If Here Be Monsters, the edgy but earnest podcast now in its second season, were a restaurant, it would be that new place with limited seating currently creating a buzz around town. Run by an intense young chef, the ever-changing menu shakes up diners' taste buds with the daring and unexpected.
Like the restaurant, HBM is finding a following, mostly through word of mouth. It's also beginning to earn praise from critics (at least that's what we'd call having an episode chosen for this year's Third Coast Festival's Filmless Festival.)
Sampling Here Be Monsters' meaty fare you might detect the influence of more established shows like Love + Radio. But HBM doesn't deal in shock value. Its stories range from the quirky to the inconsequential, yet almost always satisfy as a complete experience with a beginning, middle and end.
And HBM sticks to its theme -- stories of fear and the unknown -- whether the scary element is the OMG! diagnosis of brain cancer or the mystery of North Korea's bizarre computer operating system. You also don't tend to forget about the show due to long waits between episodes. A new HBM usually pops up in iTunes before you've finished digesting the last one.
Jeff Emtman is the guy serving up the audio and fussing over every creative detail (including composing much of the show's music). Like many who changed course from another creative medium, Jeff is a photographer who discovered he had an eye for radio. He says the show was born out of the drive for self-reflection, though HBM is no ego trip. In fact, it's evolving as a showcase for producers and artists to shape and deliver a compelling story. Always the gracious host, Jeff sets up his featured act and never tries to crowd them out of the spotlight.
If HBM isn't on your playlist yet, here's a sneak preview of an upcoming episode. That's followed by our Q&A with Jeff as he opens up about a show that ought not to be an acquired taste. Not if you appreciate sound rich storytelling.
What motivated you to create HBM?
Jeff: Here Be Monsters as a podcast spawned from a couple places.
I used to blame it on the cold sweats of a couple sleepless nights I had just before I graduated from college. They were the quintessential “what-the-$#%&-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life???” moments that I think most college grads get.
But now, I blame the inspiration for the show directly on my alma mater. I went to a college called Fairhaven School of Interdisciplinary Studies that was one of the few success stories in the boom of experimental schools in the seventies. They believe in small classes, lots of discussions, lots of reading, no tests…you know, “hippy stuff”. And it really worked for me.
The thing that they really pounded into my head was the study of self-reflection. At the end of each quarter, instead of letter grades, we wrote evaluations of our own work in each class, and our professors would do the same of us. Having my successes and shortcomings honestly laid out in front of me was a new and difficult experience. And it’s one that, as I left academia, led to the creation my self-evaluation of society, which is called Here Be Monsters.
What's your background? Radio? Other media?
Jeff: Sometimes I wish I’d grown up reading comic books. If I did, I’d probably have a better origin story.
Truthfully, my origins are pretty boring. I spent most of my childhood living outside a small town in Eastern Washington State. I ate whole wheat bread and listened to books on tape while I played with legos and Lincoln Logs (before they switched them to plastic). I was bored a lot and the stories those tapes told me was escapism. I went to public school, and public college. I grew up white, straight, middle class, politely religious, etc. I wanted to be a veterinarian and an NBA player, but I was too squeamish around dead things and too uncoordinated.
The thing I was really good at, though, was being absurd. At one point, I realized that some people call that “art.” So that’s the direction I ran in.
I wanted to be a photographer. And mostly, that’s what I put my academic efforts into. If you Google my name, the photos are usually the first things to show up. Despite that, I came to a point where the visual stuff began to seem a bit trite and underwhelming, so I looked for a more visceral medium, something that had more potential for storytelling.
My radio background comes largely from those books on tape, but also from a couple years serving as the News Director of KUGS-fm in Bellingham, Washington. I’ve also worked with Northwest Public Radio, KGNU in Boulder, Colorado and KUOW in Seattle, Washington.
What's your manifesto or focus?
Jeff: It’s actually pretty simple. I think that we can make a better world by talking about difficult topics. Furthermore, I believe that it’s possible to have these discussions without becoming either reactionary or pedantic. And furthermore, I don’t think that holding these kinds of discussions requires any special qualifications—no one has the excuse to be apathetic or slacktivist. Find what bothers you and run directly towards it.
Where do you find the stories for your episodes?
Jeff: Some form of theft, mostly.
Whether I’m working with another producer, or I’m just by myself, we’re most often looking at the stories of other’s or primary academic sources. The value we add is an aesthetic of approachability, surreality, mystery and podcasting that encourages the audience to explore their own lives, their own demons.
We use that aesthetic because there’s a rift between researchers and media consumers. Researchers are fascinating, but often don’t have avenues outside of the formal academic world to express themselves. Here Be Monsters' goal is to make that world approachable without dumbing it down.
Similarly, there are other rifts between media consumers and anyone who’s been marginalized. The second goal of the podcast is to bring those personal stories in from the margins, again making it accessible, and again refusing to dumb it down.
To answer the question though, I get a lot of stories from talking to strangers at parties or at the bus stop. But more and more frequently, suggestions roll in from the audience. And if it’s not too rude to do this, I’d like to suggest readers to pitch their ideas for future HBM podcasts to [email protected].
What are your inspirations in the world of radio and podcasting?
Jeff: I listen to most of the “hip” podcasts of today. I can’t deny taking inspiration from them. But more important are the shows who do really good work, but lack the sex appeal or PR department or social media knowhow of the more popular shows.
