Mic Check: Finding My Voice as a Podcast Host

Nick a -

Welcome, everyone, to my fifth blog post! I can’t believe I’m already this far along in my project. I’ve been reaching out to more people and am getting closer to completing all my interviews. I’ve had the opportunity to speak with some great individuals about their careers, and two of my next interviews will be with a local artist and an endodontist.

Over the past week, I’ve been focusing on refining how I conduct interviews. In my last post, I mentioned that I enjoy watching Conan, and I recently started listening to his podcast. After listening to almost five 50-minute episodes, I noted his pacing and how naturally the conversations flowed. While I have a set list of questions for each guest, I don’t want our discussions to sound too scripted. To address this, I plan to conduct more background research on each guest’s career field and the specifics of their job before the interview.

After speaking with my mentor, I plan to visit the ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication this Friday to ask some questions about my interviews and learn more about editing my podcast’s audio recordings. Some of the questions I have include: What are some techniques to help guests open up more? and How can I better structure my episodes to maintain a strong flow?

Previously, in another blog post, I mentioned the challenges of maintaining consistent interview lengths. Another aspect I hadn’t considered was the structure of my interviews. I followed a strict script and didn’t deviate much from it. At times, there were questions later in my script that would have fit better earlier in the conversation, but I stuck to my list and circled back to them when they appeared. Moving forward, I aim to be more flexible in the flow of my discussions.

As for my theme song, while I don’t have a recorded version with lyrics yet, I’ll share the lyrics I’ve written below. Let me know if I should try and include it as an outro song or something along those lines.

Do you want to be a nurse or an engineer?
Let’s find out your career.
Discover what makes you you
On the podcast So That’s What You Do!

I’m excited to see how my next interviews turn out and can hopefully release my first episode in the next few weeks. That’s it for now! I hope to see you in my next blog post.

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Comments:

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    allison_h
    Hi Nick! I think it's great that you're learning from each interview to improve the flow of your podcast. I also never thought about there being certain techniques for getting people to open up. That's a really interesting question to ask and I look forward to hearing what your learn! When you visit the ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will you mainly be talking to students or professors? Are there any people you know you will be meeting?
    March 17, 2025 at 9:23 pm - Reply
    danielle_l
    Hey, Nick! I think it's really smart how you used other podcasts to deduce a strategy for your own. The lyrics for your theme song are super charming, and I can't wait to hear them added to your backing track! What specific resources will you be using to conduct your pre-interview research? Can't wait to hear the refined episodes!
    March 18, 2025 at 9:15 pm - Reply
    cason_t
    Hi Nick, it's really impressive to see how much progress you've made with your podcasts! I think incorporating a bit of background research could take your episodes to the next level. By the way, have you decided on what editing software you'll be using for them?
    March 19, 2025 at 12:47 pm - Reply
    nick_a
    Hey Allison, I don't know entirely who I will be meeting when I go to ASU. However, one thing I wanted to do is see the work some of my professor's graduate students are doing. I don't know if that will happen, but I am curious about it. Even though I'm not sure of specific plans, I am excited to talk about editing with my mentor.
    March 20, 2025 at 1:00 pm - Reply
    nick_a
    Hi Danielle, I will primarily get my research from university websites and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. University websites will talk more about the qualitative aspects of jobs, like important skills to have, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics will display data or other quantitative facts about jobs.
    March 20, 2025 at 1:08 pm - Reply
    nick_a
    Hey Cason, my mentor and I briefly mentioned what software we're using, and I think it's Adobe Express. However, I will have to confer with my mentor when I go to ASU about the best software I can use.
    March 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm - Reply
    katherine_v
    Hello, Nick! I think it is really amazing that you are working so hard to improve your podcast. I am also really excited for the first episode to be released! Now that you have done a few interviews, is there anything you would want to redo in your first interviews if you had the chance to re-interview those people?
    March 25, 2025 at 8:33 pm - Reply

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