Frank: Most of those facts actually are not accurate anymore, and so that should change your judgment.

Frank: So I'm always reticent to make a rash judgment and say, well, let me see.

Frank: This is what happens. Even when there's these famous trials,

Frank: people will be like, oh, yeah, I know he's guilty, or I know they're not guilty, whatever.

Frank: Well, the trial hasn't even started yet, so let's just see what evidence is

Frank: presented, and then we can get to that word, or those two words, exact truth.

Frank: Because right now, you don't know what it is. I don't know what it is.

Frank: We're going to have to wait to find out what it is.

Danny: Hi, and welcome to 5 Random Questions, the show where every question is an adventure.

Danny: I'm your host, Danny Brown, and each week I'll be asking my guests 5 questions

Danny: created by a random question generator.

Danny: The guest has no idea what the questions are, and neither do I,

Danny: which means this could go either way.

Danny: So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode.

Danny: But before we do that, I want to give a quick shout out and thanks to Bob LeDrew

Danny: in Canada, who left a really nice review for the show on Apple Podcasts,

Danny: saying you might think the format would lead to disjointed interviews,

Danny: but Danny's skill as a host in friendly style means the conversations are free-flowing,

Danny: honest and centred on humanity.

Danny: So thanks so much, Bob, I appreciate you. If you enjoy the show and want to

Danny: leave a review, you can do that over at fiverandomquestions.com forward slash

Danny: review, and I'll give you a shout out just like this one.

Danny: Now to this week's guest. Today's guest is Frank Racciopi.

Danny: After 38 years as a speechwriter and editor for a Fortune 500 company,

Danny: he retired and indulged his love of podcasting by creating four podcast blogs,

Danny: which included the popular online publication Earworthy that Frank started in

Danny: 2017 and helps indie podcasters by reviewing and featuring their shows.

Danny: In the 80s, he wrote for print magazines like American Health,

Danny: New Jersey Monthly, and more.

Danny: He's published five novels and four nonfiction books in the last four years,

Danny: with his most popular nonfiction book sharing his 18 days in quarantine at the

Danny: COVID Hotel at the end of 2021, start of 2022.

Danny: So, Frank, welcome to Five Random Questions.

Frank: Danny, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. And at the risk of Apple polishing

Frank: the host, that was a great review by the gentleman.

Danny: That was a lovely review. And in fairness, I know Bob. I've known him for a little while.

Danny: Being in Canada, we kind of bump into each other at events.

Danny: But yeah, he's a really nice guy, much like yourself, that's very supportive

Danny: of podcasts and shows that he listens to. So yeah, that was really nice of him.

Frank: All right. Well, great. I'm a little nervous about the questions because most

Frank: interviews, you prepare for the questions.

Frank: Now it's like without a net.

Danny: I'll promise to be gentle with you. But hey, I don't know the questions either.

Danny: So that's a little bit of like sharing the load, if you like.

Danny: If the load was 95%, you and 4%, me and 1%, whoever else wanted to take the blame.

Danny: I do have to ask you a couple of quick things, though, before we jump into the

Danny: main question ourselves.

Danny: I'd mentioned there, you've written nine books in just four years.

Danny: So what's your typing speed?

Frank: It's not as fast as it sounds like it would be. It's about 40 words a minute,

Frank: but I end up, after I end up typing, I spend more time going back and actually

Frank: re-editing than I do the actual typing.

Frank: So I learned that the hard way, and then luckily, as a writer,

Frank: writing's pretty solitary, but I have a team of people.

Frank: So I have a copy editor, I have a grammar editor, besides Grammarly,

Frank: the program, and then I have what's called a beta reader, and that person,

Frank: you know, reads every chapter.

Frank: So I've got people, they'll come back and make changes, and then I'll go back and edit.

Frank: So my writing, typing speed isn't fast, but then again, even for people who

Frank: type 90 words a minute, you still have to go back, and good writing's about good editing.

Danny: I mean, it's just when you mention like nine books and four,

Danny: especially with fiction, I feel like nonfiction. Well, I'm not sure.

Danny: What's your preference? Is it fiction or nonfiction from a writing point of view?

Frank: I would say now fiction. The last several books I've done have been novels.

Frank: I started off with one, two, three nonfiction books, but I've transitioned into

Frank: fiction, and I'm starting to enjoy that.

Frank: Before I worked for the same company for 30 some odd years, I was a magazine

Frank: writer when print was big back in the 80s. That's how old I am.

Frank: And that was enjoyable. And that was all nonfiction.

Frank: As a matter of fact, if I can tell you a really quick story about that,

Frank: if you don't mind. So I did an article for a magazine called American Fitness.

Frank: And the article was about bone density. So it was a pretty scientific article.

Frank: I had done a lot of research.

Frank: It was a long article. And I think it was about 3,000 words.

Frank: Anyway, they paid you 10 cents back then for a word.

Frank: So I got like $300. and then I got a call from the photographer they hired,

Frank: the magazine hired, to take a picture for the article.

Frank: So he was just trying to get an idea of, you know, what I was looking for and

Frank: I was like, hey, you're, you know, you're the expert.

Frank: So he sent me a copy of the photo and I talked to him and I said,

Frank: oh, that was great. I really appreciate it.

Frank: He said, yeah, you know, he said, And I got to tell you, photography is really,

Frank: it's really profitable for me, this freelance photography.

Frank: I made $7,000 for the photo.

Frank: And I paused for a second. I said, wait, wait, what?

Frank: I made $300 and you made $7,000? He said, yeah, I'm sorry about that.

Frank: But, you know, that's just the way it goes.

Danny: Now then, did you continue writing for that magazine? Or did you at least try

Danny: to renegotiate your rates or the rates that they were paying you?

Frank: I tried to do that. And they basically, their response to that was,

Frank: let's see, take it or leave it.

Frank: So I continued to do a few more articles for them and work with the same photographer.

Frank: And I was actually happy for him that he was making good money.

Frank: We worked well together.

Danny: So now it always seems I've got a few writer friends and it always seems that

Danny: writers are viewed as the least valuable at times when it comes to,

Danny: you know, contributions and what they get paid.

