Experimenting with a new form of podcasting, or a new type of audiobook
The "Lo-Fi" theology podcast is a bit of an experiment. I've still to refine it, but join up if you want to be part of the journey.
Last Friday, you might have received an email from me entitled “Holy Sin” that included a podcast called “Lofi Theology”. To be honest, I didn’t really mean to send it to all my subscribers - I just wanted to get it up and ask for feedback from a few people, and figure out how the podcast feature on Substack worked. I thought I told it NOT to email everyone, but it seems like it did anyway! So I’ve got to now sort-of introduce things backwards :). (And figure out some things about Substack.)
The idea behind the “Lofi Theology” podcast is a bit of an experiment. I want to recreate the mood of sitting in your lounge at the end of the week with some chilled music playing in the background and relaxing with a good book on theology. Here is how Wikipedia defines Lo-fi:
Lo-fi is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice.1
No big production. No hype. No social media noise. I didn’t want to do a podcast with me talking to the camera because that’s just not me, really, and I quite frankly don’t have the resources or time to do that. I just want to go on a journey with others in a thoughtful way and explore how to think better about faith and living in our world today. That’s the idea behind the podcast. I want to release a new episode on Friday evenings, 10pm CST.
Given that there are some copyright concerns when it comes to ‘performing’ a book (reading it in public out loud), I’ve naturally started with one of my own books that I’ve been working on. That book is called “Holy Sin”, which is a bit of a remix of a previous book I’ve released. The book is about holiness and sanctification: looking closely at how the Holy Spirit makes Christians into people of his perfect love.
Part of my new writing strategy, as well, is to release shorter, more compact books, and the podcast goes along with that strategy. I’m done with trying to do what the publishing industry wants and writing 80,000+ word books, which a publisher won’t take up anyway because I don’t have a big enough “platform” since I won’t play the social media game and brand myself at every opportunity I get. (Yes, I’m ranting here.) I don’t know about you, but I’m longing for authenticity, and I’m tired of social media having become all about branding and platform. Meh. Just give me real people, please.
It’s taken me a long time to work out how I think I can release my own writing and music in a way that is authentic and I think may be genuinely helpful to others. This podcast, and a new approach to publishing (which I’ll post about soon), I think is a step in a better direction.
So, maybe you received my podcast last Friday and were confused about it, or maybe you didn’t even like it. I really don’t want to spam people with random stuff, so I do apologize if it felt a bit spammy. At any rate, I’ll release another episode on Friday and after a bit of research I believe you are able to unsubscribe from the podcast while still receiving my posts. If you can’t figure out how to do that on your side, let me know and I’ll sort that out for you.
Have a wonderful week!
“Lo-fi Music” on Wikipedia. Last accessed May, 2024. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo-fi_music
Ryan this sounds cool. Although my rule of life says I have to be in bed by 9pm so I can be awake by 5am 😂
I like your thinking on writing and media. When we chatted about what was involved in publishing I was like hell no.
Most authors who make it big seem to lock themselves in a room for ten months, promote their book shamelessly, do social media relentlessly and get speaking gigs wherever possible. I'm not up for that.
Also podcasting and books can reach such a high standard that they become a full-time job to get the quality of information dense enough to justify the time people spend consuming them.
But then I feel like I need a notebook for every podcast because otherwise I won't absorb the 50 things that will change my life today.
Here's to finding new ways of sharing story.