It’s about… some-kind-of-absurd-hour of the night (or is it morning?) where I am now and I’ve been up for about an hour already. 
This is the time when there are no children squeaking in the yard. No sound of breakfast being made. No party banging on down the street and the television isn’t blaring the most recent reality-tv phenomenon must-watch. There’s not even a peep from a bird or a car horn.
I’m not heading into work or answering the phone. Who’d be talking at this hour anyway?
Podcasters.
I keep good company. It appears to me that women in podcasting are no strangers to the quiet, tiny hours of the morning.
Mur Lafferty and Robyn ‘Swoopy’ McCarthy are pioneers in the field of podcasting, let alone being female podcasters.
Podcasting involves digital media files (either audio or video) being released episodically and often downloaded through the internet. While the mode of delivery differs, with some being released on iTunes or on other means like direct download or streaming, they provide listeners and viewers with a range of genres to enjoy.
From science fiction, to advice on writing skills to contemporary issues and science news, issues relevant to me as a technology-keen female and gaining advice on how to be confident about using technology and becoming a podcaster – essentially, I enjoy listening to Mur and Swoopy on my computer.
Mur Lafferty started back in 2004 and pretty much hasn’t stopped.
Her first podcast, Geek Fu Action Grip, contained ramblings about the geek lifestyle as well as original essays and ran from 2004-2007. Her award-winning novella series, “Heaven,” wrapped up in late 2009 and spanned five seasons. She started a writing podcast in August, 2005, targeted at people who strive to be writers but are held back by doubts and self-constructed barriers. I Should Be Writing has proved to be quite popular as well and won a Parsec award in 2007 and a Podcast Peer Award in 2008.
In fall 2007 she podcasted her first full length novel: Playing for Keeps, which was released in print by Swarm Press in August 2008, and won the 2008 Parsec Award for Best Novel and reached #1 in Science Fiction on Amazon.com. She helped found and edit the podcast Pseudopod and released her first audio drama, The Takeover, in 2008.
Besides, where else do you find someone who talks about trying to juggle it ALL by ‘just trying to get the right mindset to clean my damn house’ and in doing so refers to gaming analogies? More than once I’ve noticed her mention on Twitter how the early hours are a solution to continuing her amazing output, being a mother and still finding time for #pants.
Oh, just go subscribe to her shows and reflect upon how one of the things that we don’t often think about women in technology is that they can be mothers, wives, partners and do that ‘traditional job’ of holding the domestic-world together. Sometimes these women even inventively incorporating both lives to make the experience even better for their audiences – the unique Princess Scientist podcast features her daughter and husband, for example.
Robyn ‘Swoopy’ McCarthy of Skepticality is another ‘veteran’ of the genre. However, she’s more of the factual-sort, the critical-thinking, pro-science, pro-skepticism, hard-yards, where the hell does she get the time to read all of those, I should have got a copy of that one by now or I’ll never be as good an interviewer, unless I start stepping up my game like she does… sort of podcaster.
Skeptic.com are very lucky to have her on their side when it comes to producing quality material in the name of rationalism and skepticism.
Co-host Swoopy is skeptical of many things, but mostly Derek. Previously her Skepticality contributions included the fun stuff like Whimsicality, and all of the music that is featured on the show. After her accomplished coup d’ état of 2006, Swoopy became a one woman podcasting machine and now does all the writing, most of the research and all of the editing and post-production on the program.
Swoopy is the Co-Director of Skeptrack, a programming track devoted to skepticism at Dragon*Con (the world’s largest culture convention) which is held in Atlanta, Georgia every Labor Day weekend. Additionally, she is also the Director of the Podcasting: Now and Beyond programming track, also at Dragon*Con.
Swoopy is also the namesake for the asteroid 106537 McCarthy, in honor of how she “pioneered the new media of podcasting and put it to service for skeptical thinking.”
Oh, just go subscribe to her show Skepticality and reflect upon how one of the other things that we don’t often think about women in technology, is how they can be the one holding the fort together when there’s professional and personal tragedy. In her case, it was the time-period in 2006 where her partner Derek was recovering from a stroke – but still, the ‘show must go on’. Skepticality has gone on and has inspired a great many other female skeptic podcasters too with her resilience.
You can download their work from their sites at Murverse and Skepticality. Their podcasts are also available via iTunes.
You’ll have to excuse me now – I have content for three podcasts I’d like to get a head start on before the sun comes up and it’s the start of another Ada Lovelace day.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Speaking of women in science, I found Rebecca Saxe and Elaine Morgan talks at Ted to be very interesting. Also Catherine Mohr on robotic nano surgery. I wish there were more women in science, such as yourself.
A fantastic post. Mur and Swoopy are both incredible inspirations to me, and deserve all the fanlove they can get.
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