This series is all about Libsyn’s 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 from Atheist Nomads
When did you start podcasting?
I started as a guest on the Chariots of Iron in 2010 and returned several times, eventually I started filling in as a guest co-host when one of the main hosts wasn’t available to record. I started my own show in May of 2012.
Why did you start podcasting?
I left the Seventh-day Adventist church, seminary, and the evangelistic series I was preaching in Mexico in one day in 2007. I didn’t know how I fit in the world and felt very alone.
Podcasts like the Chariots of Iron helped me feel more comfortable with myself and like there were other people who felt like me. While I was still lonely, having just moved to a new city and working a demanding management job, I didn’t feel totally alone.
After the Chariots of Iron ended, I felt like there was a hole in my life and the playlist on my podcast player, so I filled it with my own show, well, that and as they say, “Once a preacher, always a preacher.”
What’s the name of your show about and what is it about?
The Atheist Nomads is predominately a news and current events show covering church/state separation issues, human rights, and other topics of interests to atheists, skeptics, and humanists.
I also interview leaders in the atheist, skeptic, and humanist community. The show has three goals: help new atheists and atheists living in very religious regions know that they aren’t alone, help normalize atheism, and shine a light on attacks on the wall of separation between church and state.
I am usually joined by my wife and a rotating cast of local comedians and friends.
What’s your podcasting set-up? Hardware, software, CMS, etc.
Microphones: I have a Heil PR40, two Shure SM57s, and a Behringer XM8500. I also have an Electrovoice RE320 on the way.
Interface: Behringer UMC404HD
Monitoring: Behringer HA400 and an assortment of studio monitor headphones.
Software: My computer is running Arch Linux and the JACK Audio Connection Kit to route the audio from my interface and software sources to my DAW. I use VLC to play my plays my bumpers, which I control with either the multimedia controls on my keyboard or using KDEConnect on my phone.
For interviews I’ve used Skype, Hangouts, Google Meet, and Zencastr, but I don’t really like any of them. Ardour is my DAW, and I am using the Calf compressor, gate and limiter.
My website is running on WordPress and shownotes are prepared using Google Keep and Google Docs.
How have you promoted your podcast?
I share every episode as well as every news story I consider covering on the show on my Facebook page and Twitter account.
I also share promos with other podcasts, have hosts from other podcasts on my show, and have been a guest on other shows in my niche.
However, I have not found any of the promotion to be particularly effective.
Consistently producing quality content and having a name that will show up in search results has been the most effective.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
I wish I had known that I would still be doing this six an a half years later and that the show would be profitable. If I had set it up more like a business at the start, it would have saved me a lot of headaches over the years.
If you are an atheist looking for a community, support and to know that you are not alone, then you need to subscribe to Atheist Nomads!
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