Episode 38 features Rebecca Seidel, an audio producer for Marvel who works on all stages of the audio production.
We discuss being a professional audio producer, intellectual and creative inputs and outputs, playing the bass, share our audio origin stories, and much much more.
During the episode we cover:
- Content Audiophile
- Reading and Writing
- College Radio
- Audio Origin Stories
- Bass Players
- Audio Production
- Remote Recording
- Cyclical Hobbies
- Reviewing things
- Consuming
- Creating
- Journaling
- Podcast Brunch Club
- And much more…
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
To Change Your Luck by Jason Stershic
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:24:44
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent palmer.com. No garbage in doctor. Space junk. Exploration of modern archeology. Camp Cretaceous Season two is a wonderful expansion of the Jurassic canon. And if you stayed until the end of the last episode, I can tell you Ed has plans afoot. This is The Palmer Files, episode 38 with Rebecca Seidel, an audio producer for Marvel who works on all stages of the audio production.
00:00:24:48 – 00:01:08:56
Agent Palmer
We discussed being a professional audio producer, intellectual and creative. Inputs and outputs, playing the bass, share our audio origin stories and much, much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:09:01 – 00:01:33:08
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic. Also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 38th episode is Rebecca Seidel. Who you may know from her work as an audio producer at Marvel, but perhaps you know her from some of her other audio projects, such as Other Men Need Help Fucking Sober Podcast, Plague Deliveries, and My Favorite, which is somewhere in the development cycle.
00:01:33:08 – 00:01:55:44
Agent Palmer
But we talk about it abridged or maybe, you know her as the New York City chapter leader of the podcast Brunch Club. We don’t cover all of that in detail, but we do cover audio producing. So if you know Becca from any or none of those things, you’re still about to get acquainted with her. The following conversation includes our respective audio origin stories.
00:01:55:55 – 00:02:17:53
Agent Palmer
How being a bass player makes for being a good producer, cyclical hobbies, journaling, creative inputs and outputs, and quite a few other things as well. Before we get it going, remember that if you want to discuss this episode as you listen or afterwards, you can tweet me at Agent Palmer, the show at The Palmer Files, or Rebecca at Becca Hope 24.
00:02:17:55 – 00:02:48:19
Agent Palmer
That’s Becca Hope, 24. You can visit Rebecca Hope Seidel. That’s C.I., DL for links and updates to all of her projects. Don’t forget, you can see all of my writings and rantings on Agent palmer.com. And of course, email can be sent to the show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com. So without further ado, let’s get the tape rolling.
00:02:48:24 – 00:03:09:59
Agent Palmer
Becca, I, I wanna say you are a content audio file. Write like an audio file is one who, like, gets in there and like, collects vinyl and is like the poster child. But you are a content version of that. Like you just always in audio. Is that accurate?
00:03:10:04 – 00:03:19:29
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, I’ve never heard it that way before, but I I’m going to I’m going to borrow that now. I would say that’s accurate. Yeah. We’re usually listening to stuff.
00:03:19:34 – 00:03:27:34
Agent Palmer
Where does it start for you. Like was audio always the thing.
00:03:27:39 – 00:03:50:14
Rebecca Seidel
It wasn’t always going maybe in a certain sense, but, I was always a reader and a writer, first. And then I didn’t really catch the audio bug until college, when I became part of my college radio station and had a late night radio show. I was definitely a music person before that, too. So there were like, hints of it.
00:03:50:19 – 00:04:15:33
Agent Palmer
All right. So I will give you in hindsight where my audio comes from because like, I’ve come full circle back to this, like I went to a Jewish sleepaway summer camp and did the radio there, right? For, for like two summers, for two of those weeks, of two of the four weeks, I was the morning DJ getting up at like 6 a.m. to do that radio for.
00:04:15:33 – 00:04:44:39
Agent Palmer
And then in high school I ran sound for plays. And then in college I ran sound for plays, and I did the radio station, and then it fell completely away. And I was just the writer until, like, I got back, I got into podcasting, period. Like just listening and then guesting and then starting my own. And then it comes back and you’re like, oh, but like, it was all there, right all along.
00:04:44:39 – 00:04:48:49
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I know how to run a board. I’m not afraid of a microphone.
00:04:48:54 – 00:04:49:21
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
00:04:49:21 – 00:04:55:59
Agent Palmer
Is it just I mean, I know you you, talked about liking music. I. Did you play music?
00:04:55:59 – 00:05:08:54
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, I think there were always seeds of it. Yeah, kind of. Kind of to what you were saying. I grew up playing piano. And then in high school, I decided to be really cool and pick up the bass guitar. So it’s always been.
00:05:08:59 – 00:05:19:24
Agent Palmer
Me to like that. I play a lot of acoustic right now, but, like, my first love is still the bass guitar. I don’t think there’s anything like it.
00:05:19:28 – 00:05:26:11
Rebecca Seidel
It’s the best. Yeah, I feel like it’s a really specific personality thing too. Like if you’re into playing the bass well.
00:05:26:20 – 00:05:31:20
Agent Palmer
So it makes sense though, because like, you want to be a part of it, but you don’t want to be out front.
00:05:31:20 – 00:05:35:54
Rebecca Seidel
I don’t want to be center stage, but I definitely want to be there. And like in it.
00:05:35:59 – 00:05:43:11
Agent Palmer
That that’s the description of a good producer, right? Like, I want to be there but don’t shine the light on me.
00:05:43:23 – 00:05:52:08
Rebecca Seidel
Right. Exactly, exactly. I have to ask to you just before we move on. Yeah. The Jewish sleepaway camp radio station. Did it have Hebrew call letters?
00:05:52:23 – 00:06:10:22
Agent Palmer
No, I don’t even remember what the call letters were. I’m trying to guess at what it would be, but I can’t. I can’t think of what it would have been. I mean, it was it was a reform Jewish sleepaway camp, right? Like so, I.
00:06:10:22 – 00:06:12:52
Rebecca Seidel
Mean, there are tiers of these things we.
00:06:12:56 – 00:06:27:56
Agent Palmer
Most of the songs we did for, like the Friday night song session were in English like, yeah, you know, we’re we’re yeah, that’s me. I’m, I come and go with my spiritualism, but it’s always fairly light.
00:06:28:01 – 00:06:28:57
Rebecca Seidel
Fair enough. Yeah.
00:06:29:09 – 00:06:33:11
Agent Palmer
So you have made a career in audio production?
00:06:33:16 – 00:06:33:35
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
00:06:33:50 – 00:07:03:50
Agent Palmer
Somehow I, I’ve only started to think about a career in audio production because I, I enjoy what I’m doing. And I’ve obviously done some stuff for other shows before I started my own. It never occurred to me until, like, being unemployed for an entire year during a pandemic to be like, well, that’s something I like, like because I, you know, you yeah, you get that much time on your hands and you start to go like, well, what do I want to do?
00:07:03:51 – 00:07:07:31
Agent Palmer
Like, I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but like.
00:07:07:36 – 00:07:09:39
Rebecca Seidel
Is given the full range of choices.
00:07:09:39 – 00:07:30:58
Agent Palmer
I know. All right. Let me ask you this. We’re going to sidetrack for a moment. You are a writer, but you know, you have the music and audio production and obviously you’re technically proficient on on a level, if I took your current job away and said, you can do anything, do you have a a lot of options?
00:07:31:03 – 00:07:32:23
Rebecca Seidel
Gosh, that’s a good question.
00:07:32:23 – 00:07:55:36
Agent Palmer
Because that’s where I like personally. That’s my big my biggest like I wish I had gone to school for like chemical engineering. That’s one thing, right? Like I could be a writer, a marketer, a like, I. There’s so many directions that like, it’s not necessarily paralysis by analysis, but I go like, yeah, I do so many things.
00:07:55:41 – 00:07:59:24
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, like too many choices and yet somehow none.
00:07:59:29 – 00:08:00:08
Agent Palmer
Absolutely.
00:08:00:17 – 00:08:20:59
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. Yeah, I would like to think so. This was sort of the, the quandary I had in college when I decided to be an English and creative writing major, which led me down the whole spiral of, well, where, where is that going to lead me? And the answer, I told myself was anywhere. Which has been pretty much true.
00:08:21:04 – 00:08:34:03
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean, I, I, I went to a small college and halfway through my sophomore year declared my major to be liberal arts so I could get an associate.
00:08:34:08 – 00:08:35:15
Rebecca Seidel
00:08:35:20 – 00:08:45:28
Agent Palmer
And then when, well, based on the classes and the writing and journalism stuff, I was like, I’ll be a communications major for the to get the four year degree.
00:08:45:33 – 00:08:45:51
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
00:08:45:51 – 00:08:50:09
Agent Palmer
But you go like what do you, you’re like well what do I do.
00:08:50:11 – 00:08:53:32
Rebecca Seidel
Where do you go from there. Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:53:36 – 00:08:56:26
Agent Palmer
Where were you in where did you go to school?
00:08:56:31 – 00:08:58:46
Rebecca Seidel
I went to Wesleyan. So you’re in Connecticut.
