With two more weeks to go, Season 2 of my podcast/codcast, Out of the Fishbowl, has been steaming ahead. 

The latest episode, titled ‘Peace like a Rivet’ [not a typo!] hit the ground running yesterday, and landed really well. With a number of guest cameo voices, from some of the most incredible people i know, this episode is resonating with different people in different ways. And it looks set to easily be the second most, if not the most, popular episode this season, after the opening episode, ‘The Define Line’. 

What is special about this latest episode is that it explores different aspects of Peace [Peace-making vs Peace-keeping vs Peace-building vs Peace co-creating] as well as touching on the Both/And rather than Either/Or nature of viewing things, but also that a diverse crew of legendary people volunteered to share a thought or reflection or definition of Peace that resonated with them and so it wasn’t just my voice in this space. So check it out if you haven’t yet. 

Season 2

The hope for Season 2 was to do Twitterer Spaces linked to the episodes, which we did 2 of and they went alright, but were not quite as engaged as i hoped. Then decided it might be better to move it forward a week so instead of releasing new episode on Monday and holding the space on Wed which would bring us to this week, but am thinking i might skip and do one on Peace next week. 

The feedback for Season 2 has again generally been really positive and specific. Once again thought [story of my life] i tend to be creating really good stuff that few people get to see/engage with and that’s always a little frustrating. 8500 followers on the Twitterer, close to 5000 on Facebook and another 1000 or so on Instagram and top episode has had 450 listens, but most of them are sitting at 150. So the question of whether to continue with another season and hope more people find it, or just be content with the fact that a couple of hundred people seem to be finding some meaning and helpfulness in it. 

 

Season 2 codcast

The Story so Far

If you haven’t yet fully made it into Season 2 yet, here is what has happened so far:

#Episode 1: The Define Line – wrote a whole post on this sharing some of the feedback it brought in over here. Basic premise was a question about the worst thing you have ever done, and asking whether you should be defined by that thing. As well as your absolute best moment. 

#Episode 2: Whose Fine is it Anyway? – In Season 1 i shared that one of the biggest lessons i had learned in recent years was about diversifying the people who inform your life via the books you read, shows you watch, podcasts you listen to and so on. In this episode i share a question that revolutionised my life when it came to formerly awkward encounters with new people at the singles tables at a wedding or a dinner party where you only know the hosts and so on. Changing “What do you do?” to “What are you Passionate about?” really changed things up for me and i speak into it in here.

#Episode 3: An Exist-ential Crisis – In Season 1, ‘Waging Warm’ was the weird named episode and this is it for Season 2. The idea is to explore ways – both big and small [some fun dressing up for airport pick-up stories in here] – in which you can move beyond simply existing or even living, and start thinking about thriving. And even if life is really tough and your circumstances are super challenging, are there small ways in which you can find the fun or the energy or the private joke or whatever it is, to help you live a fuller life.

#Episode 4: The Depth Penalty – This is an episode i really enjoyed compiling and it is the longest by quite a long way, but kinda reaching average proportions of most other podcasts checking in at about an hour. It explores both the Death Penalty and this insane idea that we choose to kill people to show people that killing people is wrong. But then it also takes a look at prison and whether it is a punitive or rehabilitatonary thing, using two extreme examples from across the world where they tried to do prison quite drastically differently, with some very positive and measurable results. 

#Episode 5: Peace like a Rivet – Okay, maybe this could also count as a weird-titled episode and the play on words has already caught out at least one person. In this latest episode i take a look [with some friends of mine who graciously guest cameo voice] at how Peace can be a serene and tranquil river, AND PEace can be a raging torrential river that carves its way through rock, AS WELL AS being a small piece of metal that pulls to much larger things together… i really, really, love how this one came together, especially with the extra voices, so if you haven’t, please do give this a listen. 

i DO like the medium of podcasting and so i very well may carry on, whoever is listening. i would love to get my setup and recording/editing to a better level and hopefully my mate Grant Hinds will be able to come and give me some pointers when his new baby vibes have calmed down a little bit. And then if some of the people who found my content useful wanted to help support the content creation process [either directly or through my Patreon page, which i wrote about here] that would help as well in the longer run.

But in the short term, i have two more episodes to release this Season, and while i have titles for them and cute kid intros [probably the highlight of my Podcast, for me!], due to a natural disaster in the Philippines that unfortunately prevented my most excellent editor from finishing this Season with me, i have to record and edit and upload them all myself. And episodes 6 and 7, although themed [the next one is meant to be on Mentoring and might snatch weirdest title!] have not been planned or recorded as yet and so that might be later today’s job to get going on that at least.

If you made it this far, thanks for investing your time and attention. It is always a challenge to get past the algorithms and have the Podcasts land in front of peoples’ eyes and then ears. But you can always help by sharing the articles and the podcasts and tagging people you think might like a particular episode. At the end of the day it really shouldn’t be about numbers, but impact. And yet, one tends to think that more numbers means the potential for more impact, so back to the Both/And over the Either/Or. 

Thank you for being a listener and hopefully fan of Out of the Fishbowl. While i may talk about numbers, i absolutely value every single person that thinks my voice on any matter is worth giving time and attention to. And for that reason alone it might be enough to keep going.

By Season 3 i definitely need a cool catch-phrase though. Although maybe being Out of the Fishbowl, “catch phrase” is the catch phrase. Nah. But if you have any suggestions, let me have them. Also if you are a listener to multiple episodes, i would LOVE to hear in the comments which is your favourite so far and if there was a moment or line or story or thought that specifically impacted you. 

Thank you SO much for being on this journey with me and here’s to seeing what you’ve enjoyed and what impacted you…