On the CUSP

Completely Unnecessary? Hardly. New Zealand's own Completely Unnecessary Skeptical Podcast is celebrating its fourth birthday and has established a niche for itself in the country's digital airwaves.

Every month or two, usually on a Sunday morning, my daughter and I are ejected from our house for an hour or two so my wife can have some peace and quiet. I'm sure this is not unusual. However, rather than putting her feet up and having a quiet cup of tea, she spends the time ranting into a microphone with a couple of friends. Welcome to the world of skeptical podcasting!

The Completely Unnecessary Skeptical Podcast (CUSP) started in January 2010 with Pilot Episode Zero. Since then there have been a further 32 episodes recorded and made available on the website thecusp.org.nz

The average podcast episode gets downloaded around 1000 times, with 15817 downloads in 2013 up to the time of wr- we have no idea why.

It is hard to believe the podcast has been running for four whole years. The teething problems (particularly with microphones and audio) took quite a while to get sorted out, but finally the sound quality is now professional. I probably shouldn't mention the times when large chunks of audio were not recorded …

Over the years there have been various contributors, including Chrissie Taylor and Colin Frewin, but the three most regular participants are Nathan Grange, Craig Shearer and Siouxsie Wiles.

The podcasts cover a wide range of skeptical topics, with particular focus on those with particular relevance to New Zealand. The format of the podcast is first to discuss any listener feedback, comments or corrections, then to have a discussion of new items. A regular feature is "Siouxsie Rants about the Ponsonby News". This free magazine, made available to households in several central Auckland suburbs, is overflowing with crazy remedies, diets and other health fads, and it rarely fails to provide something new to be outraged by. The podcast sometimes features an interview with a celebrity skeptic, and ends with a skeptical quotation and the word of the day.

I thought it might be entertaining to have a chat with the cast about some aspects of making a podcast. This interview was conducted on Sunday 8 December, 2013, after the recording of episode 32. The interviewer was Steven Galbraith (SG). The podcasters were: Nathan Grange (NG), Craig Shearer (CS) and Siouxsie Wiles (SW).

SG: Why do you do a podcast?

NG: Why don't we do it?

CS: Because none of us have had the guts to pull out.

NG: Because people are still listening to us and still want us to do it I guess. That's the main reason.

SW: Mmmmmm…

NG: And it's fun.

CS: Not that we've really had any proof that anyone wants us to do it.

NG: Well, we've had a few people write in. One person we've never heard of before emailed us today.

CS: It is fun.

SW: It's fun.

NG: It is fun while we are here and recording it. Then you go home and think "my God I'm never doing that again."

SG: You're referring to the editing presumably.

NG: Yeah. That too.

SG: How much time do you spend on the editing?

NG: Not as much time as I used to. Normally takes me less than a week now. Actual time, a couple of hours. I do it at lunchtime. Back in the old days I used to go through each track for each person and take out all the blank spaces, which made more sense back then because it was really noisy. But now the recording quality is a bit better. Now all I do is basically listen to it a couple of times and then export it.

SG: What are your personal highlights?

NG: Interviewing Paul Daniels. I know you guys don't think he's cool, but I do.

CS: Did we interview Paul Daniels?

SW: He interviewed Paul Daniels. [Episode 6]

CS: What else?

NG: Had Lawrence Krauss. [Episode 23]

CS: Yeah, Lawrence Krauss was good.

SW: I think I just like having a place to rant. It has been really fun. Although it's getting a little … I need to find …

CS: New sources. Expanded sources of rant.

SW: … because the Ponsonby News is just very tiresome.

SG: So what you are saying is that the highlight is the interviews. It's giving you an excuse to talk to people who you'd like to talk to.

NG: Yeah, probably has done. We haven't done many recently. But we have interviewed Rebecca Watson, George Hrab, Lawrence Krauss as I said, Paul Daniels, Vicki Hyde. Although anyone can interview Vicki Hyde …

SW and CS: (laughter) … who we love …

NG: It was a good interview. [Episode 0]

SW: What I would like is us to get a little bit more organised next year and introduce people in NZ to people they might not have heard of.

SG: Are you an effective team?

(laughter)

SG: Do you think you work well as a team?

NG: I think we do.

CS: Yeah, I think we do.

SG: What do you each bring?

NG: Siouxsie brings all the information and science and stuff, and all the articles.

CS: I bring the microphones along.

NG: And I do a few jokes.

CS: And I bring the biscuits.

SW: We provide the table.

SG: What have you learned from doing the podcast?

SW: For me, I'm learning about skepticism as a community, and the stuff that is out there and the people that are active in it. Just some of the nonsense that is out there. Like listening to stuff about what creationists believe and things. All of this stuff I just didn't really know existed. Living in my own little science bubble. Kind of interesting to find out.

CS: We even educated Siouxsie today about the crocoduck.

SG: I've never heard of the crocoduck.

CS: (shaking head) People who don't know about the crocoduck … you will have to look it up.

NG: How are you ever going to prove evolution if you don't know what a crocoduck is? Come on guys! Get with the programme!

SG: Nathan, your answer to this question?

NG: What have I learned? I've learned random things from the news articles and stuff that we've had come on, and we've talked about.

CS: It encourages me to read news articles more than I would have done probably.

NG: Nothing concrete that I can put my finger on. 'Cos I was already very knowledgeable, before we started.

(laughter)

NG: I pretty much knew everything coming in. I still know everything.

SG: Do you think being a podcast star has boosted your ego?

NG: No no no no. I'm still very humble.

CS: And does it help you get laid?

NG: Only once.

(great laughter)

SG: That wasn't a question on my list!

NG: I'm still very humble. It's one of my greatest qualities. I have to say, I have been "recognised" a couple of times. Once a guy came to skeptics in the pub, and we were casually talking about the podcast, and he said "You're that Nathan, from the podcast!" And I was quite pleased with myself.

SW: You had a warm glow.

CS: Was that the time you got laid?

(laughter)

NG: No.

SG: Plans for the future? Improvements?

CS: I think we need to promote ourselves more.

SW: We need to promote ourselves more, and be more organised.

CS: Yes. We need to be more organised before we promote ourselves.

SG: I think that's a good place to end. Thank you very much.

Steven Galbraith is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at Auckland University. At the microphone: Craig Shearer. Siouxsie Wiles and Nathan Grange record an episode while Siouxsie and Steven's daughter Eve looks on.