Testing, testing...
I’m a self-confessed telly addict. I’ve a penchant for photography. I occasionally buy art and I’m not a naysayer when it comes to PowerPoint. Basically, I’m cool with visuals.
But spoken-word audio has a hold over me that none of the above does. It’s my solace, my constant companion, my daily diversion. It has a language and tonality that the visually vivid mediums don’t.
Podcasts are my medium. You’re never waiting for something to happen. Listening to a podcast is a constant cultural update, a chance to learn, a way of being exposed to the world through different lenses.
I trade favourites with friends and colleagues; quickly subscribing when I get a recommendation and unsubscribing, just as quickly, if the first episode doesn’t grab me. I get pod anxiety. I don’t like having too big a backlog to contend with. I like to keep up.
It shames me a little that I have a preference for American podcasts – I feel disloyal to the British accent. My preference for American male presenters makes me feel even more disloyal. I hate female presenters’ propensity for vocal fry – something I learned about…from a podcast.
Recent favourites, despite my aforementioned preferences, is the R4 podcast ‘Fortunately…’ with Fi Glover and Jane Garvey. It’s truly astonishingly brilliant. Just two women chatting. Recommended, and quickly ditched, are two other women chatting; Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton from ‘The High Low’. (If I’m honest, they lost me at ‘Pandora and Dolly’ – can’t bear them). I’m also loving ‘Atlanta Monster’ (yep, more true crime), ‘Gravy’ (food tales from the American south) and will never abandon ‘The Food Programme’ or ‘The Archers’.
This is all leading somewhere…
I’ve always wanted my own ‘research toy’. By which I mean a ‘thing’ that isn’t quite work but isn’t not work. A thing that would give me a chance to play, to experiment, and the freedom to make mistakes in my own time, not that of my clients’ (yet, anyway!) A gift to me to celebrate ten years of Razor and a gift to a client who’s been loyal and fabulous to work with for most of those ten years.
I’ve made my first podcast.
How’s that for a cliffhanger?
Stay tuned for my next blog to find out how it went.