This blogpost is available as a podcast here.
I’ve been meaning to start this podcast featuring my blogposts here for a while now, but it has been rather slow in coming. The podcast idea has been brewing in my head for the last 2 years, but the idea of doing a podcast of my blogposts was a recent development.
I initially wanted it to be a conversation with one, two or three others, regarding topics of interest to me. A real conversation. I conceived the title, asked a friend to create the soundtrack for the intro and extro, had my niece create an avatar for the podcast page, began writing show outlines and I started pounding on friends’ doors to agree to join me in what I was going to call “Conversations with Pinay New Yorker.” That wasn’t difficult – and I almost always got an instantaneous nod from the friends. But for some reason, the actual production never took off. After more than a year of the idea being in the backburner, I almost forgot about it. Somehow, it crept upon me again last year, in the middle of my being a newly monetized content creator on Youtube.
I suddenly thought – a podcast connected to my blog, produced in purely audio format – would be good additional content for the Youtube channel.
I felt it was a good way to get me writing more, as well as allowing me to explore a new avenue of expression. I was, after all, once upon a time, a newscaster for a local radio station back in Manila. It was there that I learned how to produce magazine style shows, and I figured I had more than enough material to go by, given I’ve been in this space for over a decade.
So the idea is to be able to give my blog a voice by not only publishing it online, but also making it listenable. I’m still trying to learn the rudiments of podcast publishing, but I’ve chosen the platform I will publish on, and I have a pretty good sense of what my material will be. Besides producing what I write as I go along, I intend to pick an article or two from the archives, and give them new life in voice.
I’ve also decided to narrate my own blogposts. If it’s written by my hand, it makes sense to lend my voice to my words. Who else can better put feeling into it than the one who wrote it… the idea is evolving, and I’m hoping this will be my first episode. I guess you can say that this is a work in progress. I don’t know if it will eventually turn into a book, written or in audio format. Or that it will just be a shortlived project that dies a natural death for want of purpose or an audience. As always, I am all gungho about giving this a shot. For me, myself and I. And if it makes its way to someone’s listening list eventually, and I can give someone something they can relate to out there, then I would’ve given my words more meaning.
I’m not here to change minds or swing votes – or even to make you agree with me. Like my blog, I’m doing this for my own benefit. It’s me, talking to the universe. And I thank you for having bumped into my space, and giving me a listen. Here’s wishing you come back for the next.. and the next.. and the next..
Pinay New Yorker 