00:08:58:55 – 00:09:04:30
Agent Palmer
So you’re you’ve stayed, northeast for the most part. New England?
00:09:04:35 – 00:09:13:47
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. No, I born and raised in Queens, went up to Wesleyan for college and then came back to Queens, so have not gone very far.
00:09:13:52 – 00:09:24:56
Agent Palmer
Have you? I mean, you’re not, in a bubble, obviously. Like the, the the audio production is, the, I don’t know, ubiquitous. Now it’s everywhere.
00:09:25:03 – 00:09:26:58
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, but you can be anywhere. Yeah.
00:09:27:05 – 00:09:40:31
Agent Palmer
Do you, do you find, like a West Coast bias for that kind of stuff? Because I like to me, any time I hear entertainment of any kind, I think of the.
00:09:40:36 – 00:09:40:50
Rebecca Seidel
West.
00:09:40:50 – 00:09:41:52
Agent Palmer
Coast. Yeah.
00:09:41:57 – 00:09:59:55
Rebecca Seidel
That’s interesting. I found that, at least for me, most of the opportunities I’ve gotten for audio and radio and podcasting have been in New York, which has been, I guess, very lucky for me. But I found a lot of community here. And I’ve never really felt a need to leave, for better or worse.
00:10:00:00 – 00:10:25:20
Agent Palmer
Well, I I’d say for better. I mean, it’s it’s nice to get comfortable. It’s nice to put down roots. I mean, that’s not I mean, yeah, more often than not, we’re going to this this the depressing number, right. Like the average person is going to have like five jobs before they retire. Right. And I got really lucky that, I had two for the first, like a very long time.
00:10:25:24 – 00:10:54:09
Agent Palmer
And then, you know, nothing. But, you know, to, to be able to stay in one place is rare. Like, most people have to move. And, look, if if you can do it from anywhere, and I think you can. Right. Like, we’re getting to that point. I mean, I’m listening to bigger and bigger podcasters go remote because they had to and immediately.
00:10:54:14 – 00:11:08:33
Agent Palmer
And this is you can tell me I’m a bad person and that’s fine. And I’m not going to name any names because I want I don’t want to. But like, there are a couple of big names that went remote and I went, well, my episodes have always been remote.
00:11:08:37 – 00:11:11:12
Rebecca Seidel
Right? And I but for so long the.
00:11:11:12 – 00:11:17:19
Agent Palmer
First few I was like, yeah, my quality’s better. Like, I, I don’t yeah, I don’t know what you’re doing.
00:11:17:24 – 00:11:17:54
Rebecca Seidel
Oh yeah.
00:11:18:07 – 00:11:26:08
Agent Palmer
Digital meaning but like my quality’s better. What are your bigger than me? What are you doing? Like, does that make me a bad person?
00:11:26:13 – 00:11:38:20
Rebecca Seidel
No, no, I mean, I feel like it’s been a huge learning curve. Like. And I think a really good one, honestly, that so many audio producers have had to figure out how to make the best of it right now.
00:11:38:25 – 00:12:03:41
Agent Palmer
I just don’t know how this doesn’t become the norm, right? Like, yeah, I can. I, I can have and me my podcast, I can have any guest I want anywhere around the world as long as I can make the, the time work and. Yeah. So if you want to do, fiction and get any voice actor anywhere, yeah, even live, you know.
00:12:03:46 – 00:12:08:56
Rebecca Seidel
Like, yeah, over a video call, but still remote. Just with a good Mike setup. Yeah.
00:12:09:01 – 00:12:10:32
Agent Palmer
Shouldn’t that make everything easier?
00:12:10:32 – 00:12:33:38
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. I think the thing I miss, as somebody who listens to way too many podcasts in my free time and also my work time, I do miss field tape. I miss hearing more. Just like on the street interviews, going into people’s houses, kind of that texture and that kind of liveliness where everything’s kind of a zoom call now.
00:12:33:42 – 00:12:59:20
Rebecca Seidel
It’s only sometimes like when, when I really think about it, I miss it. But so many shows don’t like that’s just not part of it. Like an interview show. Yeah. You don’t need to be in somebody’s house for that. So. Yeah, I think it’s I think there are times when it could be nice to have a little bit more like movement on a show, but in general, I think it’s been a really good, like, unfortunate timing, but lesson in recording remotely.
00:12:59:20 – 00:13:06:32
Agent Palmer
Yeah. You said you listen to a lot. I’m going to put you on the spot. Hey, earbuds are headphones.
00:13:06:37 – 00:13:08:32
Rebecca Seidel
Oh, headphones over your headphones.
00:13:08:32 – 00:13:16:28
Agent Palmer
See? And you know what? I feel like this is a thing. That’s a producer thing. I. Yeah, I’m I’m the same way. Like, I.
00:13:16:33 – 00:13:21:38
Rebecca Seidel
Know no earbuds. I can’t do it. They fall to my ears, which I don’t know if that’s a media problem or a producer.
00:13:21:43 – 00:13:38:14
Agent Palmer
Just I just always end up like, like, I, I don’t know, I just think the sound quality will never like everybody’s like, oh, these are. Yeah, they’re good. But even a crappy parrot over ear is going to be better than the average. Yeah, earbud.
00:13:38:27 – 00:13:47:10
Rebecca Seidel
I also tell myself that, like, I don’t like the sound, like just blasting directly into my ears like that, even though I’m probably going to lose my hearing early anyway. I could have headphones on all the time.
00:13:47:15 – 00:14:13:47
Agent Palmer
But well, I was. So are you always listening to something like, do you? I don’t like I’ve actually stopped listening to podcasts because I’ve gotten back into listening to music, and you can only like, I mean, you can listen to both, but like, oh, you’re kidding. Are you always listening? Like you’re in sound? So like, yeah. Are you like, I want nothing?
00:14:13:52 – 00:14:31:46
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. I kind of go in waves. It’s pretty. It’s a it’s a mood based thing for me. I find more often than not, I start basically every day listening to stuff. And, yeah, more often than not, I’m listening to something. But there are definitely moments where I need to turn it off.
00:14:31:51 – 00:14:33:52
Agent Palmer
Do you still play music?
00:14:33:57 – 00:14:56:26
Rebecca Seidel
Not as much as I would like to. I did pick up my bass for the first time in a very long time a few weeks ago, and it was very dusty, which was very sad. And I also I just bought this, I’m going to I’m going to nerd out for a second, but I, I bought this, midi keyboard on Craigslist, and I was super proud of myself because it’s a really expensive keyboard, and I got it for, like, a sixth of the price.
00:14:56:31 – 00:15:03:20
Rebecca Seidel
And I logged at home, just walking home down the street with this huge thing. And so I’m trying to get more into composition again.
00:15:03:24 – 00:15:28:30
Agent Palmer
So we’re going to we’re going to get back to that in a second. I’m jealous of the fact that you can play the keyboard, piano or whatever. Like I, I can play a lot of instruments. I, I’ve never that the keyboard or piano like that’s one I just cannot for some reason. And maybe I’ve never given it like a fair shot, but like, yeah.
00:15:28:35 – 00:15:34:00
Agent Palmer
Drums. Yeah. Fine. Guitar, bass, even saxophone. Like. Yeah, yeah.
00:15:34:02 – 00:15:36:07
Rebecca Seidel
A saxophone is what I’ve always wanted.
00:15:36:12 – 00:15:42:39
Agent Palmer
I try, I still have my tenor saxophone. I, I haven’t played it in a very long time.
00:15:42:44 – 00:15:44:07
Rebecca Seidel
I don’t.
00:15:44:12 – 00:15:50:37
Agent Palmer
I don’t, I don’t really want to either though, like, but I can’t get rid of it like the sentimentality of it.
00:15:50:38 – 00:15:52:23
Rebecca Seidel
Oh of course. Yeah.
00:15:52:28 – 00:15:54:36
Agent Palmer
Do you still have your first bass?
00:15:54:41 – 00:15:57:27
Rebecca Seidel
I do, it’s the one that I have sitting here in my room with me.
00:15:57:27 – 00:16:21:46
Agent Palmer
I don’t have my first bass. I really wish I did, but I have the best bass, which is I, I started out with a fake Fender P-Bass, like, cream white, no pickguard. It was beautiful, but it was heavy, like super heavy, which is why I know it was fake. But then I got like an actual five string Fender J bass, and that’s the one I still.
00:16:21:49 – 00:16:24:25
Rebecca Seidel
Oh, nice. That’s what you got to hold on to.
00:16:24:27 – 00:16:42:44
Agent Palmer
Yeah that one. But I, I have too many instruments in this for like okay. So when I was a little kid I and I skipped this in my, like, getting audio, like I had a porta studio from Tascam. I actually had two of them. I had the eight track and the four track, and I don’t have them anymore.
00:16:42:49 – 00:16:54:06
Agent Palmer
And I would, you know, record my friends and stuff. And I always had the guitars around. I didn’t have a mixer again until somebody sent me one. When I started this podcast.
00:16:54:11 – 00:16:54:58
Rebecca Seidel
And.
00:16:55:03 – 00:17:10:02
Agent Palmer
I like I know you do you, you do compose music. I can’t get back into it like I don’t. Maybe it was just a teenage whim, like, I’m just going to write things. Yeah, like I can’t get back into it.
