Episode 66: Cultivating a community

Seen and Heard in Edmonton

I had the great pleasure of talking to Ben Yendall of Tales from the Hydian Way and Trina Shessel from the Northern Nerdcast on stage at the Needle on May 12 during NorthwestFest's LunchPods series.

Both Ben and Trina have cultivated a community around their podcasts, and are members of Edmonton's growing and increasingly connected podcasting community. They shared a lot of excellent insights about how and why they got into podcasting, and what they have learned about "community" in all (or at least many) senses of the word.

I also talk a bit about the Alberta Podcast Network, which is now officially in the works thanks to funding from ATB Financial.

This episode is also available in iTunes, on Google Play, on SoundCloud or on Stitcher.

You can hear even more about the Alberta Podcast Network, and ask me anything about it, at the next Edmonton Podcasting Meetup on May 28 at 1 p.m. at Variant Edition Comics and Culture. Register here to attend.

Some other links mentioned in the show:

• The Northern Nerd Network's YouTube channel;
• Ben's other podcast, Heroes of the Hydian Way;
• The Tales from the Hydian Way Patreon campaign;
• The meetup where Ben and Trina offered advice to The Broadcast;
• Two big Doctor Who podcasts made in Edmonton: Radio Free Skaro and Verity!;
• The Chicago Podcast Cooperative, a model for the Alberta Podcast Network;
• Local examples of using music on podcasts: CKUA's Capital City Records podcast, Kat Griffiths's Start the Music, Cups N Cakes on Mixcloud;
• Local examples of live phone-ins: The View Up Here, Northern Nerdcast on Google Hangouts; Chris Sikkenga and Paul Deleeuw's Montreal Sauce;
• My Edmonton podcast roundups;
• Castria, where award-winning podcasters help you make yours (and help me make mine);
• The Needle Vinyl Tavern, great hosts for the inaugural LunchPods series.

Some of the other LunchPods sessions have made their way into various feeds:

• Northwestfest Panel, featuring Paul Matwychuk of Trash, Art, and the Movies, Erin E. Fraser and Matt Bowes of Bollywood is for Lovers and JP Fournier of The Movie Jerks;
• Mind the gap: How podcasting can fill a news void on women and politics: Alex Zabjek and Trisha Estabrooks of The Broadcast talk to Scott Fralick about podcasting as a vehicle for journalism.

NorthwestFest is over for this year, but you can see who won the awards, and mark your calendar for more nonfiction fun in May 2018.

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Musical credits: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1, played by Daniel Veesey, from freemusicarchive.com.