Mefites as guests on the podcast?

January 5, 2014 9:17 AM

I think it would be cool if the podcast featured Mefites as guests because (1) people here do all kinds of amazing stuff (2) it would be a nice way to get to know you people.

The only episode with a guest that I can find is #12.

posted by Foci for Analysis to Feature Requests at 9:17 AM (93 comments total)

We've had a few guests in the past including ColdChef, mothershock, kokogiak and the new mods when they came on. I agree, more guests would be a good thing.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:20 AM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

I think there was more than one, since I seem to remember a couple member interviews.
posted by LionIndex at 9:21 AM on January 5, 2014

I was a guest on the podcast several years ago. I seem to recall blathering about Paul Weller (big surprise there). I'd love to hear more member interviews, too!
posted by scody at 9:35 AM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

I would listen to the podcast more often if this were a regular feature.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:45 AM on January 5, 2014 [21 favorites]

Given that the monthly review podcast already surpasses an hour most months this sounds like a great idea for a separate podcast. Wouldn't need to be a Mod. producing it either.
posted by COD at 9:54 AM on January 5, 2014 [5 favorites]

I think everybody should get a chance. There's only a hundred thousand or so of us.
posted by philip-random at 10:29 AM on January 5, 2014 [7 favorites]

I would gladly interview some MeFites and record the conversations. That sounds like my kind of fun. Would need an editor, though.
posted by brina at 10:36 AM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

I would listen to the podcast more often if this were a regular feature.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:45 PM on January 5

I would listen to the podcast more often if BitterOldPunk were a regular feature.
posted by msali at 11:29 AM on January 5, 2014 [15 favorites]

I volunteer as tribute.

I mean guest.

Whatever.

Do I get a bow?
posted by The Whelk at 11:37 AM on January 5, 2014 [9 favorites]

Wait wait wait I nominate Shakesperian cause he has hilarious stories about geology.

And I amkimIam, and ....you know what I'll make a list.
posted by The Whelk at 11:41 AM on January 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

I'm in favour of this. I nominate everyone except me, I get horrible stage fright unless you first bribe me with alcohol.
posted by arcticseal at 11:45 AM on January 5, 2014

( unloads barrels of rum)
posted by The Whelk at 11:48 AM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

Maybe the interviews could be a separate podcast?


Cortex likes podcasting he does it all the time.
posted by The Whelk at 11:49 AM on January 5, 2014 [3 favorites]

It's primarily the fact that I'm already doing three regular podcasts now that makes me not inclined to volunteer for that, yeah. Doing a Howdy, Mefite side-cast thing isn't a bad idea and would help sidestep some of the logistical difficulties that are I think the main thing that's kept us from doing more guests on the podcast to date.

That said, I think we could also probably manage to do guest spots on the normal podcast and just reduce the scope of our recapping-the-site chatter a bit for those episodes and make it work as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:08 PM on January 5, 2014

I agree that this would make me more likely to listen to the podcast. Especially if the guests were not what I will call, for lack of a better term, "celebrity" mefites.

To be more clear, by "celebrity" mefites I do not mean "metafilter members who are famous outside of metafilter" but "people who are metafilter-famous."

In other words, it would be nice to hear from people who are engaged members of metafilter (for whatever definition of engaged), but are not the same few dozen folks who already dominate much of the conversation here.

I should add that I mean no offense to those few dozen people, many of whom are extremely interesting, extremely likeable people-- it's just that we already know so much about those folks due to their heavy participation that it might be nice to get to "know" some of the less-dominant voices here.
posted by dersins at 12:13 PM on January 5, 2014 [52 favorites]

Oooh yes. I approve. As someone who's profile includes the one-liner of doom: "There are no other MetaFilter members nearby, sorry," i would find this really nice.

(This is almost worth a tiny pony: why doesn't it say how not-nearby the nearbyest member actually is? Seems improvable to me).
posted by Namlit at 12:13 PM on January 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

I would probably give the podcast a try if this became a thing. I already read the site, so a recap of the best posts by the same people every time doesn't interest me. (No offense.) If you brought in different community members with different tastes it would probably feel a little more like a community blog podcast and it might spotlight a more diverse group of posts.
posted by entropicamericana at 12:21 PM on January 5, 2014 [3 favorites]

I'd quite like to hear the odd clip from the MeFite meetup, just to hear what people sound like. For example, a picture from such a meetup appeared somewhere earlier today online; saw it and thought, literally "Those people look interesting; I wonder what they sound like...?" It would also be good to hear the voices of prolific MeFites, as can then read their comments in that voice or accent.

