Podcasts and me.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

Do you do podcasts? Either as the host or as a guest? How do you prepare for them?

I take part in a regular podcast called You, Me and Iced Tea, run by an author friend of mine based in The United Arab Emirates.

You can find the podcasts here.

As for preparation, when I was at work as a Thames Pilot, I was fastidious to the point of obsession. Damaging a ship or shore installation, hurting people or blocking the river was always something to be avoided.

Since I’ve retired, I’ve tried to relax and take things as they come. When it comes to public speaking, especially if it’s about my work, I usually just turn up and wing it.

This was different, I was asked to take part so I needed to take it seriously. I was sent a list of subjects for this series of podcasts, in advance.

Being a thorough sort, I did copious research on the first two or three before we recorded any of them.

On the day we recorded the first, I found that once we started chatting, the conversation flowed. Before I knew it or had time to say much, the focus of the discussion had shifted and all that time spent preparing was irrelevant and wasted. Because it was never possible to insert my carefully researched points into the conversation.

This happened for the first two podcasts, it left me momentarily stuck for something to say and caused me to change the way I approached the rest of the recordings.

I decided to look at one particular aspect of the subject, as it might apply to my writing or my experience and use that in my opening segment. Thereafter, I could just join in when I had something to say. The conversation could go where it liked, I could throw in a comment as appropriate and it became more like a chat between friends than an exercise in imparting information. Not only that, once I had been relieved from the structure of my research, I started to enjoy myself and found that my contributions actually increased.

Until next time.

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