I Have a Podcast!

So, I have a podcast! The first episode went up on the first of February, but haven't told that many people in my real life, so I figured it was about time that I advertise it a little wider than to just my online friends.

This is something that's actually been a long time coming. I've been planning the show since last year, and editing episodes since January. With working two jobs since last April, I have had less and less time to edit videos to the level that I like, so I've been thinking about transitioning to (mostly) audio for a while.

If you've watched any of my videos on YouTube, then you'll probably be familiar with the format that I've settled on for my show. I decided to call it the I Heart Podcast, as it's a natural extension of my I Heart Animation series, but it really follows the same model that my Wonderland Wednesday series eventually developed into, with longer, more in-depth discussions.

The show is not just "I Heart Animation: The Podcast" though animation is a regular feature, I wanted the podcast to function similarly, but to be able to highlight really anything that I or my guests love. In each episode we pick a topic, usually a movie, but it really can be anything. If I had a guest who wanted to talk about Marmite or ceiling tiles, I'd be down for that if they thought we could get a decent episode out of it. The point is just a fun discussion with a friend.

At this point, the podcast has mainly focused on bringing shows from my YouTube channel into a new medium. A few episodes I have taken from my YouTube channel, and reedited them for the podcast. Back when we originally recorded them, most of the time we'd have rabbit trails, and the conversation would veer off and suddenly we'd be talking about something totally unrelated to the movie at hand. 

Those detours would be the first thing edited out of a YouTube video trying to stay under 10 minutes, focusing only on a movie review, but in a podcast, it's a lot more acceptable to have asides now and then. I actually enjoy some shows more when the hosts banter and get off topic. Keeping that in mind, I went back to the original files, and reedited a whole new, longer episode from each of them!

Now, I'm not doing this for every episode. The main reason I wanted to start the podcast out with some reedited episodes, was to give new listeners some context for what I've done before, as well as get them up to speed with one of my favorite series, that will now be a regular feature on the podcast.

Last year I started a show on my YouTube channel to review every Disney movie from the beginning. After only two episodes I realized that that was going to be a LOT more work than I had time for, (not to mention YouTube's broken copyright system throwing a wrench into the series) so I decided to pause the series and move it over to the podcast as soon as I launched it.

Of course I didn't want new listeners to miss out on the episodes I'd already done, so reediting seemed to be the best compromise between recycling an old episode, and making a brand new episode. And then I did the same thing with a couple episodes each of Wonderland Wednesday, and I Heart Animation.

And just reediting isn't all I've done to refresh these episodes, I've also brought guests back to do a Q&A session with them. So when I reedited a review I did with my friend Sol, I decided to bring her back, and just let the listeners get to know a bit more about her. I did the same thing with my friend Rachel, and I have another episode coming soon with my friend Mark. I haven't done one with my cousin Sarah yet, she's co-hosted a good chunk of my content, but we don't video chat like I do with my online friends, so once we have a chance to get together and record some episodes in person, we'll probably try to get one done.

So far the show has been a good mix of old and new, but once I put out our Pinocchio episode, there probably won't be that many more old episodes for awhile. I'll still do a reedit occasionally, but my goal is to eventually get to 100% brand new content.

My most recent episode was a new one with Rachel, and we talked about our top 10 movie releases of the past year. A few episodes before that, my friend Sol and I ranked all the animated releases of 2018. These are quite different than things I've previously done for my YouTube channel, but those discussions were a lot of fun, and I think they made for a great podcast.

If you think this sounds interesting, and you'd like to listen, my show is now available for download on just about every major podcast platform, I publish through Anchor, but you can find it on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more! I'll link you to my homepage on Anchor, and you can get the whole list of platforms there.

https://anchor.fm/iheartpodcast

So that's my big news for now, I actually have a couple more posts planned for this month, which, if you've seen my blog recently, is kind of a big deal for me! I've actually been working full time at the hotel since January, so I haven't had much extra time, and the blog has kind of fallen by the wayside. I have a few pictures to share, which I haven't done in ages, so check back in a few days for those! I'll see you soon!