THE HISTORY CHASER PODCAST

In preparing for my inaugural podcast episode, there is a debate I keep having with myself. Do I make this conversational or do I make this sound like a polished story? It’s hard to listen to recordings of myself objectively, because I focus on things like my accent, how I fumbled a word, or how someone else might perceive my style.

My primary reaction is, “OMG, do I really sound like that?!” I think we all think that about ourselves at some point. But, yes, Amy…that’s what you sound like. Better get used to it.

I have other concerns, of course. Is the conversational style too conversational? Is the polished version too serious to the point of boring? I have to move forward one way or another if I want to do this thing, so I am trying to record the full episode twice this week and have my friends and family listen and weigh in.

That means, of course, I have to have both versions listenable and edited appropriately. Cool, cool. I haven’t done that before, but there’s no better time than the present to learn, right? Gotta learn sometime.

But to “go the distance” when it comes to this podcast, there is a lot of research to do. Honestly, that’s one reason I have been in the “work in progress” phase of development for so long. Logically, an obscure historical event might not have that much information readily available, but I find that incredibly difficult to believe, especially in the time range I’m specifically reviewing. Maybe that’s the perspective of a privileged person. Maybe it’s more to do with assumptions I’ve made as someone who has spent most of my adult life with access to the internet. That would just make me naïve, I guess.

I can admit that I have a lot to learn, still. Perhaps, though, it’s really rather more lazy of me to presume that I can find what I’m looking for with a Google search or Ancestry.com records, when I really ought to be looking at local libraries, museums, family members, or publicly accessible archives somewhere. I hope Google can help me find those, at least.

The reality is that I’m going to hit some brick walls during this podcast, and that’s just how it will go, sometimes. Maybe there will be more brick walls than doorways. Some episodes may have several updates based on what research uncovers over time. Some research may depend upon me getting my hands on a physical book. Some research may lead to me writing a book, for all I know–it’s quite possible, given the research I’ve done for just one person scheduled for discussion on Episode 2.

Maybe I should caveat myself here to say that I might have to postpone episodes if the research doesn’t pan out in time. It’s a challenge, for sure, but it’s an exciting one for me to take on. I probably ought to make some connections with other people who have become podcasters and made something of themselves. My introverted self would never do that. But my determined-to-create-a-good-podcast self might.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted!