Punk’s got a podcast!

I’ve been quiet on the blog lately, because guess what: I’ve been cooking up a podcast! Today is launch day!

In related news: meet my wife, Celeste! That’s her in the picture.

Yes, we’re calling it Stamps Aren’t Cool. We thought of calling it Stamps ARE Cool, but we weren’t sure that the internet would understand that we were being tongue-in-cheek. I mean, don’t get me wrong, at least one of us thinks that stamps are cool, but as far as a the wider world is concerned, it’s difficult to mount a case that stamps are, objectively, cool.

Anyway.

Over the years, a few people have suggested I should do a stamp podcast. I was tempted, because I love radio and I was an early adopter of podcasting. (Somewhere out there in the internet, you can still find me and some mates bringing you up to speed on what’s happening around Melbourne’s comedy scene in 2007. It probably counts as an archaeological artefect now.)

But a stamp podcast? I wasn’t convinced. Stamp podcasts already exist, and I wasn’t sure what I could bring that would be new. And if I made a podcast, I’d like to speak to more than just people who collect stamps already, but how could I make a stamp podcast appeal to normies?

And then, one day, my wife – a non-collector, ugh – suggested that we could do a stamp podcast together. The way she pitched it, I could talk about stamps, and she could make fun of me.

What an irresistible idea. To combine several of my loves – philately and podcasting – with the one person I am obliged to love according to something I promised a Greek priest thirteen years ago? What a combination! And it combines several of Celeste’s loves, too: audio production and making fun of me.

This is certainly not the first stamp podcast – the Digital Philatelist lists a bunch of them here. We can’t even claim to be the first collector-husband-and-non-collector-wife team – I think Our Dad’s Stamps pioneered that. I guess we have to become sworn enemies now or something. I am impressed by anyone who manages to pull off an audio presentation of such a visual-centric hobby, and I look forward to the challenge.

In between philatelic news, chat, explainers, mockery, and unrelated conversation, I suspect that Celeste and I will be injecting a lot of silliness. Not to get too vomity, but we enjoy each other’s company, we make each other laugh, and in fact we met at a comedy festival back in the day (I’m a comedian, she’s a techie). We’ve already recorded four episodes before our public launch, and judging from those, it’s safe to say that anyone looking for a serious philatelic podcast will be sorely disappointed.

While the audio podcast is our creative priority, we will also post our recording sessions on YouTube. At the moment, you can expect subtle differences between the two versions, because we’re trying to curate content that’s relevant to each format. No one wants to listen to someone looking at things, and no one wants to watch people talking and talking. But whichever way you choose to hear us, we hope it will be a satisfying journey.

The YouTube channel offers us the chance to feature images of the stamps we’re talking about, which is much harder to provide in an audio podcast. But for every podcast episode, I’ll also post an article here with all the pictures you need.

The YouTube clips also allow me to indulge in another love: making stupid graphics and animations. I’ve been fortunate to have been on holiday when we started the podcast up, so I had maybe a bit too much time on my hands. When I’m back at work soon, you can expect fewer bells and whistles. I hope not, but let’s see. (I think it’s important to manage expectations, so when people start saying it really tailed off around episode 6, just remember, I called it here first.)

So what does the podcast mean for this blog? Well, I’ll be honest, it’s likely that most of my articles in the foreseeable future will be about what’s happening on the podcast. But not all of them. There are still issues that are better covered in the written word than in a podcast. And anyway, Celeste reads this blog, so there’s nothing to stop her asking about something I wrote in our next podcast episode. Then you’ll feel smugly superior to the podcast listeners and viewers, because you’ll have read it here before everyone else.

We’ll be conducting all of our social media via my existing Punk Philatelist pages, so you won’t have to go off and follow another new account.

With today’s launch, we’re publishing teasers in both audio and video form. Click through to these links to subscribe to the format of your choice, or hey, double down if you like. You do you.

I hope you enjoy listening or viewing, and we’d love to hear your thoughts!

To subscribe to the Stamps Aren’t Cool podcast, click here
or find us at the podcast provider of your choice.

(Edit: of course that was the one link I forgot to add before this post was emailed to 2500 subscribers. At least I have fixed it here now!)

To subscribe to the Stamps Aren’t Cool YouTube channel, click here.
And you can watch the trailer below!