On International Podcast Day (September 30, 2025) and I was in active labor…
…giving birth to my first podcast, Connecting the Dots with The Renaissance People. 😉 Much like the birth of both of my human babies, active labor is taking quite a while. I’ve got my logo and theme song (thanks to Brian Skellenger). My teaser episode is recorded and edited. And I’m in the process of recording my first solo episode.
This podcast has been a dream of mine for many years. After leaving the TV news business, I’ve always dreamed of having a way to verbally communicate with a broad audience (ideally with video as well, but I’m starting with the low hanging fruit option of just my voice).
Podcast Themes
As I record, I’m thinking about what draws ME to podcasts and 5 main themes keep coming up: authenticity, curiosity, learning (especially through storytelling), resource sharing and connections.
Authenticity
I appreciate people who are real on their shows. I don’t care if there are “ums” and “ahs”. When it sounds like someone is reading a script, it bothers me (which is why I threw out the first version of my teaser because I did too much of that). I like to hear messy, complex stories that can’t be tied up neatly with a bow. A few people/shows that really excel at this include Jenni Gritters, Nickie Kromminga Hill, Yowei Shaw, Morra Aarons-Mele, Stephanie Castillo and Reyhaneh Maktoufi.
Curiosity
I’m captivated by people who love finding out new things. Honestly, almost all of my podcasts are hosted by people who like to do this. But what I’m particularly drawn to is people who are unabashed about their excitement around their curiosity. Some exemplary curious people include Raven Baxter, Alan Alda, and Alie Ward.
Learning through Stories
This goes hand-in-hand with curiosity. In this case, I’m specifically talking about learning that is enjoyable because of how the stories are told. I have podcasts I listen to because I gain knowledge from them, but when the stories are missing, it’s more like taking medicine that doesn’t taste that great. The people who are the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down not already listed above include Milly Tamati, Rosanna Deerchild on CBC/Radio-Canada‘s Unreserved, Chris Armstrong and Vince Brantley.
Resource Sharing
I get just a little too giddy when people say, “we’ll add a link in the show notes”. I’m an avid collector and sharer of resources Some of the best resource sharers I listen to include Andrew Huberman, Wendy Zuckerman and Blythe Terrell and Melanie Padgett Powers.
Connections
I love hearing two or more people genuinely connecting and enjoying riffing off of one another. There’s too many to list here but see many of the names listed above.
As I build my podcast, I hope I can follow in the footsteps of the amazing people I have listed. Have a suggestion for someone else I should check out, let me know!
