Hey hey, how's things? Welcome back to another Podcast Pointers 😁 We've got a veritable treasure trove of podcast-boosting goodies for you today! The big one is about that ..thing.. that every podcast NEEDS to grow. It's first in the list below. But there's something spooky about 5s in here, too... ..The Take 5 Content validation method. The 5-Step Focus reset. And the 15 top microphones on the market - that's just three 5s, isn't it...? Plus, how we sound treated a cave. Yep. You can even...
5 days ago • 4 min read
Mic Drop Fact: The speed of sound varies. Sound travels fastest in solids, slower in liquids, and slowest in gases. It changes based on the medium and its properties, such as air (343 m/s), water (1,480 m/s), and steel (~5,960 m/s). ✂️ CREATOR CUTS💡 🎧 Are we overcomplicating podcasting? (Podcraft) Podcasting takes effort, but it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. The most meaningful work is identifying your audience and how you can help them. It’s tempting to follow trends or chase what others...
12 days ago • 3 min read
Mic Drop Fact: Sound can’t exist in space. Sound needs a medium (air, water, or solid) to propagate. That's a problem even open RSS can't fix. ✂️ CREATOR CUTS💡 📺 Ignore these 15 podcast tips (YouTube) Colin debunks 15 common myths new podcasters face, from the false need for video and expert status to gear misconceptions and outdated interview strategies. You'll also hear fresh takes on monetisation, editing, social media, and why personality can matter more than sticking to a script. 🎧...
19 days ago • 4 min read
Mic Drop Fact: Sound changes depending on your distance from it The change in sound frequency as an object moves closer to you is called the doppler effect. This explains why a siren’s pitch changes as it passes. ✂️ CREATOR CUTS💡 📝 Let's MAP out your podcast name (Blog) Two types of podcast names can have enormous benefits. Problem is, they can also really hamper your growth in the early days. Learn how to create the perfect podcast name using the MAP framework and discover what top podcasts...
26 days ago • 3 min read
Mic Drop Fact: Sound waves have a shape Sound waves appear as sine waves and can be visualized using devices like oscilloscopes. They can also create patterns in sand. Cymatics experiments show how sound frequencies produce intricate patterns in particles on a surface. ✂️ CREATOR CUTS💡 📝 How to pitch your podcast to journalists (Blog) Want to see your podcast featured in a magazine or newspaper? Then you NEED one of these (and no, I'm not talking about a media kit!) 🎧 How systems can boost...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Mic Drop Fact Like optical illusions, you can trick the human ear into hearing sounds differently from how they’re being created. For example, Shepard tones create an auditory “staircase” effect of endlessly rising pitch when, in reality, it’s just a single note. Hullo there! I had to laugh at something Lindsay said in response to that endlessly repeated, yet maddeningly vague, piece of podcasting advice: “Don’t be boring.” “What are you supposed to do with that information? Rely on cartoon...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Mic Drop Fact You can put out fire with sound. With the right frequency, sound waves can seperate oxygen in fire from fuel, extinguishing a fire in seconds. Hullo there! The "impossible to write an elevator pitch for" classic Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of the few non-fiction books I've read twice. And though it was pretty useless in helping me to maintain a motorbike (crucially, I have never owned one), it was a veritable mechanic's toolbox full of quotables: "You want to...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Mic Drop Fact Tim Storms holds the Guinness Book of Records title for the lowest note produced by a human at G -7 (0.189 Hz). This is 8 octaves lower than the lowest G note on the piano. Hullo there! If Podkin One Ear was serving up the profound quote last week, how about this one, attributed to Susan Sontag, in The Book of Delights... "Any technology that slows us down in our writing rather than speeding us up is the one we ought to use." Has this ever been more relevant than now? On that...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Mic Drop Fact During WWII, some nations experimented with using low-frequency sound waves as a potential weapon. This is called a sonic or ‘acoustic attack‘. Sonic weapons can be explicit, e.g. an extremely loud noise. Or, they can be covert, like infrasound that affects the human body without the targets noticing. Hullo there! The Legend of Podkin One-Ear is our current bedtime story. The wee one seems to be enjoying it, and so am I. Here's a nice quote I thought you might enjoy, too:...
2 months ago • 7 min read
Mic Drop Fact It's possible to perceive sound without using your ears. Vibrations can travel through your skull, which is how bone-conduction headphones work. Hullo there! Has anyone ever owned a printer that cheerfully admitted it (a) had enough paper and (b) was connected to the internet? Every printer I’ve ever owned insists - often with great confidence - that both are categorically false, despite all available evidence to the contrary. Anyway, printing stuff is so last century. We live...
2 months ago • 7 min read