Why I Started Podcasting and How I Did It
So, I finally started a podcast.
I’ve been a big-time podcast listener for the past three years. My current favorite podcasts are 1A from NPR, with host Joshua Johnson; and AsianBossGirl, with hosts Melody Cheng, Helen Wu, and Janet Wang. Podcasts are great because you can listen to them while you’re driving in the car, cooking dinner or going for a run. And the podcast craze has only grown within the past year, with two-thirds of Americans listening to podcasts every once in a while.
In my opinion, I think the podcast craze has skyrocketed in the past year because of their accessibility, diversity and format. They’re easily accessible from wherever you are as long as you have an Internet connection. Whether you have an iPhone or an Android matters no longer because podcasts are now hosted on a bevy of streaming services, including music giant Spotify. They are also free to listen, supported by advertisements and sponsors. Podcasts are also extremely diverse in content, which means you can find anything from niche gardening podcasts to broad, NPR-style current events podcasts. Lastly, the format. Podcasts have grown because you don’t have to be sitting down and staring at your screen while you’re listening to them. Since they’re an aural experience, you can listen to podcasts doing pretty much anything. And, with the increase in usage of Bluetooth headphones, you don’t have to worry about being tangled up in a cord when listening.
So, why did I start a podcast and how did I do it?
Why I started my podcast
Like I said, the numbers show an increasing number of Americans listening to podcasts. Podcasts are the new radio talk show. Not only are they on-demand entertainment, they’re free and can be listened to while doing virtually anything else. Aside from the figures showing an increased interest in podcasts, I am a digital media producer. I create videos, code websites and design data visualizations and interactives. However, much of that content is not personal to who I am. I’m a journalism major after all, so most of my projects tend to be journalism pieces. Apart from my short stint blogging in China, most of the work I do is other people’s narratives. A podcast, however, could be all about me…Well, almost all about me.
The thing about a podcast is that it has to draw you in. If I just sat down and talked ad nauseam about a subject for twenty minutes, it wouldn’t make for a very interesting podcast. The best podcasts I’ve listened to always feature a dialogue between people. The host guides the conversation, but the podcast is interesting because of the interaction between the host and her guests. Therefore, I knew that my podcast had to be a conversation between myself and my guests. And then I knew what my podcast was going to be about: boba…
Or, rather, a conversation around two people sitting down and sharing boba tea together. Going off the idea of ‘spilling the tea’ with your friends, I decided to add a little Asian flavor to my podcast by asking guests to share some delicious boba tea with me.
For all of you who don’t know: boba was invented in Taiwan and is iced milk tea poured over tapioca balls. Simple in concept, complex in flavor and texture and hard to pull off successfully. So, I decided, why not create a podcast centered around boba and one-on-one conversations? From there, Boba with Brooke was officially launched.
How I did it
I was woefully under-informed about how podcasts actually work. I originally believed I could host my content on Spotify or iTunes with relative ease. However, after doing some research, it turned out that I needed to create an “RSS feed” and submit that to major platforms for inclusion into their libraries.
My initial thought was, “What the heck is an RSS feed, and how do I make one?” RSS stands for either Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, according to its Wikipedia site. Basically, it’s a bunch of data written in a specific format to be read by certain platforms to convey information. With my fairly advanced coding knowledge, I thought it would be a breeze to crank out some code and then submit the RSS feed. As you can guess, it was not a breeze, and I ended up using a third-party developer tool to create my RSS feed.
After the initial completion, it was off to the races. After uploading new episodes, they would update my RSS feed which would then be read by iTunes and Spotify. While there were bugs to sort out along the way (including having to re-size my logo a total of three times), it was all rather simple. Anyone can set up an RSS feed in a few hours, get it hosted on iTunes (though it takes a while for it to be accepted), Spotify, and Google Podcasts and have the entire Internet hear about that time you had a Tumblr blog in middle school.
What I’ve learned
First of all, hosting a podcast is super fun. Not only do you get to pick your own topics if you’re the host, but you also have a lot of creative control over your work. From asking people to be guests on my show to editing the podcast and adding in (royalty-free) music, I have complete creative control. I love it. The creative side of me and the Type A side of me get along very well when it comes to podcast hosting.
Secondly, no one sounds as smart as they do on podcasts without edits. My first interview I completed had over an hour of audio to sort through. Whether it was getting tongue tied or saying a lot of “umms,” editing becomes your best friend. I remember listening to a podcast on NPR where the host talked about the magic of editing. He demoed the original clip along with the edited version, and yes, NPR hosts and guests are smart, but they’ve got a lot of great sound technicians to make sure they sound extremely smart. Likewise, homegrown podcasts with much smaller budgets use audio editing software to get clean, crisp dialogue (and to cut out that take where they pronounced a word wrong!).
Lastly, you have to speak up both literally and metaphorically. You literally have to project your voice because you want your audience to best understand you, as well as have your mic register your voice as loud enough. Metaphorically, you have to be open and honest. One reasons that podcasts have become insanely popular is the fact that hosts and guests are open and honest. Listeners are pretty good at telling whether or not someone is faking through the tone of her voice, so when you record a podcast, you have to be vulnerable. And for me, that vulnerability is what makes your listeners relate to you and your experiences more.
If you would like to listen to my podcast, be sure to follow Boba with Brooke on iTunes and Spotify, or listen on my website.
This article originally appeared as an article on my LinkedIn.
