Geek Fallout reached episode 100 in 2014!!!

For Geek Fallout Episode 100

This was the essay I wrote for Geek Fallout episode 100. Now here it is in written form for you to read. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!!

For me it all started with the Random Nerdness Podcast. The first episode of RN debuted October 16th, 2012. I had been inspired to create my own podcast for The Atomic Geeks Podcast Network based on my blog after having appeared on the 'Nerd Lunch' podcast as a fourth chair guest. I had no experience with editing a podcast but as it happens my brother-in-law Sebastian and my sister Brianna had just moved back to Canada from Sweden, and Seb had actually gone to school for sound engineering. When I explained to Seb what it was I wanted to do he was onboard. I recruited my sister Brianna, best friend Tyler Kluin and step-sister Meghan to appear on the podcast and thus the conversation began. After a couple of pilot episodes we settled on a format that worked for Digio and the boys at the TAG Network and thus our podcasting adventure had just begun…

 

Original RN logo, designed by Curtis Sarapuk.

 

Roughly a short time after my initial planning of the RN podcast began I was contacted through the Atomic Geeks forum by Richard Rehder, who was planning another podcast and wanted to know if I would be interested in helping out. I was very interested but told Rich I just wanted to come on as a personality, I really didn't want to try my hand at editing or any behind the scenes work (as I was already doing that with RN). Rich agreed and with Eric Torok on aboard we recorded a pilot episode of the podcast Richard named “Geek Fallout".

It was a fun episode to record for sure; in fact we were having so much fun the first original pilot ran about 3 hours. We really had no format in mind at the time other than share some geek news then have a main topic to discuss. I can’t even remember what our main topic was about but as I said it ran almost 3 hours. Rich edited and sent it off to Michael Digiovanni and Andrew Bloom to listen to and critique. To be honest I don’t think they were impressed. Without really realizing it we had essentially made a copy of their podcast format. Not totally non-understandable as the 3 of us were huge fans of their podcast and as they say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Digio asked us to do something different and Bloom asked us to keep our episodes to about an hour in length. At first Rich and Eric were a little disappointed, as was I too but I too went through this critique review with them when launching the Random Nerdness podcast. Eric suggested we should go out on our own and not worry about being a part of the Atomic Geeks Network, but I insisted we be a part of their network as the built in audience that listened to The Atomic Geeks, Nerd Lunch and Classic Film Jerks podcasts would probably give us a chance too.

One of the first podcasts I ever listened to was ‘The Atomic Geeks’, and they were Canadian and they were 'geeks' so it only made sense that we be a part of their network, which the Nerd Lunch and Classic Film Jerks podcasts already were. Rich asked me what we should do and so I told him I would brainstorm some ideas. Later that day I came up with this format:

Geek Fallout Podcast Episode Format Idea: Sept 28/2012 C.Lockhart

Here’s just a quick format idea I was thinking about for the podcast. What do you guys think? Let me know. Geek Fallout: The geek headlines discussion podcast, by geeks for geeks!

Segments:

1-      New Fallout with Richard (15 minutes): Richard moderates as each member of GF brings 3 geeky news items to the table for discussion.

2-      Comic Book Corner with Chris (10-15 minutes):  Chris leads the discussion with the other GF members on comic books, animated films/TV series. And upcoming live action comic book movies and TV shows

3-      Tech Talk with Eric (10-15 minutes): Eric leads the discussion with the other GF members on gaming, new tech, apps, phones, etc.

4-      Fallout On: (15 minutes): A member GF leads the discussion on a specific topic of their choosing.

5-      Final Countdown (10 minutes) Members of GF comes up with a countdown list of something to create discussion. (For example: 5 Hottest Women In Comic Book Movies)

                    Podcast Runtime: 60-70 minutes.

Richard liked the format but unfortunately Eric could not stay after the initial Geek Fallout pilot episode so Rich recruited Jeff Brown to join us. After some tweaking with the format we were off and rolling with episode one. When recording and editing were done Digio and Andrew Bloom again listened to our episode and gave us some good pointers, and after listening to our final cut pilot they accepted us into the network and finally we made our internet debut November 6th, 2012 on Podbean and itunes. 

                                                   

 

In January 2013 Richard told Jeff and I he would have to take a step back from the podcast, he would be able to edit and work behind the scenes but hosting would have to take a break. Jeff stepped up to take over hosting duties and we continued on with numerous guests including Evan Hanson, Marc Ealdama and others from the TAG Network.

 

So during 2013 I continued on with Geek Fallout regularly. Jeff would take over editing the podcast from Richard and I would take over the arrangement of guests as Rich needed to take a further step back ultimately leaving the podcast altogether. However although Rich was away from the podcast he did create the ‘Geek Fallout’ official blog. Rich has done most of the blogging on that site, and although it has not been updated for a few months it still is worth checking out at www.geekfallout.wordpress.com

At the end of summer 2013 Jeff told me he could not continue to edit Geek Fallout every week, so we could either reduce the weekly content or I could take a hand at editing. Since RN was on hiatus anyway I figured I could try my hand at the old editing thing. With the help of my brother-in-law Sebastian, and with tips from Jeff and Richard began editing half of the episodes of Geek Fallout starting September 2013. Since I was now editing and with RN being dormant I decided to tweak the GF format a little bit by introducing RN segments into GF. I even started a monthly comic book episode with regular GF guest star Evan Hanson, and by the end of 2013 we had done 3 comic book episodes. By January 2014 Evan had unofficially been promoted to full time Co-Host status. By that I mean we had bugged him so much to be on the podcast he pretty much was on just as much as Jeff and I were.

