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Microphone: Rode Wireless Micro USB-C Lav Mic.
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The Mute Function Is More Useful Than AI (In Podcasting).
I’ve found myself more than a little down-in-the-mouth of late, reading and listening to all the discussions around AI in Podcasting, and its potential impact on our medium. With prominent voices in the space even going as far as to suggest that the human element of Podcasting may soon be superseded by AI and ASI Agents.
Now, whether or not you fell that that particular line of thinking is correct, is actually not the point of today’s post, I’m simply here to remind you that the thoughts of a singular Technologist (or a group of Technologists) can only affect a Podcaster to the extent that we allow it to. You have the option to simply disengage in conversations that suggest that the days of human connection are numbered Podcasting, and if you’re not willing to give at least part of your Craft over to AI then you’re going to fall so far behind that failure is inevitable. You can just shut all that stuff out.
TL;DR: Save all the energy that you might otherwise spend on arguing with people on Reddit, Discord, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. about AI, and just go make more cool sh*t!
The other Short-long of it: It’s often easier to unleash your creative flair onto the world in the form of a well-constructed rebuttal to the prognosticators in your medium, but just try to redirect that momentary frustration into ongoing fuel for making.
I need to keep telling myself this!
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Email me your thoughts to josh@jcaldigital.org or DM me here on LinkedIn or comment below on this post.
Get the Audio Podcast: https://www.jcaldigital.org/the-future-is-audio
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TL;DR: Gear isn’t just about utility, it’s about excitement and energy. If a new piece of audio gear has you making more content, having more fun (or experiencing less stress), and it reduces the timeline from idea creation and idea execution, then please STOP punishing yourself for desiring new gear, and for buying new gear. (**caveat: as long as you can afford that new gear**).
My Portable Podcasting Gear List (2025 Edition).
John Lacey's Rode Micro Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Ctq2CBlkc
TL;DR: If you’ve done the work to produce a super polished audio show, then you’re not putting up an inferior product to video on YouTube, just a different one. Audio on YouTube is NOT fake video, it's expanded accessibility.
4 Reasons TO put Audio-only episodes on YouTube:
The caveat I often hear about Audio-on-YouTube is the "extreme drop-off rate", which I believe is real, but I would posit that the drop-off rate for almost all content posted to YT (audio, video, amateur mime, everything that's NOT Cats) is "extreme".
The Short-long of it: If someone likes to Listen to shows, they don't really care how or where it happens, as long as it works and it's as simple as Click Link >>> Press Play.
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Email me your thoughts to josh@jcaldigital.org or DM me on LinkedIn or on Instagram (@joshuacliston).
Where did all the Soundseeing Tours go in Podcasting?
TL;DR - Your Podcast doesn’t have to be an Interview Show or a Panel Show built (from format to presentation) to enable video production. It can be different, unique, more.
In 2012, when I first started ramping up my Podcast consumption into overdrive, one genre that I always enjoyed was the Soundseeing Tour genre. Travel, Language and Culture all wrapped up into an incredibly organic form of audio-storytelling. I’m not sure any Podcast genre has had me on the edge of my seat quite the way Soundseeing Tours did back in the day: What is going to happen next, and what will I hear next? So, I guess the question becomes, why aren’t Soundseeing Tours still getting produced, and if they are, why aren’t they getting shared, promoted and embraced by Podcast Listeners and/or the Podcasting Industry?
At the risk of sounding anti-video here (that’s not my intention), I think the reason is pretty clear, if your mindset is Video-First, then much of what makes Soundseeing Tours so unique can be easily reframed as uniquely-annoying elements of producing a show.
Call me selfish, but I genuinely hope we see (and hear) a return of the Soundseeing Tours in 2025. I want to experience more audio tours from Japan, Africa, Newfoundland (Canada), and the Pacific North East in the USA. I miss closing my eyes and just escaping to a different part of the world.
Theatre of the Mind is real folks, and audio is where the magic starts.
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If you happen to have Listened to some unique audio in Podcasting lately, please post in the comments here on LinkedIn or DM Josh on Instagram @joshuacliston . Speak to you again soon, and bye for now.
[ Audio-article recorded using the Rode Wireless Micro USB-C System ].
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Slayers: A Buffyverse Story - Audio Storytelling That Gave Me Goosebumps.
In 2023, Audible released an exclusive program called Slayers: A Buffyverse Story - an original Buffy the Vampire Slayer audio-drama, co-written and narrated by members of the original Buffy cast.
Now, I need to preface what I’m about to say by letting you know that Buffy The Vampire Slayer was my absolute favourite show growing up, and I consider the Buffy episode titled “The Body” as the best episode of television ever put to air. So yeah, I’m a little biased here.
When I first hit play on the Slayers audiobook and James Marster's voice (who portrayed Spike on Buffy and also on Angel) came through my headphones, I had goosebumps running down my arms and tears forming in my eyes. When I heard Charisma Carpenter’s voice later on in the production, I couldn’t help but smile; Cordelia was getting some of the spotlight her character deserved and perhaps didn’t get in the original Buffyverse shows.
It was Theatre-of-the-Mind at its most powerful.
I still watch Buffy on a regular basis and although I still enjoy it very much (it’s comfort-viewing for me at this point). I haven’t had a deep emotional response to anything Buffy related in over 20 years like I did to the Slayers audiobook.
It was just me, my headphones, and the human voice, and it was the most intense reaction I’ve had to a piece of art in many years. The last time I remember being completely blown away by a creative work was Season 1 of Ted Lasso, albeit in a very different way, but this was even more intense. Slayers taking several much-loved characters and rendering them in the most intimate of dramatic mediums (being audio) elicited a reaction that was beyond pure nostalgia, it was pure joy.
It’s not often that I find myself thinking, “I’m so grateful that this was made”, and Slayers made me feel that way. I clearly needed an original yet familiar story, told like it was told just for me, and the audio-drama format allowed for that revelatory experience to happen.
Slayers was my favourite Audiobook of the past several years, it was beautifully written, and the performances and production are as good as it gets. Check it out, and let me know your thoughts.
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PS. I put my initial reactions to Slayers back in 2023 on my Instagram profile @joshuacliston - but I thought I might include the audio from that video right here in this episode, so you can hear a life-long Buffy fan expressing their reaction to Slayers in-the-moment, and I’ll leave you with that today guys, speak to you again soon.