Let Us Present is an introduction to a number of content creators worth getting to know. Streamified’s Zane Claes and Mark Shore invite a variety of bloggers, musicians, podcasters, etc. from across the web to join them for a conversation. By using @Streamified, they’ve discovered a wealth of fresh content to share with their listeners.

We talk about the origins of the Amateur Traveler podcast, podcasting, travel and other topics.

Just for context, on the show I am known as Chris the Podcaster. There is a mention made on the show about how I will trick them into plugging the Amateur Traveler next time. I had contributed to the show a few times before mention was made of what podcast I actual made. A funny series of events lead to the first time they mentioned the Amateur Traveler on the show.

• I had met Tom, Jason and Molly at last years Podcast and New Media Expo. Specifically since Molly left a day earlier I had a chance to hang out with Tom and Jason and to introduce them to other podcasters. We also had lunch on the last day and I took them to the airport.
• Shortly thereafter I called into the show to make another contribution and completely biffed the call. You know how it is when you are trying to leave a voicemail sometimes. I called again and left a coherent message but I was quite sure they would mock me and play the first call which they did. I think after that they felt a little guilty so they mentioned what my show was.
• After they mentioned the show I sent this email:
  

  How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is to have a thankless technology podcaster triumvirate.

  I bet you think you are so smart. But as you sit there in your smug smugliness drinking your half-caf-mocha-latte-frapa-chino and thinking how you have powned me, know this.

  It was in fact I who did the powning.

  And now is the time to reveal my sinister plan.

  Clearly the Buzz Out Loud show has an enviably larger audience than the Amateur Traveler. So how to get the Amateur Traveler promoted on the air. Clearly this was against BOL policy so the plan must be intricate, ingenious, diabolical.

  1. Invent the character of “Chris the podcaster” and establish it with some familiar regular contributions to the show.
  2. Convince the CNET management to send the cast of Buzz Out Loud to the Podcast and New Media Episode. This was accomplished through a series of incriminating photos taken at last year’s company Christmas party. Eggnog? I think not.
  3. Send a brilliant piece of audio feedback the week of the show so that “Chris the podcaster” is fresh in everyone’s memory.
  4. Arrange for a speaker at the show to have an untimely accident so that Tom gets a speaking slot.
  5. Hand deliver fake schedules to almost all the conference attendants that mislabels Tom’s talk as “A Case for Cooperating with the RIAA… with root kits” so that most of the attendees are dissuaded from attending Tom’s talk.
  6. Offer “helpful” comments during the talk to establish a rapport.
  7. Casually use hypnosis so that Tom and Jason invite me to lunch and think it is their idea and that they are simply “hungry”.
  8. Cement the relationship with casual banter and a ride to the airport.
  9. Wait
  10. Submit a very badly done audio clip for the show that is too painfully funny not to use but will instill enough guilt that Tom will feel the need to plug the Amateur Traveler in return.

  Pownage

  I cannot believe you could fall for such a simple plot. And now the next time someone is craving the voice of a well spoken, erudite, prepared podcaster they will… oh wait! … oh no! Oh crap. Back to the drawing board.

  P.S. Thanks for the plug

The Amateur Traveler is a weekly audio travel podcast that is heavily edited (for polish usually not for content). This particular episode was Episode 131 – Walt Disney World. I use 4 main programs to create the show: Skype, CallRecorder, Levelator and GarageBand. The choice of GarageBand will clue you in that this show is created on a Mac, specifically on a MacBook Pro. This episode was a little more work, not just because I was trying to record it and ScreenFlow was unstable (with my experience I would say that ScreenFlow is Alpha quality software, it caused my whole computer to crash a couple of times) but because I had significant audio problems with Skype including one hang up.

part 1:

part 2:

equipment:

Plantronics DSP-400 Digitally-Enhanced USB Foldable Stereo Headset

Apple MacBook Pro

software:

Skype (free)

CallRecorder ($15)

Levelator (free)

GarageBand (free with Mac or $70)

I am a swing voter (registered Republican) and generally find politics distasteful… ok, let’s say “slimy”. My podcast about faith (The Bible Study Podcast) is particularly labeled as free of politics. So for me to even take the time to listen to a political speech is rare, let alone one almost 40 minutes long.