Danny: I know now it seems better. Like a lot of publications will pay,

Danny: say, a dollar per word. So at least if you've got the high word count,

Danny: you do know that research, you'll get paid properly for your time.

Danny: But there's still ones that just want to skim as much as they can off the writer for some reason.

Frank: Sure. And of course, nowadays, because of the internet over the last 25 years, most writing is free.

Frank: So there's all those print magazines are all gone. So access to that avenue

Frank: for freelance writing is gone.

Frank: So you really have to generate any revenue through writing, just like doing

Frank: a podcast review through a publication in which pays you for reads and impressions.

Frank: Submissions and and that's usually how i'll work is that i'll work for publications

Frank: where i'll get paid either way.

Danny: Right and that's a good thing i mean how are you finding substack i know you're

Danny: um you're on substack but you're also on medium you're on you know blogger etc

Danny: how are you finding the different ones when it comes to potential premium subscribers

Danny: and payments anything like that uh

Frank: I mean it's all pretty modest there's some people on substack and i i have to

Frank: say i I'm a fan of both Medium and Substack there,

Frank: but there's people on Substack that have done a far better job than I have of

Frank: monetizing their Substack, and they'll have thousands of paid subscribers.

Frank: And I'm at a small, small part of that.

Frank: So there is potential there, and I do recognize that, that it's up to me to

Frank: go out and sort of unleash that potential in order to get those subscribers,

Frank: and of course, I mean, quite frankly, get that revenue. But it is there.

Frank: And Medium, the same thing. I know a few people that write articles,

Frank: and they'll get, as you know, you'll get paid per read and impression.

Frank: So a read on Medium, somebody will correct me, I think is 30 seconds or more.

Frank: An impression is 30 seconds or less. Anyway, there's some people who get 50,000

Frank: reads or impressions. And so you could make some money like that.

Danny: Well, unfortunately, while I can't pay you for appearing today,

Danny: I do value, a little 10 years length there, I do value you appearing on the

Danny: show and putting yourself up to what we have for five random questions.

Danny: So you're ready to throw down yourself to the gauntlet?

Frank: I am ready as I ever will be.

Danny: Okay, let's bring up the five random questions and see what we have this week.

Danny: Question number one. And remember, this is a PG show, so be careful here.

Danny: What part of your body could use a little lotion?

Frank: Oh, well, actually, and you may not believe this, I love this question.

Frank: Because this is, for me, this is fairly easy. easy

Frank: being the age that i'm at and i

Frank: see this in other people the area that needs

Frank: lotion all the time is the elbows both

Frank: both elbows if you not that i

Frank: make a practice of looking at that but if you look at people

Frank: who are like myself up there in age one of

Frank: the ways that you can your age can portray you

Frank: is your elbows so i always uh my

Frank: partner linda is always like put lotion on your

Frank: elbows and knees today uh knees as

Frank: well they that's two areas that dry out quite a bit so there's maybe more you

Frank: may not want to know that much about lotion and my daily lotion lotion practices

Frank: but it's definitely elbows first uh then knees especially in the summer now

Frank: because you're always wearing shorts so yeah uh definitely um.

Danny: Well, the elbows are such a weird part of skin. You know, if you look at them,

Danny: there's like this flappy bit of skin that basically does nothing.

Danny: I guess, okay, if you bend your arms and make sure that your elbow bone doesn't

Danny: stick out and pop out your skin because it stretches, but it's such a weird part.

Danny: But I can see why you'd want to, you know, lotion up your elbows.

Danny: I was going to say grease up and that didn't sound right at all.

Danny: But lotion up your elbows.

Danny: Do you think that's because obviously the elbows got a lot more use as well?

Danny: You'll lean on them on chairs and desks and stuff. you're leaning on if you're

Danny: traveling on a train or a jet and you're against a window or anything like that

Danny: or is it just the fact that because it's such a weird skin it gets more wrinkly quicker

Frank: Yeah well i think the elbow is different for a couple reasons so so for example

Frank: if you have your arms hanging down loose and so then your elbow has that extra

Frank: skin but if you tense your arm in any way, it makes the skin taut.

Frank: So that sort of that looseness disappears.

Frank: So it sort of depends on what you're doing.

Frank: So if you want to get rid of the looseness on your skin with your elbows,

Frank: try to walk like Arnold Schwarzenegger with your arms kind of tilted,

Frank: or you've just worked out and lifted 400 pounds, and it'll get rid of that elbow sag.

Danny: I can almost picture or let me show his listeners doing that exercise as listening.

Danny: You know, I've done in the gym, for example whether they're doing groceries or walking you

Danny: know in the park or something i mean i was just doing it now obviously this is an

Danny: audio only show so you won't see this if you're

Danny: listening to this episode um but i was like doing straightening my

Danny: arm as frank was speaking and you know bringing it back up and just seeing the

Danny: effect of that elbow skin so yeah it's um it's weird how like i used to use

Danny: lotion a lot when i was younger um and i don't as much now now that i'm older

Danny: and i really should but it's weird how a lot of people still don't and men in

Danny: particular in particular, actually,

Danny: don't see using lotion as a viable exercise.

Danny: How do you feel about that? Is that something that you feel we should do more?

Frank: Oh, absolutely. As a matter of fact, I was going to give credit to a podcast,

Frank: Ariel and Ned's Daily Tips That May or May Not Help You.

Frank: They had a tip on last year, right when they started, that said that.

Frank: So I'll back up for a second. Usually when I put lotion on, and I think it is

Frank: important to do that, I would do it, take a shower, get out,

Frank: and then kind of towel off and then do it in a couple of minutes.

Frank: But according to them and then i kind of

Frank: researched this as soon as you take a shower when

Frank: you're still wet you should throw the lotion on right away and it kind of seeps

Frank: into your skin uh so i'm a little unshaky on scientific ground there i don't

Frank: remember all the podcasts but so i started doing that and i think i uh i think

Frank: it helps so get a shower or a bath and then put Put the lotion on right away.

Frank: And I'm not afraid as a man to say that, although I guess some people may be.

Danny: No, and that's a great show as well. I listen to that a lot.

Danny: And I'll leave a link to that podcast in the show notes so you can check out

Danny: for yourself. But yeah, it's an awesome show.

