Provide New Scientific Discoveries & Teaching Strategies For A&P Teaching Faculty

My name is Kevin Patton and I'm a veteran professor and textbook author in human anatomy and physiology (A&P). My podcast is called The A&P Professor. It's a biweekly podcast for A&P teaching faculty that provides content updates (new scientific discoveries) and teaching strategies. It's a way for A&P professors to stay informed in the many areas of human biology that we teach and also to stay up to date with contemporary teaching practice specifically applied to our discipline.

I started this podcast in January 2018, after about ten years of producing a blog of the same name. The podcast is "the next level" beyond my blog, which I find gives a more intimate and engaging connection between me and my followers. I'd been thinking about taking this step for a while and I attended a webinar on how to start a podcast in the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) that encouraged me to get off my seat and jump in. It took a month or two of planning and research before I released my first episode. By the time I started the process, I knew I needed to just get a couple of episodes out there or I'd be "thinking about it" and "planning it" and never really do it. That worked.

I'm a busy guy—a very busy guy—so I know how to push things around and make time. Mostly, it's a matter of seeing the podcast as having value to me and that gives it a high priority in my schedule. I started doing a weekly show, but found that was not easily sustainable, so I moved to a biweekly format and it turns out that works better for many different reasons besides time. One of those reasons is that my listeners are too busy to keep up with a weekly show AND listening their other podcasts. Each episode takes about 8-12 hours to produce, but that time is slowly decreasing as I get better and tweak my workflow. I could do it much more quickly, but I like to have a high production quality and it's worth it to me to spend more time on it. I probably spend another couple of hours a week in marketing on social media.

My podcast is a net financial loss, even though I have three sponsors. Which is okay, because it's a value to me—so I'm my own sponsor in a way. The sponsorships do take a bite out of the expense. My first sponsorship was a grant from a professional society that turned into a regular sponsorship when the grant expired. The sponsor saw value in the partnership. So I asked a couple of other sponsors and they stepped right up.

I have a niche podcast and sponsors don't have many opportunities to put their brand in front of exactly the right people—even if it's a much smaller audience than would normally attract advertisers. Podtrac says I have a regular audience of just over a thousand listeners per month, but my sponsors signed on when I had less than half that. Because niche advertising works even on a small scale, right?

I've found that I have more interaction with my followers—A&P professors—than I ever did with my blog. Many tell me that they feel that I'm right there with them, like a trusted colleague chatting at the pub after work. As a virtual mentor, it gives me great satisfaction when they tell me that something in my podcast helped them in some way. And I've gotten to chat with some very interesting people that I've interviewed. All around, one of the best moves I've ever made.

Some experts will tell you to use a dynamic mic to start and I did (Samson 2Qu amzn.to/3lTWcyY). And that's good advice. But I found that it works better for me to be farther away from the mic, so I switched to a condenser mic (Thronemax MDrill One Pro amzn.to/3kPvbvw) on a boom arm (Blue Compass amzn.to/2ITVjYI). I already had the Adobe CC suite, so I started with Adobe Audition editing software, which I've grown to love. And every episode gets processed through Auphonic.com after editing.

My podcast is mostly solo, but I get my occasional guests through my professional network. Often, I'll attend their seminar and realize they'd make a great podcast guest. I also look for books that speak to my audience and ask the author to be on my podcast. So far, all my interviews have been on Zoom or SquadCast.

I have an idea file in Microsoft OneNote that I add to as inspiration strikes—usually when I'm doing my professional reading and listening. Then, for each episode, I pick about three topics and write up an outline of what I want to say in each segment. I have a template for production that includes the intro, outro, sponsor messages, etc., that get customized for each episode. I record each element separately, then splice them together in Audition to make a full episode. Sometimes a long interview will get split into two episodes.

I can't say how many come in from which channel, but I think Twitter and Facebook attract quite a few listeners. But the most listeners come from word-of-mouth from other listeners, I believe. Being in a specific niche, I think that makes sense. I've found that in Zoom conferences, especially when there is discussion, someone will mention something they heard on my podcast (perhaps because they see me in attendance) and I'll quickly post a link to that episode in the chat stream.

My advice to aspiring podcasters is to first know who your intended audience is, then what service you are going to provide to them (why they are better off listening to you), then just the basics of recording & editing, then JUST DO IT. You'll get better as you go, as long as you keep trying to learn more about how to do it better. For core principles and practices, and even little tweaks and updates, I listen to The Feed (Libsyn's official podcast), Ask the Podcast Coach, and School of Podcasting. For some thinking outside the box, I listen to Podcast Pontifications and Podcasters' Roundtable.

Then soon you'll be coaching others—and therefore learning even more. I've just started an online community for those starting academic podcasts of various sorts at AcademicPodcasting.mn.co

My podcast can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts or at theAPprofessor.org/podcast

My podcast website is theAPprofessor.org/podcast and I'm also found in Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media @theAPprofessor
My email is podcast@theAPprofessor