(Not that you'll want to hear mine, as I sound like some kind of lovechild of Stephen Fry, and Jack from Father Ted)
posted by Wordshore at 12:22 PM on January 5, 2014

I think Projects would be an awesome place to pick people from. They wouldn't even need to be on the whole podcast necessarily. Just, like, instead of an overview of Projects that month y'all can pick one, get the person on air, talk to them about it, and then go back to the podcast as per usual.
posted by griphus at 12:30 PM on January 5, 2014 [9 favorites]

I think this would be neat and would make me more likely to listen to the podcast as well. I spend a lot of time on Metafilter to the point where it does feel like a community, and yet I know very little about a lot of the people on it. I don't really know how people look or sound or, in many cases, how old they are or where they live or how they self-identify or anything, and the extra little glimpse into the real-life world of people who feel like part of the same community would be pretty cool.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 12:39 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think we could also probably manage to do guest spots on the normal podcast and just reduce the scope of our recapping-the-site chatter a bit for those episodes and make it work as well.

This is what you guys used to do and it worked well.
posted by shelleycat at 12:40 PM on January 5, 2014

I like the projects interview idea Griph has.
posted by The Whelk at 12:55 PM on January 5, 2014

I agree that this would make me more likely to listen to the podcast. Especially if the guests were not what I will call, for lack of a better term, "celebrity" mefites.

Nthed.

I also think Projects could be a great jumping in point, as well as perhaps a few "flagged for fantastic" comments that don't make the sidebar?
posted by smoke at 1:22 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

(or that do make the sidebar, for that matter).
posted by smoke at 1:22 PM on January 5, 2014

Especially if the guests were not what I will call, for lack of a better term, "celebrity" mefites.

but they should be able to do impressions
posted by philip-random at 1:59 PM on January 5, 2014

I would probably listen to the podcast if there were interviews, and I nth Griphus' Projects recommendation!
posted by chainsofreedom at 2:21 PM on January 5, 2014

What if non-mefites were interviewed? Say that interesting person on the corner/you work with/crazy aunt edna who toured with the Cure etc, etc.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:31 PM on January 5, 2014

She isn't crazy! She's just very weird, okay?
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 2:41 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Here's a longer list of podcasts with interviews or call-ins. It's been several years since a non-mod was interviewed (and I'd love to hear more interviews also! They're a nice change of pace), but there are actually quite a few MeFite voices from the earlier days.

3: Adam Savage Interview (asavage)
6: Chatting with the father of the permalink (pb)
8: jjg interview (jjg)
9: ColdChef goes six feet under (ColdChef)
12: Melissa May and a Harvey Girl (melissa may)
13: Viewer Mail (many members call in with questions: Matt and Jessamyn answer)
15: Call-ins and recaps (more call-ins)
17: Piles all the way down (scody)
19: The Daring Interview (mothershock)
20: Call-in Show (yet more call-ins)
21: Jesse Thorn Interview
24: Jill Sobule Interview
28: Burning logs (even more call-ins!)
29: Happy Happy Joy Joy (members call in to talk about their happiest Metafilter moments)
31: The Big Picture (kokogiak)
1M: Corduroy Is My Guinea Pig (music podcast containing Corduroy interview)
2M: That Postcolonial Baloney (music podcast containing raisindebt interview)
3M: Bleeding Hands Don't Lie (music podcast containing InfidelZombie interview)
43: 10th Party Memories (call-ins)
49a: Better Know a Moderator: vacapinta (vacapinta)
50: Zer0 day with MC Frontalot
53: Raw Milk Talk (ewagoner)
61: Know Your Moderators II: Restless Boogaloo (restless_nomad)
63: The Intern Speaks (Dominic. Allen)
66: Better Know a taz (taz)
74: LobsterMitten interview (LobsterMitten)
75: goodnewsfortheinsane interview (goodnewsfortheinsane)
posted by beryllium at 2:55 PM on January 5, 2014 [20 favorites]

Also, I missed 60: Quakes and QWOP, which included calls from MeFites in Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
posted by beryllium at 3:06 PM on January 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

This is almost worth a tiny pony: why doesn't it say how not-nearby the nearbyest member actually is? Seems improvable to me

I don't know if there's a maximum value, but there is a setting in your preferences that defines what distance is referenced by "nearby", so you could just increase that number until somebody appears.
posted by LionIndex at 3:12 PM on January 5, 2014

I just reset mine to 5000 miles and got a surprisingly low number of 790 mefites nearby (vs. 81 when set to 50 miles), probably due to people not locating themselves.
posted by LionIndex at 3:15 PM on January 5, 2014

Ah. That explains it. Will fiddle and see (actually, I'm pretty sure that everyone around here is simply hiding or something. Who in the world wants to advertise that they live in a rain hole like this).
posted by Namlit at 3:54 PM on January 5, 2014

Problem solved. Göteborg is 38 miles and I had mine on 10. Thanks for the tip.

