Backstage: Between Dr Who and Earth Sounds

Last week, someone asked me how I came up with the idea of interviewing a cactus and a bat (Opens in a new window). That would have been so freaky.

I asked the person if they had never spoken to their plants on the windowsill before. Or asked a teddy bear why the adults were behaving so stupidly today. I got an astonished look. A look that you could also give aliens with three blue heads.

Can you see the hand holding the stone? Can you imagine the creature living there?

“But you told me you were a journalist. How can you do such a work with your podcast!”, he said.

“Well, I can do it because I love this work, and my boss (who is me) allows my ideas. I can do it because I learned it”, was my answer. I still had at least two blue heads for him.

Be Child-Like: Breed Your Imagination

I rarely get feedback from people who think I'm too childish while they're looking for ‘proper’ mainstream content. But I realised that I perhaps take it far too much for granted that people know how my podcast is created.

Indeed, I’m like a very curious child deeply connected to my inner self when I once bred ‘pyjama beetles’ under my bed and talked to roly polies in a drystone wall (Opens in a new window). I watch animation films and am a fan of children’s television explaining science. I grew up with the German cult show ‘Pusteblume’ (blowball), later ‘Löwenzahn (Opens in a new window)’ (dandelion), where a hippie guy has to assert himself against a fussy neighbour and later an over-correct guy from the public order office. Meanwhile, the viewers learn a lot about nature and cultural heritage. Later, growing grey hair, I dreamt of painting a door in Tardis blue and calling Dr Who, so that he could help us humans with the chaos that we have caused on earth.

Joking aside, the writer in me was thrilled by this deeply benevolent character who finally met aliens at eye level and operated wonderfully quirky machines. In a spaceship that was itself a living being. I’m fascinated by these screenplays. In the absence of exciting aliens, I realised that we have enough more-than-human life (Opens in a new window) on Earth that far too few people were listening to. I only had to invent that listening-translating machine.

So, my ‘micro-macro-amplifier’ came into life. (You remember the three blue heads?) Perhaps it is Tardis-blue. It’s a plug-in with three ends: One for my ear and mouth, one for the interviewee, and one for the software. The idea for the ‘micro-macro-amplifier’ came to me when I was learning how to record and edit a podcast.

From Tapes To Audacity: My Personal Culture Clash

I had actually once trained at a private radio station. Back then, in the 1980s, you had to lug around an ultra-heavy chunk of recorder. Sound engineers used it to make stuff on tapes. Tapes were brown stuff rolled on big reels. In the studio, we still had real knobs and switches to flip, just like in old Startrek films. I only had to speak at the right time. Everything else was magically animated by the sound engineers who were the only ones with computers. There was extra staff for every little step. Behind a music programme in which people were interviewed on the street, was a well-oiled and immensely expensive machinery.

Imagine the culture clash when I was suddenly confronted with the possibility to produce and speak such a programme with only one computer, software, a professional microphone, and a recorder. Suddenly, the machinery was only me: no sound engineer, no colleague writing the moderation, no assistant cooking coffee while you had to phone live. After the first heavy investment for the hardware and a new coffee machine, I felt like a little idiot beamed into the future. How could I ever imitate a real studio? I got a full flash of an impostor syndrome (Opens in a new window). And booked a master class course at the Guardian in cooperation with the BBC. It’s all or nothing! And even though it hurt to have to invest real money in my uncertain plans, I have never regretted it. I learnt so much for my job!

Student Again …

Learning from the great professionals showed me that, like everywhere else, it all depends on skills, knowledge, and a lot of practice. In contrast to youtube tutorials and what influencers tell you, the trappings were of secondary importance. I kept the photo of the BBC correspondent who was broadcasting in an emergency studio: under the covers of his hotel bed. Duvets and wardrobes are the best and cheapest substitute studios. I record my podcast inmidst the messy material collection of my paper art studio. Paper, cardboard, and shelves full of boxes insulate perfectly!

Interested nerds: for the hardware, I use a Blue Yeticaster (with Yeti USB microphone, radius III shockmound, compass boom arm, and anti-pop filter), professional monitor headphones, and a H2n-Zoom recorder for interviews and outdoor sounds. My 20-Euro coffee machine comes from Emmaus France. The Audacity software was “intuitive” enough to learn and train editing (I worked hard for that!). Maybe now you understand why podcasters often ask for donations or offer subscriptions before the first broadcast. Not everyone gets a studio as a Christmas present ...

And I’m so thankful to you, the subscribing members here!

Oh, wait … it’s time for an advertising jingle, … er button:

I don't want to bore you. The rest was months of hard journalistic work: finding a topic that can last for years. Developing a concept that doesn't die after 6 episodes. Research the competition, determine the target audience. Public relations concept. Social media concept. Editorial plans. You have to have at least 2-3 episodes ready in advance to avoid getting stressed. I didn't have that during my enforced break, which unfortunately lasted too long. Such a break can kill a podcast. I hope that you are curious enough to wait for my first episode after the break. I’m working hard on it.

And in part 2 of this blog post, I’ll tell you why I decided to work in English and how I find my episode’s topic and the interviews. Meanwhile, I’m working on my next podcast interview with a tardigrade!

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Have a good time and watch out in nature: With early spring exploding, perhaps you can meet some fascinating aliens from planet earth. Greet them from me!