Danny: But I guess that's similar to being at the beach or whatever where you're putting

Danny: sunscreen lotion on. And a lot of people do it after they've come out.

Danny: So they put it on before they go for a swim in the lake, for example.

Danny: And they wait till it dries and then they go in the lake, then they come out

Danny: and put it on while they're still wet as a top-up. So I guess that ties into that a little bit maybe.

Frank: Oh yeah, before people really had a sense how the sun was bad for you,

Frank: I'm not sure if you witnessed this, but I remember,

Frank: as a teenager, especially women would come onto the beach and then just slather

Frank: themselves with baby oil,

Frank: Because that would enhance the whole tanning process.

Frank: Now, I don't think anybody does that now because they realize that's pretty bad for your skin.

Frank: But that was something that was fairly common. That and those aluminum boards

Frank: that they would hold under their face. It's amazing how things have changed.

Danny: Yeah, thankfully. I mean, our kids love the – we're fortunate where we are.

Danny: We have a lake about a 10, maybe 50-minute walk from our house.

Danny: And so our kids go up there all the time. And they know, you know,

Danny: get protection and make sure you're good to go. a bit. So there you go.

Danny: If you're looking to make sure that your elbow is looked after,

Danny: that's the first place you should lotion up. You heard it from Frank.

Frank: And there's no copay for that. That's a freebie.

Danny: There you go. Even better. Okay, so let's have a look at what question number two holds for us.

Danny: All right, Frank, question number two. When scrolling through social media,

Danny: do you prefer posts from celebrities or from your best friends?

Frank: Boy, another good question. Well, I'm going to start by saying,

Frank: Danny, that I have a confession to make.

Frank: I've got another confession to make.

Frank: I canceled my Facebook account like four years ago.

Frank: And a couple of reasons I did that is one is I kept getting hacked and someone

Frank: was constantly stealing my account.

Frank: I never thought that Facebook was that great at security.

Frank: Not sure what other people think. And then it got taken over by a Russian or Chinese bot.

Frank: I'm not sure what or which and that was a two-month process of trying to get that finally canceled.

Frank: And so I deleted my account, never started a backup again. So that's the one

Frank: social media outlet I don't have.

Frank: So having said all that, my answer is I prefer posts from celebrities rather than friends.

Frank: And does that surprise you, by the way?

Danny: Oh, no. I mean, because I feel that with your publications and with what you

Danny: do online, it seems that you're more geared towards others outside your circle

Danny: and helping them and being involved with them.

Danny: And maybe you keep your friends for offline more. I don't know if that's maybe right or wrong.

Frank: Yeah, I mean, that's a great point. And I think the other part of that is somehow

Frank: in this is, I think, my partner Linda still has a Facebook account.

Frank: And I'm not sure how big a trend this is, but a lot of people on Facebook post

Frank: things of their activities where I question, do people really need to know that?

Frank: We have a friend who, every time they go out for dinner, posts that they're

Frank: at this restaurant and take pictures of what they're eating.

Frank: And so I'm happy that they're having a great time and enjoying themselves,

Frank: but I'm not sure if looking at their their their food at the restaurant is all all that significant.

Frank: So I would rather, that's why, and when you say celebrities,

Frank: that's people, like I consider you a celebrity.

Frank: I mean, I'm a podcast fan, so

Frank: people like Ariel Nissenblatt is a celebrity to me, so I'll look at that.

Frank: Podcast movements coming up, the Tribeca Audio Festival, to me,

Frank: those are celebrities, so I'll check those things out. the LifeShip podcast,

Frank: Malcolm Hooley, those are celebrities.

Frank: So I want to see what, you know, what they're doing.

Danny: No, thank you. And I did a little laugh there. I apologize. I didn't mean to

Danny: be flippant when you said that.

Danny: I appreciate that, mate. I do. And I hear what you say.

Danny: I look at, when I used to blog a lot before I did podcast, and I look at bloggers

Danny: in the social media space and really look up to them, as you mentioned, as celebrities,

Danny: you know, guys like Chris Brogan, for example, I used to religiously read all

Danny: this stuff and met him a couple of times at events and got a lot of starstruck and that. So I hear you.

Danny: From that point of view then, as you mentioned, it's more in the space,

Danny: like you said, the podcasting space.

Danny: Who would you like to sit down and have a quick bite with?

Frank: Well, the first person would be Mark from Captivate.

Danny: I can make that happen.

Frank: Probably James Cridlin from Pod News, Ariel Nissenblatt, Lauren Pesel from Tink Media.

Frank: They're all fascinating people. There's a woman who does a podcast who lives

Frank: in Singapore. Her podcast is called Multispective.

Frank: Her name is Jenica Sadwani, and she does a podcast where people have gone through

Frank: trauma and sort of come out on the top side of all that. She's fascinating.

Frank: I would love to sit down and actually interview her.

Frank: So here's the one thing about celebrity I always find is that although people

Frank: think that celebrities are famous to everybody, it's really pretty contextual.

Frank: Not to go on too long, but I'll give you a good example of that.

Frank: That a couple years ago i was in atlantic city it's not far like 50 minutes

Frank: from our house and i was just um sitting down getting something to eat and reading

Frank: and uh two huge security guys come over to me and said hey you're not going

Frank: to cause a problem because a celebrity's coming by,

Frank: i'm like no that's fine who's a

Frank: celebrity and they said that he's

Frank: some uh some dj on

Frank: some reality show like well listen first of all i've never heard

Frank: of him so not really sure that i would care that if he went by and i wouldn't

Frank: even know him if i saw him so to me he's not a celebrity they're like oh okay

Frank: he just went by then on the flip side of that i went to a live recording in

Frank: atlantic city of the slate money podcast and felix salmon is the host there

Frank: this is several years ago.

Frank: Probably and probably a lot of people listening to this don't know who he is

Frank: but people in podcast podcasting. Some people do.

Frank: There was maybe 100 people there. It would be like he was Elvis.

Frank: I mean, people just mobbed him.

Frank: So sort of celebrities, contextual, it just sort of matters who,

Frank: you know, what group you're a celebrity in.

Frank: I mean, some people like Taylor Swift, it doesn't matter the group.