Carry on...
posted by Namlit at 3:59 PM on January 5, 2014

I am available for an interview next Tuesday, but I won't answer any questions about my relationship with J Lo, or the eyeball in the back of my head.
posted by briank at 4:01 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I know you kids love your Skype, but I would be happy to tape sync for Los Angeles interviews.
posted by mykescipark at 4:03 PM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

How many people would be interested in participating in something like a multi-episode podcast of interviews of mefites? Like, say, three episodes of an hour each, featuring a total of 15-20 different people? The interviews could vary in content, with some people telling a bit about themselves, others telling their favorite MetaFilter-related story, some people talking about how they discovered MetaFilter, etc.

I'd very much like to hear a guest mefite on each official podcast, but it also seems to me that there's potential for something bigger and more focused on hearing from mefites. Of course, what I'd really love to see (or to do, in my dreams) would be a video documentary of a big North American tour of MeFi meetups and interviews of individual mefites.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:55 PM on January 5, 2014 [8 favorites]

I think Horace Rumpole should read something, because he has a dreamy voice.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:16 PM on January 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

I'd be interested in that, IF!
posted by ocherdraco at 5:20 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

"I'd be interested in that, IF!"

Cool!

Yeah, I want to see what kind of response my comment gets. I'd be interested in producing it, especially with some help. But only if enough people express interest in participating. At first glance, it sounds pretty easy, just interviewing people by phone. But on further consideration, I realized that it could be more difficult than it appears. So, wanted to guage interest first.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:45 PM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

How many people would be interested in participating in something like a multi-episode podcast of interviews of mefites?

Like Studs Terkel, but for Metafilter? Sounds like fun to me.
posted by mykescipark at 5:47 PM on January 5, 2014

Maybe come up with a Metafilter-specific type of questionnaire, similar to the Proust/Lipton/VF variety for part of it, or with one MeFite to close it out.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:59 PM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

This pony has good teeth.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:13 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Welcome to the Metafilter Studio where we interview Mefites of note."

"What's your favorite word?"

"....and then there was your first post deletion. Tell us about that."

I could get behind this :)
posted by pjern at 7:31 PM on January 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

I have more stories about exploding corpses. Lots more.
posted by ColdChef at 7:54 PM on January 5, 2014 [15 favorites]

Namlit: This is almost worth a tiny pony: why doesn't it say how not-nearby the nearbyest member actually is? Seems improvable to me

LionIndex: I don't know if there's a maximum value, but there is a setting in your preferences that defines what distance is referenced by "nearby", so you could just increase that number until somebody appears.

I maxed out my "nearby" value to see how many people were in the broad vicinity of me, back when I lived in the relatively quiet Central Coast of California, then I dialed it back to 250 miles and left it at that. With that radius, I'm "near" 47 MeFites.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:57 PM on January 5, 2014

I would definitely listen if you interviewed that seafood lasagna woman
posted by threeants at 8:15 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I bet ChuraChura has monkey stories

we all love monkey stories
posted by The Whelk at 8:21 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

IF's idea sounds like some funky kind of mefi-specific form of "This American Life".

I love it and I'm interested.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:27 PM on January 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

IF, I love your idea. Don't want to be interviewed for it, but would listen! :)
posted by zarq at 8:28 PM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sorry, I'm booked.
posted by mazola at 9:53 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't listen 'cause I'm lazy. But it's a good idea.
posted by dobbs at 10:05 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd read the transcript and assign hilarious accents in my head.

Actually, because most Mefites are foreigners to us Australians, you already have hilarious accents.

Carry on.
posted by taff at 10:25 PM on January 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

I just want to see short segments of the existing podcast animated.
posted by davejay at 11:54 PM on January 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I always wanted to be interviewed on a podcast. It's one of my weirdly unambitious ambitions.
posted by drjimmy11 at 11:54 PM on January 5, 2014

davejay: "I just want to see short segments of the existing podcast animated."

