This article was contributed by guest blogger and friend of The Guru Kevin Rosenquist, co-host of History Defeats Itself available on Podcast Guru or wherever you enjoy podcasts.
I saw a stat recently that said there are over 1.2 million podcasts out there right now. That’s a crazy big number. When our show, History Defeats Itself, started waaaaay back in 2019 there were only 750,000. We were such babies then.
It’s wild to think that podcasts have grown by 60% in just over a year but COVID is certainly having an impact on that as it is all things in life. Tons of celebrities attempting to combat boredom and stay relevant, are churning out new podcasts by the barrel full. And commoners like the rest of us figure, “How hard can it be? You plug a microphone into a computer and press record. Any idiot can do that.” That’s true…but it doesn’t really work that way.
Most don’t make it
The first episode of History Defeats Itself was published in late May, 2019. It was a simpler time. Baseball was being played, Kanye West wasn’t talking about running for president, and the world wasn’t being ravaged by a shit-head virus. There were 750,000 podcasts out in the world. But another stat I read coming off of that: only about 5% of them made it past episode seven. At first glance that is puzzling. Why did so many either fail; or fizzle out? The answer is simple: it’s a lot of fucking work.
History Defeats Itself is worth the hard work
As my co-hosts will tell you, I am the HDI Podcast Dictator. They seem fine with it so I’m not concerned about them staging a coup any time soon. I spent about a year researching and learning about podcasting before we published our first episode. We did test runs and worked hard to dial in our format. We are a fully independent show so I produce, edit, publish, and promote our show, which airs every two weeks. Add in the research I do for my episodes and it’s like a second job. (I can actually hear my co-hosts eyes rolling right now. “Okay, Kevin, we get it. You do a lot of stuff for the podcast. Get over yourself already.”) The point I am getting at though is that to do this right you have to put a lot of time and effort into it. I have a wife, a baby on the way, and I also enjoy having some semblance of a life…when social distancing allows. So after two years of juggling a 9 to 5, a family, and a podcast I now understand why only 5% of those 750,000 shows made it past episode seven. It’s way more work than it seems like.
A Wild Ride
All that being said, though, podcasting is a ton of fun and I love everything about it. I get to jump on Skype with two of my closest friends who are 1,000 miles away, throw back some drinks, and shoot the shit. And, to top it all off, people actually listen to us do it. Which is probably the craziest aspect of being a podcaster. Godspeed all you young, aspiring podcasters. Get ready for a wild ride.
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