00:17:10:04 – 00:17:17:28
Rebecca Seidel
Do you think you don’t have, like, the disk drive to do it or you really want to? And it’s just not happening?
00:17:17:33 – 00:17:39:48
Agent Palmer
I, I, I mean, I’ve made it an effort to play more often because I’m like, well, if I’m going to keep holding on to these instruments, I have to play them like for a very long time. It was just like, that’s that’s my collection of guitars collecting dust. Like, no, I’m playing now, but I, I think it’s the lack of inspiration.
00:17:39:48 – 00:18:05:41
Agent Palmer
It’s so people have given me crap for not writing fiction anymore. Like, I get my writing out my I scratch that itch with the blog, you know, it’s fun and people give me crap for not writing fiction or specific friends will be like, how come you don’t write any poetry anymore? I don’t write poetry because I’m just not inspired to, and I feel like that’s where it is with music.
00:18:05:41 – 00:18:12:28
Agent Palmer
Like, I, I guess if I got inspired to write a song, I, I have no reason not to. I have all the implements, you.
00:18:12:28 – 00:18:15:24
Rebecca Seidel
Have all the. Yeah, everything you need.
00:18:15:29 – 00:18:31:25
Agent Palmer
But I, I it just kind of went away. I don’t know, it’s weird. Are you, are you finding things cyclical like you get back into things or you the ebbs and flows of life I guess.
00:18:31:29 – 00:19:00:22
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah I would, I would say definitely. I guess sort of as an audio producer, I started thinking of things recently as inputs and outputs, like what am I inputting into my brain and what am I outputting creatively? And it’s definitely from just staring at my approachable screen too much that I’m thinking that way. But I do think sort of what I think about as my, like, main input and output kind of changes in a cyclical way.
00:19:00:26 – 00:19:17:06
Rebecca Seidel
Like sometimes I’m in kind of a groove where I’m writing more, sometimes it’s composing, sometimes, you know, it’s. Yeah, I do think it’s a cyclical thing and I don’t know what causes it to shift like that. Like I don’t know what caused me to pick up my bass the other day for the first time in a very long time, for example.
00:19:17:08 – 00:19:34:10
Agent Palmer
Do you find it levels itself out like, are you like, if obviously I’m not taking a week, like if we took a year, any, any given year, are you close to 50% for input and output or is it definitely not equal?
00:19:34:15 – 00:19:53:23
Rebecca Seidel
I’d like to think I’m close to 50%. I don’t know, I would say if I’m thinking about a year, if I look back on a year, I always wish I had read more. And then so like, I think I always wish I had had more input. But then again, I’m listening to podcasts all the time. Yeah, that’s. Yeah.
00:19:53:27 – 00:19:54:29
Rebecca Seidel
So yeah.
00:19:54:34 – 00:20:11:40
Agent Palmer
I mean, I’ve I mean, I’ve talked about it on this show before, like I turned myself into a reader and I think it was the it might be the one like quality of life improvement I’m most proud of.
00:20:11:44 – 00:20:13:11
Rebecca Seidel
I know that’s so real.
00:20:13:11 – 00:20:40:27
Agent Palmer
I, it’s, and obviously it’s, it’s it’s opened some doors, for me, like, intellectually of like, well, I don’t, I don’t even read covers anymore. Really? Like, you suggest a book to me. I’m like, all right, I’ll read that. That’s fine. Yeah. Okay. But I feel like I’m probably inputting much more than I’m outputting.
00:20:40:27 – 00:21:01:37
Agent Palmer
Like, I still have a weekly blog, and this thing comes out every two weeks, and, I mean, at least my books. I review every single one I read because it’s like I most of the things I read, I want to share with people, but I’m still listening to podcasts and watching television. I’m not writing about movies. And.
00:21:01:42 – 00:21:01:47
Rebecca Seidel
I.
00:21:01:47 – 00:21:06:05
Agent Palmer
Feel like I’m definitely like, net positive on input.
00:21:06:05 – 00:21:07:33
Rebecca Seidel
On input.
00:21:07:38 – 00:21:20:50
Agent Palmer
I don’t know, I guess I would find like figure out like what tips, what would tip the scale like, yeah, how would I get my output to be more right.
00:21:20:55 – 00:21:35:40
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. It hits a point where it’s like, is it even healthy to think about it that way? You know? Because I think it’s interesting that you review everything you read. I just think reviewing it in general is an interesting topic. I have a lot of friends who, do you know Letterboxd?
00:21:35:45 – 00:21:36:10
Agent Palmer
Yes.
00:21:36:12 – 00:21:47:04
Rebecca Seidel
That like movie review site. I have a lot of friends who review every movie they watch on Letterboxd, and I just can’t get my brain into that mode where I’m thinking, as I’m watching everything, what I have to say about it.
00:21:47:04 – 00:21:53:05
Agent Palmer
Oh, no. Well, you know, okay, so, I have two different approaches.
00:21:53:10 – 00:21:54:02
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
00:21:54:07 – 00:22:20:34
Agent Palmer
There’s, visual, and then there’s the book. Okay, so for a book, I, I may, how do I, I, I’m OCD with my books. I don’t crack spines, I don’t highlight, I don’t write in them, I don’t mark pages. What I do is I make notes by like, pulling out my phone. Page 59, top paragraph.
00:22:20:38 – 00:22:23:49
Agent Palmer
When he was a child. And then I’ll know when I’m done.
00:22:23:49 – 00:22:24:10
Rebecca Seidel
What you were to.
00:22:24:11 – 00:22:47:06
Agent Palmer
Go and and what I do is when I finish reading a book, I’ll go back through all my notes and I’ll type them out. So I’ll, I’ll put the book open. I’ll go to page 59. When I was a child, I put away childish things. That’s the quote. I wrote it down. Whatever. And then in the exercise of typing out my notes so I have them without having to go back through the book.
00:22:47:06 – 00:23:12:21
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I get a better idea of what I want to say about this book. That’s how I do books, right? Yeah, movies. It’s always a two watches. Unless it’s like, like a marvel movie coming out in theaters or any theater movie. Although outside of Star Wars and Marvel, I haven’t really done much, but like, you only get one shot, so you try and like just.
00:23:12:26 – 00:23:20:42
Agent Palmer
And I’m writing spoiler free anyway, so it’s not like I’m giving away. I don’t want to give away details. I just want to be like, this is great. This is why you should watch it too, right?
00:23:20:42 – 00:23:21:58
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, that makes sense.
00:23:21:58 – 00:23:33:59
Agent Palmer
And and so like, I just think about all the conversations I end up inevitably having with friends about the movie, especially the ones with friends who I haven’t, who haven’t seen it yet. Right? So like.
00:23:34:04 – 00:23:34:53
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, Becca.
00:23:35:02 – 00:23:57:16
Agent Palmer
I know you haven’t seen this movie, but like, this is why you need to see it. I, I just internalize that and turn it into a blog post. But for older movies, because I, I used to and I want to get back to it, I used to do a lot of like 60s and 70s and even 80s movies that like or classics those always to watch one.
00:23:57:23 – 00:23:58:05
Rebecca Seidel
00:23:58:10 – 00:24:20:08
Agent Palmer
What am I, you know, enjoying about this. And the next is like, all right, take some notes this that you like. But my what my biggest issue is for reviewing is I especially for older things, I need to find an angle. One of my favorite movies of all time is real genius. I’ve, I watch I did the to watch thing right.
00:24:20:08 – 00:24:35:53
Agent Palmer
Like I watched it just and I watch it all the time, but I watched it for the sake of like watching it. And I watched it again for taking notes. I took my notes and I didn’t have an angle, and I still do it. I literally watch that movie like four years ago to write about on the blog.
00:24:35:57 – 00:24:40:23
Agent Palmer
And I still don’t have an angle on like what? What what does it mean to me?
00:24:40:23 – 00:24:45:18
Rebecca Seidel
What what is like general positive feelings? But what do I say? Yeah.
00:24:45:29 – 00:24:51:14
Agent Palmer
So it’s it’s not always easy. But those are my two different processes for reviewing.
00:24:51:27 – 00:24:52:25
Rebecca Seidel
I that’s interesting.
00:24:52:25 – 00:25:02:10
Agent Palmer
Yeah I, I also like the I maybe it’s the type of friends I have but like I’m always talking about these things anyway.
00:25:02:14 – 00:25:06:24
Rebecca Seidel
Right. It’s just kind of part of your, your friendships and your conversations. Yeah.
00:25:06:24 – 00:25:12:04
Agent Palmer
So like and most of them don’t even want to hear about the books, which is why I write about it, to try and get it out of my.
00:25:12:10 – 00:25:13:38
Rebecca Seidel
System that way. Yeah.
00:25:13:43 – 00:25:35:41
Agent Palmer
Like I, I’m, I’m the only avid reader in almost all of my circles, with the exception of my parents. And that’s taken a turn because my father and I overlap in a bunch of areas of interest. So we’ve been trading books. He retired a couple of years ago, and we’ve actually been trading books back and forth.
