Thereâs smog hanging over the city again, obscuring the view from my house of the mountains in the distance. Itâs a sorry thing to see.
One of the most prized possessions I have in this world is my original mac.com email address. I shall treasure it forever.
My familyâs cavalier and careless attitude toward safety and sheltering during this pandemic feels crushing today. âBusinesses before life,â essentially. Looking at pictures of my lovely dog is helping get me through this funk. đ¶
Having to wear a mask all the time is giving me newfound respect for what Tom Hardy had to go through while filming The Dark Knight Rises. Boy, that looks uncomfortable.
So many countries are busy easing up on their stay at home restrictions and Iâm just over here thinking, âI wonder how long itâll be before everyoneâs ordered to stay home again since nothingâs really changed.â
Is it worth the brainpower to try to figure out what the people who cover their mouths but not their noses are thinking?
I watched Her again for the podcast earlier this week. Itâs such a prophetic, sad, resplendent film. The story is wonderful and the cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema (my absolute favorite DP) is perfect. đ„đż
I finished watching the sixth season of Bosch last night. âTwas another quality collection of episodes. Iâm always sad when I make it through a season, and especially so given that the next season is going to be its last. đș
If youâre the sort of person to leave a shopping cart in a parking space, a planter, or anywhere that isnât a designated cart return, Iâm going to just assume youâre a horrible monster of a person. You should be flung into the sun with great prejudice and much celebration.
Right now, the forecast for my area of California on Friday is 102 degrees (or nearly 39 degrees for the Celsius people out there). 102 degrees in April. Iâd cry about it if my tears wouldnât immediately evaporate.
Levels levels. LEVELS LEVELS!
From a recent newsletter I published:
Last week, I did a small bit of venting about what I believe podcastsâtrue podcastsâto be. Iâm not typically one to get quite so dogmatic about much, but I suppose I feel really passionate about what does or does not constitute a podcast.
I stand by everything I said and will take it all to my grave!
While I may have some firm feelings about podcasts, I also believe theyâre something anyone can do. Yes, anyone. And why not? All a podcast needs to be is someone recording themselves talking into a microphone and then uploading that audio to a podcast host somewhere online. Thereâs no great magic to it. Weâre not trying to replicate Avengers: Endgame in audio form here. Although, if you think you can do that, then I canât wait to hear what you cook up.
A quick and dirty guide to getting started
Your podcast idea
I do think it helps to have some idea of what you want to present to the world. Having a unique point of view can always help make something more captivating. Throwing in a decent amount of your particular energy while recording is a great cherry on top of your podcasting sundae.
While you can certainly publish a podcast consisting entirely of you reading from the stack of take-out menus sitting next to your phone, that doesnât mean anyoneâs going to want to listen to it. Having some sort of story to tell or a fun viewpoint on a topic is what will help bring in the listeners.
Put some effort into thinking of something that other people want to listen to. Are you crazy passionate about gardening? Talk about the best ways to cultivate various plants in different climates. Love movies? Do a movie trivia podcast with a friend or two (and see about getting your listeners involved). Find yourself traveling all over the world for work? Make it a point to find the best ramen place in every city you visit and give your reviews.
There are loads of ideas out there.
Your microphone is the most important tool
Could you get away with recording a podcast using your computerâs microphone or the inline mic on your earbuds? Sure. Is it going to sound good? Definitely not. Iâm not suggesting you go out and spend several hundreds of dollars on the fanciest microphone you can find. There are no shortage of expensive options (like this one or this one), but you donât really need any of those if youâre not recording professionally.
You can get some amazing audio with a simple and inexpensive USB microphone. Some people may insist that those sorts of microphones are going to get you bad audio. I disagree. You may not be able to get professional grade, studio quality sound from a USB mic, but you can get good results nonetheless.
One of the most recommended microphones that many people (including me) start off with is the Blue Yeti condenser microphone. Another inexpensive USB microphone that I strongly recommend is the Audio-Technica 2100x-USB dynamic microphone. Either one will get you good audio, although Iâm a big fan of the Audio-Technicaâs sound.
The key to using these sorts of microphonesâseriously, this is the most important thingâis that you MUST get your mouth very close to the microphone. If you want to get good sound from these mics, then this is non-negotiable. Get a stack of books tall enough to put the microphone right in line with your mouth. Do whatever you have to do to get it up there. Anyone you see speaking at a microphone sitting on a desk a foot or two away from them is doing it wrong. Full stop.
