Well back to the technical stuff we would advise that if you are going to drink while you podcast to set up your equipment first.
Always set up your equipment first.
Try to drink with something with a lid on it to podcasting has exploded across the world. If you're listening to this, you get it, obviously. But to give you a little scope on the platform, Spotify, there are over a half million podcasts available at the time. I'm recording this right now. With all that variety, how does a prospective podcaster stick out? Should they even try? This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College. I'm your host, Steve fast. Today we're speaking with the CO hosts of a true crime podcast who share their tips and inspiration behind the passion that led them to express themselves and connect with an audience.
Hello, this is carrier Keizo and I'm one of the CO creators of behind the sugarcane, a fun podcast about true crime and subcultures. I also work at Heartland Community College is an Associate Dean of adult education.
Hi, I'm Erica and Golia. I'm the other co creator of behind the sugarcane and I'll be the Karis co teacher when we teach a class on podcasting at Heartland college and my profession is that I'm a behavior analyst.
So I guess I could ask you both what got you into the idea of doing a true crime podcast? There are others out there sometimes thereby amateur sleuth people that are journalists, people that are interested in kind of solving things on themselves? What got you interested in true crime?
Well, you should know a little bit about our background. Eric and I have been friends over 20 years, we went to Eastern Illinois University together. And we recently reconnected, living in the same town. And we started hanging out on my front porch. And my husband grows sugar cane in front of the front porch. So it kind of grows as the seasons go through. And we started sitting behind the sugar cane, thinking of ideas for a podcast, just kind of messing around. And then it kind of evolved from there.
Yeah, we put a lot of thought into what subject we wanted. I I'm a true crime fan. So I had in my head that that's what we wanted to do. And I had a particular story that I wanted to tell. And Carrie is better at kind of more conversational off the cuff type of pop culture. I don't know if you'd call it pop culture, but that type of thing. And it just blended together really well so that we would pick themes. So like we saw something on Facebook that there was a nudist colony behind Carrie's house, very close by. So we like to take a little field trip. So we took a little field trip, and then we were like we should do let's find a murder that involves a nudist camp. So part one was the history of being a nudist. And then part two was an actual crime at a nudist colony. So we just kind of pick different things and take it to the next level.
Wow, a murderer at a news colony. I'm sure you did an episode on how they hid the weapon.
Well, we are explicit.
You're raising interest. Interesting point, that sounds like a very unique and individual angle on finding a story. And there are a number of true crime podcasts out there. And once you start to get into some of the ones that I've listened to, boy, it really draws you in, you know, it's this human drama. It's often a mystery. You learn things as you go along. But I think the hardest part for anyone if they want to create a podcast is finding their own unique voice and angle. So how did you go about that? Was it just spitballing? Until you came up with an idea? Did you throw out ideas? And how would you suggest other people if they have the desire to do it, but haven't put a fine point on what they want to do reach that decision?
I think that it's very important that it's organic, and it's very organic with us. We often sit behind the sugarcane and shoot the shit and
you can say, you know, we're on the internet.
And so it happens and evolves organically. And usually it's something that piques our interest. So I think that's really important too, that it has to be something that you're really interested in. For example, I heard about a subculture called bronies and we did an episode on bronies and there lifestyle and we interviewed a brownie. And we were just curious. And we're lifelong learners. And we want to keep, like, learning about different things. And I think having a partner really helps that you could bounce ideas off of,
do you know what a brony is?
I think you should explain it for the audience either way.
So a brawny is an adult male that dresses up in costume, like their favorite, what are they called my My Little Pony My Little Ponies, and hang out. And they watch the show and love the lessons that the show teaches people on how to be kind to everybody. I feel
like bronies are a sub sect of furries. Although that may be the the death of of how you exercise either practices is different for me for different people.
Yeah, I think there's more funny business with furries.
Who's to say,
I think it's important that people listen to other podcasts and things that they enjoy and just see what they like most of the ones I like, have two people that interact off of one another. Some just have one person. And some mix in comedy with the true crime, which is like what we do. We never laugh at the crime. We laugh at people involved in trying to make fun of the murderer, and try to spend more time celebrating the victims. Like for me, my favorites are I'm a weirdo for morbid, I love that. And I also like the series ones like down the hill, the Delphi murders and different ones like that, that are on one subject. So I think we kind of lean more towards morbid to where you mix some comedy and lightness and with it. I think a podcast or feature podcasts are also needs to know that there's a lot of research involved. And so you have to like to dig. And that's what really takes the most effort to get a podcast out.