00:25:35:43 – 00:25:36:10
Rebecca Seidel
It’s so cool.
00:25:36:10 – 00:25:38:52
Agent Palmer
It’s it’s great. Like, this is.
00:25:38:52 – 00:25:39:04
Rebecca Seidel
That’s.
00:25:39:13 – 00:25:45:46
Agent Palmer
Such a new avenue because he was such a workaholic that it’s like, oh, this is great.
00:25:45:51 – 00:25:50:21
Rebecca Seidel
That’s amazing. What a great like thing to talk about with him. Probably.
00:25:50:26 – 00:26:00:17
Agent Palmer
Well, and it’s great because like, he’s like, well, you I have some books for you. It’s like, oh, well, I all right, well, let’s put them on the list. Right.
00:26:00:17 – 00:26:01:01
Rebecca Seidel
Like, yeah.
00:26:01:01 – 00:26:02:11
Agent Palmer
The pile.
00:26:02:16 – 00:26:02:45
Rebecca Seidel
Right.
00:26:02:54 – 00:26:23:01
Agent Palmer
Which I, I’m, I’m really trying to get to a point where I’m reading where I’ve read everything in my house. I want to be that guy. I don’t know, I mean, and I’ve got a lot of. I’ve collected a lot. I think a lot, you know, I you can’t be a reader or a music person and not collect things like.
00:26:23:11 – 00:26:40:35
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I still have my CD collection. It may be in binders now, but, you know. Yeah. But like, I’m sure I’ve listened to every CD I’ve got. Why haven’t I read every book. Like how did I, how did I get to a point where I have so many more books and I’ve read.
00:26:40:40 – 00:26:44:21
Rebecca Seidel
Right. I’m sure it’s pretty daunting.
00:26:44:26 – 00:26:46:39
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean I’m up for the challenge. Yeah.
00:26:46:39 – 00:26:47:46
Rebecca Seidel
Right.
00:26:47:51 – 00:26:48:56
Agent Palmer
Or I’d like to think I.
00:26:48:56 – 00:26:50:59
Rebecca Seidel
Am.
00:26:51:04 – 00:27:06:30
Agent Palmer
I are like, you want to get back into reading? And I’m going to take time out of it for a moment. Because obviously that’s the biggest obstacle in any of this stuff. But what would you want to read?
00:27:06:35 – 00:27:33:11
Rebecca Seidel
Oh, man. Just I have a long list of, you know, whenever somebody mentions a book to me, it seems kind of similar to what you have. You have a long list of books kind of in your queue. Yeah. Yeah, I, I have a list somewhere. It’s not really genre specific. You know, recently I thought I was like, you know, memoir type things have always been really interesting to me.
00:27:33:16 – 00:27:48:00
Rebecca Seidel
Personal narrative nonfiction, like literary nonfiction, has always been really up my alley. But lately, I’ve been leaning more towards, fiction. Like, Things to Escape, I think is a pretty common thing for a lot of people.
00:27:48:00 – 00:27:48:49
Agent Palmer
That’s pretty fair.
00:27:48:52 – 00:28:12:28
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, I just finished, fantasy book, and I haven’t read fantasy in, like, a very long time, and it was such a nice. It’s such a nice escape. Like, I came out of it. I was like, oh, I actually, like, went somewhere else for a little bit. So I think my list for the coming year and just getting back into being a more gracious reader in general, it’s kind of a mixed bag.
00:28:12:33 – 00:28:37:39
Agent Palmer
Yeah. I mean, I’m, I, you know, I’ve, I’ve done nonfiction, fiction, biography, and I kind of, I make sure I jump around because I want to escape, but I also want this is, I don’t I don’t know what this is. And if there’s a psychologist out there listening, you know, feel free to tell me what this means.
00:28:37:43 – 00:28:52:07
Agent Palmer
But, like, I always feel like it’s mental gymnastics to jump around, and I want to do that. So I never read too of the same book back to back. So that way my mind has to change. Yeah I don’t.
00:28:52:12 – 00:29:14:29
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. No. Yeah. I don’t know if there’s a word for that, but I think I do that. I think I have an instinct to do that with books. And then I do that with podcast too. Like there I, I don’t know if I do this consciously, but I’m jumping around between like a straight news show, kind of an interview style show and then like the spacey, sound rich stuff that I love, I kind of do it all in doses, okay?
00:29:14:33 – 00:29:20:01
Rebecca Seidel
And I don’t know what causes me to, like, go from one to the other, but it has to be. It has to be all of them, you know?
00:29:20:06 – 00:29:39:30
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No. And I also feel like, I mean, I learned my lesson once I read the same author, the same type of book back to back. And I got I got halfway through the second one. And when did that happen? In the book I just read, right? Or in this one it’s.
00:29:39:30 – 00:29:39:57
Rebecca Seidel
All blending to.
00:29:40:01 – 00:29:43:19
Agent Palmer
And I was like, all right, nope, we’re not doing this again.
00:29:43:23 – 00:29:48:10
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. Lesson learned. Yeah.
00:29:48:15 – 00:29:53:55
Agent Palmer
I, I, I have to ask this question. You’ve done some work for Marvel.
00:29:54:00 – 00:29:54:47
Rebecca Seidel
Yes.
00:29:54:52 – 00:30:03:47
Agent Palmer
When people find out you’ve done work for Marvel, what’s the first thing they ask you?
00:30:03:51 – 00:30:25:29
Rebecca Seidel
Let me think about that. Well, sometimes it’s. Who have you met? You know, like, who’s coming in the door. Okay. What’s the office like? You know, I mean, I don’t know, I feel like somebody’s, like, a bigger name. Place has some, like, an air of mystery to it. Or it’s like, what’s it? What’s it actually like on the inside?
00:30:25:33 – 00:30:26:32
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
00:30:26:36 – 00:30:45:44
Agent Palmer
Are they. I mean, I guess one of the one of the reasons I ask is, are people ever like, okay, you work for Marvel or you’ve done work with Marvel or for Marvel? Like, no matter what it is, it always feels like every unless you’re actually Robert Downey Jr, right? Like everybody, it feels like everybody wants to know something else.
00:30:45:58 – 00:30:48:03
Agent Palmer
They don’t want to know about you anymore.
00:30:48:07 – 00:30:48:20
Rebecca Seidel
And.
00:30:48:22 – 00:31:07:10
Agent Palmer
I’ve and I’ve talked to other people and it just I get that sense that Marvel Star Wars, you know, could even be like, something is like NPR. I feel like at a certain level, people just want to know about the bigger thing, and you are just a cog in the machine, right?
00:31:07:15 – 00:31:08:18
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
00:31:08:23 – 00:31:09:58
Agent Palmer
But it’s a feather in your cap, right?
00:31:09:58 – 00:31:27:30
Rebecca Seidel
Like it is a very. Yeah. It is a strange thing. Back in the day when, you know, we were all out in the world more and meeting people in real life just day to day. It’s sort of a weird thing to drop in conversation where I start, you know, somebody says, what do you do for a living?
00:31:27:30 – 00:31:43:11
Rebecca Seidel
I say, I make podcasts. They’re like, oh, that’s super cool. I didn’t know that was a job. And then they say, what? Where for? And I say Marvel. And they’re like, like Marvel. You know what they always say? They always say like the comics like that Marvel. And I’m like, yeah, the other one like the other. Yeah, yeah.
00:31:43:16 – 00:31:47:57
Rebecca Seidel
So it’s sort of it always like derails the conversation a little bit. I will say that, you know.
00:31:48:02 – 00:31:56:53
Agent Palmer
But but, but you give everybody the opportunity to not go there I, I, I that’s the odd casts like keep it general.
00:31:56:58 – 00:32:11:54
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. Well it also just sounds a little bit like obnoxious is not the right word, but I feel like it’s a lot to throw in at once to be like, what do you do? I make podcasts for Marvel. Like, I just haven’t gotten like, it’s a little bit of a mouthful. I,
00:32:11:59 – 00:32:26:01
Agent Palmer
I mean, I, I, I don’t know if that’s true. I feel like that’s just, I mean, have you have you have you varied it up, like, do you say like audio producer and then people still say, well, what’s that like?
00:32:26:06 – 00:32:41:58
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, I think I do mix it up sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of cater it to my audience too, you know, like, it’s some people don’t really know what a podcast is. It’s a come on now.
00:32:42:02 – 00:32:43:36
Agent Palmer
Like now.
00:32:43:41 – 00:32:51:34
Rebecca Seidel
That’s generational. I mean, maybe not that they don’t know, but they kind of like, don’t maybe know how that could be a job, which I guess it’s kind of understandable.
00:32:51:38 – 00:33:10:47
Agent Palmer
I mean, I, I have trouble getting I mean, my mother begrudgingly listens to this show, and when I tell her that, like, oh, you know, I, I, I like I’m, I’m one of those, sticklers for quality. Like, I want my, my sound. I’m going to do spend way too much time making sure it sounds good.
00:33:11:01 – 00:33:26:06
Agent Palmer
I’m going to edit the hell out of it, and I’m going to make sure it comes in under my personal, not nothing over 75 minutes. Yeah. And I was like, so mom, you should be fine. It’s only 70. Like it’s not a 2 or 3 hour show commitment.
