I just got word of the impending release of an excellent podcast series out of Canada. As soon as it is out I'll let you know. The first set of stories will interest you, and includes an interview with PZ Myers. The second set will include an interview with Yours Truly. But other than those two blemishes, the podcasts really are quite good.
In the mean time, we are currently planning a podcast production which I can't give you details of but it involves Genie Scott of the National Center for Science Education and me. That should be fun.
Finally, it is no secret that the Minnesota Atheists Talk Radio Show, of 9:00 AM on Sunday Morning fame, is no longer running. I had the honor of being the last guest. No, it is not true that I was a guest and then someone heard the show and said "OMG, this sucks! We gotta shut this done!"
Anyway, the plan has been to shut down the radio show and start up a podcast instead. MN Atheists members and friends have been contacted and invited to a meeting to discuss this, and the meeting is tonight.
If you have any input, it would be much appreciated!?!?
Do you listen to podcasts? Would you listen to ours? What kinds of things should we talk about? Should there be video? How can we make this an excellent project? What should we avoid?
Please comment below or send me an email.
Comments
I listen to podcasts often -- Skeptoid and Skeptics Guide most regularly presently. The format and regularity of your episodes is probably paramount. Also, pick a length and stick with it (I like 30-45 mins personally, but whatever suits you). Everything else (e.g. theme songs etc) is gravy.
Posted by: Jason Thibeault | July 16, 2009 2:37 PM
I'll be at the meeting tonight. :)
Posted by: Kammy | July 16, 2009 2:40 PM
Is there wiggle room on the length? Like, they vary between 35 and 45 minutes? Or by 10% or something?
Posted by: Greg Laden | July 16, 2009 2:43 PM
I listen to quite a few podcasts. I listened to the MN Atheists show as a podcast and I look forward to its return. On the episodes where you were a guest, I thought you did a great job and they were interesting and informative, so I would certainly give your own podcast a listen.
I currently watch exactly zero video podcasts. If yours were video only, I likely wouldn't be a regular viewer.
As for topics, I'd suggest: get experts and have them talk about their field. You can't go wrong there. There are already quite a few "rehash this weeks science news" podcasts, so I'd avoid that.
Two of my favorite podcasts are "Astronomy Cast" and "In Our Time". Some sort of a meld between interview the experts and listener submitted questions and answers would be interesting. If such a podcast had a bias towards anthropology, that would be cool too.
Avoid lots of interlude music as well as a long musical intro and outro. Oh, and make it meaty :)
Good luck!
Posted by: badthing | July 16, 2009 2:49 PM
Yeah, more wiggle room is available obviously than fixed time blocks like on radio or TV (since you get to set every episode's length), but the more you try to keep it to an approximate time, I understand, helps you plan out what to talk about. Just don't swing wildly from 15 mins to 2 hrs. 35-45 mins per episode is a good range.
Besides, you always want to leave them wanting more (and you're pretty skilled at that already so that should be a given). And if the audience is exhausted by the end of it, that's obviously not a good thing.
Posted by: Jason Thibeault | July 16, 2009 2:58 PM
I'll be there, but not untuil 7:00 or so. I have ben in contact with some pretty cool people who would love to do interviews (including a Hellfire Metamagician from Australia,)with us.
I think that one thing we will be able to do is break the podcast in sections for people who don't always want to listen to an entire show. And we have a professional composer doing the theme music. (Be there tonight Brent?)
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | July 16, 2009 3:15 PM
And a Skepchick. Carrie's going to try to make it.
Posted by: Stephanie Z | July 16, 2009 3:37 PM
I listen to many, many podcasts. I'm a computer "professional" so I end up sitting in front of my laptop a lot.
I listen to a handful of skepticasts; mainly TSGU, Skepticality, and Skeptoid. I'm subscribed to the newly-minted Non-sense podcast, but I don't know how regular they're gonna be. I can always use more.
As for vidcasts, I'm subscribed to Mr. Diety, Brian Brushwood's Scam School, and Captain Disillusion, which are generally in the skeptical bent as well.
The rest are pretty much all RPG podcasts.
