YGCTO Episode 27 - Babylon 5 Wrapup

That’s All, Again…

Turns out your boys aren’t that good at ending things… or keeping things short for that matter. Our original intention was to do four episodes per season for the entire Babylon Five season making a clean 20 episode podcast season. I immediately had the brilliant idea of releasing a minisode after each regular episode, ballooning the count to 40 episodes. Now we’re at the end of it a year later with 52 episodes finished and two in the can for our next topic.

I learned so much throwing myself into this show. I’ve been a rabid podcast listener since 2010 when my daughter Zoey was born. Having Paul F. Tompkins and Scott Aukerman tell me jokes was a great way to pass the hours rocking her to sleep when my wife got sleep breaks. I soon discovered movie podcasts. Blank Check, The Flop House, Comedy Film Nerds and Doug Loves Movies were weekly listens for years. Speaking of Comedy Film Nerds, they stopped regular episodes years ago but looks like they come back for a random episode once in a blue moon. It makes me look forward to our retirement when we can re-convene for an old friends episode. Of course, by that time Dre and I will be running a podcasting empire with several shows under our banner.

Never Too Early for Self-Reflection

I’m an inbox empty guy. If I get a text or email from someone I know, I will respond as soon as I can. Because that’s how we show each other we pay attention and that we care. Real truth… I’m absolutely horrible at speaking. I tend to reuse the same word over and over in the same sentence. I use an unhealthy amount of filler words to get any thought out. Editing myself talking each week is a living nightmare of my own faults.

But like performing music, the only way to self-improvement is by doing it. I’m extremely lucky to have Dre for a podcast partner. Dre has no trouble talking. Words are there for him in a way that they are simply not for me. He has a great sense of context and is great about cutting in whenever I’m not making the point I think I’m making… which is multiple times per episode.

I wonder what I would do if I had the time to truly work on my speaking. It’s never going to happen as long as I have the need to play music. Music demands a lot just to keep up, let alone obtain mastery over an instrument. If I had no bands, I would immediately enroll in speech therapy and improv classes. On that topic, I used to be a music director at Second City with one of their touring acts. I have a lot of training that way in improvising on stage with top-level improv comedians - Jordan Klepper was in my group before going on to late-night semi-fame. But my instrument was not my body and voice. I was able to hide behind the piano on stage and react with sound and underscoring. I know how to “Yes And” with music but not with my own voice. We’ll do another one of these in a year and see if I have a better opinion of my speaking abilities.

And speaking of Dre, let me extol some more virtues there. Dre is self-admittedly the most effusive man in podcasting. Maybe that should be a Masumi/Eliza sized warning about my own narcissism. I get encouragement and mutual support. In my years of being in countless bands, I discovered that having the right people you can get along with on a creative and personal level is much more important than having great musicians. Unless you’re Steely Dan. In that case, you simply have a perfect partnership at the nucleus and let the rest of the musicians come and go around you. Dre completely “gets” me as a creative force. I have a need to try new things and to share content - even as I suspect no one but us is listening.

Soon as we started releasing the podcast, Dre announced that he was moving across the country. We were still able to land an episode every week for a year. It worked because we respect each others’ time and pay attention to scheduling. Dre has a real tendency to get distracted by… well anything in his view. Like me, I know he is self-aware about this achilles heel and takes steps to get things done around his ADHD. I’ve often suspected myself of having some of that, but never got diagnosed. It doesn’t matter by now. I get so much done every day through to-do lists and time management.

I know when to set those things up for Dre and when to trust that he’ll get his shit done. The biggest win there was realizing that I needed at least a week to be able to edit my portions of episodes. I set up a column in our master spreadsheet with due dates for Dre’s initial edit. I’m usually very uneasy doing that for people as I don’t want to force my constraints on other people. To my surprise, Dre loved that I was taking the time to show him what I needed in a format that he could easily look up and live by.

By the time we got to season five coverage, I was confident enough in our abilities to propose the Blitzcast and have 12 previous guests on all in a single episode. It went off without a hitch despite the scheduling nightmare that it was. I’m looking forward to seeing what other formats we can cook up during our run.

