The Essentials of Podcasting

In this week's COMM 415 lecture we talked about the big three of audio/visual media. These are:

Podcasts

Radio

Television

For my blog this week I want to take a deeper look into what it takes to have a good podcast. I will be the first to acknowledge, I don’t ever really watch/listen to podcasts except for one and that is the Joe Rogan Experience or JRE. While I don’t know podcasting like the back of my hand, I do know the JRE is incredibly successful and can give us all a good look into success in the podcast realm. I will look into some of the major components that Joe Rogan does extremely well that have allowed his podcast to flourish: consistency, conversationalist, and open-mindedness.

Consistency

The amount of JRE podcasts that are out there is quite mindboggling, pointing to just how consistent Joe is with new podcasts out very frequently. As of April 13 2021, the JRE has a total of 1,632 episodes. This is a huge part of what his fans love because they know they are always going to have new material that will be entertaining. This is becoming even more crucial the more social media dominant society becomes. A person’s interest and attention span can change quickly, so if you don’t keep your podcast in their mind, they will forget quickly.

Conversation

Another great thing about the JRE is Joe’s ability to be a great communicator, with anyone. He treats every guest with a great deal of respect and truly listens to their responses. He also is very good at asking open-ended questions that allow his guests to really dive into what they are knowledgeable in. Joe is able to do this because he is very relaxed and will let the conversation go where it is interesting. By being able to do this he can talk about anything and make it interesting for his viewers. This is crucial because Joe has an extremely wide range of people who come on his podcast. Professional athletes, scholars, theoretical physicists, comedians, astronauts, political figures, and entrepreneurs are all types of people that he will invite to the show. This means Joe must be able to talk about things he is not an expert in, and he thrives in it.

Open-mindedness

This is an area that has always been very commendable to me in regard to Joe Rogan. If someone has a different viewpoint from him, he listens intently and tries to see things from their perspective. This is something that is so rare with people today because many would rather think of what they are going to respond with, rather than listening with the intention of gaining perspective.

Final Thoughts

As I conclude this week’s blog, I hope that you all can see some of the strengths that Joe Rogan demonstrates that have helped his JRE podcast become one of the most popular podcasts in the world. I want to ask you, have you ever watched the JRE? What did you think of it? Do you watch the whole podcast on Spotify or just the clips on YouTube?