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Here's how I envision a possible podcast:

Two community members stage a weekly call, much like Joel and Jeff of Stack Exchange do. The form could be one interviewing the other. Even if they both know what's coming, I think the conversational style would be inviting to listeners. The weekly call would be recorded and posted as a podcast.

The main content would be one question, probably from the past week. (We're averaging something like 30-40 per week, so there should be at least one excellent one.) The two people on the call would introduce it, say why they find the content particularly valuable, and then read the question, all interesting/useful answers, and any particularly good comments (possibly summarizing comment discussions).

Site news, if any, could come next.

It would probably be good to write up show notes to go with each podcast, containing a summary of what was discussed and links to the relevant material.

The purposes of this endeavor would be to spread our best content into a new medium and format and, if the podcast takes on a life of its own in the podcast world, draw in users to the site.

What do you think? Does this sound worth the trouble? Any ideas for refinement of the concept?

If you like the idea, would you be interested in volunteering to be one of the hosts?

Does anyone here have experience with or equipment for producing podcasts?

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  • You could also go the route of a blog
    – Rebecca Chernoff Mod
    Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 8:29
  • @Rebecca Yes, that's a possibility, but I don't think the sort of content suggested here, essentially "question of the week," would be useful enough in another text forum to carry a blog. We've had a couple other regular content ideas that I think could make for the seeds of a blog, if we get them off the ground.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 8:48
  • Check out some of the blogs there, many of the sites are highlighting questions on the blog, delving into them deeper or from a different angle. Regardless, what I mentioned in that post are simply ideas that might apply to many of the sites as general guidance. They are not requirements that you have those categories. Whatever would interest the community and draw in new users that people are interested in contributing is what we want. (:
    – Rebecca Chernoff Mod
    Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 16:11
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    A sort-of followup proposal: meta.judaism.stackexchange.com/q/1386
    – msh210 Mod
    Commented Oct 21, 2012 at 16:01
  • @IsaacMoses I love this idea, has anything come out of this?
    – Shoel U'Meishiv
    Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 10:42
  • @Mefaresh Not yet. I would really love to work on this, but I've been too tied up lately to start a new project. I also have next to no experience with audio production. Someone with such experience volunteering to help could be a major step forward.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Jun 2, 2015 at 14:17
  • Such a shame. Although it seems to me that nowadays anyone could have a podcast.
    – Shoel U'Meishiv
    Commented Jun 2, 2015 at 14:18

2 Answers 2

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This sounds like an interesting idea. To get started, is there any potential for partnering with an existing podcast of some kind? Just a thought.

For further inspiration, a similar project was tried (successfully) over on the Apple Stack Exchange. You might be able to follow in their footsteps of how they went from 'good idea' to execution.

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  • Partnering with an existing program would be a great gig if we could get it. It would allow us to pool audiences and would also allow our most straightforward contribution - Q&A presentation, to exist as part of a larger program without us having to develop the rest of the program.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Jul 12, 2011 at 1:20
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    @Isaac Moses: You're not necessarily looking for that celebrity podcaster who already has a large following (although that would be nice). Typically, you're looking for that 2nd or 3rd tier hard-working wannabe who has a nice product who would love to hook in with an audience and the notoriety with a site like this.
    – Robert Cartaino
    Commented Jul 12, 2011 at 1:50
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I had an idea for a different weekly audio format that would be periodically labor-intensive but could be an awesome service: Real-time Parsha Q&A Call-in Show

Each Saturday night, at a scheduled time, a live online radio call-in show (presumably using BlogTalkRadio, as our Launch Party did) opens. People call in with questions about the Parsha that occurred to them over Shabbat. As the questions come in, Parshanut-savvy Yodeyans, with their paper and electronic libraries handy, start researching them and trying to come up with answers. As they come up with answers, they join the show to report them.

The result is an audio analogue of the kind of crowdsourced Q&A that happens all the time on Mi Yodeya, available for listening both live-streaming and after the fact, in podcast form. In addition, after the show, any questions or answers that came up that weren't already on Mi Yodeya are written up there, enriching the base Q&A repository.

As I see it, this concept would require a staff of at least four, preferably more, for each show:

  • A Host, who interviews callers about their questions, helps clarify things, and keeps things moving on the air.

  • A Producer, who monitors the queue of incoming calls, screens calls, and brings callers onto the show.

  • A Research Coordinator, who listens to incoming questions, transcribes them into a chat room, and coordinates the efforts of the Researchers to make sure that each question is addressed. May also take part in research efforts.

  • One or more Researchers, who, as assigned by the Research Coordinator via the chat room, research incoming questions, try to come up with answers, and discuss their answers with the Host on the air.

All of these people would have to be available, on schedule, for the duration of the show. Other than that, there shouldn't be too much time commitment, other than studying the Parsha with commentaries during the week and over Shabbat as much as possible, and coordinating staff to make sure that each show is fully staffed.

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  • How about plans for subsequent transcription as Mi Yodeya self-answered questions?
    – Y     e     z
    Commented Oct 28, 2014 at 17:36
  • Timezones... Your Saturday night is almost my Sunday morning.
    – Scimonster
    Commented Oct 28, 2014 at 17:42
  • @YEZ great idea. I've incorporated it.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Oct 28, 2014 at 17:43
  • @Scimonster, timezones pose a challlenge for anything live. I think the best we can do is choose a time that works best for one or two timezones, trying to maximize the number of people who would participate and listen live. Most likely, given our present geographic population distribution, the primary target would be US Eastern.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Commented Oct 28, 2014 at 17:45

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