I'm not subscribed to the This Modern Life podcast, oddly enough, considering it's apparently very popular. I do watch Dan Carlin's Hardcore History feed though, which I hear is in the top ten, by some criteria.
I think you should definitely continue as a podcast. You'll reach more people that way, and I personally love being able to re-listen and rewind when I miss something. Will you still be using the MN Atheists FeedBurner feed that I just subscribed to?
I eagerly await your new episodes.
Posted by: jdac | July 16, 2009 3:49 PM
Stephanie: Tim just IM'ed me... They'll be there.
Everyone else: Excellent suggestions keep 'em coming!!!!!
Posted by: Greg Laden | July 16, 2009 3:51 PM
i lieks teh podkasts. nom
ahem
Seriously though I would definitely listen to a podcast that you guys make, you're all awesome.
I don't have much new to add but I'll second the suggestions about length and 'science news'.
I enjoy listening to podcasts but I find that if they go on for too long I have a hard time keeping my attention on them because it's all audio and I'm a rather visual person. I guess along those same lines I might suggest not having one person talk for too long at a time, sort of break it up with questions or whatnot, but that's just me.
And about the 'science news' bit, maybe one or two interesting things that happened in the week would be ok if they were really important but I agree that there are already a lot of people who talk about the weeks events so it's not really necessary.
Viewer/listener questions would be great too!
Can't wait to listen :)
Posted by: Jodi | July 16, 2009 5:04 PM
I listen to a number of podcast (20 different ones). But only to the ones I can download into my iPod as I work very weird hours so listen to them while working or driving.
So if it can't be directly downloaded then no good.
Posted by: CybrgnX | July 16, 2009 5:38 PM
CybrgnX, that is one of the main features we will provide. (Just for you.)
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | July 16, 2009 6:36 PM
An additional question: have you guys thought of joining a podcast network? I don't recall TSGU, Skepticality or Skeptoid being on any podcast networks, but Michael A. Stackpole's "The Secrets" is, I believe, a member of The Sci-Fi Podcast Network. Apparently it works for him.
I don't know if it'll make sense for you; I think some of them have standards on profanity and such, and you'd have to play their bumpers occasionally, for the putative benefit of having more traffic directed your way.
Posted by: jdac | July 16, 2009 7:43 PM
Say "fuck" a lot and I'll listen. That was only half serious. I think TSGU is a nice model. I presume that still most podcast listeners are still younger so it wouldn't hurt to have a younger person on there regularly that gets pop-culture references. Rebecca Watson is wonderful at this. Steve Novella can be talking about something sciency and possibly dry and Rebecca will very wittily spout off a pop culture reference that is related to what another host is saying. I think being at least a little edgier than Atheists Talk would be helpful for a podcast popularity.
As for video, I think that could be a good idea. You could post the video on YouTube (or a better place) and also have the audio for the podcast.
Posted by: Steve Ulven | July 16, 2009 8:01 PM
Yeah, but if you try to publish both as a vidcast and audiocast, you may be giving up opportunities for editing. Since Atheists Talk is coming to podcasting from a live format, your expertise may make that a non-issue, but if you're also changing your recording setup, Skype outages and the like will be a problem that editing can ameliorate.
Also, you may want to check out Ustream, so you can announce your recording times and allow people to listen in and chat with you during recording. It might make a good substitute from the live call-in format. Some gaming podcasts occasionally indulge in it.
Hope you find that helpful...
Posted by: jdac | July 16, 2009 9:11 PM
I listen to about 10 podcasts and would definitely listen to the MN Atheists one -- as long as it's downloadable so that it can be accessed during "dead" time like bus travel.
In terms of format I think moving off the radio will let you be a bit more conversational, swear a bit more etc -- which is probably a good thing for podcasts. There were a few issues with the format (I think the MN Atheist radio show had by far the longest ad break of any podcast I've heard) -- so if/when you break free of the radio format I think your audience will skyrocket.
Posted by: Michael | July 16, 2009 9:39 PM
I'd say try to put in the odd section on something contemporary. George Hrab has his "Moron of the Week" but I was thinking something more substantial about local or national (or even international) issues, for example, people promoting nonsense such as vaccine scaremongers and any upcoming local psychic fairs (or a report on a visit to a psychic fair). Of course such things don't have to be shoehorned in every week.
