Category: Podcast

What’s good (and bad) about Amanda Palmer’s style of marketing?

superfriends

Amanda Palmer did an AMA on the /books subreddit yesterday on the topic of her book The Art of Asking, so the Thinking.FM hosts pulled a Superfriends on Friday night and recorded 90 minutes of thoughtful discussion about Palmer’s tactics and the nature of the artist in an age of self-promotion.

I think it’s an interesting conversation that anyone seeking to go out on a limb and chart your own path (whether as a businessperson, artist, speaker etc) should consider:

“On this special episode of Thinking, Sam is joined by Elisabeth, Thomas, and Merianna (the other Thinking.FM podcasters) for a roundtable / Superfriends discussion of whether or not Amanda F. Palmer is a marketing genius. Along the way, they discuss the right and wrong ways to promote yourself whether you’re an artist, musician, author, professor, or civilian.”

When is a podcast a podcast and when is it a conversation?

Thomas Whitley and I are really enjoying doing this podcast… we missed last week’s episode and it felt (to me) like a big part of my week wasn’t complete. As I said on another podcast that had me on as a guest today, we don’t really think of Thinking Religion as a podcast as much as it is a conversation we’d be having anyway. Thomas and I are just letting you be voyeuristic and listen to a little snippet of that much longer weekly chat (our chats routinely go 2-3 hours, so this 45 mins or hour of a produced show is one conscious part of that).

It’s probably why we don’t have guests on as well.

Anyway, it’s a good listen (I think):

Download available here

Why All Podcasts Sound the Same

One of the things Thomas and I try to do with Thinking Religion, as well as Elisabeth and Merianna on Thinking Out Loud (and all of our Thinking.FM podcasts) is sound different by sounding like ourselves.

“My Wife Quit Her Job podcaster Steve Chou is, like Nick Loper, another savvy online marketer who realizes the algorithm might be his most important audience member. Subscribers are another key piece of landing in the iTunes New & Noteworthy section, and without it, a podcast might fall off the radar.”

Source: Why podcasts have such terrible ads – Vox

I never want to do a podcast where we have to beg for ratings or use the same 5 generic ads that every other podcast uses.

However, I’ll be the first to tell you that’s not a very lucrative way to do podcasting. It’s definitely a losing proposition when you consider time, hosting costs, bandwidth etc. But, I think we’ll stick to our donation model for now (despite its poor performance in terms of actual revenue). As the hosts of No Agenda frequently remind us, “Value for Value” is a much more authentic and enjoyable stream of revenue for a medium such as podcasting.

 

 

“The Question of What Come Next”

 

bigmagic

The author of Big Magic speaks with the writer, comedian, and prolific podcaster John Hodgman about the boredom of mastery and the thrill of self-reinvention. This is an installment of Magic Lessons by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Source: Ep. #10: John Hodgman on “The Question of What Come Next” — Magic Lessons — Overcast

Beautiful and short podcast on mastery, boredom, risk, and self-reinvention.

Those of us who have taken the leap know the exhilarating highs and the devastating lows involved in reinvention but also continuing to push yourself to be open to new paths to explore and thrive.

Make the leap.

Thanks for the share, Merianna.

Thinking Religion: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale

Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson discuss the Prayer of Jabez, Sex and the Bible, pansexuality, the Pope’s new chair, and why Islam isn’t limited to the originating text.

Source: Thinking Religion: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale | Thinking.FM

Follow Up:

Show Notes:

The Death (and Salvation?) of Religious Studies: A Conversation with Carrie Schroeder

Source: Thinking Religion: The Death (and Salvation?) of Religious Studies: A Conversation with Carrie Schroeder | Thinking.FM

Thomas and I have a new Thinking Religion podcast episode featuring Prof. Carrie Shroeder where we discuss all sorts of things… Stargate to Digital Humanities to why you should blog on your own site (academic or church or individual). Fun listen (I think).

Enjoy…

Thinking Religion: Smuggling Religion

jesusdependency

Thinking Religion: Smuggling Religion | Thinking.FM: Prof. Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson attempt to bring some thoughtfulness to the topic of religion again this week with discussions of the Watchmen, Rambo Jesus, Westboro Church, Southern Baptists and Obama, Palmyra, Indiana Jones, and the next reformation.

This Week’s Topics

  • Who watches the Watchmen?
  • Rambo meets Heart of Darkness meets Jesus
  • Hatin’ on Ivory Coast
  • Well, the Bible says…
  • Obama supposedly offends the Southern Baptist Convention
  • Palmyra, India, Israel, and the role of the antiquities black market in politics
  • Mike Huckabee wants to be Indiana Jones
  • Pokers gonna poke
  • A New Reformation

Religious Slacktivism

Prof. Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson attempt to bring some thoughtfulness to the topic of religion again this week with discussions of whether Jesus was a terrorist, the beatification process, Muslim responses to climate change, how to fix Genesis, and why changing your Facebook profile picture makes you feel better.

Source: Thinking Religion Podcast: Religious Slacktivism

 

Our weekly podcast episode on Religion and culture is live. I think it turned out pretty well!

A Podcast About Walmart Caskets, Cynic Jesus, and Beards

Prof. Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson attempt to bring some thoughtfulness to the topic of religion again this week with discussions of the physicality of resurrections, how to read the Bible in a short period of time while in D.C., pledging allegiance to the Christian Flag, and what Muhammad has to do with the First Amendment.

Source: Thinking Religion: Save Money, Die Better | Thinking.FM

Thomas and I do a podcast every Wednesday that I particularly enjoy. It goes back to our days in seminary together (2008 or so) and although we kept trying to make it a regular thing, it’s only become a standard weekly part of my life in earnest over the past few months.

I wouldn’t think of putting off the recording of an episode now. It’s my weekly chance to nerd out about religion, politics, history, and have a civilized conversation that is “deeper” and more reflective than my usual fare. We certainly don’t always agree (this episode is a good example of that), but we do always end up learning a bit from each other… well, I learn from Thomas mostly.

The other thing that I’m beginning to really appreciate are the show notes. We spend a good deal of time pulling those links together and then curating them down into something that can be reasonably thought of as a standard podcast length show. Every week, we come up with dozens of links, so the selection process before the show has also become a highlight of my week.

It’s become a good show. It’s only getting better. Hope you enjoy.