Because my son Finn and I live far away from each other, we like to think of cooperative projects that give us an excuse to spend time together other than just chatting (which we do a lot of). Here’s our most recent idea, a podcast called How Many Times Do I Have to Tell You?
For those of you who want to skip the extraneous info, here are links to the first two episodes of the podcast (on YouTube).
Episode 1 Eat More Food/Hairgate
Episode 2 Country Life/Tattoos
The Origin Story of the Podcast about Stories
Last winter when Finn was visiting me in South Texas, we were walking back from the beach and reflecting on how much we both really like to talk, and how much we especially really like to talk together. We were, in fact, talking about talking, which lead to the obvious conclusion: we should make a podcast where we talk with each other about talking with each other!
One of the topics we thought of on that trip was how often you have to hear something before you learn from it. Like, I’ve always heard that you shouldn’t ride in a vehicle with your foot on the dashboard, and I know perfectly well that the airbag could open at any minute and injure me. But what do I do? I ride like this all the damned time.
But, I read today in The NY Times that a certain ER doctor lists this activity in the top 20 things he wishes people would stop doing so he wouldn’t have to treat their preventable injuries. His grisly descriptions really sank in for me; maybe now I’ll stop riding with my foot on the dashboard.
The phenomenon that you have to hear something over and over before it sinks in is fascinating, right? So Finn and I thought we’d do a podcast about it. But then we could think of only one story that fits that theme, and one story does not a podcast make, so we switched the theme. We’d already come up with a great name and icon though, so we’re sticking with those!
How Many Times Do I Have to Tell You?
The actual theme is each of us telling a story about something that we both experienced, from our two very different viewpoints. At least, that was Plan B. I think the podcast is actually about us telling any story we want to. Which is fine by us, because no matter what we talk about, mission accomplished.
Like with this blog, we expect the audience to be small, and we’re not spending any professional-level time or resources on it. In fact, that’s the #1 criteria, that we make it quickly and not fret over the details.
Note that we’ve made it a video podcast and not an audio one, so you you need to listen (and watch, if you want) on YouTube, not on a podcast app.
If you watch, let us know what you think! You know how to reach me, and I’ll pass on your comments to Finn.
