Rockin’ Libsyn Podcasts: Weird Medicine

This series is all about libsyn’s newest 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 Dr. Steve from Weird Medicine


When did you start podcasting?

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PA John and I did our first “Weird Medicine” in the summer of 2007. We got picked up by SiriusXM soon thereafter and started doing exclusive content for the Opie and Anthony show and the internet-only content came out only sporadically, if at all.

SiriusXM is “serious” (yeccch) about their content, so we can’t post the shows we do for them on the internet. Recently, Riotcast.com asked us to join their internet radio network; this gave us an outlet for a weekly show and we’ve never turned back.

Our podcasts are internet-only and exclusive to RiotCast.com.

Why did you start podcasting?

Originally the show was a service for the fans, friends, and staff of what was then XM202, “The Virus” (now XM105 and Sirius206, “The Opie and Anthony Channel”). I do a lot of work in hospice and my job can be very demanding and stressful.

The O&A channel brought me a lot of joy at a time when I really needed it. Doing “Weird Medicine” was a way to “give back” to my new friends, the listeners of the channel, many of whom had medical issues and weren’t seeking (or couldn’t seek) medical attention.

One day, Gregg “Opie” Hughes put the word out that he would consider putting a fan-produced show on his channel if anyone had any ideas. I pitched the idea of running our show and we got the greenlight soon thereafter. We started doing one show every 3 months, then a monthly show, then every 2 weeks, and we’ve been weekly for 2-3 years.

We’ve been looking for a way to reach even more listeners, beyond the satellite audience. We just couldn’t seem to find the energy to do a regular podcast, though. The shows we did were well received, especially on Stitcher, but we just didn’t have a reason to do them regularly and eventually we just stopped.

Then Rob Sprance and Robert Kelly from RiotCast called and we joined their network of comedy podcasts. The structure of the network agreement gave us the impetus we needed to do a weekly show. We’re having more fun now than we’ve ever had doing radio.

What’s your show about?

We’re a serious medicine and science show that masquerades as light comedy. XM105 is an “uncensored” channel, so we took the opportunity to become the “first and still-only uncensored medical show in the history of radio.”

Because we’re on an “extreme language” channel, we realized we could allow the listeners to speak freely about questions they might be embarrassed to take to their regular medical providers. It soon became a show for people who would NEVER listen to a medical show on the radio.

We enjoyed the freedom, as well, as we became more comfortable in our roles. We will discuss ANY medical topic, and try to present critical reasoning in a sound but entertaining fashion. The language used on the show is “explicit”, so our show is for mature audiences only.

As a matter of fact, some “mature” audiences may be offended as well, so we recommend everyone choose their podcasts wisely.

What’s your podcasting set-up? Hardware, software, CMS, etc.

Alesis Multimix 8 USB Mixer, CAD e100 microphones and a small room treated with ATSAcoustics.com panels.

We use callinstudio.com to take live questions from our listeners. For people who are not familiar with callinstudio, it’s professional-grade call screening software.

I’ve used the software in the SiriusXM studios, and callinstudio as nearly as functional (and a LOT less expensive). Brian from RadioFreaks.TV is our “celebrity” call screener.

RiotCast.com simulcasts our Ustream channel, too, for that “live” experience. The vast majority of our listeners hear us by streaming from RiotCast or iTunes.

How have you promoted your podcast?

Thankfully, RiotCast does that for us, but we also take the time to mention our podcast on our SiriusXM show (and vice versa!) I plug the heck out of our show any time I’m on any other show, too, including Opie and Anthony, Ron and Fez, and the Bob Rivers Show.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?

Ha, when we started, PA John and I figured within a year we’d be buying a condo in Midtown Manhattan.

If I’d known that 5 years later I still wouldn’t have recouped my original investment, I would have still done it, but I wouldn’t have been so optimistic about quitting my day job. 🙂

I do believe that internet radio is “the future”…as soon as autos roll out of the factory with the ability to play internet 3G and 4G radio, it’ll be a whole new ballgame (it has already started in the high-end car market).

The winners will be the groups with the best content, and SiriusXM is poised to be a major player in that Brave New Future. I’m hoping smaller concerns like RiotCast will have a real impact as well. RiotCast has an amazing lineup and the RiotCast iPod and Android app will be a game-changer.

I’m pretty sure we’ll all be using libsyn to present our content to the world, as well.


Now you know if you’ve been too embarrassed to address some funky weird health issue with your Doctor, you can do it via Weird Science, so subscribe in iTunes, or listen straight from Facebook!


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