The Family Histories Podcast is a show for and about those of us piecing together our collective social and family history.

I'm Andrew Martin, I'm a UK-based family historian and I'm also the host and producer of The Family Histories Podcast.
The Family Histories Podcast is essentially about people. It's what fascinates hobbyist family historians like me, and professional genealogists - it those stories of the people who've gone before us - their lives, their characters, and the decisions they had to make that led them from cradle to grave. Each episode of the show is guest-led, featuring an interview with a family historian to find out how they got hooked, why they research, and what kinds of challenges they've experienced.
Then, the guest tells the life story of one of their most fascinating relatives that they've researched - perhaps a tragic love story, a juicy bit of scandal, or a dastardly ancestor living a life of crime... and then I invite the guest to share one of their research 'brick walls' where the research trail has gone cold. This allows my guest to plea to listeners for information about a person, family, or record, in a hope that one day, a listener might be able to provide a research idea or clue that helps bring their brick wall tumbling down.
As a thank you for taking part, I then treat my guest to a return ticket back in time via a (shhh: secret time) machine that I keep in my garage.
The listeners are typically family historians, genealogists, archivists, historians, or those who enjoy listening to conversational biographies programmes. They are mostly based in the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, but we have listeners in 108 countries (at the time of writing this), and the show has charted in Apple Podcasts' 'Top Shows' for History in 11 countries.
 

I listen to a lot of podcasts - but found that there wasn't really any British family history podcasts that weren't focused on human interest everyday people stories - most were US podcasts offering the latest genealogy industry news or research tips. Most other history podcasts were treading the same monarchical/military paths that are I wanted to provide an informal, conversation, light-hearted (there's always laughing), and hopefully entertaining angle on this podcasting niche. I also had all the equipment available, thanks to my work in music and audio production.
After waking up in about February 2021 with the idea stuck in my head, I was able to convince a fellow genealogy friend to record with me for long enough that it enabled me to have plenty of editing to do, and motivated me to put an initial trailer out. This trailer helped me to convince my first series' guests. My initial goals were to do a series and see how it evolved. Recording that 'pilot' first episode in March 2021, I then recorded the rest of the series, edited them all, then and began airing them in June 2021.
 

When the show is airing a series, the episodes come weekly, but I don't announce the series until I've recorded all episodes (as this also gives me the clips for the trailer). When the first episode of a series airs, I will have edited all, or nearly all, episodes, allowing me to mostly focus on the marketing and feedback whilst they automatically get released.
The underlying hosting each month is about £12, then there's the music and foley licensing which varies greatly but could be about £50 a series. The artwork, social media campaigns, editing, and emailing is all free or in-house. It is funded by me.
 

I don't take any sponsorship or oblique advertising in the episode itself, because I really hate hearing adverts in the podcast I listen to - it's always the same companies, and usually totally irrelevant to me. I have added some display ads to the show website, and within the email updates, which aims to counterbalance costs, but this is not particularly important to me.
Podcasting has benefited me in thinking more openly about the world around me. It's encouraged me to talk to people from very different backgrounds, and I have learned so much about world history, social history, and the place of me and my ancestors within it. It's also allowed me to make new friends from around the world, and given me more confidence in talking to strangers, listening to people, and planning projects. In a way, during what was the midst of a pandemic, it also gave me a social life and helped to dispose of some sense of loneliness.
 

I'm a mac user, so I'm using Pixelmator for graphics, Garageband for audio editing, a Shure SV100 mic with a boom arm and pop shield. I use Riverside for recording - allowing me to see the guest and gauge their reactions. It also gives me the best audio quality.
Without Trello, I don't think I could have possibly got through Series One - I'd used it many times before, and the visual way that it reminds, helps, and motivates me to get tasks done has been fantastic. I also have a very long guest wishlist in Trello, and it's in there that I'll pick the next set of guests to invite for a series, and plan my questions or topics to interview them about.
 

Social media has been very useful for marketing the show and as I already had a personal niche in family history on Twitter, it has been an easy step to extend the show there with its own accounts. I added Facebook and Instagram too after seeing plenty of potential listeners there, and I've added Mastodon and BlueSky too, since Twitter's evolution to the wildness of becoming 'X'. I also added in LinkedIn for the more professional side of pro-genealogists and historians. A companion email list has recently been added to help 'own' the audience rather than rely on what sometimes appears to be shaky social media platforms.
Listeners are predominantly in Apple Podcasts, and this has increased over the last 2 years. If you look at all episodes the share is 34%, but if you look at the last 5 episodes it's 48%. Interestingly, whilst Spotify accounts for 30% of listeners over the last 2 years, this has eroded to just 8% in the last 5 episodes, with Web Browser taking second place from 8 to 17% of the share. This follows a change I made on the show's website where I embedded the feed into a web player rather than only linked out to podcast platforms.
 

Things I've learned.... apart from how to listen, and how to interview, I'd say that I've learnt how to take rejection better - in that I have about a 90% hit rate with inviting guests, but I shouldn't let that 10% rejection rate upset me - because I'm excited about podcasting but for some people, it's a very unappealing, daunting, or boring activity. I just dust myself down and move on to the next wish list person now, but occasionally early on I would think about cutting an episode out or feel like i'd never cast a full series.
Thankfully my podcast host Buzzsprout had a plethora of videos about podcasting, and so I consumed all of these before turning the mic on. It was daunting, but their videos really set me up. Since then, I enjoy listening to podcasts about podcasting; PodCraft, Grow The Show, Podcast Graveyard, and BuzzCast, and I also take part in the West Midlands Podcast Club - a monthly Zoom chat and Slack discussion channel with local podcasters.
 

You can find out more about me and my podcast at;
https://familyhistoriespodcast.com
https://twitter.com/FamilyHistPod
https://twitter.com/FamilyTreeUK
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewcambs/