add_action('wp_head', function () { echo '' . "\n"; }, 5);


Actors & Voice ActorsGeneral GeekInterviews Episode 08.21.2025

373 Episodes
In Episode 350 of GeekCast Radio TFG1Mike and Steve Megatron are back, and this time Mike assaults and peppers Steve with questions about his NEW book ALTERED AUDIO: PODCASTING DEMYSTIFED! All this and so much more only on GeekCast Radio!
Use TFG1Mike’s LinkTree to Follow Him!!
Use Steve Megatron’s LinkTree to Follow Him!!
UNLEASH THE GEEK IN YOU!!!
00:00:00.000 –> 00:00:02.319
Hi, this is Kevin Conroy, and you’re listening
00:00:02.319 –> 00:00:35.530
to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome
00:00:35.530 –> 00:00:39.950
to the 350th episode of Geekcast Radio. I am
00:00:39.950 –> 00:00:42.950
TF2 and Mike, and today in this special interview
00:00:42.950 –> 00:00:45.630
episode, I welcome the co -creator of the Geekcast
00:00:45.630 –> 00:00:49.049
Radio Network, a 20 -year podcast veteran, a
00:00:49.049 –> 00:00:52.210
voice actor, and now writer, plus my best friend
00:00:52.210 –> 00:00:55.270
in the world, it’s Stephen C. Phillips! Yeah!
00:00:58.399 –> 00:01:01.740
who now has his first book published, entitled
00:01:01.740 –> 00:01:05.459
Altered Audio, Podcasting Demystified, a guide
00:01:05.459 –> 00:01:08.760
for any and all podcasters with clear advice,
00:01:09.099 –> 00:01:12.359
real tools, and zero gatekeeping. Because as
00:01:12.359 –> 00:01:15.299
you know, folks, the goal has always been to
00:01:15.299 –> 00:01:19.200
unleash the podcasting geek in us all. Hi, Steve.
00:01:19.319 –> 00:01:24.189
How are you? Good. How are you? I’m good. See,
00:01:24.290 –> 00:01:27.950
the goal there was to basically fake not knowing
00:01:27.950 –> 00:01:31.030
you. And congrats on the release of the book.
00:01:31.109 –> 00:01:33.870
Any initial thoughts before we jump into the
00:01:33.870 –> 00:01:37.590
questions? No, just waiting to be peppered with
00:01:37.590 –> 00:01:40.409
questions at this point. Yes, I’m going to assault
00:01:40.409 –> 00:01:43.930
you now. Would you like to be a pepper, too?
00:01:44.829 –> 00:01:47.530
That’s right. I’m a pepper. Don’t you want to
00:01:47.530 –> 00:01:51.230
be a pepper, too? That’s right. It’s an old Dr.
00:01:51.370 –> 00:01:54.500
Pepper joke. All right, so we got three sections
00:01:54.500 –> 00:01:57.219
here, folks. We’re going to talk to Steve about
00:01:57.219 –> 00:02:00.659
his voice acting, his podcasting, and his writing.
00:02:01.640 –> 00:02:04.939
But got about 18 or so questions, maybe a couple
00:02:04.939 –> 00:02:08.219
more in the random section. You never know. Starting
00:02:08.219 –> 00:02:10.840
out with the voice acting, you say in the book
00:02:10.840 –> 00:02:14.180
that the original dream was to be a voice actor.
00:02:14.860 –> 00:02:18.780
All these years later, you have gotten to live
00:02:18.780 –> 00:02:21.680
that dream in several projects. What was your
00:02:21.680 –> 00:02:24.939
favorite part about the voice acting process
00:02:24.939 –> 00:02:29.000
that you went through? So when I first got started,
00:02:29.199 –> 00:02:35.319
it was on the Transformers Headmasters fan dub.
00:02:36.020 –> 00:02:45.150
And I had a piece of crap lab tech. desktop mouse
00:02:45.150 –> 00:02:48.129
or not mouse microphone. And it was one of those
00:02:48.129 –> 00:02:52.270
$9 microphones, you know, those, those ones that
00:02:52.270 –> 00:02:55.949
plug into the, the microphone port. Yep. And
00:02:55.949 –> 00:02:57.889
they just sound like crap. And then if you had
00:02:57.889 –> 00:02:59.930
like a phone call, they would have like the weird
00:02:59.930 –> 00:03:04.349
backfeed. And then if you hit anything and had
00:03:04.349 –> 00:03:07.710
a weird backfeed or buzz or yeah, it just, it,
00:03:07.789 –> 00:03:11.050
it sounded distant, not very clear, just sounded
00:03:11.050 –> 00:03:14.759
like trash. I learned how to do that. And I learned,
00:03:14.800 –> 00:03:17.400
uh, cause I was like, I have no idea what to
00:03:17.400 –> 00:03:20.960
record these in. And, uh, I was using like windows
00:03:20.960 –> 00:03:24.219
sound recorder, uh, cause that was my exposure
00:03:24.219 –> 00:03:28.080
to it at that point in time. And, uh, the other
00:03:28.080 –> 00:03:30.060
guys in the stuff, they’re like, we use gold
00:03:30.060 –> 00:03:33.479
wave. And I’m like, what’s that? Uh, I’m like,
00:03:33.500 –> 00:03:35.439
is that sound wave just different? And they’re
00:03:35.439 –> 00:03:40.110
like, no, it’s gold wave. And, uh, It’s essentially
00:03:40.110 –> 00:03:42.590
like I don’t even know if it still exists, but
00:03:42.590 –> 00:03:46.490
it’s it’s like I at the time. Oh, it does still
00:03:46.490 –> 00:03:53.930
exist. They they do a lot of like audio editing.
00:03:54.189 –> 00:03:57.349
There’s I mean, they have a video editor as well
00:03:57.349 –> 00:04:00.250
now, but they have they have multitrack. They
00:04:00.250 –> 00:04:03.629
have like 20 bucks to buy. So it’s not it’s not
00:04:03.629 –> 00:04:06.250
bad. And it works on all devices. Like, you can
00:04:06.250 –> 00:04:09.310
get it on iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android
00:04:09.310 –> 00:04:13.330
now. I remember using it. It looks nothing like
00:04:13.330 –> 00:04:17.209
it looks now. It was very different. And I had
00:04:17.209 –> 00:04:21.050
no idea what I was doing in the software. Like,
00:04:21.069 –> 00:04:25.689
I just, I didn’t. And it was so confusing. There
00:04:25.689 –> 00:04:27.790
were so many different settings, so many different
00:04:27.790 –> 00:04:31.269
things you could do. And I didn’t know anything.
00:04:33.420 –> 00:04:36.579
I was recording for the voice of Scourge because
00:04:36.579 –> 00:04:43.540
I could do the voice of Scourge. And I was doing
00:04:43.540 –> 00:04:45.779
a voice match just like everybody else in the
00:04:45.779 –> 00:04:49.639
program and joined in on episode three. And then
00:04:49.639 –> 00:04:52.699
every now and again, I actually still to this
00:04:52.699 –> 00:04:57.089
day still get we’ve we’ve. rebooted with a different
00:04:57.089 –> 00:05:00.089
set of people running it at one point and i think
00:05:00.089 –> 00:05:02.370
they made it to episode 10 or 11 or something
00:05:02.370 –> 00:05:04.910
and then it just kind of fizzled out but it takes
00:05:04.910 –> 00:05:09.110
we i get usually like one a year that gets recorded
00:05:09.110 –> 00:05:13.790
and so even to this day i still get to do some
00:05:13.790 –> 00:05:16.470
random characters in it like i’ve done dive bomb
00:05:16.470 –> 00:05:20.149
i’ve done superion i’ve done you know some different
00:05:20.149 –> 00:05:24.680
voices but uh That was that’s still like the
00:05:24.680 –> 00:05:27.939
pinnacle of like awesome because I still have
00:05:27.939 –> 00:05:32.120
the original video clips on a hard drive. And
00:05:32.120 –> 00:05:35.399
I’m like, I got giddy when I saw my voice on
00:05:35.399 –> 00:05:39.240
the animation for the first time. Nice. When
00:05:39.240 –> 00:05:42.379
you craft your voices, how do you go about doing
00:05:42.379 –> 00:05:44.920
it? What is your method? And I’m not talking
00:05:44.920 –> 00:05:47.120
about the impressions. I’m talking about your
00:05:47.120 –> 00:05:56.949
unique voices that you create. Uh, so I, I, this
00:05:56.949 –> 00:06:00.310
kind of bleeds into both. Uh, so when I, when
00:06:00.310 –> 00:06:04.750
I do the voices, I, one, obviously watched a
00:06:04.750 –> 00:06:07.709
lot of television and animation as a kid. So
00:06:07.709 –> 00:06:10.889
I flipped channels. I watched the, you know,
00:06:10.910 –> 00:06:13.029
the one Saturday morning, I watched the Sunday
00:06:13.029 –> 00:06:16.600
stuff I watched. I literally flipped. Between
00:06:16.600 –> 00:06:19.060
the five or six channels that had cartoons on
00:06:19.060 –> 00:06:21.220
Saturdays and then the three that had them on
00:06:21.220 –> 00:06:23.379
Sundays. And then I watched weekday mornings
00:06:23.379 –> 00:06:27.300
and then weekday evenings. And I watched entirely
00:06:27.300 –> 00:06:30.879
too much. So I would play like when I played
00:06:30.879 –> 00:06:35.060
with like my action figures and my Lego figures
00:06:35.060 –> 00:06:38.279
that I created to mimic the ones that I couldn’t
00:06:38.279 –> 00:06:41.360
afford to buy because I had a bazillion Lego.
00:06:43.790 –> 00:06:46.089
Which, by the way, look nothing like the stuff
00:06:46.089 –> 00:06:48.230
that comes out nowadays that’s pre articulated
00:06:48.230 –> 00:06:52.769
and transforms properly. Oh, definitely imagination.
00:06:55.149 –> 00:07:00.129
But. I, I would try and replicate the voice,
00:07:00.290 –> 00:07:02.769
and sadly, a lot of them didn’t come to fruition
00:07:02.769 –> 00:07:05.310
until I hit puberty with my voice deepened and
00:07:05.310 –> 00:07:07.420
I was able to actually hit the voice. Uh, but
00:07:07.420 –> 00:07:10.240
a lot of the, the, the screen care forces were
00:07:10.240 –> 00:07:14.459
a lot easier to do, uh, because obviously voices
00:07:14.459 –> 00:07:16.139
are different and they change over the years.
00:07:16.259 –> 00:07:21.139
And, uh, so I started out doing like meat wad
00:07:21.139 –> 00:07:23.779
and, you know, trying my, my hand at sound waves,
00:07:23.819 –> 00:07:27.019
star screen, Megatron beast, Megatron waspinator,
00:07:27.139 –> 00:07:31.259
uh, Gollum. Those were a lot of my and Kermit
00:07:31.259 –> 00:07:32.879
the Frog. Those were a lot of my foundational
00:07:32.879 –> 00:07:36.779
ones. And then I kind of learned how I could
00:07:36.779 –> 00:07:39.660
merge other voices to create different voices.
00:07:39.819 –> 00:07:45.000
And so I have some original voices like when
00:07:45.000 –> 00:07:48.360
I when I have congestion, I can do Morgan Freeman
00:07:48.360 –> 00:07:51.819
pretty well, which, yeah, it’s an impression,
00:07:52.019 –> 00:07:54.879
but it’s still like a vocal intonation that I
00:07:54.879 –> 00:08:02.220
have to figure out. Even the impressions, I typically
00:08:02.220 –> 00:08:05.259
have to learn their speech patterns. Like, I
00:08:05.259 –> 00:08:07.079
have to listen to them enough. I have to learn
00:08:07.079 –> 00:08:09.680
the speech pattern. I have to replicate it. I
00:08:09.680 –> 00:08:12.000
have to hit the right cadence at the right moment
00:08:12.000 –> 00:08:15.220
with the right speech pattern. I did that in
00:08:15.220 –> 00:08:18.199
my acting class. I played Casey Kasem. And then
00:08:18.199 –> 00:08:22.360
I did the Joker. Yeah. So, I mean, there’s that.
00:08:22.540 –> 00:08:27.979
And then a lot of it, I just pick stuff up. When
00:08:27.979 –> 00:08:31.439
we interviewed the guys that did the Ninja Turtle
00:08:31.439 –> 00:08:34.799
podcast years ago, and then I come off mute and
00:08:34.799 –> 00:08:36.539
I’m like, oh, I can do Krang all of a sudden.
00:08:37.840 –> 00:08:41.919
Just practice it five seconds off air, microphone
00:08:41.919 –> 00:08:44.080
muted, all of a sudden belt on, and then, you
00:08:44.080 –> 00:08:50.200
know, Saki, this is Krang. The devil is my new
00:08:50.200 –> 00:08:54.440
body. So, I mean, a lot of those voices just
00:08:54.440 –> 00:08:56.519
come out of just hearing them for years and learning
00:08:56.519 –> 00:09:01.460
what they say. But when I produced an audio drama
00:09:01.460 –> 00:09:06.120
for three and a half years, I couldn’t always
00:09:06.120 –> 00:09:09.500
do an impression. Right. You had to create your
00:09:09.500 –> 00:09:14.210
own. I did. Yeah. So one of the characters was
00:09:14.210 –> 00:09:16.710
kind of a play on Beast Megatron, but it wasn’t
00:09:16.710 –> 00:09:19.450
100 percent Beast Megatron. It was more lighthearted,
00:09:19.570 –> 00:09:22.370
more like goofy version of it. And so, like,
00:09:22.370 –> 00:09:27.009
I I pitched the the deep and dark and, you know,
00:09:27.009 –> 00:09:30.769
and made him more, you know, conversational,
00:09:30.809 –> 00:09:35.809
you know, and well, well, well. I hit some of
00:09:35.809 –> 00:09:38.029
the same tones, but it was a lot lighter and
00:09:38.029 –> 00:09:41.570
a lot different. Then I had to do a talking parakeet,
00:09:41.590 –> 00:09:43.970
which I can’t do right now just because my throat’s
00:09:43.970 –> 00:09:49.769
a little raspy on it and dry. I did a talking
00:09:49.769 –> 00:09:54.049
parakeet because they had a written -in role
00:09:54.049 –> 00:09:57.409
for a talking parakeet. The director just looks
00:09:57.409 –> 00:10:01.029
at me and the writer and goes, I don’t know how
00:10:01.029 –> 00:10:04.929
I’m going to do this. And I said, well, lucky
00:10:04.929 –> 00:10:11.070
for you, I had an aunt who’s still alive, but
00:10:11.070 –> 00:10:14.610
she had a bird when we went to visit in Florida.
00:10:15.049 –> 00:10:23.190
And she had a bird named Myron, and it would
00:10:23.190 –> 00:10:26.850
talk. it wasn’t a parrot it was like it was some
00:10:26.850 –> 00:10:29.029
other kind of bird but it could talk like a i
00:10:29.029 –> 00:10:30.570
don’t know if it was a love bird or something
00:10:30.570 –> 00:10:36.149
but yeah he would he would go you know and you
00:10:36.149 –> 00:10:40.730
know and so like i i started doing that impression
00:10:40.730 –> 00:10:45.820
and they were like there we go It was supposed
00:10:45.820 –> 00:10:48.120
to be like a parakeet and I’m like, well, parakeet
00:10:48.120 –> 00:10:52.720
don’t really talk. They really don’t. Yeah. And,
00:10:52.740 –> 00:10:54.580
but they wanted it to talk. They wanted to say
00:10:54.580 –> 00:10:56.779
just short things like, you know, never going
00:10:56.779 –> 00:10:58.600
to stop, never going to stop, you know, and,
00:10:58.700 –> 00:11:00.340
and things like that. So I just started speeding
00:11:00.340 –> 00:11:02.440
it up and doing it like higher pitched. And then
00:11:02.440 –> 00:11:08.179
there was a scene where I had to, uh, get vacuumed.
00:11:08.779 –> 00:11:10.940
Like the bird got vacuumed up by accident. Cause
00:11:10.940 –> 00:11:14.019
the kid’s supposed to be cleaning the cage. And,
00:11:14.939 –> 00:11:17.139
They’re like, OK, I really don’t know what to
00:11:17.139 –> 00:11:28.500
do. So I. I said, well, I have this idea. And
00:11:28.500 –> 00:11:32.559
the director’s like, let’s see how it goes. Of
00:11:32.559 –> 00:11:34.679
course, you know, Mary is recording for it, too,
00:11:34.799 –> 00:11:36.639
because she played my wife in the program because
00:11:36.639 –> 00:11:40.539
I cast her that way. And there’s this this scene
00:11:40.539 –> 00:11:44.399
where our. imaginary son in the program like
00:11:44.399 –> 00:11:48.200
the uh that’s another kid’s another kid not our
00:11:48.200 –> 00:11:51.539
own but yeah plays our kid and he goes you know
00:11:51.539 –> 00:11:57.500
vacuums him up and the bird’s going you know
00:11:57.500 –> 00:12:00.659
and and something to that degree and you know
00:12:00.659 –> 00:12:03.799
a lot more squeaking and squeech squealing and
00:12:03.799 –> 00:12:08.659
and things like that and i i did a quick you
00:12:08.659 –> 00:12:12.320
know number of that and director is like it’s
00:12:12.320 –> 00:12:19.860
great i need it longer and so i’m like i’m like
00:12:19.860 –> 00:12:25.940
oh and so i i immediately like just chug some
00:12:25.940 –> 00:12:28.399
water gurgled it for a second you know and then
00:12:28.399 –> 00:12:31.620
went at it and recorded a couple different takes
00:12:31.620 –> 00:12:34.620
of it and and uh he’s like throat hurt yet and
00:12:34.620 –> 00:12:40.870
i was like yep and uh so i did that and there
00:12:40.870 –> 00:12:42.850
was an instance where i had to play a scottish
00:12:42.850 –> 00:12:45.269
character which i was trying to do scotty but
00:12:45.269 –> 00:12:49.809
i was like he’s not off like my impression of
00:12:49.809 –> 00:12:54.809
him and james doohan’s voice and uh star trek
00:12:54.809 –> 00:12:59.909
are not authentic scottish accents like they’re
00:12:59.909 –> 00:13:03.330
they’re just not uh because mine was an impression
00:13:03.330 –> 00:13:06.029
of james doohan doing scotty you know a scottish
00:13:06.029 –> 00:13:12.559
accent in star trek and i I was just this person
00:13:12.559 –> 00:13:14.700
that wrote it was like, I want to see you do
00:13:14.700 –> 00:13:18.700
the voice, Steve. And yeah, good luck. And I
00:13:18.700 –> 00:13:22.059
was like, gee, thanks. And we didn’t have access
00:13:22.059 –> 00:13:26.259
to a Scottish actor. And they joked around like
00:13:26.259 –> 00:13:27.919
they were going to hire somebody off fiber for
00:13:27.919 –> 00:13:30.460
a hot minute there. And then which came to shove
00:13:30.460 –> 00:13:33.960
that day. And they’re like, I got to get it done
00:13:33.960 –> 00:13:37.299
today. I don’t have time to wait. What do you
00:13:37.299 –> 00:13:45.570
got? Me being the overly critical one, I watched
00:13:45.570 –> 00:13:50.570
a butt ton of YouTube videos to get the vocal
00:13:50.570 –> 00:13:52.730
pattern and the cadence and the speech pattern
00:13:52.730 –> 00:13:57.210
down. And I rewrote all of the dialogue for the
00:13:57.210 –> 00:14:00.509
Scottish character so that I could say it exactly
00:14:00.509 –> 00:14:03.789
how it needed to be said, like how they trim
00:14:03.789 –> 00:14:06.049
the words, how they, you know, the cadence of
00:14:06.049 –> 00:14:09.779
it, you know, and. it looked like a mess like
00:14:09.779 –> 00:14:14.100
i couldn’t even barely read it uh and when i
00:14:14.100 –> 00:14:15.639
got down to it i’m like i have no idea what this
00:14:15.639 –> 00:14:18.220
is saying at this point like because i translated
00:14:18.220 –> 00:14:22.740
it in a sense and so i got in the booth and i
00:14:22.740 –> 00:14:25.779
just started you know well how do we got you
00:14:25.779 –> 00:14:28.820
know and just kind of added some of those lilts
00:14:28.820 –> 00:14:32.240
in there and things and i i’d watched a ton of
00:14:32.240 –> 00:14:36.179
them from voice dialect coaches on youtube and
00:14:36.509 –> 00:14:38.070
and other people that are Scottish that were
00:14:38.070 –> 00:14:40.830
watching, you know, like James Doohan and then
00:14:40.830 –> 00:14:45.149
watching, um, I forget the other guy’s name,
00:14:45.350 –> 00:14:49.269
uh, that did Scotty and the reboot films. Uh,
00:14:49.330 –> 00:14:55.750
you know who I’m talking about anyways. Uh, yeah,
00:14:55.970 –> 00:14:58.850
my, my brain is having a hard time remembering
00:14:58.850 –> 00:15:01.210
actors names anymore, but I, yeah, you know who
00:15:01.210 –> 00:15:03.149
I’m talking about. And so anyways, they were
00:15:03.149 –> 00:15:04.909
like, his was not too bad. His was a different
00:15:04.909 –> 00:15:07.110
dialect, but it works. They were like, James
00:15:07.110 –> 00:15:09.269
Doohan is not Scottish. And then they were talking
00:15:09.269 –> 00:15:12.769
about Chris Pine doing a Scottish accent. Simon
00:15:12.769 –> 00:15:16.289
Pegg, yeah. And so they talked about Chris Pine
00:15:16.289 –> 00:15:23.570
doing a spot -on Scottish accent in a film on
00:15:23.570 –> 00:15:29.090
Netflix. And, man, I can’t remember. It was The
00:15:29.090 –> 00:15:33.250
Outlaw King. And it was about Robert the Bruce.
00:15:36.409 –> 00:15:40.129
I think I was supposed to be playing the same
00:15:40.129 –> 00:15:45.950
character in this script. And I watched this
00:15:45.950 –> 00:15:52.649
film four times and mimicked every time they
00:15:52.649 –> 00:15:56.490
said something so that I could get the cadence
00:15:56.490 –> 00:15:59.429
down and the voice down. Went in, recorded it.
00:16:00.250 –> 00:16:03.129
I could probably replicate it if I tried, but
00:16:03.129 –> 00:16:06.409
yeah, it’s… Uh, it’s very difficult. And then
00:16:06.409 –> 00:16:09.509
I, I created another character like, uh, uh,
00:16:09.509 –> 00:16:13.929
Ranger Bob, which was a take on Patrick Warburton
00:16:13.929 –> 00:16:18.230
doing, uh, his role from Emperor’s New Groove.
00:16:18.889 –> 00:16:23.909
Oh, nice. Uh, crunk. Uh, yeah, the Kuzco that
00:16:23.909 –> 00:16:28.009
Kuzco watched, you know, and squirrel squeaky,
00:16:28.009 –> 00:16:29.710
squeaky, squeaky, squeaky, squeaky, squeaky,
00:16:29.730 –> 00:16:33.899
squeak, you know? And so. I did this weird thing
00:16:33.899 –> 00:16:38.980
with my throat the day of. We were doing a live
00:16:38.980 –> 00:16:41.480
-action version of whatever this was, and the
00:16:41.480 –> 00:16:43.840
character had never been seen before, never been
00:16:43.840 –> 00:16:46.879
heard before, never been in anything. And they’re
00:16:46.879 –> 00:16:49.179
like, so here’s the catch. You have to be the
00:16:49.179 –> 00:16:52.340
Ranger character, but you have to do a voice
00:16:52.340 –> 00:16:56.919
or something, and it’s for 12 hours. Yeah, that’s
00:16:56.919 –> 00:17:03.629
a lot. I got the voice figured out when I was
00:17:03.629 –> 00:17:06.690
driving to work at 730 in the morning. Same person
00:17:06.690 –> 00:17:09.829
that wrote the Scottish thing wrote this. I knew
00:17:09.829 –> 00:17:14.670
I was screwed. So they had the best intentions,
00:17:14.769 –> 00:17:19.109
but still. So anyways, I went in and I was like,
00:17:19.210 –> 00:17:21.490
this is what I got. And they were like, ooh,
00:17:21.970 –> 00:17:24.150
like, you know, like that moment where you hear
00:17:24.150 –> 00:17:27.470
David Kaye talk about, you know, the voice at
00:17:27.470 –> 00:17:29.250
the control room, you know, all of them looking
00:17:29.250 –> 00:17:34.410
around like. Yep. You know, dinosaurs looking
00:17:34.410 –> 00:17:36.430
at each other like, Ooh, that’s good. You know,
00:17:36.430 –> 00:17:41.250
or Camille, uh, yeah, whatever. And, and so anyways,
00:17:41.349 –> 00:17:44.569
I did the voice and I was, I later figured out
00:17:44.569 –> 00:17:48.349
a better way of doing it without having to cause
00:17:48.349 –> 00:17:51.490
the throat strain that I was doing, uh, before,
00:17:51.589 –> 00:17:55.450
but I don’t even joke. I got this voice figured
00:17:55.450 –> 00:17:59.769
out. I could not get out of the voice. for 12
00:17:59.769 –> 00:18:03.069
hours because I tried at one point during lunch
00:18:03.069 –> 00:18:09.089
to talk normal and I lost the voice and I still
00:18:09.089 –> 00:18:14.009
had like six hours left to shoot and I was like
00:18:14.009 –> 00:18:15.730
alright I gotta go outside for a few minutes
00:18:15.730 –> 00:18:17.470
I gotta go get this thing back and I listened
00:18:17.470 –> 00:18:19.450
to my recording that I sent earlier in the morning
00:18:19.450 –> 00:18:23.250
and I’m like how did I do this again and so now
00:18:23.250 –> 00:18:27.410
this is the voice of Ranger Bob So he kind of
00:18:27.410 –> 00:18:30.190
talks like this when he’s talking and, you know,
00:18:30.250 –> 00:18:36.150
the squirrelies and yeah. So I kind of evolved
00:18:36.150 –> 00:18:39.970
it from Patrick Warburton to more my own thing.
00:18:40.509 –> 00:18:44.849
And, you know, he’s like, oh, affirmative, you
00:18:44.849 –> 00:18:47.750
know, kind of like he’s like some weird, goofy
00:18:47.750 –> 00:18:50.230
military guy, but he’s actually a park ranger.
00:18:50.309 –> 00:18:54.990
And then there’s literally like a scene in the
00:18:54.990 –> 00:18:59.009
show that he. talks like a squirrel or doesn’t
00:18:59.009 –> 00:19:01.029
talk like a squirrel but he’s like i gotta go
00:19:01.029 –> 00:19:03.710
find my nature friends and see what the squirrels
00:19:03.710 –> 00:19:05.670
are doing you know or something like that and
00:19:05.670 –> 00:19:08.150
there was a whole mini series with him doing
00:19:08.150 –> 00:19:11.069
like nature nuggets for kids or whatever and
00:19:11.069 –> 00:19:12.910
like i came up with the premise and then i was
00:19:12.910 –> 00:19:15.470
like okay now i gotta do the voice through all
00:19:15.470 –> 00:19:23.589
of them yep absolutely all right switching over
00:19:23.589 –> 00:19:29.740
to podcasting this this One is more of a diatribe
00:19:29.740 –> 00:19:32.660
than anything else. But in the book, you chronicle
00:19:32.660 –> 00:19:35.359
your podcasting journey, so we want readers to
00:19:35.359 –> 00:19:39.299
be able to read it for themselves. But 20 years
00:19:39.299 –> 00:19:41.880
later, did you ever think you’d have a network
00:19:41.880 –> 00:19:45.640
with 20 or more podcast shows that equal over
00:19:45.640 –> 00:19:48.200
4 ,000 episodes covering many different geeky
00:19:48.200 –> 00:19:52.460
topics, of which the numbers are futsy with me
00:19:52.460 –> 00:19:57.740
on this, but 85 % you’re a voice on. Sounds about
00:19:57.740 –> 00:20:02.039
right. No, I didn’t think I would still be doing
00:20:02.039 –> 00:20:06.940
this, to be honest. Not to mention the fact that
00:20:06.940 –> 00:20:14.480
I, one, starting off with TFWire and doing 15
00:20:14.480 –> 00:20:17.900
War Story episodes, doing an episode of PlayOn,
00:20:18.000 –> 00:20:22.200
doing an episode of TFWire proper, and then doing
00:20:22.200 –> 00:20:26.730
all things Transformers. brainstorming all these
00:20:26.730 –> 00:20:29.329
other shows getting to collaborate with like
00:20:29.329 –> 00:20:36.569
twig and tf anonymous and uh so many other different
00:20:36.569 –> 00:20:41.210
you know what’s on your mind and all these other
00:20:41.210 –> 00:20:44.690
programs that i’m sure i’m forgetting quite a
00:20:44.690 –> 00:20:50.289
few at this point um but no i didn’t i didn’t
00:20:50.289 –> 00:20:53.710
see myself doing as many, like I I’ve probably
00:20:53.710 –> 00:20:56.950
done more podcasts than what I can remember at
00:20:56.950 –> 00:21:00.690
this point, including like, you know, the, the,
00:21:00.690 –> 00:21:03.730
the kids podcasts that I produced, like I did
00:21:03.730 –> 00:21:06.789
a number of those and I wrote a number of those
00:21:06.789 –> 00:21:09.609
and those are dramatizations. And so those are
00:21:09.609 –> 00:21:12.430
different. I did some for my kids, uh, school
00:21:12.430 –> 00:21:18.910
spirit day for years. And, um, now weirdly enough,
00:21:20.559 –> 00:21:23.319
I’ve been going around and I don’t know if this
00:21:23.319 –> 00:21:25.319
cuts into another question because I have no
00:21:25.319 –> 00:21:33.240
frame of reference here. You devil. I weirdly
00:21:33.240 –> 00:21:37.559
enough have been getting asked more and more
00:21:37.559 –> 00:21:42.559
to speak and present on podcasting more locally
00:21:42.559 –> 00:21:48.720
than anything else. But I do have another like
00:21:48.720 –> 00:21:51.559
I actually have a like almost a webinar live
00:21:51.559 –> 00:21:55.920
stream type thing awesome coming at the end of
00:21:55.920 –> 00:22:02.240
september uh actually for uh a bigger organization
00:22:02.240 –> 00:22:07.200
so uh then then just a local thing which don’t
00:22:07.200 –> 00:22:08.759
get me wrong i love doing the local thing and
00:22:08.759 –> 00:22:10.559
i love talking to the kids as long as they’re
00:22:10.559 –> 00:22:15.480
receptive um but that’s i’m super geeked for
00:22:15.480 –> 00:22:18.140
that plus uh i like the community and the community
00:22:18.140 –> 00:22:21.059
doesn’t cost me anything to be in I’m actually,
00:22:21.059 –> 00:22:24.079
I’m writing an article right now about podcast
00:22:24.079 –> 00:22:28.859
associations. So that’s, that’s going to be a
00:22:28.859 –> 00:22:31.400
fun one. I’m sure I’m going to burn some bridges
00:22:31.400 –> 00:22:37.299
by accident, but I, I have some strong words
00:22:37.299 –> 00:22:44.319
to say on that. But anyways, yeah, I, it’s, it’s
00:22:44.319 –> 00:22:45.900
definitely been interesting and I’ve always dreamed
00:22:45.900 –> 00:22:49.390
of writing a book. So this is something cool,
00:22:49.569 –> 00:22:55.089
like getting to design it, getting to see it
00:22:55.089 –> 00:23:00.670
in print form. I have multiple copies of my own
00:23:00.670 –> 00:23:03.289
book sitting around. I have one in my display
00:23:03.289 –> 00:23:07.690
cabinet now. Nice. I have one, which that’s the
00:23:07.690 –> 00:23:10.289
Barnes & Noble one, which I’m like, okay, that
00:23:10.289 –> 00:23:12.369
one’s my other proof copy that’s in pristine
00:23:12.369 –> 00:23:15.869
condition. My Amazon versions is not for resale.
