise) people started to listen.
We get thousands of listeners from around the world every month now and sometimes we record as many as 4 interviews in a single week; people actively want to come on the show. In terms of distribution, I always laugh when I see on our Facebook page that we advertise we’re now available on iTunes; we’ve always been available there, you just have to have an active feed to get approved.
And that’s the key really to anything. Stay active, stay consistent, and put in the work. Even if it’s just a flight of fancy, people will start to take notice and it’ll open doors. These days I’m consciously trying to mix up the kinds of guests we have from just comics. I want stronger representation from minorities, women/non-binary, and LGBTQ guests. It may not seem like a whole hell of a lot but it means a lot to them so it means a lot to me. Never would I have expected this little hobby would get me to where I am today, the bored grad student longing for a fun outlet, but here we are. Let’s see how far the rabbit hole goes.
