First, there was one.

Hello.

Welcome.

After much procrastination, I am finally writing this newsletter. As promised, I will be chronicling the journey of setting up an independent podcast studio. Turns out, it’s not so easy. The journey and especially the chronicling.

So, jumping right to the beginning.

It all started with She Slays. The first podcast I worked on. It was produced in association with a Delhi based collective called Baatein and for Health Shots, a Hindustan Times vertical. Health shots was targeted at health conscious young women.

She Slays featured a story every episode, every week. A story of a women who had overcome some physical or mental disability. Depression. Suicidal tendencies. Accident caused amputation. PCOS. Trigeminal Neuralgia. Covid. Yeah, even Covid. Some of it was expectedly grim.

The way it was executed was that Baatein would record an interview with the subject. Ranging anywhere from 15 mins to 50 mins. I would get the files and I would try to put a structure around the story. Who the subject is? Their childhood. What they do. Their first brush with the illness/disability. Recovery and so on.

Check out this episode about Mansi. I had heard about Epilepsy. The basic idea of sorts but they way she described it was just so appealing in terms of storytelling. The thought of an Epilepsy attack feeling like the TV sucking her in. Your worst trip but infinitely worse. I tried to capture that in the show’s intro.

Then there was Suman’s story. A 2 part episode. Back in 2016-17, an American crew came down to Hapur, a Haryanvi village and decided to document an unusual movement. The village’s women had started making sanitary pads on their own and against the village’s disapproval. That short documentary ended up winning an Oscar. Yes, an Academy Award. At the heart of this documentary was Suman. We were lucky to get hold of her for an interview. It was a treat producing this. There was additional pressure as Hindustan Times wanted this to be there Women’s day story.

Last I checked the entire She Slays podcast had crossed more than 1.5 Lakh listens. Pretty good isn’t it?

This week

Another episode of Quiz Time India is out. This is episode 13. Some friends said the podcast popped up in their recommendations. Which can only mean that the podcast is generally doing well.

This week, on account of the Independence Day, the podcast was open to the audience members to participate. We could only accommodate 5 folks, primarily cause recording remotely with 5 people and then editing them and pushing the episode was a big task in itself.

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