Podcast Pontifications

Every one of your episodes elicits some sort of emotional response from every one of your listeners. Intentional or not, every podcast evokes an emotional response. Even if the podcaster had no intention of doing so. It happens. We’re human

The most common emotions or feelings elicited by podcast are feeling informed and feeling entertained.

But neither of those, in isolation, is enough. If any podcast can make a listener feel either entertained or informed, why would listeners tell others about any particular podcast? Commodities are common, and common things are not remarkable.

Luckily, podcasts don’t elicit a single emotional response from most listeners. 

There’s a fascinating study from 2017 that examines 27 distinct categories of emotion, which is a lot more than the basic emotional responses most people can list. (I highly encourage you to spend some time with the interactive tool associated with that study to see how all of those emotions work together when exposed to content.) 

Hardcore History, Dan Carlin’s extremely popular and long-running podcast, is both informative and entertaining. You know, unlike your high school history class.

Drew Ackerman knows he can’t force you to sleep when you listen to Sleep With Me. But he can keep you entertained as you—hopefully—drift off to his creaky dulcet tones. 

Horror podcasts won’t work as well if the people scared or creeped out by them weren’t also entertained. 

And with Podcast Pontifications, I want to leave you with a contemplative feeling as I inform you about the concepts and ideas I bring forth on each episode. It’s not enough for me to dump an idea on you, so I ponder a concept in real-time with you, hopefully so it rubs off. 

Here's your homework: Think about the two primary emotions you want to elicit with your episodes and write them a sticky note you’ll keep right next to where you do your episode prep. Let them act as a constant reminder of what you are trying to achieve with your episode. Stick with those for a few episodes and see how you feel. Measure your audience’s response if you can. If it’s working—you feel better and your audience isn’t running away—great! But if not, change it up! I’m a big fan of change, as you know. Like anything, it may take a few iterations before you hit on the right blend of emotional responses that sets your show(s) apart from the rest. 

-----

Read the full article and share with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/blending-listener-emotions-for-a-better-podcast

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

Buy him a virtual coffee to show your support.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

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

Mentioned in this episode:

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