Two Nerds (and oftentimes a guest) discussing TV Shows and Video Games each episode

Ali and Amir Reza are two nerds from Iran. Ali has studied Cinema, and Amir Reza have studied Computer Science. Through the magic of the internet, and with a lot of aligned interests like a mutual love of fiction in motion pictures and video games, they became friends. The YASP! podcast though, came from that love but was birthed through the Covid-19 pandemic, and was the result of a desire to discuss these "nerdy" aspirations with people all around the world, without the geographical barrier. So far our podcast has been mostly about video games and tv shows, but we do have episodes regarding fandoms, artificial intelligence and just Seth MacFarlane. We like to discuss things that might be considered nerdy, but things that either one of us (or both of us) have a passion for.

And our listeners are usually people who also share that same passion about a certain intellectual property, or people who like to get into them but need a little know-how and just to hear about them.
 

With the more freeform medium of podcasts, it would suit more long contents, and usually when we discuss a subject we would love to discuss it at length and an audio format would seem to be more appropriate for that, and Amir Reza was also already a fan of podcasts, and would listen to them often enough. So we decided to put our passion for talking about our favorite IPs to use, and share our thoughts with other people like us all around the globe, and that was (and for the most part still is) the reason and the force behind doing the podcast.

We started the podcast in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic. We both had quite a lot of free time, and so we decided to record a pilot about the IPs we were interacting with at that time, and less than a week later our first episode (about the show "Solar Opposites" and the video game "Detroit: Become Human") was up and running, and YASP! (officially) had started.
 

We have a tri-weekly schedule, so we publish an episode every three weeks, and it usually takes us 8 hours for an episoded to be recorded, edited and then mastered; and we do all of these things ourselves. Even though Amir Reza does have a day job, the time between each episode is long enough that we have time to get an episode out on schedule (or at least try very hard to do so). We don't need any funding for the podcast, since we usually do most of the stuff ourselves, but we did have to fund some equipment (like a microphone for Amir Reza, softwares for editing and mastering, and a voice recorder for Ali), and all of those funds came from personal savings of each of us.

For hosting, we use free services (like Anchor) that take care of the publishing of the podcast on different platforms as well, and as for marketing, we do it ourselves using Instagram, Twitter, and other social media. It's partially effective, but until we manage to either secure sponsorships or find excess funds to spend on the podcast, we cannot acquire professional help.
 

Sadly, we haven't had any sponsors yet, but we are not against it. If the opportunity arises that we get to have sponsorships, we would definitely take them; and probably use the money to get full time editors and maybe even better equipment. So all of the benefits we get out of the podcast is mostly non-material. The benefits are, beside putting time aside to discuss subjects we love with our friends and each other, looking at some of our favorite IPs with another perspective, personal growth through discussion and discourse, and just plain fun while recording and (sometimes) editing.
 

Amir Reza uses a Peavey PVi 2 Cardioid microphone, and Ali uses a Zoom H5 Audio Recorder connected to his laptop, and used as an audio interface. We usually use Discord to communicate and record our podcast, and the same goes for our guests. Not only the surge of Covid makes it harder to gather guests in person to interview, the fact that we live in different cities and some of our recurring guests are not even in the same country as ours makes it difficult to record any way other than remotely.

For preparation, we usually plan the season in advance to talk about some media that we've had in our mind. The planning isn't rigid though and can be subjected to change. Then, before the time for recording, we usually go back and re-experience the material if we can and get our thoughts separately. We like to discuss the IPs together while recording, and many times we don't compare notes until we are on the air, because we believe this results in a more natural flow and discussion. For guests, at least so far, we ask our friends who we know might have a good understanding of the material we are going to discuss, but we are looking at ways to expand the guest pool and ask people all around the world to join us.
 

We use anchor as our primary publishing tool, and the distribution (for the most part) is done through Anchor. The only other platform that needs a separate distribution is our YouTube channel, which we made the videos for using the Headliner system and upload them a day after each episode is out. We then advertise the show on our Instagram, Twitter, Discord, and Telegram Channel. We also use Reddit to find communities that might enjoy the subject of that particular episode. Out of all these methods, probably the most effective is Reddit, as you can probably find those communities that might like your podcast more often.
 

There are some notes that might be easy to overlook, as we did at the beginning, but if you want to start a podcast remember to:

a. Invest in some audio recording equipment if you want to be coherent. Even though it's easy to use your phone or your earbuds to record, the problems that can rise from that (from just surrounding noise to technical issues) are going to be very noticeable and will make it harder to listen to you.

b. Plan ahead, and try to stay on schedule. Life has a way of throwing a wrench in your plans, but if you know what's the next step you need to take, even if you have to take a hiatus or postpone a publishing date, you will still feel more in control and by doing that you will make sure to get your episode out as soon as you can, and with respectable quality.

c. Flow is more important than framework. We know the thrill of having a framework and trying to stick to it, but the flow of the conversation is more important than trying to stick closely to a framework. It's possible to achieve both, but when you need to choose, choose a good flow. Don't cut off the conversation, or try to push it back into a set narrative. If it's going a certain way, but is engaging and fun, let it have its detour. An interesting podcast is more useful than a neat podcast.

d. Try to have fun while recording, and try to talk about something you actually like. Unless you are a very good actor, emotions are kind of hard to fake. So try to talk about subjects that already interest you, and try to have fun while doing it. If you are not having fun with what you are saying, your audience won't have fun listening to you. If you set your mind to have fun and do what you enjoy, whatever material reward you want is easier to achieve on top of the good emotions of doing a good job that you enjoy going back to.
 

You can find us on our Instagram, and Twitter, but the place you will probably find us more easily is on Telegram: https://t.me/yyaasspp
We publish the episode files there if you want to have the files, and we usually announce related posts there too. Amir Reza, sometimes, does livestream on our discord server, and you can find the announcements to it on the Telegram channel (as well as the link to the discord server). Other than that you can find us on your podcast platform of choice.

We do have another show (this one shorter and with one person instead of us both) that only appears in our YouTube channel called "YARR!", which is more our immediate reaction to a IP. You can find our YouTube channel on: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC09a0-qjMC8ZA9d_L_jThpg

If you have any suggestions, critiques, inquiries or just want to talk to us, you can email us at yaspcast@gmail.com