The bite-sized history of literally anything

The History of... is a podcast about random foods, corporations, or cultural practices and how those things came to be they way they are today. I hope to give my listeners more then just trivia knowledge; I want my listeners to walk away understanding historical patterns. My targeted listener base was originally teenagers, but it ended up being that the teenagers' moms were the ones listening to the podcast.
The episode topics are random, but at the same time they flow together to remind listeners how little we actually know about the world and the past. A lot of the episodes are jokey, but some of them get really serious.
 

I started The History of... with my sister Emma in May, 2020. I was looking for something productive and meaningful to do during quarantine. I had been toying with the idea of starting a podcast since I was 11 years old, so I decided now was the time.

The next decision was choosing what I should talk about on the podcast. I know I put the cart before the horse on this one, but I wanted to choose a subject that I wouldn't run out of things to talk about. There are infinitely many things to do the history of!

It took my sister and I nearly a month to release our first episode. We kept re-recording and re-recording because we always messed up or missed a little piece of information. We just had to realize that sometimes people like the little mess-ups. That's what makes it human.
My sister was never as enthusiastic about podcasting as I was, and since episode 33 it became my own podcast. Soon after, I started receiving some comments that something was missing when I was just doing it by myself, so I invited a friend to do some episodes as a cohost; it's nothing official.
 

Anyone can make time for something if it's important enough to them. I release one episode per week, and I average about 6 to 8 hours of research per episode. There have been some outliers though, like one episode that took four months to research.

I'll be honest, I get distracted fairly easily, but I am almost always able to deliver episodes on schedule. Right now, I'm doing episodes week by week, but it's awesome when I can get 3 to 4 weeks ahead and then set the episodes on auto-release.

Being 16, my parents covered the start-up costs for the podcast. And no, I don't spend any money on advertising; there's no need. All the marketing I need to do I can do for free; I just have to get creative about it.
 

First off, having created a lot of something is really satisfying, and the biggest thing keeping me going is seeing all the other fad podcasts die off. Of course, I still also kinda' do it for the money.

I don't do sponsorships because that would limit what I'm allowed to say on the show. Instead, I do what's called "value 4 value." In essence, whatever value the listeners gain by listening to my podcast, I ask them to give back - whether it be in money, writing a review, or donating research for an episode. I tell them that if the podcast is a car, then donations are like the gas - it keeps it running.

I don't know how long I'll be doing this thing; probably not for the rest of my life, since I'm only 16. We'll see.

Oh yeah, and I get about 700 downloads per month.
 

After doing the research for the episode, I write a bullet-pointed script on Google Docs, which allows me to work on the script from a couple different devices. Then, I record myself reading the script, trying to keep a conversational tone.

Occasionally, I interview experts and historians on the podcast. For remote interviews, I've started using CleanFeed. It's designed for podcasters and it doesn't include video, so it's basically like a really clear-sounding phone call.

I record into Performer Lite, which is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software that comes free with my audio interface - the MOTU m2. I care a lot about sound quality, and the m2 is one of the best for anyone who wants to make a podcast. My mic is a good ole' SM58.

After recording, I just insert the intro music, and I have a speal that I run automatically at the end of every episode explaining how my listeners can donate.
 

Amazingly, most of my listeners listen on Amazon Alexa, playing through their house, and I'm surprised that only 12% of my downloads are in Apple Podcasts. It also surprises me that 18% of my listeners are in England.

I do most of my promotions on Instagram, although I also dabble on other platforms such as Linkedin and No Agenda Social.
 

Know why people listen. I like to say that you can either create a "vegetable podcast" or a "dessert podcast." Vegetable podcasts are the ones you listen to for the valuable information you get out of them (ex: news, sermons, language learning). These tend to be longer and more serious, but not always.

On the other hand are dessert podcasts. These are the ones people listen to for entertainment, even if it's still somewhat educational (ex: true crime, sports, The History of...).

Now, like I said earlier, The History of... is sometimes jokey but also sometimes quite serious, so I should clarify that this idea of vegetables and desserts is more of a spectrum. For example, No Agenda, a podcast by Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak, takes a humorous spin on news coverage - making a unique combination of vegetables and desserts.

So, when you start a podcast, make sure you zero in on why exactly people should listen and what they can get out of your podcast.
 

You can email me at thehistoryof365@gmail.com. I am also on Instagram @thehistoryofpodcast and Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/robert-lakatosh-b070a920b.

To find everything in one place, go to thehistoryof.buzzsprout.com.