“The fact that with MEDIA INDIGENA I could literally be a one-man-show was a huge part of a podcast’s appeal to me …”
This series is all about Libsyn podcasters. Its sole purpose is to introduce these awesome podcasts to the world as well as share their podcasting insight to empower the community!
Q & A with Rick from MEDIA INDIGENA
When did you start MEDIA INDIGENA?
I started in March of 2016, which somehow seems both eons and months ago simultaneously.
What made you think about starting a podcast?
By the time I started podcasting, I’d been active in media making in some form or another (including a lot of radio) since the 90s, but never independently. And although I love being part of a team, the fact I could literally be a one-man-show with podcasting was a huge part of its appeal to me.
What’s the name of your show and what is it about?
My show is entitled MEDIA INDIGENA, a thrice-monthly program dedicated to insightful, Indigenous-led conversations about issues and events of concern to Indigenous peoples and those who care about them. The format is most often a three-member roundtable, drawing on a roster of five people; participants are based in different cities so we record remotely.
What’s your podcast setup for MEDIA INDIGENA? Hardware, software, CMS, etc.
The show employs a double-ender concept (or, in our case, triple-ender), where each person records themselves locally as we converse through various digital interfaces.
I record the show locally on my end with a Zoom H4N digital recorder, but other voices on the program often use a smartphone to record.
My mic is a Shure SM58 and I use Sony MDR-ZX110 headphones. Of course, local recordings can fail, so, for the past few years, we’ve used Cleanfeed (a high-end, virtual audio studio that records voices using Chrome as separate multi tracks) as a backup.
Now, hoping to experiment a bit last season, we started to play in the social audio app space (e.g., Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Callin) to see what we could do there.
Extending that same spirit into this season, we’re going to do as much recording as we can inside our brand-new Discord (integrated with our Patreon), to bring our audience directly into some of our discussions.
I edit mainly in Hindenburg Journalist Pro, and my companion website is built on WordPress.
How have you promoted MEDIA INDIGENA?
We rely on mainly on social media — Twitter especially — though we have set up an Instagram account. Our Facebook Group and Page didn’t do much for us, so we’re abandoning the platform entirely.
This season, we plan to grow our video presence as a form of promotion, with shorter clips distributed via YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
That you don’t necessarily have to output 52 episodes a year to gain an audience! A weekly release schedule is doable, but it can all too easily lead to burnout, which is what ultimately happened in my case.
Hosted by Rick Harp, MEDIA INDIGENA is dedicated to insightful, Indigenous-led conversations about issues and events of concern to Indigenous peoples and those who care about them. Mainly roundtable with some occasional one-on-one interviews, his show brings to light concerns ranging from current affairs to creative expression. Give it a listen on Apple or Spotify today!
Seeing an opportunity to take his years of experience in media and turn it into a one man show focusing on meaningful content, Rick Harp launched the MEDIA INDIGENA podcast. His passion for the indigenous culture combined with his passion for media made the perfect podcast fit. Are you dying to dive into a topic that you feel others around the country or world feel is critical. Why not connect? Libsyn makes it super easy with our comprehensive How to Start a Podcast Guide. And, when you are ready, we have the best podcast hosting plans around!
