Physics, science, technology, finance, and the future: the world, from a physicist's perspective

I originally began Physical Attraction with a simple dream - share the knowledge I'd just gained from finishing my physics degree with the general public. Over the years, we've expanded into covering technology, aspects of politics, climate change, and other topics on top of our core scientific episodes. Over the last few years we have built up a dedicated audience of a few thousand listeners who I regularly write to and communicate with about issues, topics and so on that are covered in the show.

I am an extreme podcast fiend and I listen to far too many. It was inspiration from some of my favourites, including the Revolutions Podcast, that made me want to have a go myself - so I started back in July 2017, recording the first few episodes over the space of a week or two, and haven't looked back since. I had already recorded episodes for a history show - Autocracy Now! - which was released much later in the end.

To say I had initial goals is a little bit grandiose. I hoped to produce a decent number of episodes, and if listeners enjoyed it, so much the better. Then it just sort of spiralled into what it is today.

I try for a weekly release, sometimes a little more often if we do "news" episodes. I tend to try and do a lot of writing on weekends and evenings and can generally come up with the script for a couple of episodes on any given weekday, and I might conduct an interview or two during the week. It's all self-funded and funded through listener donations, which cover the hosting and equipment costs and not much else. The time taken to produce episodes varies; I would say a solid day for each interview episode between booking the guest, reading their book, coming up with good questions, taping the interview, and editing it. Perhaps similar for a scripted episode, but it can be a little faster if I write a few in one go.

I've started to attract a few sponsors through Podcorn (very open for more!) I charge at $30PCM so $70 or so for an ad slot with my listener base. My first ever sponsorship was years ago for just $10 from the American Standards Institute - god knows how they found me, but I was grateful for the dough.

I think if you're getting into this expecting to make money you are going to be disappointed. You have to do it as a passion project - because you love it, and because it gives you something to do and an outlet to discuss things you enjoy. Because the money is, in general, sewn up by the huge producers these days.

Audacity, the free editor, is what I use for editing episodes, and I've never had any problems with it. I also interview guests via Zencastr, which is again free online. And for the microphone - you guessed it if you're in this space - a USB Blue Yeti. My one tip and trick is that you can tap the microphone when you make a verbal flub (and you will) and that will leave a nice mark to find in the editing software that will allow you to locate and correct the mistake.

I have no idea how listeners find us. I promote the show every opportunity I can on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and other places, and I've cross-collaborated with a few shows in the past. Paid advertising is essentially useless unless it's on a podcast where listeners actually are, or maybe in a podcasting app where they might be looking for something new to listen to. Anything else is just funnelling your money to Silicon Valley billionaire types.

It is a huge cliche but please pick a topic that you are very enthusiastic about and that you have something at least a little unique to say about. Having finished a degree in it, I know a little more about physics than the average person, so there's something of a vague USP there. What you will struggle to find much traction for is "three guys sit around and talk about movies they've seen" type podcasts.

You can succeed even at this if you have a unique enough hook, but I think a lot of people see the vast volume of podcasts out there and assume that anyone can have one, or that successful shows are by and large just people chatting with their friends. This is not really the case. It's a lot of work to research and write scripts and topics that are both interesting and that I can talk coherently about. Similarly, interviewing people is tough! You can't just come up with questions on the fly or have a random conversation and expect it to be an interesting and entertaining interview. You need some hook for the conversation, if it's conversational, or else you need to do a lot of research on your guest in advance to get them to talk about their specialist subjects. In my case that typically involves reading books or papers that authors or scientists have written and coming up with detailed questions. So what sounds like a simple interview really requires hours of preparation beforehand.

On the plus side, this shouldn't be daunting, because if you pick a topic that you're truly interested in you will be reading and doing a lot of this research anyway - and you'll bloody love it. I have near-total creative freedom (because it's my project) to talk about the philosophical implications of immortality one week and the history of nuclear fusion the next. I can read a fascinating new book and then ask the author for a personal interview on the show to discuss the ideas in it in more detail. What other hobbies or side hustles can give you THAT?

Physical Attraction is at physicspodcast.com and we have a Patreon at patreon.com/physicalattraction .