My Foray into Podcasting

A few years ago – 2019, to be exact – I decided to try my hand at podcasting. I’d been listening to podcasts for a while and wanted to give it a shot, see what it was like. I’ve done voice work over the years – narrating marketing videos, interactive voice response systems, and training videos – so podcasting seemed like a natural progression.

The only thing I needed to do was decide what the podcast would be about. Even five years ago there were a ton of podcasts available, all covering a wide variety of topics. The only thing I didn’t see was a podcast about creativity. 

Creativity is a broad topic, which gave me leeway to talk about a wide range of related subjects. This gave me an excuse to talk about all the things that interest me. 

And, of course, I wanted to do it all myself, build it from scratch. 

I probably could have chosen a less ambiguous name, but I still sort of like Prometheus Project Podcast. The reason I chose it is because of the Greek myth. Prometheus was the god of fire and, in some versions of the myth, he is known as the creator of human arts and sciences. Additionally, he stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, thus giving them knowledge. Obscure, but appropriate for a podcast about creativity.

I also created a logo for the podcast. I’m not a graphic artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m proud of how it turned out. Simple, clean, and I think it captures the spirit of what I wanted the podcast to represent.

There was also some upfront cost. Mainly, a microphone. I picked up a Blue Yeti on sale on Amazon along with some acoustic foam. I used tape to attach the foam to some four-foot square cardboard pieces. When I was ready to record, I could place those on either side of my desktop to help with muffling external noise and any reverberation from my plaster walls.

For recording I used Audacity. It’s a fantastic and free program that has so many features. My favorite is the noise reduction. It allows me to take a sample of the background noise – say, the soft hum of the air conditioner running – then use that sample to remove the hum from the entire audio clip. 

As for the podcast itself, well, I enjoyed doing it. I tried to do an episode every couple of weeks and I had fun. I didn’t have a lot of listeners, which wasn’t unexpected. I wasn’t looking to monetize it or become famous or anything like that. I did it for myself. But, for what it’s worth, the listeners I did have enjoyed the shows and gave me positive feedback. That meant a lot to me and made it worth my time.

The podcast is now available on my YouTube channel if you’re interested in listening to a few episodes. If you do, please give it a like and a comment, or drop me a line through my contact form. Some of the earlier episode are kinda rough, but I think I eventually hit my stride in terms of quality of sound and content.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever revisit the Prometheus Project Podcast, but I may record another podcast sometime in the future. 

RB