The Journey of Makeshift Stories with Vern Hume – PCI 453

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You're listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike

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Dell, Todd Cochran, and Mackenzie Bennett from the

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Blueberry team,

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bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips

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grow, and thrive through podcasting

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with all the support of your team here

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at Blueberry Podcasting.

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Welcome. Let's dive in.

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So, today, I've got Vern Hume

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from,

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well, tell you tell me about your podcast,

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Vern.

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Sure. No problem. The podcast is called Makeshift

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Stories.

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It is a science fiction podcast, all original

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content.

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Comes out once a month. Used to come

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out twice a month, but that was a

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little too much work to write everything and

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produce it, so I've had to back off

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a bit. My family wanted to see me

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now and then. Yeah. That's always a good

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idea

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for sure. And,

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Yeah. I I know you've been with us

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for quite a while, and, you're

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using all the stuff. You got,

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you got our, PowerPress

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plug in on a website that we host.

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So,

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yeah, that,

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that probably works out pretty well, pretty stable.

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Well, I yeah. It it's it's way better

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than the one I was hosting by myself,

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which is a little flaky and always required

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updating.

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And I eventually just got tired of updating

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it and, you know, putting in new plugins,

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just to make sure the thing wouldn't get

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hacked.

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So I want to turn that over to

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you people and focus on the creation of

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the podcast instead, and it's been awesome since

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I've done that. Yeah. That's what we always

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try to do around here is

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make make things,

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so

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we worry about the tech and you worry

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about the the production. So

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what what got you into podcasting to begin

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with?

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Interesting story. I don't,

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I always loved listening to

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radio dramas,

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growing up as a kid. And in fact,

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I had built a crystal radio set. And

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after

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my parents told me I was supposed to

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go to sleep, I couldn't go to sleep.

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So I would stick on the headset and

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find a radio drama and listen to it

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until I fell asleep.

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That so I've always liked the audio

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medium for storytelling.

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And

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lo and behold, you know, after the turn

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of the century and and we got into

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the twenty first century,

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I listened to my first podcast,

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and

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the idea kinda came into my head. Well,

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I could tell stories

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through podcasts.

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So that's kind of where it started,

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back in

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02/2008.

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And at that point,

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I was doing stories

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for kids. So the podcast would had a

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young adult,

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tinge to it.

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Since then, it's moved away from that. It's

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more adult, but it has always kept a

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clean rating. That's always important to me, so

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anyone at any age could, listen to these

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stories. So So that's kind of where I

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started out, and it's I don't know how

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many years has that been now. That's

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Yeah. I was just looking there. You're you're,

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somewhere north of 300 episodes, I think.

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Yep. Yeah. About 312

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episodes right now,

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and continuing to go.

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I've cut back a bit. I had for

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about four years in the center there. I

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was doing two episodes a month.

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That was to help keep

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the audience engaged,

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but it was a little hard on me.

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And I didn't think the quality of the

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writing and production was was there, so I

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backed off of that recently.

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It also gives me time to

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work on a book, which I am working

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on a book now because I've decided after

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writing all those episodes, maybe I could put

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those skills to use someplace else.

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Yeah. Yeah. Right.

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Writing a book is, it's challenging. I know,

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for sure.

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And, we we have a little bit of

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a product that'll,

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it'll help you distribute

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the audio version of your book.

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So when you're ready,

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let us know.

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Well, I intend to I intend to finish

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it. I keep telling the editor,

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she keeps asking me, you know, what's your

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deadline? And I say, well, I wanna get

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this done before I die.

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And I've kind of left it open, but,

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you know, my hope is to get it

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done before I die.

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So Well, with a goal like that, you

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you know, even if you don't get it

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done, you won't care about it then.

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That's true.

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But,

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yeah, it's, it's great. We we, selected you

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as the podcaster of the month here at

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Blueberry for August

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2025.

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Oh, Cathy from our marketing team, likes to

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reach out to people that she finds interesting.

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So, you you're it.

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Well, well, thank you. I'm really I'm really,

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you know, pleased, to be podcaster of the

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month. It's it's fabulous. One of the things

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I don't really have time to do and

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I don't really have the skills to do

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is to kind of promote the podcast. So

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so far, the audience has grown organically, word-of-mouth.

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They have been

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podcaster of the month is

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just an amazing opportunity for the podcast. So

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thank you.

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Yeah. Well, I sampled, one of your older

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episodes, and, it's it's very well done. I

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have to say,

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let's get a little geeky. What what do

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you use for, your recording setup? Anything special?

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Well, okay. I cheated a little. My my

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son was an audio engineer at one point,

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so he kind of advised me on the

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setup.

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So, you know, we had it started all

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in a room untreated,

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and it was horrible.

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You know, couple couple years in,

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he got me kind of obsessed,

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with audio equipment.

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So

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I love microphones. What can I say? I

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have a big collection of microphones now because

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of that.

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Yeah. We're both So,

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yeah, everything.

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For my own voice, I I have a

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ribbon mic that I like using,

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mostly because I have a lot of mouth

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noise usually.

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And the ribbon mic is quite insensitive,

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particularly in the higher frequencies, so I don't

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have to clean all that out. And it's

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just a nice warm mic.