00:23:16.519 –> 00:23:20.720
um mike both my boys have read through or ian’s
00:23:20.720 –> 00:23:24.500
still reading through it um he loves the anecdotes
00:23:24.500 –> 00:23:27.799
like he’s i think he got bored he got bored when
00:23:27.799 –> 00:23:32.240
the anecdotes ran out um because like he’s he
00:23:32.240 –> 00:23:34.500
he got stalled on chapter three and then he’s
00:23:34.500 –> 00:23:38.180
just kind of like i’ll get back to it soon um
00:23:38.180 –> 00:23:43.039
um he’s like, cause he was asking me all kinds
00:23:43.039 –> 00:23:44.880
of questions when he was going through like the
00:23:44.880 –> 00:23:47.740
intro and the pro, you know, the, the prologue
00:23:47.740 –> 00:23:50.319
and the, you know, chapter one, chapter two.
00:23:50.339 –> 00:23:53.500
And so it was, it was, it was interesting going
00:23:53.500 –> 00:23:55.660
through that, but yeah, I would have never seen
00:23:55.660 –> 00:23:58.640
doing as many podcasts as I’ve done and writing
00:23:58.640 –> 00:24:01.819
a book or getting to teach about it, which. oddly
00:24:01.819 –> 00:24:04.279
enough, I enjoy, even though I’m not like this
00:24:04.279 –> 00:24:07.940
award winning podcaster or, uh, you know, somebody
00:24:07.940 –> 00:24:10.579
that’s getting asked to these big events or,
00:24:10.680 –> 00:24:15.940
or, or paying for these, these big, uh, uh, podcast
00:24:15.940 –> 00:24:22.839
associations or, uh, you know, just because I
00:24:22.839 –> 00:24:26.859
haven’t done those particular things doesn’t
00:24:26.859 –> 00:24:30.640
mean I don’t know what to do. Yeah. It’s more
00:24:30.640 –> 00:24:33.880
so. I don’t have the time or the funds to do
00:24:33.880 –> 00:24:35.559
what some of these people are, you know, getting
00:24:35.559 –> 00:24:38.660
on the road running with. Uh, and it’s because,
00:24:38.759 –> 00:24:42.960
and again, that’s why clear advice, real tools
00:24:42.960 –> 00:24:46.980
and zero gatekeeping. That’s, I’m not trying
00:24:46.980 –> 00:24:49.740
to like, I’m not trying to lie to people in the
00:24:49.740 –> 00:24:52.799
book and go, Oh, if you buy my book, you’ll make
00:24:52.799 –> 00:24:55.660
money. You’ll be a big time podcaster. It’s like,
00:24:55.680 –> 00:24:59.500
no, it’s like it’s work. these are the tools
00:24:59.500 –> 00:25:01.839
that I’ve seen. These are the evolutions of things.
00:25:01.960 –> 00:25:05.559
These are the places to find what you need without
00:25:05.559 –> 00:25:07.920
having to do like a bazillion Google searches
00:25:07.920 –> 00:25:12.880
and try and find what actually works. And so
00:25:12.880 –> 00:25:15.119
that was kind of my premise for this was like,
00:25:15.240 –> 00:25:18.920
I want to help people figure out like, this is
00:25:18.920 –> 00:25:21.660
easy street, like skim through, find what you’re
00:25:21.660 –> 00:25:26.519
looking for and not, not deal with like, cause
00:25:26.519 –> 00:25:28.779
honestly you don’t need the gear. it doesn’t
00:25:28.779 –> 00:25:30.119
matter. Like, I mean, you can record on your
00:25:30.119 –> 00:25:32.720
phone nowadays. Like I’ve done it. I’ve recorded,
00:25:32.819 –> 00:25:36.099
you know, conversing with you and Kai on discord
00:25:36.099 –> 00:25:38.460
and not even had a microphone hooked up and it
00:25:38.460 –> 00:25:43.819
sounded just fine. Yeah. So it’s technology has
00:25:43.819 –> 00:25:45.740
evolved. Things have gotten better. Like it’s
00:25:45.740 –> 00:25:47.900
no longer the, you know, the cracker Jack box,
00:25:48.019 –> 00:25:51.319
uh, microphones of the, the lab tech days, which
00:25:51.319 –> 00:25:53.980
is why they’re gone. The lodge attacks, Mike’s
00:25:53.980 –> 00:25:57.500
sucked until they bought Yeti. And now they’ve
00:25:57.500 –> 00:26:02.259
kind of, bastardize those too but i mean yeah
00:26:02.259 –> 00:26:05.779
i mean that’s that’s kind of that that’s why
00:26:05.779 –> 00:26:09.599
i’m i’m a huge proponent for indie podcaster
00:26:09.599 –> 00:26:15.400
not corporate podcaster yep absolutely all right
00:26:15.400 –> 00:26:18.819
so after the recording of an episode of say all
00:26:18.819 –> 00:26:21.920
things transformers or altered geek what is your
00:26:21.920 –> 00:26:24.779
editing process like do you edit it immediately
00:26:24.779 –> 00:26:27.799
do you edit it the next Whenever you have the
00:26:27.799 –> 00:26:30.259
time to, how much time are you putting in these
00:26:30.259 –> 00:26:34.839
days on the editing versus the old days? So the
00:26:34.839 –> 00:26:37.059
old days, I will definitely say I put a lot more
00:26:37.059 –> 00:26:42.559
time. But it was also different. So back in the
00:26:42.559 –> 00:26:46.720
old days, we either recorded through Skype. Originally,
00:26:48.759 –> 00:26:52.059
we both recorded on Audacity. And then we had
00:26:52.059 –> 00:26:56.690
to sync up the files. audacity didn’t play well
00:26:56.690 –> 00:27:00.009
no with the stream and so we would have to chop
00:27:00.009 –> 00:27:04.490
and cut and and audacity did not have multi -track
00:27:04.490 –> 00:27:09.730
back then no so it was not fun uh you could easily
00:27:09.730 –> 00:27:11.650
screw something up which is why i like the one
00:27:11.650 –> 00:27:15.069
beverly hills cop episode with uh or die hard
00:27:15.069 –> 00:27:21.529
with with dodd or mike birdman um that’s why
00:27:21.529 –> 00:27:28.809
that particular episode was like like whatever
00:27:28.809 –> 00:27:32.049
was wrong with it like super slow or non -existent
00:27:32.049 –> 00:27:38.490
audio um and then granted i listening back to
00:27:38.490 –> 00:27:41.609
that because i list relisten to m wire 200 just
00:27:41.609 –> 00:27:46.769
because i’m planning the revival yeah and i was
00:27:46.769 –> 00:27:49.130
listening to it and i was like you know listening
00:27:49.130 –> 00:27:55.410
back to this i know what happened I literally
00:27:55.410 –> 00:27:57.849
know what happened, but I didn’t know what I
00:27:57.849 –> 00:28:01.529
didn’t know back then. And so it was it one.
00:28:01.569 –> 00:28:03.509
It was how it imported. But two, it was a setting
00:28:03.509 –> 00:28:07.190
and audacity that neutered the file more or less.
00:28:07.230 –> 00:28:11.049
And so but I mean, like and then looking back
00:28:11.049 –> 00:28:14.109
at like, you know, our first interview with David
00:28:14.109 –> 00:28:18.029
Kaye where we had the buzzing. Yeah, I could
00:28:18.029 –> 00:28:19.809
run that through an AI filter now and clean it
00:28:19.809 –> 00:28:25.400
up completely. Yeah. Like easily. easily but
00:28:25.400 –> 00:28:29.440
i also learned how almost like eight years later
00:28:29.440 –> 00:28:36.559
how to use the spectrographic cleanup and cleaned
00:28:36.559 –> 00:28:40.480
the majority of it up anyway so i mean there’s
00:28:40.480 –> 00:28:43.940
with each you know amount of time that goes by
00:28:43.940 –> 00:28:50.819
things evolve and get better and um I forgot
00:28:50.819 –> 00:28:54.279
where I was going with the question, but… Things
00:28:54.279 –> 00:28:58.059
evolve in time, and things get better over time,
00:28:58.220 –> 00:29:04.559
and new tools. Yeah, I mean, I’ve just seen a
00:29:04.559 –> 00:29:07.220
lot of stuff change. My editing, though, getting
00:29:07.220 –> 00:29:10.700
back to the original question, back then it was
00:29:10.700 –> 00:29:12.700
a lot more tedious, a lot more time -consuming.
00:29:12.720 –> 00:29:16.140
I had the intro, I had the outro, which the outros
00:29:16.140 –> 00:29:21.940
were fun and goofy for the time. You’ve just
00:29:21.940 –> 00:29:25.880
listened to a podcast on the Geekcast radio network.
00:29:26.559 –> 00:29:31.400
You can follow us in the following ways. On Facebook,
00:29:31.720 –> 00:29:37.400
blah, blah, blah. Until next time, unleash the
00:29:37.400 –> 00:29:42.160
geek in you. It doesn’t work nowadays, but it
00:29:42.160 –> 00:29:45.500
was funny back then. Kind of a staple of that
00:29:45.500 –> 00:29:50.619
old era. and the gamer clans and that kind of
00:29:50.619 –> 00:29:57.440
stuff. But I spent a lot more time doing it then,
00:29:57.559 –> 00:30:01.880
and then when we started using Adobe Sound Booth,
00:30:01.900 –> 00:30:06.779
I believe. That sounds about right. It was Sound
00:30:06.779 –> 00:30:13.299
Booth before Audition. It had its own issues
00:30:13.299 –> 00:30:19.329
with things. And I can’t remember. There were
00:30:19.329 –> 00:30:23.190
some goofiness things with that, too. I can’t
00:30:23.190 –> 00:30:26.589
quite remember all of it. I also had a version
00:30:26.589 –> 00:30:29.809
that could run off of a flash drive at one point.
00:30:30.529 –> 00:30:36.029
Damn. Well, it was like a mobile version that
00:30:36.029 –> 00:30:39.890
I stumbled across. And I put it on because it
00:30:39.890 –> 00:30:41.630
didn’t need to install. You could just run it
00:30:41.630 –> 00:30:43.920
right from the flash drive. Right. Yeah. And
00:30:43.920 –> 00:30:48.039
so I used that for years because it was easier
00:30:48.039 –> 00:30:50.480
when I was on the go or like when I was out somewhere
00:30:50.480 –> 00:30:54.680
or like when I worked at the dealership, I had
00:30:54.680 –> 00:31:00.420
I had a computer that I used in between, you
00:31:00.420 –> 00:31:02.819
know, work and things that I had going on. Like
00:31:02.819 –> 00:31:06.339
my lunches, I would I would literally edit on
00:31:06.339 –> 00:31:09.500
lunch or I would edit college classes. And I
00:31:09.500 –> 00:31:11.059
learned how to do all this stuff through that.
00:31:11.079 –> 00:31:15.990
And then. uh, eventually got audition when they
00:31:15.990 –> 00:31:18.329
phased out sound booth and audition was better
00:31:18.329 –> 00:31:20.569
and had a lot more features and was just capable
00:31:20.569 –> 00:31:23.789
of a lot more audio formats. Uh, whereas sound
00:31:23.789 –> 00:31:26.430
booth wasn’t like, I think it couldn’t even run
00:31:26.430 –> 00:31:29.690
a C files or something. Like it was just wave
00:31:29.690 –> 00:31:33.089
and MP3 and M4A or something. And that was it.
00:31:33.589 –> 00:31:38.750
Uh, and so when I got audition, like I started
00:31:38.750 –> 00:31:42.980
building out, like now I have, I have prebuilt
00:31:42.980 –> 00:31:48.400
templates for like all things Transformers and
00:31:48.400 –> 00:31:52.460
the Cyber Dragon Ball and Altered Geek. And I
00:31:52.460 –> 00:31:55.680
leave like the spot for the voice promo. I have
00:31:55.680 –> 00:31:57.380
the spot for the intro. I have the spot for the
00:31:57.380 –> 00:31:59.420
outro. And I, of course, like the outro, I drag
00:31:59.420 –> 00:32:02.460
it depending on the length of the episode. But
00:32:02.460 –> 00:32:04.539
I have them all on individual tracks. I have
00:32:04.539 –> 00:32:08.940
them all with certain presets in Audition so
00:32:08.940 –> 00:32:13.609
that I don’t have to. finagle with it and then
00:32:13.609 –> 00:32:19.789
uh and then i literally import from our our discord
00:32:19.789 –> 00:32:22.890
recordings yeah the the multi -track so like
00:32:22.890 –> 00:32:24.950
i get your audio my audio and then i put them
00:32:24.950 –> 00:32:26.910
on different tracks and then just make sure like
00:32:26.910 –> 00:32:28.589
i drag them to the beginning of the the time
00:32:28.589 –> 00:32:33.430
frame making sure that they line up 100 and then
00:32:33.430 –> 00:32:36.569
and then i move them further down past the intro
00:32:36.569 –> 00:32:38.609
or like where the transition starts happening
00:32:38.609 –> 00:32:45.829
yeah and uh So then I, then I kind of, I skim
00:32:45.829 –> 00:32:48.970
it because generally if we’re recording an episode,
00:32:49.029 –> 00:32:51.890
I can tell if it’s going to need editing. Yep.
