hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr4126.txt

Episode: 4126
Title: HPR4126: Podcasting for Newbies
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4126/hpr4126.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 19:53:59

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4126 from Monday the 27th of May 2024.
Today's show is entitled, Podcasting for Newbies.
It is the first show by Newhost Mossbliss and is about five minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is, all you need to become a podcaster.
Hi, my name is Mossbliss, I'm a podcaster.
This is technically my second HPR podcast, but as the first one was unintentional and
back in 2019, I can start fresh.
I don't know much of anything.
I'm a Linux user about the same way most people are Windows users.
I have gotten more technical over the past few years, largely due to being a regular
on various Linux podcasts.
I don't have sufficient education to be hired in computers, although I tried several
times, and I did spend a few years in radio back in my youth.
So what do you have to know to become a podcaster?
Almost nothing, like me.
Just so long as you have a computer, an internet connection, and a microphone.
For some shows you may need a webcam.
I got into podcasting by asking questions.
I tried for almost two years to get Chris Fisher at Cooperative Broadcasting to co-feature
me with zero experience on a podcast about using Linux's estops.
It never happened.
So when in 2018 Rob Hawkins asked for new hosts to take over Mintcast, I was one of the first
ten or so people to apply, and one of the six who eventually stuck with it.
All I had was a computer, an internet connection, and a blue Yeti microphone my little sister
gave me.
Within a few months I started another podcast, just a hoppers digest with Tony Hughes.
And a couple years later I was asked to take over full-circle weekly news, apparently some
people like my voice.
Since starting my little miniher and podcasting, I probably have more than doubled what I know
about Linux.
I'm not all that scared of the terminal anymore.
Some microphones are pretty bad, and my blue Yeti was the worst one on the show when I joined
Mintcast.
In about a year I found a very inexpensive CAD audio U29 USB mic currently for sale at Amazon
for under $20, and that worked pretty well.
Sometime after taking on full-circle weekly news, the magazine bought me a Samsung Q2U,
which is about 60 bucks on Amazon, which I'm still using.
I loved this mic as it can be used either as a USB mic or plugged into a sound box for
even better audio, but the CAD audio U29 was just fine.
When I started I had a T430 laptop and the Blue Yeti microphone, my listeners and co-hosts
have made my life better with new and used equipment I could never afford it on my own,
including laptops for Raspberry Pi's, modems, routers, headphones, and even a sound box.
My current setup includes a 2016 Lenovo ThinkCenter M600 tiny, which cost me under $200 on eBay.
A Focusrite Solo sound box, a gift from a friend, a WaveLink ST-336A external goodies
box, also a gift, and an old Dynex 26-inch TV I use as a monitor, which I paid 15 bucks
for locally.
I have a boom arm for my microphone, which is made by Neewer, and cost $15 on Amazon
complete with a pop filter.
My keyboard is a fellow's microband natural, which I need as a trained touch typist, and
I put all this stuff on a little rolling computer desk, which I bought used locally for 25 bucks.
The only software I use is Audacity, and I didn't need to know any more than the basics.
If you're part of a team, such as MintCast, you aren't even required to do any audio editing,
although if you know your way around Audacity, you'll find your skills very welcome.
If you want to start podcasting, have the equipment, contact Ronnie and do something here
at HPR, which is a fairly low entry bar, or you might contact long running shows such
as MintCast.
Participation and commitment are usually all that is required.
Okay, so maybe you want to do more than produce an HPR show or join MintCast.
You have your own idea, and you want to get it out there, your own personal podcast.
This is where it gets a little more detailed.
If you already have the information you need, you can stop the podcast here, but first,
you'll need a website or a blog if you're really broke.
There are free WordPress sites available at WordPress.com, or you could use the dreaded
Google blogs, blogger, and blogspot.
Other than that, you'd have to register a domain name, find a web host, and write a website,
some of which can be cheap or not.
Then you have to find a way to stream your podcast.
Google is a closed-feed printer, but there are some paid places like Red Circle you can
get for not much bread.
Those will probably help you stream your podcast to places like Apple Music, Archives.org,
Spotify, etc.
But if you want help from me, I'm already lost.
MintCast is handled by Bill H.
District Hopper's Digest is handled by DLM, and my full circle weekly news is uploaded
to running for publication.
Or maybe you want to do a podcast with a few friends, and they can't cram themselves
in your bedroom every week to do that.
In that case, you should explore using Discord, Gitsy, Video Ninja, or Sizzle Preserveus Zoom.
Some will need to record their own part of the stream, and you'll need someone who knows
Audacity well enough to edit a few or several streams together.
Maybe you want to post it on YouTube.
If you want both a video and audio podcast, someone will have to learn OBS and Audacity.
And if you want the video podcast to be edited, have fun learning one of the many video editors
out there.
You might start with KDE in live.
For more information on streaming, you'll need to get someone else to make an HPR podcast
on the subject way over my head.
I hope this little show has pushed a few of you into wanting to try your hand.
It doesn't take much, or it takes a whole lot, depending on what you want to do.
And your future listeners will thank you.
My listeners certainly have shown me lots of thanks.
That's it for me this time.
I hope to see you again soon.
You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio.
At Hacker Public Radio does work.
Today's show was contributed by a HPR listener like yourself.
If you ever thought of recording a podcast, click on our contribute link to find out how
easy it really is.
Posting for HPR has been kindly provided by an onsthost.com, the Internet Archive and
R-Sync.net.
On the Sadois status, today's show is released under Creative Commons, Attribution 4.0 International
License.