The original recording was almost 1 hour 30 minutes long. I cut it down to about half that length. There are some sections with just car sounds to give you an idea of how much traffic I had to cross on a couple of occasions. For that reason, I don’t know if this is a good thing to listen to while you are out running. You might think there are cars around you that are just in your headphones.

This is one of my final bike rides here in Merida. We are packing up and leaving in less than a week. I tried to give you an idea of some of the little villages and sections of town I ride and run through on a regular basis.

The podcast I mentioned at the end is American Talk USA. Visit Joe and give his show a listen.

Enjoy!

Bob recently took a trip to Uganda and therefore this was the subject of the interview. Bob was there on a short term medical mission trip.

I can honestly say that this was one of my favorite interviews. If I had to choose 5 interviews to recommend to someone, this one would be on the list.

The formal interview lasted about 45 minutes, but we talked for well more than an hour. You can be assured that I will be calling Bob again and talking about his philosophy of missions. What he had to say at the end was classic. I would like to do a whole program on just that kind of information.

I set up a play list that would allow me to randomly listen to every song on my machine before listening to any of them twice. When I was not hankering to listen to something specific, I loaded up that play list and enjoyed the random goodness. I made it through 20 GB of music 4 times. Then podcasts came along.

I had been reading about podcasts, but had not really understood them. This was still before Apple had official podcast support within iTunes. I downloaded a few shows and dropped them onto my iPod. One of the first shows I listened to was TWiT. My fascination with the show was mainly because of the personalities involved. There were fewer than 10 shows at the time. I went back and got all the previous episodes.

Since then I hardly ever listen to music. I subscribe to 80+ podcasts these days. If it weren’t for some weird requirement of the nano, I would not have any files on it that weren’t podcasts. For some reason, the nano will not show you any songs or files on your machine if you don’t have at least one normal song loaded.

In the intervening time between my iPod Photo and nano, I have had two first generation shuffles*. The first one just stopped being recognized by the computer. I took it to a local Apple service center along with the receipt. They replaced it for free, but I only had a couple of weeks left on the shuffle warranty. I suspected that the shuffle died due to my ability to sweat soak anything around me. When I got the replacement shuffle, I also got a water proof case for it. Within a couple of months it died of the same fate. Even with the Otterbox case case I kept it in, it still had rust stains at the base of the USB connector.

I still used the Photo as my main player during all of this. I have probably run 1500+ miles in the last 2 years carrying the Photo.

But the Photo has finally gotten to where it is only holding a charge for 20 minutes sometimes, and sometimes less. I just purchased a new battery for it today and am eagerly awaiting to see if that was the whole problem or if it is more serious. I have to wait a couple of weeks for the battery to arrive.

I have had the nano only about a month. I have a waterproof OtterBox case for it as well. I don’t know how people strap these things on their arms and not sweat them to death. I can’t risk that.

*Why does Apple not capitalize the names of these products? Idiotic.

This interview was plagued with Skype dropouts. For the most part it is understandable. I was able to cut out some sections that were unintelligible without losing the context. I did leave a couple in because they were not that bad.

If you go back and listen to all the Missionary Talks shows one week apart, it will take a year. I finally got 52 episodes done. I have not averaged the one show a week scheduled that I wanted. But, I am excited to see the audience growing each week anyway.

Show Notes: 

• March Goals Report 
• Bunny
• Baby’s Birthday
• Running
  • 6K race 
  • Running in Valladolid
•  Missionary Talks
  • Mike Kelly
  • Bob Taylor
• Podcasting in Plain English

I saw this one they posted about Podcasting. As a fan of podcasting I have been waiting for this video for some time.

Enjoy!

Show Notes:

• Goals reports
  • January
  • February
• Dogwood Dash
• Equinox
• Back to normal
• Missionary Talks
  • Brad Rhoads
  • Rob Willoughby
  • Harry and Gina Stanley
  • Fred Carlson

I first met Fred Carlson when he was working a summer at a camp in Arizona in 2001. He was just there being a help and a blessing while he was out from his teaching responsibilities. We then met again a couple of years later when I guest lectured in one of his classes. I did not realize that I had met him before though. This year when I was speaking in one of his classes he reminded me that we had met in Arizona.

I was glad to be able to speak with him between classes and record the interview. He answered my question about which classes a person should take if he is limited on time in a way that I did not expect. But, ultimately it was exactly the right answer.

I think you will really enjoy this one.

As soon as we returned from our big road trip people started arriving at our house for a week long conference. During the week we were able to accomplish most of what we came together to do. We also spent time at the beach, shopping, Chichén Itzá, Dzibilchaltún (two Mayan ruins), museum and general site seeing around town. This was a group of pastors and missionaries who work with the Deaf here in Mexico. We were doing a planning meeting for camp this summer.

My wife went out of town with two other ladies who were here for our meeting. They all went to Cancun and Cozumel and left me here with the kids for a couple of days.

Today the kids and I went to the park and zoo. The zoo was closed, but we were able to ride the train that takes you through the main attractions of the zoo. We also went and picked up mail that has been collecting dust in the post office for almost 2 months. The highlight of the day…the immigration office. Ok, so maybe that was not the most exciting thing we did.

I am putting the final touches on a new Missionary Talks interview that may be up later tonight or tomorrow.

It looks like things are going to be getting back to normal pretty soon. Finally.

The two recent episodes were really exciting for me. I enjoyed talking with Rob Willoughby about his planned ministry to Estonia. I met Rob at a recent conference for the first time. He and his wife are on deputation and plan to move to Estonia by the end of the year.

Today I just uploaded an interview I did with Harry and Gina Stanley. Dr. Stanley was a supporting pastor of ours until he was called to the mission field. He and his family will be going to England–also by the end of the year. Dr. Stanley and I worked together at camp. We have stayed in touch through the years and I always enjoy spending time with him and his wife. Their interview is very insightful.

Please take the time to listen to these interviews. If you have not listened to Missionary Talks in a while, you might be surprised with the better sound quality of some of the more recently recorded shows.

1. A recording made with average quality equipment in a quiet environment will sound better that a recording made with great equipment in a noisy environment.

This will also help in final processing and production. The less extraneous noise you have to work out the more you will enjoy post production and the listeners will be less distracted. I have one podcast that I listen to that sounds like the interviewer is constantly banging the mic around. The interviewee sounds great, but the “controlled environment” of the interviewer needs some work.

2. Try to use a structured format when creating a Podcast. Listeners don’t like bizarre surprises.

Though you don’t have to be totally strict on this, it does really help. There is always the argument that you are not restricted by time nor format in podcasting. While that is true, rarely will you keep your listeners if you start out as a 20 minute structured show and eventually fade into a 1 hour blab fest.

3. Keep your microphone 6-9” away from your mouth and slightly off to one side and you probably won’t need to use a pop-filter. However, if you are using a studio-type condenser microphone you will probably need a pop-filter.

Learn your mic setup. Take some time and get things working well. At the site where these tips come from there are many other instructional type articles that will help you get started in controlling your mic.

4. Recording wav files at greater than a 16-bit depth is a waste of disk drive space. Remember that your show will eventually will be a compressed MP3 file.

Remember that wav files can be huge. While it is true that the better the quality of the original recording will result in a better final MP3, you can hit a point of diminishing returns.

5. Everyone knows that high quality microphone cables are best. However, consider trying the lost cost house brands. You may find that they work well enough and you will save a chunk of money in the process.

There is a reason good cables cost more, but there is also a point where they can become ridiculously expensive. The best thing to do when looking for a cable is take your microphone and recorder to the store with you and test the cable before you buy it. Not all cables are created equal.

6. Compressing your Podcast to 64 Kbps, joint stereo offers the best compromise between file size and sound quality.

Play around with this and experiment on your own. You will be able to hear a poor quality MP3 compression after editing your show. You start to know how the file should sound. If the quality is bad, back off of the compression. If it is still pretty good, then experiment with higher compression rates. There is no reason to put out a 192 kbps stereo MP3 when your show is a single person talking about the joys of living in the Yucatán.

7. Theme music will make your Podcast sound more professional but don’t forget to only use royalty free music.

There are some great places to get theme music. Or you can create your own with tools like Garage Band.

8. Professional broadcasters always edit their pre-recorded shows. If you want to sound professional, do the same.

Edit. Please. Listen to your content and try to decide if it moves the podcast along, or if the information is un-necessary. If it can be cut…cut it. Good audio is just like good writing. Rarely is the first draft the best you can do. Judiciously cut out fluff.

9. Whenever possible, use a microphone stand or boom to hold your microphone.

Try not to touch your mic. If you are doing an interview, hold the mic yourself, do not pass it to the interview subject. You can introduce too much noise. You can also control where the mic is placed in relationship to the speaker.

10. Edit your program using headphones, ear buds or monitor type speakers. Computer speakers are notoriously inaccurate when it comes to sound reproduction.

You will be better able to hear noises that need to be edited out. If you assume that many of your listeners are using headphones/ear buds while listening to your show, you will want to make sure it sounds good in that environment.

11. Compelling content trumps fancy equipment every time.

If you are excited about your content, your audience will be too. If you are not interested in what you have to say, neither will they.

Again, check out Dr. Mike’s site. There are many other good tips and tricks for putting together your own show.

When I get motivated this weekend I will smash the 2 files together and you will be able to download the whole thing as one audio file.

I only read one of the stories, and it had nothing to do with Christmas. It is called The Child’s Story But it made me think of my grandparents. While I will not be able to share this story with all of them since some have already died, I still have a few who could enjoy this story. I have recorded it and will be trying to send it to them in a format in which they can listen on their record players.

If you can use this audio anywhere, feel free to do so. Dickens does not mind, the copyright is expired on the text. I would appreciate a link back to www.missionarytalks.com if you would like to attribute it anywhere. But, this is not necessary.

Click the play button to listen to it or right click on this direct link to the mp3 and download it to your computer.

[10:23 min., 7.6 MB]

Download audio file (the_childs_story.mp3)

I was able to record it with my new microphone. I had to do a whole lot less post-recording processing on the file to make it clean. The new microphone, mixer and ground combined to give me a great sound. At least far better than what I previously had.

Please check out this episode and leave a comment on what you think about it. The second half will be coming out next week. I have not started editing it, but I have all my steps written down for what I did to the first half, that should make it go a bit smoother.

With the increased audio quality, it makes me think I really need to change my intro/outro audio. I would like to completely replace them, but I don’t have any better ideas. Right now I am just going to re-record the spoken part and mix it into my drum chant.

Click the play button below to play the song.

Download audio file (grammar-reindeer.mp3)