Time for another go-around the table with our favorite podcasters!
As part of Pokemon Podcast Appreciation Month, we sent out a roundtable survey to our as many Pokemon Podcasters in the community. We asked these amazing podcasters several different questions. Some of these questions include what makes a great episode, their thought process when picking music and their proudest moments.
We have received several different responses from different Pokemon podcasts. The idea with these Podcast Roundtable is feature different kinds of podcasts and how they respond to them. After all, a Pokemon Tabletop podcast will response differently to these questions compare to a Pokemon Specialty podcast.
Below are the podcasts that we will feature in today’s Podcast Roundtable.
I Chews You (Specialty)
The Roaring Trainers (Tabletop)
Pay Day (Specialty)
Pokemon Seicho (Tabletop)
Now that you know who we have at the table, lets go see how they reply to our questions!
1: What lets you know that you made a great podcast episode?

Jeremy (I Chews You): Honestly if the show is long but it doesn’t feel like it. If we hit the fifty minute mark and are still laughing, that’s good. Which is most episodes, we’ve all been friends for a LONG time so recording the show is really just one hour out of our usual shenaniganry. But the episodes that become instant classics are the ones where people tweet at us the (same) day of or share memes from certain bits. We love seeing the different reactions from fans, especially since our show attracts a very specific sense of humor.
Aaron (The Roaring Trainers): I think when you get done with a session and look at each other and think “wow that was nuts,” you know you’ve done well. The more fun you have during a session, you end up losing yourself in the story and really end up with something you’re proud of.
Tom (Pay Day): When after recording I have a great feeling and I’m excited to edit! I’ve had a couple of recordings before that were less than stellar but nowadays I get a good feeling after every episode!
Johnny (Pokemon Seicho): It’s just a feeling you get when everything just comes together that you have just made a great episode. When you get great interactions and character development I know that the episode is great.
2: What kind of feeling do you wish your listeners would get from listening to your podcast?

Jeremy (I Chews You): Our main goal whenever we record is to make people laugh and experience silly glee. But we also want people to use their imagination and be creative when they listen. Obviously eating and cooking Pokemon is a pretty wild concept so part of what makes this show special is trying to imagine flavors and create a sense of culinary logic for the listeners.
Aaron (The Roaring Trainers): If the listeners connect with the characters and invest in the journey with us half as much as we do, I think we’re on the right track. TRT is fun because there’s such a range of emotions that we go through as players, and its fun to share that with our listeners. It’s not all serious and not all goofs either.
Tom (Pay Day): I just want my listeners to have fun! In the world we’re in now where everybody has so many fears and anxieties I just want to offer a little escape from reality to listen to friends talk passionately about something they really enjoy!
Johnny (Pokemon Seicho): Well I hope my listeners lose themselves in the world and story. Watching anime is my escape so I wanted to create a Pokemon podcast with a strong anime vibe and told my way which is a very different direction than the Pokemon series.My podcast is more like the Pokemon adventures manga which is more for teens and adults than children. As long as I can brighten someone’s day and provide entertainment for my listeners I feel accomplished.
3: What is your thought process when it comes to picking music for your podcast?

