Podwrecked

Podwrecked is a podcast about making podcasts, built on the idea that keeping a show going is a survival exercise. Kyle Bondo and Timothy Kimo Brien host, and they take the hazards head-on, usually with a joke close behind. Start with gear. 'Dueling Remote Recorders' pits remote interview tools against each other at a moment when, by the hosts' account, video conferencing had taken off since quarantine began, with Zoom fixing its encryption problem and Squadcast sorting out its browser issues. The testing is hands-on. One recorder hands over an audio file right away, a double-ender file arrives seconds after the session ends, and the pair guess that video processing explains the wait on another. Ratings get the same treatment. 'Not Drowning But Waving' works from an article by Pacific Content and asks what five-star ratings are worth if everyone hands them out. One host's verdict on a Michelin-starred restaurant, which was apparently overrated, becomes the argument: stars say little, and feedback that makes a show better says more. The most sombre material is about endings. 'Graduate From Your Darlings' borrows Stephen King's advice to kill your darlings and takes it as permission to let one thing end so another can begin. One host then describes shutting down a separate show by pressing the button that stops the hosting bill and then deleting the website, which proved even harder. The account is frank about how final that step feels, and it sits alongside talk of moving on to new projects, including an audio drama. Momentum and burnout come up elsewhere. In 'I Thought I Heard Something' the hosts explain where they have been, one of them talks about taking part in National Novel Writing Month, and the conversation turns to needing a breather while still hitting their episode goal before 2020 was out. The year-end episode, 'Who Had Pandemic On Their Bingo Card?', goes back over predictions the hosts say they review every year. One call they claim to have nailed is small businesses turning to podcasts, from a local winery advertising on a show about writers to a financial planner starting a podcast for his business. A guest joins in 'Virtual Survival with Super Joe Pardo', where the introduction recalls meeting him at the Mid-Atlantic Podcast Conference in New Jersey and describes it as intimate, with the feel of a one-room classroom. Throughout, the two riff constantly. The sign-offs are where that shows most: a Jim Morrison riff on 'the end', a snatch of 'Baby Shark', and a gas joke that one of them insists belongs on the blooper reel. For a question about gear, 'Dueling Remote Recorders' is the obvious first stop. For the bigger question of whether to keep going at all, 'Graduate From Your Darlings' is the one to hear. The show is part of the GagglePod network.