I don’t listen to podcasts.
For someone with two separate podcasts – one past, one present – I should have developed a habit by now of listening to what others are producing. However, I never intended on being part of a podcast, much less two. Yet here I am, on International Podcast Day, three-quarters of the way through season four of The Architecture Geeks podcast.
How did I end up here?
One of my business partners came to me in fall 2009 with the idea that our firm needed a video podcast. She had dived off into social media, and a video podcast was just the next piece of the puzzle. Except for someone who doesn’t like having his picture taken, being on video was not on my list of things to do before I die. Which is what probably would have happened on the podcast.
However, I did have a friend (Hey Candy Samples!) in New York who had been producing his own podcast and had even written his own theme song. At least if we did an audio podcast, we would have some backup to guide us through the process. And with that, The Architecture Happy Hour podcast was born.
My only request is for no one to ever listen to the first episode issued in November 2009. The episode that we recorded four times in various locations to try and get the sound right. The episode we wrote out in full and read in full, sounding like a couple of wooden dolls. But you have to start somewhere.
Fast forward to mid-2010, and we pretty much had everything figured out. Not much longer, and we were simply jotting down a few bullet points and firing off an episode. Happily, more people were podcasting, so the recording and editing software had become more user-friendly. Although I still spent more time editing that one would expect, especially me.
Naturally when my current co-host Matthew suggested what would become The Architecture Geeks podcast, the thought of doing another podcast didn’t faze me at all. I had helped write, produce, and co-host one for 6-1/2 years. Jumping into the arena again would be a breeze.
What neither of us anticipated would be a pandemic that would prevent us from recording in the same room. Although we did that for a while and enjoyed being face to face and catching one another’s reactions, not breathing on each other became paramount for our safety. But there’s an app for that, or at least software.
We also didn’t expect to produce 35 episodes in 2020. For the first half of the year, we were releasing an episode almost weekly. For which I must sing Matthew’s praises. Episode ideas seemed to pour out of him – something he’s still pretty good at doing. All I had to do was keep up with the editing.
We finally reached what felt like a reasonable number of episodes planned for 2022, and we will continue that into 2023. And along the lines of The Architecture Happy Hour, we’re finding ourselves writing less and working a bit more off the cuff. Makes for more challenging editing from time to time. And after listening to each episode three or four times, makes me even less likely to listen to a podcast.
Even my own.
Even on International Podcast Day.