00:32:51.950 –> 00:32:54.349
I don’t always take timestamps. Sometimes I should,
00:32:54.450 –> 00:33:02.430
but if, if I notice something going AWOL on it,
00:33:02.490 –> 00:33:05.130
I will look at the discord recording, see where
00:33:05.130 –> 00:33:07.450
the timestamp is, make a mental note of it, you
00:33:07.450 –> 00:33:11.599
know, on a notepad. And, uh, seek it out once
00:33:11.599 –> 00:33:15.779
i’ve imported it into the multitrack but um for
00:33:15.779 –> 00:33:20.200
the most part i listen to hear like i i have
00:33:20.200 –> 00:33:22.980
the presets for audition in there where it’ll
00:33:22.980 –> 00:33:26.940
it’ll level it it’ll put a loudness filter it’ll
00:33:26.940 –> 00:33:29.000
it’ll tweak certain other things and kind of
00:33:29.000 –> 00:33:33.380
automate it um it’s not ai it’s just presets
00:33:33.380 –> 00:33:36.180
podcast presets so it’ll boost things they need
00:33:36.180 –> 00:33:39.619
to be boosted and lower other things and uh i
00:33:39.619 –> 00:33:43.259
have i have like 12 different presets depending
00:33:43.259 –> 00:33:45.579
on what it is so i have music one i have like
00:33:45.579 –> 00:33:49.359
podcast ones i have three different of those
00:33:49.359 –> 00:33:50.920
and then i have other ones that i’ve used for
00:33:50.920 –> 00:33:55.180
audio drama stuff that are variations and i’ve
00:33:55.180 –> 00:33:59.339
tweaked different parts of it and then i i kind
00:33:59.339 –> 00:34:01.789
of scrub through and if I know that there’s a
00:34:01.789 –> 00:34:06.069
bunch of ums or like sneezes or, uh, me clicking
00:34:06.069 –> 00:34:08.449
the mouse. Cause oftentimes I’m multitasking
00:34:08.449 –> 00:34:11.710
while I’m recording, uh, which I know that the
00:34:11.710 –> 00:34:13.769
click, click, click, click, click, click, click,
00:34:13.869 –> 00:34:16.650
uh, is super annoying to people. Cause I’ve,
00:34:16.650 –> 00:34:18.289
I’ve gone back and actually listened to them
00:34:18.289 –> 00:34:19.929
and I can tell where I’m paying attention and
00:34:19.929 –> 00:34:25.969
where I’m not. Uh, and Amware 200. Oh no. I,
00:34:26.090 –> 00:34:28.309
well, I was listening to them where 200 and I’m
00:34:28.309 –> 00:34:31.670
like, okay i think i totally well i didn’t edit
00:34:31.670 –> 00:34:35.949
it you did so i wasn’t actively paying attention
00:34:35.949 –> 00:34:38.630
to what was going on like i mean i was paying
00:34:38.630 –> 00:34:40.750
attention to the conversation but i think i was
00:34:40.750 –> 00:34:43.329
playing star trek online oh i’m sure you were
00:34:43.329 –> 00:34:45.750
because i was laid off and i was like it was
00:34:45.750 –> 00:34:48.050
my i think my first layoff and i was like yeah
00:34:48.050 –> 00:34:52.150
whatever yeah no no uh or maybe it was my second
00:34:52.150 –> 00:34:54.989
layoff i don’t know but it was it was funny regardless
00:34:54.989 –> 00:34:59.159
and i i was listening to it i’m like okay i am
00:34:59.159 –> 00:35:03.739
annoying uh no you’re not no i meant the clicking
00:35:03.739 –> 00:35:07.039
the click yeah i understand and and i’m gonna
00:35:07.039 –> 00:35:09.239
say something here folks and he knows better
00:35:09.239 –> 00:35:11.440
than this because i’m not trying to insult him
00:35:11.440 –> 00:35:16.659
but oh my god i want five dollars for every um
00:35:16.659 –> 00:35:29.780
i have to cut for me yes per episode And most
00:35:29.780 –> 00:35:32.960
people will say, oh, but you can leave that in.
00:35:33.119 –> 00:35:36.360
And I’m sitting here thinking, no, you can’t.
00:35:36.679 –> 00:35:40.099
There’s a perfectly good way to sit here and
00:35:40.099 –> 00:35:44.519
have a conversation and talk to someone. So they
00:35:44.519 –> 00:35:49.320
do have software now. It’s called Descript, and
00:35:49.320 –> 00:35:52.940
it will scan and create a transcript of the entire
00:35:52.940 –> 00:35:57.380
episode. And you can have it. find the verbal
00:35:57.380 –> 00:36:01.119
crutches and remove them and it tightens up the
00:36:01.119 –> 00:36:04.420
audio automatically how much does it cost and
00:36:04.420 –> 00:36:08.519
is it i have no idea but it’s it is a i know
00:36:08.519 –> 00:36:10.460
they have a free version but i know that it uses
00:36:10.460 –> 00:36:14.539
part of the cloud to uh filter it and to clean
00:36:14.539 –> 00:36:18.019
it up but it does it does do that like it will
00:36:18.019 –> 00:36:19.940
show you the transcript you can go through and
00:36:19.940 –> 00:36:24.079
find all the ums or the uhs or the the other
00:36:25.019 –> 00:36:28.920
double double word yeah verbal crutches and it’ll
00:36:28.920 –> 00:36:31.619
go through and it’ll remove them all nice and
00:36:31.619 –> 00:36:36.039
so they do have software out there uh i’m trying
00:36:36.039 –> 00:36:41.340
out a new one from uh daniel j lewis right now
00:36:41.340 –> 00:36:44.179
that i’m on the beta test for and i can’t say
00:36:44.179 –> 00:36:45.880
what the name of it is granted i don’t remember
00:36:45.880 –> 00:36:49.139
what the name of it is but it’s fine it it helps
00:36:49.139 –> 00:36:52.079
build chapters and it helps build like time for
00:36:52.079 –> 00:36:57.409
like more of like a an outline of the episode
00:36:57.409 –> 00:37:00.889
itself yeah so basically like when i said okay
00:37:00.889 –> 00:37:03.449
this is the voice acting section this is the
00:37:03.449 –> 00:37:05.769
podcasting section and then up next will be the
00:37:05.769 –> 00:37:08.150
writing section yeah so i mean it’ll it’ll agree
00:37:08.150 –> 00:37:12.190
yeah it’ll do that and the id3 tags and the it’ll
00:37:12.190 –> 00:37:14.090
do all of that and it uses a little bit of ai
00:37:14.090 –> 00:37:17.150
but a lot of the features are just like manual
00:37:17.150 –> 00:37:20.369
yeah you you put you dump your file in there
00:37:20.369 –> 00:37:22.789
it automates and it it does a lot of this stuff
00:37:23.340 –> 00:37:26.380
I’m actually working and, and he’s like, Oh,
00:37:26.420 –> 00:37:28.239
I can’t, I put it together in three weeks and
00:37:28.239 –> 00:37:32.860
I’m like, okay, I know you used AI. So I, which
00:37:32.860 –> 00:37:35.500
everybody’s doing that. I’ve, I’m guilty of it.
00:37:35.519 –> 00:37:38.980
I’ve, I’ve created a couple of, uh, I’ve created
00:37:38.980 –> 00:37:44.139
a couple of the plugins for geekcastradio .com
00:37:44.139 –> 00:37:50.539
using AI because one, I’m too cheap to pay somebody.
00:37:52.519 –> 00:37:57.260
To, you know, more or less, it’s if it’s a subscription.
00:37:57.960 –> 00:38:03.900
Yeah. And I need a simple feature and I need
00:38:03.900 –> 00:38:06.260
it to work like it’s not it’s not something that’s
00:38:06.260 –> 00:38:09.380
like, oh, I’m going to have it generate me an
00:38:09.380 –> 00:38:13.840
SEO app or I’m going to have it generate a podcasting
00:38:13.840 –> 00:38:17.019
plug in or newsletter plug in or, you know, pass
00:38:17.019 –> 00:38:20.900
keys or, you know, something something to that
00:38:20.900 –> 00:38:24.610
degree. I’m not having it mess with because there
00:38:24.610 –> 00:38:26.630
are better features out there. There’s better
00:38:26.630 –> 00:38:29.469
things that are more maintained, paid more attention
00:38:29.469 –> 00:38:32.250
to. I don’t pay attention to how WordPress functions
00:38:32.250 –> 00:38:37.090
like it’s just not in my wheelhouse. So this
00:38:37.090 –> 00:38:41.869
particular one that I created, I ran it through
00:38:41.869 –> 00:38:45.269
AI and I because we used to use like a featured
00:38:45.269 –> 00:38:52.760
image plug in and it would. It was like, I forget
00:38:52.760 –> 00:38:55.539
what it was called, but it was, it was for featured
00:38:55.539 –> 00:38:59.179
images and it would allow you to quickly change
00:38:59.179 –> 00:39:02.179
them based on category, or you could click on
00:39:02.179 –> 00:39:07.360
it in the episode or the, the post list. And
00:39:07.360 –> 00:39:13.480
I won the one that was available was getting
00:39:13.480 –> 00:39:16.239
bigger and more bloated because we’ve been using
00:39:16.239 –> 00:39:21.010
it. I don’t know, 2012. Yep. like way back when
00:39:21.010 –> 00:39:24.030
oh yeah because i you know we’ve changed websites
00:39:24.030 –> 00:39:26.670
and i’ve i wanted something with like quick editing
00:39:26.670 –> 00:39:29.329
and it got to be super bloated and there were
00:39:29.329 –> 00:39:31.710
just more features and it got ad heavy and i
00:39:31.710 –> 00:39:33.929
was like you know every time they add all these
00:39:33.929 –> 00:39:37.630
ads it’s slowing down the website but it’s also
00:39:37.630 –> 00:39:44.690
a security risk yep and so well yes i do have
00:39:45.579 –> 00:39:48.460
Certain things, you know, Jetpack on their newsletters,
00:39:48.460 –> 00:39:52.860
podcast importers from like Second Line, things
00:39:52.860 –> 00:39:59.940
for the theme. I don’t like I was going to have
00:39:59.940 –> 00:40:07.139
it generate our own comments plug in. And I was
00:40:07.139 –> 00:40:09.079
I was going through AI working it out with it.
00:40:09.139 –> 00:40:12.179
And it literally told me out of the features
00:40:12.179 –> 00:40:16.409
you’re looking to have. this particular one is
00:40:16.409 –> 00:40:19.429
the one you want. It’s like, unless you want
00:40:19.429 –> 00:40:21.530
to sit here and develop a brand new one, which
00:40:21.530 –> 00:40:23.750
will take weeks to a month, you know, months.
00:40:23.849 –> 00:40:27.190
Yeah. This is what you want. And I was like,
00:40:27.190 –> 00:40:30.170
touche. I was like, you save me time. You save
00:40:30.170 –> 00:40:33.550
me effort. If a better mousetrap works, you know,
00:40:33.570 –> 00:40:37.650
is there, right. I’ll, I’ll go with it. Uh, anyways,
00:40:37.809 –> 00:40:39.670
I created the, the, you know, a featured image
00:40:39.670 –> 00:40:41.889
plugin, which is the only one that I have actively
00:40:41.889 –> 00:40:44.000
running right now. I have some others. I’m, playing
00:40:44.000 –> 00:40:46.440
around with and tweaking and messing with. But
00:40:46.440 –> 00:40:49.260
this one, I got all the features I wanted. There’s
00:40:49.260 –> 00:40:52.199
no crazy dashboard, no crazy settings thing.
00:40:52.360 –> 00:40:56.940
It’s just literally, it works. And again, you’re
00:40:56.940 –> 00:40:59.900
using the artificial intelligence as a tool.
00:41:00.079 –> 00:41:02.500
I’m using it as a tool to write the code. I’m
00:41:02.500 –> 00:41:05.980
telling it what I want. And then I’m troubleshooting
00:41:05.980 –> 00:41:08.400
it. I’m testing it. I’m seeing if it works. It
00:41:08.400 –> 00:41:11.599
does what I want. And then I’m working on the
00:41:11.599 –> 00:41:16.519
UI with it. Uh, but, and I’m developing a couple
00:41:16.519 –> 00:41:18.980
other ones. I’m actually working on a, an actual
00:41:18.980 –> 00:41:22.980
standalone program that I’m, because we’re talking
00:41:22.980 –> 00:41:28.340
about editing. It reminded me where I wanted
00:41:28.340 –> 00:41:33.219
to automate all of these things, but where you
00:41:33.219 –> 00:41:35.820
can drop in the raw files, it will slap on the
00:41:35.820 –> 00:41:38.780
intro outro. It will, you know, things like that.
00:41:38.820 –> 00:41:41.239
Like, but I don’t, I want it as a standalone
00:41:41.239 –> 00:41:45.320
program. where one you could plug it in with
00:41:45.320 –> 00:41:50.500
an api through ai if you so chose yeah like transcripts
00:41:50.500 –> 00:41:55.380
or things like that my main goal with it is 90
00:41:55.380 –> 00:41:59.900
of these different things people want easy and
00:41:59.900 –> 00:42:04.659
then also 90 of the things out there are subscription
00:42:04.659 –> 00:42:08.860
an indie podcaster does not have the money no
00:42:09.360 –> 00:42:11.599
I don’t have the money. Like, I mean, I could
00:42:11.599 –> 00:42:15.539
pay for it. Yes. But if I paid for every service
00:42:15.539 –> 00:42:17.679
that had a subscription, it’d be like paying
00:42:17.679 –> 00:42:21.760
for cable television. Pretty much. Yeah. So I’m,
00:42:21.760 –> 00:42:25.139
I’m very, and as I’ve mentioned, I’m very indie
00:42:25.139 –> 00:42:27.619
podcaster. I’m not for the corporate people.
00:42:27.699 –> 00:42:29.199
I’m not for these people that are trying to sell
00:42:29.199 –> 00:42:31.619
a product. Like, yes, I’m trying to sell a product.
00:42:31.739 –> 00:42:35.579
My thing would be a one time. Oh yeah. I don’t,
00:42:35.579 –> 00:42:37.400
I don’t, I want it to work. You know, it’s like
00:42:37.400 –> 00:42:40.750
level later. Yep. That thing doesn’t exist anymore.
00:42:41.070 –> 00:42:45.250
I mean, unless you have it. And it essentially
00:42:45.250 –> 00:42:47.449
would also have that type of thing built into
00:42:47.449 –> 00:42:50.289
it. But I’m not taking anybody’s code. I’m not
00:42:50.289 –> 00:42:51.670
doing it. I mean, I don’t know where the AI,
00:42:51.849 –> 00:42:56.510
you know, designs it. And I will say 60 % of
00:42:56.510 –> 00:43:02.090
the time, the code don’t work. Because I’ve had
00:43:02.090 –> 00:43:07.050
that issue with even my WordPress plugin. And
00:43:07.050 –> 00:43:09.110
it’s very much a trial and error thing. And,
00:43:09.130 –> 00:43:10.809
you know, when I get something that works, I
00:43:10.809 –> 00:43:13.289
let it know. And then it tweaks it, troubleshoots
00:43:13.289 –> 00:43:16.949
it. And, you know, we kind of build it collaboratively.
