Q+A: Curtis Gilbert, Electionwise

Plenty of organizations are using the upcoming presidential elections as the launching point for a podcast. One of the best, in my opinion, is MPR’s Electionwise. Here’s the formula:

(RadioLab – Science + Politics) – 50 minutes = Electionwise

Pretty perfect, huh? Curtis Gilbert, one of the podcasts hosts, shared his thoughts about the podcast and the process.

When and why did you and Molly Bloom start this podcast?

Molly and I are working on a special election-related project at MPR called Engaging Americans. It's funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the goal is to cover the election with guidance from our audience and the general public. The podcast is one way we're doing that. But there are also traditional reports, public forums, online games, local and national programming. There are lots of different ways we involve the public in our news coverage. We tell their stories through a series called "The Day You Won My Vote." We ask them to help us spot trends and identify issues to cover. And in the case of this podcast, we let them tell us what questions are on their minds this election year. We started Electionwise in mid-April, and the plan is to produce one program a week through election day. After that... who knows?

How did you home in on the tone of the podcast, which is definitely less serious than a lot of political podcasts out there?

Radio is a passive medium. Podcasts are an active one. Unlike the stories I do for Morning Edition and All Things Considered, no one is going to accidentally happen upon Electionwise while they are stuck in traffic. They have to actively decide to subscribe to it. And they have to make the choice to listen to it on their iPod, instead of one of their favorite songs.

So, we decided it needed to be short, fast-paced and fun, while it teaches you something -- ideally something that will make you sound smart when you're talking with your friends. Molly and I spend more time at work than we'd care to admit sending each other random online videos. That's the genre of humor we're going for. If it works for YouTube, why not a public radio podcast?

The shows seem more complicated to create and produce than those of a typical podcast. Can you talk a bit about how you decide to include things like political impersonations/politicians as kids/American Idol clips into a given podcast?

First of all, we wanted to incorporate the heretofore largely untapped voice-acting talents of MPR political editor Mike Mulcahy. He has been covering politics in Minnesota since the 80's, and can do a pretty good impression of just about every politician in the state. So every week, we have to figure out some embarrassing thing for him to do. And when we need a really piping child's voice, we always have Molly's cousins, Brita and Danny Hunegs.

We have to come up with at least one moment of silliness for every week's show. We usually figure out what it's going to be while we're researching the answer to the listener's question. It can be something as simple as a quotation on the New York Times Op-Ed page ("American Idol primary") or it can be something our guest says during the interview. We had no idea that John Koza from the National Popular Vote project had published a board game based on the electoral college back in the 1960's. But as soon as he told us that, we looked at each other across the mics and started grinning: We had the perfect bit to end the show with!

The main thing we want to do is surprise our listeners. Maybe people will listen every week just to see what off-the-wall thing we do next.

Your shows are based on listener-generated questions -- have you gotten any questions that, for one reason or another, you don't think you could ever do an episode on? Can you give an example?

We've gotten lots of questions that we can't use. Sometimes people ask very pointed, sarcastic questions that are directed at a specific candidate: "Why do you think it's O.K. to lie to the public about X, Y, Z..." That's not going to work very well. What we're looking for are questions about the candidates, the issues or the election, itself. I especially like questions about those things we take for granted -- the two-party system, the electoral college, the long, drawn-out primary process, etc. Those questions always boil down to: "How'd it get to be this way?" It's also helpful when the question ends with a question mark.

What podcasts do you like to listen to?

Curtis currently subscribes to: On the Media, This American Life, Radio Lab, Flight of the Conchords, Word for Word and Electionwise (gotta keep those subscriber numbers up!)

Molly listens to Filmspotting, Radio Lab, The Sound of Young America, The Naked Scientists from the BBC, and This American Life.

It seems that public radio has made a significant commitment to podcasting -- in a way that most other media outlets haven't. Any thoughts about why?

If people are going to be walking around listening to iPods, instead of Walkmen, I think we'd better make sure we're there! I think we're still figuring out what works as a podcast and how that's different from what works as a radio program. But we do know how to produce and edit audio, and we know a thing or two about journalism. So that gives us a big advantage.

Is there anything else you think readers should know about Electionwise?

Please send us questions about the election, the candidates and the issues! The podcast is only as good as the questions!