{"id":2207,"date":"2020-04-13T12:49:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T16:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=2207"},"modified":"2020-04-13T12:49:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T16:49:19","slug":"two-peas-in-a-pod-one-in-a-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2020\/04\/13\/two-peas-in-a-pod-one-in-a-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Peas in a Pod, One in a Podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When I used to teach writing courses many years ago, I advised my students to avoid clich\u00e9s.  Back then I saw clich\u00e9s as being hackneyed and unoriginal.  However, as the years have gone by, I have become more accepting of clich\u00e9s.  I find that when I stop and think about a clich\u00e9, it often evokes a memory or a compelling image.  Such is the case with the clich\u00e9 \u201ctwo peas in a pod.\u201d   My parents always grew peas in their large vegetable garden, and one of my jobs as a boy was to shell the peas.  I remember pulling the pods apart, revealing the emerald green peas maturing within.  For me, this clich\u00e9 is not just about the similar nature of the peas, but it\u2019s also about the protective nature of the pod.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In many ways, Landis Wade\u2019s Charlotte Readers Podcast and my\nStoried Charlotte blog are two peas in a pod, and Charlotte\u2019s community of\nreaders and writers is our common pod.  Both\nWade and I share an interest in connecting readers and writers.  Both Wade and I draw attention to Charlotte\u2019s\ntalented writers.  Both Wade and I\ncollaborate with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.  As Wade expressed in a recent email to me, \u201cIt\nlooks like our interests are similar, yours with a blog, mine with a podcast.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a little less than two years, Wade\u2019s podcast has become a fixture in Charlotte\u2019s cultural scene.\u00a0 Wade recorded the first Charlotte Readers Podcast episode in 2018, and he will release his 100th<\/sup> episode at the end of April.\u00a0 I recently contacted Wade and asked how he came to create Charlotte Readers Podcast.\u00a0 Here is his response:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At my 40th College\nReunion last summer at Davidson College, someone paid me a back-handed\ncompliment. It went something like this. “You were the last guy in our\nclass who I thought would write a book and do something creative like start a\npodcast.\u201d It\u2019s true. I didn\u2019t fit the mold. I was a college football player,\nwho majored in history and then turned that into a law degree, where I then\nworked as a trial lawyer for 35 years in Charlotte.  Then what? Did you hear the one about the\nlawyer who walked into a podcast studio? True, it sounds like a bad Dad joke,\nbut I wasn\u2019t kidding when I announced I was doing just that in the fall of\n2018 when I retired in December. My dad asked, \u201chow do you make money at\nthat.\u201d I said \u201cI don\u2019t, Dad, I just want to do something creative in my\nAct 3.\u201d He was mystified.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While still working as\na lawyer, I wrote my first book, <\/em>The\nChristmas Heist<\/em><\/strong><\/a> as a\nChristmas gift for my family, which one reviewer called a cross between My Cousin Vinny and Miracle on 34th Street. When the\nnext Christmas rolled around, the characters returned to save Christmas once\nagain in <\/em>The Legally Binding\nChristmas<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. The trilogy\nwas completed with <\/em>The\nChristmas Redemption<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, which\nwon the 2018 Holiday category of the <\/em>12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards<\/em><\/strong><\/a> and was the 2018 Holiday category\nHonorable Mention in the <\/em>10th Annual Readers\u2019 Favorite Awards<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. My foray into writing and my\nexperience as a trial lawyer made me wonder whether I could create an\ninterview-based podcast to help authors give voice to their written\nwords. I had a sense that this medium \u2013 this podcast thing \u2013 could be a\ngreat way to connect authors to listeners who enjoy good stories and poems. And\nthus, Charlotte Readers Podcast was born, the intersection between readers and\nwriters where \u201cAuthors Give Voice to Their Written Words.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I started podcasting in the fall of 2018, I didn\u2019t know the difference between a mixing board and a mixing bowl, why I needed an audio host, or how to get voices to travel into a microphone and end up in Apple Podcast land, but I loved to read and write, so I figured I might be able to learn the rest. Since then I have interviewed over 125 authors, done a number of live podcasts and on April 28th, I will release our 100th episode. With support from sponsors Park Road Books and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library and some help from member supporters and Advent Coworking\u00a0where I record when I can do so in person, I\u2019m getting closer to breaking even (not there yet), but I podcast because I enjoy engaging with\u00a0interesting people who also happen to tell good stories and I like connecting readers with writers.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book lovers and writers who\u00a0are interested in learning what\u2019s coming\u00a0on the podcast through our bi-weekly newsletter or engaging with, supporting or reviewing the show, can find those links here:\u00a0<\/em>https:\/\/linktr.ee\/CharlotteReadersPodcast<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0They can find our website here:\u00a0<\/em>www.charlottereaderspodcast.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we might feel alone in this the time of\nself-isolation, we should remember that there are other peas in our pod.  We still have our communities, and we still\nhave stories to share.  I congratulate\nLandis Wade on his 100th<\/sup> episode of Charlotte Readers Podcast, and I\nthank him for his many contributions to Storied Charlotte.        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I used to teach writing courses many years ago, I advised my students to avoid clich\u00e9s.  Back then I saw clich\u00e9s as being hackneyed and unoriginal.  However, as the years have gone by, I have become more accepting of clich\u00e9s.  I find that when I stop and think about a clich\u00e9, it often evokes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[39,38,37],"class_list":["post-2207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte","tag-charlotte-readers-podcast","tag-peas-in-a-pod","tag-podcast"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2207"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2217,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions\/2217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}