What Brings You Here?

So I've been doing some podcast research, both content, format and equipment wise. Okay, it's true that that I haven't really ventured far outside of listening to Marc Maron's WTF.com. When something really grabs me and engages me it's hard to detach. The guy has done over four hundred podasts so there's a lot there to keep my ears busy. Plus Marc reminds me of a guy I went out with in college who I cared for and admired very much. I'm very familiar with the way in which his inner turmoil manifests itself. It's charming and hilarious at first and then it's just kind of depressing but what I like about it is that he takes his darkness and does some good with it. He demonstrates a tremendous capacity for crippling self indulgence about his own flaws and allows his guests a relatively safe space to be open about their own. 

Last night, I did listen to a non WTF podcast interview that my friend Amanda Plumb who lives in Atlanta did with wedding photographer, Eric Meadows.

I'm getting married in June and she recommended I check out the interview in case I was interested in his work. His work is amazing and the interview was very good. Very straight forward with a few brief musical interludes to break it up. My favorite kinds of  interviewers help to keep  the guest's story on course with a gentle but firm hand and although they can spin off on their own tangential commentary they can always bring it back to the subject, back to the guest. Their questions are by no means objective (does that exist?) and what interests me is not so much whatever was intended to be mined from the inquiry but the things that come up serendipitously along the way. That's the juice. That's what I love.

I've also been listening to my own voice memos from as far back as 2011 as well as a few interviews I did in 2008 with co-workers for an ethnography class I was taking at the time. I'm taking note of my tone, the intent behind what I could recall from the questions I asked, and the things that always seem to come up for me in my voice memo entries. It's been interesting trying to figure out how to get all the broad content I want to cover to fall under one umbrella and to bring people in to explore these themes through their own experiential narratives.

If we're honest with ourselves, we're all a bit self indulgent, some more than others. I may be in the some more then others camp. I'm an obnoxiously introverted person who values one on one relationships and a significant amount of alone time to play, create, process and recharge. I also value narrative, experience, communication and people who find unique ways to tell their own story. I write, I read, I journal, I poem, I rant, I experiment, I photograph, I craft and I listen. Through a unique series of events, cultural, economical, spiritual, racial, creative and sexual, I am brought here to you.

Through this podcast I would like to explore, what brings you here?

Sounds pretty broad right? Ahhh! But I have a format.

Stay tuned.