I write not because I have energy to write, but rather because I do not have energy to be silent.
—Rav Kook (Igrot Hareiyah, v. 1)
Dear Reader:
This issue of BTS departs a bit from a more traditional content, but it’s still guided by my interest in critically looking at an experience and learning from it.
Since the start of the year I’ve been in a heavy rotation on podcasts and, to some degree, radio shows. I’ve given 13 interviews so far, with another 9 coming up. The reason for this sudden flurry of media activity is that my memoir A Family, Maybe just had its first anniversary, and in its second year, I decided to focus on what I seem to be doing best – speaking about it.
Let me lay out below some surprising takeaways from this whirlwind foray into the world of podcasting.
Some of the book’s angles, I discovered, appeal more strongly to today’s audiences than others. The podcast service I have contracted with has been getting me primarily on the programs about parenting, or those that share transformative life journeys with general audience. The fact that the guest (moi) is a gay, immigrant, adoptive Dad adds spice to the topic, but is neither a primary focus, nor a detractor. I go where I am wanted, and apparently that’s where I am wanted the most.
Every host so far has been a great conversationalist, often a broadcast professional, who has often made me think about our family journey in new ways. One host, for instance, dived deep into the mental health aspects of an adoptive journey, its costs to the children and the parents – an area I hadn’t thought of prior to meeting her.
Some podcasters are now contracted by the radio stations, so listening to an interesting interview on the radio, you might not know that it is someone’s podcast episode.
This one, for instance, aired on 10 stations across the US, Canada, and even New Zealand.
The secret of podcast success is in being highly focused. It doesn’t matter whether the host streams from a Manhattan skyscraper or the wilds of West Virginia (and I had both); listeners, wherever they are, will follow the show host because of the topic. To me as an author, it’s a precious opportunity to bring my story to the audiences that are out of my geographic and social reach.
There is a lot of wild stuff out there. The service matched me, for instance, with a podcast where ‘”Holistic Hotties’ cover a variety of topics having to do with spiritual development & our healing journey (ex: breaking down ‘the one’, how to build your trust muscle with the universe, . . . redefining love & ethical non monogamy).” I declined the match, but sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be a ‘Holistic Hottie’.
I had a rather awesome/eerie encounter with AI. After an illuminating talk on Great Dad Talks, the show host shared with me the 20-page post-talk report from his podcast’s AI service.
The report included 5 (!) articles “written from the guest’s point of view,” a selection of useful pullout quotes, a searchable keyword list, and, 😲😲😲, a multiple-choice quiz – all based on the information from the interview.
Beautfiully, eloquently, persuasively written, ‘my articles’, in particular, blew my mind. As a writing teacher, I’ve been fighting an uphill battle against my students’ use of AI so they could learn basic college writing skills. And here it was, expressing my ideas even better than I would do it myself.
Are we going to arrive at a point where AI doesn’t even need our original ideas? When it could generate them entirely on its own – a post-human writing world?
This AI encounter aside, it’s been an exciting experience so far. Here is an example of a recent podcast interview. That’s my non-AI bobblehead framed in an old-fashioned TV screen.
I promise to return to our more regular BTS programming in the next issue. Wishing you kol tuv (all the best),
-Lane
Lane Igoudin | Author, Professor, Dad 