Adventures in Podcasting

Marisa Eikenberry is the co-host of Long Distance Work Life.
Marisa is the web developer at the Kevin Eikenberry group, and she has been editing their podcasts Remarkable Leadership since 2016 and Talk Like a Leader since 2019.
Marisa goes into detail of how these shows are recorded, her process with the hosts and the differences working between shows, talking about how much editing she does for both shows, what she looks out for when she’s listening back, etc So this will be of interest to those of you who are starting to podcast and wander what is involved in working with an editor, and get some ideas of what to look out for when working on a show. (And I realised how much I enjoy talking about editing.)
As well as those business shows, Marisa is also part of the editing team that turns Twitch streams into podcasts for GodSquad Church.
10.52 mins
The podcast Long Distance Work Life started as a way of promoting the group’s new book - well, actually, Marissa had been waiting for a while to get her co-host Wayne to do a podcast. Once they decided to start the show, they thought of ways in which to differentiate themselves from other shows covering similar topics.
The amateur-expert dynamic or teacher-student is a fun one to listen to, and Pilar has experience of that in My Pocket Psych, where she plays the “voice of the public” to occupational psychologist Dr Richard MacKinnon. (Pilar also mentions The Story Grid, as an example of this.)
Marissa is having a lot of fun with this, asking questions that she knows other people have, but also those that she’s unsure of (for example, what’s the difference between remote-first and remote-friendly)
16.35 mins
Our guest is really enjoying working with Wayne Turmel, his co-host.
On top of that, she now feels a complete part of the podcast community, something she’s never felt even though she’s been editing podcasts for a long time. She used to say she was “just an editor”, which now she realises was not being fair to herself. This raises questions like who makes the podcasting community, etc.
Recording for this show has changed her mindset. For example, she’s more regularly on LinkedIn, mindfully asking questions about podcasting and networking with other podcasters. She now feels like she can be part of those conversations.
22.00 mins
Marisa has been listening to podcasts since 2014 (she mentions the comedy podcast My brother, my brother and me) including ones on podcasting, like Podcasting Business School.

Pilar mentions The Audacity to Podcast, Podcasters’ Roundtable, Buzzsprout’s Buzzcast (here’s my affiliate link to Buzzsprout hosting) and Libsyn’s The Feed.

27.05 mins
Marisa mainly listens to podcasts with more than one host, or a host n conversation. Something she’s struggling with at the moment is taking up enough space in the conversation and also delivering the intros and outros, which would be easier if they weren’t also releasing the video version. (Pilar forgets her calls to action to...)
Past guest Myriam Hadnes talked about how she’s also learned to take the space with her guests, as a way of giving guests something to bounce off of.
It’s getting easier for Marisa with each recording, having less awkward pauses, adding to the conversation and asking better questions.

Connect with Marisa on LinkedIn.

While on her break way from base, Pilar ponders on the nature of podcasts as "personal chronicles".
I hadn’t planned a show for this week, but I made an effort to keep to a regular schedule. I’m actually not at home, so the audio will sound different and the set up is not as comfortable.
The trigger for jumping behind the microphone was listening to Daniel Aragay in Haciendo el Sueco, where he talks about his time in Sweden. Recently he commented on a Twitter conversation, after a person shared a strange experience when he stayed with a Swedish family a long time ago.
As podcasters, we have the opportunity to set the record straight when people are talking about something with no access to the context - in this case, Spanish people talking about life in Sweden. In some cases, we can act as “culture bridges”, giving access to people from our country of origin to another culture.
We decide how much of ourselves we bring into our podcast, although it’s a shame when some hosts decide to leave most of themselves out of the conversation. Podcasting is such an intimate medium, that it seems like a missed opportunity. But there is no right or wrong.
Listeners also have a preference, with some enjoying those shows where they really feel like they get to know the host, while some prefer to get the information in a straight forward way.
By the way, my friend Simon and I are putting together an audio course. We’ve been working on the material as a text-based programme, but when we got to record some additional audio for it, we ended up with something that sounded more like the audio version of the course. We realised that the material would work as an audio-first course, delivered by both of us together, so we’re giving that a try.
Going back to the theme of podcasters bringing a lot of themselves and their lives to the show, I’ve recently come across Beyond Retirement, where the host started the podcast when she was about to retire, and now she’s retired. She’s talking to people at the same stage of life as she is in, and with a similar mindset. (I really like in her show how she has an interview with a guest in one episode, and then releases a solo episode with reflections on the interview.)
A podcast can be a “personal chronicle”, a kind of memoir. This show is a bit like this, and it also gives me the opportunity to talk about podcasting.
When we bring ourselves to the show, our listeners get to know us, and this is an example of “asymmetrical intimacy”, where listeners feel like they know us very well but we don’t really know them.
And don’t forget to let listeners know how they can get in touch with you! You can get in touch through the contact form here.

