What Podcasting Taught Me About Showing Up

Happy 20th Birthday to Podcasting!

15 years ago, I co-created a podcast. It was a wonderful experience. I learned a lot about amateur broadcasting, and while we shared the recording and editing responsibilities, it was a lot of work to put on a show. But I treated the work like a hobby.

The work my partner and I did on that show impacted how a small community of listeners perceived the art of television…

The Red Room Podcast was one of a few ground zero sources for rabid Twin Peaks fans when The Return aired in 2017. Those shows still hold up as a vital first party source of immediate critical response to that art.

5 years ago, I co-created another podcast. The experience was even better. Because of how I showed up for that show, I learned how to raise the bar from amateur to professional when creating content of analysis and appreciation for digital distribution. This time, I treated the show like a second job and the proof is in the results.

The two seasons of the In Our House Now podcast are deep and compelling reference material for analyzing and appreciating Twin Peaks The Return. Both of us went on to write seminal books on the critical analysis of this most dense and wonderful work of art.

Podcasting allowed me to develop the skills and faith in myself that are prerequisites to success in our modern world.

Show up and care.

Think and then speak.

Listen to the sounds.

Follow through to the end.

Hit publish and start again.

Whether it was a hobby or a second job, each of my podcasts taught me how to trust the process and keep going, even when nobody was clapping. Especially then.