Jeremy (I Chews You): All the music we use is made by us! We all have experience as musicians (Ian is an actual music educator) and before we started making I Chews You, music projects always brought us together. Whether it was a concert or recording an album or filming a music video, we’ve always had music projects going on.
So when it came to making some music for the show it was a fairly straightforward process of finding a Pokemon theme song to parody and then what food based lyrics can we mash up with the words. We’ve even got a new theme song on the way for a VERY special episode…
Aaron (The Roaring Trainers): We’re lucky to have someone who composes most of our music for us, so we have a library to pick from. With a setting for the podcast from the jazz age, its nice to be able to pick some jazz tunes as well to fit the setting.
I think the biggest thing for me when picking music is the mood. My question is always “what are the characters feeling,” or “what do I feel when I listen to this,” and “how can I add to that feeling with music.”
Tom (Pay Day): We’ve flip flopped around music for the show before, and it’s been tough to find something that really feels right! Originally we used official Pokemon music, but we decided recently to stop that and use royalty free music instead. We used some random royalty free music for one episode but I recently checked out GlitchxCity and I think we’re found the avenue to go down now.
Johnny (Pokemon Seicho): My vision is to have very strong anime vibes and in doing so I pick music that fit that vibe. Just like most anime I play an intro and outro song, I pick the song based on what the season theme is and in some cases the song actually helps me think up ideas which was the case for the season 2 intro song.
I was lucky to have found amazing music that fit my vision from Youtube. The composer’s name is Souichi Sakagami and we have actually communicated through Twitter and have gotten permission to use the songs. Very grateful for the use of the songs and I credit them on Twitter. Other than that I use music I find on Incompetech that fit the scene and situation.
4: How do you handle the structure of your podcast? Why is it structured a certain way in segments?

Jeremy (I Chews You): We’ve structured the show mostly to mirror what you get from a classic competitive cooking show. Chefs are given their ingredients, recipes, etc. and told they have a given amount of time to prepare the dish. At the end of the round, each chef approaches the judge with their meal, telling its story and waiting nervously to get reactions from the judges.
Our show is just like that, but using Pokemon for ingredients. Every week we serve up our recipes to each other to judge, voting for the recipe that best utilizes the Pokemon’s unique qualities. We want to have the listener feel included at every step. That’s why our recipe segments are structured like a game show to keep people involved. We also read recipes sent in by fans and discuss their ideas, it’s a very community driven show!
Aaron (The Roaring Trainers): With a Pokemon setting, the structure of the podcast seems to fit well by breaking it into arcs based on the city. Just as the games break up the gameplay by area, the podcast falls into the same pattern by having all the action take place in each new city, and generally culminating in a gym battle at the end of each mini arc.
Tom (Pay Day): I like to pre-plan. I don’t ever script anything, and in a way I like that only I (Tom) make big notes. As the main host, I kind of take the responsibility of leading the show in stride. The other hosts take notes for Pokemon Show and Tell and our Rankings segment, but other than that I handle all the structure and notes.
I start planning the episode straight after the last, and use the month to think of good ways to segment the show into something mildly coherent.
Johnny (Pokemon Seicho): So the first season was a mess because I went in with a vision but it was less clear than today. I was uncertain if I wanted to be a mature podcast or PG. The episodes kind of just went on for lengths of an hour or so.
Season 2 I realized I wanted the podcast to be more TV-14 and avoid dropping F bombs because I know with the Pokemon name sake children could potentially find the podcast and did not want to expose them to such things. The anime I watch and enjoy are usually TV-14 so producing that kind of show was what I wanted.
Season 3 it all came together when We decided to put out 30 min episodes and the feedback from listeners and my players were positive so that time has stuck. Again most anime runs from 20-30 mins so again it was closer to my vision of an anime.
5: What kind of style do you think your podcast has?

Jeremy (I Chews You): It’s a pretty casual conversation with recurring segments that usually spiral into tangents like what foods to eat in the shower and what clown ASMR sounds like. We want the show to feel more like you’re listening in on a chat among friends (because that’s what it is!) Sometimes it feels like an online cooking show and sometimes it’s more like cracking a cold one with the boys.
Aaron (The Roaring Trainers): I think The Roaring Trainers has a nostalgic style for people who grew up with Pokemon, and want a Pokemon story that woke up with them. It definitely has cute moments and goofy jokes, but there’s also a darker tone to it and some mature situations. Parental discretion advised.
Tom (Pay Day): Definitely casual discussion. We pride ourselves on being very chill. I actually really like starting the episode midway through a random discussion we’re having, then try to naturally lead into the episode. I want listeners to feel like they’ve just walked into a room where friends are sat around excitedly talking.
Johnny (Pokemon Seicho): Well the style is very anime influenced from the music to the transformations. Most have told me it is like an audio anime which sounds odd I know but I think we pull it off and with theatre of the mind it makes it that much more enjoyable.
6: Why do you choose to release your podcast on the day that it is released on?