In particular I share Obama’s view that the value of the separation of church and state is not just for the state. “Folks tend to forget that during our founding it wasn’t the athiests and the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the first ammendment”.

Do I agree with all of Obama’s politics? I doubt it. Do I think having someone who seems intelligent and reasonable in the oval office would be a nice change. I do.

• Episode 34 – Why Do bad Things Happen to Good People? (part 1)
• Episode 35 – Why Did bad Things Happen to Job? (part 2)
• Episode 36 – Well, at least you still have your… oh… nevermind
• Episode 37 – I’ll get by with a little “help” from my friends
• Episode 38 – Job gets answers… sort of
• Episode 39 – Why do good things happen to “bad” people?
• Episode 40 – Where is God? (part 1)
• Episode 41 – Where is God? (part 2)

Starting with Episode 42 The Bible Study Podcast is looking at what the church is and what it is called to be.

A nice surprise with watching the live broadcast from GeekBrief tonight was seeing Cali wear a t-shirt design that I created.

By the way if you have not heard of GeekBrief and you are a fan of gadgets, gizmos, and web wonderfulness, then you owe it to yourself to check out this brief semi-weekly video podcast. Perky Cali and her off camera husband Neal put together a very professional, entertaining, informative show that is a must watch for all gadget geeks.

Some of my thoughts…

Best Change

I admit I was a little skeptical about the change in format for the keynote presentations to an interview format, but I was pleasantly surprised by the results. I thought all 3 keynotes were interesting and entertaining. The best line from the keynotes was the Ask A Ninja guys explaining where they are with advertising support for the 3.7 million downloads they get per show. “We have the same standard of living except without the debt. Now I pay for my Raman with cash”.

Best Unappreciated Change

I enjoyed all 5 artists who were scheduled to play at the show and walked away with CDs from both Matthew Ebel and Whitney Steele. I was disappointed for how many people skipped the concert.

Best Idea for Listeners

Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting gave his listeners a password to say so that he knew they listened to the show. “Podcasting will change the world”.

Best Listener Story

Thanks to Paul (didn’t catch the podcast) who let me know he used the Amateur Traveler podcast to plan his trip to Vietnam and then pulled out his iPhone and showed me video of his trip.

Most Seen Gadget

Good grief, am I the only person who does not own an iPhone? Although it was fun to watch Shooby dealing with bricking his phone and trying to fix it with some help from Adam Christianson (MacCast), Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User), and Don McAllister (Screencasts Online).

Podcaster Who Stands Out In A Crowd

Trucker Tom said that people seem to walk up to him and know who he is with checking out his badge. I wonder why?

Podcasters Most Likely to be Heard on Amateur Traveler

I need to get Alex Lindsay on the show to talk about Zimbabwe. Alex says he would move there if he could get his wife to buy into the idea. I also need to get John Miler from The Rest of Everest to come on the show and talk about his trips to Everest and vicinity. Also expect to hear Paolo from Italy from the Inside talking about his native land.

Youngest Podcaster

The youngest podcaster I saw at the show was Hudson Klass (son of Dan Klass of The Bitterest Pill) as he and his dad premiered their new show Animal Rescue Forest Friends before the (wonderful) live show of Doctor Floyd. The guys from Technorama closed the show with an entertaining live game show.

Most Like a Revival Meeting

I first met Paul Colligan at the first year of the expo when the meetup for monitizing podcasting was just the two of us. I don’t know if I had been to one of his presentations before this year but he can stir up a crowd.

Best Presentation You Didn’t Hear

I almost did not go to the presentation by Tom Merritt from Buzz Out Loud about growing a enthusiastic community both because I am in the community he was describing and because my day job is creating social networks for fortune 100 companies. But Tom is both humorous and knowledgeable and I walked away with ideas about things I want to change in my own community. Since the presentation was so late in the day, most people had already left. I would check this one out when the conference audio comes out.

Best Presentation You May Never Hear

While you will be able to get the audio for Tom’s presentation I hold out less hope that you will find the audio for Tee Morris’s presentation about upgrading your podcast rig. He got so frustrated with the feedback from the lapel mic that he ripped it off and continued without a microphone. We may not see Tee on the program next year.

