Podcast Book Club

Recorded November 2023. The news simply will not stop happening. It feels like every day we wake up, only to find that more things have occurred whilst we slept. So how do you turn all this relentless happening into a podcast? Oh, and you need to release every day, mon-fri. This episode our intrepid team of reporters is taking a look at the art of daily news podcasting, and getting to the bottom of why it's such an exciting and challenging area of podcasting to work in. 

In this episode podcast producers Jackie Lamport and Andrew Ganem are joined by podcast production manager Elizabeth Amos, audio engineer Alex Bennett, and the former deputy executive producer of Stories of Our Times James Shield. They discuss:

• What makes news podcasting different from other podcasts?
• What can we learn from news podcasts?
• How James produced the Stories of Our Times podcast.
• Following your own curiosity when making a podcast. 
• The inimitable hosting style of Michael Barbaro.

They take a look at The Daily from the New York Times and Stories of Our Times from the Times of London.  

Enjoying the audio-only version? Check us out on Youtube for more visual gags, special reporter Buddy the cat, and an uninterrupted view of our beautiful faces:

“Can a video be a podcast?” is an all-time favourite topic of conversation amongst those of us with “RSS 4 EVA” tattooed on the base of our backs. But for all the audio purists out there it’s hard to deny that, for a growing number of people, a video can absolutely be a podcast. So what now? Is “podcast” going the way of “literally”? Another definition lost to the unending meat-grinder of modern linguistic ‘progress’? Well, we think there are a lot of really useful lessons to be learned from the increasingly long shadow cast by video podcasts and, if we play our cards right, a podcast episode to be made about it. 

In this episode podcast producers Jackie Lamport, Sam Datta-Paulin, and Erin MacIndoe Sproule are joined by podcast agency founder Harry Morton to discuss:

• What is a podcast?
• Can a livestream call itself a podcast?
• How clean should your room be before a zoom call or video recording?
• Where do you draw the line between ‘relaxed and authentic’ and ‘lazy’?
• Theatre of the mind

They discuss the H3 podcast, Joe Rogan, Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal, and the ways in which video can add to and detract from a podcast. 

Do you think it’s weird that we’re discussing video in an audio only format? Waaaay ahead of you -  we’re on Youtube! Check out the video version of this podcast to enjoy a whole host of visual gags and special effects, and form a deeper (but not at all concerning!!!) parasocial relationship with your local podcasting nerds:

Season two of Podcast Book Club is on its way! Whilst the Lower Street team gets it ready, here’s a bonus episode in the form of a pilot. This was back when the gang of podcasting pros was first being assembled and, as such, their audio isn’t as crispy as it is now. Their first podcast review? Blowback, a podcast about American imperial misadventures.

The first series of Blowback is about the Iraq war and all of the wild events surrounding it. From British imperialism to CIA intervention, to the full-scale wars between the US, its allies, and Iraq, this series is a dizzying catalog of failures, tragedies, and incompetence.

The Podcast Book Club team sat down to discuss editing in podcast production, using external clips and media in your podcast, and the joy of the History Channel.

This episode is hosted by senior audio engineer Alex Bennett, who is joined by senior podcast producer Jackie Lamport, and podcast producer Elise Fitzsimmons.

Check out the episode of Blowback here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3BxUY7mCytGSDEAfwzcVNZ?si=8d13f927bad04c7b

Follow Podcast Book Club on Twitter, and let us know what you thought of this episode, and our hot (or cold) takes:

twitter.com/podbookclub

twitter.com/lowerstreet

Check out our listen-along playlist!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5L1HaLMMu3xsDqmo6ecQK3?si=b06b61ef7b5b4e48

Podcast Book Club is a Lower Street Production. Lower Street provides next-level podcast production services for ambitious companies: everything from podcast strategy and creation to growth. We’ve worked with companies like BCG to develop multiple branded podcasts like Climate Vision 2050, BCG Compliance, BCG Fintech Files, and BCG In Her Element. We’ve also helped produce: Cadence Bank’s In Good Companies; HPE’s Technology Now, Zuhlke’s Data Today, Northern Trust’s The Road to Why, Zoobean’s The Reading Culture; ICR’s Welcome to the Arena and ZeroNorth’s  Navigating Zero.