Podcast episodes on Irish Stew are long - we make no apologies for that. Originally when John Lee and I started Irish Stew, we decided to shoot for episodes which were 30 - 40 minutes in duration. Supposedly that is the optimal length for a show as it fits nicely within the average daily commute or work out routine in the gym. But what if that episode length doesn't adequately tell the story of our guests?
If you're a regular listener, you'll find our episodes now run to about 60 minutes, sometimes a little longer. We try to go for a relaxed conversational exchange with our guests and often the best content we produce occurs late in the recording session, when trust is built and guests know we're not trying to play so kind of ambush journalism gotcha game. Just to be clear we don't consider ourselves to be journalists. I have no problem with that important profession, it's just our podcast mission is different. We want our guests to tell their stories as they see it and we strive to create a warm environment where guests can reflect on the lessons they've learned in the course of a career.
While listeners have commented that they enjoy our relaxed vibe, there is a downside. Specifically it makes it difficult to cut out chunks of the conversation that might not be the very best content. Removing segments of audio can cause discontinuity as natural conversations frequently cross reference ideas that came up in earlier exchanges. Doing so, can cause significant editing problems and greatly slow down the production process. We opted to keep our edits to a minimum instead. What you hear is pretty much what we recorded and it keeps editor Bill Schultz a lot happier
