One of the most rewarding aspects of what I have been able to do for a living for the past few years has got to be the opportunity to provide quality nutritional health information to literally hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic listeners each month through the medium known as podcasting. When I first stuck my toe in the water of podcasting on my own starting in October 2006 (I had done some group podcasting with 5-minute weekly segments on the now-defunct “Health Hacks Podcast” in the Summer 2006), you could count the number of low-carb/Paleo shows on two fingers and both of those shows were quickly dying off. Although the technology has been out there for several years, podcasting was still a relatively niche format for disseminating audio at that time. You could say there was a huge void of information available for people searching for real answers to their weight and health concerns that articulated the low-carb perspective. The timing for beginning what would become known as “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore” was fortuitous–and it was only just the beginning!
Fast forward to 2011 and the popularity of health podcasts dedicated to the low-carb/Paleo alternative to conventional dietary wisdom has risen to the point that there are now well over two dozen fantastic shows to choose from. Check out a comprehensive list of “My Favorite Health Podcasts” displayed on the lower right-hand side of my blog. From excellent long-time podcasts such as Sean Croxton’s Underground Wellness and Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution to fabulous ones created in recent years including Dana Carpender’s Dana’s Low-Carb For Life and Hank Garner’s Hank’s Journey to hot new ones you should check out like Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe’s Balanced Bites and Hunter Copeland’s Hunting For Health, there is now a literal plethora of information about what healthy living is REALLY all about! And behind-the-scenes, I’ve heard from at least a dozen more people who are interested in starting podcasts to help spread the low-carb message even more, including some medical doctors. This is all very exciting because it means more people will be exposed to the life-changing principles that have kept so many of us healthy when the future of our weight and health once seemed so bleak. Although I aired my 500th Episode of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” last month, I feel like I’m just getting started!
In March 2011, I decided to start a brand new podcast with an uber-fan of The LLVLC Show named Mindy Noxon Iannotti who wanted to host her own podcast featuring real people talking about what it’s like living low-carb in the real world. I had been thinking of doing something like that myself and loved the idea so much that we birthed the new podcast “Low-Carb Conversations with Jimmy Moore & Friends which has done very well airing on Fridays. The format of this show is a lot more relaxed than my interview-based podcast episodes and is just a half-hour long. We get to discuss some of the biggest health headlines related to low-carb/Paleo living and all of our guest “friends” get to chime in based on their personal experience with nutrition and health. Best of all, we share yummy recipes at the end of every episode! I love this show and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But I do have some major changes to announce about “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” that will go into effect beginning in January 2012.
I recently received an e-mail from a LLVLC Show listener who has become somewhat frustrated by the back-to-back format I have been using for interviews on my podcast lately. If you’ve been listening for the past few months, then you’ll notice we have two interviews on each episode–and this was a necessary step to get caught up on all the interviews I had already recorded. Had I not started doubling up in August, then I would not have had an opening in my schedule until May 2012! Yikes! I suppose this is a nice “problem” to have and I’m grateful to have so many incredible guests who want to be on the show–but it has also created an unexpected issue that my listener addressed. Here’s what he wrote:
Jimmy,
Ever since you started bundling two interviews in one podcast, it is a little more difficult to share them with other people. Here is an example: If I want to share a talk that is interview number two, they need to track down the podcast and it’s sometimes hit or miss to find where the second interview begins. In the past, I’ve taken to just downloading the interviews I found interesting and emailing them to whomever I want to share it with.
Usually this sharing thing is with those who are somewhat resistant to a change in thinking from high-carb, low-fat. I like to make it very easy for them to just take in and digest the information. A couple of times recently I’ve downloaded your podcast, removed the first interview, recorded the second interview on a disc, and sent it to the recipient.
Can you stop airing two interviews in the same episode? This would sure be a big help with the low-carb “evangelization” effort. Folks who already on board are motivated to listen to two interviews in a row. But for those who are not but open to being pursuaded, I would like to make certain interviews easier to get at. Any thoughts?
Thanks a lot and I enjoy your work.
I knew when I went to two interviews per episode it wasn’t going to be an ideal situation for me or my listeners. But I really didn’t have a choice if I was going to be able to start booking new guests waiting to be on the show (which currently stands at 150 experts in nutrition, health and fitness). And the ever-expanding guest lineup for my podcast isn’t diminishing anytime soon. With two podcasts airing on Mondays and Thursdays and doubling up the interviews on every episode, there’s just not much more I can do right now at least until I can catch up to the interviews already in the can. I certainly appreciate my listener’s willingness to get the word out to interested parties. But welcome to the reality of my world–again, it’s a nice “problem” to have.