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Yeah. So the setup is,

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it's got a little portable booth I set

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up.

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You know, I get my narrator to go

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down and into the booth because it's easier

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that way. I cannot I don't hear what

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they're saying. I only hear what's coming through

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the mic.

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Mhmm.

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Runs into an RME

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interface. The mic itself depends on the, it

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would depend on the narrator. So, I use

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the standard mic that I think everyone uses

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quite a bit with, you know, s m

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seven b. Uh-huh. Yeah. And then I have

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right now. Yeah. So it's the one I'm

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using today too.

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Then I tend I try to match the

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mic to the,

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to the narrator.

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So it again, it depends which narrator is.

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It runs through the runs actually, it doesn't

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run straight into my interface. I have a

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little universal audio,

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preamp.

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I run it through that and kinda warm

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it up Yeah. Because it's a tube amp.

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Right? You know, we get all this wonderful

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crystal clear audio, and the first thing we

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wanna do is, like, muddy it back up

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so it's warmer.

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Yeah. That's you know, a lot of lot

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of podcasters,

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turn into gear heads about,

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microphones, and, you know, I've got a drawer

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full of microphones here and same idea.

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Well, I'd always go to, I'd always go

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out, and anytime there's a sale on a

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mic, I'd pick one up.

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So I have a closet full of these,

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right now. So you you use,

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different people voicing this. Mhmm.

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Okay. Very good. Do you have, like, a

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a a normal bunch of different people that

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do it? Or Yeah.

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Yes. I do. They're they're friends. Well, the

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first, first narrator, I used to like, the

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really old ones, I used to do myself.

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I don't

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particularly like my voice, and I'm not a

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great reader.

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So the first person that I got who

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wasn't myself to narrate

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was my, son's friend

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and Mitchell. And Mitchell

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narrated from episode 100 to about 260.

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So he was the voice of the podcast

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for a long time.

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Then Mitchell moved away. And in the last

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two years, I've been just using two friends,

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who come in and narrate for me once

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once a month.

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Yeah. Very nice. That's that's even better. You

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don't have to do it yourself if you

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don't want to. Well, yeah, it, again,

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focus on the production

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and

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on the, writing as opposed to, you know,

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having to perform it each time. And, also,

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you get just get sick of the, the

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story as you're writing it and readdining it

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and listening to it and then hearing yourself

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say it. You know, at at a certain

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point, it's like, no. Somebody else should be

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should be doing this. So, yeah, I have

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two regular,

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narrators right now, Kathleen and Steve.

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They're family friends.

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Again, they're not professional narrators,

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so there's a fair amount of cleanup,

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on their recordings.

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But, I just allow for that in the

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production schedule.

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Yeah. Well, that's great. Yeah. I I used

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to have a daily show, and I would

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have,

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guest

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hosts on certain days. And so, you know,

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like, I had one one guy that was

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every Tuesday and another one that was every

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Friday,

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you know, that kind of thing. Plus, I'd

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drag my wife in here and have her

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do it. You know? So

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I I've I've tried that. That doesn't,

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you know, my partner here doesn't really like

274
00:09:46,459 --> 00:09:49,100
doing narration, so I've had to look a

275
00:09:49,100 --> 00:09:50,399
little bit further afield.

276
00:09:51,164 --> 00:09:52,845
I had my son try it once, and,

277
00:09:53,804 --> 00:09:54,465
he doesn't

278
00:09:54,845 --> 00:09:55,664
he he wasn't

279
00:09:55,965 --> 00:09:58,684
too keen on it. But, yeah, the real

280
00:09:58,684 --> 00:10:01,985
the real thing is the problem, I actually,

281
00:10:02,044 --> 00:10:03,965
is when you start listening to this stuff

282
00:10:03,965 --> 00:10:06,750
is you start hearing things in the recording

283
00:10:06,750 --> 00:10:08,589
that I'm sure most people wouldn't hear that

284
00:10:08,589 --> 00:10:09,730
just drive you nuts.

285
00:10:10,509 --> 00:10:12,669
So I I I've gone down the rabbit

286
00:10:12,669 --> 00:10:14,669
hole a bit sometimes where I'm going through

287
00:10:14,669 --> 00:10:16,750
and cleaning up things that I don't know

288
00:10:16,750 --> 00:10:18,990
if people would really hear, but I just

289
00:10:18,990 --> 00:10:20,209
can't stand them.

290
00:10:21,054 --> 00:10:23,375
Yeah. Yeah. That's the way it goes. You

291
00:10:23,375 --> 00:10:25,695
know, I said in I've I've edited really,

292
00:10:25,695 --> 00:10:29,235
really heavy on certain ones, and and nowadays,

293
00:10:29,375 --> 00:10:32,490
it's kind of, yeah, whatever happened happened. It's

294
00:10:32,570 --> 00:10:34,730
fine. We'll just run it. You know? But,

295
00:10:34,889 --> 00:10:37,850
with this podcast, we have, an editing team

296
00:10:37,850 --> 00:10:40,830
that, well, actually, Kate. She goes in and

297
00:10:41,049 --> 00:10:43,289
cleans us up, makes us sound smarter. So,

298
00:10:43,610 --> 00:10:46,004
that's a good thing. That's awesome. And, you

299
00:10:46,004 --> 00:10:47,605
know, certainly, I can use a little bit

300
00:10:47,605 --> 00:10:50,585
of editing. And I Yeah. So that's great.

