My podcast is up!

This week has been a whirlwind of activity as my long-thought about podcast finally “launched”. I say launched in quotes because probably only me, my sister, and a couple of close friends have actually listened to it. But STILL.

My podcast is called Leaving Christian Science, and I’m filming them on zoom and then posting to YouTube and then audio versions to Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The YouTube link is here: https://youtube.com/@LeavingChristianSciencePodcast?si=wfugkalCGIDWdDvR

and IG handle is @leavingcspod

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s how it’s been for me: it’s been a steep learning curve, that I’m still climbing, and that was very intimidating at first. I had to find an editing program (thankfully there’s always a basic one on computers now, and I have years of editing experience from making my event DVDs, so the actual process of editing was a snap), find a voice recording program, find royalty-free music (after multiple requests, my bandleader never followed through, so I gave up. I’m really happy with what I found, though), navigate starting a YouTube channel and Spotify and Apple podcast accounts, start an IG account (by far the most intimidating to me, and still is). It’s been a lot, but I believe in the work enough that I just made myself push through. I now have two episodes published and a few short clip videos, which I had a blast putting together. I’ll definitely do more of these, since I realize a ninety minute podcast isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and they’d rather just have the highlights. 

So what is it, exactly, and what do I want from it? I mean naturally I’d like it if I had a decent community of listeners and was able to help people - ex-CS or not - I don’t want it to just sit there ignored. But I don’t expect to make money on it nor make it into a “hit” - I really just want it to be a resource for people. I personally enjoy long form conversational podcasts - I listen to one by ex-Scientologist Jon Atack every week in which he just has conversations with smart friends, and I always learn something new. I haven’t posted it in the ex-CS Facebook group yet - I want to make sure I have enough content so people don’t click on it and then forget about it because there’s not enough there to hold people’s interest. So I figure I’ll wait until I have one more podcast up and then put it more out there. 

The funny thing has been working this kind of project around family life, especially when family life involves other people using up the wifi bandwidth and making lots of noise, both things that are terrible for two hour zoom recordings. For my second interview, I set myself up in the attic and told the boys to stay off the VR (much to their despair). I’m going to have to interview people when they’re available, and it’s rarely going to be in that tiny window between the H leaving for work (11 AM) and me having to pick up the boys from school (now 2 PM). So the attic, originally intended as a playspace, may soon be my podcasting studio.

I feel good and revitalized and slightly frantic. We’re leaving for the desert today and I’m a little miffed I can’t spend my day contacting potential interviewees or working on more clips or developing the IG page that literally nobody looks at. But I feel inspired, which is a great feeling. I once heard a quote that “you’re not depressed, you’re just uninspired”, and for me often this is the case. Unless you’re doing something that inspires you, sometimes it can mimic depression, that blah feeling of just not being interested in anything. 

One super cool thing that happened was, when I set up the IG page, I figured I would start by following my favorite cult podcasts. Out of nowhere, my favorite anti-cult activist, Janja Lalich, started following me (I hadn’t followed her so she must have just seen me float by). I had to message her to say thanks for the follow, and she said you’re welcome, and then I told her I was watching her in the Twin Flames documentary and that I enjoy her work, and she said thanks. Omg! Janja Lalich and I had a conversation! Ahhhhh! 

So I’ve got my work cut out for me - the next couple of weeks will be difficult with the boys home by 1 each day due to parent-teacher conferences, and the week after being Thanksgiving break. I hope I can get two interviews in this week so I can at least have *some* content available to publish while I can’t create anymore. The holidays in general will be challenging time-wise, as I imagine a lot of people won’t be available for interviews, either. So the pace may slow down for a few weeks. But in the meantime, I’ve created this thing, and it’s out there, and I'm very proud of it.