Podcast Introduction: I am Listening

An audio piece provides an active process that forces the listeners to create images in the heads, like making a mental movie. Different than the visual experience which causes neurological exhaustion, audio listeners are stimulated because of the active participation --- Dean Olsher, radio producer for the former The Next Big Thing

There are some bullet points from Olsher's speech today:

On the audio subject: What they say is secondary to how they say it. It was to express the subject's emotions that no one else is able to capture. Information, in that sense, has no place in this situation. That is the mistake that many podcasts are making in real life.

On Structure: Always think of a podcast story in terms of arc: the beginning, the development and the ending of a story. Therefore, you have an event instead of just having information.

On How-to: Get upfront and personal. Feel comfortable to invade the subject's personal space. Stop making hmmm sound to your subject as the subject is speaking, instead, getting used to the dorky nodding and smiling.

On Choosing the Subject: Audition your subject beforehand without letting them know it. Decide brutally who will be in your piece. In business podcasting where you deal with money and number, it is a little harder to make the podcast more compelling. Making narrative might be an option.

And finally, make it engaging, make it engaging, make it engaging.