Creating the Thomas Hardy podcast series

Firstly, it has to be said that the podcast series involved a huge amount of time and resource!

The project was to create a series of podcasts to support Wessex Museum’s cross-partnership exhibition, Hardy’s Wessex. This exhibition spanned all four partner museums simultaneously and was the first blockbuster of its kind we had embarked upon.

The initial podcasting team was Cathy Lewis, Marketing & Digital Officer, and Harriet Still, Hardy Exhibition Curator. But as the scheduled time for creating the podcasts approached, we realised we were already very busy with other elements of the Hardy exhibition.

Fortuitously, at this very time, we were offered the opportunity to have an MA placement student from York University’s Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past.  This was a three-month placement (120 hours) which the university funded, and the timing perfectly matched our timeframe for creating the podcasts.

Kirsty O’Rourke joined us as a placement student in January 2022 and not only became an invaluable member of the team, but also the driving force behind the podcasts.

The Hardy’s Wessex exhibition spanned all four Wessex Museums. 

• To expand our audiences, particularly to attract and engage younger people (aged 18 to 35).
• To extend our digital offer and experiment with a new medium.
• To give us a platform to explore wider aspects of – and opinions about – Hardy’s life and influence. In particular, we wanted to offer an alternative to the ‘curatorial voice’, allowing us to introduce different perspectives.

As we were starting from zero experience, we did a lot of research before embarking upon the podcasts. This included:

• Reading Hannah Hethmon’s book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast.
• We then made use of a free consultation with Hannah Hethmon, where we discussed our initial ideas and she gave guidance. At this point we thought we might be able to hire Hannah as a consultant for the project, but her subsequent quotation was way over our budget.
• We also chatted to a couple of other podcasting experts who gave free consultations, and watched some online webinars.
• We spoke to two of the Wessex Museums trustees who both produce their own podcasts, Glyn Coy and Gill Donnell. Glyn also invited us to his house where he demonstrated the podcasting equipment and platforms he uses. This was a major breakthrough, as seeing it all in actual use made so much sense.
• We listened to lots of podcasts and thought about which formats best fitted what we wanted.

Software

We experimented with various software packages but ultimately went with:

• Recording – Squadcast (£100 pa)
• Editing – Audacity (free)
• Hosting – Audioboom (£91 pa)
• Producing clips for social media marketing – Wavve (free)

We initially took out a subscription with Cyberlink (£100 pa) for the editing but found it too complex for our needs so cancelled.

Hardware
We bought good quality Rode equipment:

• Rode Go II Dual Channel Wireless System – £250
• Rode Wireless Go Ultra-compact Microphone system – £150
• Mic split adaptor – £10

In fact, there were problems with connecting these, and in the end they weren’t used. They would have worked better if we were doing roaming interviews outdoors.

General planning

• We wrote a detailed brief for Kirsty. Within that was the task for her to explore different approaches for the podcast structure. She shaped three approaches and presented them to our team – we chose the one that we felt was most suitable.
• The agreed approach was to have a ‘provocation’ for each episode which the guests would discuss. Each episode would feature Harriet talking to guests: one with a particular interest in the subject of that podcast, and one who was an undergraduate or postgraduate. The aim was to choose guests who didn’t have a previous specialism in Hardy, although a couple ultimately did.
• We decided on the tone – aiming for chatty rather than preachy.
• We thought about how long each episode should be and settled on the length of about 30 minutes.
• We decided to aim for at least seven episodes, with the option to do up to ten.
• Due to our workloads, we opted to release a podcast every two weeks (it’s important to be regular, not ad hoc with podcasts).

 Podcast planning

• Harriet and Kirsty came up with a theme for each podcast and a provocation which was the basis for the discussion. For example, Hardy and war – ‘In this episode, Harriet and her guests talk about war, armchair critics, and how unique Thomas Hardy was in representing war.’
• Suitable guests were sought and approached.
• Harriet had an informal hour-long chat with the guests beforehand. This helped build rapport between Harriet and the guests and established some lines of enquiry. It also enabled us to discuss ‘no-go zones’ which we felt were too controversial – after all, the podcasts were representing the museums and promoting the exhibition. 
• Harriet and Kirsty then roughed out a script (a list of bullet point prompts grouped into discussion areas) that incorporated all the points we wanted to cover and gave some structure to the podcast. (Kirsty estimated this took about 2.5 hours per episode)

Recording

• We used Squadcast for recording which is similar to a Zoom session. You can have up to four participants – it records everyone’s sound separately, so you can edit out individuals as necessary (for example if someone started to cough or talk over someone else).
• We allowed about 10 mins before each recording to test the sound and microphones. It is crucial that everyone has a good wifi signal.
• We also had Kirsty present in each session as a non-speaking ‘producer’. She could keep an eye on the time and signal guests when they needed to wrap up. It is important to be very disciplined about time – the more you allow people to talk over the designated time, the more time you’ll have to spend editing afterwards.
• At the start of each episode, Harriet would give a short introduction to get the guests into the mood and set off the conversation. But this was a rough version. After each episode, she would separately record a ‘proper’ introduction that better reflected the resulting content of the podcast, which Kirsty would splice into the beginning of the podcast.

