Sunday, October 4, 2020

Louisville, Not Kentucky...


I've really wanted to start podcasting again. For years, my dearest friend, Linda Golden, and I co-hosted the podcast "Louisville, Not Kentucky" together. The "co-" in "co-hosted" is kind of a farce. I showed up, we shared our content, and then Linda would toil over the editing and publishing process by herself. I never learned those skills. 

But, then Linda's husband, got a career opportunity in Boston, then several in DC and the podcast ended. We did a proper ending, with goodbyes and such.

We had a decent following and a bevy of awesome guests. From the bugler who plays the call to the post at Churchill Downs (he let us hang with him in his cabin in the middle of the infield and made us earrings between races) to the Mayor, to locally iconic bartenders, restauranteurs, bloggers, theatre groups and more. We had merch. (I still have a lot of that merch.) We bought a tent and a table and hocked our podcast and merch and interviewed passers-by at street fairs and flea markets.

I kinda sorta met my husband via "Louisville, Not Kentucky." I met him, actually, on Twitter, but he then found the podcast and "fell in love" with my voice.

The flipside of the coin, Linda and I pissed off some Kentucky natives with the title of our podcast. Sometimes I think I'd be closer to some people I know if they still didn't hold a grudge against me for titling the podcast in a way that they think maligns the rest of the state.

In our defence, neither Linda nor I were from here. She came to Louisville from the Peace Corps in Africa to be with her partner, who was a bigwig at our local public media radio station. Before Africa, she had roots in NOLA, St. Louis, Houston, and Switzerland. I grew up in New England, went to college in NYC, lived in Tampa, Baton Rouge, NOLA,  a brief stint in Knoxville, and then here. 

Even though I was here for longer than Linda when she arrived, we shared a knowledge-hole when it came to the rest of Kentucky. I figured New Orleans is not like Baton Rouge, much less the rest of the state of Louisiana. Louisville is likewise a different beast than the rest of Kentucky.

But our name hurt people's feelings. They thought we were trying to make Louisville sound superior to the rest of the state. And maybe there was a shred of truth in that. But having lived in both Baton Rouge and New Orleans, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the largest city in La. has so very little in common with BR, the capitol, they seem like different states.

I feel that way about Louisville, too. But I get why people were mad. And I will mull over future names if I decide to pick this up again.

So here I am with the desire to start a new podcast, not well in touch with my former co-host, regretting the old name a bit (regretting losing touch with Linda with all my heart), but also not wanting to start from scratch. Of the 47 original episodes, only the last 4 exist still on Soundcloud, and I don't know how or if that can be fixed. I don't know how to edit podcasts, but if I can learn Spanish from Duolingo, I can learn to podcast somewhere online. I have none of the equipment I would need. Linda got all of those second-plus-hand from her husband. 

And I am wholly committed to using the old "Louisville, Not Kentucky" logo because it was designed by an ex, the memory of whom always pisses me off, but whose logo design is hella great.  

Do any of you have any thoughts about this? New name? Great podcasting/editing software tutorials? What would you want me to talk about (note, I'm only interested in Louisville stuff right now)? Guests? Wanna be a guest? Have something to promote? How do I distance podcast?