The Podcast Pedant

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here yet… I’m going to be a guest at the Balticon science fiction convention this weekend, along with Mur Lafferty, Patrick McLean, and a slate of other excellent podcasters. Paul Fischer of the ADD Cast and (go figure) the Balticon Podcast is the tireless genius who’s putting all this together, and he’s just put the schedule up for panels:

Balticon 40 Podcast Panel Schedule

This puts me on six panels, and I’m also playing the title role in the podcast radio play, “Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman,” adapted from a 1950s novel by Mur Lafferty. Oh, and in case none of this is sufficient proof that I’m insane: my friend Ben has talked me into taking the train up with him.

The train. I’d forgotten that we even still had those.

In any case, it will be fun. There will be much to learn during the day and much to drink at night. If you can, join us there!

(Pedant’s Note: This is a guest essay by Chris Miller of Podiobooks.com and several other podcasts. Yes, I’m opening the Pedant up to other contributors. Have something you’d like to share? Drop me a line.)

I have a bad habit of overcommitting myself. No…wait…that’s not quite right. I have a bad habit of committing myself and then mismanaging my time. It’s a character flaw, and one that I’m working to correct. However…one of the inevitable consequences of my time mismanagement is that, sooner or later, I begin to feel as though I am being pecked to death by ducks. Everything piles up, and all I want to do it run and hide until it goes away.

I know what I should do: bear down, shoulder to the grindstone, nose to the wheel…or something like that. Still, when it all feels like the Myth of Sisyphus, I want to slink off to the local Barnes & Noble, buy a coffee, and read graphic novels.

I was starting to feel this way in February of this year. There was work to do on Podiobooks, I had my own solo podcast that was dreadfully late. I was helping Mick Bradley with his two podcasts, and was starting yet another with a friend. All of the activity had shifted from a series of welcome challenges to a collection of large, stinking seabirds hanging around my neck.

I was venting about all of this to a friend, and his question was, “Why don’t you just quit the podcasts?”

I thought about that. I could, of course. Let’s face it, few of us are getting paid to do this. It’s a colossal time-suck at times. It’s endless fiddling with settings, levels, microphones, mixing boards, all to get rid of that low-level hiss that never seems to go away. It’s the late nights, knowing you should be in bed, but you’re just not able to rest until you get the thrice-damned thing edited and posted. Damnable though it may be at 3:30 am, it’s also the coolest thing you’ve recorded to date, and you just can’t wait for people to hear it.

That’s the core of it, isn’t it? The listeners. I remember when I got the first bit of feedback about my podcast. First off, I was stunned that anyone was listening. Secondly, I was thrilled that this individual, a podcaster whom I respected, mentioned me in his show. The clincher was these words, “I’ve been listening to Chris Miller’s Unquiet Desperation. I like it. He’s got some worthwhile things to say.”

Do you recall how you felt when you were told by a fellow podcaster or a listener that they really liked your show, that it meant something to them? Inside your head, weren’t you doing your own personal Sally Field imitation? (You like me! You really like me!)

It’s like a drug, this appreciation thing, and a little goes a long way. As we continue to put out episodes, we all try to hone our craft, shape our message. We try to be a bit more profession, or we try to spice it up, keep it fresh, but still keep our audience. In some arenas, we compete with other podcasts. But at the end of the day, know that people out there like your work it enough to keep a lot of us going.

It is for me, at least. None of the podcasts that I’m on have more than two hundred listeners. I’m fine with that. I’m not the most recognizable name attached to Podiobooks.com, and I’m fine with that, too. What keeps me going is that, at this time in history, any one of us can pick up a microphone, grab a copy of Audacity, and find those like-minded folk that we would never had a chance to reach otherwise. We get meet other podcasters who have the same struggles that we do, the same self-doubting natures, the same need to speak and be heard. It’s massive, it’s global, and it’s just about the coolest thing I have ever witnessed

So, now I sit and work through my endless piles with GTD. I have my lists and my inbox, my folders and my files. I run like a not-quite finely tuned machine because this has become more than a hobby…it’s a connection to something larger than myself. To give up friends that I’ve made doing this is unthinkable. It’s worth the long hours, the days of prep, the answering of listener questions and subscriber feedback. It’s even worth the occassional argument on the email list. We’re doing something revolutionary here…never doubt it. One day, we’ll look back on all of this: we’ll see how media was changed by a bunch of “amateurs” with laptops and and a couple of microphones. We can say that we were there.