Frank: They're a celebrity for everybody.

Frank: But for most people, it really is pretty situational.

Danny: I remember not quite celebrity because it's a physical item as opposed to a person.

Danny: But not long after I moved to Canada, I was at a pub with my friend it was like

Danny: a sports bar and the owner of the sports bar was pretty well connected in the

Danny: Canadian sports world so there was a bunch of people taking pictures with this trophy

Danny: and he asked me hey do you want to get your picture taken yeah yeah sure I'll

Danny: get my picture taken so I stood next to this trophy got my picture taken no idea what the trophy was

Danny: sent it off to my wife who was at home I like sent a quick text with a picture

Danny: said hey I got a picture with this trophy what is it well that's a Stanley Cup ah

Danny: okay Okay, so unlike the biggest cup in hockey, obviously, right?

Danny: So yeah, like you say, it's very contextual and who and what you know,

Danny: or what you view as a celebrity, if you like.

Frank: Oh yeah, absolutely. And because I'm a huge podcast fan, but specifically an

Frank: independent podcaster fan.

Frank: So I would be more excited about meeting an independent podcaster than I would

Frank: say, like somebody well-known, like a Joe Rogan, or a Dax Shepard.

Frank: I mean, they're well-known.

Frank: People know what they're about. I am more interested in the indie podcasters

Frank: because their story is sort of untold.

Frank: And on top of that, a network-supported podcaster, they have one job,

Frank: to come in and do the show.

Frank: As you know, being an independent podcaster or working with Captivate,

Frank: you're doing everything.

Frank: You're the IT person. You're the writer. You're the producer.

Frank: You're the director. You're the editor. you're the sound person, marketing person.

Frank: There's a lot of hats there. That person, to me, is a celebrity.

Danny: And that's a great way to put it. As you say, it's a lot of work.

Danny: I think that's what sometimes puts people off podcasting after they've started

Danny: and they realize how much work's involved.

Danny: And that's why you see a lot of podcasters stop before episode six or before

Danny: episode seven. So yeah, that's a great point regarding that.

Danny: And to Frank's point, I can 100% concur, support for indie podcasters is so

Danny: important. and Frank does an

Danny: amazing job of that. So I just wanted to give that shout out to you, mate.

Frank: Thank you. I appreciate that.

Danny: Speaking of appreciation, I appreciate your answer there. Moving on.

Danny: You can tell I have to sometimes tenuously link there.

Danny: But speaking of that, let's have a look at question number three.

Danny: Question three, Frank. What is the stupidest thing you've done because someone dared you to?

Frank: Oh, my gosh. Oh, that's a good one. All right. So, Danny, this is going to be

Frank: somewhat embarrassing.

Frank: And it's a PG show, so I'll keep it as family friendly as possible.

Frank: So I'm a big football fan, like a lot of people.

Frank: And because I'm, although I live in South Jersey, I grew up in North Jersey.

Frank: And i'm a big new york giants football

Frank: fan and partially too because the my

Frank: company took me around to different states so i've lived in

Frank: illinois connecticut uh georgia

Frank: lived in atlanta for 11 years uh california so

Frank: when you get to travel around you you take

Frank: your team with you so anyway big giants

Frank: fan and the i think it was 2007 they

Frank: play the patriots and that may be the the year that the Patriots were undefeated

Frank: at that point I think it was 2007 anyway the um the Giants are huge underdogs

Frank: in the Super Bowl so we have a whole bunch of people around and.

Frank: They were we had some Patriot fans there and Giant

Frank: fans and so forth because I have some family that's up

Frank: in New England they had were down for the game so somebody

Frank: said and of course it was a few hours

Frank: into the game so we had some spirits uh liberally

Frank: during the first three or four three quarters into

Frank: the fourth quarter and someone said uh do you think the giants were losing towards

Frank: the end of the game they said well i'll tell you what let's make a bet i said

Frank: oh okay and he said let's do the reverse bet you're a giant fan so if the giants

Frank: win you have to go out your front door and run

Frank: down the street naked and come back.

Frank: And vice versa. I said, okay, you know, I'll take that bet.

Frank: And of course they end up winning the game and had to do that.

Frank: And so luckily it was dark out and there was no one out and about.

Frank: So it was quick. It was a quick streak.

Danny: I was going to ask, do you have a lot of kids in your neighborhood?

Frank: No, I wouldn't have done it then. I wouldn't have done it. It was pretty late

Frank: at night, so it was fast. It's probably the fastest I've ever run.

Danny: And was this, so you mentioned this is 2007 you mentioned, yeah, you think, 2007?

Frank: Yeah, I think so. I can look at, I can.

Danny: Yeah, so this would have been pre, I guess, pre-popular social media.

Danny: So at least you wouldn't have had anyone, like, live streaming or filming you

Danny: as you were going, you know, embarrassing you later in life and whatever.

Frank: Oh, my God. That's one of the benefits to pre-social media is that you don't

Frank: have those kinds of things. It always seems to be camera at the wrong time.

Danny: I would have hated to have had social media when I was a teen.

Danny: I was like a teen back in the, I'm going to think similar to you, mate.

Danny: I was a teen back in the 80s. I would not like to, some of the stuff that I

Danny: did, Dan, I would not like to have appeared on, you know, TikTok or whatever.

Frank: Oh, absolutely. On an adjunct to that, when I retired from my job,

Frank: I'll come back to this in a second.

Frank: I had this crazy idea that, so I was a writer and I have a teaching degree and

Frank: I taught for my company for years.

Frank: So I said, well, when I retire, I'm going to get a job that's totally different,

Frank: like a work with your hands, not a job of where you're in charge of anything.

Frank: You're just so I found this job, which I which I really did like.

Frank: So I became a school bus driver for a little while and I did really enjoy that job.

Frank: And so one day I'm driving the school bus and I was high school and there you

Frank: can see in the back and there was one of the students,

Frank: female students, was flashing people as they went by.

Frank: So I you there's a microphone. So I stopped the bus, got the microphone,

Frank: said, what what are you doing?

Frank: And she said, oh, well, they dared me to do that.

