TL;DR: how do you #podcast?
My super nerdy kid has decided she wants to spend the rest of her hot summer break creating a podcast in which she teaches parents how to help their elementary aged #kids with #school.
She's all in. First episode recorded, eps 2-4 sketched out.
What comes next?? How do you go from recording to #podcasting? Not looking to make money! Just trying to support her efforts to find her true calling and save other kids from their clueless parents.
I mean there's every chance she wakes up tomorrow and has zero interest in this anymore.
But there's an equally good chance she comes down to breakfast with a dozen handwritten episode scripts.
I gotta be prepared.
@DrTCombs Record a sound file (ideally MP3), put it on a internet-addressable server somewhere, ideally served by HTTP, write an RSS or Atom file linking to it, put that on a website.
This is really very simple stuff. The hard graft is probably in promoting it, but getting something up that friends and family can listen to is very easy.
@simon_brooke
Thanks! I'm technologically challenged but I think I can Google how to do that!
Promoting it...well, I mean, baby steps 😂
If you want to remain within the #fediverse, you can try @funkwhale for audio or @peertube for video...
Visit their sites to find a potential server..
These can also be self hosted (relatively) easily using something like @yunohost 👍
@DrTCombs I’m about a year into hosting my own podcast and have been learning and doing for church for a couple of additional years. I’d happily jump on a call or video chat to help answer any question you have. DM me if interested.
I’ve got to make the v2 of this article as I’ve both simplified some things and learned new stuff, but you might find this helpful: https://www.volunteertechnologist.com/blog/how-its-made-v1/
[ #podcasting #podcast ]
@DrTCombs I am not a podcaster, but I am generally super nerdy so I will do my best to answer. Multi-post answer incoming because of character limits:
1. I can't give strong recommendations, but Audacity (free) is often used by people starting out.
2. You can be about as anonymous as you want. There might be a little blurb about the host on a website, but usually you just distribute short teasers or descriptions as show notes for a specific episode.
@rowdypixel
Super nerds unite! Thank you
@rowdypixel @DrTCombs Fun fact: Audacity is also used by pros, both Welcome to Night Vale and The Magnus Archives use it.
There's two parts to distributing a podcast. The hosting and the feed which gets updated when you add a new episode. This feed can be submitted to different distribution channels (Apple Music, Spotify, etc) and those distribution channels will then know when you have new episodes.
Spotify has an all-in-one solution where they will host and create this feed on their servers. This is totally free and probably one of the easier ways to get started.
You may hit TOS issues with a lot of services due to her age, but if that happens I would be happy to set up something on my server for free. I already pay for far more storage/bandwidth than I need so it has no marginal cost to me to enable her to explore her interests. It will take a little time to set up because I don't do any podcasting.
That's about all I've got from the nerd side of posting. If you end up with specific questions let me know and I'll do my best to answer
@rowdypixel
This is really, really helpful, Dan!! I'll let you know what we learn as we go, and might well hit you up on that hosting offer if we can figure out the logistics
@DrTCombs if you are using iPhone, iPad or Mac, you might want to use Garage Band instead of Audacity, because it's easy to add audio effects there. But Audacity is not just free but also open source, so it's definitely worth checking out too!
@DrTCombs I have never podcasted, but I have recorded audio for training offered by a company headquartered in a tower in downtown Raleigh. Audacity did everything I needed and more.
@DrTCombs Networking with other podcasters can be huge when it comes to promotion. You could try hitting up some of the established people in the tech podcast space directly and just asking for tips. I imagine Joe Ressington from Late Night Linux might make some time for a brief conversation? There's a bunch of others, and a lot of them are surprisingly easy to approach.
@DrTCombs as a parent, you will probably want to be very aware of the public exposure this can subject your child to as well. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just realize that your kids is planning to do something that is putting a lot of herself in front of the public. I took my kid to her first comic con as an artist when she was 16, and she's been maintaining a consistent online presence in various social media since then, even running her own online store.
@DrTCombs I'm incredibly proud of her, but there have been times when we had very stressful moments due to her being "an internet micro-celibrity" as she puts it. Still, I'm glad that I was able to be supportive to her rather than trying to steer her into a "safe" career path.
I don't know if your kid will find that this is her calling or not, but I definitely applaud your desire to help her get started. Letting your kids know that you believe in them is priceless.
@DrTCombs I use acast.com to host the podcast I do with friends, handles pretty much everything for you, and has a free tier that serves our needs. Record using your phone, or laptop, then edit using Audacity, which is free software, upload and you're good to go!
@DrTCombs A podcast is a podcast because it’s referenced by a small text file call an RSS feed. While it’s possible to hand write your RSS file (that’s how I did it in the early days in 2005), there are lots of tools to help you do it.
I believe having a website to point to is important. She could get a free Wordpress.com site (there will be ads you need to control), have some fun choosing a theme, and Wordpress will create the RSS feed 1/n
@DrTCombs @pelikans The benefit is that she would own her own RSS feed. Tools like Acast are great because they make it really easy and that might be the biggest need right now. They do ad insertion in the audio and you don’t own your own feed.
I’d be glad to be a resource for her (18 years as a female podcaster) if that would be helpful.
@DrTCombs i NEED this podcast
@bikepedantic I'm trying not to take it personally that I am my daughter's muse. I am the one who says, "honey, 3rd grade was a long time ago and I don't think we learned the same things you're learning."
It's quite sweet of her that she wants to save other kids from the same frustration of having parents who play/are dumb at homework.
@DrTCombs @bikepedantic perhaps daughter would like a cohost? Your kids could have a whole episode about how cool it is to bike to school, and cargo bikes versus traditional bikes.
@DrTCombs The neat thing is that any website that let's you upload audio files and creates an rss feed will do. Including Mastodon or WordPress. But there are also specific podcasting services, like podcast plugins for WordPress, or @Castopod.
And as someone else mentioned, Audacity works fine for editing, and is free both as in beer and as in freedom :)
@DrTCombs you sound like a super mum 😍, I hope it's more than a passing phase - maybe you'll be the one making a podcast about it if so 😉
What are the most fool proof audio editing tools? I will pay for easy.
What information goes with a podcast? How much do you reveal about yourself?
And...where do they live??