My friend Ryan Mahoney, who runs R. Emigh Livestock in Rio Vista, called me with a crazy idea when our first COVID lockdown was at its apex - he said, "Let's do a podcast about sheep! We both love to talk about sheep - why not record the conversations we'd be having anyway!?" And so we did! Way back in April, we started the Sheep Stuff Ewe Should Know podcast (Ryan's brilliant at coming up with names, hashtags, and other social media jargon). What a blast!
Our initial attempts were mostly just one of us suggesting a topic and then recording our conversation via Zoom. The audio quality wasn't great, and I suppose some of our discussions seemed a bit scattered. As spring became summer, we both started putting a bit more preparation into our project - coming up with questions, seeking ideas from our listeners (all three of them at first, I think), inviting guests to join us.
Along the way, I suppose we've broken a few "rules" of podcasting. Many of our episodes go more than an hour - indicative of a couple of sheep geeks who love the topic they're discussing. We have no sponsors, no theme music, and no polished introduction. And yet we seem to be reaching fellow sheep geeks. Folks are listening - and responding - amazingly!
Our first "season" (doesn't that sound professional?!) will wrap up next month - we'll take a short break to do some planning about future topics. I'm expecting we'll pick up again about the time we start lambing here in Auburn, which should be fun - Ryan and I use different lambing systems!
In the meantime, I want to hear from listeners and (more importantly) from non-listeners! What kinds of topics would you like us to explore? Who should we interview? If you don't raise sheep, what questions do you have? Contact me at flyingmulefarm@gmail.com to offer suggestions! And check out our back episodes on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
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