Wonderful Mixture Of True Stories From History

Hi! My name is Mandy Gardner, and I am a science fiction author, cat rescuer and host of the History Obscura podcast. I love my show! It is a wonderful mixture of true stories from history with just a bit of a creep factor.

I finally discovered podcasts about two years ago while researching alien phenomena for a novel that I am STILL working on. It started with the Last Podcast on the Left and quickly expanded to The Box of Oddities, Bedtime Stories, Real Life Ghost Stories and others along that line. I did a practice run with a plastic-free podcast that year before starting History Obscura in 2020. As an underpaid and underappreciated ghostwriter, I desperately needed a creative outlet that did not involve so much writing, upon which I could put my own name. So, I bought a $25 microphone and started using it.

I am currently releasing 2 episodes per week, thanks in part to global isolation and having very little work scheduled. The show is funded by me and to date has probably cost me...$100? It takes me 4-5 hours to produce a complete episode.

I regain some of my identity as a podcaster, after years and years of being hidden as just an editor/proofreader/ghostwriter. I wish I had tried this sooner! The show is only a few months old but I am trying very hard to raise its profile and get a large enough audience so that I can take 1-2 sponsorships and leave off the old job completely. I received my first Patreon sponsorship last week and it was very exciting!

My home has a second bedroom in which you'll find a middle-aged, extremely neurotic cancer survivor with four paws and a tail. That's Tito, an ex-street cat who is unwelcome anywhere but here. I go to Tito's room to record my episodes, and while I read my stories he purrs and purrs and purrs.

History Obscura is available on all podcast platforms that I can think of. I was lucky enough to get Emma and Dan from Real Life Ghost Stories to play my promo a few weeks ago! That gave me a huge boost. Starting today, I have a Spotify ad running that I hope will grow my audience even further. Most of my listeners find me through Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

This is a tough question because I still feel very much like an infant in the podcasting world. I would say use free resources whenever possible, because there are perfectly good recording/editing programs out there that won't cost you a thing. I use Audacity and then publish to Anchor.fm. What you should consider before choosing a platform is how you want to monetize later on--personally, though Anchor is great and even comes with an easy Monetize button for each episode, I can't use that as I am not a US resident.

Here are some links: HistoryObscuraPodcast.com; @HistObscuraPod; Patreon.com/HistoryObscura