Interestingly enough, I’m not one who listens to a lot of podcasts but I do on occasion. I have been listening to the Lost podcast since I heard about it. I’ve also pondered doing my own podcast for a few years now but have just not bothered to take the time to do it. My friend Ken has recently started podcasting and I do like the idea of having a weekly sort of “recap” of some things via a podcast as it is a different way to interact over the web.
All of that however is not the point of this post. Within the last few days, I’ve listened to a couple of podcasts. Two of them from “news” sites, and Ken’s latest one on his website. I just started listening to one less than an hour ago and I stopped because it felt totally uninspired and completely “scripted”.
What I mean by scripted is that it was very apparent that the podcaster had written out everything he was going to say, and then simply recorded himself reading the pre-written material. To me, that is incredibly boring and un-original. To me, if you’re going to bother writing out a script to read, why not just post the script and save yourself the trouble of making a podcast. When I listen to the Lost podcasts, Damon & Carlton (the hosts) have a list of fan questions but they just talk and it’s all off the top of their heads. They’re not reading a script into a mic and they have a good time just being themselves. I really enjoy those podcasts as do many other Lost fans.
Listening to Ken’s podcast this morning was very much the same way. He just talked about stuff. Things on his mind, things going on, etc. No script, just podcasting to the world. It’s that type of podcasting I like and I would/probably will do myself.
I’ve recently been thinking about what I would include in a podcast and for me, I think I would likely grab a series of story headlines for the week that I thought were of interest, and talk about those, among other things going on in my life. Yes, a little prep work is involved but nothing more than just collecting the stories I want to talk about. I think I would rather enjoy it.
Plus, if I did a podcast, that would give me the opportunity to invite guests to appear on the podcast. Who knows, maybe me and Ken could do a combo podcast of some sort. I think that would be cool.
Regardless, I won’t be reading anything from a script, and what I say will be off the top of my head. Good or bad.
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