We going round and around on the roundtable again 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 TCG podcast will response differently to questions compare to a Pokemon Specialty podcast.
Below are the podcasts that we will feature in today’s Podcast Roundtable.
Meta Pod (TCG)
PokeSports (Battle)
Bracket Racket (Specialty)
GoCast (Pokemon GO)
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?

Sean (Meta Pod): We listen to a bunch of Podcasts ourselves, and even other Pokemon pods, so a big part of it is thinking “Is this something I would want to listen to?”
Mike (PokeSports): It varies. Sometimes our best episodes have been ones that Mike has spent the entire week researching and learning about, but we’ve also had some episodes where we had to improvise the entire thing. Our best episodes come from a place of passion – if we’re genuinely invested in what we’re talking about, it makes for a good discussion.
Bryan (Bracket Racket): If we’re still laughing and debating even after the episode, I know it’s a good one.
Morgan (Bracket Racket): If we have a listener reach out and let us know they enjoyed the episode.
Trevor (Bracket Racket): If one of us got really mad in an episode.
Chris (GoCast): We know we’ve made a great episode when we had fun recording it. Chris is an ardent believer in passion being the most attractive quality in any podcast so when you’re invested and having fun, it brings a top-notch level of quality to the substance of the episode.
2: What kind of feeling do you wish your listeners would get from listening to your podcast?

Sean (Meta Pod): A big part of the podcast is learning. Learning about the meta, learning about the culture of the Pokemon TCG, learning about playing the game even. Both Jake and I are relatively new to the TCG, just finishing our first year of play, so learning and teaching even is something we are both passionate about.So we want our listeners to walk away feeling confident, with a sense of understanding, as well as simply feeling like we are basically the same as most people listening (just regular, passionate players).
Mike (PokeSports): We’ve had a lot of positive feedback on Pokesports from parents and other adults that we take what we do seriously. We try to create a feeling of passion and interest about something that many consider “For Kids Only”, which our audience will know is not the case.
Bryan (Bracket Racket): I want them to have fun, but if they want to agree with me that wouldn’t hurt.
Morgan (Bracket Racket): I want them to laugh, but also bring back that nostalgia.
Trevor (Bracket Racket): I would like listeners to feel the passion for the Pokemon that we’re rooting for in the episode and they feel that same passion for their favorites.
Chris (GoCast): Our goal is to keep our listeners informed at whatever level of play they might be at. We hear frequently from our listeners that every episode is like “hanging out with a couple of friends”, and we try to emulate that feeling as much as possible.
3: What is your thought process when it comes to picking music for your podcast?

Sean (Meta Pod): We don’t really use a ton of music in the episodes, mostly just the intro and outro music at the moment, but I really dig the idea of chiptunes, and other nostalgic elements in the music, so that is what drew me to the current music we feature. And naturally we want to bring people into the pod on an upbeat note.
Mike (PokeSports): All of the music we use on our podcast is by a YouTube music creator by the name of Emdasche (Formerly ElectricMudkip). He has been creating Pokemon music for years, and we actually had him create our intro from scratch! We love Emdasche’s music sense and think it really meshes well with what we want to achieve.
Morgan (Bracket Racket): We don’t have a lot of music, but we want to stick to the iconic themes of the games.
Chris (GoCast): The music we choose has to match the tone of the show/segment that it’s associated with. This usually leads to trying out multiple candidates and giving them each a try before decided on the best choice.
4: How do you handle the structure of your podcast? Why is it structured a certain way in segments?

Sean (Meta Pod): Our structure is still a work in progress, but currently we start with a recap of the weekends tournaments, and talk about how the meta has evolved. And then we usually try to find a new and different topic to cover, whether that be new set releases or something more serious like how people behave when playing.
Mike (PokeSports): For us, it’s as simple as trying to tackle the news first, then the main content of the episode. We have yet to have a completely banter-only podcast where we didn’t know what we wanted to talk about going into it, and I doubt it’ll be like that for a while.
Kevin or Mike will handle the notes a few days prior, the other will review and add their own flavor, then Mike creates slides for our video version. That way, when it comes time to actually record live, both Mike and Kevin are well-prepared.
Trevor (Bracket Racket): Because we’re doing a bracket, our podcast leans heavily on structure. We started doing a text chain to keep us entertained at work, where I would tweet out a VS picture of two Pokemon and we all debate who was our favorite. We had so many opinions, Morgan suggested turning it into a podcast. We do it March Madness style because who doesn’t love a good bracket?
Chris (GoCast): This format has actually followed Chris over a decade of podcasting. Having a section exclusively for news, meta discussion, or email makes sure that we reserve time for each aspect of the show.
Without one or two of the regular sections the episode would feel incomplete. I’ve found that having a format allows for different types of listeners to navigate the content as they see fit with a high level of confidence.
5: What kind of style do you think your podcast has?

