I started my first podcast in 2020, interviewing ten friends about their experience with CBD. Inspired by the conversation, I’d write a summary in the form of a poem. I called my inaugural podcast “CBD & Poetry.”
Although I only conducted ten interviews, the experience led me to launch a more meaningful podcast where I interviewed descendants of my maternal great grandfather, Jesse Strange. Unlike my first podcast, I didn’t plan to start “Strange Family Folklore.”
During my usual Saturday morning phone call with Mom, the conversation turned to family history. I felt energized by the information. Since I was driving at the time, I couldn’t jot down notes.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that I could have recorded the call. Instead, once I got home, I had a Zoom call with Mom and I recorded our conversation.
Those were the humble days where I thought in order to do a podcast that I needed two pricey microphones for in-person interviews. While it’s always a good thing to capture the best quality sound, I’ve not allowed the lack of the best equipment stop me from getting things done. More often than not, I conduct interviews via Zoom or simply recording an in-person conversation with my phone.
Fast forward six years and 30-odd episodes later, I had another intriguing, brief conversation with one of my aunts on Dad’s side of the family.
Unlike Mom’s extended family who’ve had 85 consecutive reunions, Dad’s extended family have rarely united, which is unfortunate because we always have a good time when we get together. As a matter of fact, we had such a good time on the first evening during our most recent reunion that some random guy at the hotel joined in with my male cousins, drinking and playing chess.
On the second evening during our hotel-catered dinner, my cousin invited a spokesperson from each table to introduce ourselves and answer a question or two. Of course, my table elected me as spokesperson.
Not only did I answer two questions, but I requested that people write down as much of our family tree as they knew. I received four family trees, which came from two-thirds of the tables. Not a bad start.
I immediately noticed that my aunt had spelled her son’s surname as R-O-B-E-R-T-S-O-N instead of the way the rest of us spelled our surnames: R-O-B-E-R-S-O-N. When I questioned if she’d inadvertently misspelled his last name, my aunt smiled and said there was a long story involved.
I decided on the spot that her explanation of that surname variation would be the subject of my first episode for Dad’s side of the family. Didn’t take long for me to come up with the podcast name either: “Discovering the T.”
People commonly say, “spill the tea,” to mean telling the truth about something, which I’m going to task Dad’s side of the family to do. I’m already in post production for my first episode with my aunt. My fondest wish is that other family members who hear that episode will be motivated to reach out to be interviewed. It’s long overdue for this side of the family to start recording our history for preservation purposes.