Aside from that, just about anything will do. :)
Posted by: MadScientist | July 17, 2009 8:06 AM
This is great, keep the suggestions coming! We did meet last night, and I can already see that some of the suggestions above are going to be well addressed. It is not my place to relay details from the meeting, but I think you will enjoy what is going to come out of this. However, nothing is set in stone, things are still developing, and one thing that is fairly likely is that we will have a format that is flexible and dynamic.
This would also be a good time to start suggesting possible guests!
Posted by: Greg Laden | July 17, 2009 8:11 AM
I haven't been listening to podcasts, but for you I'll start.
Twenty minutes is a good length. It's the duration of an average errand or the amount of time left over in lunch hour after eating and other necessities.
Rationalism.
How to be a responsible citizen of the world.
The blinkers of custom: how hard it is to see something that's not there, from females in responsible jobs to life without bowing to an invisible Emperor. History of religions. Psychology of religion. Benefits of religion for the priestly class. How easy it is to delude someone. How hard it is to call back a hoax {lie, myth, urban legend, ghost story, new religion}; the visible accretion of plausible detail to figures we know are mythical; the attribution of miracles to former gods and new saints (Che Guevera, f'r'instance). Scam-proofing. Scams, flim-flam, logical fallacies, prestidigitation, etc. And this week you can throw in the fact that the Prime Minister of Canada accepted a magic wafer at the memorial service for a former governor general and then pocketed it (he's an evangelical protestant).
Science.
Gee-whizzery; interesting applications of technology; new medical treatments; unusual creatures; transitional forms; principles of evolutionary biology including some of the simple mathematical experiments that have been done, e.g. streams in South America, the more predators of guppies, the more subdued the male guppy's color; examples of recent speciation; the branch & prune pattern of evolution. (Similar treatment for any other field of science, e.g. why an adult hits the ground 32 times harder than a toddler.) Basic laws of phyics (why not to tailgate). Basic probability.
Posted by: Monado | July 18, 2009 2:56 AM
Sorry for being late to the post (behind on my feeds).
I listen to about a dozen or so podcasts on my runs to and from work so thought I'd add my perspective.
1) Short Intros: Maybe 5 seconds or so of music to let me know I have the right podcast but I don't need 1-3 min of intro like some casts have. I know which podcast I chose to listen to and don't need 3 minutes of intro to remind me. And if I'm listening to a few of your shows in a sequence the intro becomes annoying very quickly.
2) Limited idle chitchat: You can get away with more chitchat than on radio but not too much. For instance I find skepticality spends a lot more time in idle chat than I like. Chatting about the topic is fine but just chatting in general feels like a waste of airtime.
3) Sound Quality: This is kind of an obvious one, most casts do well with the hosts though guests can often be a problem. Particularly for me since I run and have limited attention I find poor sound quality can really make it hard to follow.
4) Not too intensive: This is more of a personal preference. Since I generally listen while running I find some casts are too intensive to follow. Note this really is just personal preference and when I'm listening while driving I generally prefer a higher information bandwidth since I have more attention to spare.
5) Limited Troop Rallying: One things that annoys me with a lot of the skeptic/rationalist podcasts is how they keep extolling the virtues of skepticism and rationality. It's sometimes fun when I'm reading a quick blog post, or if it pops up in an unexpected place (ie a media source or non rationalist podcast) but when I'm listening to a podcast by atheists for atheists the last thing I want is the people talking about how great atheists are. That's something I hope is common knowledge among the audience and it feels patronizing to be told.
For example if you got an interview with someone associated with all the school board stuff in Texas I wouldn't be interested in "They want a creationist! Creationism is bad because ...", I'd rather hear "They want a creationist! So we're fighting this by ...".
At the end of the day I want to hear interesting people talking about doing interesting things. Since this one will likely be focused on atheism topics I would enjoy are things like a good civil debate with an accomodationist. If there's not much atheist related going on than don't be afraid to chat for a while with a researcher about some cool science and just ignore religion entirely.
Note I'm afraid I never actually heard an episode of the radio program in question so can't really comment on what it did.
Posted by: Aaron Luchko | July 23, 2009 11:23 AM