That's why I partnered with the behavioral analysts. Yeah,
so as you were doing your research, what is the most surprising thing that you found looking into your topics or just to delve deeper into the story to prepare for the podcast?
I know what Erica would say. But she probably hasn't thought of this. So when she goes back and digs, she digs like she goes for newspapers from that time period, books, print publication, whatever she can find. And if you go back and read all the articles, they're written so vividly, and with such language that we don't have any more today, the stories were just told differently. And I think that's a really cool thing that you learned from your research.
Yeah, I would have to agree. And a lot of times, like we've picked some I know, I've picked some that happened in like my original community. And then in Coles County, where we went to college, and you always hear these things, but then you hear the background and everything behind it. Or maybe who was presently involved, like, oh, my gosh, I knew that person. For example, the next murder one that's gonna go out and involved a friend of my friends. So you know, you, you realize the impact of a crime or a murder on a community and it can get really overwhelming.
When you were planning on the podcast, how much planning went into it? You mentioned you want to keep things organic and light, which is part of that conversation. But how much preparation do you need to do to make sure that conversation can last for an entire episode of a podcast?
We have no problems. Yeah. I mean, love to talk, we we kind of, we have some format for each episode. And we have our tagline at the beginning, a little banter. And then we start with the story. And then throughout the story, we might have like some games or some side clips or some interviews. So we fill it up pretty easily.
And we always record so much. And then I have to go dig the best parts out. And you know that and sometimes carry I'll be listening and the stuff she says that does not belong in the episode, but somebody else has to hear it because it's so funny. So I call those sugar packets. And I'll just put like that little eight minute ribs that carry did about getting pushed down the stairs at Jefferson Davis's house. Like I was getting into a fight with Dog the Bounty Hunter or, you know, just one of those little side things that really don't belong in the flow of the episode.
The fight in the pushing down the steps are both crimes. So I think there Yeah, it could be included. You know, it sounds like a lot of how you create your own podcast is a passion and it's a passion to the way that you work in your personal interests. So how do you go about trying to teach things to people? What are you going to start with? The would be podcasters. Out there? Is it developing the concept? Is it a sort of a script of things that you want to talk about is the technical side? What are the things that you find most important to convey to people that want to learn to do this,
I think we want to build their confidence that they can do it and help them more with the creative process, introduce them to all the different things that you absolutely, technically need to make a podcast, we're not going to pretend that we're engineers by any means. But we know enough to tell people and give them different choices, equipment, different venues you can go with for your streaming, and just all those types of details. We want somebody to feel like they've accomplished a project when they get done and really build their confidence so that they can go on and do this. It's a hobby you can do for two 300 bucks. You know, if you're just doing a basic hobby type of podcast, what
are the things that you absolutely need? You know, when you're talking about some of the technical things, I've heard some people say they're really interested in the idea of creating a podcast, and they like to listen to podcasts and have ideas, but the technical part of it intimidates them. So can you talk a little bit about what you would tell people that they need, you know, just to get started, and what you started with?
Okay, so we started with my son's computer, it's an Apple computer, and it has GarageBand on there. And that's where we record our podcasts. And then we have a microphone and the microphone you got from Amazon.
Yeah, I think it was like 129, or something like that.
And that's pretty much what we use, except for our notes and other computers to keep information that we need. Once you create the podcast and downloaded in GarageBand, it's really easy to use outlets like we use Buzzsprout to upload the podcast. And then it's also goes to Spotify. And what else
Oh, Apple, Amazon pod bean Stitcher,
it sounds like you're making up names at this point.
I might have made that last.
One, once you find a place to upload it, it can connect you with all those services so people could listen on Apple, Apple podcasts, I think it's called or some of these other services.
And you'll start to get emails from them. And they always want to teach you new skills. And with the technical learning how to edit, I learned it all on YouTube. And I know it's not gonna sound as smooth as maybe like your podcast today. But we've gotten better. And if you listen to them from a year ago, we we've gotten much better with editing and added some my husband did a little tune for us. And you know, just beg, borrow and steal all the resources we need. Back to the technical stuff, we would advise that if you are going to drink while you podcast to set up your equipment first.
Always set up your equipment first.