301
00:10:50,804 --> 00:10:52,565
Yeah. But, you know, the you know, I

302
00:10:52,565 --> 00:10:53,284
always tell,

303
00:10:53,924 --> 00:10:54,985
you know, new podcasters,

304
00:10:55,365 --> 00:10:58,024
don't over edit. You know? Don't you know,

305
00:10:58,804 --> 00:11:00,929
breathing is normal for humans, and it sounds

306
00:11:00,929 --> 00:11:02,929
weird if you take it all out. You

307
00:11:02,929 --> 00:11:05,809
know? And, you know, people say once in

308
00:11:05,809 --> 00:11:07,110
a while, and that's okay.

309
00:11:07,730 --> 00:11:09,809
Yeah. No. That that's true. I think what

310
00:11:09,809 --> 00:11:10,470
I got,

311
00:11:11,730 --> 00:11:15,509
obsessed with, was I was comparing the podcast

312
00:11:15,570 --> 00:11:16,230
to audiobooks.

313
00:11:16,794 --> 00:11:17,294
Oh.

314
00:11:17,835 --> 00:11:20,075
And, you know, they they I know they

315
00:11:20,075 --> 00:11:20,575
really

316
00:11:21,115 --> 00:11:24,235
heavily edit their their content and process it.

317
00:11:24,235 --> 00:11:24,735
So,

318
00:11:26,154 --> 00:11:28,554
when I'd listened to the two, originally, my

319
00:11:28,554 --> 00:11:29,995
goal was, well, I, you know, I want

320
00:11:29,995 --> 00:11:32,730
to have a similar kind of quality. You

321
00:11:32,730 --> 00:11:33,470
know? So

322
00:11:33,929 --> 00:11:35,789
I would take out umms and,

323
00:11:37,210 --> 00:11:38,990
would take out, well,

324
00:11:39,690 --> 00:11:41,450
a lot of the breaths, but I'd reduce

325
00:11:41,450 --> 00:11:42,009
them manually

326
00:11:42,649 --> 00:11:45,710
Mhmm. And go in and take out manually

327
00:11:45,769 --> 00:11:47,745
cut out mouth clicks. I'll tell you, the

328
00:11:47,745 --> 00:11:49,105
thing that saved my life,

329
00:11:49,504 --> 00:11:51,184
I don't know if it's okay to mention

330
00:11:51,184 --> 00:11:53,745
a product on here. Sure. Sure. Oh, okay.

331
00:11:53,745 --> 00:11:54,065
It is,

332
00:11:54,945 --> 00:11:56,004
iZotope RX,

333
00:11:57,105 --> 00:11:57,605
11.

334
00:11:58,304 --> 00:12:00,544
It's the current version, but it's iZotope RX.

335
00:12:00,544 --> 00:12:01,605
It's a postproduction

336
00:12:02,549 --> 00:12:03,049
audio

337
00:12:04,710 --> 00:12:05,210
tool.

338
00:12:05,669 --> 00:12:08,649
And, basically, it's like Photoshop for sound.

339
00:12:09,110 --> 00:12:11,190
Oh, nice. Nice. Yeah. You can go in

340
00:12:11,190 --> 00:12:12,870
you can go in and and locate that

341
00:12:12,870 --> 00:12:15,269
little bump on the mic stand. You can

342
00:12:15,269 --> 00:12:16,169
see the frequencies,

343
00:12:17,350 --> 00:12:19,475
of it, and you can literally take a

344
00:12:19,475 --> 00:12:21,174
paintbrush and get rid of it.

345
00:12:21,475 --> 00:12:23,955
Yeah. Nice. Yeah. I I use a similar

346
00:12:23,955 --> 00:12:25,014
thing from Adobe.

347
00:12:26,195 --> 00:12:27,014
It's Audition.

348
00:12:27,715 --> 00:12:31,075
Right. And, that does similar things, but I

349
00:12:31,075 --> 00:12:33,154
I don't even know 10% of how it

350
00:12:33,154 --> 00:12:33,779
all works.

351
00:12:34,980 --> 00:12:36,660
But, you know, it can it can do

352
00:12:36,660 --> 00:12:37,720
a lot of things.

353
00:12:38,100 --> 00:12:40,180
And, you know, we have a automated one,

354
00:12:40,660 --> 00:12:43,879
our media mastering, which can go in and,

355
00:12:43,940 --> 00:12:46,340
you know, level everybody up to to the

356
00:12:46,340 --> 00:12:48,625
same level if there's more than one person

357
00:12:48,625 --> 00:12:50,345
on the mic. Or if you turn away

358
00:12:50,345 --> 00:12:52,105
from the mic or something, it's pretty good

359
00:12:52,105 --> 00:12:53,004
at that. And

360
00:12:53,304 --> 00:12:55,804
but it doesn't really edit anything out,

361
00:12:57,304 --> 00:12:59,544
per se. And Yeah. A lot of tools.