00:33:26:06 – 00:33:26:24
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
00:33:26:26 – 00:33:33:36
Agent Palmer
And she’s like. To her, this is a long episode. Yeah.
00:33:33:41 – 00:33:43:36
Rebecca Seidel
No, it’s not. I mean, there are like three hour long radio shows and I guess you kind of tune in and out of that.
00:33:43:41 – 00:33:51:41
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I would you probably, although I’d say people do that for podcasting, too. Like when I was in my heyday of listening to podcasts, I was.
00:33:51:43 – 00:33:52:52
Rebecca Seidel
There are some long ones.
00:33:52:52 – 00:34:00:26
Agent Palmer
There are some long ones. And I would do it while I would listen while doing other things. So like you do, come in and out of the conversation.
00:34:00:26 – 00:34:02:44
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, no, absolutely.
00:34:02:49 – 00:34:17:19
Agent Palmer
But that’s that’s all audio and I don’t, I don’t mean to put it down but like that’s music is same thing. Like I’ll listen to the same album for a long time and just be like, how do we get on track eight?
00:34:17:19 – 00:34:30:32
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, how do we get here? Well, that’s one thing I love about audio is you kind of like you can lose yourself in it, and you can also kind of tune it out and be doing other things depending on what it is, of course. But I kind of like the fact that you can walk away from it.
00:34:30:37 – 00:34:53:01
Agent Palmer
Yeah, yeah, I it’s, so I, I would love to say like Marvel movies are the reason. I have one final question at the end of my episode, after the closing music. But it’s not. It’s because I’m a child of the 90s. Well, the 80s, but it’s because I was a CD guy.
00:34:53:13 – 00:34:54:18
Rebecca Seidel
And yeah.
00:34:54:20 – 00:34:55:39
Agent Palmer
I expected.
00:34:55:44 – 00:34:56:11
Rebecca Seidel
Track.
00:34:56:13 – 00:35:23:08
Agent Palmer
That. There were 30 tracks on this, on this CD and and the album track listing only lists eight. And then there’s right 21 blank, five second, things. And then you get to the bonus and I just. Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I did it because, like, yeah, my music might start playing my actual outro, but there’s five more minutes left on the podcast.
00:35:23:08 – 00:35:23:42
Agent Palmer
It’s not all.
00:35:23:42 – 00:35:27:02
Rebecca Seidel
Music.
00:35:27:07 – 00:35:29:27
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. Got to stay tuned in.
00:35:29:40 – 00:35:37:04
Agent Palmer
I, I’d like to think, people have gotten wise to it by now, but I honestly don’t know.
00:35:37:09 – 00:35:38:09
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
00:35:38:14 – 00:35:47:21
Agent Palmer
Do you want to do your own show? Like, personally? You’ve got control over everything. It’s all you.
00:35:47:35 – 00:36:13:04
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, yeah. People have asked me this before because I have over the years, you know, worked on a lot of people shows, but never my own. Besides my radio show in college, I, yeah, I, I have some projects on the back burner that are mine, and I like the idea of being the voice of them.
00:36:13:09 – 00:36:47:53
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. It’s not like a burning desire of my own to have my own show where, like, my voice is the core voice, you know? But I definitely like, as I get back into music composition and just getting back in the practice of recording myself more and talking on Mike more and all this stuff, it is something that I really, you know, one thing I’m thinking about doing and I was thinking about this way earlier on in the pandemic times, and it’s kind of coming back to me now, is just having my own feed, my own RSS feed that I can just throw stuff in, okay, without the pressure of it being a regularly released
00:36:47:53 – 00:37:02:56
Rebecca Seidel
show or a specific format, just a place to kind of like be creative and just put it somewhere without pressure, but also kind of with the pressure because it’s there. Well, yeah.
00:37:03:01 – 00:37:28:12
Agent Palmer
I, I mean, I started and stopped like 15 different things at all. Try come out at once, right. Like, I, I feel like, there is a part of me that’s the Nike just do it like, because obviously, you know, you don’t know what works until you, you, you do it. Right. But, you know, a little bit of accountability goes a long way, like I.
00:37:28:12 – 00:37:47:16
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I mean, I treat this show professionally because I want it to be taken that way. Sure. And I write that way on the blog, but, there’s there’s a little extra crunch time when you go, like, okay, well.
00:37:47:21 – 00:37:47:44
Rebecca Seidel
Well, it’s.
00:37:47:44 – 00:37:53:58
Agent Palmer
Another what happens in two weeks like I and granted, I’m, I’m not weekly because I’m not crazy.
00:37:53:58 – 00:37:54:38
Rebecca Seidel
Like not going to.
00:37:54:40 – 00:37:55:23
Agent Palmer
I’m a.
00:37:55:34 – 00:37:56:22
Rebecca Seidel
I’m still over.
00:37:56:22 – 00:38:03:34
Agent Palmer
I’m too detail oriented to be able to put one of these. I mean, I could do one of these two in that, but I’d never have any.
00:38:03:39 – 00:38:04:58
Rebecca Seidel
Other would be all you were doing.
00:38:04:58 – 00:38:12:20
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but I the pressure right like that. Just that little like two weeks. Let’s go. Yeah. Come on.
00:38:12:20 – 00:38:13:57
Rebecca Seidel
So that’s super fair. Yeah.
00:38:13:57 – 00:38:32:42
Agent Palmer
I feel like when you do create that feed for whatever it is. Yeah. Like that little and and you know what? You don’t have to tell people it’s every two weeks. You don’t even have to tell people it’s once a month. But the moment you hit publish, like that little voice in your head is going to be like.
00:38:32:47 – 00:38:50:47
Rebecca Seidel
The next text. Yeah, no, I think that’s true. And I think like just a little bit of internal, like putting a clock on it. Like if I just make an RSS, an RSS feed tomorrow and it’s there, I’ll be like, great, I have an RSS feed and then I can see myself not doing anything with it for a very long time.
00:38:50:47 – 00:38:54:03
Agent Palmer
Well, you don’t create the RSS feed until you have the first thing, right?
00:38:54:03 – 00:39:09:32
Rebecca Seidel
Right. You got to put something in there. Yeah. So I guess there would be that, but no, I think you’re right that like putting a time crunch, whether it’s even if it’s just on yourself, even if you’re not accountable to an audience yet, it’s a good thing to do.
00:39:09:37 – 00:39:44:43
Agent Palmer
I still wonder how accountable I am to my audience, because I’m trying to do things that are, entertaining to me. Like, I, I hope people come along for the ride, but like, I’ve my guest list is so varied. And so, eclectic and so out there that I find it absolutely implausible that even my most fervent listeners are like, yeah, I love listening to everything he does.
00:39:44:48 – 00:39:51:20
Rebecca Seidel
I, I don’t know. Yeah. If you’re switching it up a lot, like there’s no way everybody’s going to like everything.
00:39:51:20 – 00:40:12:35
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And I, although I do suggest everybody does because my example is always like Marin, I’ve learned so much more from the guests he has on that I do not know than the ones who are like, yeah, I watched their movie. That’s great. Like like, who is this guy? Yeah. No, they always are.
00:40:12:35 – 00:40:13:38
Rebecca Seidel
The most surprising ones.
00:40:13:38 – 00:40:22:27
Agent Palmer
Yeah, absolutely. So, we’ve talked about all this writing. What? What when was the last time you did some writing?
00:40:22:32 – 00:40:46:22
Rebecca Seidel
Oh, gosh, that’s the hot seat question. Way too long ago, I mean. Well, okay, I had a journal that I kept, and it it’s one of those, you know, moleskin notebooks that’s kind of like a standard sized one. You know what I’m talking about. Yeah, yeah, I had the same journal for such a long time. It’s embarrassing.
00:40:46:27 – 00:41:05:44
Rebecca Seidel
And I finally finished it and AP on the last day of 2020. Okay. And I started a new one, and I’ve committed myself to writing every day in it. Okay. And there have been days and, you know, we’re not that far into 2021. There have been days where I’ve written a sentence and been like, that. Is it?
00:41:05:48 – 00:41:10:47
Rebecca Seidel
It’s a sentence. It’s my day. And but I feel better about it than if I had not.
00:41:10:52 – 00:41:36:55
Agent Palmer
Well, I will tell you that from the age of 12 to the age of 1 in 1918, something like they’re those 5 or 6 years, I think I started seven journals and I never got further than a week, with one exception, I never got. And my one exception is I spent four months in Israel, and I documented every second.
00:41:37:00 – 00:41:37:24
Rebecca Seidel
00:41:37:27 – 00:42:05:11
Agent Palmer
In a total of four of the marble composition notebooks. That was the one time I did it. For some reason, I haven’t thought my life has ever been that interesting since. Because, I’ve not even come close to to getting that. And I think. Yeah, well, in hindsight, looking back, I think I got lost in my own narrative there.
00:42:05:11 – 00:42:05:46
Rebecca Seidel
Sure.
00:42:05:47 – 00:42:16:26
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Which is exciting to do, especially when, you know, it’s four months. And I think maybe that’s the key. Like if I started one today, I’m just.
