I started listening to podcasts a few years ago when I had just moved to a new city and hadn’t yet secured work. I was grasping at everything I could to lighten the gloom and break up job-hunting tasks.
Some people I already followed on twitter were promoting their podcast, Friendshipping, which provided advice on making and keeping friends as adults. I listened to a random episode on a whim and was immediately hooked — not only was their content relevant to me a someone new to a community where I knew nobody, but the host’s banter actually made me feel like I was spending time with people whose company I enjoyed.
Formats I enjoy typically have good audio quality (scratchiness and echo is grating), editing to reduce rambling, and usually a conversational element, either between multiple hosts or a host and interviewee. I find I have a preference for soft voices and gentle delivery — especially since the pandemic.
One of my favourite podcasts is 99 Percent Invisible, which is largely focused on architecture and design. Sometimes their episodes will walk the listener though a real physical space, explaining the history and mechanics of elements that are present like a tour guide.
I’d love a podcast that was focused specifically on that kind of intimate experience of space, but haven’t found one yet. I’d be interesting in making one, although I’m not exactly an architect so it’d likely be more of an art/entertainment experience than an educational one.
Ooh, I hear you on audio quality — I don’t minds ums and ahs, I think they make us sound human, but I can’t abide an echo or when the audio sounds super far away, so you crank it… and then get your ears blasted out of your head.
I do enjoy how 99% invisible takes the mundane, everyday spaces around us, forces us to look at them with fresh eyes and also explores the effect of the architectural choices on those who pass through. Education spaces create a built pedagogy. I think that the sounds of this pedagogy are very familiar, but are under explored or explained. Perhaps an episode pitch for Roman Mars?
I’ve been listening to 99% on and off for a while now, I definitely feel like when it’s great it really does everything I want from a podcast and expect from it. It’s friendly, conversational, informative, and most of all encapsulates the feeling of being somewhere or amazed by something you are imagining purely in your head. One of my favourite episodes was about the statutes of ‘Miss Manhattan’ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/miss-manhattan/
because it really is the thing that is everywhere, which nobody ever questions or thinks about, yet is fascinating.
99% invisible sounds really cool, and I agree that audio quality matters a lot. It makes me nervous about making my own podcasts as there are some I really wanted to love but couldn’t get into because of the audio.