Sean (Meta Pod): Our style is really just “love for the game”. You can be the best player in the world, but still learn something every day from playing the game. Two guys that started playing about a year ago, starting a podcast in the middle of a pandemic on a game that is considered in a “lull” period due to no actual IRL events. If that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is.
Mike (PokeSports): Our podcast has an air of wanting to know what the other is thinking. Kevin and Mike both come from completely different competitive backgrounds, so learning what the other has to say about the situation with a pair of fresh eyes brings a lot of value to what we do. It is a fairly relaxed style, but heavily informed.
Morgan (Bracket Racket): Pokemon March Madness.
Bryan(Bracket Racket): We’re borderline order and chaos at all times.
Chris (GoCast): We make a concerted effort to keep our show fun, fair, and family-friendly.
6: Why do you choose to release your podcast on the day that it is released on?

Sean (Meta Pod): We looked at the landscape of Pokemon TCG podcasts in particular and noticed an opportunity to focus on tournament results and meta developments immediately following weekend events.
While we would love to release on Monday, it’s just not practical to get results from Sunday’s events in time to record and release the next day, so Tuesday is a day that we feel confident in being able to consistently commit to.
Mike (PokeSports): We release our podcast on Wednesdays, both on YouTube and Podcast Platforms. We do this in part because we record live on Twitch on Sunday nights, and the 2-day buffer gives Mike enough time to edit, and also because weekends are when a lot of people with full-time jobs get ready to practice/compete.
We feel that with the podcast releasing on Wednesdays, people have had a few days to focus on work by then, and can start getting mentally geared up for whatever they have planned on the weekend. They have a few days to get into the mindset if they can’t listen right on Wednesday.
Morgan (Bracket Racket): We release on Monday mornings because we would like listeners to start their work week
with some fun.
Chris (GoCast): We originally chose to record on Tuesday nights because that was the day that Niantic would consistently drop news. It’s worked out for us some weeks and also backfired during other weeks. At this point its more about consistency than it is about juxtaposing the show against recent news. Our episode come out between Wed-Fri, 95% of the time.
7: What kind of image do you shoot for your podcast? Branding?

Sean (Meta Pod): We really liked the name “Meta Pod” specifically, because it was simple and clean. It’s an obvious play on words. The artwork for the podcast is equally simple and clean, and hopefully our commentary about the game comes across that way. Outside of that though, we haven’t really delved deeper into branding, as we’re just trying to get our footing.
Mike (PokeSports): We aim to be completely family-friendly, informative, mature & entertaining. We feel that most podcasts in the Pokemon community aim for about 2-3 of those things, and we wanted to fill the niche of people who took the game seriously, but also like to have fun.
Bryan(Bracket Racket): While not exactly kid friendly, I want us to have a fun, lighthearted podcast.
Trevor (Bracket Racket): I think if anime has taught us anything, everybody loves tournaments, and combining it with
Pokemon seemed like a great idea.
Chris (GoCast): We like to keep our branding consistent across all social platforms. Almost any communication that goes out on one platform goes out on the others. That being said, we try our absolute best to maintain our fun, fair, and family-friendly in everything we do.
8: What is your proudest moment of your podcast?

Sean (Meta Pod): We are still a very new podcast, so honestly releasing that first episode and just seeing the amazing response we got from the community really helped to cement the fact that this was something we needed to continue.
Mike (PokeSports): Our proudest moment of our podcast was the first time a fan emailed us, explaining that through our podcast, they had learned enough about Pokemon to win their first tournament. They illustrated that they had taken our teambuilding episode into practice, created a team for themselves, and had incredible success with it.

Runner-up proud moments are always when people letting us know that they got into the Master Ball tier in ranked battles.
Bryan(Bracket Racket): Putting up the first episode, the feeling that we actually started our podcast and shared it with
people.
Morgan(Bracket Racket): Finishing the first season of our podcast. We released episodes consistently and really stuck to
what we set out to do.
Trevor (Bracket Racket): I liked it when Mega Rayquaza won.
Chris (GoCast): Our proudest moment is definitely hitting the big “100” on July 1st this year. It’s been a wild ride over the past two years and this felt monumental for us as a team and a community.
Special thanks to Sean, Mike, Bryan, Morgan & Trevor and Chris 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 #3 appeared first on Pokémon Crossroads.


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