This has indeed been done!
posted by beryllium at 4:20 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

I just want to see short segments of the existing podcast animated.

That would make a fun stop motion project!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:31 AM on January 6, 2014

I volunteer Ralph.

On the plus side, he really does have a voice for radio. (On the minus side, heaven knows what he would say, so......maybe not.)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:37 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

On a more serious note, I think it would be cool to have a where-are-they-now segment for people who USED to be here and maybe now not so much. Miguel, for example, though I can think of other folks I would like to hear from too.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:38 AM on January 6, 2014

I volunteer as tribute.

I mean guest.

Whatever.

Do I get a bow?

The one thing that this site lacks is The Whelk updates and information, so I'm all for this. Could we just get a Mefi channel that has a webcam on him 24/7?
posted by Meatbomb at 5:42 AM on January 6, 2014 [3 favorites]

Before I got to it, I was already thinking about something like what Ivan Fyodorovich is suggesting. I'd definitely listen to this podcast, and might even be willing to contribute somehow, depending on what is needed.
posted by gauche at 6:02 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

This sounds like a lot of fun. The guys over at Giant Bomb seem to have a lot of success with Google Hangouts, which should be fairly accessible to everyone.

I am willing to blather on for awhile on a variety of topics that I may or may not have any knowledge of.
posted by backseatpilot at 6:30 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've been really happy that the podcast is back on a regular monthly schedule this year, and while I'm not strenuously opposed to incorporating MeFi member interviews into it, my concern is that it's just one more moving part that the mods would have to coordinate and that would end up delaying things. So for this reason (and also because I really just like the podcast as it is) I'd vote for having a separate podcast for the member interviews, as has been suggested above.
posted by Kat Allison at 6:57 AM on January 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

I would listen to the podcast more often if this were a regular feature.
This.
Also, shorter. Almost two hours is kind of a slog sometimes.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:58 AM on January 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm with Kat Allison. I REALLY LOVE the podcasts just the way they are. But would also LOVE to hear a separate podcast with member interviews.

And respectfully disagreeing with dersins. Personally, I would enjoy hearing from the most active members. While they are all distinct people, I still tend to mix them up in my head unless I've heard them audibly. I have a much more solid picture of both ColdChef and scody because I heard (and really enjoyed) their interviews. They are much more real to me and it makes me enjoy their comments even more.
posted by marsha56 at 7:12 AM on January 6, 2014

Yay to all of this. (clearly not articulate enough for an interview though...)
posted by Sophie1 at 7:40 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

The only solution I can see here is that we need to hire a new mod who doesn't actually have any traditional mod duties at all but is instead in charge of podcast prep, subject vetting, scheduling, editing, etc. so that cortex et al. don't have to worry about producing yet another show.

We can call them the PodMod.
posted by komara at 7:57 AM on January 6, 2014 [4 favorites]

We can call them the PodMod.

Tangential because it's a funny thing -

I actually initially supported Chris Dodd in 2007, back when the Dems were still settling on a candidate. (I'm originally from Connecticut and I always dug him.) And one of the goofier elements of his campaign was: he had just gotten an iPod when his campaign was ramping up, and encouraged supporters to suggest music for him to download onto it and assemble as a campaign playlist.

He called it The Dodd Pod.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:46 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd be up for IF's suggestion.
posted by scrump at 8:57 AM on January 6, 2014

The only solution I can see here is that we need to hire a new mod who doesn't actually have any traditional mod duties at all but is instead in charge of podcast prep, subject vetting, scheduling, editing, etc. so that cortex et al. don't have to worry about producing yet another show.

Wow. This would be the BEST. JOB. EVER.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 9:03 AM on January 6, 2014

The only solution I can see here is that we need to hire a new mod who doesn't actually have any traditional mod duties at all but is instead in charge of podcast prep, subject vetting, scheduling, editing, etc. so that cortex et al. don't have to worry about producing yet another show.

I believe what you're looking for is a radio producer, of which there are more than a few here on MeFi.
posted by mykescipark at 9:35 AM on January 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

The one thing that this site lacks is The Whelk updates and information, so I'm all for this. Could we just get a Mefi channel that has a webcam on him 24/7?

Could the channel have continuous narration by elizardbits?
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:20 AM on January 6, 2014 [5 favorites]

I believe what you're looking for is a radio producer, of which there are more than a few here on MeFi.

