The Cancer Pod: Integrative Medicine Talk

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Claimed

► Tell us about you and your podcast

We are two naturopathic doctors have practiced oncology in clinical/hospital settings. We also collaborated on the first edition of a textbook of naturopathic oncology together. We’ve talked about creating various public-facing informative projects, from webinars to ebooks, using our expertise in integrative medicine. One day, we realized that our usual chats get pretty deep into cancer-related topics, and we realized that would be the most efficient way to help a large number of people. The intended audience is anyone and everyone that is interested in learning more about natural and integrative medicine.
 

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

A podcast seemed like a great outlet for us to continually create an informative and useful bank of information for those affected by cancer to use as a resource.

Much of what we do is “evergreen” so the information is not dated or time-sensitive. This makes it an ongoing creation, which we hope will eventually have enough information that anyone affected by cancer will inevitably find some of it helpful.

We both listen to podcasts, with Tina leaning toward science and international news, and Leah more towards great conversations by smart (and funny) hosts.

We dropped our first episode on September 1, 2021. It took us about 2 months to go from the idea to the first episode.

We have dropped 3 per month ever since, and we plan to continue to do this as our minimum amount in the future. Season 2 just kicked off with interviews and that is working out great!
 

► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

We release 3 episodes per month. We aspired to a weekly schedule but we are wearing all of the hats ourselves, so we slowed it down to make sure that we could stay consistent. We always drop our episodes Wednesday between midnight-1am Pacific Time. Simultaneously, we have it post on our website as well.

It takes us 6-8 hours each to produce one episode (length about 45 minutes), this includes recording, and several edits until it is right, images, copy for show notes, and uploading.

We’ve been working on creating a more streamlined workflow, and this is a work in progress.

We have kept a minimal budget, basically just equipment to record, hosting ($18.00/mo), a recording platform (Zoom left us high and dry too many times!) and our website (https://thecancerpod.com).
 

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

Gain? The sense that we are doing the right thing with the immense amount of knowledge and experience we have acquired over time. Specifically, helping others is what we do, as naturopathic physicians and as podcasters.

We have several companies we use ourselves or recommend on a regular basis. We are in the process of creating the affiliations and sponsorships that we can feel really good about. As professionals, we will be selective and will not likely endorse anything that we do not fully believe in. (For example, I’ve never tried a Casper mattress, so they are a “no-go.”)

In short, podcasting benefits us by allowing an outlet for our skills/ knowledge.
 

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

We have a production schedule, topics selected based on what we think may be useful to our audience. We talk about cancer, but keep the podcast listenable by being authentic and creating value for the listener. We are well acquainted with the hurdles during and after treatment for cancer, and we use this knowledge to create each “pod” of information. Thus, The Cancer Pod.

We each have our own mics, Blue Yeti and a Samson Q2. We have a quiet space and pay close attention to ambient sounds. We record in Riverside, use Buzzsprout as our host, rough edit in Ferrite, then final editing and polish in Descript. The production baton for each episode goes from Tina to Leah then back to Tina... and up to Buzzsprout.
 

► How do you market your show?

Our number one marketing tool is Instagram, and we also post on Facebook and Twitter, but these are secondary. We are trying to use all directories, including the up and coming ones like Audea and GoodPods. We have a small but growing list of emails for our newsletter.
 

► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

We learned how important it is to create some structure to the conversation before hitting “record.” This makes for a more coherent podcast, and also saves a lot of time in editing.

Get a decent mic, the ones we use are not expensive, but they are adequate. Many websites and YouTube videos are available for learning the ins and outs. We’ve watched so many, I cannot even begin to recommend any in particular.

Post production we make sure the sound quality is as good as we can get it. Removing the smacks, the ums, the uhhhhh's, and generally not allowing any long gaps of silence.
 

► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

There are a couple of places to find more about us:
www.thecancerpod.com
@thecancerpod is our handle on all social media channels.