(Podcasting has had kind of an interesting history. It’s been a part of the “new media” for at least 10 years, but seems to be going through a renewal in the past couple years. New podcasts are starting on a regular basis, older podcasts are being refreshed or transitioned into different formats, and more tools are making podcasting – both listening and producing – more readily accessible.
I’ve been making an effort to explore and listen to more podcasts, and I want to share podcasts I find interesting. These may not always be specifically Catholic, but definitely worth checking out.)
What caught my interest about the first podcast is the name: My Stogie Mystagogy. Cigars are not something that I generally find interesting, as I prefer relaxing to a good cocktail or beer over smoking something. However, the title gives a good image of what the podcast is about: two guys relaxing in a “man cave”, smoking cigars, and talking about living the Catholic faith.
Don Gonzalez and Mark Connelly are the hosts of this brand new podcast which currently has 2 episodes (plus a “test” episode). While the show begins with a brief discussion of the cigars they’ve chosen to smoke during the recording, most of the show is spent in conversation about the given topic for the episode – along with the expected tangents and rabbit trails that is part of any good conversation between friends. The quality and depth of topics covered already is quite impressive.
There is a little “new podcast” roughness to the episodes, though I’m sure they’ll work that out as they go. It seems as if they’re using a good quality tabletop recorder, but they’re not always the same distance from it. This causes the sound levels to fluctuate, which can mean the occasional point where one or the other is too far away from the recorder. Also, the bumpers in between the segments is quite a bit louder than the rest of the recording.
Obviously, these are minor concerns that Don and Mark should be able to iron out as they go. This seems like a podcast worth a subscription, and looks to become a very good podcast as they iron out the bugs. I look forward to hearing more, and possibly learning a little about the joys of smoking a good cigar.
