I am not writing this from the perspective of someone who has “weathered the storm” or who is an authority on this subject based on my almost five years of experience. Every once in a while someone will send me an email wherein I’m referred to as the “podfather of running podcasts”, and while I appreciate the kind thoughts and words: I can’t accept the title or position.
I’m not being humble here, just realistic.
Mine is just one of MANY great podcasts on the topic of running; and it would be untruthful and disrespectful of the running community of new media producers to attribute such accolades to my podcast: Phedippidations.
So, while I appreciate the sentiment, I’ll ask you to consider that my show isn’t groundbreaking or worthy of note. Even those Peoples Choice Podcast Awards that I’ve been nominated for (and in one case won) over the years were suspicious in origin. What does it mean to win an award in New Media? Isn’t it true that what might appeal to some will be considered inane and uninteresting by many others?
(That was a rhetorical question there, the answer is YES: not everyone is going to love Phedippidations; and that’s okay!)
But now I’ve been at this for five years, and I think it’s worth spending a few kilojoules in typing out my thoughts on what podcasting means to me.
To start, I’d like to ask this question: Where Have All the Podcasters Gone?
See, to me the voices of podcasters are the voices of friends; and I feel like I’ve lost a bunch of friends over the past few years, as podcasts (and therefore, podcasters) are beginning to “podfade”.
I’ll spare you the detailed list, but there are well over two dozen podcasts that I used to listen to regularly (and looked forward to constantly) that are no longer in production.
And perhaps, more important than the question of “Where did they go?” is “WHY did they go?”
Was it because the “promise” of “Fame and Fortune” didn’t work out for them? Were they tired of their side of the conversation? Had they run out of ideas for episodes? Was their professional and family life in conflict with their show? Did they no longer have time to podcast?
These are the questions (and excuses) that come up from time to time; and it saddens me that these producers no longer produce the amazing content that they once had or took time to create.
This is NOT to say that the “Pod-O-Sphere” is suffering from lack of voices. When I spoke about this in a recent iPadio Phlog, the great Adam “Zenrunner” Tinkoff tweeted back at me: “I share in your nostalgia for the early days of podcasting, but the best is yet to come!”.
As usual, Adam is right. New podcasters enrich the deepening ocean of interesting audio content that listeners like me enjoy diving into.
But still, I miss the voices of people who I have come to consider friends. This calls to mind the strange and happy nature of this new media: where I can consider someone who produces audio content to be my “friend” despite the fact that I’ve never met them, never spoken to them, never written to them and generally never contacted them at all.
But that’s not to say that I feel as if I don’t know them. I know them very well, as I’m sure many of you know me. And if we WERE to meet, in person and share some time together: on the road, at a pub or in a coffee shop; the encounter would be all the more meaningful because you’d know so much about me, giving us time for me to get to know you.
See, THAT’S the cool thing about this podcasting stuff: it’s not about audiences, it’s about friends. It’s not about becoming rich and famous; it’s about hearing other ideas and perspectives.
Podcasting is about developing tolerance for each other: people who have the topic of the podcast in common (in our case: running) yet can disagree on so many other topics (politics, religion, wine, baseball, or Nike).
Today, I subscribe to an ever-expanding list of podcasts (click on the image in this post to see what I’m currently subscribed to), some old; some new…some professional, some independent.
I prefer the independent shows because, to me, they are the voices of friends: some of whom I may never meet, and few of whom I’ll ever agree with…but I’m learning to respect other peoples positions and perspectives every day as I listen to these people whom I consider “friends”. THEY are making ME a better person.
And to those who have hung up their microphones, I hope they’re all happy, healthy and living their lives to the top.
Run long and taper!
