Does the world need a new palaeontology podcast? Hopefully, as I’ve made one.
In a previous post, I mentioned that there would be a podcast on the way and I’ve actually followed through with it. It’s called On the FOSSIL Record and I figured I’d give a bit of personal insight into its creation.
As part of my (part-time) MSc course in Science Communication, I had to produce a short podcast. The brief said it should be around ten minutes long, though that information had come after I’d done my recording. There was little more than that. Obviously, it had to be on some scientific topic but everything else was wide open. There was a lot of creative freedom, which was a little intimidating, made worse by the fact that I tend to struggle with anything which includes speaking for an audience. I much prefer writing.
Step 1: Planning
The easiest part of the planning was deciding on the area of science I would cover – palaeontology. When I’m so far out of my comfort zone in terms of what I have to produce, it makes sense to me to stick to the topics I know best. There was only one person I wanted to ask to help me and that was my good friend Dean Lomax, especially as he does love talking. Fortunately, he said yes. I picked a couple of subjects to possibly discuss, however, the day before we were due to record, Dean had some research published on Protoichthyosaurus, so we decided that I could interview him about that instead. Allowing Dean to talk at length, something you don’t normally get to do in a conventional interview, took the pressure off me a fair bit.
Protoichthyosaurus. Image credit Dean Lomax
I’d decided that the podcast episode and subsequent episodes would be 20-30 minutes long – ideal for a shortish commute (or a long trip to the toilet, as I said on the podcast’s page). There are a few palaeontology podcasts out there, the most popular of which are quite long, so ours might just have a place. I wanted an unscripted, informal tone, where joking is perfectly fine. I reckon we achieved that. It should sound like a conversation between two informed friends; that’s the goal at least.
Step 2: Recording
As a university student, I have access to the university’s equipment (and a podcast studio, which I don’t actually intend to use). I borrowed a Zoom H1 recorder, set it up easily enough, and got on with recording with Dean. During Dean’s visit, we recorded the bulk of the podcast, managing only two interruptions: the first was when my dog, Peanut, sneezed during the opening lines, an occurrence which is apparently common when recording at home and one which I decided to put at the end of the podcast; the second was when Dean’s phone went off. Pro tip: always put your phone on silent.
I recorded the introduction and the end credits separately, which sadly shows if you listen carefully enough – the quality is different. I also decided that I would create the music for the podcast and, despite knowing at least one person with the ability to produce a high quality recording, I instead sat down with the Zoom H1, an acoustic guitar, a drum track playing in my ear, and recorded several tracks that way.
Step 3: Editing
Thanks to uni, I’ve also got access to computers with all the editing software I need. So I used Adobe Audition and got to work editing my podcast, despite having never actually used it before; I found it relatively straightforward. I started off with the intro/outro music, layering my guitars, having to tweak the levels enormously, and spending too much time trying to find somewhere online to make a free drum track. When I started editing the main podcast itself, I found that I had a major issue – it had captured every slight breath. It sounded like we were about to dive underwater before every sentence, particularly on the rare occasions when I spoke. I edited the levels of every breath, which then created the problem of sudden cuts in audio. So I booked the recording equipment again and recorded a background track, the first of which was unusable as it recorded the ticking of a clock. That helped a fair amount and at least made the podcast listenable. I also stammered a fair bit in the original recording, something you shouldn’t be able to notice in the finished product.
Step 4: Preparing for launch
How do you launch a podcast? I had no idea. I had so much to do. I needed a logo, I wanted a website where I could also post blogs linked to the podcasts, I needed somewhere to host the podcast, I needed a Twitter account, I needed to promote it once it was ready. So I started off easy: I created a WordPress blog, something I’ve obviously done before. I set up a Twitter account and kept it quiet for a few days. I started to look into different hosting sites, eventually settling on PodBean. It was starting to come together.
Whilst achieving those other goals, I was slowly working on the logo. I thought about some of the organisms which might be recognisable from a silhouette – ammonites, trilobites, pterosaurs etc – and had a look at what the other palaeontology podcasts had, as I didn’t want to have the same. I’d also been thinking of organisms which had some personal connection with Dean and myself. Both trilobites and eurypterids were ruled out as they had appeared in the logos of other podcasts, and even though a eurypterid would work on a personal level as I did help Dean briefly during some work he did on them, I don’t think my graphic design skills would have been quite up to it. Eventually, I decided that the logo would include a horseshoe crab. It wasn’t just any horseshoe crab, it was one which Dean had worked on, adding that personal touch which I wanted. In 2012, Dean co-authored a study on a horseshoe crab fossil from Solnhofen, Germany, which was found preserved at the end of a long series of tracks which showed the final steps it took in life. It’s a stunning fossil, one I wish I could see up close, and it is recognisable by its outline (I hope). The links to me are less clear; I have a soft spot for horseshoe crabs and Dean even gave me a dead one which he found on a beach. Additionally, I like that we have a trace fossil in the logo, as my undergraduate dissertation was on trace fossils.
Having chosen the iconic horseshoe crab, I had to do a bit more with it. I searched all sorts of different podcast logos and found that quite a lot have something which hints that it is a podcast – radio waves, for example. I opted for headphones, which link to a box/screen containing the words On the FOSSIL Record. As I made the logo myself, it’s a bit crude. I’d love to see a more professionally made logo, even if I have to learn to do it myself. If you listen to future episodes of the podcast, you might hear more about the logo and the fossil which inspired it.
I made this
Step 5: Promotion
So far, I’d say that promotion of the podcast has been a bit limited. We both shared the podcast on Twitter and Facebook a few times, which I continue to do. The majority of the listens we had were in the first day, they dropped off pretty sharply after that. I’m expecting that with the second episode (not yet recorded, though it is planned out) we will be promoting the podcast even more. I’ve just spent the day uploading the podcast to different sites like Spotify, to allow us to reach a wider audience.
Step 5: Planning for the future
We’ve got a few things lined up, not all will definitely happen.
- Episode 2, naturally. It’s planned, though we are both a bit busy. We are going to record a couple of episodes at a time, see if that helps.
- Bonus episodes – these will deviate from the format of the main series of episodes and give more insight into us and the podcast itself.
- Transcripts – I’m currently sorting out a transcript for the first episode as someone did request one. It also looks like a good way to cater for an even wider audience and make the podcast easier to search.
- Other people – we might some day move on to having interviewees or even an extra host.
- Equipment – I can’t rely on university equipment forever, especially as I finish in September. Looks like I’m buying a mic…
The Palaeobabbler 