I'm one of the people behind the comedy science podcast Level Up Human. Here is a link in case you want to hear how we work.

S2E11: Level Up Human is a podcast on a mission to redesign the human body. This week, Simon and Rach chat to naturalist and broadcaster Steve Backshall and visual perception scientist Kate Storrs. We discuss enhanced vision, limb regeneration, gecko hands, super kidneys and re-breathing. Extended show notes including edited transcripts are available here.

Which podcast platforms / aggregators can you recommend? Paid or free?

We are on Acast. The downside is that there are adverts which is something in a perfect world, I would rather not be subjecting our listeners too. The upside is there are adverts, so we make a little money and the hosting is free. We had been on soundcloud which was great but expensive.

I would argue that one of podcast's great strengths is that they can live online free forever. Whatever you decide on, try and make room in the project for true longevity.

Is anyone using YouTube for podcasts, even if this would mean to add some generic visual to make it a “video”?

Even if you cannot "visuallise" your podcast, it can still be worthwhile putting it on YouTube. It will hit an entirely different audience.

I was thinking that this would also allow closed captions / subtitles.

Good show notes/a transcript would be way better than this, if accessibility is a priority.

To get to grips with your other questions, it would be best to ask yourself why you want to podcast? It tends to be broadcast so not actually a good method for actual good 2 way communication and learning. In our case we have true PE but mainly because our podcasts are nearly all recorded live in front of an audience who interact with the guests and take part in the discussion, vote on outcomes etc. The recording has a secondary and different purpose of reaching the kind of people who cannot or would not come to our live events.

I would say that its a great medium to experiment in with relatively small overheads and costs to entry. BUT it is an increasingly crowded market and most podcasts are merely shouting into the void. Having a podcast has become the "I have a screenplay" of our time. It would be wise to have an idea of what "success" would look like to you.

If you have people you want to get out there it may be of greater value to you to try and get your experts onto already established shows. My podcast for instance is always hungry for people with expertise who are up for a bit of fun while talking about their research.

Hope that was useful, and if there is anything else you want to know, feel free to get in touch and we can have a chat.

From: psci-com: on public engagement with science <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Marjolein Oorsprong <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 15 May 2020 17:41
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [PSCI-COM] Podcast Newbie

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all safe and sane in these weird times.

I was asked to see if podcasts could be a suitable medium for my organisation (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe – PRACE) and as I only have experience with listening to them (and very limited at that) I am looking for tips and advice:

Which podcast platforms / aggregators can you recommend? Paid or free?
- Is anyone using YouTube for podcasts, even if this would mean to add some generic visual to make it a “video”?
  I was thinking that this would also allow closed captions / subtitles.
Which topics work well in podcasts and which (absolutely) do not?
Do you have any good guidelines or “how to” I could read / watch?
Do you have any examples of your most successful / popular podcasts? I would like to watch some sci-comm podcasts to get a better idea of this medium to promote science and research to the general public.

Thanks in advance and best regards,

Marjolein

Marjolein Oorsprong, M.A. (she/her/hers)

Communications Officer

PRACE aisbl

Troonstraat 98, rue du Trône

1050 Brussels, BELGIUM

Tel.: +32 2 613 09 27 (office direct)

E-mail: [log in to unmask]

Web: www.prace-ri.eu

SKYPE: prace-comm

Twitter: @PRACE_RI / @oorsprongM

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/prace / www.linkedin.com/in/marjoleinoorsprong/

The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) is an international non-profit association with its seat in Brussels. The PRACE Research Infrastructure provides a persistent world-class high performance computing service for scientists and researchers from academia and industry in Europe. The computer systems and their operations accessible through PRACE are provided by 5 PRACE members (BSC representing Spain, CINECA representing Italy, ETH Zurich / CSCS representing Switzerland, GCS representing Germany and GENCI representing France). The Implementation Phase of PRACE receives funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (2014-2020) under grant agreement 823767.

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