Jeremy (I Chews You): Tuesday is the worst day of the week, and thus a bit of fun then will always lighten the load. Also, Tuesday seems to be a popular day for some of our favorite podcasts to drop their latest episodes. No need to change a classic recipe!
Aaron (The Roaring Trainers): TRT is released midweek to hopefully give listeners a welcome reprieve from the monotony of the midweek grind.
Tom (Pay Day): The idea for Pay Day was always to have a big episode on the last Friday of every month. The typical pay day, at least in the UK, is the last Friday of the month. It just made sense!
Also, we’re pretty busy with work and life things often so it really takes the pressure off of my shoulders to know that this podcast is only a once per month deal that we can then choose to do more of if we can or want to!
Johnny (Pokemon Seicho): So the day of the week we release episodes was important to me from the start. I knew without a doubt that Friday would be the perfect day. After a long week of work I wanted to provide people something to destress with and look forward to.
7: What kind of image do you shoot for your podcast? Branding?

Jeremy (I Chews You): We’re out here to be THE premier podcast about cooking and eating Pokemon.. Pokemon culinary domination, nothing less. To be the best, like no one ever was. Period. And we do it all: professionally designed stickers, parody music, social media communities.
Aaron (The Roaring Trainers): Being set in the jazz age, it just makes sense that the branding follows that big band era style. Being able to marry a recognizable concept like Pokemon to a fashion from a bygone era was a unique favor and a really cool end product.
Tom (Pay Day): I love our logo, and try to incorporate it in various ways. Matt and I have looked into merch ideas for future purposes but we try to keep it low key. I’ve been trying to get into the YouTube game on the side!
Johnny (Pokemon Seicho): An image and branding is very important especially when your show has Pokemon in its title.
My main target for the show is adults and young teens but I do know that some people listen to it with their children. I don’t want to have the episodes littered with foul language for that very reason. I don’t claim to be a children’s podcast, this isn’t Ash and Pikachu from the animated series.
The podcast tackles the reality of Pokemon being used by people that are not so great. There is death and such things like that which may not be suitable for all audiences. I do feel however the podcast can be enjoyed by a far broader range of ages than some other podcasts that use inappropriate language.
8: What is your proudest moment of your podcast?

Jeremy (I Chews You): The first big milestone of the podcast was when we hit one full year of doing the show. It’s been pretty wild to see how far we’ve come in just a year.
But what we’re really proud of is our audience and the community that has formed around this show. At this point, hundreds of people listen every week and we often get recipes sent in from fans, always bringing their A-game with creative ideas and interpretations.
The best part was when one of our fans dropped a fat $250 donation on Pokecasters Livestream for charity. We’re constantly blown away by how awesome our fan community is!
Aaron (The Roaring Trainers): Besides the obvious answer of our first live show at a convention, an episode set in the Viridian Forest features the players facing their own personal ghosts of the past, and even their first real conflict with each other.

I think this was the first time we realized the flexibility we had as role players and the depth at which we had connected with our characters. It was the moment we realized the podcast wasn’t all poke puns and toilet humor.
Tom (Pay Day): The proudest moment had to be just recently actually! A fairly well known and loved Pokemon YouTuber messaged me to say that they really liked the podcast, we’ve made plans for them to guest on an episode in the future so I hope it comes to fruition!
Johnny (Pokemon Seicho): The proudest moment of my podcast is when people were talking about our podcast on Twitter. Random strangers telling me how much they enjoy the podcast means the world to me. Knowing that people enjoy the podcast makes all the hard work and effort we put into it worth it.
Special thanks to Jeremy, Adam, Tom and Johnny from their respective podcasts for taking the time to answer these questions. We hope you love these podcasts! Make sure to give them all a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcatcher! See you next time for your next roundtable!
The post #PPAMonth Podcast Roundtable #2 appeared first on Pokémon Crossroads.


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