00:43:16.949 –> 00:43:21.349
And so my goal is to create this thing where
00:43:21.349 –> 00:43:23.190
it’s like a one -time purchase and it’s not like
00:43:23.190 –> 00:43:26.409
stupid expensive. Yeah, I mean, there’ll be a
00:43:26.409 –> 00:43:29.889
kickback towards me on it. But, I mean, it’s
00:43:29.889 –> 00:43:32.539
not. It’s nothing that’s going to break the bank.
00:43:32.699 –> 00:43:37.400
It’s well under the price of a video game. Oh,
00:43:37.400 –> 00:43:39.860
yeah. But again, just because it’s a kickback
00:43:39.860 –> 00:43:42.739
towards you, you’re obviously going to then put
00:43:42.739 –> 00:43:45.199
that back into the website or back into the production
00:43:45.199 –> 00:43:49.460
cost. 100%. I mean, we’re not out here making
00:43:49.460 –> 00:43:54.480
money, folks. Like we said earlier, we’ve never,
00:43:54.599 –> 00:44:01.039
never been doing this to make. buku bank of money
00:44:01.039 –> 00:44:04.400
or anything like that or whatever i mean if we
00:44:04.400 –> 00:44:06.699
ever made money great like if we ever got paid
00:44:06.699 –> 00:44:10.059
collectively like you know yeah but i mean i
00:44:10.059 –> 00:44:13.920
i’m also not under the flag of being like oh
00:44:13.920 –> 00:44:17.340
we got bought by amazon we’re wondering we’re
00:44:17.340 –> 00:44:21.539
also not gonna have jobs like yeah exactly yeah
00:44:21.539 –> 00:44:23.900
so i mean it’s that that kind of thing like i’m
00:44:23.900 –> 00:44:31.190
trying to i i don’t i don’t love modern like
00:44:31.190 –> 00:44:33.230
where modern podcasting is going because you’re
00:44:33.230 –> 00:44:34.909
getting all these like people trying to sell
00:44:34.909 –> 00:44:37.409
a product all these fire these hothead corporate
00:44:37.409 –> 00:44:41.030
people for these big corporations trying to sell
00:44:41.030 –> 00:44:44.510
their product and trying to rip people off and
00:44:44.510 –> 00:44:47.190
it’s like dude just i mean that’s that’s again
00:44:47.190 –> 00:44:50.309
that’s why the book like i just yeah it’s not
00:44:50.309 –> 00:44:52.789
an expensive book it’s not it gives you the keys
00:44:52.789 –> 00:44:55.010
to stuff it’s not a dummy’s book where it’s like
00:44:55.010 –> 00:44:59.900
eight times the size of my book and and costs
00:44:59.900 –> 00:45:03.260
you know 30 bucks or whatever like yeah i mean
00:45:03.260 –> 00:45:05.920
mine’s a fraction of the cost but it’s this literally
00:45:05.920 –> 00:45:08.500
will fit you know this is this is like a production
00:45:08.500 –> 00:45:11.800
handbook that you can carry with you and it’s
00:45:11.800 –> 00:45:16.760
lightweight and yeah so absolutely all right
00:45:16.760 –> 00:45:19.719
back to back questions here what is your favorite
00:45:19.719 –> 00:45:24.260
type of podcast episode to listen to news storytelling
00:45:24.260 –> 00:45:29.670
or review show It depends what it is. Okay, well,
00:45:29.769 –> 00:45:32.349
storytelling specifically to give you something
00:45:32.349 –> 00:45:35.909
like podcast approach or origins or something
00:45:35.909 –> 00:45:43.650
like that where a story is being told. So they
00:45:43.650 –> 00:45:46.469
all kind of boil down to am I interested in the
00:45:46.469 –> 00:45:50.750
topic and am I going to learn something? Okay.
00:45:52.110 –> 00:45:55.579
Because if I don’t… if I don’t find value in
00:45:55.579 –> 00:46:01.420
the topic nature or, I mean, the guests matters
00:46:01.420 –> 00:46:05.000
to some degree. Like I, I will fully admit there
00:46:05.000 –> 00:46:08.079
are some origins people. I don’t listen to their
00:46:08.079 –> 00:46:10.539
episodes because I don’t know who they are and
00:46:10.539 –> 00:46:14.940
doesn’t resonate. So there’s one that there’s
00:46:14.940 –> 00:46:16.940
also the familiarity and like, do I know who
00:46:16.940 –> 00:46:20.239
this is? Do I know what this is for? Like, you
00:46:20.239 –> 00:46:24.300
know, I’ll listen to, a review show a lot more
00:46:24.300 –> 00:46:27.559
often but i also do listen to some new shows
00:46:27.559 –> 00:46:31.960
like i there’s some video shows on on youtube
00:46:31.960 –> 00:46:37.619
that you know i’ll listen to that i don’t know
00:46:37.619 –> 00:46:39.840
if they have a podcast component but i do listen
00:46:39.840 –> 00:46:41.880
to some of them but i’ll also go back and listen
00:46:41.880 –> 00:46:44.460
to some of our old stuff because i’m i can’t
00:46:44.460 –> 00:46:50.199
honestly remember what we said It’s like, you
00:46:50.199 –> 00:46:53.659
know, the M wire 200. I didn’t remember any of
00:46:53.659 –> 00:46:58.380
that. Like, yeah, but I also recorded it forever
00:46:58.380 –> 00:47:04.340
ago. And so it’s, it’s very much just one. I’m
00:47:04.340 –> 00:47:06.320
getting older. My memory is not as great as it
00:47:06.320 –> 00:47:09.980
once was. Plus I don’t, I’m dealing with different
00:47:09.980 –> 00:47:13.219
stress stuff in my life now that I didn’t have
00:47:13.219 –> 00:47:16.199
then. And granted, it’s not as bad as back then,
00:47:16.260 –> 00:47:19.599
but still. Uh, there’s just more things occupying
00:47:19.599 –> 00:47:23.840
it, but like I was relistening to, cause I was
00:47:23.840 –> 00:47:27.840
sharing it with somebody on discord. I was relistening
00:47:27.840 –> 00:47:30.440
to the 4 ,000th episode of all things, the overall
00:47:30.440 –> 00:47:32.920
4 ,000th episode of the network. And in that
00:47:32.920 –> 00:47:36.659
episode, I said, generally, if you tell me an
00:47:36.659 –> 00:47:39.539
episode number of any of our podcasts that I’ve
00:47:39.539 –> 00:47:43.500
been on, I can tell you what topic it is. Like
00:47:43.500 –> 00:47:48.449
if you tell me tune cast episode, one well that’s
00:47:48.449 –> 00:47:50.909
the nintendo tunes if you tell me tooncast episode
00:47:50.909 –> 00:47:54.190
10 that’s he -man and shira like i can do that
00:47:54.190 –> 00:47:56.909
kind of stuff but i couldn’t tell you what in
00:47:56.909 –> 00:47:59.570
the hell was said on that episode i would have
00:47:59.570 –> 00:48:01.769
to actually go back and listen to it kind of
00:48:01.769 –> 00:48:07.050
thing and uh and yeah but yeah i don’t know i
00:48:07.050 –> 00:48:12.050
think for me when it comes anyway uh so here
00:48:12.050 –> 00:48:16.429
we go what is your the the opposite end of this
00:48:16.840 –> 00:48:19.860
this question. What is your favorite type of
00:48:19.860 –> 00:48:23.219
podcast episode to produce? Same thing. News,
00:48:23.460 –> 00:48:28.860
storytelling, review show. I think they all kind
00:48:28.860 –> 00:48:32.260
of tie into one at certain times. Kind of. Sometimes
00:48:32.260 –> 00:48:36.519
they do. I like the news shows just to kind of
00:48:36.519 –> 00:48:40.559
keep up on stuff. And then I also like the review
00:48:40.559 –> 00:48:48.159
shows because, again, I can also do that. But
00:48:48.159 –> 00:48:53.260
yeah, I, I don’t know. I, I, I am, I’m a fan
00:48:53.260 –> 00:48:55.460
of all of them to some degree. It just depends
00:48:55.460 –> 00:49:00.619
on the topic nature. Yeah, absolutely. All right.
00:49:00.639 –> 00:49:03.039
Two more questions in this category. Then we
00:49:03.039 –> 00:49:06.639
get to the writing. What did you see as your
00:49:06.639 –> 00:49:09.659
biggest challenge in podcasting 20 years ago?
00:49:09.739 –> 00:49:12.199
And what do you see as your biggest challenges
00:49:12.199 –> 00:49:20.400
today in 2025? 20 years ago. Hand coding the
00:49:20.400 –> 00:49:25.420
website? That’s right. I absolutely hated that.
00:49:25.659 –> 00:49:28.380
And I tell people, do you remember the day when
00:49:28.380 –> 00:49:30.599
you used to have to hand code your RSS feed?
00:49:30.800 –> 00:49:37.000
Well, I do. I remember doing the art. I remember
00:49:37.000 –> 00:49:39.699
doing the website. I remember having to manually
00:49:39.699 –> 00:49:42.719
update the website because it wasn’t automate.
00:49:43.500 –> 00:49:47.119
I remember having to manually do the RSS feeds.
00:49:47.900 –> 00:49:56.239
I remember having to. Yeah. And edit and then
00:49:56.239 –> 00:49:58.500
somehow find time to be like, oh, I’m going to
00:49:58.500 –> 00:50:01.500
produce more episodes. And somehow we recorded
00:50:01.500 –> 00:50:05.119
like four to five to six episodes a week, sometimes
00:50:05.119 –> 00:50:09.840
three a night. Yep. So that’s how we recorded
00:50:09.840 –> 00:50:12.559
four to five episodes a week. We would do three
00:50:12.559 –> 00:50:16.539
a night. That’s how we got. I honestly don’t,
00:50:16.599 –> 00:50:18.719
I don’t know how I had the time for that. I mean,
00:50:18.739 –> 00:50:21.860
granted different, different place in life, but
00:50:21.860 –> 00:50:30.340
yeah, but yeah, I mean, it, it, it definitely
00:50:30.340 –> 00:50:33.019
was a different, a different beast back then.
00:50:33.559 –> 00:50:39.579
Nowadays, nowadays it’s, It’s mostly just finding
00:50:39.579 –> 00:50:44.500
time to record. Yeah. I, I have all these ideas.
00:50:44.599 –> 00:50:46.300
I have all these shows I want to do. Like I want
00:50:46.300 –> 00:50:50.059
to do, I would love to get back to, to weekly
00:50:50.059 –> 00:50:54.699
alter geeks or, and you know, all things transformers
00:50:54.699 –> 00:50:58.139
and have more regular cadence with the cyber
00:50:58.139 –> 00:51:00.519
dragon ball. Cause like I have the scripts written
00:51:00.519 –> 00:51:03.139
for the next like two episodes of that. I’d like
00:51:03.139 –> 00:51:05.480
to get time to do altered track or even edit
00:51:05.480 –> 00:51:10.900
the episode that I have. And, uh, and, and I’ve,
00:51:10.900 –> 00:51:14.119
I’ve even toyed around with, I was going to bring
00:51:14.119 –> 00:51:15.860
back the internet pathfinder, but I was like,
00:51:15.940 –> 00:51:18.739
you know, that shows so far dead and removed.
00:51:19.159 –> 00:51:21.699
I’m better off doing a brand new show for altered
00:51:21.699 –> 00:51:25.840
audio. Yep. And kind of going from there. Uh,
00:51:25.940 –> 00:51:28.300
I also want to do the video show of M wire and
00:51:28.300 –> 00:51:30.079
see if I can actually pull off a video show.
00:51:30.440 –> 00:51:33.980
Yeah. Very cool. And so, like, I have all these
00:51:33.980 –> 00:51:36.480
ideas and all these, like, projects I want to
00:51:36.480 –> 00:51:40.079
do and not enough time to do them. Yes. Well,
00:51:40.219 –> 00:51:43.480
when we get to the point of Altered Trek, we
00:51:43.480 –> 00:51:47.539
definitely have to record a preamble intro for
00:51:47.539 –> 00:51:50.219
that original episode we recorded because that
00:51:50.219 –> 00:51:53.619
thing is sold at this point. And we’re not rerecording
00:51:53.619 –> 00:51:59.380
that episode. We just need to slap an intro on
00:51:59.380 –> 00:52:03.829
it. Which I will. Yeah. Yeah. And one of these
00:52:03.829 –> 00:52:05.769
days I’ll actually get that episode done. It’s
00:52:05.769 –> 00:52:10.230
just, I, again, time I’m hoping my goal is to
00:52:10.230 –> 00:52:11.750
get it done in the next couple of weeks because
00:52:11.750 –> 00:52:16.110
I finally have the, the L cars, uh, segment.
00:52:16.889 –> 00:52:19.949
So I have the, I have the next episodes, all
00:52:19.949 –> 00:52:25.409
cars done too. I, I intentionally did the, well,
00:52:25.409 –> 00:52:31.300
those, well, those I, I recorded with, I used
00:52:31.300 –> 00:52:33.179
AI for those, but it was mostly because I was
00:52:33.179 –> 00:52:36.500
looking for like, not the, not the text, but
00:52:36.500 –> 00:52:39.239
like the vocals, because I was trying to get
00:52:39.239 –> 00:52:41.400
like the computer, you know, the library computer,
00:52:41.599 –> 00:52:47.599
uh, speech and yeah. Or as close to it as I can
00:52:47.599 –> 00:52:52.440
get. Yeah. Yeah. So absolutely. All right. Final
00:52:52.440 –> 00:52:56.579
question in this section for podcasting. What
00:52:56.579 –> 00:52:59.219
is one piece of podcasting advice you want to
00:52:59.219 –> 00:53:03.199
give the listeners that is not in the book? It’s
00:53:03.199 –> 00:53:05.280
like asking me if I remember what I put in the
00:53:05.280 –> 00:53:13.440
book at this point, but mostly just if something’s
00:53:13.440 –> 00:53:15.900
exciting to you and something you, you feel like
00:53:15.900 –> 00:53:18.099
isn’t being covered by somebody else, there is
00:53:18.099 –> 00:53:22.199
place for you. Like there’s not, the podcasting
00:53:22.199 –> 00:53:27.440
is not like, well, there’s already 50 ,000 other
00:53:27.440 –> 00:53:30.199
shows doing the same thing. Well, how many of
00:53:30.199 –> 00:53:36.079
those are actually active, you know? And so it’s,
00:53:36.079 –> 00:53:39.699
it’s, you know, do your research with it, but
00:53:39.699 –> 00:53:43.099
there’s, there’s room for everybody. There really
00:53:43.099 –> 00:53:46.199
is like, and everybody has a different opinion.
