Join John for a BIG update about The Threshing Floor Podcast.
The Update:
Go ahead, light the torches and come after me. I deserve it. I let you all down for a new podcast episode this week. And we had been doing so well the past couple months on hitting the bi-weekly release schedule, even if we’ve been a day late a couple times. Trust me, I want nothing more than to scratch that itch for us all and release exciting and engaging episodes that come out to you ON TIME. It makes it difficult to write this out with the initial disappointment I know it will give you by confirming we are missing the episode this week. Hopefully, the rest of this article will have you looking forward to the future and get you as excited as I am for what is in store on our favorite podcast moving forward. But first, before we get to any of the exciting things I have to share with you all, I must first share with you some bittersweet news.
For the past year, the podcast has seen some ups and downs. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. We’ve struggled at times to find time to record, we’ve struggled to find time to edit. We’ve just struggled. And here’s the thing about it if I can be honest with you. Podcasting is hard. Sure, it is easy enough to sit down and press that record button, see the sound board light up and just talk. But what goes into getting to that point and what happens after the recording ends complicates things. Just ask my good friend John Earley. And I know, I dig on him sometimes about having two “failed” podcast projects on his resume. That’s just healthy (or maybe unhealthy) banter between friends though. I know what it’s like to have the desire and the “want to” for podcasting and wanting to bring our great game a platform for long form discussions and interactions. Trust me, I understand having all the grand ideas. But that desire and “want to” can quickly fade away and you can lose your creative edge to create content when life hits you. The effort to bring you episodes pre and post recording takes time… Lots and lots of time.
After recording, the editing process can feel like the boogeyman. You think you recorded this great conversation that is going to be a great episode and then you go to edit and hear coughs or sneezes you didn’t think about while recording. Then there’s that random fan noise that is louder than the sound of an atomic bomb being dropped now that you are focusing on it during playback. And God forbid the sound of that heavy breathing because you were too close to the mic and didn’t mute it. I’m a big guy. I’m not fooling anyone with the loose clothes I wear. Sometimes my breathing can be a little heavy on a recording and to try and work that out so it doesn’t make it into the final version can be a good bit of work. On top of all that, there’s also this random annoyance sometimes with the final recordings from our recording platform where each participant’s audio track has gotten offset, so you have to spend the entire editing process syncing up each exchange as you go through it. That’s a long-winded way to say that post-production of a podcast can be a real challenge. It can really burn you out.
Around this time last year, I was struggling with the weight of all this, and I was still doing the podcast solo, apart from guests. I was losing the passion for making episodes due to all the work that goes into them. It started making it difficult to plan out episodes and recording times with guests and in an effort to try to streamline things a bit, I decided to reach out to Brad about becoming the co-host. And for the past year, I have enjoyed the heck out of having Brad be a part of the podcast with me. But, as our release schedule will show, we have been a little hit or miss on syncing our schedules up and recording episodes. Brad is a busy, busy man with heavy demands on his time from his ministry role and his role as a father of 3 young girls at home. I was a little hesitant to approach Brad with this initially, but eventually I reached out about the possibility of finding someone else for the co-host role that might could dedicate a little more time to it. My hesitancy was that I didn’t want to create any weird feelings between myself and Brad over this, but after discussing, we both agreed that the podcast could benefit from someone else in the co-host chair. So it is with mixed feelings that I announce Brad is stepping down from the podcast.
See, I told you we had to give some bittersweet news before we could talk about the exciting things. And this is the part that feels a little awkward for me, personally. I’m saddened that Brad is leaving the podcast, but I am also stoked about the future of the podcast. I don’t want my excitement to come off as some kind of hallelujah moment because Brad is gone. I very much enjoyed our time together, but I am using this transition period to better identify and plan for ways to improve the overall product of the podcast. This transition has provided me with the opportunity to assess and re-evaluate things to be better in the future. And with that, I’d like to share some of what is happening to drive the future success of The Threshing Floor.
I know, I know. Now that I dropped that big bit of news, you all are wondering about who might fill the vacant co-host role. And I could slow play you and share that when the next episode drops or bury it further down in this article, but I won’t do that. I owe you something in exchange for skipping the episode this week after all, plus I am too stoked for who is coming aboard to hold it in. I hope you guys will be just as excited as I am. This is a guy that is insanely active within our community and is creating a name for himself within our game as a topflight player. Moreso than those things, he’s someone you can just tell from interacting with him that he is made of the right stuff and carries himself in a way befitting a follower of Jesus. It is my honor and privilege to share with you that Jake Antonetz aka AgurTheWise is joining The Threshing Floor as co-host.