Get in touch if you would like some coaching and advice yourself or connect on Twitter @Inpodcasting
If you want to support this show and are looking for a media host: I recommend Buzzsprout, and for web hosting, I recommend Bluehost (affiliate links).

Myriam Hadnes is the host of the Workshops Work podcast, where she talks to guests about facilitation and collaboration. We also talk about the role the podcast has taken in developing her business and community, sponsor breaks and how she uses a visual map to guide people into her show.
Workshops Work was part of her business communication, and a year and a half into her podcast, she actually changed the name of her business to match the podcast.
Her first guest was her mentor, who also introduced Myriam to workshops. She then reached out to her close community and friends.
The show structure has become freer now - Myriam has gone from scripting all her questions and following the script, to sending some questions through to give "the illusion of preparation" and be able to follow the conversation.

17.50 mins

Through podcasting, Myriam has also learned "the art of taking space", a concept she came across through improv. By being vulnerable and sharing her own perspective, she supports her guest helping them to play with the content, instead of being responsible for creating the content for the episode. Being of service to the other person is also something that comes from facilitation.
Myriam edited the first 25 episodes herself, which is important to do to get a real sense of your own presence and the conversation dynamics. "We don't want a thinking break to be confused with a tech issue." She used to take 4 hours per hour of episode.

27.30 mins

When conversations are long, the episodes are split into two shows, as Myriam asked her audience about their preferred length - they said 40 minutes and that it would be good for longer episodes to be split into two. This shows there's all kind of preferences, and it's worth asking your audience.
32.36 mins

A few years ago, Myriam went to a conference and was so dissatisfied that eventually, after being prompted by a guest, she set up her own conference. She invited her guests to do something at an event, where they would do something that had never done before.
The first 24 hour festival took place in November 2020, and now it's evolved into this whole thing, the Never Done Before community and events: https://neverdonebefore.org/

40.50mins

Myriam talks about how she decided to get her listeners used to "sponsors breaks" since the first episode so that, if at some point she could sell sponsorship onto the show, the audience would already be used to it.

46.50 mins
Myriam has a wonderful visual map on Mural for her episodes. You can find it here: https://bit.ly/podcast-map ,
Finally, Myriam talks about what she likes best about having her show: those moments when her and the guest forget that they are recording a show and have memorable, or incredibly fun conversations. Some of her favourite moments are her conversation with Meg Bolger, and Howard Gray.

You can connect with Myriam on LinkedIn, and also check out her site Workshops Work.

If you want to hear from me (Pilar) in between episodes, you can sign up to the Adventures in Podcasting newsletter here: https://www.adventuresinpodcasting.com/newsletter/

Yay, episode 20 and I'm celebrating by bringing in my first guest, Craig Wealand, host of Aprender Inglés con Reza y Craig, a podcast that teaches English as a foreign language. I co-hosted En clave de podcast with Craig, and we learned loads, about podcasting and about the podcast-sphere in Spain, where Craig is based.

Craig's show is aimed at mainly Spanish speakers with an intermediate or advanced level of English, who want to improve it. They cover grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, they give listening practice...