Hey, I'm just the ideas man. Don't bog me down with your details and fancy titles. I'm busy thinkin. Hold on, I got anoth- ... wait ... no. Nope. It's gone.
posted by komara at 10:41 AM on January 6, 2014 [3 favorites]

I would also accept a channel where The Whelk narrates elizardbits 24/7.
posted by maryr at 11:04 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd love to listen to a podcast or whatever of Mefite interviews. Everyone here just seems so darn interesting.

Except me. I'm pretty boring, and should therefore not be interviewed as part of this.
posted by nubs at 11:13 AM on January 6, 2014

A random Mefite interview would be interesting. Folks could opt out, but I have yet to meet an uninteresting Mefite IRL.
posted by readery at 11:29 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Hi, Dexter2000, We're From The Internet And We're Here To Interview You."
"Oh. But I'm really very boring and not at all interesting."
"Sure You Are! Everybody On MetaFilter Is Interesting!"
"Well, uh... do you like severed heads? I have a great collection. I keep them in the basement."
"Whoa! Perhaps That's A Bit Too Interesting For Our Audience!"
posted by zarq at 11:36 AM on January 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

Yes, I checked. "Sorry, no matches for dexter2000 across mefi."
posted by zarq at 11:36 AM on January 6, 2014

Now if they were shrunken heads...
posted by readery at 11:57 AM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yes, I checked. "Sorry, no matches for dexter2000 across mefi."

You searched with a lowercase "d". On a related note, what is your hat size? Just curious.
posted by Dexter2000 at 12:28 PM on January 6, 2014 [9 favorites]

What about "Ask A Mefite?, where people can submit questions to a pre-selected user. There could be all kinds of ways to format this, from limiting the number of questions, who and how the questions are selected, etc. The selection process could involve submitting names via mail to the mods, maybe a profile checkbox?, mods choice, random selection fro people who opt-in... but some way that doesn't turn it into a popularity contest. Maybe the questions could be limited to subjects that the person has discussed somewhere on the site.
posted by Room 641-A at 12:30 PM on January 6, 2014 [6 favorites]

I would be interested in listening to stories about logging.
posted by Dexter2000 at 12:36 PM on January 6, 2014

Can we integrate Formspring into Mefite profiles?
posted by Nomyte at 12:39 PM on January 6, 2014

Nomyte, feel free to enter it on this wiki page. (If you'd like me to do it for you, I'd be happy to.) That's pb's informal 'social media sites on member profiles to do' list.
posted by zarq at 12:46 PM on January 6, 2014

Like IF's idea both as a thing I'd do and a thing I'd listen to.

Also, the MF podcast featuring ColdChef is one of the best things ever, and more or less wound up being my listening-to-podcasts-while-walking-my-dog gateway drug.
posted by COBRA! at 12:51 PM on January 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Room 641-A's idea here is kinda genius, y'all.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:24 PM on January 6, 2014

Nomyte, feel free to enter it on this wiki page.

That was a joke response to the "ask-a-mefite" suggestion. I can only imagine that our Springform inboxes will fill up with spurious questions about cats.
posted by Nomyte at 2:08 PM on January 6, 2014

Doh! :)
posted by zarq at 2:56 PM on January 6, 2014

Interview some of the people who make that month's interesting posts. This month, for example, you might have asked danb about that wacky best notes thing he's started. Then add a "related interview" link from the post and from the best of mefi blog.
posted by pracowity at 5:20 AM on January 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I came in to suggest something like Room 641-A's idea: a MeFi twist on the Reddit AMA sessions. Coupling the free form question format with the Proustian questionnaire approach would blend structure and serendipity. It could also be linked to upcoming meet ups to help drive attendance and foster IRL interactions.
posted by carmicha at 6:36 AM on January 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

All good ideas (he says diplomatically), but my first principles thought with respect to the 'getting to know mefites better' trope, is to want to encourage (or bullwhip at a stake) the slackos into filling out their profiles.

Go on you profile blankies: add some dimensional flavour to your character. You know you want to!
posted by peacay at 6:48 AM on January 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Rather than making it a special spotlight couldn't we just hear from mefites whose posts/comments are featured in the review? You can call them up for a soundbite, or schedule a five minute slot for more in-depth probing if said bod is up for it....
posted by freya_lamb at 6:59 AM on January 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

One could also interview people with the funniest one-liners. Or those who most vociferously oppose themselves against funny one-liners.

(Heck, one could interview everyone)
posted by Namlit at 7:11 AM on January 7, 2014