Frank: So now this is after i had done the stupid giants thing and i so i said to her

Frank: i've done things like that before and they're dumb so just stop it right now

Frank: and we'll forget about all that but dares are dangerous.

Danny: Well and and the interesting thing is as well and i'm not sure who inspired

Danny: who whether you inspired will or will inspired you the old school movie will

Danny: ferrell's character it's called frank oh

Frank: And oh yeah.

Danny: Yeah he does he runs naked

Frank: And doesn't he see his wife in a car as he's running by yeah.

Danny: Alongside it yeah so i feel there was

Danny: some inspiration going on there from you know i feel you you'll do some royalties

Danny: from will ferrell we'll have to get him get him to like pay up there so there

Danny: you go if you want to see frank embarrassed now that we're in the age of social

Danny: media maybe take him to a football game have some tipples and let's do the reverse That's there.

Danny: Speaking of dares, let's dare and move on to question number four.

Danny: This is an interesting one, Frank. Question four.

Danny: Would you rather never be able to express yourself accurately or always have to say the exact truth?

Frank: Ah, this is a great question. And it reminds me of the...

Frank: What's that Jim Carrey movie where he's... Liar, liar. I love that.

Frank: I absolutely love that movie.

Frank: And this question sort of has sort of the corona of the same concept there.

Frank: So to try to be honest here, I don't think anybody can get through their entire

Frank: day, and this is also part of the movie, without at least a couple white lies.

Frank: I mean, we do that all the time. And sometimes we do that. Sometimes we don't

Frank: tell the truth for what we consider to be admirable reasons.

Frank: Hey, how do I look today? You look great. How did I do? You did great.

Frank: You know, wonderful job. You did good. And that may not exactly be the truth,

Frank: but at what point here, what's the point of the negative feedback if it's not to, not to teach.

Frank: So, uh, it's, I would say, um, gosh, that is really a tough one.

Frank: I guess, yeah. Not expressing yourself accurately.

Frank: That's a tough one because, uh, especially as a writer, I mean,

Frank: that's, That's the key to that, is you want to express yourself accurately,

Frank: especially like if you're reviewing a podcast,

Frank: you want to make sure that you're

Frank: very accurate and you're also explaining exactly how good the podcast is.

Frank: So I would say, yeah, having to say the exact truth, especially since doing

Frank: podcast reviews is really about the accuracy.

Frank: And so I do five to seven podcast reviews and recommendations during the week.

Frank: And I got a comment from somebody saying, you know, movie critics review movies,

Frank: and sometimes they'll really pan the movie and give it a terrible review.

Frank: Why don't you ever do that with a podcast?

Frank: And I wrote him back and said, I'm going to answer that. But first of all,

Frank: I want to tell you, that's an excellent question.

Frank: It's a very good question. And I said, the answer to that, from my perspective, is this.

Frank: There's about 120 movies that come out a year.

Frank: You think 52 weeks out of the year, that's a couple movies a week,

Frank: although it's not that consistent.

Frank: There's weeks where there's none, and then during the summer,

Frank: there's like five all at once there.

Frank: So there's not a lot out there. So if there's just one movie that comes out

Frank: and you review, it's not very good.

Frank: That's fair. but as we talked about before

Frank: the show there's hundreds of thousands of podcasts

Frank: and there's thousands of really good

Frank: ones so why would

Frank: i so in pot for people or podcast fans what they're looking for is that that

Frank: great podcast that they don't know is out there it's there you just can't find

Frank: it and i've i mean as a reviewer i found there where someone said hey listen

Frank: to this podcast, this independent podcast,

Frank: and it's from this person, like for example.

Frank: I listened to this woman several years ago that has a sewing podcast.

Frank: Now, I don't know anything about sewing, and she had a cute title for it called Sew What?

Frank: She was terrific on it. So for people who like sewing, I'm like,

Frank: I don't know anything about sewing.

Frank: But if you do, you need to listen to this podcast.

Frank: And that's the idea with podcast discoverability. It's about how do I find a

Frank: podcast that I'm going to love about a topic I love?

Frank: So if I love Star Wars, there's plenty of them out there. But maybe I'm missing one. on.

Frank: So that's the reason, you know, I always want to try to find something to give

Frank: people to listen to, not to listen to.

Danny: And that's a really good point. Like you say, it's easy for us as humans to criticize something.

Danny: You see it online all the time. You know, people, like they'll rage bait or

Danny: they'll hate bait, so they'll be negative and sometimes vitriol is out the roof

Danny: because they just want clicks on their links to the blog posts or their YouTube videos or whatever.

Danny: But it's not always that you get someone that just wants to you

Danny: know shine the light on people doing the good stuff right and i

Danny: think that's like a key thing where as you say it

Danny: really helps especially indie podcasters it really

Danny: helps people find them because you're you're

Danny: only going to be sharing the good stuff so now people know hey if i want to

Danny: um find a podcast about x i know frank's honest i know he'll only share stuff

Danny: he enjoys and recommends so i'm going to check out a frank and i'm going to

Danny: check out his recommendation so i think that that works both ways and it's it's

Danny: a good thing to see as well right absolutely

Frank: And as i think more about this question the last

Frank: word of the question is truth and so

Frank: uh i remember from years ago during the uh george w bush administration he had

Frank: a press secretary named arie fleischer so he comes out and i i forget what the

Frank: crisis was but he comes out and they the press asks him a lot of questions and he says you know,

Frank: first facts are often the most unreliable.

Frank: And I really took that to heart and remember that that word truth,

Frank: well, sometimes when we have these media crises where something happens,

Frank: right away people have a rush to judgment.

Frank: It happened because of this. It's that person's fault. They did this and they shouldn't have done it.

Frank: And then we find out a couple of months later, well, most of those facts actually

Frank: are not accurate anymore.

Frank: And so So that should change your judgment. So I'm always reticent to make a

Frank: rash judgment and say, well, let me see.

Frank: Let's just see what happens. Even when there's these famous trials,

Frank: people will be like, oh, yeah, I know he's guilty or I know they're not guilty or whatever.

Frank: The trial hasn't even started yet, so let's just see what evidence is presented,

Frank: and then we can get to that word, or those two words, exact truth.