Try to drink with something with a lid on it to talk a little bit about what you think makes you touched on this earlier what you think makes your podcast work with adding in the humor and things but what do you think makes a good podcast? What are the real ingredients you need for anything that people want to do to make sure that it does have that that organic feel, and then it feels like it's coming from a certain person's viewpoint instead of just sort of maybe emulating something else that's already out there.
I like to when I listen, even I don't get to travel as much with my job with COVID. But I did this week and I still mess listening to podcasts in the car. I like that feeling when you've got to drive especially long distance, and you feel like those people are in the car with you. And that's kind of the feel we want to give people is that you're either stuck home alone or you're in your car, you know, just hang out with us. And I think you have to break that up with a little bit of comedy. I think it creates a more of a rapport with us and gives us a little bit more credibility with that person.
I agree. I think the conversational aspect of it kind of breaks up the heaviness of what we're talking about. And we do some things like trivia and interactive things that keep people awake. We hope
you mentioned that this all got started on your front porch Carrie. And you also mentioned the lack of a commute that people are experiencing nowadays. Did the pandemic actually help you spend more time to focus on the podcast or was it the other way around?
I think goes the other way around. Yeah, I mean, at first I thought, who, you know, we're gonna have a lot of time but carries job budgets and network systems and everything. And then my job as a behavior analyst, I was busy supporting, I work with people with intellectual disabilities and mental health issues. And that's a big thing during COVID. So even though I was working at home, we were just really stretched with our with our jobs. And we were kind of in each other's bubble, though, because the only place that I went, besides the office every two weeks at home, was Kerry's porch. So the ideas were going, but the time to cultivate them and get them out. We really did slow down. Yeah, towards the end. And then I got COVID. Yeah, so we slowed down towards the end.
You have guests on the podcast? Can you talk a little bit about maybe how do you go about reaching out to people, and how receptive they might be, you know, if somebody calls you from the New York Times, or the pantograph, or CNN or the lifetime network or something, you have that going for you to get your foot in the door. But if it's a podcast, it might be a little bit off of people's radar. How do you go about finding these people? Do you start with people that you have a connection with? Have you gone beyond that?
Yeah, we start with people we know. And sometimes we've done surprise calls to our friends and family. And
they started not answering Saturday night.
But like when we did the interview with someone that had lived in a nudist camp that was a friend of a friend. So we kind of go to social media to sometimes like the Brony that we met, we found a brownie page and messaged we hunted him down. Yeah. But we did this really cool podcast on this place called Ted's warehouse in Charleston, Illinois, by Eastern Illinois University. And it this place was legendary with like, awesome bands and everything. And they have a 10th What is it called a I used to go to Ted's warehouse Facebook page. And so we got interviews off of that people were really excited that we were highlighting that specific place. And so we actually got a lot more fans from doing that specific episode.
Yeah, that was one of our biggest episodes, actually, as far as listeners. Yeah.
And that's the next thing I was going to ask you about trying to build an audience promotion, networking, anything that you would suggest
we use mostly Facebook, though, our friends will share with their friends. And from there, but I know we've reached like, we have listeners and Australia and Japan and Russia and United Kingdom area. So I know that it's it's reached pretty far we pay for that advertising on Facebook. But I think it's a lot of word of mouth, and different groups that I like we belong to like, I am on Flight of the Conchords fanpage. And so like all share our podcasts on there, and so that that group has started listening, and that's a international group. So we've just kind of tried real little things.
Well, I want to thank you both for joining today. And we should plug the podcast if people are looking for it. And you know, what's the easiest and best way to connect with the podcast and give it a listen?
Well, I would go to directly to Buzzsprout or our Facebook at behind the sugar cane. And we always post the podcast there. So you don't have to do anything complicated, like download anything or you know stuff like that you can listen right from the embedding that we put onto our Facebook,
so easy to find. And you can listen from any device as long as you can access those two things. Yes. Well, Carrie and Erica, thanks so much for joining today. I appreciate it. And we'll look forward to seeing how many other podcasters get their start from this class. Awesome. That'd be great.
Thank you.
Thank you
Kerry Urquizo and Erika Ingloria host behind the sugarcane, a podcast on true crime and subcultures. They also teach a true crime podcasting 101 class for the continuing education division of Heartland Community College. If you're interested in other interviews like this one, subscribe to random acts of knowledge on Apple podcasts, Spotify, audio boom, or wherever you found this one. Thanks for listening
