TL;DR: After thinking through what it might be like to build something like this over the next few-however-long-it-takes, publishing a podcast on something like this seems like a fun and logical thing to do especially since this whole project is about podcasts.

But this won’t be in the traditional sense of podcasts. Instead, I’m particularly interested in what Castos is doing with private podcasts.

A Private Podcast for Building Backcast

In the first article in the series, I tossed on a Scattered Idea in which I said:

Is it silly to think about sharing some of this on Instagram Stories (or IGTV or whatever people are watching now?) Or maybe YouTube? Does it even make sense to do this on those platform instead of podcasting about the process?

I’ve spent enough time the last week digging through YouTube channels and IGTV (and even Reels, to be honest 😬) and not only do I think those mediums are decidedly not ideal for this, I don’t even know what there is to really video at this point (and no, I’m not interested in walking through my IDE while writing code).

Given the nature of this very project, I clearly have an interest in podcasts and a number of my friends (Matt, Joe, Will, etc. ) run successful podcasts. But the difference is that I’m not particularly interested in having it shared in a public directory. I’m more interested in having it be an extension of the project and this series of blog posts.

Imagine, instead, walking into a room where you know who your audience is going to be and you can tailor your presentation to that (I see you WordCamp speakers 🙂). Sounds far more interesting to me than the alternative right now.

Private Podcasts For a Better Podcast (In My Case)

And that’s where Castos’ private podcasts caught my attention.

Sometimes you want your podcast to be private, where only certain individuals can access the content of your show.

Private Podcasting Solutions, Castos

In other words, I’d rather have an audience opt-in and let me know they are opting in.

This not only helps me focus the content a bit more, but I think it’ll help provide a way to share my thought process, approach, struggles, and all the normal stuff that comes with this all while knowing who’s listening and be able to actually hear back from them and talk with them directly.

In a sense, it helps to tighten the feedback loop a bit to produce a higher quality show geared towards the audience that I’ll grow to know better.

Ultimately, I think private podcasts have the ability to foster greater connection between the audience and the podcaster. And I’m here for it.

So as I continue to build out this project and blog more about it, I’m aiming to set up a podcast so people who are truly interested in hearing me talk a bit more in-depth, more direct, and a bit more in a way that other mediums either don’t facilitate or that I frankly don’t want to do.

Further, this does the same for the audience too, right? It makes it easier and more comfortable to ask questions or share their comments, feedback, and all that fun stuff.

Scattered Thoughts

  • The amount of time I have to work on this is severely limited at the moment. This past week was primarily spent doing research on various mediums for extending content beyond writing code and beyond this blog.
  • A friend brought up the idea of backing podcasts up to a remote location all the while I’ve been thinking about just backing it up locally, but that’s a neat idea.
  • Some continue to foster concern about building something that others may copy, may “beat me to it,” may whatever. First, I don’t think this is particularly a mature project or a, what does Silicon Valley call it, a “disruptor.” This is me writing something I want and keeping the curtains open. Downloading content via RSS is easy so it’s not a new problem. Sharing what it’s like to go from nothing to something is highly beneficial for developers of all types (i’ve benefited from watching others do the same, maybe someone will do the same with this).