Frank: Because right now, you don't know what it is, I don't know what it is,

Frank: we're going to have to wait to find out what it is.

Danny: It always reminds me, it's a great point, it reminds me not to make light of any war at all.

Danny: It reminds me, I think it might have been when the Western allies were looking

Danny: to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Danny: And he had he had a news like a

Danny: government official like maybe an army official that was

Danny: his official media um reporter uh

Danny: person you know sharing updates obviously to to

Danny: the people on the news channels and i'll never forget it because it did make

Danny: me chuckle and it goes to your point of the exact truth so he stood there and

Danny: he's broadcasting in front of the camera you know to the people watching saying

Danny: that there are no u.s tanks or there are no tanks in i think it was Iraq. I can't recall.

Danny: My memory is hazy. There are no tanks in the city.

Danny: And right behind them, tanks started rumbling by as he was broadcasting it from

Danny: the allies that had just entered the city.

Danny: And that will always, always stick with me when, to your point,

Danny: when it comes to people and propaganda and everything like that.

Danny: And you have to, you know, if you're doing something like that,

Danny: yeah, you have to have the exact truth, right?

Frank: Sure. And then, I mean, to To use your example there, which is a good one.

Frank: Yeah, so truth changes depending on your perspective and even through the years.

Frank: So to go to a similar example, during before the Iraq war started,

Frank: the reason for the war, besides replacing Saddam Hussein, was,

Frank: of course, there were weapons of mass destruction.

Frank: Now, I know this is somewhat debatable, but it seems to be that nobody ever found them.

Frank: So therefore so is the truth that they just could never find them or that they

Frank: were never there you know not sure about that that's for political people but

Frank: that just i think that just goes to prove that trying to find truth is extremely

Frank: difficult extremely difficult.

Danny: Well one thing we can agree on when it

Danny: comes to the exact truth is it's true we've reached question

Danny: number five uh-oh so we've

Danny: done well here frank we've got to the end we're doing good but they've been

Danny: really good questions and that's what i love about this podcast like the questions

Danny: are always fun and they're always good and sometimes you'll get complete curveball

Danny: questions it really does make you thinking you know so thank you for answering

Danny: questions so far let's have a look and seeing what the final question is

Danny: Okay, this is a really good one to finish this episode off with for the five random questions.

Danny: Question five, Frank, describe your life using one word.

Frank: Wow, Danny, this is a deep question. My gosh, I can't say the word podcast.

Danny: You could, yep. It'd be accurate as well.

Frank: You know what? There's a lot of different words or adjectives I could use,

Frank: but because of what I'm currently involved in uh now

Frank: and maybe this doesn't relate just to me and and

Frank: i don't want to belabor this point but i'd use the word uh

Frank: courage and i use

Frank: and i'm going to relate that the podcast thing because um i

Frank: get the opportunity to interact with people

Frank: like you other people in independent podcasting who

Frank: are courageous enough to start this

Frank: venture and I feel like

Frank: it's so amazing that people can bootstrap oh you know most of these independent

Frank: podcasts are bootstrapped and so they don't have the funding that other people

Frank: have and so they're a or in a lot of cases the technical expertise so for For example,

Frank: I always recommend an independent podcaster that's starting.

Frank: I said, go listen to Danny's one-minute podcast tips.

Frank: It doesn't take a lot of time. You can listen to them anytime you want.

Frank: But I'll tell you that it'll help you get the technology part of the podcast thing squared away.

Frank: And if anything else, when it comes to that, you need to have the IT part of that first.

Frank: You need to have good sound design. So, I mean, I know maybe this is a little

Frank: bit of a cop-out, but again,

Frank: just because of what I'm doing now, and I really do love doing that,

Frank: I can't tell you how much I... It isn't just a job.

Frank: I feel like when I listen to a new podcast, and I'll take a second to tell you

Frank: my process for doing that.

Frank: So, because every day I get up, I'm an early riser at like 5.30.

Frank: So I get coffee and then read the news. And then by 7 o'clock in the morning, I'm out the door.

Frank: And I walk six miles a day. And that takes about an hour, over an hour and a

Frank: half, hour and 40 minutes or something like that.

Frank: And so those 100 minutes every day are, this is where I'm listening to either

Frank: three kinds of podcasts, the ones that I love every day that I'll,

Frank: you know, I'll listen to no matter what, I just, I can't miss them.

Frank: And then the ones that I've discovered that I'm listening to,

Frank: and the last is the brand new podcast.

Frank: And I really do try to focus on independent podcasts. And I can't wait to some

Frank: days to get out there and listen to them.

Frank: And then that's my process is I'll listen to them sometimes for a couple days in a row,

Frank: because I don't want to again back to our earlier question I

Frank: don't want to make a rash judgment gee I listened to one of your episodes and

Frank: it wasn't your best so I'll try to listen to at least four or five episodes

Frank: and then come back and then be able to write about it review it recommend it

Frank: to other people that's a good feeling and I always talk about how these people are putting themselves

Frank: out there on doing these podcasts it's uh well as you know i mean it's an amazing

Frank: venture but it really it does take a lot of guts to do that it really does.

Danny: Well i think the the thing is from a creator point of view to your point and

Danny: obviously for yourself that does the reviews and putting your own reviews and

Danny: your thoughts out there you're opening yourself up to the internet and we all

Danny: know what the internet can be like there's great internet but there's also really

Danny: bad internet and you have no control over that whatsoever you can only create what you

Danny: can and do it to to your

Danny: liking and hopefully others will like it right but yeah it's

Danny: um i i see your point on the courage when as you

Danny: mentioned because it's nerve-wracking right um i i see you you you were like

Danny: a you were a speech writer i'm sure a lot of people that you wrote speeches

Danny: for often felt nervous before they got up on stage because they're putting themselves

Danny: out there you know and they're putting themselves out to open to feedback that

Danny: could be that could go either way, right?

Frank: No, absolutely. And when you're doing a speech for somebody,

Frank: you always have to remember, when I wrote speeches for a lot of executives,

Frank: even the CEO of our company, I'm writing the words and helping them craft that.

Frank: But ultimately, they're the ones out there on the stage.

Frank: So when you're the speechwriter, no one criticizes you.