When I first started The LLVLC Show podcast, we’d do one episode a week and all was well. Soon it grew to two episodes a week on Mondays and Thursdays about 30 minutes each. Then I started finding guests who had more to say to take up an hour or longer. Over the past year, I’ve had so many people want to be on the show that I’ve stored up months worth of interviews ahead of the date they actually air. I understand the issue my listener brings up which underscores in my mind why I dream someday to have a nationally-syndicated health radio show on either satellite or terresterial radio that airs Monday-Friday. If that happens, then we’ll never have this current “problem” ever again! In the meantime, though, I have a proposed solution–expand “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” to THREE days a week with one interview per episode. This was something I had already been thinking about doing prior to my listener’s e-mail, but now it’s time to make it a reality.
Beginning on January 9, 2012 (after we air daily podcasts during the first week of the new year for “Encore Week” featuring brand new interviews with the most popular guests of 2011), we will air brand new individual interviews on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This extra day of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” will solve my listener’s dilemma while freeing up another day for more interviews. Doubling up on the interviews wasn’t going to be sustainable long-term anyway–it’s been TWICE the work for me lining up the guests, researching their stuff, and then recording the interview–so this extra day will provide some much-needed relief from that helter-skelter schedule. I assure you I am continually on the lookout for more amazing guests to appear on the podcast and that will not change as we enter 2012. The word is spreading and more and more people are getting on the low-carb/Paleo bandwagon. We are on the cusp of a breakthrough in the next few years and I can’t wait to see it happen!
In just a few more months I’ll have The LLVLC Show Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and “Low-Carb Conversations” on Fridays. But what about on Thursdays in the new year? What will you be doing with that day? I’m so glad you asked. Beginning on January 12, 2012, I’ll be launching my third podcast (yes, I’m crazy!) dedicated to the subject of healthy low-carb living. It’s still in the development stages, but it will tentatively be called “Ask The Low-Carb Experts” (we’ve already secured the web site AskTheLowCarbExperts.com). I have a huge Rolodex full of experts on a wide variety of health topics and would love to tap into their knowledge about specific issues on a weekly basis. One of the most frequently-asked questions I receive from The LLVLC Show listeners is about podcasts that pertain to “X” (diabetes, heart disease, statins, sugar, etc.). That show is not set up to address one specific topic in each episode. We typically jump all over the place in discussing the various areas of expertise my guests possess and it’s rarely just one subject. That’s where this new show will shine brightly.
Each new episode of “Ask The Low-Carb Experts” will zero in on a specific topic of interest to my listeners–and will feature questions submitted by listeners! If the subject happens to be ketone bodies, then I’ll bring on a guest who I know can articulate this issue best…like Mark Sisson. Or maybe we dedicate an entire show to the Atkins diet…that would make Jackie Eberstein, a registered nurse who worked with Dr. Atkins for three decades, the perfect choice. Additionally, I’d like to bring on some controversial subjects from time to time and have a “Versus” segment featuring two experts on opposite ends of an issue…like pitting Paul Jaminet and Dr. Ron Rosedale against one another on the idea of “safe starches.” Plus, one of the things I’d like to be able to do with this podcast unlike any of my other ones is to record it LIVE and take callers on a format like Blog Talk Radio. The interactivity with questions submitted ahead of time as well as real time listener calls is an attractive format I’d love to dive into. I’m working with my current podcast producer extraordinaire Kevin Kennedy-Spaien from “Disc Of Light Media” about the next steps in developing this new podcast. It’s gonna be AMAZING and I’ll be sharing more about it in the coming weeks! Feel free to send me any topic suggestions, experts who can address questions about it, and any questions you would like to hear answered on this new show to livinlowcarbman@charter.net.
So there you have it! Some BIG NEWS on the low-carb podcasting front as we will be going to DAILY podcasts on weekdays beginning on Monday, January 9, 2012 with “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” airing Monday through Wednesday, “Ask The Low-Carb Experts” podcast on Thursdays, and “Low-Carb Conversations” on Fridays. Whew! Best of all, you’ll be able to listen to all three podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher Radio as well as at their specific web sites. All of this is gonna take a lot of work and some extra funds to make it a reality.
If you like the idea of expanding the podcast reach into three shows as I have outlined in this post, then I’d sure appreciate any support you could provide to help pay for making this happen. We’ve set up this PayPal page for you to contribute donations of ANY amount to help with this endeavor. If you’ve been positively impacted by my podcasts over the years, then I would appreciate whatever financial support you can offer to keep it going! I am excited about this new schedule because it means more opportunities to get the word out, more opportunities share with others who might be curious about low-carb/Paleo, and an excellent chance to further impact the culture with information people just won’t hear on any mainstream radio or television station. We’re gonna change the world one podcast listener at a time! Are you ready to help make that happen?