I would also strongly recommend getting some sort of pop filter (or at the very least, a windscreen) to attach to the microphone. Since youâre going to need to speak close to the microphone, youâre going to end up popping some serious Pâs. Those doesnât make for a pleasant listening experience.
Your recording program
Since weâre using a USB microphone, all we need to capture our audio is something you probably already have: a computer. Again, you donât need to spend a lot of money to be able to capture good audio here. You donât need something expensive like Logic or Pro Tools to make your recording work.
If youâre on a Mac, then youâve likely already got a great and free program installed: GarageBand. If youâre working on a Windows machine, then consider using something like Audacity. That oneâs never been the prettiest looking program, but it gets the job done.
Plug in your microphone, make sure the program recognizes the mic as the input, and hit that record button!
Hosting your masterwork
What good is a podcast if nobody can listen to it? I guess you could copy those audio files to a flash drive and start handing those out to everyone you see, but itâs 2020! We donât need to do anything so barbaric.
A podcast host is a place online for your finished podcasts to live and be accessed by podcast directories and players. When you stream or download a podcast episode, the podcast player uses the file stored on your podcast hostâs servers. We need to use podcast hosts because our home computers arenât really equipped to do the hosting for us.
One of the biggest hosts out there is Libsyn. Theyâve been in the game for a long time and are very reliable. My podcast, More Movies Please!, is hosted on their servers and Iâm very happy with them. Their plans start at $5 a month.
Another option is Simplecast. They offer great hosting, amazing analytics, and a very modern web experience. Iâm planning on testing them out for any future podcasts I record. Their plans start at $15 a month.
Thatâs really all you need
Once you cover those basics, itâs all about recording your shows regularly and getting the word out about them. Take advantage of the social media following you may already have to get those first listeners and recommendations in. If youâd rather do it the old fashioned way, then start talking to people about your new hobby. Youâre already doing a lot of talking for the podcast, so whatâs a little more?
Good luck and have fun!
The pile on the new carpet is just slightly higher than the previous carpet and Iâm not used to it yet. I keep tripping up all over the place!
No @macgenie, thank you! Itâs a wonderful sticker and a charming card and Iâm happy to have both. đ
Moving out everything in preparation for a new carpet installation is pretty tough. Spending the next few days moving it all back inside is a whole other bucket of bleh.
Seems like my timing on watching Inside Billâs Brain: Decoding Bill Gates was pretty good. According to The New York Times, heâs the new subject of conspiracy and hatred for many of the worldâs dumbest/evilest/both those things.
Yay! I just finished the first draft on a five part instructional series on learning how to kick scheduling butt with a calendar. I’m going to pat myself on the back and look forward to editing it all now. đ
You ever get so annoyed with a misspelling you make that you completely erase the autocorrected word just to type that word in properly yourself? I do that more than I care to admit.
Gasp! Season six of Bosch is available a day earlier than I was expecting. I absolutely know what Iâll be watching tonight. đș
I live about 50 miles away from Los Angeles. I also live about 425 miles away from San Francisco. The route this dang thing is taking seems incredibly wasteful and ridiculous to me.
After watching the Bill Gates documentary, Iâm also feeling absolutely fascinated by their implementation of a traveling wave nuclear reactor. Itâs very safe and we have enough depleted uranium available to power the U.S. for 125 years? Come on, itâs a no-brainer. đș
I finished watching Inside Man again to talk about on Wednesday. Itâs always a fun watch. Spike Leeâs filmography is fascinating. Heâs got this one and Malcom X? Do the Right Thing and Oldboy? đ„đż
Any sort of spelling error in my weekly newsletter feels like a screw-up of incredible magnitude. Itâs even worse when that spelling error is in the stinkinâ subject line of the email, like it was this week. Sigh. đ
I finished watching Inside Billâs Brain on Netflix and it was a fascinating watch. I find myself wanting to see a documentary about his children and what that home life was like. Whatâs it like to have a person like him as their father at different points in their lives? đș
So much effort is being put into getting the economy back to ânormal,â but I wonder if itâll get there quickly enough to actually matter? Whoâs itching join thousands of other people at a huge concert or convention or fair immediately on day one of not having to shelter in place?
I watched The Shape of Water again this last week for my podcast. I canât recall a better example of one of the most unique and beautiful films made in the last couple decades. Except maybe any other Guillermo del Toro movie. đ„đż