15.05 MINS
Feedback is so important for a podcaster and Craig's show gets a lot of it. Their listeners tend to get in touch when they have a question or a suggestion for a topic. Pilar gets lots of feedback for Gastronostalgia, but it's all from friends and family, so she's waiting for the listener pool to evolve.
19.36 MINS
Pilar wants to know what Craig's recording set up looks like, as Reza goes to his house to record. By the way, Craig is very proud that they've never missed a weekly episode in all these years! During the pandemic when they recorded online, the challenge was to get good audio quality at Reza's home, because he's not set up for recording.
Craig has a set of PR40 microphones and some Samson Q2Us for guests. He used to have a DBX 286s audio processor, which blocks out some of the breathing sounds, but now he uses a Rodecaster Pro. He also has a portable set up.
They sit at opposite sides of the desk, to avoid bleeding from one microphone to the next. They rely heavily on facial and body gestures to guide the conversation. The whole experience is a social occasion for them, and you can hear that in the conversation.
30.45 MINS
Craig runs the final mp3 file through Otter.io, and offers the transcript for his Patrons. Pilar wants to know how much work Craig does on the text file to correct the script, which also has some Spanish words of course. As an English teacher, he corrects a lot of the punctuation! Craig does the quality control as he's working on the transcript.

39.06 MINS
Craig recently hit episode 400! And they've committed to another 400 episodes more!
It's important to celebrate the different milestones as you progress through your podcast, because it's not easy to podcast consistently, but it's difficult to come up with different ways of marking these episodes. For episode 400, they talked about the different verb tenses.

48.13 MINS
Given that they were recording in March 2022, Pilar wants to know how Craig deals with current affairs in the show, when things happen that are very much on the public's mind. They try to avoid them as they risk not making the show evergreen. However, they did record some episodes specifically about these events after people asked for them, like Brexit or the pandemic.

Pilar asks Craig whether he's ever thought of giving up the podcast, he hasn't! Even during difficult times, they've managed to make that weekly commitment.

To end the episode, Craig shares a memorable moment, when he met a loyal listener from Chile when he visited Valencia.
Connect with Craig:

Or look for Ingles podcast in your podcast app, or visit the website https://www.inglespodcast.com/ or connect on Twitter, where he is @mansiontwit .

Get in touch with Pilar through www.adventuresinpodcasting.com
Or connect on Twitter @InPodcasting
Sign up to the Adventures in Podcasting newsletter here.

In this episode, Pilar shares her failed attempts at releasing an episode in Spanish in a dubbed version, and what she's ended up doing instead.
(If you have any experience doing this, I'd love to hear from you: https://www.adventuresinpodcasting.com/contact/ )

Hello, it's been a while, and there's a reason for that.
I recently interviewed Cristian Curto and Roberto Shlesinger, the hosts of the Spanish-language podcast "La Gran Renuncia" (The Great Resignation), all about remote work. We did the show in Spanish, as they're more comfortable speaking in that language than in English, and I thought, hey, with the explosion of generative AI, I'll be able to come up with something to offer to my regular listeners!
(The episode is now out, it's episode 75.)

I initially used Eleven Labs, but I found the results disappointing due to the strong accents and inconsistencies in the AI-generated voices. I even experimented with dubbing my own voice, which was a surreal experience hearing myself with a completely different accent.
You can listen to some samples of that, at around 07.11mins, and here's the video I refer to there.
I then thought of translating the transcript, so I looked for a good transcription solution. I explored various options, including Riverside.fm, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify for Podcasters. However, each platform had its limitations, such as the inability to download transcripts or the absence of speaker labels.

In the end, I transcribed the conversation using AssemblyAI, copied the transcript into Google Docs, and then used the built-in translation tool to convert the text from Spanish to English. The resulting translation was quite good, with only minor issues like incorrect name translations. I've fixed some of it, but not all, and I have left the US spelling in there.
(If you have any experience doing this, I'd love to hear from you: https://www.adventuresinpodcasting.com/contact/ )