362
00:12:59,544 --> 00:13:01,064
Always good to hear about another tool. I've

363
00:13:01,064 --> 00:13:02,524
never heard of that one, so

364
00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:04,460
I'll have to check that out.

365
00:13:04,919 --> 00:13:07,639
Yep. It'll it's, it has some well, late

366
00:13:07,639 --> 00:13:09,960
these days, like everything, it has some AI

367
00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:12,360
settings in it. So it will assess your

368
00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:15,559
audio track and go through and automatically remove

369
00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:16,059
and

370
00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:16,940
level

371
00:13:17,454 --> 00:13:17,954
things.

372
00:13:18,975 --> 00:13:21,534
I still have wanna go through and hear

373
00:13:21,534 --> 00:13:23,394
the whole thing because sometimes

374
00:13:23,695 --> 00:13:24,754
it makes a mistake.

375
00:13:25,134 --> 00:13:27,054
It'll take something out that shouldn't be go

376
00:13:27,054 --> 00:13:29,154
out or, it'll miss things.

377
00:13:29,774 --> 00:13:30,274
So

378
00:13:30,819 --> 00:13:32,339
when because I have to go through it

379
00:13:32,339 --> 00:13:32,839
anyway,

380
00:13:33,699 --> 00:13:36,740
I've just taken to doing it manually. So,

381
00:13:36,740 --> 00:13:38,740
you know, go through, see a see a

382
00:13:38,740 --> 00:13:39,799
pop on the mic,

383
00:13:40,179 --> 00:13:42,259
you know, close-up or something, and, you know,

384
00:13:42,259 --> 00:13:43,720
just go in and paint it out.

385
00:13:44,205 --> 00:13:46,285
Yeah. That would that, that works. It's always

386
00:13:46,285 --> 00:13:48,365
handy to have those kinda editing tools if

387
00:13:48,365 --> 00:13:50,605
you're gonna get in there and edit. Yeah.

388
00:13:50,605 --> 00:13:51,585
Yeah. For sure.

389
00:13:52,045 --> 00:13:53,485
You know, like I said, I've tried, you

390
00:13:53,485 --> 00:13:55,325
know, a bunch of them and, you know,

391
00:13:55,325 --> 00:13:58,399
you know, either editing tools or these magic

392
00:13:58,399 --> 00:13:58,899
things.

393
00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:02,240
You know, like Auphonic is one that we

394
00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:02,740
use

395
00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:05,440
Right. Yeah. And, you know, they have a

396
00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:07,679
lot of a lot more power than than

397
00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:08,740
we usually use

398
00:14:09,644 --> 00:14:11,404
for that. And they're getting they're getting better

399
00:14:11,404 --> 00:14:13,884
all the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think

400
00:14:13,884 --> 00:14:14,705
when I started,

401
00:14:15,404 --> 00:14:18,225
there wasn't really any audio gear,

402
00:14:19,404 --> 00:14:22,125
that was specifically made for podcasting. You know?

403
00:14:22,125 --> 00:14:23,825
So I would go down to the,

404
00:14:24,365 --> 00:14:24,845
music

405
00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:27,139
local music place and

406
00:14:28,159 --> 00:14:30,240
buy stuff and and sort of use it.

407
00:14:31,039 --> 00:14:33,759
I've been amazed to see how far that

408
00:14:33,759 --> 00:14:37,519
whole industry has flipped around and started building

409
00:14:37,519 --> 00:14:40,500
gear specifically for podcasting, which is great.

410
00:14:40,975 --> 00:14:43,235
Yeah. Hey. I'm running a, RodeCaster,

411
00:14:44,254 --> 00:14:47,934
which is specifically built for podcasting. Although, I

412
00:14:47,934 --> 00:14:50,514
know some broadcasters that use it now. So

413
00:14:50,735 --> 00:14:52,495
but it's a it's a, you know, kind

414
00:14:52,495 --> 00:14:54,674
of an all in one mixing board, recorder.

415
00:14:55,054 --> 00:14:57,539
You know? Right. Right. It has sound effects

416
00:14:57,539 --> 00:14:59,000
and all that stuff, and,

417
00:14:59,539 --> 00:15:02,100
you know, it's just amazing what's available now.

418
00:15:02,100 --> 00:15:04,980
You know? I started twenty years ago, and,

419
00:15:06,019 --> 00:15:07,539
you know, back then, you know, we were

420
00:15:07,539 --> 00:15:11,325
hand coding RSS feeds and and, you know,

421
00:15:11,644 --> 00:15:13,404
recording on whatever you could get a hold

422
00:15:13,404 --> 00:15:15,024
of to make sound. You know?

423
00:15:16,044 --> 00:15:17,184
Remember FeedBurner?

424
00:15:17,644 --> 00:15:20,044
Oh, I certainly do. Yeah. That's where I

425
00:15:20,044 --> 00:15:20,544
started.

426
00:15:21,325 --> 00:15:22,205
Yep. So we,

427
00:15:22,845 --> 00:15:25,485
we we made a replacement for FeedBurner here

428
00:15:25,485 --> 00:15:26,065
at Blueberry.

