Since you last posted in May of 2015? Whew, ah, let's see... well from a purely selfish standpoint, I:

--Won the Cellar Fantasty Football League for the first time since its inception 10 years ago
--Got an agent and sold my book
--Did some NPR interviews and tried not to sound like an idiot
--Let my adult stepdaughter move in with us while she overcomes 18 years of emotional abuse and learns some major life skills on the fly
--100% taught said stepdaughter to drive
--Became inordinately interested in self-driving cars
--Maybe sold a second book, my editor still has another 5 days to respondbeforethedeadlineandIcan'tbreathe*cough*
--Took the kids to DisneyWorld for the first time
--Did some laundry

How about you, hp? What you been up to?

Hey man. You missed the maturation of the cellar as a whole.

We're like an old married couple now.

Sounds like you've been killing it, Clod! Way to exist.

Also from a selfish standpoint:

--I've mostly been writing. I won a Sydney award from the NYT and a Golden Giraffe from The Browser, those felt nice.
--I've learned how to narrate (largely by leveraging home-grown technology), so I've been reading my own podcast episodes. I've also been making the music for them, which is fun.
--I've been approached about hosting history-oriented television shows, but I'm not as good in front of the camera as our belumbered lumberjim.
--I've been approached by Hollywood producers who want to make movies from my articles, but I declined to let them own my soul, so they seem to be just side-stepping me.
--I got to attend a test of NASA's SLS system with a bunch of astronauts and NASA execs. That was neato torpedo.

That's all I can think of right now. I watched "Life Itself" today, the documentary about Roger Ebert, and it was great, but hard to watch, and it put me in a bit of a funk. I've long been fond of Ebert, and I was flattered when he linked to my works on a couple of occasions, so I was extra sad when he passed. So that's given my day an odd shape.

I keep thinking I need to start hanging out here again, but the up-catching is a daunting task.

Are your podcast episodes just read-aloud versions of your damn interesting articles, or are you hosting discussions with guests about your pieces?

Upcatching schmupcatching. Just tail post until you start to make sense.

I'm glad you're having a damn interesting life, brother.

Why do you embarrass us every time we have people over?

Do you see? This is why we can't have nice dwellars.

So far only the former; a narrator (sometimes me) reads the article, and then I adorn it with music and sound effects. I've tried to tinker with the latter, but people have proven surprisingly squirrely. I have found people associated with topics that might have interesting things to say, and some have agreed to chat, but then I can never get them to commit to a time and place.

I suspect that it's due in part to my severe introversion subconsciously protecting itself. But I have a good interview recording setup ready, just in case.

Tail-nouning is your answer to all of life's problems, isn't it?

Well if you need anything, Clod does professional voice work, and I do semi-pro (which means I got paid for it once) (and my best friend is an audio engineer with a vocal booth and several expen$ive mics)

I actually have a background in semi-pro broadcasting (I ran my college's radio station) and secretly, desperately, want to do a regular show.

Did you say something? I can't hear you.

My buddy has a regular radio show on the local independent community radio station in Arlington VA. Low power broadcast and internet streaming. There's got to be something like that near you.

A quick search turned up WPPM in Philly that is putting together community radio shows. As of July, they were still looking for talent.

I have a pretty good setup nowadays, though it doesn't look like much. I invested in a nice mic, and I tacked soundproofing pads all over the inside of an underutilized closet, and it acts as a serviceable one-man recording booth.

The main thing I struggle with is eliminating wet mouth noise. The only thing I've found that helps is to munch on apple slices between takes. That's part of why I haven't done any discussion-style episodes--munching apples on-mic is off-putting, but without them my voice can sound like a cat trying to escape a bucket full of gelatin dessert.

If I may ask--and I ask out of genuine curiosity, not in a lazy attempt to be inspirational--why not just start a podcast? Is it lack of time, resources, ideas, motivation, interest, other?

If you have any technical questions about podcasting I can attempt to be helpful (though I have already derailed this thread pretty horribly, so elsewhere might be better). If it's just that you prefer broadcast radio over podcasting, I would say words to urge you to let go of the past and embrace the new.

If it's a shortage of ideas or material, I may also be able to be helpful since I have a surplus of both. But I also understand the human drive to pursue one's own ideas rather than another's.

(ETA: I would never work in the broadcast industry, or anywhere close to it, again. Famous Last Words. But in fact Comcast tried to recruit me a few months ago*. I ate their liver with some fava beans.)

On these kinds of things, I think I'm actually just waiting for inspiration. I did a single ep "Pawncasters" with my pawn shop co-worker when I was at the shop, and it was just so perfect and so right. Had tremendous topics, humor, and a dynamic between the two of us. I believe it would have become popular. I haven't seen something like that again. It's like a vision. If I ever see it I'ma jump on it though.

Despite being socially retarded, I don't believe in doing a show alone. It's just not all that interesting.

There are only a few podcasters in this world who can pull off a weekly show of a single person, just talking. After a few minutes, a single voice is just not that interesting. You need another point of view, or something to reflect off of. A tinge of drama always helps.

Mike Rowe is doing a Paul Harvey "The rest of the story" style thing, but that's only about 8 minutes at a time. Plus, it's Mike Rowe. Congenial, intelligent, a great radio voice, I would listen to him read the dictionary.

This gent Mike Carano does it alone, in a weird stream-of-consciousness thought stream, and I enjoy listening to him from time to time, but I wouldn't copy that format.



*an indirect recruiter, for an uninteresting position in their advertising division (which is the only division I won't ever consider, Comcast)

Just listened to a "The Way I Heard It", Mike Rowe's "Rest Of The Story"-type thing. Very Paul Harvey-ish.

I liked it.