One year of podcasting

Over a year ago, I launched the PhD Talk podcast together with my cohost Rico. As Rico is focusing on the homestretch of his PhD, I will continue the podcast with a starting PhD candidate, Sarah.

As I’m writing this post, the podcast has made it to 52 episodes – a year’s worth of weekly content. While we started off with an episode a week, life got quite busy in the fall of 2021 for both of us cohosts, and we slowed down the pace. My dream/hope for the first year was to make it to 10000 downloads, and we got to a bit over 8000 – close enough to my target I’d say.

Podcasting has been a very enjoyable perspective. Besides being able to offer content in a different format, it has been fun for me to create content together with my cohost. I’m used to blabber into the vast emptiness of the internet on my blog here, and having the direct dialogue of the podcast and the interviews has provided me with more sense of connection in the online space.

As we try to interview a diverse sample of PhD candidates, academics, and those who support doctoral candidates in one way or another, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to people from many different parts of the world and many different backgrounds. It’s interesting to hear how some of the academic struggles are so universal – such as setting boundaries around work, doubting ourselves, and being impacted by COVID-19, even though the culture and conditions in one country and university can be vastly different from another one.

With this post, I’d like to invite you to listen to the podcast if you haven’t done so already, or to let me know in the comments how you like the podcast, which topics you’d like us to touch upon, and who you’d like us to interview. Thanks so much for listening!