00:53:46.320 –> 00:53:48.239
Everybody has a different perspective. Everybody
00:53:48.239 –> 00:53:50.739
has a different interest or level of interest
00:53:50.739 –> 00:53:56.110
of something, you know? there there’s literally
00:53:56.110 –> 00:53:59.130
millions of avenues and in, in directions and
00:53:59.130 –> 00:54:01.750
perspectives that you could take it from. And
00:54:01.750 –> 00:54:06.610
I, I’m, I’m in this, this group with our, our
00:54:06.610 –> 00:54:10.670
podcast hosts, rss .com and the RSS space. And
00:54:10.670 –> 00:54:13.409
I’m literally seeing different things that I
00:54:13.409 –> 00:54:15.349
was like, Oh, I didn’t, I didn’t even think of
00:54:15.349 –> 00:54:17.409
that angle. I didn’t, that’s a great idea. I
00:54:17.409 –> 00:54:20.389
didn’t think about that, you know? Cause it’s
00:54:20.389 –> 00:54:24.000
like, I, I literally, it just didn’t occur to
00:54:24.000 –> 00:54:25.960
me because we’ve always kind of done our status
00:54:25.960 –> 00:54:30.239
quo and how we’ve done things. And, uh, I mean,
00:54:30.260 –> 00:54:32.300
we’ve taken different angles and evolved them,
00:54:32.320 –> 00:54:36.219
but, but it’s still different because we didn’t
00:54:36.219 –> 00:54:38.800
think of it like these people did. Yeah. There
00:54:38.800 –> 00:54:41.460
are some things we were groundbreaking and doing
00:54:41.460 –> 00:54:44.059
before other people took it on like the beast
00:54:44.059 –> 00:54:46.260
wars podcast or, you know, a lot of the review
00:54:46.260 –> 00:54:50.800
content. Yeah. Uh, that’s why we were big until
00:54:50.800 –> 00:54:53.269
like, close to 2016 when it kind of, the bubble
00:54:53.269 –> 00:54:56.070
burst and everybody got in and then it got big
00:54:56.070 –> 00:55:00.489
again during COVID. Yeah. And then that bubble
00:55:00.489 –> 00:55:02.409
burst again because a lot of people that got
00:55:02.409 –> 00:55:06.210
involved with it jumped off after. Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:06.210 –> 00:55:08.630
Cause everybody was at home and everybody didn’t
00:55:08.630 –> 00:55:10.469
have anything to do. And there, everybody found
00:55:10.469 –> 00:55:13.510
podcasting. It was like, Oh my God, we can just
00:55:13.510 –> 00:55:16.150
sit at home and talk to each other. Oh shit.
00:55:16.389 –> 00:55:23.570
Sherlock. But yeah. Yeah. All right, time to
00:55:23.570 –> 00:55:28.429
get into the writing. So just to give a little
00:55:28.429 –> 00:55:31.070
preamble here, folks, we know this interview
00:55:31.070 –> 00:55:35.130
is all about the Steve, but background here on
00:55:35.130 –> 00:55:38.110
me, I’ve been writing for 31 years. I was 14
00:55:38.110 –> 00:55:40.250
years old when I first started writing back in
00:55:40.250 –> 00:55:43.909
1994. Many different things. I considered myself
00:55:43.909 –> 00:55:46.809
a writer before a podcaster, and now I’m obviously
00:55:46.809 –> 00:55:49.860
a podcaster and a writer. And I’m saying all
00:55:49.860 –> 00:55:53.139
this in order to ask you, Steve, have you ever
00:55:53.139 –> 00:55:59.579
had you ever had the writing bug? Were you a
00:55:59.579 –> 00:56:02.500
voracious reader as a kid? Because that’s what
00:56:02.500 –> 00:56:05.159
got me into wanting to be a writer. I read a
00:56:05.159 –> 00:56:07.500
lot of books as a kid in the 80s. So what got
00:56:07.500 –> 00:56:13.500
you into the whole writing thing? So in the 90s.
00:56:14.820 –> 00:56:20.260
I used to read a crap load of books. I burned
00:56:20.260 –> 00:56:22.760
through books like no other. My mom took me to
00:56:22.760 –> 00:56:26.880
use bookstores. Uh, I had, I had a couple of
00:56:26.880 –> 00:56:30.840
shelves. I, she had like, I mean, we had kids
00:56:30.840 –> 00:56:35.059
books galore, like in, in our, our bedroom with
00:56:35.059 –> 00:56:38.619
a bookcase my dad built and it was pretty hefty.
00:56:38.619 –> 00:56:45.230
I mean, it was probably about four foot. It’s
00:56:45.230 –> 00:56:48.329
probably like four foot wide by like five foot
00:56:48.329 –> 00:56:51.949
tall, full of books that we had. They were all,
00:56:51.969 –> 00:56:54.730
you know, you know, your your classics or your
00:56:54.730 –> 00:56:57.409
Disney or your, you know, various stuff that
00:56:57.409 –> 00:56:59.809
you get from the Scholastic or the book fair
00:56:59.809 –> 00:57:03.610
or things like that. And my mom has some of that
00:57:03.610 –> 00:57:06.349
stuff still. And my brother has the rest of it.
00:57:06.409 –> 00:57:10.789
And I got some of the books. And so I had, you
00:57:10.789 –> 00:57:14.769
know, Power Rangers, G .I. Joe. I had. buttload
00:57:14.769 –> 00:57:17.949
of comic books that were coming I loved Star
00:57:17.949 –> 00:57:25.010
Trek back then and read all of the pretty much
00:57:25.010 –> 00:57:29.750
any book that had to do with Kirk or the books
00:57:29.750 –> 00:57:32.730
written by William Shatner for Star Trek I had
00:57:32.730 –> 00:57:37.030
and I read the I read them all and they were
00:57:37.030 –> 00:57:39.550
you know like three three hundred and four hundred
00:57:39.550 –> 00:57:45.170
page books and I would take them to school. I’d
00:57:45.170 –> 00:57:47.670
read them. So I had a huge vocabulary, at least
00:57:47.670 –> 00:57:54.710
while writing. Vocally, I don’t speak as intelligently
00:57:54.710 –> 00:58:00.550
as I write. And there’s oftentimes I write a
00:58:00.550 –> 00:58:02.610
word down. I have no idea what it means, but
00:58:02.610 –> 00:58:06.489
I know it fits in the sentence. And I know that’s
00:58:06.489 –> 00:58:09.269
the right word. I just, you know, I can’t define
00:58:09.269 –> 00:58:12.969
it or know what it is. But it’s somewhere in
00:58:12.969 –> 00:58:14.610
my brain where it’s like, no, this is right.
00:58:14.690 –> 00:58:16.650
I’m telling you. And I’ll look it up and I’m
00:58:16.650 –> 00:58:20.989
usually like 99 % of the time it’s it fits. But
00:58:20.989 –> 00:58:24.110
no, I used to I used to read a ton of those books.
00:58:24.230 –> 00:58:27.510
I used to go to the bookstore. I used to get
00:58:27.510 –> 00:58:32.170
comics. I used to watch, like I said, a crap
00:58:32.170 –> 00:58:36.250
ton of animation and film and television series
00:58:36.250 –> 00:58:39.369
and all these different storylines floating around
00:58:39.369 –> 00:58:43.239
in my brain. I’d play with. uh the action figures
00:58:43.239 –> 00:58:45.340
and the lego and i’d build my own scenarios my
00:58:45.340 –> 00:58:47.940
own storylines then i started writing my own
00:58:47.940 –> 00:58:54.880
and recording them on uh video which i the the
00:58:54.880 –> 00:58:59.760
timing of this is so ironic i i was digging through
00:58:59.760 –> 00:59:02.719
my desk looking for something the other day i
00:59:02.719 –> 00:59:06.340
can’t remember what and i found these old home
00:59:06.340 –> 00:59:12.130
videos that my brother had transferred from vhs
00:59:12.130 –> 00:59:18.909
to dvd nice and like we have like we we have
00:59:18.909 –> 00:59:21.889
like our like our christmas one from like 89
00:59:21.889 –> 00:59:26.869
to 96 and then we have like a general one which
00:59:26.869 –> 00:59:29.570
was like i don’t even know what’s on it from
00:59:29.570 –> 00:59:33.050
but from 89 to 91 just random stuff with like
00:59:33.050 –> 00:59:37.050
one of those old sylvania yep camcorders that
00:59:37.050 –> 00:59:39.460
are yep huge and then there’s another one that
00:59:39.460 –> 00:59:42.199
says steve’s home videos which is from 94 to
00:59:42.199 –> 00:59:46.039
97 which butts right up against time of star
00:59:46.039 –> 00:59:49.579
trek generations coming out and my parents getting
00:59:49.579 –> 00:59:52.719
a divorce since we had the basement converted
00:59:52.719 –> 00:59:57.519
into a makeshift enterprise bridge oh wow so
00:59:57.519 –> 01:00:00.480
we put masking tape on the floor for the transporter
01:00:00.480 –> 01:00:04.340
we had you know a pool we had a air hockey table
01:00:04.340 –> 01:00:06.820
we had a tv which And then we had a computer
01:00:06.820 –> 01:00:10.599
system which I had the red alert sound recorded
01:00:10.599 –> 01:00:14.880
from the TV. And then I had created my own graphics
01:00:14.880 –> 01:00:19.559
for the red alert on the screen. And we had a
01:00:19.559 –> 01:00:21.659
computer chair that looked like the Enterprise
01:00:21.659 –> 01:00:24.579
A’s computer, you know, the captain’s chair.
01:00:25.039 –> 01:00:27.039
Of course, my brother’s got the crappy chairs
01:00:27.039 –> 01:00:30.630
and I got the nice one. just nature of the beast
01:00:30.630 –> 01:00:33.510
and, you know, dressed in the stuff and had all
01:00:33.510 –> 01:00:35.469
these weird storylines going on. And then there’s
01:00:35.469 –> 01:00:37.409
other ones where I know I’m recording in front
01:00:37.409 –> 01:00:41.449
of a, uh, like stories that I wrote on paper
01:00:41.449 –> 01:00:46.829
or a typewriter or word processor, uh, that I
01:00:46.829 –> 01:00:49.690
would read in front of the camera. And yeah,
01:00:49.769 –> 01:00:51.170
it’ll be interesting to go back through that.
01:00:51.269 –> 01:00:52.969
Cause I’ve, like I said, I have no idea what’s
01:00:52.969 –> 01:00:55.800
on it, but. It’ll be fun. Very cool. Very cool.
01:00:55.940 –> 01:00:58.780
How would you define your writing style for altered
01:00:58.780 –> 01:01:04.340
audio and beyond this first book? Uh, very conversational,
01:01:04.340 –> 01:01:10.400
very kind of anecdote, very, I used a lot of
01:01:10.400 –> 01:01:15.559
plain English and, you know, in some regards,
01:01:15.659 –> 01:01:20.800
some metaphors and, uh, spelling it out for people.
01:01:24.269 –> 01:01:28.969
More or less, I’m being very frank with people,
01:01:29.030 –> 01:01:35.469
very open. It’s like, you’ve got a voice. Use
01:01:35.469 –> 01:01:40.630
it. Here comes the part most creators dread,
01:01:40.809 –> 01:01:43.769
where most of the magic happens post -production.
01:01:45.130 –> 01:01:51.599
That’s right. It isn’t just about cleanup. it’s,
01:01:51.599 –> 01:01:53.659
it’s, you know, a lot of mindset stuff. It’s
01:01:53.659 –> 01:01:56.039
a lot of like reframing how you’re, you’re thinking
01:01:56.039 –> 01:02:01.300
about things and, you know, it’s kind of showing
01:02:01.300 –> 01:02:06.739
that, you know, I, a lot of the, the content
01:02:06.739 –> 01:02:11.380
is fly by the seat of your pants. See what works.
01:02:11.380 –> 01:02:15.360
Pivot. Yep. Cause I mean, I even named drop,
01:02:15.400 –> 01:02:19.929
you know, ATTF, ultra geek, M wire. you know
01:02:19.929 –> 01:02:23.510
even the you know i even touch on like burnout
01:02:23.510 –> 01:02:29.190
yep absolutely it’s like and why you came back
01:02:29.190 –> 01:02:32.949
you know you know the the podcast feed quieted
01:02:32.949 –> 01:02:36.090
you know life got loud mike sat still until listeners
01:02:36.090 –> 01:02:38.210
spoke up you know miss your voice is all three
01:02:38.210 –> 01:02:40.469
all things transformers coming back your show
01:02:40.469 –> 01:02:43.559
helped me through a rough patch you know I was
01:02:43.559 –> 01:02:45.739
like, I didn’t relaunch for the metrics. I did
01:02:45.739 –> 01:02:48.519
it for the connection, for the conversation.
01:02:50.099 –> 01:02:53.320
We’ve never done this for the metrics. No, I
01:02:53.320 –> 01:02:56.519
mean, I don’t give a rip. If people love it and
01:02:56.519 –> 01:02:59.099
listen to it, the metrics show that it’s resonating,
01:02:59.239 –> 01:03:02.280
great. I’m still going to record an episode.
01:03:02.960 –> 01:03:06.119
Exactly. It doesn’t mean that you can’t evolve
01:03:06.119 –> 01:03:13.860
or get better with your craft. It’s just… making
01:03:13.860 –> 01:03:16.260
sure that what you’re putting out there is better
01:03:16.260 –> 01:03:19.659
or resonating or giving somebody something entertaining
01:03:19.659 –> 01:03:23.619
to listen to and, you know, educational, giving
01:03:23.619 –> 01:03:26.099
them a piece that makes them a part of the conversation.
01:03:26.340 –> 01:03:30.860
That’s, and that’s why I started podcasting.
01:03:30.860 –> 01:03:33.960
It’s because I enjoy the conversation. I enjoy
01:03:33.960 –> 01:03:38.260
geeking out with other people. It’s why I kind
01:03:38.260 –> 01:03:40.739
of wanted to do this in the first place. Plus,
01:03:41.460 –> 01:03:44.420
I’ve always wanted to be on radio. Now that I’ve
01:03:44.420 –> 01:03:47.119
worked in marketing, I realize I don’t want to
01:03:47.119 –> 01:03:51.840
work in radio. Podcasting has always been the
01:03:51.840 –> 01:03:55.019
new radio for me. It is. That’s what I mean.
01:03:55.179 –> 01:03:57.619
I’ll do podcasting because I can’t get fired
01:03:57.619 –> 01:04:01.400
from that. Because we run the show. Exactly.
01:04:06.400 –> 01:04:09.360
That’s kind of where I’m going with that. Exactly.
01:04:10.489 –> 01:04:13.269
How did AA begin? What was the initial outlook
01:04:13.269 –> 01:04:17.389
at it? The idea for it? Yeah. It started because,
01:04:17.489 –> 01:04:21.989
honestly, it was in the RSS space for our podcast
01:04:21.989 –> 01:04:25.789
hosting company. And I was getting asked some
01:04:25.789 –> 01:04:27.650
of the same questions over and over. And then
01:04:27.650 –> 01:04:30.329
I had people in real life asking me that. Okay.