00:42:16:30 – 00:42:23:47
Rebecca Seidel
Like, when does it end? Yeah, it’s like you’re chronicling a specific experience versus just like your day to day life.
00:42:23:53 – 00:42:52:23
Agent Palmer
Yeah, yeah. And I, I know I don’t write that much like we talked earlier about like I don’t write fiction like I used to, but I don’t quite write like I used to, like, I’ve got other outlets and I feel like you do too. Like, if you’re picking up your base again, like, if you’re messing around on the keyboard, like, we input outputs like, yeah, if it’s coming out, it, it doesn’t really matter, right?
00:42:52:23 – 00:43:07:58
Rebecca Seidel
Like that’s how I’ve been trying to think about it. Like, if inspiration strikes and I find myself wanting to write a long thing, like I’m going to try to push myself to do that. But if there are other outputs going on, I feel less or I’m trying to feel less pressure.
00:43:08:12 – 00:43:29:29
Agent Palmer
I love the idea now in my head of like two weeks from now, you spend like, you come home, you’re done with work, you spend like three hours on a play in the keys, and then you look at your journal and you go, I played the keyboard for three hours tonight. Done. Like done. Just I’ve already done my output.
00:43:29:29 – 00:43:35:33
Agent Palmer
I’m just no. Yeah. To keep it going right.
00:43:35:38 – 00:43:41:34
Rebecca Seidel
I love that. Yeah, I think that. Yeah. If that’s my day, that sounds like a great day to me.
00:43:41:39 – 00:44:09:45
Agent Palmer
What, what creatively and I this is a broad one of those, super. What’s the blue sky questions, right? Yeah. And I’m, I’m not talking just maybe it is doing your own show, but generally speaking, like, creatively. What, like the pipe dream? What have you not done that you want your name, like produced by or. Yeah.
00:44:09:51 – 00:44:27:22
Agent Palmer
Written by or edited by or whatever it is. Like, what’s the 1 or 2, you know, you don’t have to be, but like, what’s the medium, what’s the what’s the what’s the plan? Because I’m sure. Yeah. You you you go there on occasion, right?
00:44:27:27 – 00:44:54:38
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know, like, I haven’t fixated too much on the one dream just because I think if I did, I would drive myself a little nuts. Every day that I didn’t do it, you know? Okay. Yeah, but definitely the more I sink into the medium of audio, the more I want to stay there in some form.
00:44:54:43 – 00:45:22:22
Rebecca Seidel
And I’ve had sort of a project that’s been kind of alternately on the front burner in the back burner for a while now. And I, like, haven’t quite cracked the final shape it’s going to take. But it’s an audio series all about bridges. Okay. Okay. So and I have a website for it and everything. I probably shouldn’t, I don’t know, it’s, it’s called abridged.
00:45:22:26 – 00:45:23:10
Agent Palmer
I, I.
00:45:23:13 – 00:45:58:09
Rebecca Seidel
Love it already. And it’s basically a series. Well, see, what I’m. It doesn’t even have a final form yet, but the idea of it in my head is a series of audio pieces about different bridges in various kind of ways of thinking about them. Sure. Whether it’s physical or metaphorical. Okay. Like a historical look at even the construction of a bridge or talking to somebody who’s, like, whole life revolves around a bridge for some reason.
00:45:58:13 – 00:46:17:04
Rebecca Seidel
I’ve just, I think growing up in Queens, New York, where I live, there’s, there’s a lot of bridges nearby, and I like, I live near a park that has two kind of major bridges, and I just look at them and I think those things are awesome. And they’re just like, they’re kind of like this weird in-between place where you don’t really spend a lot of time on them, but they do get you from one place to another.
00:46:17:04 – 00:46:18:37
Rebecca Seidel
And I think that’s really interesting.
00:46:18:42 – 00:46:28:48
Agent Palmer
So, I will say I had, six months photographic, dalliance with water towers. I could.
00:46:28:48 – 00:46:29:56
Rebecca Seidel
Not interesting.
00:46:29:56 – 00:46:32:31
Agent Palmer
I just, I just fell in love with the idea. You get.
00:46:32:31 – 00:46:33:21
Rebecca Seidel
A fixation of.
00:46:33:21 – 00:46:37:33
Agent Palmer
Seeing a water tower and being like. I’m taking a picture of that. Yeah, I don’t.
00:46:37:33 – 00:46:38:16
Rebecca Seidel
Know what I’m talking about.
00:46:38:16 – 00:46:54:52
Agent Palmer
I yeah, I and you know what? I don’t necessarily have a connection with any of them. 1 or 2 where like near where I lived, but otherwise you’d be like, I’d be driving. It’d be like, all right, I’m gonna take a five minute detour and see if I can go over and get a good picture. I so I know I get it, and I, I’m on board for it.
00:46:54:52 – 00:47:01:42
Agent Palmer
I, I guess my question is, for however long it’s gone on and I ask this from a process perspective.
00:47:01:47 – 00:47:02:19
Rebecca Seidel
00:47:02:23 – 00:47:13:24
Agent Palmer
Is it easy to jump back like, like if it’s gone from front and back and front and back burner? Multiple times? Is it easy to jump back in?
00:47:13:29 – 00:47:14:05
Rebecca Seidel
Not really.
00:47:14:19 – 00:47:16:00
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:47:16:05 – 00:47:43:36
Rebecca Seidel
I had a summer where I kind of really focused on it and soliciting stories from people doing research, reading books. And kind of really diving into it. And then various other projects took me away. And then, yeah, it was kind of hard to get back in. I like I think the ideal scenario would be having like if I had like three months where it was my thing and I was focusing on it, I could get somewhere with it.
00:47:43:41 – 00:48:01:25
Agent Palmer
And then once you get it moving, it should be a little bit easier to get going. Yeah, yeah. No, I, I hear that I, I’ve got projects that like I was hot and heavy with and didn’t finish right. And it’s like I want to,
00:48:01:29 – 00:48:16:36
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. And again like, I don’t even know if it’s necessarily like, I wouldn’t even necessarily call that my pie in the Sky project or like my blue sky light. That’s ultimately what I want to do. But it’s just something that’s been in my brain for so long. But I just take it, really want to see it through.
00:48:16:41 – 00:48:23:50
Agent Palmer
Sometimes it’s just figuring out, like getting that done and and then seeing what’s next. Yeah.
00:48:23:54 – 00:48:25:16
Rebecca Seidel
Exactly.
00:48:25:21 – 00:48:37:29
Agent Palmer
I mean, I, I don’t I I’ve, I’ve got so many open ended things right now like the blog is the blog. The podcast is a podcast. Like the those.
00:48:37:29 – 00:48:38:45
Rebecca Seidel
Who are pretty concrete.
00:48:38:50 – 00:48:56:26
Agent Palmer
They do feel pretty concrete. But like there’s the the I still have this little voice in my head that’s like, what else is there? And yeah, like, right, I don’t need other people to be like, right, come on, do something else. Like like I’m my own worst enemy. Like, this is like, no, you’re not.
00:48:56:26 – 00:49:10:26
Rebecca Seidel
No, I’m the same way. I’m always like, what’s the next thing? Or what’s the additional thing? And I’m somebody who bounces around between a lot of projects, and yet somehow it still feels like, oh, there’s something I’m not doing that I should be doing.
00:49:10:31 – 00:49:35:59
Agent Palmer
It’s it’s. I feel like that’s my constant state. Yeah. Like, oh, yeah, you should be doing something right now. Like, yeah, I don’t know what it is. And I’ve become a compulsive list taker. And I’ve started to try and write down more things. The amount of times I jump out of the shower to write something down.
00:49:35:59 – 00:50:03:10
Agent Palmer
Now, I’m sure I’ve lost a ton of great ideas just because I forgotten them by the time. Yeah. And what’s odd is it’s not always, something I can control. So when my mind wanders and sometimes it’s in the shower or sometimes when I’m driving, I will sometimes think of the perfect opening question for a guest on this podcast.
00:50:03:10 – 00:50:26:20
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And in my head I will hear the whole podcast. I will know what your answer is like, I will presume to know, and then what my follow up is and what your follow up is, and I will go through like and then by the time I get to wherever I’m going or I’m done with whatever I’m doing, I’ve completely forgotten not only the opening question, but all of the follow ups.
00:50:26:27 – 00:50:28:32
Rebecca Seidel
But the whole yeah.
00:50:28:37 – 00:50:31:46
Agent Palmer
Oh, gone.
00:50:31:51 – 00:50:33:53
Rebecca Seidel
So there was a recording that there.
00:50:33:53 – 00:50:38:51
Agent Palmer
Are there are podcasts I have done mentally that were brilliant. Just take me.
00:50:38:51 – 00:50:51:04
Rebecca Seidel
I do that in my sleep sometimes, especially when I’m like really deep in a project, like I’ll wake up and be like, did I just like edit that in my brain, in my sleep? That’s probably not healthy.
00:50:51:09 – 00:50:56:17
Agent Palmer
Yeah, that’s I’ve been there. Like, did I write that right?
