This document provides an overview of Carla DeMarco's podcast "VIEW to the U" at the University of Toronto Mississauga. It discusses how the podcast was created to showcase UTM researchers, the planning process which included sourcing equipment and lining up interview subjects, and some of the challenges of editing and marketing. It also outlines the positive outcomes, such as increased visibility for researchers, recruitment of international students, and repurposing of content. Metrics show over 9,200 total listens and growing engagement from the university community.

1. Adventures
in Podcasting
A work in progress

2. “We keep moving forward, opening
new doors, and doing new things,
because we’re curious and curiosity
keeps leading us down new paths.”
− Walt Disney
Entrepreneur, animator, voice actor & film producer

3. Adventures
in Podcasting
Introduction
How this podcast came to be
Some tech talk
Challenges & Lessons learned
Positive Outcomes
Twitter cjdemarco
UTM_Research
Instagram cjdemarco69
uoftmississaugaresearch

4. About me
Research Communications &
Grants Manager at
University of Toronto
Mississauga
Twitter cjdemarco
UTM_Research
Instagram cjdemarco69

5. About me
Mostly an introvert

6. About me
Sometimes runner
Also love reading, yoga,
music, listening to CBC and …

8. A Podcast
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A podcast, or generically netcast, is an episodic series of
digital audio or video files that a user can download and
listen to.
It is often available for subscription, so that new episodes
are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the
user's own local computer, mobile application, or portable
media player. It is distinct from Internet radio, which
involves streaming rather than downloading.

9. A Brief History of Podcasting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
First podcast, which was a “special RSS-with-enclosures
feed” was posted as a MP3 file as part of a Harvard blog in
2003 – this was previously a text-only RSS feed.
And in 2004, the “media-in-newsfeed idea was picked up by
multiple developer groups,” and the first podcasting client
was iPodderX, later renamed Transistr due to dispute with
Apple, and released first for the Mac and then the PC.

10. 2018 General
Podcast Stats
From podcastinginsights.com
525,000 active shows
Over 18.5 million episodes

11. From podcastinginsights.com
2019 General
Podcast Stats
750,000 active shows
Over 30 million episodes

12. The Percolating Ideas
Use a podcast as an alternative way to
feature researchers
How to get around some of the obvious
stumbling blocks (time, resources, skills, etc.)

13. The Research
Started speaking to other communications
people at UofT and beyond
So many online resources about podcasting and
this blog about podcasting for beginners
quickly became one of my favourites
https://blog.bufferapp.com/podcasting-for-
beginners quickly became my favourite

14. The Research
(cont’d)
From the Buffer Social blog some of the more
practical tips included the following:
 Get a good microphone
 Sample outline (show intro, intro music, topic 1,
topic 2, interlude, closing remarks, etc.)
 Suggested ideal length for podcast (22 minutes)

15. The Plan
Put together a plan to present
Sourced the equipment
Came up with a lineup of people to profile and
some themes to cover

16. The Mission
To showcase UTM research and researchers
To generate new and original content
Coming to terms with the fact that I am not out /
not equipped to produce the next This American
Life, 99% invisible, The Moth, or Reply All …

17. The Equipment - Podcast in a box
• Zoom H4N Recorder
• 2 Schur mics and 2 LINK chords for the mics
• 2 mic stands

18. The Set-up

19. The Name
Naming the podcast was a challenge because
we have all disciplines & departments to cover

20. The List
Basic instructions to remind myself
(forward my phone, offer the guest water, take a picture,
have them sign a photo-release form/waiver, etc.)

21. The Interview
Professor Ulrich Krull,
Chemical & Physical Sciences

22. The Tech Talk
And this is totally coming from a non-techy person

23. The Editing
The editing process is what takes up the majority of my time in podcasting

24. The Editing
I use a FREE program called Audacity

25. The Editing

26. The Platform
SoundCloud

27. The Repository

28. The Transcript

29. The Lessons Learned
(and in some cases what I will call “anec-don’ts”)

30. The Second Interview
Season 1 Episode 2
Professor Alexandra Gillespie, English & Drama
Recorded interview in a noisy environment

31. The Fourth Interview
Season 1 Episode 4
Professor Evonne Levy, Visual Studies
A serious interviewee

32. The First (real) Interview
Season 1 Episode 5
Professor Rhonda McEwen,
Institute of Communication, Culture, Information & Technology
Embargoed information

33. The Unexpected
Season 1 Episode 6
Professor Christine Shaw, Blackwood Gallery
Bumped up the interview to announce large grant

34. The Big Edit
Season 1 Episode 11
Professor Soo Min Toh, Institute for Management & Innovation
Way too much material for podcast – lots to edit out

35. The Challenges
Getting used to new programs – SoundCloud is
pretty easy. Also learning about RSS feeds, etc.
Some of the aforementioned audio issues – all
newbie mistakes or learning how to improve.
How to market and get it out to broader audience?

36. The Engagement of Students?

37. The Positive Outcomes

38. The Positive Outcomes
It has been archived on our institutional repository (TSpace) as
another platform for people to access the podcast – it has to do
with researchers and their outputs. On top of the listens it gets
on SoundCloud, it has an additional 1500 through TSpace.
One of the profs said that the podcast helped recruit
international students who heard her interview.
It’s recently been added to a recruitment office communications
vehicle in a segment called “why UTM?” that is sent to students
who have been accepted.

39. The Positive Outcomes
Season 1 Episode 12
Professor Ron Buliung, Geography
Used podcast as part of a class assignment

40. The Positive Outcomes
Season 1 Episode 3
Professor Loren Martin, Psychology
Linked to podcast from his website

41. Professor Jennifer Stellar, Psychology
The Positive Outcomes
Season 2 Episode 8
Podcast was picked up in another UofT media vehicle
and yielded a large number of listens - over 1000

42. The Positive Outcomes
Season 1 Episode 8
Season 2 Episodes 1 & 6
Season 3 Episode 2
Professor Neda Maghbouleh
Professors Jodie Jenkinson &
Shelley Wall, and PhD candidate
Andrea Gauthier (center)
Repurposing podcast content

43. The Positive Outcomes
Season 3 Episodes 4 & 5
Professor Arsalan Kahnemuyipour
Professor Tracey Galloway
Timing podcasts with commemorative days
- e.g. multiculturalism day, National Indigenous Peoples Day

44. The Positive Outcomes
Boosts morale
Establishes good rapport

45. The Stats
As of July 2019 - over 9200 listens in total

46. The Stats

47. The Stats

48. The Team
Professor VP, Research Professor Bryan Stewart
Director, Research Devin Kreuger & me

49. The Silent Partner
Audiophile & musician Tim Lane

50. “I think the only way for you to grow
and evolve is to keep listening, keep
moving forward, keep jumping in
and trying to experience.”
− Dianne Reeves
Jazz singer

51. References
Buffer Social Blog https://blog.bufferapp.com/podcasting-for-
beginners
History of Podcasting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_podcasting
National Post article about the rise of podcasting
http://nationalpost.com/podcast-news-how-a-once-nerdy-audio-tool-is-
ushering-in-a-new-golden-age-of-radio
Podcast definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast
RSS definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
UofT’s TSpace https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/
VIEW to the U on SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/user-642323930

52. Thank you!
Carla DeMarco
Research Communications & Grants Manager
Office of Vice-Principal, Research
car.demarco@utoronto.ca
Twitter @cjdemarco
@UTM_Research
Instagram cjdemarco69
uoftmississaugaresearch

53. Questions?