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The first official episode of the podcast is out in the wild. I think it's fair to say that it's been a journey, and that the journey isn't over yet. I'm still learning, there's still a lot to learn, and mistakes have been made along the way. It's been fun so far though. I think.

We sat down to record mid-morning on Saturday, while the rest of the house were out and about doing other things. Half the reason for pushing something out so quickly was the news that Spotify has approved the podcast – yes, that's right – from now on you will be able to find the podcast on Spotify, all over the world. It's a day late with each episode, but still – IT'S SPOTIFY!

Laura has been desperate to do something involved with podcasting for a while, but anxiety, nerves, and plain old fear have so far prevented her from doing anything. I offered to talk to her about her attempts at blogging, and before we knew it we were sitting in the study with microphones hanging in the air in front of us – or at least I was. I rigged up a USB microphone in a hurry for her, tested the sound levels, and we were off to the races.

Learning how to record has been a vertical learning process for me. I'm getting better at it every time, but ending up with a recording that's easy to listen to hasn't been as straightforward as you might imagine. Today taught me that the USB microphone cannot be held – but by the time I realised you could hear Laura's panicked grip on the microphone, it was too late to do anything about it (other than record the whole thing again). We just went with it.

I'm also learning how to use a “DAW” – a “Digital Audio Workstation”. It's the software that allows me to edit the recorded sound – chopping out pregnant pauses, removing background noises, and adding introductions and background music. Luckily I haven't had to spend any money on software yet – everything used was available for free.

The audio hosting at Soundcloud has been free so far. I can upload a certain amount per month for free (three hours, I think), but beyond that I will have to start paying. Somehow I can't see myself becoming prolific enough to warrant a paid account, but you never know. Thirty minutes per episode seems like enough.

Anyway. Onwards and upwards. I suppose I should really get back to blogging about real life now, and stop ramming the podcast down everybody's throat. I need to go make dinner, so I'll leave you to have a listen. If you would like to feature on a future episode, get in touch via the contact [/contact] page!.