A weekly mental health, sexuality, relationships and anything in between podcast for the LGBTQIA+ community and our allies

Balut Kiki is a project that humbly aims to put a few more queer voices out there - ours, plus those of our allies and other members of the community. Our modest aim is to bolster queer representation by adding our own personal views, experiences, frustrations and hopes into the prevailing discourse or by calling attention to issues where we feel, through our own personal journeys, there is not enough dialogue existing (like mental health). But make no mistake, we dig into a lot of silly and mindless chatter too! We also hope that by speaking out through this project, it will empower others in our community to make their voices heard as well.
 

Two of the hosts (Geoff and Mel) were diagnosed with severe clinical depression last year. At some point last year, unbeknownst to either of them, they became survivors of an attempt of self-harm secondary to this diagnosis. One phone call allowed these two good friends to open up to each other about what they went through, and vowed to be there for each other. Mental health and sexuality are subjects considered taboo in Philippine culture, and so they wondered how many Filipinos might be going through the same issues but were afraid to talk about them openly. They thought of starting a podcast, initially as something to distract both of them from negative thoughts, and eventually as a platform to normalize conversations about these important issues in the Philippines.

It took them from December of 2020 to April 2021 to plan and get everything ready for the podcast which was launched on May 2.
 

Projects (episodes) are released weekly. Some episodes take longer than others to produce. A week might be the average.

Geoff has retired from nursing and has dived head-first, all-in into the production of the podcast while also focusing on his recovery. Mel, Nealle, and Peter find time every now and then to brainstorm and join in on projects.

The podcast is funded using their meager resources. "We make do with what we have." Geoff and Mel act as producers.
 

We would be more than happy to take in sponsorship as we believe these are valid talking points that we discuss on the show. We have none at the moment. Our episode on Suicide and Depression (where Geoff and Mel update their listeners about their journey on depression and persistent suicidal thoughts) presumably has found a sizeable listenership, quite surprisingly. If that tells us anything, there are people out there who are interested to hear what they had to say about these topics. Our downloads have picked up of late. Our predictor on Buzzsprout currently pegs our next episode to have 111 downloads. We had 647 downloads in the last 30 days. We know those are humble numbers but we do not promote, we do not market. We talk, press record and upload our conversations. We are blown away that people even listen! If anything, doing this podcast has successfully provided us a distraction from rumination and dangerous thoughts. And it has allowed us to own our journey by speaking about it through this platform. Some days are better than others. And we talk about that in some episodes. In others, we advocate for our interests and concerns in the LGBTQIA+ community. Other times, we just kiki amongst ourselves and record it. Hopefully, more Filipinos come forward and not just say "it's okay to not be okay" but really mean it by speaking out about what they're going through because they've heard other people do the same minus the shame and stigma.
 

We have had luck in looking for guests. Some have reached out to us, authors, actors, educators, much to our surprise. The others we have found through sheer luck, mutual contacts, and by reaching out to them. We do a brainstorming session about each episode, what we want to say, and endeavour to elevate the discourse on that topic somehow than what is currently existing in Filipino culture as we know it. We have no altruistic goals to teach and preach. We have no delusions that we are on a messianic mission. All we want to do is normalize conversations most Filipinos are afraid to talk about.

We used to use Riverside.Fm for interviews but have found that to be too expensive. We now use Zoom to interview.
 

We are on most podcast streaming platforms via our host Buzzsprout. Geoff does the social media promotion and admittedly he has very little knowledge about it as can be seen from how plain the posts are. Majority of our listens come from Spotify. Surprisingly, we have had a solid following on the Podchaser database where our shows have gotten quite a following and overwhelmingly positive reviews! Our reviews on Apple iTunes have also been all positive.
 

Don't focus on the numbers. Focus on content. Focus on what you have to say. Build your portfolio - from one episode to the next. Your episodes are your resume when eventually you want to find good guests and find more listeners. We are nowhere near the top of any podcast charts - but our reviews have been solid and for now, that is more than enough. Our sound equipment and sound quality leaves much to be desired, but some listeners have persisted through the crappy audio because they say they wanted to listen to what we had to say. And that, to us, is amazing!
 

Our website: www.balutkiki.com
Support links: www.buymeacoffee.com/balutkiki