A podcast with prizes coming next week...

Hey everyone, I have some news to share which is a bit different to my usual updates :)

Our online store (which you might recognize as Newark, Farnell or element14 depending on your region) is releasing a second series of last year’s Top Tech Voices podcast: a six-episode exploration into how technology can help improve our lives, with each episode featuring a different expert.

 I will be sharing each episode here in the Members Area on the community for discussing each topic and we will have some prizes... 

The topics and guests are all very different so take a look at what is coming up and when:

3^rd February - Episode #1 Mental Health & Technology: Navigating the Digital Mind (featuring Dr Jack Lewis, neuroscientist and author)

24^th February - Episode #2 Sustainable Tech: Innovations for a Greener Planet (featuring Fionn Ferreria, inventor, chemistry student and Forbes 30 under 30 listee)

17^th March - Episode #3 Neuro-tech and Brain Interfaces (featuring Anil Seth, neuroscientist professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience)

7^th April - Episode #4 Biohacking & Human Enhancement: Redefining Our Limits (featuring Dr Julia Jones, neuroscientist and entrepreneur)

28^th April - Episode #5 Work / Tech Life Balance (featuring Dr Anne-Laure Le Cunff, neuroscientist and former Googler)

19^th May - Episode #6 Smart Cities and Urban Tech: Designing the Future Metropolis (featuring Carlo Ratti, architect, engineer, ranked as one of the top ten most-cited scholars in urban planning)

Like the previous season, the community team was fortunate to be in the podcast studio while each guest recorded their episode with the host, so I thought it would be fun to share a little extra insight on how filming the podcast takes place.

The Podcast’s Logistics

Much of the element14 Community team is based in Leeds in the UK and a professional podcast studio within walking distance of our office is used to record and work on the podcast. The leader and organizer of the podcast project works in France, so several colleagues including e14phil  and myself help facilitate things physically at the podcast studio.

Some questions that podcast guests sometimes have for us include:

• How much swearing is too much swearing?
• Is this shirt ok?
• Should I bring my example gadgets and tools (and the answer is always yes!)

When it comes to recording each episode, there is a pre-prepared list of general discussion points for guests and the host to discuss but - once everyone is ready - we let the camera run and the conversation is unscripted. Each guest and the host are left to talk by themselves while we watch next door from a soundproof 'green room'. We stop the recording when the conversation comes to a natural end. If any discussion topics are not covered at all, we do a ‘pick-up’ and record a small, extra segment which can be optionally edited into the episode later.

All the filming for each season takes place over three days with two guests each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The podcast studio has its own editing team that puts the episodes together once the footage for each one is ready.

The aim is a natural, authentic conversation so very little footage goes unused, there are hardly any ‘deleted scenes’ or bloopers.

One aspect of the podcast I like personally is that - while all the podcast guests bring a lot of experience to the show - some bring visual aids with them too:

• In Episode 1 of the first series, Jaap Haartsen (the inventor of Bluetooth) brought a whole host of early Bluetooth-enabled products with him, from a mobile phone through to a ‘Britney Spears-style’ headset mic. Jaap laid all the gadgets out on the table and talked us through them all.
• In Episode 3, Professor Dominik Boesl wore a Skynet-branded T-shirt - evoking the Terminator movie series - and he brought the shirt into the conversation.
• For Episode 4, Toju Duke brought her book with her and we displayed it on the bookshelf behind Georgia the host – did you notice?

While we wait for season 2 to kick off next Tuesday on February 3^rd, check out the previous season of the podcast below for some interesting discussions and to get a sense of what is coming up.