Frank: They just criticize the person giving the speech. So I basically have the easiest job in the world.

Frank: And that you know that's the tough part of the podcast there

Frank: is even if you're in a network supported environment

Frank: where you have say spotify is

Frank: hiring all these people and you have this whole team of

Frank: people which is which is great still the bottom line is if your name's on the

Frank: podcast uh it's all about you no one's gonna write a review and say hey you

Frank: know by the way i don't know about the sound designer and the intro music i'm

Frank: not sure they did a really good job most of it's going to be about the podcaster themselves.

Frank: So, yeah, I mean, you're hanging out there as the podcaster.

Danny: Well, that's, I mean, thankfully, well, the show is new, so it's only had a

Danny: couple of reviews anyway.

Danny: So I'm wary of what reviews might come in as, you know, this goes any six months, a year or whatever.

Danny: I know friends of mine that are podcasters, they've got horrible reviews and

Danny: it kicks you back a bit, right? It kicks them back a bit.

Danny: But like you say, you've got to put that aside and just, you know,

Danny: keep enjoying doing what you're doing.

Danny: And if it's valid, then take that feedback and work on it, you know,

Danny: to improve the content quality, etc. If it's not valid, ignore it.

Danny: Let them go bump up someone else.

Frank: Yeah. Well, I mean, back to your specific podcast, Five Random Questions.

Frank: One of the things I really like about it is sometimes I'll go out and do some

Frank: searches on the number of podcasts in a different genre.

Frank: So I wrote an article about this saying that, and again, this is an absolute.

Frank: I think the people at Sounds Profitable collect a lot more solid data than I have.

Frank: And so the easiest format for people to do in a podcast is an interview podcast.

Frank: So there's not a lot of cost.

Frank: I'm not a huge true crime fan.

Frank: I do like some of their podcasts, but they cost a lot of money because you have

Frank: to do a lot of research. There's a lot of time involved.

Frank: There's a lot of people involved. When you're doing an interview podcast,

Frank: it's the host and a guest or guests.

Frank: Guests sometimes you are prepared

Frank: sometimes you're not it all sort of depends on the the

Frank: show but what i like is different about

Frank: your show and that's what i one of the things i like about podcasting i think

Frank: is so inventive is that it always takes a a genre that you think okay well you

Frank: know this is it this is traditional interview podcast and does tweaks it just

Frank: a little bit it to make it so much more interesting.

Frank: And that's the neat part about this is that,

Frank: If you just asked me five questions that you had prepared and OK, that'd still be good.

Frank: But what makes this so exciting is that neither one of us know.

Frank: And for anybody listening, by the way, as a part of this process,

Frank: and I've listened to a couple of the shows already on this, it really is pretty.

Frank: It really is totally random.

Frank: I mean, totally random. So, you know, it's all about extemporizing.

Frank: And that's that's difficult. So love this show. I love the courage that comes

Frank: from people like you hosting the show, but also for the guests I've heard so

Frank: far on the show. So, yeah, so excellent.

Danny: Well, I appreciate that, Wayne, and I think you'll really enjoy next week's episode.

Danny: I think it's next week or the week after. Katie Lohr, who's a Canadian podcaster,

Danny: she does Pod the North. Yeah. Yeah.

Danny: She came on and she had some real interesting questions.

Danny: And then Em, who does the Verbal Diorama podcast, she will also be on,

Danny: I think, at the end of August. and she got a good few deep questions.

Danny: We went really deep with them, which was unexpected and makes for an interesting.

Danny: So I think you'll look out for them, but I appreciate that as well.

Danny: You're an ongoing supporter as always.

Frank: Well, I'm excited about the M because Verbal Diorama is exactly one of those

Frank: podcasts that I found a few months ago.

Frank: I was out looking for a good independent like movie review podcast and I came

Frank: across our podcast And Verbal Diorama doesn't yell as a title.

Frank: This is a film review, and it's not a review so much as it's an explanation

Frank: of everything that happened in making the movie.

Frank: But it really is a fabulous podcast.

Frank: I mean, she's done some absolute great shows.

Frank: She did Cloverfield recently, which was really good.

Frank: Yeah, she's actually terrific. And when I went back and forth with her,

Frank: one of the reasons I found it so astounding that in the UK, they have an independent podcast award,

Frank: and she's part of that whole process. And we don't really have that here.

Frank: And so that's why I was thinking, I'm not sure.

Frank: Katie probably told you if Canada has independent podcast report.

Frank: I don't, the States doesn't. So that's something that we need.

Danny: Yeah, you've got the Canadian Podcast Awards, but I feel that mixes,

Danny: because I know CBC, which is a big news organization in Canada,

Danny: they were involved as a submission as well.

Danny: So they were up alongside indie podcasters. So there's Canadian Podcast Awards,

Danny: but I don't think there's a specific indie one. So that'd be nice to see.

Danny: So maybe that's something that needs to be led on for sure.

Frank: Yeah, well, that's great that you got two fabulous people coming up.

Frank: So I can't wait to hear them. So great.

Danny: No, no, for sure. And speaking of courage, you've got through,

Danny: you've had the courage, you've got through the five random questions of this week's episode.

Danny: And 100% fairness to every guest, it's now your turn to throw a random question

Danny: back at me and take the heat off you.

Frank: Okay, this is great. All right, so I was thinking about my question.

Frank: Now, we already, for the listeners that don't know, Danny's had some water problems

Frank: in his basement that are somewhat considerable.

Frank: But I had a more philosophical question, so I know that you've been in Canada for, what, since 2006?

Danny: Six, yeah.

Frank: Six, so almost 20 years.

Frank: In your mind, what's the difference between Canadians and Americans?

Frank: And I guess I would mean in two ways, outlook and behavior.

Danny: Interesting. So I know, funnily enough, when Canadians go abroad,

Danny: they always make sure that they've got the Canadian flag on their backpack,

Danny: like a little sticker or something or a patch or something, because a lot of

Danny: Canadians don't like getting mistaken for Americans.

Danny: But I feel that, and let me preface that, or let me clarify that, quantify that.

Frank: That's true. That's true, by the way.

Danny: Well, I feel that's understandable from one point of view, but it goes back

Danny: to the exact truth and the two truths or the two points of view, right?