Fan Boy Moments

It is fun at the show to meet other podcasters whether their shows are very successful or obscure and there is a general sense at a conference like this that we are all podcasters and so somehow there is a fraternity among us.

On the other hand even though I did not immediately break out the camera and try to get a picture it does not mean that I did not think of it when I met Kent from Ask A Ninja or Tom, Molly and Jason from Buzz Out Loud.

Most Surreal Moment

The parties this year were probably more my speed than last year. There was less (no) body painting of naked women and more standing around with a beer (diet coke) talking with other podcasters. But just before the hotel security broke up the Libsyn party on Saturday night I was talking with Alex Lindsay about the economy of Zimbabwe while someone tied up a woman behind him.

Tool with the Best Buzz

Tube Mogal was the tool that most people seem to mention when asked what they had seen that was interesting. It allows you to upload a video a a number of video sites and track the stats all in one location. It is free.

Most Used Tool

This expo was coordinated via Twitter. Most of the people I follow on Tiwtter are podcasters so from Thursday (Podcamp SoCal) on you could track the arrivals, activities and departures of many podcasters via Twitter. When the Libsyn party broke up for instance, where to go next was coordinated on Twitter.

When Shelly from Shelly’s podcast arrived I had not seen her walk into the room but I saw her twittering. Minon from Grammar Girl twittered “is anyone else here yet?” and I twittered back “I am in the row in front of you”. She did not know. We had to date only met on Twitter.

Most Moving Moment

Thanks to Steve Webb from the Lifespring family of podcasts for organizing a worship service at the expo and to Jimmie Bratcher (who also played at the concert Saturday night) who simply shared his story in a matter of fact manner but left me in tears.

So Glad I Finally Met You

I am sure I can’t think of everyone who should be in this category but the two events which stood out were finally meeting Adam Curry (I have been with Podshow now for over a year). He called me earlier in the year but happened to call during my daughter’s graduation. It was interesting sitting down with the Podshow team to talk about how things are going with them.

It was also great fun to meet Molly, Tom and Jason from Buzz Out Loud. They did not recognize my name and show but “Chris the podcaster” they did know since they had just played a bit that I had sent into the show. It was great fun to be able to introduce Tom and Jason to other podcasters like Brian and Tina Ibbott from Coverville (Tom and his wife are big fans). We had a chance to sit down after the show and talk sports, trivia, business. I do like talking to smart funny people.

Most Embarrassing Moment (3rd place)

It is hard enough for someone like me who is bad with names to remember the names of the people I really know so I always end up doing something like this year where I called Steve Garfield (podcaster) “Steve Garvey” (ex-baseball player).

Most Embarrassing Moment (2nd place)

Speaking of bad with names, I walked up to Evo Terra and told him how much I enjoy High Orbit (actually by Matthew Ebel). The blank look on his face should have been a clue. And no, I was only drinking Diet Coke.

Most Embarrassing Moment (1st place)

As if that was not bad enough, I then had to explain to Matthew Ebel after his part of the concert on Saturday night that I was going to have to tell him how much I like Podiobooks.com (actually by Evo Terra) just to be fair. That’s right Matthew just keep smiling and signing the CD that the crazy man bought.

For those of you who missed it. My Amateur Traveler podcast was nominated for a Podcast Award. Vote early, vote often (every day through August 11).

Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 6MP Waterproof MPEG4 Camcorder

Technorati Tags: camcorder, digital camcorder, underwater, underwater camera

It occurred to me that assuming an audience of 29,000 and 5 minutes saved (I have edited more out of some shows) that I saved 145,000 minutes or over 2400 hours or 100 days of total listener time. Somehow that seems like a good return on the time I spent on editing. Because I was willing to edit there were 100 days worth of time that were not wasted (when my show gets to 100,000 downloads every 5 minutes I can edit out that don’t add any value would save an entire year of my listeners’ collective time). Just think of all the things that people can do with 100 days. 2400 hours is about 5 years of baseball games (though to be fair that would seem much longer to many of you). 100 days is more than 3 times longer than William Henry Harrison was president. 100 days was enough time for FDR to pass most of the new Deal (although first he had help from congress and second that look odds to see “congress” and “help” in juxtaposition).

And so this week as I edit my show I do so with a renewed sense of hope that the time that I save will be worth it. Please use your 5 minutes wisely.