Here’s my short list of underrated shows:
I get most of my news from On Point with Tom Ashbrook. He’s one of the greatest interviewers alive.
Most of my philosophy comes from a great podcast from some average Canadian guys called Why You’re Wrong. They dissect fallacies in modern culture and have changed my viewpoint on a lot of topics.
To The Best Of Our Knowledge is another massively understated show that tackles questions of existence, art and science.
The new project of Andrea Seabrook called Decode DC has been a fantastic experiment that is changing the nature of political coverage.
I also really enjoy a new-ish podcast called Everything Sounds, which caters to anyone who loves talking about the aural world.
I curate a more comprehensive list of suggestions on the Here Be Monsters “About” page.
What other inspirations shape the content and style of HBM?
Jeff: I can’t speak for the other producers here, but most of my inspiration for show content comes from “Reptilian Tell” videos on YouTube. I kid, but only partially. Here’s why:
I feel like I spend a large part of the day trying to enter the headspace of others, trying to uncover all the shades of grey that make up our world, and largely, I find that if you ask others to do the same, they will. But that can be a really exhausting process.
So, when I’m feeling drained, it can be refreshing to see videos from people who really know exactly how the world works, 100%. I find Young Earth Creationism cathartic for the same reason. Search queries like “you must see this” are also good because it brings up lists of well-intentioned-but-woefully-inaccurate media sensations. I take inspiration from these as I strive to produce better work.
What do you want listeners to take away from listening to an HBM episode?
Jeff: This is a question that is tempting me to be grandiose—I’ll do my best to avoid that.
If the show helps an artist through a dry patch, or inspires someone to quit their bullshit job to go back to school, or helps a kid understand that being 'cool' in high school is really a false goal…then the show’s been a success.
But in the meantime, I’m happy to know that people find the show relaxing and thoughtful. In season one, I released a short, personal series called How I Learned To Love Rejection about a hitchhiking trip I took across this country. The feedback I got on that series indicated that it touched a nerve with the many people who want to trust strangers, but have been raised to believe that they can’t do so.
So, when presented with two options in life, I want the listeners’ default answer to be 'yes'. That’s the takeaway from the show.
What have been your high points and low points in producing HBM?
Jeff: Early on, I hit a low point when I had to make a big retraction. A guest producer and I made a really great episode about thwarted love and foreign politics. She contacted me a couple hours after we released it and informed me that the county which we were talking about has some pretty aggressive libel/slander laws and not a lot of protection for the media. So we took the show down.
It was my fault for not looking into these laws beforehand. But the sting of removing content is harsh. And, as of today, it’s been the only retraction. A valuable lesson, and a bit of added mystery ala 'The Lost Episode' of HBM.
High points are many. The endorphin release that accompanies a new episode is incredible. It’s a feeling of joy and peace that, otherwise in my life, I feel very rarely. After a new show goes up, I always try to cook a big meal, go outside for a bit, and spend the rest of the day doing absolutely whatever I want.
Like most podcasts, HBM is a labor of love. So what keeps you going?
Jeff: Here Be Monsters has the most amazing audience—seriously.
A couple months ago, I opened iTunes for the first time in a long while and found that a new slew of user reviews had come in. I had no idea that those messages would be so kind. I found my eyes getting a bit starry as I realized that many people, strangers even, find this funny experiment in pocasting profound enough to spend some time to praise it candidly.
The emails I get in the podcast’s inbox are always replied to and often shared around with the other producers. That’s what keeps us going."
What are your long-term goals for the show?
Jeff: Like you say, this is a labor of love, and personally, I’m fine with doing that. But when it comes to the other amazing people who are nearly volunteering their time for this show, I want better for them. I want to be able to pay producers and musicians real wages for their products.
Currently, I’m trying to find a way to pay those folk back for their generosity in the first season. I'm looking for sponsors with a product or service that genuinely helps peoples lives.
You're a big advocate of Reaper. In what ways does it make a difference in producing the show?
Jeff: Ha! It’s a bit embarrassing for me to realize that I’ve become the de facto prophet for REAPER in the radio community. REAPER is an audio editing program that I consider to be the absolute best option for producing audio documentaries like the ones heard on Here Be Monsters. Interestingly, it’s also one of the least expensive programs on the market.
The reason I’m such an advocate for the program is simple—every facet of REAPER is customizable. One of my big achievements has been to declutter everything and change all the keyboard shortcuts so that I can produce an entire episode while barely moving my left hand from home row. I’ve removed most of the buttons from the interface and created templates and presets that let me work at double the pace that I could in any other editing programs.
Additionally, I’ve fallen in love with the marker-ing system in REAPER, which lets me create what I call 'live transcripts' so that I can note the important areas of my raw audio, then keyword and color code everything so that I’m not spending hours transcribing and scrubbing through uncut stuff. No one likes doing that.
I encourage anyone interested in efficient audio editing to check out a tutorial series I produce called Reaper for Radio, which is available for free over on YouTube.
What's different about HBM in the new season?
Jeff: Season 2 of Here Be Monsters is…well…better. It’s more ambitious, more difficult, and has more contributors. I’ve also become much better at audio editing, which makes the whole thing a lot easier on the ears. Additionally, Here Be Monsters is now being distributed by the Mule Radio Syndicate, which makes it more accessible to everyone.
I’m hoping that the viral growth that made the first season so successful will continue to push Here Be Monsters forward in the new media explosion of podcasting. We’re trying to make history here, and that really excites me.
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