If that’s not worth it, I don’t know what is.

Thanks to the superior audacity of Evo Terra, the two of us will be speaking at the 2006 Podcast Expo in September. Our topic will be Podcasting the Written Word, which we’ve described as follows:

Combine the huge popularity of audiobooks and the open access of podcasting, shake well, and you get one of the most successful movements in new media today. Scores of authors are podcasting their work - alone or with talented narrators - to reach new audiences and bring their work alive. Two of the leaders in literary podcasting, Evo Terra of Podiobooks.com and Steve Eley of Escape Pod, discuss the joys and challenges of podcasting prose, specific technical considerations, and lessons from podcasts that have drawn thousands of listeners.

Fun? I think so. If there’s one Achilles heel to our presentation it’s that we’re scheduled at the same time as Paul Figgiani’s session on building a podcast production studio.

But you guys already know how to do that, right? So come and listen to us! I guarantee we’re twice as funny as anyone else on at 3:15 PM Friday, and our hair is better than anybody this side of Geoghegan.

So Apple released the iBook replacement today, predictably named the MacBook. It’s a hell of a machine, actually, for the price. Dual core Intel, wireless goodness, camera and Front Row. And of course Garage Band 3. It’s actually a hell of a podcaster’s machine. They’re even hyping podcasting in their tag line:

Of course, being the perverse sort that I am, I took this as the final bit of information I needed to get a MacBook Pro instead. Why? Because the MacBook has a smallish screen and ridiculously bad integrated graphics, and all accounts are that it’s unlikely to do an acceptable job with Final Cut Studio. Simply because of the display, mind you, not the CPU power. This matters to me because Soundtrack Pro is my podcast production tool of choice, and I have several ideas on the back burner which would require getting involved with the video side of things. So I planned forward and put down the extra cash. Heck, even my wife thought the better-equipped laptop would be worth it, and she’s usually the opposing force when it comes to money flow.

But that’s just me. If your comfort level is at Garage Band, or Peak, or some other dedicated sound editor that doesn’t have higher-end graphic requirements, I can’t really say anything against the MacBook. Especially for the price.

(Unless you pay $200 more just to have it in black. If I’m at a podcast con and I see you pull out your black Apple laptop and look smug about it, I will round up a mob to taunt you.)

Oh, what a frabjuous day. Not only is it my last day at my day job, but this popped up on my morning Technorati search:

Podcasts Part 2: Science Fiction or Satanic Fiction?

Tristan, a guest blogger for Shelley the Republican, is on a crusade against podcasting as the next Hot New Immoral Thing. His first article on the subject is all about the iPod and why it’s a ticking heathen time bomb:

Apple neglected to mention that every iPod ever sold included a hidden feature called “Podcasting” which they unveiled in mid 2005.

This feature allows liberal media direct access to young Americans without any of the safeguards that make TV channels like Fox News fair and balanced. A quick scan though some of America’s most popular podcasts is proof enough that a dangerous liberal minority have seized control over this influential channel.

Wow. Just wow.

But the second piece is the beautiful one to me, because he reviews my very own Escape Pod to reveal that we’re leading children down the path of perversity and occultism. He cites a few stories as examples. I don’t know what the hell the “industry standard CAPAlert scoring system” is, but EP apparently scores an 8.2 on it, which means we’re evil incarnate or something.

The blog post wraps up with a petition to the FCC to regulate podcasting, and tips for what to do if your child has become “addicted to science fiction.”

This is my favorite review ever. Now I know, for certain, that we’ve Made It.

So you’re all enjoying seeing real, podcast-related content on the Pedant? Great. The subscriber numbers started taking off about the same time, and I’ve chosen to believe it’s not a coincidence.

There probably won’t be any updates for a couple of days, though, as I’ll be in Houston meeting with these guys. You gotta love a company that flies you in for business, but picks this weekend because somebody’s doing a crawfish boil.

I gave my notice at my day job this week. That caused a stir. I gave three weeks’ notice because I wanted to give them plenty of transition time, and because I didn’t want them to think I had a problem with the company. I don’t. It’s a very good company, probably the most ethical and admirable of the Fortune 50, and I highly respect most of the people I’ve worked with. It’s just a choice between a job that pays the bills and a job that lets me follow my passion.

I realized a couple of months ago that I couldn’t keep staying up until 3 AM every night to get Escape Pod done. It was eating me up. Eventually — not right away, but soon, I knew — I’d have to make a choice between the job and the podcast. So I started formulating a strategy to ditch the job. That strategy’s paying off now.