Now, Jake is someone that I have had some great conversations with over the past year or so, and I was able to meet him face to face at Nationals last year. But beyond that and his growing reputation as a player, there’s still a ton I don’t know about him, so I am looking forward to growing closer with him as we join on this adventure. I am sure there will be time on the next episode for him to share more about himself as a person and a player, but when I consider what the podcast truly needs from its co-host in order to take a step forward into a bright future, he checks pretty much all of the boxes. So, after you read this, be sure to reach out and let him know you’re excited for the future of the podcast with him onboard.
Segments:
Some of you may recall me asking the community’s opinion on the podcast moving to more “segments” as a way to frame future episodes. To better explain what I am envisioning when I use that term, imagine that the recent news section and the power rankings section of the podcast are existing “segments”. Those are things you can expect to hear each episode and they help shape what the final product looks like (or sounds like to be more accurate). What I am looking for is a way to streamline creating outlines for episodes without feeling like I must create a unique road map for each individual episode in order to focus more of my time and efforts on recording more consistently. If we have these segments in place, we can just update the content within them for the next episode and follow a similar flow. I think this will help us be able to get ready to record episodes with less time dedicated to crafting an outline while still giving us a way to stay on track.
Now, some of these segments that we come up with for future episodes may not be on every episode. For example, one suggestion I got from John Earley was to create a specific segment for spoilers versus having them lumped into the news portion. This will allow us to transition and focus more on a free-flowing section of the podcast built exclusively around spoilers that have come out. Having this in its own spot places more focus on it and will keep it from feeling like a rushed topic on the backend of the news. This spoiler segment would only appear on episodes that are recorded when new spoilers have come out.
Another benefit to these segments will allow the opportunity to record smaller parts of the episode that can be edited and combined later versus having to sit and record in one go to then face that editing boogeyman with a 2.5-hour recording to edit. That alone excites me for the potential positive benefits of framing the episodes with segments.
Jake and I have discussed a few ideas and have a solid list of things we’d like to consider developing into segments that can be added to the podcast. The most important requirement of any ideas that we implement will be that they must be engaging for you as the listeners. We are keeping that at the forefront of any decisions we make. Below you will see some current ideas that we believe are capable of meeting this requirement:
Agur the Creator
It’s no secret that Jake enjoys trying his hand at designing cards by sharing ideas that he comes up with. Some of these are highly thematic while others are more toolbox type abilities that he feels could serve the game well. This segment would allow Jake the opportunity to share a card idea and then let that lead into an open discussion on his inspiration for the card and if the idea is a realistic one and things like that. This could be a short 5-15 minute discussion on the card idea depending on the conversation that it creates.
Deck of the Week or Community Spotlight
These feel very similar, and we don’t want to risk redundancy so it would most likely be one or the other of these. The deck of the week idea is pretty straightforward. We pick a deck to spotlight and discuss on the podcast to shout out the deck creator and also to give some traction to potentially unique decks that we see get shared. The conversation around these could drift into meta discussions or depending on the specific deck, it may be an opportunity to discuss anti-meta strategies as well. Heck, we may even find someone playing an uncommon theme and choose to discuss that for variety.
The community spotlight idea would be similar but would be us choosing someone within the community to spotlight and share some information on. This could be someone that surprised at a recent tournament or maybe it’s someone that did something positive for the game or community. There’s lots of ways this could be implemented, but it feels more broad and random which could also translate to less “easy to implement” than the deck of the week idea.
Community Q/A Mailbag
This is a common segment on a number of podcasts these days, but it is a good one to boost engagement between hosts and the audience. For this, you all could DM or email us questions throughout the weeks between episodes and we could answer at least a few of these on a segment of the podcast. This would allow for the conversation to go in literally any direction which is a huge draw for this one. It’s like Michael Scott showing up to a job fair with a single sheet of paper because the possibilities of what it could turn into are endless.
These are the ideas that we have currently that we feel might be strong additions to what we are already doing on the podcast. If you have thoughts or comments on these, please let us know. If you have other segment ideas that would appeal to you as a listener, definitely let us know those as well. The goal of these is to add more excitement and more robust content within each episode, so share any ideas you have!
In addition to these changes, there are still more things in the works that are just not in a spot to be shared with you just yet. We will continue working on them and hopefully you will have them on the next episode. I know losing an episode this week is tough, but the one benefit is it gives us time to get Jake setup with equipment and to continue working on these ideas to get them ready to add to the podcast.
In closing, I would like to thank Brad once again for his time helping on the podcast over the past year and thank Jake for being willing to take up that mantle and fill the role moving forward. I am humbled by the impact that the podcast has had on our community since its inception, and I am glad that it will continue strong into the future. I would like to apologize if my thoughts here seem a bit scrambled. Admittedly, my mind is a bit scattered trying to use this time of transition to juggle several different things to better set the podcast up for success moving forward. Thank you all for taking the time to read this lengthy article. I hope you leave with half the excitement I have for what is to come on future episodes of our favorite podcast!
Power Rankings (05-08-2024):
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