00:50:56:22 – 00:50:58:59
Rebecca Seidel
Or did I just like somewhere. Yeah.
00:50:59:04 – 00:51:04:32
Agent Palmer
How is your recollection on the stuff you’ve created?
00:51:04:36 – 00:51:25:24
Rebecca Seidel
I varies, you know, it’s so weird, like because you’re somebody who’s also like, it seems like a, a very meticulous editor and meticulous sound person. You listen to things over and over again, like, I’ve worked on episodes of things where I basically have an hour long thing memorized by the end of it. And then I’m a little bit sick of it, but then it somehow leaves my brain.
00:51:25:24 – 00:51:41:21
Rebecca Seidel
It kind of trickles out. I would say my recollection is like like in the past six months, I, like, have a pretty good recollection of things I’ve made. And then beyond that, it gets a little hazier like, I know I made the thing, but I couldn’t, like, tell you specific details.
00:51:41:25 – 00:51:55:23
Agent Palmer
I, I, I am constantly amazed, like, I think often I’ll write a book review and an author will pull a quote to like, retweet it. And I’ll be like, who wrote that?
00:51:55:28 – 00:51:57:30
Rebecca Seidel
I said, like, yeah, I don’t know. It’s a great.
00:51:57:30 – 00:52:29:00
Agent Palmer
Event. I don’t understand how I have this ability because because, it’s not necessarily right that I’ve forgotten I wrote it. It’s that’s a really good line. Who wrote that? Not maybe that’s mine. No, no, no. Right. That’s a really good scribe who wrote that like, oh he was me. Oh. Okay. All right. Like I, I don’t for all I’ve done I still don’t have a lot of self-confidence in my, in myself.
00:52:29:00 – 00:52:41:00
Agent Palmer
I don’t know where that isn’t. That’s supposed to build up over time like the, the, the 30,000 hours or whatever it is like. Yeah. Aren’t you so wish I knew.
00:52:41:05 – 00:52:43:44
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. I’m the same way.
00:52:43:48 – 00:52:55:02
Agent Palmer
All right. I, so but before I let you go, do you have any tips if I decide to become an audio producer, like.
00:52:55:06 – 00:53:00:56
Rebecca Seidel
I mean, I think you’re doing that right now.
00:53:01:01 – 00:53:04:53
Agent Palmer
Like, do people ask you, like, how do you get into it?
00:53:04:58 – 00:53:36:52
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah, people do ask me that. And my answer is usually find a community. Find the community of people who may want to listen to the things that you’re making and be are there to support you along the way. I’ve been very lucky in my audio career to meet fellow audio people. You know, whether it’s through, you know, various meet ups at podcast events back when that was a thing, or listservs or just general communities where people are gathering.
00:53:36:57 – 00:53:55:30
Rebecca Seidel
I, run the New York City chapter of something called the Podcast Brunch Club, which is, basically, listening community that has chapters all over the world. And every month there’s a new theme with several podcast episodes that fit the theme. And then me, it’s like a book club, basically, and we gather to talk about it.
00:53:55:35 – 00:54:19:36
Rebecca Seidel
And I met a lot of fellow audio people, listeners and producers through that. So just tapping into those communities has been huge. Just for meeting fellow podcast. People collaborate ers and listeners. So that’s been huge. And then just like really taking the time to get into the software and just like be really nitty gritty with editing and sound design and just having fun with it.
00:54:19:46 – 00:54:21:51
Agent Palmer
Or have you ever been in a book club?
00:54:21:56 – 00:54:22:36
Rebecca Seidel
00:54:22:41 – 00:54:28:05
Agent Palmer
Or is the podcast Brunch Club? The club is is that your book club?
00:54:28:10 – 00:54:53:10
Rebecca Seidel
That’s basically my book club. I’ve been in and out of book reading communities. I was for a little while, a friend of mine here in New York had, kind of urbanism, like books about the city and city life book club. That was interesting. Read a lot of interesting things that way. But yeah, the podcast Brunch Club has been my biggest book club type thing that I’ve ever been into.
00:54:53:11 – 00:54:58:57
Agent Palmer
Is that part of is that why you’re listening is so varied? Because obviously that’s changing monthly.
00:54:58:57 – 00:55:14:21
Rebecca Seidel
And yeah, that’s definitely part of it. I will say, for for a podcast brunch club, often I find myself cramming when it’s almost time to meet up and I’m listening to the podcast at two times speed, trying to get through them because I have left it to the last minute.
00:55:14:26 – 00:55:31:52
Agent Palmer
So that’s that’s just that’s all I know about book clubs, period. Yeah. I mean, I’ve never been in one, but everybody I talked to who’s ever been in was like, yeah, I got I got a, we’re meeting up tomorrow. I got to read half a book and like what? Yeah. What? Why are you in this club? Right.
00:55:31:56 – 00:55:35:02
Rebecca Seidel
Right. I mean, it’s like, too much pain and.
00:55:35:07 – 00:56:07:15
Agent Palmer
All right. So I’ve kind of cut back on listening to podcasts. The amount, I mean, I was listening to like 15, 20 different shows at one point. Does Podcast Brunch Club make it harder for you, like, because obviously you’re being opened up and introduced to all these different shows all the time. I mean, I’m sure there’s some repeats, but do you find yourself being like, oh no, I’m subscribed to like, more shows than I have time in the week?
00:56:07:20 – 00:56:28:59
Rebecca Seidel
Yes. Which is why I kind of jump between a lot of things. I sort of have my regulars that are kind of, I don’t miss an episode, and then I have shows where I if I’m in the mood, I know that they’re there. And then sometimes there’s the occasional just fun discovery. And those are the things I find through the Brunch Club, occasionally where I just, like, had no idea it existed.
00:56:29:04 – 00:56:30:18
Rebecca Seidel
And then there it is.
00:56:30:23 – 00:56:48:25
Agent Palmer
I, I, I can’t do like, I, I thought about joining, I just, I, it’s too, it’s too much plus I, I mean, once I started my own show, I spent too much time editing. And you can’t listen to anything else when you’re editing.
00:56:48:25 – 00:57:05:47
Rebecca Seidel
Oh, my God, I don’t. Yeah, I think I don’t know how, like, I don’t know how I do it. Like, I wake up, I put on a podcast while I’m listening to that, I listen to when I’m making breakfast, then I like, go to my desk and I’m editing audio and then I, like, take a break and I’m, you know, listening to music.
00:57:05:47 – 00:57:27:30
Rebecca Seidel
And then later I’m listening to another podcast on a walk to the store, and it’s kind of constant and I don’t really. And back when I was commuting, I was doing that tenfold. Sure. Constantly just listening on my way to work and back and knock on what I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. Maybe it’s that I don’t wanna hear the voices in my own head, so I just listen to other voices all the time.
00:57:27:30 – 00:57:27:43
Rebecca Seidel
I mean.
00:57:27:56 – 00:57:51:44
Agent Palmer
That would explain a lot. I mean, I think that’s probably why I switched to music and cut down on some of the podcasts, because I can. Yeah, I can definitely let the music kind of clear it out a little bit more than, Yeah. I mean, all right, so how about this for the next week, you can listen to whatever you want, but it’s got to be music or a podcast.
00:57:51:49 – 00:57:54:08
Agent Palmer
You have to choose one.
00:57:54:12 – 00:57:55:37
Rebecca Seidel
And and just stick to one for.
00:57:55:37 – 00:57:58:09
Agent Palmer
The whole week.
00:57:58:13 – 00:57:59:34
Rebecca Seidel
Oh, man. I don’t know if I can.
00:57:59:34 – 00:58:12:34
Agent Palmer
I mean, you still have to listen to what you work. Yeah, like I’m not. You know, if you work on a podcast, that’s different. But, like, for for pleasure, it’s just music or a podcast.
00:58:12:38 – 00:58:13:56
Rebecca Seidel
Or. You’re asking me to choose now?
00:58:13:59 – 00:58:17:39
Agent Palmer
Yeah. No. Yeah.
00:58:17:44 – 00:58:25:21
Rebecca Seidel
Gosh, I think for the sake of just my my mental state, I would have to say music.
00:58:25:26 – 00:58:27:06
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:58:27:10 – 00:58:30:23
Rebecca Seidel
00:58:30:28 – 00:58:32:08
Rebecca Seidel
Now.
00:58:32:13 – 00:58:35:20
Agent Palmer
Are you trying to come up with a music podcast so you can cheat?
00:58:35:30 – 00:58:49:16
Rebecca Seidel
Is that right? Only music podcasts that play full albums. No, I think it. No, I take it back. I would, I would choose podcasts. Then the next week.
00:58:49:21 – 00:58:50:00
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:58:50:04 – 00:59:13:19
Rebecca Seidel
It would be such a relief to be like, oh, I don’t have to listen to voices anymore. Like, there would be something really cool about that. I also just find, like, I don’t know, listening to so many podcasts gives me it just feeds my brain in a way that I haven’t found that other things do you as much.
00:59:13:23 – 00:59:14:21
Rebecca Seidel
Do you know?
00:59:14:26 – 00:59:18:10
Agent Palmer
I can’t believe it took me this long to ask. Do you do audiobooks?
