TL;DR:
- Learn all about a new education podcast, The Fandalorians, to hear about pop culture from the perspective of three teachers.
- This post shares the triumphs and tribulations of starting a podcast.
Connecting with Educators
One of the things I’ve grown to love about social media (and trust me, I don’t always “love” social media) is that it has connected me to so many educators around the country and around the world that I would never have crossed paths with otherwise. Take for instance The Fandalorians who reached out to me after a post I made on Twitter. Now these three gentlemen don’t live that far from me, geographically speaking. Yet, I likely would never have connected with them, or learned about their new podcast, had it not been for the power of social media.
Social media has connected me to so many educators around the country and around the world that I would never have crossed paths with otherwise. Click To TweetIntrigued by podcasts and folks who start them, I was curious to learn more about theirs. It seems the advent of their podcast was one of the silver linings of the pandemic. These three friends decided to turn their love of all things pop culture into a podcast. Their tag line is “Teachers by Day, Nerds by Night.”
I interviewed James Richardson for this blog piece. He graduated from Riverhead High School in Long Island, NY, and has been teaching 4th grade in the Riverhead School District for 22 years. Mr. Richardson was named Riverhead School District Teacher of the Year in 2009. He has created this podcast along with Patrick McDonald and Charles Giannone.
What inspired you to start this podcast?
My friends and I would always discuss new geek and pop culture news in a group text called “The Fandalorians.” During COVID, we had a socially distanced outside gathering and I realized how funny it was for us to discuss these topics in person. I then pitched them the idea of doing a podcast.
What lessons have you learned from the first episode you recorded until now? How has the podcast evolved already?
Our timing, organization, and ability to stay on topic have gotten much better. It is easy to get off topic and go off on tangents. As teachers, we know how quickly a student asking an irrelevant question can derail a lesson. We have created the equivalent of lesson plans for every episode and we try hard to stick to those. We have really evolved into a finely oiled machine at this point. There are still some kinks to work but it is getting better.
Is there a regular time and place that you record your episodes?
We try to record Friday nights or early Saturday Mornings, with new episodes coming out on Monday mornings. We record on Zoom as it is hard with travel to get together in one spot. After we log on and record, I download the audio, and we are off and running!
Have you had a difficult time coming up with topics? Or is the bigger issue narrowing down the topics?
Since we are doing a pop culture podcast we just need to wait for something to happen. A new film or movie, a TV show, an announcement, a trailer…there is always something going on! We also have back up filler topics to use if we ever have a slow news week.
What has been the biggest challenge in getting this new podcast off the ground?
Getting more listeners outside of New York. We average about 75-85 listeners per episode, and those are mostly in New York. We made the Long Island Newsday paper and a few other local papers so we are getting bigger. Eventually we want to expand outside of the state, but we also remind ourselves we are only on episode 13.
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What has been the bright spot in getting this new podcast off the ground?
Definitely the article written about us in the local Sunday newspaper called Newsday. This is the biggest paper on Long island. We also had an article written in the town 2 out of 3 of us teach in.
What do you three hope to gain from recording this podcast? What do you want your audience to gain?
We want to reach a point where fans of this genre want to know what “we” think about the latest news. The way when news breaks people go to their trusted news anchors to get their opinions…we want to be that for the geek pop culture world.
Where do you see yourselves and your podcast a year from now?
Hopefully still doing the podcast, and maybe averaging 120+ listeners per episode.
How do you feel now that your podcast has been written about in TWO local papers?
A little overwhelmed, as people we work with or know in town had no idea many of us liked this type of content! So to have them talk about it and share what they love has been very rewarding.
You can listen to episodes of The Fandalorians on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify: https://thefandalorianspodcast.buzzsprout.com/1816737
You can follow The Fandalorians on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Fandalorianspod
Any questions or comments? Email them at Thefandaloriansmailbag@gmail.com
About Becky Thal
Becky Thal is a 5th grade math and science teacher in New Jersey. In addition, she works on marketing projects for the Teach Better Team and is an edtech consultant. Prior to starting her career in teaching in 2005, Becky worked for several years in advertising in New York City. She is an active member of her school staff and local community. In her spare time, Becky enjoys trips to the beach, trying new restaurants, and attending her kids’ various sports games and events. She lives with her husband, three children, and Labradoodle, who she loves spending time with on the weekends.
