Podcast

Photo by Álvaro Serrano

My 5 favourite podcasts over the last 12 months

Blog, Content, Creativity, Podcast

Podcasts suffer from the same issue as Netflix. You spend more time looking for something to watch on it then actually watching something full stop. Whatever podcast platform you use the same issue pops up, so much choice and not enough curation. Have to say one site that has helped me greatly in discovering new shows is Podcast Chart. Beautiful clean interface, easily accessible download links  and one of the best curated lists of podcasts online. I’ve been listening to a ton of podcasts over the past 12 months, here’s my favourite 5 over that period, each description taken from Podcastchart.com Happy listening!

How I Built This

How I Built This is a podcast about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. Each episode is a narrative journey marked by triumphs, failures, serendipity and insight — told by the founders of some of the world’s best known companies and brands. If you’ve ever built something from nothing, something you really care about — or even just dream about this is for you. How I Built This is hosted by Guy Raz.

S-Town

S-Town is the most recent podcast from Serial and This American Life, hosted by Brian Reed, about a man named John who despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks Brian to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But when someone else ends up dead, the search for the truth leads to a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life. The audio below is an in-depth interview with it’s creator Brian Reed.

Inside VR & AR

Inside VR & AR is a deep dive into virtual and augmented reality, with the latest news, fascinating guests, product launches, and lots more. Technology titan Robert Scoble hosts this action-packed podcast, and your definitive guide to VR & AR.

Song Exploder

Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. Each episode features an artist discussing a song of theirs, breaking down the sounds and ideas that went into the writing and recording. Hosted and produced by Hrishikesh Hirway.

The Tim Ferriss Show  

Tim Ferriss is a self-experimenter and bestselling author, best known for The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been translated into 40+ languages. Newsweek calls him “the world’s best human guinea pig,” and The New York Times calls him “a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk.” In this show, he deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sports, etc.), digging deep to find the tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can use.

If you’re looking to create your own podcast I wrote a post on this last year.

Post Photo by Álvaro Serrano

You can't please them all

You can’t please them all. Here’s a way to stop trying

Blog, Content, Creativity, Podcast, Radio

You can’t please them all. You’ve poured your heart into creating something. The response is pretty good but one negative comment has popped up and now it’s all you can focus on. You start to question your work, you ask “Why don’t they like it?” and completely ignore the positive reaction to what you have achieved. Sound familiar? It’s a common problem for content creators and something that I used to constantly struggle with. Trying to please everyone. That was until I heard the story of how tv viewers reacted to Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969.

I’ve blogged before of my love for the James Altucher podcast. It’s a great show with a really solid mix of conversations ranging from marketing to meditation. One of his most recent guests was the author Ryan Holiday who was on publicising his wonderful new book Perennial Seller, a book on the art of making and marketing work that lasts. During the conversation Holiday revealed an absolute gem when it comes to creating something new and coming to terms with the fact that you will never, ever please everyone.

“When the moon landing happened,” Ryan told James, “It had 93% market share. That’s incredible. “But think about it. That means 7% of the audience turned on the TV, saw Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon and said, ‘oh, this is boring. I’m going to change the channel.”

Not everyone is going to like what you do. In fact there will always be someone who HATES what you do. Unfortunately it’s human nature to focus on the negative. You might get 50 kind social comments but it’s the one negative post that you will pour all your energy into.

Don’t.

No really, don’t.

Next time, pause, take a deep breath and remember that image of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. A man walking on the moon in 1969. Then think about the 7% who couldn’t have cared less.

Smile. Move on. You will never please everyone, even if you are walking on the moon.

How to interview a Rock ‘n’ Roll star, Howard Stern style

Blog, Content, Podcast, Radio

In my opinion Howard Stern is one of the world’s great interviewers.

In the clip below listen to his recent conversation with Liam Gallagher. Stern is fully prepped, puts his interviewee at ease and then hits his guest with an incredibly personal queston about his father. Gallagher opens up completely and it’s by no accident. Stern is a master of his craft.

This is how you interview a notoriously difficult Rock ‘n’ Roll star.

