Most Podcasting Traditions Are No Longer Needed

The story of the woman who cut the ends off the ham is a parable about understanding the reasons behind traditions or habitual actions.

A young woman is preparing a ham to bake for dinner. Before putting it in the oven, she cuts off both ends of the ham. Her husband asks why she does that, and she replies that her mother always did it that way. 

Now curious, she asks her mother, who says she learned it from her mother. Still curious, the two go to the grandmother and ask her why she started this practice. 

The grandmother laughs and explains that in the old days; she didn't have a pan big enough for the ham, so she cut the ends off to make it fit.

The moral of the story is that people often continue to do things out of habit without knowing the original reason, and sometimes those reasons may no longer be relevant. It serves as a reminder to question and understand why things are done rather than blindly following tradition.

Are you doing this with your podcast?

Much of what we consider “podcasting” is built upon broadcast radio. Some of these things never made sense for podcasters, we just picked them up because somebody else was doing them, and some of them no longer make sense, because podcasting has changed …

For example, “reruns” in podcasting—this never made sense.

Yeah, you can repurpose an episode and reach new subscribers, but unlike traditional broadcast media, on-demand access to episodes makes reruns unnecessary. 

Be honest … If you’re rerunning episodes, is this for your convenience or that of your listeners?

And does a “rate and review” on Apple Podcasts really matter that much?

Not for most podcasters.

Same for dedicated apps. Same for your dedicated podcast website.

None of these things hurt, and there’s some good to each of them, but they take time, effort and resources to make happen. For most podcasters, the payoff isn’t nearly worth these things, because most listeners of your podcast will never see any of them.

Question your podcasting process and why you do things.