01:04:30.530 –> 01:04:33.010
A lot of stuff. And then I’ve been going to a
01:04:33.010 –> 01:04:36.269
lot of stuff speaking publicly. And I’m like,
01:04:36.369 –> 01:04:38.719
you know… I’ve been writing a lot of articles.
01:04:38.800 –> 01:04:41.519
I’ve been making a lot of posts. I’ve been dropping
01:04:41.519 –> 01:04:44.500
a lot of little nuggets of information. I should
01:04:44.500 –> 01:04:48.079
probably put this in one place. Yep. There you
01:04:48.079 –> 01:04:55.119
go. And so I was like, I need to put this all
01:04:55.119 –> 01:04:59.579
together. And when I started writing it, a lot
01:04:59.579 –> 01:05:03.199
of it was… I had a lot of redundancies in places
01:05:03.199 –> 01:05:05.679
like I had chapters going and there were some
01:05:05.679 –> 01:05:08.300
redundancies between chapters. And I was like,
01:05:08.380 –> 01:05:13.780
I was like, cause like I did use some AI, but
01:05:13.780 –> 01:05:17.840
it was mostly layout. Yeah. And I was like, where
01:05:17.840 –> 01:05:22.659
am I repeating this? Where can I, you know, where
01:05:22.659 –> 01:05:26.420
can I make it more concise or like. can I merge
01:05:26.420 –> 01:05:28.679
this with this and have it still make sense?
01:05:28.900 –> 01:05:30.300
Cause like, I was trying to wrap my head around.
01:05:30.360 –> 01:05:32.239
I’m like, both are great information. However,
01:05:32.420 –> 01:05:35.599
don’t need to re say the same thing in two chapters.
01:05:36.179 –> 01:05:40.820
Yep. And so I was able to, like, it was like
01:05:40.820 –> 01:05:43.179
telling me how I could reframe it. And I was
01:05:43.179 –> 01:05:46.239
like, okay, so I can put it here and I can do
01:05:46.239 –> 01:05:49.159
this with it. And I can, you know, so it was
01:05:49.159 –> 01:05:54.019
able to make it cohesive. on on my own and it
01:05:54.019 –> 01:05:56.880
was great uh being able to to throw a lot of
01:05:56.880 –> 01:06:03.719
that in there and like i i a lot of it was just
01:06:03.719 –> 01:06:08.219
kind of making sure i had a place to put it because
01:06:08.219 –> 01:06:12.639
like i’ve i’ve probably i’ve i’ve forgotten more
01:06:12.639 –> 01:06:16.980
than i’ll remember on podcasting and like i was
01:06:16.980 –> 01:06:19.760
taking like articles i wrote from years ago and
01:06:20.480 –> 01:06:24.039
uh, on podcasting and on audio editing in general.
01:06:24.460 –> 01:06:28.679
Uh, because I’ve, I’ve done both sides of it.
01:06:28.739 –> 01:06:33.380
Like I, I, I have a media degree and then I have
01:06:33.380 –> 01:06:39.019
a slideshow that I was using for my, for my,
01:06:39.079 –> 01:06:42.380
my speaking engagements. And a lot of that’s
01:06:42.380 –> 01:06:47.179
in here. Like, and then, uh, a lot of the resources.
01:06:48.460 –> 01:06:50.519
A lot of the different types of stuff. Like I
01:06:50.519 –> 01:06:55.219
was, I was just honestly trying to put it all
01:06:55.219 –> 01:07:00.219
in one spot because again, I don’t, I don’t remember
01:07:00.219 –> 01:07:05.960
stuff very well. Yeah. Well, you kind of answered
01:07:05.960 –> 01:07:09.239
sort of the next two questions, but I’ll say
01:07:09.239 –> 01:07:12.199
them anyway. After you had the kernel of the
01:07:12.199 –> 01:07:15.119
idea, how did you refine and polish it? And then
01:07:15.119 –> 01:07:19.519
what was the formatting process like? Formatting
01:07:19.519 –> 01:07:24.400
was interesting because each platform has a different
01:07:24.400 –> 01:07:35.320
one. Amazon, Kindle Press, or KDP Press, it has
01:07:35.320 –> 01:07:38.840
one style. And then Barnes & Noble Press has
01:07:38.840 –> 01:07:42.599
a different. IngramSpark has a slightly different
01:07:42.599 –> 01:07:49.139
one. And then the Kindle, like the e -book, you
01:07:49.139 –> 01:07:51.900
had to convert in a certain way. And every time
01:07:51.900 –> 01:07:53.900
I tried to do it one way, it kept throwing off
01:07:53.900 –> 01:07:57.679
the formatting. Funny enough, I was able to because
01:07:57.679 –> 01:08:00.739
I built all this in a Word document. I started
01:08:00.739 –> 01:08:02.360
off in a Google doc and it was just coming out
01:08:02.360 –> 01:08:05.960
weird. And so I was like, I need to do this in
01:08:05.960 –> 01:08:09.760
Word proper. And so I was just I was formatting
01:08:09.760 –> 01:08:11.860
it, making sure it’s spaced right, doing the
01:08:11.860 –> 01:08:14.389
page breaks. And then I had to learn that you
01:08:14.389 –> 01:08:17.189
because I have the specialized font for the logo
01:08:17.189 –> 01:08:19.729
for altered audio and, you know, the cover page
01:08:19.729 –> 01:08:25.210
on the inside. It. I figured out how you embed
01:08:25.210 –> 01:08:30.369
fonts into the file. Which I didn’t know how
01:08:30.369 –> 01:08:34.489
to do before, and I had to Google it and then
01:08:34.489 –> 01:08:38.510
building the table of contents was was interesting
01:08:38.510 –> 01:08:39.949
because, I mean, it’s got an automated thing
01:08:39.949 –> 01:08:44.520
and it goes by like the headlines and. the or
01:08:44.520 –> 01:08:49.100
the headers like h1 h2 h3 that kind of stuff
01:08:49.100 –> 01:08:54.460
and then the cover that was a colossal pain oh
01:08:54.460 –> 01:08:59.920
no well i designed the one i i asked ai to create
01:08:59.920 –> 01:09:03.579
me a cover logo this is not ai created right
01:09:03.579 –> 01:09:06.520
um but i did it because i was trying to narrow
01:09:06.520 –> 01:09:09.819
down what i was going for right and so i was
01:09:09.819 –> 01:09:12.760
describing it and i was kind of doing it And
01:09:12.760 –> 01:09:15.460
as you know, with AI, every time you ask it something
01:09:15.460 –> 01:09:18.239
or every time you refine one little piece somewhere
01:09:18.239 –> 01:09:19.840
and tell it to leave everything else the same,
01:09:19.920 –> 01:09:25.500
it does not. So I would have it tweak something
01:09:25.500 –> 01:09:27.699
and then it would screw something else up. And
01:09:27.699 –> 01:09:29.199
then I’d have it tweak something else and it
01:09:29.199 –> 01:09:31.300
would screw something else up. And at first I
01:09:31.300 –> 01:09:33.000
was going to cheat and just let AI just make
01:09:33.000 –> 01:09:36.979
the artwork. And then I started getting irritated.
01:09:37.439 –> 01:09:39.520
And I’m like, this is not what I want. This is
01:09:39.520 –> 01:09:42.159
not what I want. and it showed me one good copy
01:09:42.159 –> 01:09:47.600
at one point with the overall like shape and
01:09:47.600 –> 01:09:49.819
design, but a lot of the colors were wrong or
01:09:49.819 –> 01:09:52.560
the fonts were wrong or the, but it gave me like
01:09:52.560 –> 01:09:55.779
the structure of how it should look. Right. And
01:09:55.779 –> 01:10:00.239
so I, I was able to put it all together. I actually
01:10:00.239 –> 01:10:04.579
think the waveform that’s on it is the only thing
01:10:04.579 –> 01:10:09.710
that’s AI generated. Wow. The, the, the neon
01:10:09.710 –> 01:10:12.409
microphone that’s from the geek cast radio logo
01:10:12.409 –> 01:10:15.529
that I created for that altered audio is just
01:10:15.529 –> 01:10:17.050
a different variation of the font of altered
01:10:17.050 –> 01:10:19.010
geek. Originally I was going to use the altered
01:10:19.010 –> 01:10:20.989
geek font, but I was like, eh, it doesn’t quite
01:10:20.989 –> 01:10:24.090
fit. It just looks weird. Yeah. And then podcasting
01:10:24.090 –> 01:10:26.510
demystified like it, I was going for the same,
01:10:26.550 –> 01:10:29.170
you know, font. Then I wanted a clean font, which
01:10:29.170 –> 01:10:32.350
I think it’s future for the rest of it. And then
01:10:32.350 –> 01:10:35.729
I put the GCR and logo and then the binder, the
01:10:35.729 –> 01:10:38.439
binding part of it was, kind of strange like
01:10:38.439 –> 01:10:42.279
my name centered podcasting demystified is almost
01:10:42.279 –> 01:10:45.739
centered and then the microphone is not centered
01:10:45.739 –> 01:10:49.960
on the binding which whatever it’s it’s a first
01:10:49.960 –> 01:10:51.739
edition i’m sure i’ll have another one later
01:10:51.739 –> 01:10:55.380
yeah but and then i had to figure out how to
01:10:55.380 –> 01:10:57.680
put the about the author and you know leave room
01:10:57.680 –> 01:11:00.680
for the upc code because in the templates it
01:11:00.680 –> 01:11:03.079
doesn’t tell you where to put it yeah they just
01:11:03.079 –> 01:11:06.140
insert it wherever and i could have you know
01:11:06.920 –> 01:11:09.939
But what’s funny is between my Barnes & Noble
01:11:09.939 –> 01:11:12.640
version and my Amazon version is the Barnes &
01:11:12.640 –> 01:11:17.020
Noble one came out better. Binding -wise. Wow.
01:11:17.039 –> 01:11:21.939
On the covers. I think I had to do a slight tweak,
01:11:21.979 –> 01:11:24.760
but the Amazon one doesn’t… The other thing
01:11:24.760 –> 01:11:27.560
I was kind of disappointed is Amazon does not
01:11:27.560 –> 01:11:32.140
take care of the book when they ship it. Oh.
01:11:33.080 –> 01:11:35.399
as well as Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble had
01:11:35.399 –> 01:11:39.880
this thing in a cardboard box. Yep. Packed in
01:11:39.880 –> 01:11:42.159
there tight. It was not going to get bent, no
01:11:42.159 –> 01:11:46.420
matter what you did to it. The Amazon one, not
01:11:46.420 –> 01:11:49.079
for resale, was in good condition before my son
01:11:49.079 –> 01:11:55.239
got a hold of it. Okay. But it seems to get the
01:11:55.239 –> 01:11:57.500
scratches and a little bit of the dings a little
01:11:57.500 –> 01:12:02.680
bit easier than the other one. I’ve gotten since
01:12:02.680 –> 01:12:06.039
two more from Amazon because I’m going to be
01:12:06.039 –> 01:12:08.159
shopping those around locally just to see if
01:12:08.159 –> 01:12:14.300
I can get them in the store. But the process
01:12:14.300 –> 01:12:16.220
was different. But I had to use a third -party
01:12:16.220 –> 01:12:20.819
website to convert the PDF of the thing for an
01:12:20.819 –> 01:12:26.399
EPUB file for the Kindle. Because the software
01:12:26.399 –> 01:12:28.079
that came with the Kindle was just a nightmare
01:12:28.079 –> 01:12:31.510
to deal with. Like, cause you, you have to use
01:12:31.510 –> 01:12:33.930
their software if you want to convert it or you
01:12:33.930 –> 01:12:37.529
can upload a finished file. And I was like, I’m
01:12:37.529 –> 01:12:39.750
not doing this. I sent him a finished file and
01:12:39.750 –> 01:12:43.510
it worked. So yeah, I learned different things
01:12:43.510 –> 01:12:45.869
through different publishers. Like I get more
01:12:45.869 –> 01:12:48.529
of a cut if it’s direct from Amazon or Barnes
01:12:48.529 –> 01:12:53.210
and Noble .com. If it’s the higher priced version
01:12:53.210 –> 01:12:56.350
of the same book. on IngramSpark, which, again,
01:12:56.470 –> 01:12:58.970
it publishes to both of those places. So, I mean,
01:12:58.989 –> 01:13:00.729
I could have just done it through IngramSpark
01:13:00.729 –> 01:13:06.210
from the start. But the problem with it is I
01:13:06.210 –> 01:13:08.810
don’t get much of it cut from the IngramSpark
01:13:08.810 –> 01:13:14.250
version, which is funny. That’s weird. So, yeah.
01:13:14.710 –> 01:13:17.149
That’s very weird. Well, you’ve talked about
01:13:17.149 –> 01:13:19.210
the formatting. You’ve talked about the self
01:13:19.210 –> 01:13:21.970
-publishing process and things like that and
01:13:21.970 –> 01:13:25.619
how easy or difficult it was. So how did you
01:13:25.619 –> 01:13:29.079
approach this knowing everything? Did you approach
01:13:29.079 –> 01:13:32.579
it knowing everything you wanted it to be? Or
01:13:32.579 –> 01:13:36.100
was it a project that changed over the time as
01:13:36.100 –> 01:13:42.039
you created it? It slowly changed. I honestly
01:13:42.039 –> 01:13:44.159
wasn’t sure how much was going to go into this.