Episode 14 ‘The Outerview’ – Lynn Barber

Podcast

“The Outerview” is a podcast on the art of media interviewing. Each episode I look to explore what it takes to conduct the perfect interview from dissecting classic interviews to discussing techniques with some of the worlds leading broadcasters, podcasters and journalists. This week my guest is Lynn Barber.

Lynn Barber is widely regarded as one of Britain’s best celebrity interviewers. Her interviews have won five British Press Awards and a ‘What the Papers Say’ award. A memoir of Barber’s career as a celebrity interviewer, A Curious Career, was published in May 2014. She has written for Vanity Fair, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Observer. She now writes for the Sunday Times.

An Education, a 2009 coming-of-age drama film is based on the memoir of her life. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards in 2010, including Best Picture.

Show notes: During our conversation we discussed her interview with Jimmy Savile.

To listen back to past episodes, you can find our archive here

Views expressed do not represent the view of RTÉ.

Episode 13 ‘The Outerview’ – Craig Bruce

Podcast

“The Outerview” is a podcast on the art of media interviewing. Each episode I look to explore what it takes to conduct the perfect interview from dissecting classic interviews to discussing techniques with some of the worlds leading broadcasters, podcasters and journalists. This week my guest is Craig Bruce.

Craig is the former ‘Head of Content’ at Southern Cross Austereo in Australia. His true passion has always been the development and mentoring of young talent. He now works as a talent coach and radio consultant. His podcast ‘Game Changers‘ features intimate conversations with the men and women who have known success and failure in their radio careers. The podcast is the end result of an idea formed after working for more than 20 years in Australian radio. You can hear the latest series here

To listen back to past episodes, you can find our archive here

Views expressed do not represent the view of RTÉ.

Episode Twelve ‘The Outerview’ – Jarlath Regan

Podcast

“The Outerview” is a podcast on the art of media interviewing. Each episode I look to explore what it takes to conduct the perfect interview from dissecting classic interviews to discussing techniques with some of the worlds leading broadcasters, podcasters and journalists. This week my guest is Jarlath Regan.

London based Jarlath is a comedian and creator of the award-winning Irishman Abroad Podcast, a series of weekly conversations interviewing Irish people about their lives and insights into the experiences of Irish people abroad.

To listen back to past episodes, you can find our archive here

Views expressed do not represent the view of RTÉ.

Useful apps and tools to start podcasting

Podcast

In the last few weeks I’ve had more and more people get in contact looking for advice on how to start a podcast. Below is some links to tools and apps that are easily available to set you on your way.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Mark Twain 

The most important advice I can give to anyone who is looking to start a podcast is very simple. Just do it. You can procrastinate forever but if you have a topic or passion you want to podcast you really have to get your ducks in a row, record and release. From there you can re-edit, review and build on the initial recordings. The list below is short and sweet and will give you tools you need to get started quickly.

On the other hand if you’re looking for advice on producing a more advanced podcast/series or coaching on how to conduct a interview, get in touch here or by tweeting me @alanswan

 

*** LINKS ***

Hosting your podcast can be simply done via Transistor.FM which I highly recommend*

Even though this article is a year old Lifehacker’s guide is one of the best which covers all set up aspects.

Of course you can export the audio from your Zoom call recording but to record Skype calls or video chats I use Total Recorder For Mac users try eCamm

I edit my podcasts on Adobe Audition but you could use a free piece of software called Audacity

For a recording microphone direct via USB into your laptop I highly recommend any of the RODE mics https://www.thomann.de/ie/rode_rodecaster_pro.htm

Or if you’re on the move the Zoom recorder is the best portable recording set up you can get. This is my next Zoom purchase, hearing great things.

To clean up the levels of your audio Auphonic is a automatic audio post production web service for podcasts, broadcasters, radio shows, movies, screencasts and more.

Photo credit: Austin Distel

 

 

* This post contains affiliate links. Which means If you click through and buy something,  I will get a small percentage of the sale which goes towards hosting of this site. Updated Sept 2020.