Storytelling Through Podcasts and the Art of Audio Narratives
My thoughts on podcasting and audio narratives, some context on the first season of the Algorithmic Futures podcast and some tips for anyone thinking about starting their own podcasting journey.
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“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” - Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal
And just like that, season 2 of the Algorithmic Futures Podcast has started. It feels like only yesterday that Liz WIlliams and I started on our podcasting journey. When we first started the podcast, we were developing episodes in support of the Algorithmic Futures Policy Lab. Liz was one of the main organisers of the Social Responsibility of Algorithms workshop 2022, which was delivered online in the midst of the pandemic. Through this workshop, Liz was experimenting with different mediums for engaging audiences in the workshop. At the time, the idea was that the podcast episodes would present information in a case study format and participants could listen to a podcast episode relevant to the workshop they were attending. This actually turned out to be a great way of engaging people both before and well after the workshop.
Following the workshop, the podcast quickly took on a life of its own. Liz and I had a list of people we wanted to talk to and our episodes quickly transitioned from a case study style delivery to a more general Q&A style. We slowly found our feet, stumbling over little moments of awkwardness like baby deers learning to walk. Going into season 2, I feel like we’ve found our voice with the podcast. We’ve been able to morph our channel into something that reflects our interests, personalities and point of view.
I like the podcasting medium because I personally prefer long form content. I enjoy listening to people’s stories, hearing about their wins and their challenges and being able to share those stories to a broad audience. This is something you don’t get the full impact of with short form content. It’s the same reason I enjoy blogging. My blog is a storytelling medium of my work over time and how my thoughts and methods have evolved.
Audio narratives provide a different mechanism for conveying stories. With writing, you need more descriptive tools to paint a picture and draw out moments of significance. I find with audio narratives, tone of voice becomes one of the strongest descriptive tools at your disposal. There is less of a focus on the specific words and more of a focus on how they are being said. There’s also an element of structure that changes between written and audio narratives. I find written narratives require more structure in their composition, whereas audio narratives can lend themselves to more flexibility in their structure. Tangents and rabbit holes are easier to emerge from in an audio narrative. They can be woven into a story in a way that doesn’t seem as superfluous as it does in written form. Audio narratives are an artform in their own right and moving into season 2 of the algorithmic futures podcast, I’m excited about experimenting with different approaches to storytelling.
Before season two starts, I wanted to share a few tips for anyone considering starting their own podcast:
Invest in good equipment
Poor sound quality can make podcasts less enjoyable to listen to. Some of the earlier episodes of the podcast featured my original Yeti Blue microphone which honestly, isn’t great. The audio was often echoey and it picked up a lot of background noise, including the hum of my laptop. I’m currently using the Shure MV7 microphone and the quality is far better. Making the right investment early on can make the recording process a lot more enjoyable.
Have a point of view
Personally, I listen to different podcasts for different things, because I find that the podcasts that do one thing, and do it well, are more enjoyable to listen to. I struggle to follow along with podcasts that dabble in multiple genres. I like a podcast that has a point of view and delivers on that with each episode. A big part of this is the enthusiasm of the host(s) with the content. If the host(s) don’t find the content they are delivering interesting, then listeners likely won’t either, because it will be difficult to convincingly present something you have no interest in. It’s a lot more seamless to develop content you are engaged with and that aligns with an overarching point of view.
Be consistent
Having a somewhat consistent upload schedule for a podcast can help with listener engagement. You’re less likely to get invested listeners if your uploading schedule is sparse and sporadic. This doesn’t mean you have to post an episode every day, but it's important to have a routine that listeners can look forward to. For example, we aim to post a new episode of the Algorithmic Futures podcast on the last Thursday of every month.
Define what success means to you
When we first started the podcast, we weren’t sure how ‘successful’ it would be. We quickly fell in love with the podcasting world and honestly our love of putting the show together really did surpass our thoughts on ‘is this successful’. As cliche as it is to say, success can be measured in a lot of ways, and for me personally, I consider this podcast successful because I love doing it. If you’re going to start on your podcasting journey, you should take the time to consider how you define success in measures that extend beyond followers.
The Algorithmic Futures podcast has been one of my favourite projects that I’ve been involved in. It’s given me the opportunity to meet some amazing people, to chat with old friends and colleagues and to work closer with my dear friend Liz, who also has her own blog which you can read here: https://elizabethtwilliams.com/ .
