In 2017, I started pushing for our workplace to get a podcast, and I wanted to create my vision of covering trending topics in healthcare in a creative way that went beyond talking head interviews. Seeing the growing popularity of the medium, I saw it as an opportunity for us to showcase content that doesn’t fit within the time constraints of videos. I also hoped to help give a voice to those who otherwise want to remain anonymous, such as psychiatric or addiction patients.
I convinced several key people to be my ally in this process. We came up with a tenuous plan, got some equipment together, and recorded our first interviews. My vision for the podcast was that it would not be “live to tape”, like so many others, but rather a crafted piece similar to Radiolab. Of course, that first episode was so large in scope (how addiction impacts families and healthcare) that it turned into a 3-part series. It was great fun and I learned a lot. I read articles from Radiolab and from the creators of This American Life to help me craft episodes that are creative, interesting, informative and hopefully inspiring. My years of experience with video production really helped make the production and post process relatively easy and fun, but the strange distribution network with Apple took a while to correctly navigate and learn. We got a host, got listed on iTunes and a dozen other directories, and we were on our way.
After about a year, our original host changed jobs and I needed to find someone new to help tell our stories. So I partnered with Carolyn Starks in our PR department and we now co-host the show together inserting snappy patter and jokes while preserving my original creative vision of cross-cut edited interviews. We put out about 10 shows a year, much less than some others, but each of our shows is a high quality piece with soundscapes, introspective pauses, powerful supporting side interviews and hook intros and high quality music from Warner Brothers/Chappell which takes about a week to edit. In one episode where we interviewed Ortho patient and oldest American to summit Mount Everest, Art Muir, I created a soundscape from 9 individual sound effects, and used audio from clips he recorded on the mountain. For an episode where we interviewed the head of our emergency departments, I went to Evanston Hospital and spent a day there interviewing 20 people and we even recorded what happens in real-time when a patient comes in who isn’t breathing (Code Blue).
We put out about 10 shows a year, much less than some others, but each of our shows is a high quality piece with soundscapes, introspective pauses, powerful supporting side interviews and hook intros and high quality music from Warner Brothers/Chappell which takes about a week to edit.
You can listen here. I recommend listening to Episode 1 (Sharon’s Journey) first. If you want to subscribe, click on the YouTube link below. And thanks!