00:59:18:15 – 00:59:41:29
Rebecca Seidel
No, not I’ve tried. Okay. And I haven’t tried that much. The last time I really listened, I was a really avid audiobook person. Was back when I was a kid and had Harry Potter on cassette and it would go his. Jim Dale is a narrator and his voice would get slower and slower as the battery ran out. That was my last audiobook experience.
00:59:41:34 – 00:59:59:58
Agent Palmer
I because I, I know, in pitching, and it’s generational, but I know in pitching some people podcasts you go, well, it’s just like an audiobook, right? I mean, not this show, but like other shows, really, it’s.
01:00:00:03 – 01:00:19:13
Rebecca Seidel
Just like, yeah, yeah, I just feel like at that point, maybe because I’m so used to producing podcasts and putting all the bells and whistles on it, that listening to an audiobook is a very strange experience for me. And at that point I would rather do something else with my eyes and read.
01:00:19:18 – 01:00:38:23
Agent Palmer
Well, that’s I that was the I mean, I talked about reading being the one big thing, but not staring at a screen. All of my books are physical, because that’s the 30 minutes to an hour every day and not staring at a screen right. And that.
01:00:38:23 – 01:00:41:34
Rebecca Seidel
Necessary escape. Yeah.
01:00:41:39 – 01:01:00:02
Agent Palmer
Usually we need to give our eyes a break. Plus, I mean, I’m not. I use audacity for everything because it’s a program I’ve grown up with and I’ve been using it for, yeah, two decades now, on and off. So.
01:01:00:07 – 01:01:02:08
Rebecca Seidel
And you edit with it too. Yeah.
01:01:02:13 – 01:01:19:22
Agent Palmer
Yeah, yeah. I’ve, I’ve just gotten I had a chance and played around in audition. And I know Photoshop. So this is the this is how it works I know Photoshop I know illustrator okay I should and I should.
01:01:19:27 – 01:01:19:56
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
01:01:20:01 – 01:01:26:39
Agent Palmer
And I know audacity. So I know how audio works, how to edit it. And I know how Adobe works.
01:01:26:43 – 01:01:27:03
Rebecca Seidel
And.
01:01:27:03 – 01:01:29:33
Agent Palmer
I just couldn’t put it together.
01:01:29:38 – 01:01:54:00
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. Once you have your brain wrapped on one thing, I struggle with this a lot because for for my work, work like at Marvel, we use Pro Tools. This is so like inside baseball audio talk. But and then for independent shows I work on, it’s often audition and then I yeah, I, I’m teaching an audacity class at the local library like two weeks from now.
01:01:54:00 – 01:02:00:25
Rebecca Seidel
And I have to remind myself the shortcut like I know them, but my brain is just a mess of shortcuts, is what I’m saying.
01:02:00:30 – 01:02:18:22
Agent Palmer
That’s put that to everybody, though, like, I yeah, I the things we remember. Yeah. Like without thinking about it and I’m still astounded I remember some things like yeah just who knew right. Like right. What’s, who knew.
01:02:18:22 – 01:02:22:32
Rebecca Seidel
That this was in my brain? Did.
01:02:22:37 – 01:02:48:38
Agent Palmer
The there’s so much in there right. Like and and you’re trying to fill it with more. Because I think generally speaking, we’re all curious people. And it doesn’t matter if it’s reading or or podcasts or movies or television. Like, we’re all curious, right? Like that’s just the nature and look, if you’re listening to this show, thank you.
01:02:48:38 – 01:02:58:59
Agent Palmer
But, like, it’s not it’s not I know it’s not for everybody. And I also know, like, podcast sites aren’t for everybody. Some people still enjoy the newspaper. I.
01:02:59:04 – 01:02:59:38
Rebecca Seidel
Of course.
01:02:59:49 – 01:03:10:53
Agent Palmer
In my head, I still want to be that newspaper with my coffee in the morning, like I write. I want that to be my life. It never will be. I don’t.
01:03:10:58 – 01:03:14:56
Rebecca Seidel
It’s like, yeah, romanticized like.
01:03:15:00 – 01:03:23:21
Unknown
Like that.
01:03:23:26 – 01:03:24:00
Unknown
Look.
01:03:24:05 – 01:03:52:14
Agent Palmer
I’ll be honest with you here. I’ve spent way too much time since this conversation was recorded. Thinking about the concept of input and outputs, specifically how it relates to us. And the more I think about it, the more I come to believe that a 5050 split is wholly unrealistic because most of us consume things in a passive way, on a level that is impossible to keep up with, for creating something.
01:03:52:19 – 01:04:18:43
Agent Palmer
And as an example, I sometimes listen to podcasts when I’m watching sports. That’s two inputs happening simultaneously. Conversely, it would be really hard for me to output two things passively. In fact, I don’t think I could output anything creatively in a passive way, so perhaps it should be adjusted for active inputs and active outputs. I’m actively reading this book.
01:04:18:43 – 01:04:48:02
Agent Palmer
I’m actively going to write about it one input, one output balance has been achieved, and as I’ve overthought this extensively, I think it should be an itemized balance sheet and not one based on time. I spent 12 hours reading that book, but only two hours drafting and published the review. The point is, I think all of us should be creatively balanced, and for some people that means creating more.
01:04:48:02 – 01:05:22:09
Agent Palmer
And for others that means consume more. And as a great example, we talked about journaling, which is a wonderful output and proof that not every creative output you have needs to be shared with the world, like my blog or this podcast. Some things just get to stay with you and that’s fine. So let me ask. In order to achieve creative balance, or even to just get it closer to 5050, do you need to create more or consume more?
01:05:22:14 – 01:05:43:57
Agent Palmer
And one last thing what’s stopping you? Thank you for listening to The Palmer Files episode 38. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can tweet me at Agent Palmer, the show at The Palmer Files, or Rebecca at Becca Hope 24.
01:05:43:59 – 01:06:11:09
Agent Palmer
That’s Becca P 24. You can visit Rebecca Hope Seidel. That’s C.I., DL for links and updates to all of her projects. Don’t forget, you can see all of my writings and rantings on Agent palmer.com. And of course, email can be sent to the show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com. If there’s a topic or guest you’d like me to consider.
01:06:11:14 – 01:06:47:10
Agent Palmer
You.
01:06:47:15 – 01:06:54:09
Agent Palmer
Seem all right. Becca, do you have one final question for me?
01:06:54:14 – 01:07:13:19
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. So I was talking before about how I’ve made it a point in my own life to journal every day, and I’m just making myself do it. Kind of forcing a habit for myself. Is there a habit you wish you had that you don’t have, but you wish you did?
01:07:13:23 – 01:07:52:21
Agent Palmer
Oh, I’m I’m I’m trying to think I. Habits are. I might take journaling. I might say writing on a daily basis. I, I, I, I’ve been doing it long and I think I just wrote about I just wrote about this. I think it will be out by before this show airs. I have been doing a long, slow purge of just junk in my house by getting rid of five items every day or putting them away, whatever.
01:07:52:21 – 01:08:23:40
Agent Palmer
It’s my own little system. But like, that’s become a habit because I’ve been doing it for two years now. So that’s kind of helped declutter the, the, the house. But, you know, I, I think you know, what it it’s not really a habit. I just like to get better at my time management. Like, I’m like, I will read for longer than I should and stay up a little bit later.
01:08:23:40 – 01:08:37:33
Agent Palmer
Yeah, or I will, I don’t know, play a video game for longer than I should. Like, I, I my time management is I mean I get a lot of stuff done but I could get so much more done.
01:08:37:38 – 01:08:38:00
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah.
01:08:38:12 – 01:08:58:28
Agent Palmer
And and I feel like it’s probably just I don’t know what the habit is to get into. I just know my bad habit is my time management. Yeah. So if I can make that a good habit, I feel like that would be the optimal because I would. Yeah. Like like, oh, well, imagine what else I could do.
01:08:58:35 – 01:09:00:23
Rebecca Seidel
Right. Exactly.
01:09:00:28 – 01:09:04:53
Agent Palmer
I don’t know what else that is. Yeah, but.
01:09:04:53 – 01:09:06:30
Rebecca Seidel
It’s there somewhere.
01:09:06:35 – 01:09:28:19
Agent Palmer
Because the the other thing is, over the last two years, I’ve made it a point to get into the habit of playing guitar on a more regular basis, which for me is like three times a week. Like, that’s a more regular basis. Yeah. I don’t need to get. I don’t need to get proficient. I don’t need to play live.
01:09:28:19 – 01:09:35:06
Agent Palmer
I don’t need to go to open mics. I just I just need to know that if I pick up the guitar, I can play.
01:09:35:11 – 01:09:38:16
Rebecca Seidel
Yeah. No, that’s all right.
01:09:38:16 – 01:09:40:19
Agent Palmer
That’s so. I don’t know.
01:09:40:22 – 01:09:40:56
Rebecca Seidel
But.
01:09:41:01 – 01:09:44:56
Agent Palmer
I don’t know. I don’t know if that answers your question about habits, though.
01:09:45:00 – 01:09:45:42
Rebecca Seidel
I think it does.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).