429
00:15:27,059 --> 00:15:28,899
And that's what I moved over to it

430
00:15:28,899 --> 00:15:30,660
and got rid of FeedBurner as soon as

431
00:15:30,660 --> 00:15:32,120
I could. But, yeah, that's

432
00:15:33,059 --> 00:15:35,139
there wasn't a lot of information that just

433
00:15:35,139 --> 00:15:37,620
seemed to pop up. But, unfortunately, I bought

434
00:15:37,620 --> 00:15:39,284
all my gear before all of this,

435
00:15:40,004 --> 00:15:42,725
newer audio stuff came out for podcasters. So

436
00:15:42,725 --> 00:15:43,464
it's like,

437
00:15:43,924 --> 00:15:46,245
you know, just old studio gear that I

438
00:15:46,245 --> 00:15:48,485
have sitting around. Yeah. But it all still

439
00:15:48,485 --> 00:15:50,004
works. You know? I got a whole stack

440
00:15:50,004 --> 00:15:51,865
of it in my garage. You know?

441
00:15:53,629 --> 00:15:56,429
Yeah. I know. Roadcaster was available when I

442
00:15:56,429 --> 00:15:58,350
started. That's all I woulda got. I wouldn't

443
00:15:58,350 --> 00:16:00,269
have bothered with all the other stuff. You

444
00:16:00,269 --> 00:16:00,769
know?

445
00:16:01,309 --> 00:16:03,710
Me too. Absolutely. I wouldn't I wouldn't have

446
00:16:03,710 --> 00:16:05,809
the the closet full of gear.

447
00:16:07,274 --> 00:16:07,514
But,

448
00:16:08,115 --> 00:16:09,214
yeah. So,

449
00:16:09,914 --> 00:16:11,855
tell tell me a little bit about the

450
00:16:12,154 --> 00:16:14,634
content of your stories. I mean, are is

451
00:16:14,634 --> 00:16:15,615
it pretty varied?

452
00:16:16,075 --> 00:16:18,475
Well, yeah, just right across the board. So

453
00:16:18,475 --> 00:16:19,855
the most recent one

454
00:16:20,519 --> 00:16:24,279
is about a senior who has to go

455
00:16:24,279 --> 00:16:25,820
into assisted living.

456
00:16:27,399 --> 00:16:27,980
And, basically,

457
00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:31,019
it's an assisted living place run by robots.

458
00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:32,060
So,

459
00:16:32,475 --> 00:16:33,274
you know Wow.

460
00:16:33,654 --> 00:16:34,154
Yeah.

461
00:16:34,934 --> 00:16:36,615
You know? But it is sci fi. You

462
00:16:36,615 --> 00:16:38,534
know? You gotta you gotta, you know, keep

463
00:16:38,534 --> 00:16:41,095
it in that genre. And, Yeah. Yeah. So

464
00:16:41,095 --> 00:16:41,914
that's one.

465
00:16:42,454 --> 00:16:43,274
So it goes

466
00:16:43,815 --> 00:16:45,674
right across the board. I

467
00:16:46,089 --> 00:16:46,909
tend to

468
00:16:47,450 --> 00:16:49,070
write what I'd call near

469
00:16:49,529 --> 00:16:52,250
future fiction rather than, like, space operas and

470
00:16:52,250 --> 00:16:54,429
that. So these are things that are set

471
00:16:54,570 --> 00:16:56,029
somewhere into the future.

472
00:16:56,649 --> 00:16:58,845
I never put a date because, you know,

473
00:16:58,845 --> 00:17:00,524
who's gonna be right about when any of

474
00:17:00,524 --> 00:17:02,044
this stuff will happen or even if it

475
00:17:02,044 --> 00:17:05,244
does. Right. And it focuses on the characters

476
00:17:05,244 --> 00:17:07,404
and how they adapt. A lot of the

477
00:17:07,404 --> 00:17:08,544
themes are

478
00:17:09,085 --> 00:17:09,565
around,

479
00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:14,720
how humans interact with technology and how technology

480
00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:15,460
is affecting,

481
00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:17,220
humans in their lives.

482
00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:20,400
Yes. That's that's coming a lot faster than

483
00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:21,059
we think.

484
00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:23,200
Oh, yeah. So stuff. And

485
00:17:23,759 --> 00:17:26,080
The AI has featured in in quite a

486
00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:26,580
few

487
00:17:27,875 --> 00:17:30,434
episodes, and I try, yeah, I try to

488
00:17:30,434 --> 00:17:32,755
make sure that not all about AI. But,

489
00:17:32,755 --> 00:17:35,095
you know, sometimes there's just so much interesting

490
00:17:35,154 --> 00:17:37,494
stuff happening Yeah. That yeah.

491
00:17:37,954 --> 00:17:39,954
Oh, it's hard. One nice thing, you know,

492
00:17:39,954 --> 00:17:42,534
about podcasting is that, you know, you can

493
00:17:43,130 --> 00:17:45,450
you you can format the thing however you

494
00:17:45,450 --> 00:17:47,309
want to. And, you know,

495
00:17:48,089 --> 00:17:51,149
I think coming very soon, if not already,

496
00:17:51,929 --> 00:17:54,750
is, people are gonna be looking for authentic

497
00:17:54,809 --> 00:17:55,309
humans

498
00:17:56,355 --> 00:17:58,855
on their podcast rather than AI voices.