01:13:44.199 –> 01:13:45.579
And every time I thought I was getting closer
01:13:45.579 –> 01:13:48.220
to being done, I would have a conversation with
01:13:48.220 –> 01:13:50.699
somebody in the RSS space. And then I was like,
01:13:50.760 –> 01:13:56.289
oh, another nugget. Oh, I would, I would write
01:13:56.289 –> 01:13:58.649
out all these, like these different things are,
01:13:58.710 –> 01:14:01.750
you know, articulating something. And like, I,
01:14:01.829 –> 01:14:04.470
I literally, I crap you not dude. I probably
01:14:04.470 –> 01:14:07.529
have another like 10 to 15, maybe even 20 pages
01:14:07.529 –> 01:14:11.930
worth of stuff saved in another document for,
01:14:11.989 –> 01:14:14.609
to incorporate for a second edition of this book,
01:14:14.689 –> 01:14:17.729
which means the next one will probably come out,
01:14:17.729 –> 01:14:19.989
you know, next year or something. Like I’m not
01:14:19.989 –> 01:14:22.199
going to release them as close together. coming
01:14:22.199 –> 01:14:25.819
august 2026 might even be sooner it might be
01:14:25.819 –> 01:14:28.220
like may or june but but you know what i mean
01:14:28.220 –> 01:14:30.979
but yeah but i’ll i’ll probably have a second
01:14:30.979 –> 01:14:33.659
edition of the book yeah i’ll probably tweak
01:14:33.659 –> 01:14:35.859
some of the covering i’ll probably tweak you
01:14:35.859 –> 01:14:39.800
know to more or less differentiate it from v1
01:14:39.800 –> 01:14:48.460
to v2 yeah and uh i i definitely have more stuff
01:14:48.460 –> 01:14:51.609
to add to it i was like Part of me was like,
01:14:51.689 –> 01:14:55.449
do I hold off on releasing and just put these
01:14:55.449 –> 01:15:01.170
in there? Or what do I do? What’s the best method
01:15:01.170 –> 01:15:06.250
here? Do I just continue with my original plan
01:15:06.250 –> 01:15:10.250
and just save these for V2? Or do I pump the
01:15:10.250 –> 01:15:11.689
brakes on it and put them in there? And I’m like,
01:15:11.729 –> 01:15:13.850
well, if I do that, then I’m probably going to
01:15:13.850 –> 01:15:18.329
be pushing it out another month. I would just
01:15:18.329 –> 01:15:21.630
wait for V2. Yeah, I was like, honestly, there’s
01:15:21.630 –> 01:15:23.069
gonna be enough stuff that changes. I’m probably
01:15:23.069 –> 01:15:25.750
going to have to redo some of what’s in this
01:15:25.750 –> 01:15:28.750
book now, because even one of the newsletters
01:15:28.750 –> 01:15:32.090
that one of the podcast newsletters I dropped
01:15:32.090 –> 01:15:38.529
in here by Chris Peterson download. He just sent
01:15:38.529 –> 01:15:41.109
out an email today saying that he’s done with
01:15:41.109 –> 01:15:43.909
his newsletter because he got picked up by another
01:15:43.909 –> 01:15:49.970
organization in podcasting. So, so like literally
01:15:49.970 –> 01:15:54.949
like that information is outdated. Yeah. But
01:15:54.949 –> 01:15:56.930
I mean, I have other things I would put in here,
01:15:56.989 –> 01:16:00.890
like, you know, podcast conventions or podcast
01:16:00.890 –> 01:16:04.609
associations, audio dramas. Like, I mean, there’s,
01:16:04.609 –> 01:16:07.829
there’s probably another like 20, 30 pages worth
01:16:07.829 –> 01:16:10.010
of stuff I get thrown in here now, but it was
01:16:10.010 –> 01:16:11.930
stuff I forgot about. Honestly, like I forgot
01:16:11.930 –> 01:16:14.529
about podcast conventions. I, I forgot about,
01:16:14.590 –> 01:16:18.600
you know, producing audio dramas i forgot about
01:16:18.600 –> 01:16:20.859
you know which is funny because i worked in it
01:16:20.859 –> 01:16:23.180
for three and a half years and exactly but i
01:16:23.180 –> 01:16:26.239
mean but i was i think it was so focused on the
01:16:26.239 –> 01:16:28.380
indie aspect and the fact that like these are
01:16:28.380 –> 01:16:30.100
your different avenues these are your different
01:16:30.100 –> 01:16:33.579
you know playgrounds yep uh like i’m i’m having
01:16:33.579 –> 01:16:36.779
a conversation like i’m doing another teaching
01:16:36.779 –> 01:16:38.979
engagement with you know fifth and sixth graders
01:16:38.979 –> 01:16:41.899
this week and i’m doing one with i’m having a
01:16:41.899 –> 01:16:47.659
conversation with a guy this week about you know,
01:16:47.699 –> 01:16:52.359
podcasts and like the, the conversations about
01:16:52.359 –> 01:16:55.600
like podcast hosts, guests and sponsors and stuff
01:16:55.600 –> 01:16:58.199
like that. So I’m having a conversation about
01:16:58.199 –> 01:17:00.760
that during my lunch tomorrow. So, yeah, I mean,
01:17:00.779 –> 01:17:03.460
it’s, it’s just lots of different, lots of different
01:17:03.460 –> 01:17:06.239
doors have opened one between the book and two
01:17:06.239 –> 01:17:10.079
for the fact that I’m just very ingrained in
01:17:10.079 –> 01:17:13.979
the podcast sphere right now with helping people.
01:17:14.619 –> 01:17:17.800
Just no charge, no nothing. Just your stuff.
01:17:18.500 –> 01:17:23.479
Yep. Very cool. Very cool. All right. So final
01:17:23.479 –> 01:17:28.500
question. What advice do you have for authors
01:17:28.500 –> 01:17:33.500
of this type of book of podcasting or of just
01:17:33.500 –> 01:17:37.039
like the, the, the tips and tricks and the, the
01:17:37.039 –> 01:17:40.909
way that you formatted your book and just Because
01:17:40.909 –> 01:17:46.449
this is not a novel. This is more of a guide.
01:17:46.449 –> 01:17:50.590
It’s a non -fiction guide. Yeah, so what would
01:17:50.590 –> 01:17:55.170
you say to authors of that type of book? Don’t
01:17:55.170 –> 01:17:57.770
make it difficult. I mean, yeah, you can have
01:17:57.770 –> 01:18:01.090
diagrams and different stuff in there. I wasn’t
01:18:01.090 –> 01:18:03.529
going to go through all that extra to create
01:18:03.529 –> 01:18:11.060
a… dummies book. Cause like, I mean, if you
01:18:11.060 –> 01:18:12.659
want a dummies book, get a dummies book. Like
01:18:12.659 –> 01:18:15.699
I’m not trying to be a dummies book. Yeah. I
01:18:15.699 –> 01:18:19.680
also don’t like dummies books because it’s information
01:18:19.680 –> 01:18:23.060
overload. It’s a lot of times like over explaining
01:18:23.060 –> 01:18:26.760
something. It gives you the information, but
01:18:26.760 –> 01:18:31.520
it’s honestly like it, I feel like it just kind
01:18:31.520 –> 01:18:36.319
of, a lot of these books are too much. Yep. And
01:18:36.319 –> 01:18:39.149
so like, to me it’s just, Make it simple. Make
01:18:39.149 –> 01:18:43.229
it something you want to read. Like, honestly,
01:18:43.489 –> 01:18:47.710
that’s the easiest explanation I can give you.
01:18:48.189 –> 01:18:51.529
Yep, absolutely. All right, folks, you’ve waited
01:18:51.529 –> 01:18:54.149
the whole interview. You’ve waited the whole
01:18:54.149 –> 01:18:58.250
episode for me to ask him this. Where’s the audio
01:18:58.250 –> 01:19:01.310
version? Yeah, I’ve had a few people ask me that
01:19:01.310 –> 01:19:07.900
one. Oh, we’ve talked about this off air. and
01:19:07.900 –> 01:19:11.760
I’ve given him a couple of ideas, but after I’ve
01:19:11.760 –> 01:19:16.539
read the book, it’s not that he doesn’t want
01:19:16.539 –> 01:19:18.920
to do, and he’ll say this himself, but it’s not
01:19:18.920 –> 01:19:20.420
that he doesn’t want to do the audio version.
01:19:21.140 –> 01:19:24.720
It’s that it’s more so after I’ve looked at the
01:19:24.720 –> 01:19:30.890
book, I see why he says it’s not really. The
01:19:30.890 –> 01:19:35.949
book itself is not translatable into audio. Basically,
01:19:35.949 –> 01:19:41.829
what I think he could do is take all of the anecdotes
01:19:41.829 –> 01:19:44.949
and all of the actual written sections of it
01:19:44.949 –> 01:19:48.510
where he’s talking about his experience, which
01:19:48.510 –> 01:19:50.789
is what I think you said you are planning on
01:19:50.789 –> 01:19:53.930
doing, is doing some sort of altered audio podcast
01:19:53.930 –> 01:19:58.319
version. Right? Isn’t that what you said? Yeah,
01:19:58.319 –> 01:20:00.279
I mean, I was thinking about just doing a podcast
01:20:00.279 –> 01:20:03.500
and kind of covering specific topics. Right.
01:20:03.619 –> 01:20:07.619
And my thought to you was, oh, you could basically
01:20:07.619 –> 01:20:11.220
do all of you could do that podcast, edit all
01:20:11.220 –> 01:20:17.579
of that together. Boom. Audiobook version. More
01:20:17.579 –> 01:20:22.819
or less. More or less. So, yeah. So altered audio.
01:20:23.629 –> 01:20:26.210
podcasting demystified by Steven C Phillips.
01:20:26.369 –> 01:20:28.670
Where can they get the book? How much is it?
01:20:28.670 –> 01:20:31.529
And all that good stuff. So they can get it on
01:20:31.529 –> 01:20:35.250
amazon .com and barnesandnoble .com. They can
01:20:35.250 –> 01:20:38.090
request it at their local bookstore or local
01:20:38.090 –> 01:20:43.949
library. They can order it because no, there’s,
01:20:43.949 –> 01:20:47.010
there’s a stigma with amazon .com that bookstores
01:20:47.010 –> 01:20:50.289
and libraries do not want to buy it from Amazon.
01:20:50.569 –> 01:20:54.220
Don’t know why. Just. i i’m not getting into
01:20:54.220 –> 01:20:57.420
why or because i honestly don’t know but they
01:20:57.420 –> 01:20:59.560
do like the fact when it’s on barnesandnoble
01:20:59.560 –> 01:21:04.159
.com or ingram spark which i have it on both
01:21:04.159 –> 01:21:08.880
so you can get it for the ebook for 9 .99 on
01:21:08.880 –> 01:21:13.319
amazon you can get the direct print print on
01:21:13.319 –> 01:21:16.060
demand which honestly i think is more economical
01:21:16.060 –> 01:21:18.119
in today’s age it’s like why you have a bunch
01:21:18.119 –> 01:21:19.710
of books sitting around when they’re probably
01:21:19.710 –> 01:21:21.710
just going to shelf warm point in case I went
01:21:21.710 –> 01:21:25.630
to Barnes and Noble and I’ve seen 10 different
01:21:25.630 –> 01:21:30.810
editions of Microsoft office for dummies that
01:21:30.810 –> 01:21:36.689
are dating back to 2016. Oh my God. Like they,
01:21:36.770 –> 01:21:38.550
and they’re still sitting on the shelf like 2016,
01:21:38.850 –> 01:21:43.210
2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. And they’re all with
01:21:43.210 –> 01:21:47.020
faded yellow color. my son was like how do you
01:21:47.020 –> 01:21:49.300
know it’s it was in the sun and i says well this
01:21:49.300 –> 01:21:51.140
bookshelf must have been over there at some point
01:21:51.140 –> 01:21:53.239
he’s like how do you know and i said flip the
01:21:53.239 –> 01:21:57.760
book over and it was like bleached yellow like
01:21:57.760 –> 01:22:00.159
almost white because it was sitting in the sun
01:22:00.159 –> 01:22:03.659
so long in colorado sun and the other side was
01:22:03.659 –> 01:22:07.380
pure yellow for the dummies book so i was it’s
01:22:07.380 –> 01:22:09.979
more economical anyway uh you can get it on barnesandnoble
01:22:09.979 –> 01:22:14.380
.com for and amazon .com for 15 .99 uh you can
01:22:14.380 –> 01:22:19.020
also There is a $17 .99 version, which is the
01:22:19.020 –> 01:22:24.319
IngramSpark publication on both platforms. But
01:22:24.319 –> 01:22:27.840
again, that one doesn’t give me as big of a kickback.
01:22:28.000 –> 01:22:32.199
But if you want to pay $2 more, great. But yeah,
01:22:32.340 –> 01:22:35.199
it’s out on all those platforms. It came out
01:22:35.199 –> 01:22:40.619
August 8th. And yeah. Very cool. Very cool. All
01:22:40.619 –> 01:22:44.600
right, folks. Before we let you go, remind the
01:22:44.600 –> 01:22:47.000
listeners where they can find you online and
01:22:47.000 –> 01:22:49.239
all that good stuff to interact with you on the
01:22:49.239 –> 01:22:55.119
interwebs. Well, I’m still on the Twitters at
01:22:55.119 –> 01:22:59.060
SCP 21. I will never call it X because it’s a
01:22:59.060 –> 01:23:03.180
stupid name. It’s just a letter. It’s just a
01:23:03.180 –> 01:23:05.199
letter. It’s not even a name. It’s a letter.
01:23:05.760 –> 01:23:14.140
It’s lazy. I’m also on. like Instagram and, uh,
01:23:14.399 –> 01:23:18.920
blue sky, blue sky threads, like Steve Phillips,
01:23:18.960 –> 01:23:22.680
VO, uh, currently trying to redo my website,
01:23:22.859 –> 01:23:27.939
uh, to also include, but my, uh, my link tree
01:23:27.939 –> 01:23:32.260
at SCP 21 has links to literally everything.
01:23:33.180 –> 01:23:39.039
So very cool. All right, folks. We hope you enjoyed
01:23:39.039 –> 01:23:41.199
this episode of Geekcast Radio. I wish you’ll
01:23:41.199 –> 01:23:43.439
join us next time when we will be doing something.
01:23:43.600 –> 01:23:49.060
I don’t know. I have no idea. So, for now, I
01:23:49.060 –> 01:23:53.100
am TF2 and Mike with… Steve Megatron. Thank
01:23:53.100 –> 01:23:55.560
you for listening. Until next time. Oh, yeah.
01:23:55.739 –> 01:23:58.640
And unleash the geek in you. This is Kevin Conroy.
01:23:58.979 –> 01:24:05.359
And I am the goddamn Batman. You’ve just heard
01:24:05.359 –> 01:24:09.180
a podcast from the Geekcast Radio Network. If
01:24:09.180 –> 01:24:12.840
you enjoyed this discussion, head over to geekcastradio
01:24:12.840 –> 01:24:16.060
.com to check out this episode’s post for more
01:24:16.060 –> 01:24:19.460
insights and links. Interact with the show. Feedback
01:24:19.460 –> 01:24:22.899
at geekcastradio .com. Or interact with us on
01:24:22.899 –> 01:24:26.979
X at Geekcast Radio and on Facebook at Geekcast
01:24:26.979 –> 01:24:29.819
Radio Network. Don’t forget to subscribe to the
01:24:29.819 –> 01:24:32.439
Geekcast Radio Network podcast on your favorite
01:24:32.439 –> 01:24:34.680
podcatcher. So until next time. Until next time,
01:24:34.739 –> 01:24:36.539
unleash the geek in you!
Tagged as:
Altered Audio Altered Geek creative Geek geek culture GeekCast Radio geeks geeky Podcast podcast machine podcast machines podcasters podcasting steve megatron the geekcast radio network unleash the geek in you
About the author call_made
TFG1Mike is a geek with many interests. He has been podcasting for over a decade, and sees no stopping point in sight. From Transformers, He-Man, Batman, Comics, movies, video games, cartoons, and so much more, Mike has a zeal for the things he loves, and he will bring the hammer down on the things that he has a disdain for. He's generally a postive person, but negativity can creep in there. Mike is all about the innuendos and innuendon'ts too. You'll hear him on many of The GCRN podcasts!

Use code GCRN at

The GeekCast Radio Network™ is a geek media organization dedicated to reviewing, analyzing and geeking out to the greatest parts of pop culture from the past, the present and the future. Our motto and mission is simple, we want to “Unleash the Geek in YOU!”™
Experience the Awesome Limited Edition Content From The GeekCast Radio Network
Copyright © 2009-2025 GeekCast Radio Network™, LLC | GCRN™ | All Rights Reserved.
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
Manage your cookie preferences below:
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Google Tag Manager simplifies the management of marketing tags on your website without code changes.
You can find more information about our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
Be the first to leave a comment