First Podcast - Angela interviewing. 8 plus minutes of video of Carolyn Street-Johns on her editing the book Mutton Soup for the soul, a book by Toastmasters of 50 Inspirational Stories

In the toastmasters International Pathways, when you reach Level 4, called buildings skills, your choice incude Write a compelling blog, and Create a Podcast.  Since I already have several blogs, it has been easier for me to Write A Compelling Blog. 

However, with the help of Carolyn Street-Johns, I was able to fulfil the project Create a Podcast.

First, what is a podcast. It is a recording with sound only, like a radio programme. The project requires 60 minutes of speaking.  I thought it was a requirment to do a series of  six times a ten minute broadcast or interview, or ten times six. Since Toastmasters International has 5 to 7 minutes slots, which they deem the ideal time to listen to one speaker, ten times six allows you to broadcast the first one at a Toastmasters club meeting. This requires having a timer or timing device visible.  However, we created our podcast with pauses.

Carolyn is ahead of me in experience and knows how to edit. 

One important thing I learned and can teach you quickly is how and when to record.

You can only record up to 40 minutes with a basic, free, zoom account. For a series of ten minute recordings that is plenty of time. Carolyn wanted us to be able to record non-stop so we used her account on my computer - my little laptop and and the larger linked screen.

We had the whole evening, fortunately. It took us some time, about ten minutes, to set up her zoom account on my machine. Not just her email, with her name correctly spelled, but her password, a new password sent to her phone.

Then setting up the zoom meeting.

then showing me how to record and pause. That is merely using my mouse to click on the record button in the centre of the menu bar across the bottom of the screen. The menu bar disappears when you are not using it, to create more space for you to see yourself or the groups of people you are zooming to online. To see the lower menu bar again, you bring your mouse pointer down over the lower edge of the screen to the now invisble symbols which are off screen and drag it up again.

Now in the middle of the symbols at the bottom you see the record button. It changes from the black symbol or disc with the word under it record, to stop recording and a red symbol when you are recording. Next to it is the pause button. If you stop because of an outside noise, but wish to carry on at the same point in the same recording, you then unpause and carry on. However, I made the announcement that we are starting again, which can be edited out later, or left in to make separate recordings.

Zoom records automatically vision and sound, but you can create a version with sound only.

If you plan to play back the seven minutes section, practise starting that. I have been to two or three podcasts where everybody had been kept waiting whilst the member fiddled around trying to start the recording.

If you want to create a padcast on anything, for example the English language, please contact me. I am happy to be interviewed.