"Let the great experiment begin!!!"

-Tobias Fünke

Well, I have a new project. Surprise. See, a few weeks ago my friend John came up with this great idea to do some year-long projects in 2009. Basically, we are going to get a group of people together at the very beginning of the year, then each of us will choose an individual project, and we will have all of 2009 to complete it. At the end of the year we will meet again, and anyone who failed to complete (or at least do their damnedest to complete) their project will have to donate $100 to charity. I think it's a brilliant plan. We each get to do a big fun project and we'll each be held accountable so that we actually get it done.

When John first announced this challenge, I already had a project picked out. I was going to build this analog synthesizer. It would make a great year-long project, although I could probably do it in a couple months if I really buckled down. I would learn new things, I could be creative, and it would be a cool and fun finished product. Then I had a better idea.

I'm sort of obsessed with audio. I love music. I love sound effects. I love NPR and other radio shows and podcasts. I love fiddling with recording gear and editing audio clips. So for the last year or so, I've really wanted to start a podcast, but I haven't done it for a couple reasons: First, I never could come up with a solid concept for an entire show. As you can see from my blog, I am interested in a lot of completely unrelated things, and I couldn't really come up with a framework that would tie all of them together into a cohesive show that normal people would want to listen to. Second, I'm a quiet guy, and I can't imagine trying to talk continuously for even half an hour every week or two. I decided I needed a co-host, but then I'd have to find someone who I think would be good, and they'd have to agree to do it, and I'd still have to scrape together a whole show's worth of content even if I'm not the one talking. Essentially the idea of being host, producer, director, and engineer all at once was a little daunting. I still aspire to have a podcast one day, but I think it's beyond my current ability.

Today though, I found maybe the perfect way to start my journey toward being a podcast hostducerectoreer. It's my new year long project. In 2009, I'm going to submit at least four stories to This American Life. Until today I didn't really know whether they used unsolicited stories, but it turns out that they do. They even have a whole page on their website about how to get on This American Life. Between that and the wealth of tips on Transom.org, I think I can put together some possibly usable stories. Actually, I kind of doubt that any of my four will get on the air, considering I've never really done anything like this in my life, but hopefully I'll at least get some feedback, and I'll be a lot closer to being on the radio than I was before. Here's a snippet of what Ira Glass (host of TAL) has to say in his manifesto about recording stories for radio:

Force yourself to do a lot of stories. This is the most important thing you can do. Get yourself in a situation where people are expecting work out of you, or where you simply force yourself to do a certain number of stories every month. Turn the stuff out. Deadlines are your friend.

So that's exactly what I plan to do.