Ep. 11 - The Metaiwan Metasode

A reflection on the previous episode with the hosts of the Hearts in Taiwan podcast and a random chatter about everything (as usual).

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By the time we recorded this episode, we’ve hit 1.2k plays with any given episode averaging about 90 listens. It pales in comparison with The Tim Ferriss Show’s 900 million downloads but hey, we’re making progress!

We didn’t have much time to record this metasode and we did it in between other things, so it ended up pretty light on podcasting content. We did talk at length about insights from our previous episode with Annie and Angela, the hosts of the Hearts in Taiwan podcast, related to scheduling, having fun when doing the podcast, and our new post-production process in Descript.

The episode turned pretty deep when we went into the topic of identity. We asked each other what/who we identify with and the answers were not surprising — labeling with “identifiers” don’t do us, multifaceted snowflakes, any justice unless the identification is specific to a context. For example, it’s appropriate to identify with your job at a professional event or with your nationality at an international one. But “generally,” identifying as an “engineer” or “Indian” or a “soccer fan” is way too limiting, too “procrustean.”

Other than that we talked about HVACs catching fire, shoveling streets, Hello Kitty and Star Wars airplanes, and the airline that breaks guitars.

Key takeaways

• Do it for yourself and have fun. If you start caring too much about how the audience perceives your podcast, you can lose your unique voice.

• Be ready for your guests to pose your own questions back to you and enjoy the conversation. A discussion is often more fun than an interview.

• People listen to episodes in various patterns. People don’t listen to every episode of your show. Maybe regular schedule does not matter for your podcast. So relax and stick to the schedule that works for you even if it’s “no schedule.”

Show notes

Podcasts

• Metacast Ep. 2: The Past and The Present of The Internet with Brian McCullough

• Metacast Ep. 4: Jake & Jonathan Do America

• Metacast Ep. 10: Hearts in Taiwan

• Hearts in Taiwan

• The Tim Ferriss Show

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger

  • Josh Waitzkin

• Decoder Podcast, Jan 31 Episode: Inside the global battle over chip manufacturing

Books

• The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Software

• Anchor — a podcast hosting service. Now “Spotify for Podcasters.”

• Ferrite — a DAW for the iPad that works with an Apple Pencil.

• Descript — a tool that can help you edit audio similar to editing text in a word processor.

Random mentions

• TSMC

• Hello Kitty

• United’s Star Wars Plane

• United breaks guitars

• Sounders FC

• Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore movie

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you! Arnab is a Twitter guy and I’m on Instagram. Use the method that works best for you!

• Email: hello@metacastpodcast.com (both of us get it)

• Arnab’s Twitter: @or9ob

• Ilya’s Instagram: @podcasthacks

You can also leave comments on this substack post. Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already!

Bye for now.