Podcast Pontifications

Yes, both content and context are important aspects of your podcast. But it’s the tone of your show that acts as the delivery-device that translates the sounds (and sights) to thoughts, ideas, and feelings inside your listeners’ brains.

It’s arguable that the theme music you’ve chosen for your show has the biggest role in setting the overall tone. Hard-hitting, over-driven guitars wheedling away in the background at the start of the episode sets a particular tone. A mellow piano sets the opposite tone. And a quirky, plucky ukulele means something else entirely. The same goes for transition music used inside your episodes. That little bit of music, even if it only plays for a couple of seconds, is part of the tone of your show. Does it fit? 

The words used in the “canned” bits of your episodes impact the tone. As does the length of those bits. How those words are voiced is huge. The cadence of the words spoken also sets the tone in a similar way. A pro-announcer will lend a certain amount of… well, professionalism to your show. But only if that’s what you’re going for. Each choice you make impacts the tone of your show.

Savvy podcasters will spend a significant amount of time adjusting EQ settings of all the voices and elements that go into a show. It’s a fair amount of work, but it has huge implications on the overall tone of an episode.

There's more to a podcast than the sounds the listeners hear. All of the not-audio parts of your show also set the overall tone of your show. 

Yes, I mean the show-level artwork and the episode-level artwork, title, and summary. But I also mean the artwork for your website, newsletter, or social shares. 

Discordance isn’t always a bad thing, though it usually is. Think about an orchestra or even a three-piece band playing with one player out of tune. The notes played might be technically correct, but it’s going to sound unpleasant. And you’re going to stop listening. 

Your listeners might have that same disconnect when your punchy theme music plays under a soft-spoken episode intro. Or they’ll see the garish colors of your attention-grabbing audiogram and then be taken aback when they a heartfelt testimonial of a survivor of abuse. That’s bad too.

My fear is that you might read this and assume I want everything in your podcast to be clean, pristine, and polished. I assure you I do not. Some shows are purposely designed to be almost toneless. Others are intentionally crafted with changing tones from episode to episode. And if that's the intention you put into your podcast, fine. Lean into that. 

It's all about intent and intentionality. Maybe you don't need a tune-up of your show. Maybe it just needs a tone-up?

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Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is designed to make podcasting better, not just easier.

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Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th. Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions. Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few. You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com. If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources: 1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion. 2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions. 3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics. 4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet. 5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more. We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy