Podcasting – Page 5 – My Thought Spot

Two new Missionary Talks episodes

Actually, one has been up for a little more than a week, but I was not able to blog about it at the time.

Missionary Talks episode 65 was a conversation I had with Jonathan Reed. Jonathan and his wife are going to a remote area in northern Brazil to work with an indigenous tribe on the Amazon River. They will be leaving in April and are excited about the ministry the Lord has led them into.

Episode 66 is an interview with Bob Ingram who works with soldiers at Ft. Benning, GA. Bob does a great job in describing what he and his wife try to accomplish with these men in the short time they are able to minister to them. He also talks about what we can do to help his ministry or other serviceman’s centers around the country.

I was able to interview both these men at a conference I was at a few weeks ago.

Missionary Talks 64: Nathan Wheeler

Nathan is a computer programmer that I met shortly after we arrived back in the US. He grew up in Nigeria as a missionary kid. He is a 3rd generation MK. His mother and grandfather also grew up on the field in Nigeria. His family is involved in translation and medical work as well as other ministries.

This interview was recorded during a rain storm. Since we were recording in my car, we got quite a bit of noise from the droplets. I was able to keep the rain noise out of the recording for the most part. But when I ran it through Levelator (which I try to avoid when possible) the rain showed up in a bad way. I manually leveled the audio and came out with a pretty good recording. But there was quite a bit of inequity in the volume between us. I think it came out pretty good in the end.

I already have 3 more interviews recorded from a mission conference this last week. I should be able to release them fairly regularly over the next few weeks.

Missionary Talks 63: Katie Folden

Katie Folden and Don Sisk It has been a while (too long) since I put up a new Missionary Talks episode. I was thrilled to be able to interview Katie Folden yesterday. She is a young lady going to Japan as a missionary. Her closeness to the Lord is encouraging and convicting. She is on deputation now and still has a ways to go to get to Japan. I am interested in following her progress to the field. Check out her website, Katie’s Journeys, to stay up to date with her ministry.

I found this picture at Katie’s blog. Here she is goofing around with Dr. Don Sisk. Dr. Sisk is a man who will go down in the history books as one of those great missionaries of the faith. He was a missionary in Japan for many years. This picture is great in that it shows the old Japanese missionary along with the new.

I have two excuses for not having another Missionary Talks episode out sooner. Neither one of them are really good excuses, but here they are.

I have not had my equipment set up to do phone interviews. Since we have been back in the US this was the first phone interview I have done. I have also not done much recording in my office here at the house. I have quite a bit of echo in this office. I need to do something to cut down the room noise. I was pleased, however, that this interview sounded so good. It was well balanced on the volume between us. I skipped two steps of post production because the sound was so good without them. There was no need to degrade the quality of the recording.

So my first excuse was equipment. I have another phone interview tentatively scheduled for a couple of weeks from now.

My second excuse is that I did an interview in December that I really wanted to have work. It was an interview with a friend of mine in Africa. What he had to say was tremendous. How he said it was an editing nightmare. This was the first interview I have recorded that I did not use. I kept holding on to the hope that I could make it work, but it wouldn’t. I put off any other interviews because of that one.

But, I am now back and on the right track. I have another interview scheduled for tonight (which I will put up next week some time) and I will also be at a missions conference next week. That should yield another couple of interviews. It has not been as easy grabbing interviews at conferences as I had hoped, but I am making it a goal to wrestle at least two missionaries to the ground and make them talk with me.

Enjoy Katie’s interview.

My Thought Spot 26: I’m Back

This is really just a sound test episode to see how my recording equipment works. I was having problems with the XLR connection on my mic. I fixed that by buying a new connector and soldering it on. The new connector cost as much as the whole cable cost originally.

I mainly just talk about some interviews I have planned for Missionary Talks and I talk a bit about running.

There is not much here. It is short. Enjoy.

What does your handshake say?

A couple of weeks ago I heard a podcast where The Public Speaker was talking about shaking hands and the proper way to do so. One thing I found interesting was what she had to say about types of handshakes and what they mean. I did a little more reading on the subject this week.

According to The Public Speaker there are different ways to shake hands based on country and culture. In the US we like a firm handshake that neither crushes the hand nor feels like a limp noodle. There are variations as to how long you should linger holding hands based on many unspoken cues. There is also meaning in the way you hold your hand during the shake. Humorously, I have read that the sandwich, or two-handed handshake should be reserved for politicians and clergy. Maybe that is why I have a tendency to shake with two hands.

When one person turns their hand palm down during the shake that indicates they are the dominant one. They communicate that they are in charge. The one whose’ palm is face up is supposed to be the submissive one. Ideally you would see yourselves as equals and have your palms perpendicular to the floor.

Last week we met a man who shook my wife’s hand first and intentionally turned her hand palm down. He was indicating that he was “at her service.” When he shook my hand he kept our palms as equals.

After doing all this reading, I had a funny thing happen to me. There is a lady at church that I have been wanting to talk with, but did not take the time to call her. I figured I would just see her at church. I was pleased to walk into church 15 minutes early the other day and see her. As I approached her she started walking towards me with her arm outstretched for a handshake. Her palm was down. That meant nothing to me a couple of weeks ago, but this time it did. She was one of my teachers in college. Though I see us as equals, I needed to talk with her about an area of her expertise. That pronounced the fact that she was in charge of the conversation.

This is just something I would have never noticed before.