Tell me you wouldn’t choose the same. Come on. Just try to tell me.

Just a moment ago I said:

And when you’re done, consider putting a Creative Commons blurb at the end of your own podcast. It takes all of ten seconds and letting your audience know that they’re allowed to copy your podcast and share it with their friends may inspire them to do it.

I got an e-mail from a listener that said:

“Recently it was bothering me again that I didn’t have all of your episodes in one nice spot in iTunes. However, this time the Creative Commons bit sunk in and I did something about it! Presenting… Escape Archive!“

QED. Which is Latin for, “Rock on.”

I’m getting started this weekend. In case anyone was curious, when you merge the contents of my office and my head and pile them up together, throwing away the obvious garbage, the inbox looks like this:

Tomorrow my job is to eliminate that pile.
Happy Easter, everyone.

Yesterday’s Rocketboom has a very solid interview with Russ Holliman about his startup Podcast Ready and the stuff they’re doing to make podcast subscription easier and more portable. A client that lives on your MP3 player, a Web site for anywhere-anytime feeds access and social “friends” sharing, and a client-side one-click button that works on any podcast site are just some of the features. Oh, and the MP3 players with their software pre-loaded are about to go on sale at major retailers.

Since their PR machine is rolling into full swing, I don’t see any reason to keep quiet about it now: these are the guys I’m doing that contract work for. Nothing on the “outside world” side yet — I can’t point to anything on their site and say “Yeah, I built that” — but I’ve been contributing some maintenance utilities, etc. Russ is a great guy, and I’d say that even if he wasn’t giving me opportunities that might soon allow me to work from home and get more done with podcasting.

Because I have a business relationship with them, I don’t expect to talk about them here too much. I know that may sound contrary, but one of my driving intents with this site is to present highly personal but trustworthy opinions and advice. My take on Podcast Ready is very positive, but also biased for reasons other than their product quality. Therefore I wouldn’t expect you to take anything good I said at full face value; and I won’t say anything bad about someone I’m working for.¹

So to offset any future laconicism, I’ll say it now, with spirit fingers: These guys are making cool stuff. Check them out. And if you have friends and family that just Don’t Get the podcasting thingamahoosit, you could do worse than to point them at Podcast Ready.

1. Yeah, I bitch about the day job. But have I named them? No. And I actually have no beef with the company itself; it’s just not the lifestyle I want right now. ↩

Thanks to the ineffable¹ Mur Lafferty for letting me know that she, I, and several other great SF and literary podcasters are in the current issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, in James Patrick Kelly’s column “On the Net.” Here’s the article online.

Jim Kelly’s a podcaster himself, reading his own fiction, so the article’s a lot more grounded in reality than many podcasting articles. He does find time to be snarky, however:

It’s been my personal experience, alas, that it’s a hell of a lot easier for me to say something stupid than it is to write something stupid; rarely can I listen to an interview I’ve given without cringing. On some podcasts I’ve listened to, the quantity of chatter seems to matter more than the quality of thought. Oftentimes these shows will consist of two or more speakers who seem to be modeling themselves on drivetime shockjocks. They interrupt and insult one another, often in the process losing their train of thought. They crack wise about sex and beer and skiffy flicks and reward each other with guffaws in a kind of grotesque comedic codependency.

Then follows a slightly overURLed summary of the Blogger-to-podcast process, and a list of Jim’s favorite podcasts. Mur, Michael & Evo, Paul Jenkins and Andy Doan get well-deserved props. And he echoes my opinion on Michael Stackpole: a great insider’s view, but sometimes you just want to say “Yes, but…“

Oh, and:

Escape Pod <http://escapepod.org> is one of the most ambitious SF podcasts and probably my current favorite. Produced by Steve Ely, it bills itself as “The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine” and features regular readings of short and flash fiction. Much of what you can hear on Escape Pod are “reprints” previously published in print venues and performed by Steve’s talented stable of readers.

It may be overproud to admit this,² but this is the second time recently I’ve been mentioned in Asimov’s. Jim had a column on online audio fiction in January that also shouted out Escape Pod. He was so nice both times that I don’t think I’ll ever bring myself to tell him how my name is spelled. And does it really matter? He got the URL right. That’s what we should want to tell the world: not who we are, but what we’re creating.

1. You don’t want to eff with her. ‘Cause she’ll eff you up. ↩
2. I.e., “It may be typical of Steve to admit this…” ↩