Two items of business:

First, I am pleased to announce that the Duck of Minerva now comes with podcasts. I am doubly pleased to announce that I resisted the urge to refer to them as “duckcasts” (you can thank me in comments). I am running the podcast feed on a separate blog. You can subscribe to our podcasts either via that blog’s Feedburner feed or its original atom feed (to do so within iTunes, go to “Advanced” and then choose “Subscribe to Podcast” and paste the feed URL).

I will also make sure that links to the audiofiles appear on a new page accessible from the tab bar — a link to Podcast No. 1 is already there. In general, I will try to alert readers to the appearance of a new podcast — assuming that there are more to come — in the form of a post on the Duck; those posts will also be a good place for feedback and commentary.

Second, I am excited to let you all know that I have agreed to become the interviewer for a Science Fiction and Fantasy channel at the New Books Network (NBN). There is a stub channel already in existence (it consists of a cross-post from a different channel). The “real” channel won’t be live for at least a month, as I’m trying to “bank” interviews to provide a cushion for regular updates at launch. I’m thrilled, and more than a little humbled, by the quality of the authors who have already agreed — whether in principle or in practice — to appear on the podcast. 

I hope the synergistic character of the two items is already apparent. I’ve got shiny new equipment for the NBN interviews, and it seems a shame not to get more use out of it. At the same time, I’ve got a lot of work to do to become an effective interviewer (cf. the first Duck podcast, in which PTJ and I talk too fast and I seem to be operating with a -5 coherence penalty). Thus, the more chances I get to podcast the better. 

What do I have in mind for the Duck? Interviews and discussions among the Duck crew for a start. Maybe some interviews with authors of IR books. Perhaps we can get some of our field’s “big names,” let alone young and up-and-coming scholars, to have a brief, recorded chat with us. 

While the NBN channel will be updated on a schedule, I am not sure that this will be possible at the Duck due to the multiple demands on all of our time. Of course, this may prove another failed experiment. We will see. 

PS: if you have comments on the first podcast or what you’d like to see hear in future ones, leave them here.