Tag Archives: podcast

New Podcast For 2014 – Guests & Contributors Needed

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Happy belated New Year! Firstly, a huge thanks to those that have listened to my Christmas Podcast ‘experiment’ and sent some kind words my way.  The amount of downloads and positive feedback has far surpassed my expectations.  Some rather unpleasant pro-sprout fanaticism aside, it’s been fun.

Podcasting was a learning curve but I plan to use my experiences to produce a better, bigger, more entertaining and engaging show for 2014. I’m hoping to release it fortnightly/monthly, blending humour, news, guides, debates and interesting guests.

Using new equipment & new techniques, I’m hoping there will also be a noticeable improvement in sound quality & production value.  I have set early February as a tentative date to kick off the new run of episodes, so if you haven’t already, please subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher or YouTube.

This is now where you wonderful primates come in*.

Do you have something to say that may be of interest to others? Click here to answer a few questions and be considered as a guest for the show.

Do you have an idea for a recurring feature that you would like to be a regular correspondent for? Perhaps you are involved in something that is ongoing, whereby you could check-in with frequent reports? Contact me and let me know.

Perhaps you’re musically inclined and have some songs, either sincere, or comedic that you wish to share? Contact me and let me know.

Do you have any suggestions or ideas for what you would like to hear from a heathen focused podcast? Perhaps you have some guest suggestions? Let me know in the comments section below.

If you enjoyed the Christmas Podcasts and would like to get behind a new regular show, you can help to support it in other ways too:

The current cost to me for providing these shows as free to download is £110/$180US per year.  By making a small donation (or massive – I’m not fussy) you can help to supplement these costs and make the hours spent planning, recording and editing more economically viable.

Click To Support This Podcast

Click To Support This Podcast

You can also help by listening, reviewing, subscribing, rating and sharing my show via Stitcher, iTunes and YouTube.

A combination these actions enables the show to climb their respective charts, bypassing evangelical religious content and placing atheistic voices right in amongst the piety.  I doubt they will enjoy that.

I look forward to hearing from you.

GS

Podcast Thanks, Support and the Future

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Thanks to everyone that has listened to my Christmas Podcasts and sent some positive words my way. Also, a huge thanks to all my brilliant guests.  At the time of blogging this, the show has had over 15,500 listens and rising. That’s far exceeded my wildest expectations. Thank you.

It’s been a huge pleasure to speak with such funny, smart and lovely people. If you’ve enjoyed hearing from my guests, please let them know by Tweeting some love their way.

It’s been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. If I’m honest, I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on anything in my life.  I’ve quickly learned that releasing 7 podcasts in 20 days, whilst maintaining a full-time job is…mental.

I’m currently weighing up the idea of another regular fortnightly show in the New Year.  I’m brainstorming some ideas to try and make it funny, informative & engaging.  Whether I do produce a new show largely depends on whether or not the audience support outweighs the server costs (£110/US$180 per year) plus production costs.  I don’t want to charge for content, so I would have to rely on the generosity of voluntary contributions from the listeners to supplement the costs.

If everybody that enjoyed the show donated a dollar, a pound or a….Yuan (I don’t really know China), this would help supplement the costs involved and could even go towards new equipment to improve production and audio quality. If you’ve enjoyed the Podcast and would like to hear more, please consider making a contribution amount of your choice by becoming a patron.

If that’s something you can’t do right now, please take a minute to review/rate and subscribe to the show on Stitcher & iTunes.  This will improve the ranking of the show, and enable it to reach a bigger audience.  Because my show is listed in the category of “Religion & Spirituality” the majority of my competition are evangelical religious shows.  Listening, rating and reviewing will help me knock a few of them of their perch.  This thought makes me happy.

Thanks again,

I hope you’ve laughed and learned something.

Have a great Christmas

GS

Christmas Podcast – Listen Now

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Back in October I extended an invitation to fellow non-believers to be a guest on a ‘planned’ podcast which would focus (mostly!) on the Christmas experience. Thankfully, I received plenty of interest from people far and wide. Phew.

The idea was to create something which would allow people to hear what Christmas means to other non-believers with varying cultural backgrounds, traditions and opinions.

My only hope is to provide the opportunity to learn something, laugh a little and reinforce the knowledge that religion needn’t be the only reason for the season.

