My first professional podcast and what you need to know to make one
One of my ‘interviewees’ for my podcast that focused around ‘kid’s thoughts’ during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I just did my first podcast, and yep, it was quite fun!
I did take an audio/video course, and more recently a three day intensive podcast course from NYU. But, I learned, pretty much anyone can do a podcast.
I just completed two podcasts–one for my class, and the other for my job. For my class, I did a lighthearted podcast in which I interviewed my kids about the COVID-19 pandemic. For work, the podcast was a bit more serious–a day in the life of a B-2 bomber pilot.
Why did I start a podcast? Well, while I am writing this, we are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its been a whirlwind of work and taking care of my kids and never, ever having any time to sit and relax and well, read. I am the art director for a magazine, and for the longer feature stories, a podcast seemed like the perfect solution to give our audience an easy-to-access and digestible format: audio. Luckily my team had a lot of support from managers, and the B-2 bomber himself, who read the story. I hosted the podcast, and the editor helped with the wording of the introductions, and another colleague, who had experience with NPR helped editing the music and ‘bed music’ (or the music playing under the audio). My husband actually made most of the music using his band-in-a-box gizmo and guitar, and I just threw a comforter over his amp and recorded it! It was totally a result of the pandemic–working remotely while sending files to each other, getting feedback, and recording and editing using what we had to work with–but the end result was really awesome! And totally a great, accessible format for those of us that don’t have time, or if your like me, find audio a really engaging way to listen to a story.
To get started making a podcast, you really only need three things:
Something to record your voice with (I used the iPhone voice memo app),
something to edit audio and export an audio file (Mp3). I used Adobe Audition for my work podcast, but for the one I did in the NYU intensive course I used something called Hindenburg–both have free trials, and
a hosting site to upload your audio file that can feed it to podcast platforms like Apple podcasts and Spotify. I used Simplecast for work, but there are other (free!) options like Podbean.
For my interview with the kids about the COVID-19 pandemic (posted below), I used the Ira Glass (from This American Life podcast) ‘narrative’ style. The kids totally picked up on this, and I got quite the laugh when my daughter–trying to get my attention–tugged on my shirt and said, “I tugged on her shirt and then I kept asking her to go to the pond,” and then whispered to me, “ I’m doing a podcast!”
The biggest thing I kept hearing again and again when asking for feedback was to write for the ear–write the way you talk–so it sounds natural. Also, cut that audio down! In my NYU course we had to keep our podcast to five minutes, I learned you can cut the audio a lot more than you think–and really focus on those nuggets of audio that can stir emotion while still getting the message across. Audio is a format that can capture emotion in ways that written-word never could–with podcast you literally are in someones head with headphones, so it can be intimate and powerful, especially when when the podcast has a clear, concise message. The NYU course also focused a lot on the storytelling aspect, history of radio and how-to use the Hindenburg software–I highly recommend this course to get started and to also get some professional feedback.
A lot of how-to podcast tutorials focus on the mic equipment, and frankly I used the iPhone Voice Memo app–under a comforter to absorb outside sounds (kids playing outside, cars driving by, etc.), and the NYU instructor thought that I actually used a professional mic for the hosting portion of the B-2 podcast–so that shows you that well, the iPhone mics are actually quite good. As soon as I get back to work, I hope to get a more professional setup, but for now the iPhone gets the job done well.
Overall creating a podcast was a great experience. I thought this would be such a great thing for our magazine, but I was hesitant to getting into one. more. thing but I am glad I did–taking the time to learn to do something new, in a way, can be self-fueling. I also have my sister to thank for encouraging me to find a way to squeeze in a three day course in the midst of everything else–it was a great experience!