499
00:18:00,035 --> 00:18:02,195
Yeah. No. No. That's true. I mean, everything

500
00:18:02,195 --> 00:18:02,835
can be,

501
00:18:03,234 --> 00:18:05,714
generated, the rating. Everything can you know? So

502
00:18:05,714 --> 00:18:06,775
it's just content.

503
00:18:07,315 --> 00:18:08,695
But that's really weird

504
00:18:09,019 --> 00:18:10,779
if if the whole thing is AI generated,

505
00:18:10,779 --> 00:18:12,639
including the the initial writing.

506
00:18:13,980 --> 00:18:16,559
Hopefully, that day will not come too soon,

507
00:18:17,579 --> 00:18:18,799
but you never know.

508
00:18:19,099 --> 00:18:21,259
And then, yeah, you're right. What will happen

509
00:18:21,259 --> 00:18:24,664
is that, having an authentic human, will have

510
00:18:24,664 --> 00:18:27,565
a higher value than anything else machine generated

511
00:18:27,625 --> 00:18:28,125
content.

512
00:18:28,664 --> 00:18:30,184
Yeah. I mean, there's a place for it

513
00:18:30,184 --> 00:18:32,105
as well. I I listen to a a

514
00:18:32,105 --> 00:18:34,410
daily news thing that it's you know, the

515
00:18:34,490 --> 00:18:36,970
the AI picks the three stories at once

516
00:18:36,970 --> 00:18:38,650
and then records it and puts it on

517
00:18:38,650 --> 00:18:40,430
a podcast feed, and, you know,

518
00:18:40,890 --> 00:18:43,690
it's somewhat interesting, and you find stuff that

519
00:18:43,690 --> 00:18:45,769
you you never would have found. But, you

520
00:18:45,769 --> 00:18:47,869
know, it's not like listening to

521
00:18:48,205 --> 00:18:50,545
you or I or or your narrators,

522
00:18:51,484 --> 00:18:54,625
actually reading something or, you know, speaking it

523
00:18:54,765 --> 00:18:56,785
in you know? There's just something

524
00:18:57,164 --> 00:19:00,445
something real about that where, with the AI

525
00:19:00,445 --> 00:19:03,250
generated stuff, you know, believe me, we use

526
00:19:03,250 --> 00:19:04,789
a lot of AI now for

527
00:19:05,170 --> 00:19:07,490
for, you know, cleaning up grammar and stuff

528
00:19:07,490 --> 00:19:09,410
and writing and, you know, that kind of

529
00:19:09,410 --> 00:19:11,750
thing, and it's really good at that.

530
00:19:12,049 --> 00:19:13,349
Yeah. Yeah. But,

531
00:19:13,890 --> 00:19:15,650
you gotta get it to quit saying, in

532
00:19:15,650 --> 00:19:16,150
conclusion,

533
00:19:18,014 --> 00:19:20,014
That seems to be the the thing that

534
00:19:20,014 --> 00:19:20,754
always ends,

535
00:19:21,054 --> 00:19:22,974
an article or something that you want them

536
00:19:22,974 --> 00:19:24,034
to rewrite. But,

537
00:19:24,815 --> 00:19:25,954
anyway, it is interesting.

538
00:19:27,054 --> 00:19:27,554
Well,

539
00:19:28,014 --> 00:19:30,480
you know, my son's in, into well, he

540
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:33,359
switched careers. He's into computer science now. So,

541
00:19:33,919 --> 00:19:36,480
he's kind of, you know, telling me that

542
00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:38,099
you gotta learn how to use it.

543
00:19:39,359 --> 00:19:39,859
And

544
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:42,400
that's the way the future is to use

545
00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:44,240
it as a tool, not to replace what

546
00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:45,855
you're doing. So, you know, use it to

547
00:19:45,855 --> 00:19:47,075
enhance what you're doing.

548
00:19:47,855 --> 00:19:49,775
Yep. And and, you know, like, we use

549
00:19:49,775 --> 00:19:51,474
it now for, transcripts

550
00:19:52,575 --> 00:19:54,654
Oh, yeah. Of podcast. You know? The

551
00:19:55,535 --> 00:19:58,335
our current transcript engine is AI powered, and

552
00:19:58,335 --> 00:20:01,150
it, it does a really good job, even

553
00:20:01,150 --> 00:20:03,470
can suggest, you know, what what you wanna

554
00:20:03,470 --> 00:20:05,789
write for your show notes and just all

555
00:20:05,789 --> 00:20:07,250
kinds of things. And

556
00:20:07,870 --> 00:20:08,370
and,

557
00:20:08,830 --> 00:20:10,509
you know, if you use it for what

558
00:20:10,509 --> 00:20:13,015
it's intended for, I think it's good. You

559
00:20:13,015 --> 00:20:15,255
know, if you overuse it, it could be

560
00:20:15,255 --> 00:20:16,875
bad. I don't know. You know?

