Coming Soon: Half Popped Podcast

Reading movie reviews is great. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed, whether it was an article in the newspaper, a three-sentence write-up in the monthly “new releases” flyer at the local video rental store, or write-ups online. The fact that I started a website dedicated to trying to help movie reviewers should speak volumes about how much I enjoy reading (non-spoiler) reviews. Though, it occurred to me recently that podcasts were quickly becoming nearly just as prevalent as write-ups, often more entertaining and informative, and of a higher audio quality than I had previously experienced from people who hadn’t spent thousands of dollars on equipment and software.

I used to try to do movie review write-ups to go along with my yearly Film Quests, but I invariably fell behind. That took a toll on the number of movies I was watching, which seemed a bit counterproductive. On top of that, because I tried to make the reviews well-crafted, they weren’t as entertaining as I knew I could make them… which was disappointing. Not many people were reading them, including friends and family, so I stopped.

A few years ago, I did about a dozen non-movie-related podcast episodes with a friend of mine for another website, which wasn’t the terrible experience I thought it might be. The technology barriers to doing a podcast with someone on the other side of the country weren’t prohibitive like I had expected, and I didn’t hate the sound of my voice on the recordings like I typically do whenever I setup my voicemail greeting. You’ve heard that some people have “a face for radio”? I’ve got a voice for the telegraph. But apparently my voice isn’t terrible and some people listened and fun times were had. The television show we discussed ended, and our interest in the other topic waned, so the podcast shows ended.

With the rise in popularity of podcasts, I’ve started giving them more prominence here on Half Popped Reviews, knowing that this could be a really good resource for podcast shows and a valuable addition to the site. I enjoy listening to them, sometimes agreeing with them, sometimes learning new and interesting facts and trivia I hadn’t heard before, and sometimes vehemently disagreeing with them. I’ve said many times that once the pandemic is over and I have to commute to the office again, I’m going to enjoy getting more dedicated time to listening to my favorite movie podcasts and finding new ones to try.

So why not start a podcast?

A friend of mine from high school half-seriously posted on social media that he would love to start a podcast talking about 80s movies. I, half-seriously, responded that I’d love to co-host with him for an episode or two. Our two half-serious comments started to grow into something almost fully serious. At least for me, anyway. The idea sunk into my head that it could be fun to do a podcast once or twice a month, especially if I could get my friend to be involved somehow.

Schedules being what they are, it’s not going to work to be able to roll out multiple episodes per month with my friend from high school, but as it turns out, three other friends have expressed moderately serious interest in co-hosting with me, so for better or worse, it looks like things are starting to take shape.

Coming Soon: Half Popped Podcast

Once I get some of the production-related items addressed (theme song? editing & publishing software? scheduling & logistics?), the episodes should start to happen somewhat regularly. I’ll be aiming for twice a month, with episodes that are at least 30 minutes long. I love making lists, so at least part of each episode will be dedicated to a list of some sort. Each episode will probably have some sort of theme to go along with the list, especially since at least two of the prospective co-hosts have expressed significant interest in a particular area of film, and another naturally gravitates to two genres specifically. I also hope to interview some people – many of them likely to be other movie reviewers.

Is the Half Popped Podcast going to be a trainwreck? Possibly… but that’ll be better than it being boring!