My new side gig: hosting the Daily Detroit Happy Hour podcast

Now that we’ve got a handful of episodes published, I am happy to announce that I’m serving as host of the new Daily Detroit Happy Hour podcast, available for download on Stitcher and iTunes.

To borrow from the show’s official description: “Join us as we explore Detroit one interesting person at a time. We feature compelling ideas and engaging people from America’s greatest city.”

Early episodes feature interviews with:

Truth be told, we’re still getting our sea legs and trying to build momentum. Scheduling has been a challenge. We’ve yet to record in the same place twice. We’re looking for a sponsor.

It’s funny, too: I spent many years interviewing people of all stripes as a print and web journalist. I love talking to interesting people. But I find there’s a big difference between posing questions for readers and posing them for listeners.

When you’re writing stories, your questions are invisible to readers. They don’t have to be particularly eloquent, or flow in logical order, so long as they’re good ones.

In a podcast, as in any live or recorded broadcast, the questions become in some ways just as important as the responses. They should probe, flow logically, encourage reflection and shape the arc of the conversation. If you don’t do you homework you can easily sound like a dumbass.

I invite you to check out the Daily Detroit Happy Hour. I’ll try not to sound like a dumbass.