561
00:20:17,894 --> 00:20:18,394
And

562
00:20:18,695 --> 00:20:21,654
as my boss, Todd always likes to say,

563
00:20:21,654 --> 00:20:22,234
he goes,

564
00:20:22,615 --> 00:20:25,174
we're we're using the worst AI that we're

565
00:20:25,174 --> 00:20:25,994
gonna use

566
00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:28,720
right now. That's that's true. It's only we're

567
00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:31,759
designing it's only gonna get better. Yeah. So

568
00:20:31,759 --> 00:20:32,420
we definitely,

569
00:20:33,279 --> 00:20:34,420
you know, just,

570
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:37,039
use it, learn how it works, and,

571
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:38,660
then you can sorta,

572
00:20:39,375 --> 00:20:41,454
you know, just, you know, take take from

573
00:20:41,454 --> 00:20:43,394
it what you want, just like any technology.

574
00:20:43,695 --> 00:20:44,434
You know?

575
00:20:45,375 --> 00:20:46,894
You know, I find a lot of lot

576
00:20:46,894 --> 00:20:48,894
of people are are hooked on their phones,

577
00:20:48,894 --> 00:20:50,174
you know, because they do too much with

578
00:20:50,174 --> 00:20:50,835
it. Yeah.

579
00:20:51,615 --> 00:20:53,375
Well, I had a I I last month,

580
00:20:53,375 --> 00:20:53,940
I did a

581
00:20:54,500 --> 00:20:56,740
a flash fiction story, which is a story

582
00:20:56,740 --> 00:20:59,700
on 2,000 words or under. Mhmm. I usually

583
00:20:59,700 --> 00:21:01,379
don't do many of that. In fact, that

584
00:21:01,379 --> 00:21:02,659
was the first one I did, but I

585
00:21:02,659 --> 00:21:04,179
did it on AI. And so it was

586
00:21:04,179 --> 00:21:05,000
about a

587
00:21:05,859 --> 00:21:07,379
a programmer who got kicked out of their

588
00:21:07,379 --> 00:21:10,174
job, creates an AI to go through all

589
00:21:10,174 --> 00:21:11,315
the interview process,

590
00:21:11,775 --> 00:21:13,154
and it gets them a job,

591
00:21:14,015 --> 00:21:16,414
that they're not qualified for. So I won't

592
00:21:16,414 --> 00:21:18,335
do a giveaway at the end, but, you

593
00:21:18,335 --> 00:21:20,914
know That sounds like a good one. Yeah.

594
00:21:21,054 --> 00:21:22,894
Which I could see happening. Right? You know?

595
00:21:22,894 --> 00:21:23,394
Like,

596
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:26,960
going through an interview process, why why go

597
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:29,680
through all the preliminary interviews when, eventually, you're

598
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:31,059
talking to machines anyway?

599
00:21:31,519 --> 00:21:33,380
Get a machine to represent you.

600
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:37,059
Interesting. I have to listen to that one.

601
00:21:39,345 --> 00:21:40,464
Very, very good.

602
00:21:40,785 --> 00:21:42,865
Yep. It's called no eye in the AI.

603
00:21:42,865 --> 00:21:44,704
It's I think it was out in June

604
00:21:44,704 --> 00:21:47,265
or July. So it's only it's only six

605
00:21:47,265 --> 00:21:49,025
or seven minutes long. It's not it's quite

606
00:21:49,025 --> 00:21:49,525
short.

607
00:21:49,904 --> 00:21:51,845
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, definitely,

608
00:21:52,224 --> 00:21:52,625
you should,

609
00:21:53,339 --> 00:21:55,339
I'm talking to the listeners here. You should

610
00:21:55,339 --> 00:21:59,519
do go check out makeshiftstories.com.

611
00:22:00,140 --> 00:22:02,700
And, you know, Vern's got, like I said,

612
00:22:02,700 --> 00:22:05,519
about 300 episodes there, maybe a little more.

613
00:22:07,045 --> 00:22:08,644
And, yeah, and anything

614
00:22:09,204 --> 00:22:11,545
any advice you would give to a prospective

615
00:22:11,845 --> 00:22:14,025
podcaster? I always like to ask that question.

616
00:22:16,805 --> 00:22:17,945
You have to be persistent.

617
00:22:18,884 --> 00:22:20,345
Don't get too

618
00:22:21,420 --> 00:22:23,100
crazy with your download numbers,

619
00:22:26,539 --> 00:22:28,000
and think about

620
00:22:29,660 --> 00:22:31,279
the reason you're doing the podcast.

621
00:22:31,580 --> 00:22:32,720
Who is your audience?

622
00:22:33,454 --> 00:22:34,674
Are you reaching them,

623
00:22:35,934 --> 00:22:37,855
are you getting something back from it? Like,

624
00:22:37,855 --> 00:22:39,394
I think I think if you,

625
00:22:40,174 --> 00:22:42,494
focus too much on trying to get a

626
00:22:42,494 --> 00:22:44,595
hit podcast, like, a deal with

627
00:22:45,134 --> 00:22:47,375
tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of

628
00:22:47,375 --> 00:22:49,779
downloads, It can be quite discouraging. It's better

629
00:22:49,779 --> 00:22:51,639
to focus on your content

630
00:22:52,339 --> 00:22:54,579
and who you're trying to talk to, and

631
00:22:54,579 --> 00:22:57,000
then let the podcast grow organically.