Best moments of the past year

I’ve said it before but having guests on for every episode was key in making this podcast tick. I honestly don’t know if we could have made it this far as a two-hander. I do like the occasional guestless episode like the Za’Ha’Dum episode with just me and Dre. But those are going to be the exception as having a guest on is now baked into the show.

The first run of guests were all people I had barely met. I wanted to build our guest foundation on non-cis white males. since that’s clearly the easiest kind of guest to have on. I also wanted to establish repeat guests as a regular thing. I like having a “stable” of people that listeners can become familiar with across different seasons. I love hearing the same people across Blank Check and Adam Tod Brown’s shows.

There’s an unbalanced symbiotic relationship between podcasters and regular listeners where the listener feels like the podcaster is a close friend… who has no idea the listener even exists. This is something I think about a lot when talking with Jeff May. For years I listened to him on multiple shows. Then I went out to LA and got to meet him before one of his comedy shows at Mint on Card. Then, I was a guest on one of his shows. Then, he was a guest on my show. By now, I’ve recorded podcasts with several people I’ve listened to. Jeff, Adam, David Bell, Logan, John and Atif are all podcasters who I’ve broken the invisible barrier with. It never won’t be surreal for me each time I meet one of them. It’s because the stupid lizard part of my brain tells me that I’m not worth being in the same space with any of them. And in the end, they’re just people like me struggling to get a good show out. And I’m on my way to seeing myself as a part of that community where we all lift each other up.

Odder still is my relationship with Michael Vincent Bramley. We met at a random dinner that our spouses set up. They both work in the same industry and met at conferences. I was already a fan of MVB from his podcast art on so many of my favorite shows. We hit it off at dinner and make a serious effort to meet up anytime we’re in the same area. I now find myself in a position to hire my friend for my own podcast logo - which of course we already did and have the new logo. We’re just waiting for the third season to reveal it as it matches the subject. Without revealing the image, I can say we purposefully designed it with Michael to be modular in that it will be updated every season to match the subject. The only reason it’s not up yet is that Dre and I keep inserting more episodes, like the Power Fantasy season that’s about to start.

So back to best moments. My favorite moment was when we had Logan Trent on the show. Before we started recording, he sang the theme song I wrote to Jeff May’s pack breaking show. It was a surreal experience for a narcissist like me who puts these things out into the world with zero expectations of anyone even hearing them. To get that positive feedback meant more to me than I think Logan will ever know.

Blitzcast was another high point for us. It was a keystone in making our guests the focal point of the show. In my mind, it was signaling that we don’t need a regular format as much as we need regular guests. It’s the people that matter most. If you can show them you appreciate them, they will be there for you.

This Week’s Guest

Speaking of cherished friendships with returning guests, our guest this week is Karl Wolf.

Karl Wolf

Karl Wolf is a singer and Babylon 5 enthusiast living in Detroit. He was my closest friend for my first three semesters of college. Karl is the person who introduced me to Babylon 5. I was so busy at that time, I only got so far into the show and made a pledge to finish it someday. I think I picked the most self-punishing way to watch a TV series, but that one’s on me.

Karl works for a non-profit organization in Detroit called Samaritas that works to help immigrants in the area. Please donate to samaritas.org if you are able.

Karl would like to plug Samaritas, The Expanse, Outer Wilds, and Vangir Voices

Mike wants to be sure you hear his Youngblood theme song, First Thought, Last Thought:

Kieron Gillen’s Decompressed Podcast Link

In this episode…

We pick favorite Characters, Episodes and Moments of Babylon 5 to close out the first season of You Gotta Check This Out.

Dre and Mike wrap up their coverage of Babylon 5, Karl reaffirms Christopher Franke, what if Ivonava had stayed, Karl relitigates coverage of Sleeping in Light, STICKERS!!!, we reveal our favorite characters episodes and moments from the show, Franklin and the walkabout het their due

What Did We Learn?

Podcasting is all about the friends you make along the way

Next Episode

For the next full episode, we begin our coverage of Kieron Gillen and Casper Wijngaard “The Power Fantasy” comic with Carin Slater.

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Cheers, all!