Now that I’m once again spending a significant amount of time creating and editing podcasts, it’s leaving less time for consistent blogging. So, to bridge the divide a bit, I’m going to get back into blogging about the podcasts. Look for weekly (as I’m able) recaps of both Systematic and Overtired under one heading: “The Podcasts.” This by no means means I’m giving up on blogging all of my crazy experiments and Web Excursions and all the other stuff I do here, but I generally blog about whatever I’m spending time on, and for the moment, that’s podcasts. I foresee getting back into the regular swing of blogging in the near future.

So, for this — the inaugural podcast post of season 2 — I’ll start by mentioning last week’s episodes (even though new ones are scheduled to come out starting tomorrow… I’ll be posting again soon). On Systematic, I was joined by Sarah Johnson, the mental health director at the YMCA in La Crosse, Wisconsin, for episode 236. She’s an old friend of mine, and someone with whom I always find conversation fascinating. She somehow combines a “whimsical” perspective on life with concrete analysis and a deep understanding of people and their emotions. She’s been a guest in the past, and I figured right now — in the middle of a pandemic that has many of us secluded from our usual tethers to reality — would be an ideal time to hear what a mental health professional had to offer. The audio didn’t come out as great as I would have liked, but the conversation did not disappoint.

On Overtired Christina and I had some fun discussing one YouTuber’s vision of a Taylor Swift theme park. His concept is crazy and detailed, and it took some mental gymnastics on my part, but I came around to appreciating the creativity and passion behind it. In the process, I became painfully aware of how much my Gen-X childhood affected my ability to, well, like anything. Once we got past the (bizarrely frequent) Taylor Swift portion of the show, it was on to discussing some classic movies. But I’ll admit, this episode had a lot of Taylor. For better or worse, and whether I like it or not, Overtired will probably always be billed as the only tech podcast that’s actually about Taylor Swift.

Find all the episodes at systematicpod.com and overtiredpod.com, and be sure to subscribe! My ability to keep the shows going is dependent on my ability to secure advertisers, which is in turn dependent on subscriber numbers. Getting yourself counted in my download stats (and maybe checking out the sponsors now and then) is all you have to do to support either or both shows!

If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide to podcasting, from planning through editing and publishing, The Successful Podcasting courses from Aaron Dowd are now available as a part of a subscription to seanwes.com. $99/month gets you access to Successful Podcasting, the Logic and GarageBand courses, and a whole bunch of other great courses on seanwes.com. If you want to expand your skills, check it out!