I’ve been on a hot streak of podcasting recently. It’s been over a year since I changed the podcast format and committed to at least trying to put up an interview podcast every week. I think I’ve done that about 95% of the past year, and I’ve seen benefits well beyond what I’ve expected.
One thing I enjoy about these interviews is that in a world where short form content becomes more and more pervasive, I have the opportunity to slow down. I see the allure of short bursts of information as much as anybody, but rationally also understand that they are fools gold. Short content makes you believe that you are learning something, but information presented devoid of context is pretty much useless, and often worse than useless.
To that end, I wanted to put an addendum on a couple of recent podcasts, mostly to respond to listener feedback publicly, in the hopes of getting more listener feedback. Probably my FAVORITE part of making the podcast is the way it starts conversation with the people who listen. Imagine having a huge group of people who think at least you’re in conversation with them! It’s awesome.
Nancy Hogshead Commentary
My recent podcast with Nancy Hogshead has generated more people reaching out to me than pretty much any podcast in recent memory. That is to be expected, since we were discussing an issue that seems to generate engagement (among other things).
While I can’t say that all of the feedback on the podcast has been positive, I actually want to highlight some of the positives. It’s a fact that social media algorithms are designed to spread negative commentary to keep us engaged. We can all just complain about that (spreading our own negativity) or we can consciously choose to highlight constructive conversations.
More than one listener was upset that I had Hogshead on in the first place. They had many similar objections to the ones I voiced on the podcast, but were conflicted about giving her a platform. I can say that in careful dialog, both listeners accepted that there was some value in hearing Hogshead’s reasoning for why she messages the way she does around trans women competing in women’s sports.
There were others who disagreed with Hogshead but agreed with the idea of having her on the podcast, and felt better having understood where she was coming from, even though they still disagreed with her. That was probably if anything the value I saw in doing the podcast- not that I thought we were going to hash things out or that I was going to have some wonderful confrontational, cathartic “own”. I am learning to have empathy especially in situations where i don’t agree with someone.
Finally, I can say that Hogshead herself has been in continued dialog with me as promised, including just sharing some tips about social media engagement strategy that I appreciate and have found helpful.
Stefanie Williams Moreno
In full transparency, I did not think that my podcast with Stefanie Williams Moreno was my best work. But the response to it has been a lesson in the fact that I don’t have any idea how an audience is going to respond to a podcast.
A couple of my most loyal listeners, who are more or less producers (shout out to Stephen Andersen, who suggested the podcast with Moreno in the first place) know that I was disappointed in my own performance on the podcast. This podcast is not the first that Andersen has suggested, nor do I think it will be the last and I keep forgetting to credit him in the actual body of the podcast.
However, judging from the response that I have gotten from sharing clips of the podcast, I am reevaluating it as we speak. Some of my initial judgment was based around a feeling I had that I hadn’t gotten Moreno to show her true self.
The feedback I have gotten paints the opposite picture. Many people who I am fairly certain know her quite well seem to think the podcast captured her personality dead on. It’s a reminder that there is value in putting your work out there- you never know what the response is going to be and it can absolutely challenge your inner narrative.
Nearing 10k
One goal that I have had for the podcast is to reach a listenership of 10,000 over a given month. For context, a year ago I was getting about 3,000 downloads of the podcast per month.
Currently, I am tracking for over 10,000 in the month of July. I want to say a special thank you to all the listeners who have joined over the last year, but also to the OG listeners that go back nearly a decade.
In addition, here’s a particular thank you to the podcast “producers” who help shape the drive of the podcast month to month:
Paul Donovan
Jake Shackelford
Joel Rollings
Rob Fox
Stephen Andersen
Trever Gray
Garrett McCaffrey