632
00:22:58,819 --> 00:22:59,319
Yeah.

633
00:22:59,940 --> 00:23:00,759
A lot of people

634
00:23:01,299 --> 00:23:03,240
obsess on their stats, and

635
00:23:03,944 --> 00:23:06,345
and it's just not productive for the first

636
00:23:06,345 --> 00:23:07,944
little bit anyway. I mean, you wanna keep

637
00:23:07,944 --> 00:23:09,384
an eye on them, make sure you're getting

638
00:23:09,384 --> 00:23:11,404
any you know, getting somewhere, but,

639
00:23:11,704 --> 00:23:14,424
yeah, you don't need to, you know, you

640
00:23:14,424 --> 00:23:16,184
don't need to watch it minute by minute

641
00:23:16,184 --> 00:23:17,644
to it'll drive you nuts.

642
00:23:18,180 --> 00:23:19,380
Yeah. And one of the one of the

643
00:23:19,380 --> 00:23:22,180
things that was, has always been wonderful about

644
00:23:22,180 --> 00:23:23,940
podcasting, and I think it's one of the

645
00:23:23,940 --> 00:23:26,180
reasons I got interested in it, is it

646
00:23:26,180 --> 00:23:29,619
does allow you to reach a distributed audience

647
00:23:29,619 --> 00:23:31,559
that has a very niche interest.

648
00:23:32,660 --> 00:23:33,160
And

649
00:23:34,414 --> 00:23:36,654
so that you know, that's wonderful. So if

650
00:23:36,654 --> 00:23:39,054
the audience if there's a thousand people in

651
00:23:39,054 --> 00:23:41,855
the world that are interested in your subject

652
00:23:41,855 --> 00:23:42,355
matter

653
00:23:42,894 --> 00:23:45,294
and you can get a podcast going for

654
00:23:45,294 --> 00:23:48,109
that group and you gather, you know, whatever

655
00:23:48,170 --> 00:23:50,490
number of them, to listen to your podcast,

656
00:23:50,490 --> 00:23:52,430
that you know, that's awesome. It's a success.

657
00:23:53,450 --> 00:23:56,349
Yeah. You know? And and success is measured

658
00:23:56,569 --> 00:23:58,109
differently by different people.

659
00:23:58,809 --> 00:24:00,569
You know? That's that's the other thing. You

660
00:24:00,569 --> 00:24:01,789
know? Just, you know, having

661
00:24:02,414 --> 00:24:05,375
having a gazillion listeners and selling ads and

662
00:24:05,375 --> 00:24:07,555
all this stuff is not everybody's goal.

663
00:24:08,255 --> 00:24:08,755
No.

664
00:24:09,134 --> 00:24:11,055
No. No. I sort of fell down that

665
00:24:11,055 --> 00:24:13,215
rabbit hole a little a couple of years

666
00:24:13,215 --> 00:24:13,715
ago,

667
00:24:14,095 --> 00:24:15,695
and I was running some ads and that

668
00:24:15,695 --> 00:24:17,795
on on that and was part of a

669
00:24:18,150 --> 00:24:19,690
podcast network for a while.

670
00:24:20,390 --> 00:24:22,809
But after that network closed down,

671
00:24:23,269 --> 00:24:24,549
I had to make the choice about what

672
00:24:24,549 --> 00:24:25,830
I was gonna do with the podcast, and

673
00:24:25,830 --> 00:24:26,410
I decided,

674
00:24:27,750 --> 00:24:30,070
no. I I'm not interested in chasing ads

675
00:24:30,070 --> 00:24:31,609
and and downloads,

676
00:24:32,474 --> 00:24:34,654
and I'd rather focus on

677
00:24:35,035 --> 00:24:37,054
learning how to write better and

678
00:24:38,075 --> 00:24:40,234
reaching the people who are interested in what

679
00:24:40,234 --> 00:24:40,815
I'm doing.

680
00:24:41,914 --> 00:24:44,154
Yeah. Well, looks like you're doing a great

681
00:24:44,154 --> 00:24:46,039
job. And, again, congratulations

682
00:24:46,820 --> 00:24:49,400
on being our podcaster of the month. And

683
00:24:49,460 --> 00:24:52,360
to the audience, please go check out Verne's

684
00:24:52,500 --> 00:24:55,240
show over at makeshiftstories.com.

685
00:24:55,779 --> 00:24:58,420
Catch us next week for yet another episode

686
00:24:58,420 --> 00:25:00,934
of Podcast Insider. Thanks, Vern.

687
00:25:01,315 --> 00:25:04,035
Thanks for joining us. Come back next week.

688
00:25:04,035 --> 00:25:07,555
And in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com

689
00:25:07,555 --> 00:25:08,535
for more information,

690
00:25:08,914 --> 00:25:09,575
to subscribe,

691
00:25:10,434 --> 00:25:13,200
share, and read our show notes. To Check

692
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:15,599
out our latest suite of services and learn

693
00:25:15,599 --> 00:25:19,140
how Blueberry can help you leverage your podcast.

694
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:21,299
Visit blueberry.com.

695
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:23,299
That's Blueberry without the e's.

696
00:25:23,599 --> 00:25:25,140
We couldn't afford the e's.