Editing

• Audacity is free and very easy to use. You can play, pause, move clips around and snip bits out.
• There are detailed instructions on the site, but much of it will be familiar to anyone who is used to editing videos.
• But remember it’s incredibly time consuming to play and edit. It took about five to six hours to produce 30-35 minutes of finished podcast.

“I didn’t trust myself when editing for the first ever time. I sat there for ages and I re-listened because I’d somehow lost concentration. I got tired and my eyes hurt. It was intense. But I got into the habit of regular breaks – doing a bit of stretching or yoga. Then it’s really satisfying as you get into it – learning, experimenting, improving the flow – then you finish! It’s great when people listen and give positive feedback.” 

Kirsty O’Rourke, podcasting placement student

Hosting

Audio boom is a platform where you can upload your podcast episodes and they disseminate to other podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, etc.  It’s really simple to use:

• Set up your account and add your podcast name
• Add an image
• Add a description
• Link to your social media and websites
• Upload your episode
• Give it a name, description, image
• Add a transcript
• Set a published date and time (Kirsty’s research indicated that 5am was the best time!). Or you can simply publish there and then.
• Schedule social media posts to promote it.

Promoting

Wavve is the platform we used for producing audio clips for social media marketing. It is free, although you are limited as to how many clips you can produce each month. Watch the tutorial on the site. Then you just need an image before you add as a clip on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

• Eight episodes (introduction plus seven)
• Listens: 754
• Reach: 13 countries

Caption: Hardy by a sarsen stone at Max Gate. Hardy’s interest in ancient monuments is explored in podcast episode 3. Image courtesy Dorset Museum.

• It’s time consuming – one day a week for planning and recording, another day for editing each podcast, then half a day for scheduling and doing social media. Do you have someone in your team who can dedicate this level of time?
• It is a fantastic opportunity for placement students as it’s exciting, relevant and valuable experience with a very tangible output.
• Use your contacts! Instead of chasing ‘celebrity guests’, we found people who we already had some form of professional or personal link with. This reduced ‘cold-calling’ time.
• People often don’t like repeating themselves, so make sure to keep things fresh by noting potential rich seams of conversation to prompt later on-air, but not having the actual conversation until you’re recording.
• The microphones we bought were expensive but didn’t connect easily and the quality was not perceptively better than our inbuilt laptop mics. We planned to provide the Rode mics to guests, then get them to post them on to the next guest afterwards. But that was messy and expensive. It would be better to check beforehand whether each guest has a decent microphone on their laptop, as well as headsets.
• Recording the podcasts remotely worked well, especially with the earlier icebreaker chats. It saved a huge amount of time and expense in trying to bring people together physically.
• We set up a shared Google drive so we could all input on the planning and edit the same document, allowing everyone to brainstorm new episodes, content and potential guests, as well as updating guest availability. This worked really well.
• Be wary of sounds if you are recording from home or in a museum. Background noise like voices, traffic, chiming (or even ticking!) clocks, etc, might not be very intrusive in day-to-day life but can sound really bad on a podcast.
• Turn off pinging computer notifications!
• Take breaks while editing – it can be very intense and time-consuming.

“I confess I was absolutely terrified before we recorded the first episode. While we were recording I was thinking ‘This is awful, I don’t know what we’re saying, I don’t know where this is going.’. Then after one or two episodes, you really do get into the swing of it. I stepped into this kind of presenter-host character, and it all began to roll so much easier. It’s like an alter-ego you inhabit while you’re doing it!”

Harriet Still, Hardy Exhibition Curator

• Make your guest feel at home – ask some throwaway questions at the start to get the conversation going. (Although don’t let them get carried away and have the podcast discussion before you start recording!)
• Make it clear that mistakes can be edited out – they just need to pause and start what they were saying again.
• Have a list of questions but don’t be too prescriptive.
• Practise active listening – maintain eye contact and nod in agreement. But don’t speak over them, saying ‘yes’, ‘I know’, etc.
• Don’t be afraid of silences – pauses can be cut out.
• Smile, but don’t laugh while your guest is speaking or it will interfere with the sound.  

Caption: Hardy and his second wife, Florence. Hardy’s views on romance are explored in podcast episode 5. Image courtesy Dorset Museum.

Kristina Broughton

CEO Wessex Museums

kristina.broughton@wessexmuseums.org.uk