Bat Lessons

I’ve always wanted to do a podcast. It’s not as easy as it sounds.

For one, my area of greatest interest is technology. It’s hard to talk about that without creating conflict of interest wtih an employer. For another, it’s a commitment and commitments are hard. Not just for yourself, but for everyone involved. As much as I like the sound of my own voice, I don’t think anyone else would appreciate me talking alone for an hour. A cohost is a must.

But about a year ago, the stars started to align.

In 2018 I wrote briefly about how I was getting into comic books. I just kept falling down that rabbit hole. I’ve been reading and reading and reading. It’s super fun, but I’ve not really had anyone to talk about it with. Turns out that despite massive cinematic success, the books themselves are a pretty small niche. I found myself craving an outlet. It occured to me that a podcast may be just the ticket.

Enter my good friend Brian. He’s always been into Batman, and while that’s not my favorite character, it is one I do enjoy. There was an intersection of interests that could allow us to chat for hours. I wrote up a one page pitch document, and a small technical plan and he agreed.

The show covers the history of Batman. Writers, artists, filmmakers, business people, politicians, and critics. Everyting in and around the Batman creative works. I can’t help myself, and we go deep. Probably too deep. The second episode is over an hour and we don’t even really talk about Batman. But it’s fun, and I think you could call it a success.

It’s hard to get a handle on what is a successful podcast, but buzzsprout says you only need 105 downloads of an episode in the first 7 days to be in the top 10% of podcasts. We’ve easily cleared that bar for every episode released.

There’s not a lot of great data on longevity. There’s a often repeated but never cited stat that 90% of podcasts fail after 3 episodes, and I’m pretty sure it’s false. Pacific Content, a podcasting agnecy has what appears to be slightly more reliable analysis on their blog estimating that the average number of episodes for a podcast (total) is 14. We just published episode 9, and I don’t think we’re going to stop any time soon.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been a little embarassed to talk about it. Batman is by and large targeted at children. And lord knows we don’t need another middle aged white guy talking into a microphone seeking internet fame. But we’ve put together a small and reliable audience of likeminded nerds. I think the level of quality is high and we’re having fun. I’m growing to be proud of it. You can find us by searching for “Bat Lessons” in you app of choice, or on our website.