I’m not a journalist

Posted: November 8, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

…and I can’t and don’t want to approximate one, either.  I think that’s pretty obvious, and might seem like a non sequitur, but you’ll see why it’s not in a second.

One odd thing is that, in the process of emailing a couple of people to suggest that we record some material for the podcast at the Conj, I encountered a few jokes (expressed most definitely tongue-in-cheek) around the prospect that I’d be trying to run a hardcore interview.  I can picture it now, me sweating a Clojure library author with curveball questions and shooting for that perfect ‘gotcha’ moment where they mispronounce “Leiningen“. (Like I do sometimes. Not on purpose, I promise.) Yikes.

While people were joking, and I presume they don’t actually think that would happen (insofar as everyone I’ve approached has assented to being on the ‘cast), my mother always told me that there’s a kernel of truth in every jest.  Further, I can appreciate that being recorded for posterity can be anxiety-inducing, and I’ve now heard at least one story of someone being unpleasantly grilled by an aggressive podcast host.

So, as much as possible, I’d like to reassure anyone being recorded at the Conj, and anyone that might be on the podcast in the future that I am sooooo not looking to create or experience any stress of any kind.  I’m not interested in being a journalist (my biases and vested interests are too flaming obvious, anyway), and I’m certainly not interested in being a ‘gotcha’ journalist.  I’m just someone that really, really likes Clojure, likes the people I know that use Clojure, and would like to know more people that use Clojure.  I’m not even super-interested in doing interviews per se; having a conversation with someone that I might have if the podcast didn’t exist at all is my main goal for when “guests” are on.  I’d rather just can the whole project than let things ever get “weird”, either for me or other hosts or “guests”.

If this has seemed like a bizarre digression…you’re right.  But, hopefully the above clarifies what I’m up to and what my intentions are.

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Coming soon!

Posted: November 3, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | 25 Comments

I’ve long thought about starting a Clojure podcast, but I guess it took Twitter peer pressure to make me get off my butt and do something about it (hi, & !).

I certainly enjoyed podcasting for the short time that I tried it, and it seems like the broader Clojure community could use some auxiliary informational and entertainment material out there.  Not all of us can lurk on IRC or read Clojure blogs all day — and after all, there is something very humanizing and enriching about being able to have some kind of palpable contact with birds of a feather, even if it is only hearing the voice of the author of that cool new Clojure library.

Ironically, the first post here has no audio — but only because I first want to hear from anyone potentially interested in a Clojure podcast:

  1. What would you like to hear about?
  2. Who (or, what sorts of people) would you like to hear from?
  3. How do you prefer to get podcast content (iTunes, other RSS, SoundCloud, embedded flash player…)?

I have a variety of ideas re: format, topics (both one-off and recurring), “segments”, and so on, but I want to listen to what you have to say first.