Reflections On Making A Free Podcast
Over the weekend Bethany Brookshire (aka SciCurious) posted āWhy Wonāt You Pay To Readā an extremely articulate commentary on the economics of science journalism and communication. If you havenāt already, I urge you to give it a read and then join the ongoing conversation on social media.Ā
There are very few financial costs of creating Bold Signals. Except for the hosting costs over at SoundCloud, the podcast is essentially built on a patchwork of free platforms and MacGyvered hardware. This is not to say itās all free. Believe it or not, each episode requires a huge investment of time and energy to put together. Though it varies depending on the length of the interview and the ambition put into the intro and outro segments, an average episode can take 20 hours or more to put together. A recent episode actually took at least twice that long times because of various technical difficulties.
Hereās the first open secret of Bold Signals, itās all done by one person.
I do all the writing, editing, producing, and recording myself. The first person to download and listen to a new episode is very likely the second person to ever hear it. I like to joke that Bold Signals is a small-batch science podcast, but itās really more sketchy corner bodega than artisonal fromagerie. I am consistently amazed by the quality of the guests I get and proud of the work I put in, but I constantly wish the production were better.
Hereās the second open secret of Bold Signals, itās about professional development.
As I've discussed elsewhere, the podcast initially grew out of my desire to communicate the lived experience of doing science. Looking over the science-related podcast landscape at the time, I saw lots of good stuff discussing the results of scientific investigation but significantly less about the people who call themselves scientists. After looking around for a podcast about the experience and craft of being a scientist, I decided to just make one myself.
If that sounds a little ostentatious, thatās because it was. Prior to starting Bold Signals I had never done any kind of interviewing or audio production. Listen to the earliest episodes and this will be glaringly obvious. Producing the podcast over the last year has been an exercise in fretting over grammar and syntax, learning the ins and outs of GarageBand, and scrambling to keep to a regular release schedule while working full time. While the desire to fill a gap in the science communication landscape continues to be the principle driving force behind Bold Signals and while I greatly enjoy making the podcast, I do have to justify its costs to both myself and the podcastās guests.Ā
For myself, especially when Iām struggling with a particularly difficult episode, I frame the time and effort that goes into the podcast as the cost of developing a particular set of skills. Hopefully, if you listen to the first and then the most recent episodes, youāll notice some improvement in both my interviewing and the overall production. As someone with a professional interest in science and science communication, these are skills Iām very keen to develop and it works out nicely that I can do so while making Bold Signals.
A few months ago I started using Figshare to assign DOI numbers to each episode. I did this for two reasons. Ā First, I had just interviewed a fellow science informationist and thought it would be an interesting way to leverage a data management platform. Second, I wanted to provide podcast guests with a simple and stable way to cite their participation underĀ āOutreachā on their resumes or CVs.
All of this is to say that, at the moment, I am comfortable absorbing the costs of making Bold Signals. The financial overhead is low (though I certainly wouldnāt complain if you make a habit of buying stuff after clicking throughĀ these Amazon links) and the time and effort I put into the podcast can easily be framed as professional development. But I am in a very unique position, I donāt make my living making the podcast and itās small enough that I can do all the production myself. If you enjoy other sciency podcasts or value good science writing and journalism, I encourage you to find a way to support them. It can be as easy as pausing your adblocker or clicking on some sponsored links. Deep down, I think most people involved in science communication would like their content to be open and accessible. Unfortunately, itās hard to pay the bills with iTunes reviews, star ratings, and Twitter analytics.Ā