It’s International Podcast Day! My journey as a podcaster started back in my mailman days:
Delivering the mail means 10 – 12 hours / day of putting paper that nobody wants into boxes that nobody checks unless they are having a pizza coupon emergency. It’s a tedious job and it’s mandated by the Constitution. The only way I kept my sanity was to listen to audio books and podcasts.
Lots of podcasts.
Comedy & Libertarian podcasts, in fact.
This was during the 2008 and 2012 Presidential elections. Two massive epiphanies came from those years of soaking up comedy and Libertarian media:
1. I realized that sooner or later I’d have to make an attempt at doing stand up comedy
2. Libertarians have beautiful ideas and are absolutely idiotic in their ability to communicate them to the public and the media.
I made up my mind that someday, some how, I would become involved in the media and help put the sex back in Libertarianism. My assumption is that I’d do this via photography.
Fast forward to September 2013: I got home from Burning Man and the next day, sat down behind a live mic for the first time as a talk show host at K-Talk 630 AM radio. I’ll never forget that first day. Again, two things were crystal clear to me:
3. I instantly felt at home in the studio behind the mic
4. Radio was not a destination, but a training ground. I would learn the craft, grow and audience, and then take them with me into the podcast world, with the vision of producing my own show. I had no idea how much time that would take, but the path was clear in my mind from the very beginning.
Fast forward to today:
The Paul Duane Show, in it’s podcast form, is officially 3 years old this month! I’ve been privileged to have hundreds of conversations that have expanded my mind. I have thousands of listeners every month, from countries all around the world. My show is not only available on iTunes and the other major podcasting outlets, it is syndicated by The Liberty Radio Network – My show is now featured on one of the podcasting networks I used to listen to back in my mailman days. It still seems unreal some days. The Paul Duane Show rubs shoulders with other great Libertarians like Penn Jillette. Along with the Internet Radio syndication through LRN.fm, we are are broadcast via satellite over all of North America, Central America, and most of Africa. Every month I get emails from people all around the world thanking me for what I do. I’m deeply humbled and grateful for the opportunity to share these ideas to my fellow travelers here on Spaceship Planet Earth.
Along with the podcast, other broadcasting opportunities have come, such as my ongoing comedy series on the ALT 101.9 Morning Show as The Crossdressing Mormon Anarchist. It’s an odd thing to contemplate that my ideas and voice start here at my desk, and somehow end up being spread out all around Spaceship Planet Earth, through the air, and over copper wires, into the ears of people I’ll never meet. I want to say something really funny here, but at the moment I am pensive and grateful. David Letterman said it best:
“I’m just trying to make a smudge on the collective unconscious.”
I’m passionate about human freedom. Everything I do, everything I create, whether it’s a radio show, podcast, photo shoot, or dick joke, is done with a mind toward increasing the freedom of individuals and society.
If you’ve ever listened to an episode, thank you. If you’ve ever told a friend about the show, THANK YOU. If you’ve been a financial supporter of the show – I give you my deepest gratitude. 2017 will be a great year for the show! I hope you’ll join me for the ride.
much love –
Paul Duane
P.S. If you haven’t already I invite you to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or TuneIn
P.S.S. For those of you who’d like more – and want to support the show – subscribe to my monthly handwritten newsletter. It’s exclusive, it’s NSA spy proof, and it’s delivered via USPS Mail. www.PaulDuane.net/letter
