Podcast Reflection

The idea of making a podcast was very daunting to me at first. I wasn’t sure what system to use, I had no idea what to talk about, and I really did not want to record myself speaking again. However, I did feel a bit curious and interested in making a podcast as well. 

I found that I could use Garage Band, which was included on my MacBook when I bought it, through simply googling how to record a podcast on a Mac. What I really like about Garage Band is that it does most of the work for you! Basically all I had to do was hit record and then stop when I was done. There were a few different recording type choices and I chose the “narration” type because all the others had a certain amount of echo to your voice when you talked. I recorded my three sections of the podcast, lined them all up together to my liking, and then saved the product. Finally I had to figure out how to put it into a format I could submit it in and I came up with mp3 after some research. I then found a youtube video on how to do this with  a Garage Band recording and that is the technical process of how I made my podcast! 

I have a few podcasts that I’ve listened to in the last few years, “Front Porch with the Fitzes” being one of my favorites, and I always thought it would be fun to make one myself. In my head, though, I would never make one on my own. There would be someone I could collaborate with or talk to. 

I always liked how in “Front Porch with the Fitzes,” it feels like you are right there with them in their dining room, or wherever they are during that episode, a part of their family for those 45 minutes or so. They have a general guideline for each episode and they plan for guest speakers to join them, but for the most part everything is unscripted and natural. You are invited into their real family dynamic.

I wanted this rawness for my own podcast. I made a general script of what would happen and who would be there, but mostly I wanted to just hit record and see what happened. 

I came up with the idea of interviewing my mom when I was trying to come up with a topic for the podcast. I wanted it to be about relationships somehow since that is the subject of my website, but I wasn’t sure what topic to have. All of a sudden I thought of simply interviewing someone about their own relationships. It would make the dialog flow much easier for me not having to talk by myself and it would be much more interesting, in my opinion. I was so grateful to finally have an idea after praying about it for a while. 

After that first spark of inspiration the podcast script came to me easily. I would have a brief introduction from myself on a separate recording to start. Then would come the main recording section of me interviewing my mom. We would start by introducing her and I would ask a few fun questions for the audience to get to know her better and then we would jump right into the relationship questions. 

I didn’t ask her all the questions and I knew I wouldn’t when I wrote down all my question ideas. My mom is a lengthy talker and when you ask her a question by the end of her answer she doesn’t even remember the question, so I knew she would jump around when talking and I wanted to see where she went. I didn’t want to restrict her or guide her too much. I simply wanted her to feel free to lead the conversation to whatever she felt led to talk about at that time. That being said, I knew we would only get to a few of my questions and I was totally fine with that. As the podcast went on I just listened and as I felt we needed a new question I looked at my script for one that I liked at the time. 

Immediately when we finished my mom wanted to scrap the whole thing and redo it. I knew that would be her desire after hearing herself talking and I just laughed saying, “No mom I love it. Those were your first reaction answers to my questions which is just what I wanted.” 

You can tell throughout the podcast that she is a bit uncomfortable and unused to being recorded or interviewed, and you can also tell how unused to interviewing and recording I am! I didn’t want to try to edit that out, though, or redo a hundred times until that was gone. I wanted that uncomfortable sense to be there because in reality it’s very uncomfortable to be vulnerable. I wanted listeners to relate to this and feel like what they were hearing was something real. I didn’t want it to be a perfectly sounding podcast, edited and scripted to make the listener hear what I wanted them to hear. 

I was the creator of the podcast, but in a way I wanted to take away those definitions of listener and speaker to put us all on equal standing. I wanted us all to be the listeners. I wanted my podcast to simply be a glimpse of reality. A dialog both familiar, but new to the listener. Familiar in the sense of family and relating to your own relationships. New in the sense of its rawness and unedited quality.

The last part of my podcast was another separate recording of me concluding everything and thanking the listener. I reflected back on what I had heard and felt like there had been a theme of selflessness in my mom’s answers. Over and over she brought her relationships back to that solution. Selfishness was a key destroyer, if not THE key destroyer, of relationships. I found that I wholeheartedly agreed with this.

Overall I enjoyed the making of this podcast. I think it taught me a little of the technical recording process which was new to me and a bit daunting at first. It also brought me just that much closer to knowing my mom better which I always enjoy. I hope whoever listens to it feels like it was at least slightly interesting and enjoyable!