 

 

On January 24^th ‘Geek Fallout: The Comic Book Episodes’ podcast launched, based on the episodes Evan and I were doing. Evan and Shawn Robare appeared on the first episode but with episode 2 the regular cast of me, Chris Gaida and Jason Roberts settled into the bi-weekly comic book discussion podcast rotation. Evan continued with Jeff and I on the main ‘Geek Fallout’ podcast. At this same time Evan and I with Dave Kish and Joseph Harvey launched the ‘Trek1701’ podcast. To say I had been bitten with a podcasting bug would be an understatement.

 

Things continued on with Jeff and I splitting editing duties on GF. As we began to approach episode 50 Jeff told me he like Rich would be leaving the podcast. He agreed to stay on till episode 50 but I would have to figure something out after that. I completely understand not being able to stay with a podcast when juggling family and career. I completely understood why Jeff was leaving and I was going to miss chatting with this friend (whom I have never met in person) every week. So I began to search Twitter and the internet seeking out new Co-hosts to join Evan and I on GF. I had been listening to an episode of ‘Nerd Lunch’ and really enjoyed listening to one of their fourth chair guests, a woman named MissM. I immediately checked out her ‘Diary of a Dorkette’ blog and was greeted by an image of She-Ra. Being a diehard He-man myself and a fan of She-Ra cosplay I knew I had to talk with MissM and convince her to join us on the podcast. Lucky for me she actually agreed to join the show!! I also made contact with Brian Farrell and he too agreed to join GF. On episode 51 both MissM and Brian made their podcast debut and have been an important part of our show ever since. Soon after Derek Ash and Erik Johnson too joined the ranks of Geek Fallout podcasters. Geek Fallout Co-Founder Richard Rehder also from time to time makes guest appearances again, and it really is great having him back again even if it is as a guest. Jeff also came back to discuss season 4 of ‘Game Of Thrones’ with us in June.

 

May 23^rd 2014 Geek Fallout jumped podcast episode numbering by going from episode 57 to episode 75 in one week’s time. No we did not have a marathon recording session in that week; we simply changed numbering to accurately reflect how many actual podcast episodes we had done. Previously we had done ‘un-numbered’ podcast episodes from time to time when the discussion strayed from our regular format style. But when asked by someone how many episodes we had actually done I thought it was silly not to have the episode number not accurately reflect the actual episode number. And thus we went from episode 57 to 75, and no I am not dyslexic.

 

And now we are here at episode 100. I must say this is a dream come true for me. I have been a fan of podcasts for years and once I could only dream of talking with those I was listening to. Now I have a hand in creating this listening material for others to enjoy. I get to have regular discussions with great people on a regular basis and others get to listen to our talks. Probably the greatest thing about doing this podcast thing is all the great people I have met and now consider friends. It’s weird having friends most of whom I have never actually met in person, but again that is the great thing about podcasting. I can talk about ‘She-Ra’ with MissM who is in Texas, discuss ‘Game of Thrones’ with Jeff who lives in Ontario and swap wrestling memories with AJ Maggot (host of ‘The Bloke Show’) who lives in Australia. Podcasting is truly amazing.

 

As I said in the title this is The History of ‘Geek Fallout’: A Journey Into Podcasting done by yours truly. I’m sure there is some that I have left out and for that I apologise, but I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. To end this discussion I am writing out a list of guests and podcasters that have appeared during the 100 episodes of ‘Geek Fallout’. If I forgot someone again I apologise.

Richard Rehder, Eric Torok (unaired pilot), Jeff Brown, Evan Hanson, Marc Ealdama, Dave Kish, Mark Dury, Raf (not sure on your last name), Adam Volk, Sharon Copeland, Brianna Rydvall, Michael Digiovanni, AJ Maggot, Chay Lopez, Mike Downs, Christian Nielson, CT, Paxton Holley, Sebastian Rydvall, Monk Torius, Curtis Holomey, Jeeg, Brian Adams (from coolandcollected.com), George Pappy, Crystal Lockhart (my wife), Chris Gaida, Shawn Robare, MissM, Brian Farrell, Derek Ash, Erik Johnson, Joseph Harvey, Jason Roberts, and Carly Vore.

Again I am sorry if I forgot you. Please e-mail me at geekfallout@gmail.com if I forgot you and I will make a correction on a future episode.

Well thank you for taking the time to listen to me ramble on. I hope you stay with our podcast as we intend to continue on and on.

Welcome to the wasteland.

 

Hope you enjoyed this little essay. Thanks again for taking the time to read it. Here are the links to the podcasts, and all are available on iTunes 

www.randomnerdness.blogspot.com

www.geekfallout.podbean.com

www.geekfalloutcomicbook.podbean.com

www.trek1701.podbean.com

www.randomnerdness.podbean.com