International Podcast Day – September 30

Here’s how to do an excellent podcast. Their are many successful “formulas” and this is as good as any. This doesn’t cover the technical aspects of podcasting, rather it focuses on the content that makes podcasting work.

To have an excellent podcast – imitate Sawbones – especially this episode.

Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin welcome you to Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine. Every Friday, they dig through the annals of medical history to uncover all the odd, weird, wrong, dumb and just gross ways we’ve tried to fix people over the years. Educational? You bet! Fun? We hope!

1. Pick an offbeat topic or range of topics.
2. Research the heck out of the topic or topics.
3. Have a sidekick (or two) that are GREAT at improv comedy.
4. Tell us something we don’t know.
5. Riff.
6. Enjoy yourself.

There are a lot of podcasts that do this regularly. Some run as long as 90-120 minutes. Those long form shows don’t always hit a home run, just like an act in an improv comedy club doesn’t always resonate with everyone.

Dr. Sydnee and her younger teen age sister Rileigh will give you almost 30 minutes of good information along with some smiles and maybe even a laugh out loud moment. In this episode of Sawbones, Rileigh is spending her day with her sister as part of “Podcasting School” take a protege to work day.

Rileigh seemingly sets the topic for the podcast because they are recording on the last day of September just before Halloween month.

Rileigh wants to know about the Halloween diseases. Dr. Sydnee establishes that she wants to know about Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies. Because of her research, she is able to educate listeners on diseases that could have been mistaken as Halloween diseases.

Did you know about the disease that causes your pee to turn purple when exposed to sunlight?

It’s Porphyria. And Dr. Sydnee explains how she once diagnosed it and took the patient’s pee home. Rileigh weighs in with her anecdote how she got the nickname “purple” – it has nothing to do with pee.

Very entertaining. This episode is devoid of adult language – many podcasts, of not most, are rife with adult language because the FCC has no control over the content.

Here are some other more obscure (compared to Serial and Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me, etc. etc.) podcasts that follow the above formula with success:

• My Brother, My Brother and Me – improv comedy and generally silliness by three brothers goofing around saying whatever pops into their heads.
• Stuff Mom Never Told You – two women researching and discussing topics “your mom never told you.”
• No Agenda – a couple of guys “deconstruct” current events and their coverage by the media. Lots of conspiracy theories are advanced.
• Here’s The Thing – Alec Baldwin is an excellent interviewer and his guests are among the best.

Happy listening.