All Episodes will be released throughout December for free via iTunes  and Youtube.  Click below to listen now:

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Although these will remain available for free, if you do enjoy them, please consider making a contributory donation below.  Your contribution will be used to supplement ongoing hosting & production costs, new equipment for further shows and possibly Scotch.  Yeah.  Definitely Scotch.

Click To Support This Podcast

Click To Support This Podcast

It’s been a huge pleasure and privilege to talk to so many different and interesting people. Finding the time to juggle full-time employment, unforgiving time differences and a laborious editing process has been a challenge, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  It’s with regret that I haven’t been able to reach out to everyone that took the time to contact me, but I’m incredibly grateful to have heard from you all the same.

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Godless Spellchecker Christmas Podcast Invite

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Yes, like it or not, that time of year is almost upon us again. Fox News will soon be rallying a call to arms to fight an imagined war on an imagined deity.  And Christians that are unfamiliar with the word ‘Paganism’ will take to social media to vent their displeasure at the fear that nonbelievers may be enjoying a holiday that isn’t ‘theirs’. Delicious irony. Ho ho ho.

Personally, I love Christmas. For me, it’s a time to catch up with family.  Great company, mixed with laughter, too much food and drink, terrible sweaters and worse socks. What’s not to like?  I’ll pass on the sprouts however, thanks.

This got me wondering (see Oprah? See?).  I’d very much like to hear what Christmas means to other nonbelievers with similar or completely different cultural backgrounds to me.

What do you do at Christmas?  Do you hate it? Do you love it?  Do you refuse to celebrate it?  Are you forced to endure the religious convictions of your family?  Do you insist on calling it Xmas? Has a recent loss of faith spoiled what was once a meaningful time of year for you? And why the hell didn’t Santa bring you that Megadrive you asked for when you were 7?  You were really good that year. And you wrote him a nice letter. A nice letter specifically asking for the console complete with two controllers and a copy Streets Of Rage so that you could play with your best friend, Paul. Yet nothing! Nothing!

I digress.

I want to hear as many varied viewpoints as possible, from as many countries as possible.  So, throughout the coming weeks, I hope to reach out to a number of those who fill in the below form.

The intention is to take up two minutes of your time via Skype voice chat (free download/Also available on smartphones) to ask you to vocalise/expand on your answers given below.

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Podcast – Thoughts and Thanks

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Recently  (Fri 12th July) I was fortunate enough to be part of The Herd Mentality Podcast hosted by Mr Adam Reakes, with special guests Mr Oz Atheist, and a young up and coming comedian, eager to make a name for himself, Ricky Gervais.

He’s going to be big one day.  Remember you heard him here first.

You’ll click below to listen to it immediately if you know what’s good for you.
iTunes (Episode7)
Direct Link
Android (Stitcher)

I had lots of fun.  I’m a huge fan of Ricky; I’ve been to his live shows, adore his sitcoms and hold fond memories of laughter-filled evenings gathered with good friends, cold beverages and a download of his latest podcast.

ricky-gervais-show-550x366The irresistible combination of wondering what Karl Pilkington will say next, how exactly Ricky will react to it, whilst Steve Merchant tries to hold it all together has made me laugh to the point of abdominal pain.  Please seek them out if you haven’t already listened to them.

It is for this reason, that hearing the disembodied voice of Ricky booming from my laptop seemed familiar enough for me to forget I was actually part of the conversation at times.  And I often did.  This is fine by me however, as I said, lots of fun!

A huge thanks to Adam and Mr Oz for making this happen. They were responsible for all the technical aspects and organisation respectively.  All I had to do was take the day off work (already worth it), sound disappointingly Mancunian (I’m not Prof Brian Cox) and be entertained by two Aussie gents and my favourite comic.  A great way to spend a morning, I hope you’ll agree.

A massive thanks to the Podfather himself for giving up his morning just to have a chuckle with a few like-minded strangers.  I was really taken aback by Ricky’s generosity and praise. It’ll stick with me.  Kindness is magic.

“How dare you have a go at Rihanna!” is still making me chuckle. Haha!

Thanks to anyone who has already listened and sent kind words our way.  I’ll never cease to be amazed at how rewarding just having fun on Twitter has become.

Please subscribe to the Herd Mentality Podcast and check in on the previous episodes too.  There’s some great stuff in there.  Also, please check out the hilarious Ricky Gervais on his YouTube channel and subscribe.  Go and get the guitar…

GS

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