Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Was It A Misstep?

Last night, Rish and I got together for our usual weekly marathon podcasting session. After stumbling out of the gate (we found that the battery in the mixer had died on us because we'd left it turned on for the whole week, so we had to back to the Walmart we had just come from a few minutes earlier to buy a new one), we got churning, and recorded a couple of stories.

Then it came time to do the episode to the first Broken Mirror story that we will be airing. The conversation strayed into realms that we almost always avoid like the plague. When we started the show we made two promises, we would never do a story that is religious or anti-religious in nature, because it's too divisive of an issue, and we're sure to anger a portion of our audience no matter what. The other promise, we wouldn't do anything political in nature, because, again, it's a divisive subject, and we want to bring folks together, not drive them apart.

For some reason, though, last night we started talking about subjects that were religious in nature and other subjects that were political hot points. After we finished the episode, even though it was super late, Rish and I stood around on the porch and talked about whether we'd made a mistake with this episode and how many listeners we might anger or lose because of it.

So, what's my point with this post? I'm not sure. I guess to warn you all that we went there, even though we said we never would. We didn't purposefully try to say anything offensive, disrespectful, or divisive. Please take it with a grain of salt, if you can. Don't turn your back on us if you are offended by what we say because it's not the same as how you feel, and we promise that we really won't go there again next time.

Rish wonders what kind of disclaimer we need to put on the show (so as not to offend religious people or political people, or the opposite of those), or if a disclaimer is enough?

7 comments:

  1. Oh jeez. You finally did it, didn't you? You said that God is worst than Hitler, who in turn was better than Obama. I TOLD you not to record that!

    In seriousness though, not knowing what exactly you said, as long as you were respectful I don't think there should be a problem. Maybe just before that specific part of your conversation edit in a little disclaimer just saying you touch on religious and political topics, or something.

    But if you actually did say the God/Hitler/Obama thing, then I wouldn't bother. Just go all out in a glorious ball of flames.

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  2. All the awful things that have been said from pulpits and legislative desks trump anything that you said in the podcast - I think you guys do a great podcast and keep it up - if you piss me off or freak me out so be it - I want to hear your opinions and your creativity

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  3. If you seriously think you made a mistake with the episode, trunk it. The author will understand.

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  4. I'd say go with an Escapepod style warning that the episode contains references to religion and politics and leave it at that.

    If people are very sensitive to those topics then they'll know to listen at their own discretion.

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  5. I think that even if it isn't a regular thing that you talk about, a listener who is offended to get a peek at your religious/political convictions was not much of an asset in the first place. If you start calling people dumb for not agreeing with you, then that's another story.

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  6. I'm just curious to see what you guys think.

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  7. p.s. thanks for fixing the bandwidth problem for 'Gets my Goat' episodes.

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