1. Release an episode every week. This is a cornerstone of podcasting explained by Marc Maron to Tom Scharpling--put the product out according to a consistent schedule and post the episodes on time come hell or high-water.
2. Be good to your earhole: Scharpling also used to joke extensively that a typical podcast circa 2010 sounded like it was recorded on a seesaw.
Maron advises new podcasters to "buy good mics" to accomplish the second goal, but early on, we realized to create a professional-sounding product we'd also need professional guidance. So, we hired DJ Trent, a mega-talented audio engineer and DJ with worlds of experience producing radio and podcasts.
Trent's expertise has proven valuable in even more ways than I could have hoped: he designed the schematics of the studio (in Pauly's office) from scratch and has been guiding us since then on all aspects of quality control--from audio sound to segment producing to encouraging me to not smoke weed before I take the mic.
(Trent's fee also explains why we we are now asking for financial support to help sustain the podcast. If you are uneasy with the idea of backing two degenerate writers in their fringe creative pursuit, think of our donation drive as "DJ Trent's Diaper Fund." The money we are currently trying to recoup has contributed directly to underwriting the costs of his major production, a newborn baby girl).
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Trent has also helped us in the effort to execute our third, somewhat less simple goal:
3. Invite interesting guests onto the show to share their perspective.
We have been fortunate to attract a diverse set of guests in our first few months: A poker champion (episode 7) who made his struggles with drug use public along the way to winning the WSOP Main Event; an Ivy League professor (episode 8) working towards discovering scientific truths about drug use; a military veteran (episode 11) dedicated to advocating for PTSD sufferers who might benefit from access medical marijuana.
(You can find all these episodes on iTunes and subscribe to the podcast to have them automatically appear every Thursday).
All of our guests seem to share in common a couple things: 1) an interest in engaging in a rational conversation about drug use and 2) an ability to teach me something new or make me think about an old issue from an unanticipated angle.
Featured on episode 16 are Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld, the married couple who created the web series High Maintenance, and we are lucky to add them to the roster of intelligent people who generously shared their time with Dope Stories.
High Maintenance is about an unnamed weed messenger (played by Sinclair) who enjoys the rare perspective of being invited into the homes of a wide variety of New Yorkers' homes to sell them pot. The narrative tone of the show tends to emphasize the observable quirks of the customers that Ben's character serves more than it examines the substance they are smoking or the mechanics of illicit drug sales in Brooklyn.
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| Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld, creative team behind the web-series High Maintenace. |
It's somehow appropriate that although High Maintenance, like Dope Stories, is a show on the internet, I was introduced to the content by a friend who, like Katja and Ben, lives in Brooklyn. I told our guests that I considered them a type of New York "relic" but didn't elaborate on what I meant: They possess a certain charm that characterized the personalities of New Yorkers I knew throughout my 28-year run in the city--open-minded but unapologetically critical; occasionally ball-busting but always feasting of the unique and offbeat energy that my hometown is known for creating.
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I now feed off that offbeat energy 3,000 miles away in California, and I am also grateful for the ground-floor type of art that this city, Los Angeles, allows people to create.
A longer-term goal for Dope Stories is to move the studio from Pauly's office to a dedicated studio equipped to handle guests. In the meantime, we were able to host people like Katja and Ben thanks to space provided for us by a unique restaurant in East LA called Thank You For Coming. A quick read of their homepage explains the novel atmosphere they are creating involving food, art, and community.
We were set up in the courtyard behind the restaurant, a makeshift studio designed by Trent on the fly, with green drinks for our guests ("let's see what your made of" Ben texted me while issuing his super-specific snack request) and other green things. It was a beautiful morning in Los Angeles, with only occasional sun and noise issues, and I think the rugged setting managed to work organically with the subject matter and the personalities present.
Sincerest thanks to Laura and Trent for making it happen at Thank You For Coming, and to Katja and Ben for coming on the show!