Late to the Podcast Party
A few months ago a colleague started a podcast and was nice enough to share it with me. I have long been fascinated by the idea of the podcast, but have always felt podcasts were reserved for scholarly discourse by the "experts". Since I was no expert, save for maybe an expert at overspending at Target; podcasting was simply one digital platform that was not for me. However, upon immersing myself in my coworker's podcast my perspective started to shift. I would describe his program as very entertaining with Seinfeldian (Seinfeld-like) quick wit and tongue-in-cheek humor. Still, I wasn't ready to jump on the podcast train. After all, he is an English teacher, published author, and apparently a really hilarious guy. Sadly, I am lacking in all of the aforementioned. So, as inspiring as his podcast was, it reaffirmed my belief that I was not podcast-ready.
A month ago, I was asked to help out at the Newsela booth at the International Society of Technology Education (ISTE) conference in Chicago, Illinois. A young man spoke with me for a few minutes then asked if I would be interested in being interviewed for his podcast. I said yes before I even realized it and gave him my contact information. I would say 97% of me was praying I'd never hear from him, while the other 3% was slightly intrigued. A week later I participated in the interview and had to admit it was kinda cool. Still, the guy who interviewed me was a professional, knew what questions to ask, and had all the fancy equipment. He could be a master podcaster, but I was not ready to ride the podcast train.
Finally, two days ago, I came across a blog retweet from a member of my professional learning network. The blog post suggested ways to slow down summer, one of which was to create a summer bucket list. I'd never attempted a bucket list before, but if it could somehow slow down summer I was gamed. I started my list and to my surprise, the first thing I put down was "create a podcast". Huh, what? I relented because I felt like I was being stalked by the ghost of future podcasts. This nightmare had to end. I needed this to crash and burn, so I could finally move on with my life. At last, I downloaded the Anchor app and began my inaugural episode; for what was sure to become the world's worst podcast ever - my podcast.
I recorded - rambled a lot - deleted segments, watched a few tutorials in the Help section, and rambled some more. Finally, after about 2 1/2 hours I completed my first podcast. And you know what? It wasn't awful. Looking back now I feel silly that I avoided this medium for so long. Not only is podcasting a great way to discuss, reflect and share, but it is actually fun.
I don't know for sure that I will podcast again, or that my recording will reach millions of people (or even 1 poor soul), but I what I DO know is that being late to podcast party is better than never arriving at the podcast party at all.
Check out the InnovatEd Learning podcast at https://anchor.fm/innovatedlearning.