Danny: There's good actors and bad actors in every country. There's good people,

Danny: bad people, and there's like good examples and bad examples of every country.

Danny: And I feel often the US gets a bad rap because we see a lot of the bad examples

Danny: because that's what the media likes to show.

Danny: And they don't show the good work. There's a guy in the US, he's like,

Danny: he goes across every state and he mows lawns in every state for people that need their lawn mowed.

Danny: So it could be vets, it could be people with disabilities, it could be people

Danny: that just can't do their own lawns.

Danny: But what he does is he invites kids to join this challenge.

Danny: So like the 50-yard challenge, I think it's called. And again,

Danny: I'll leave a link in the show notes.

Danny: Amazing guy, amazing initiative. So kids will join the 50-yard challenge and

Danny: they'll go around their neighbourhoods mowing the lawns for people that need

Danny: the lawns mowed for help. And like I say, it's amazing.

Danny: You don't get to hear that, right? You don't get that focus on there.

Danny: So I just wanted to quantify that when I mentioned the whole Canadian flag on

Danny: the backpack or the case or whatever.

Danny: I feel the main difference is, and I think this again boils down to cities and

Danny: maybe states or whatever,

Danny: I feel a lot of Canadians will be more approachable to talking with a stranger,

Danny: as opposed to Americans.

Danny: Having said that, when in New York, I found a lot of New Yorkers would love

Danny: to chat when they hear your accent or they hear you're in a restaurant.

Danny: Very open, very friendly. I found that in Denver.

Danny: I found a lot of people in Denver really friendly, really open when I was there last year.

Danny: So I feel maybe by stereotypical default,

Danny: fault canadians are seen as friendly and approachable whereas

Danny: maybe americans are are seen as not standoffish

Danny: that's a british thing i feel it's a very definite british

Danny: thing but maybe less inclined to open a

Danny: conversation with a stranger or want to continue a conversation but i feel like

Danny: i say i have to do the yin and yang with that right it depends where and how

Danny: culturally i feel there's There's maybe more willingness on a Canadian to travel

Danny: to different countries and expand their worldview,

Danny: as opposed to where I feel maybe a lot of Americans, whether it's like financial,

Danny: whether it's just like because America is such a big country,

Danny: there's a lot to do in America anyway, are less likely to travel outside America

Danny: when it comes to learning about other cultures, etc.

Danny: I don't know if you'd agree with that. That's something you'd seen or not.

Frank: Oh, yeah. No, I do agree with that. Actually, we do a lot of cruising and travel overseas.

Frank: And yeah, I agree with that. Matter of fact, some of our best cruises have been,

Frank: we were on board once with the whole cruise is basically a few Americans,

Frank: Canadians, and people from the UK.

Frank: We had just a blast with all of them.

Danny: No, and then that's it, right? I mean, the stereotypical would say,

Danny: well, we'd have a great time with the Canadians, not so much a good time with

Danny: Americans or not such a good time with the Brits because the Brits are stiff

Danny: upper lip and they don't want to talk to anybody that's not, you know, not brutish.

Danny: So yeah, it's a great question. And I think like I say, it's got a lot of context,

Danny: you know, going back to your initial answer and one of the other questions about

Danny: context, right? That needs a lot of that, I feel.

Frank: Oh, yeah. And, you know, that's the you mentioned this about the about the British

Frank: is that you have to be careful about cultural stereotypes.

Frank: I mean, we bet we met some British folks on one of our cruises that they were so friendly.

Frank: I even said to the to the one couple, I'm like, you're so friendly.

Frank: You're American, because sometimes Americans are accused of being over friendly too soon.

Frank: Like they kind of swarm at you and he

Frank: was like yeah we've been told that and we

Frank: find that as a compliment so yeah the

Frank: one thing I will say is that we've met a lot of Canadians and the one thing

Frank: I would say is that I do feel bad because it seems like that in North America

Frank: everything ends up being dominated by what's going on in the states rather than

Frank: Canada and so for example You mentioned Katie.

Frank: Now, I read her sub stack all time about Canadian podcasts,

Frank: and I wrote a couple of articles that said, hey, by the way,

Frank: folks in the U.S., I don't know if you know this before, but the Canadians and

Frank: the Australians are kicking our butt when it comes to percentage of podcasting listening.

Frank: So we've got to get going on that. There's a lot going on in both countries, especially in Canada.

Frank: I know a lot of people in the States may not know that, but there's a lot going there.

Danny: Yeah, and it's good to see. But there's a great podcast event in Calgary next

Danny: month, and that's really highlighting a lot of the Canadian stuff.

Danny: So, yeah, it's good to see Canada sort of catching up. And as you mentioned,

Danny: Australia catching up on the U.S., you know, when it comes to podcasting and podcast listenership.

Frank: Well, thanks for the tip on Calgary. Actually, I'm going to be in Calgary September 16th.

Frank: Yeah, we're going to Banff and

Frank: Lake Louise. So if they have the podcast thing, I have to try to attend.

Danny: It's around about that time, actually, about around about the third week,

Danny: I think. But yeah, it looks like a pod summit. I think it's pod summit, actually.

Danny: There you go. I think it's pod summit in Calgary, September 1920.

Danny: But yeah, so that looks like a good event.

Danny: So, Frank, this has been an absolute delight. We had a good chat pre-recording.

Danny: We've had an awesome chat during recording.

Danny: It's been a delight. For people that want to catch up with you,

Danny: whether it's online but not Facebook, want to check out Earworthy and all the

Danny: other stuff that you're doing and check out the awesome recommendations you

Danny: do, where can people best find you and connect with you?

Frank: So, Danny, a couple of places. One is you can go to my sub stack,

Frank: which is podalization.substack.com, P-O-D-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N.substack.com.

Frank: Or you can go to Medium and just search for Earworthy. You can find me there.

Frank: You can find me on Blogger at podcastreports.blogspot.com as well.

Frank: So I'm in a couple of different places, and I'm on social media,

Frank: except, of course, for Facebook. Sorry about that.

Frank: Yeah, and I always love to get feedback from people about,

Frank: hey listen to this podcast you'll love it and most times when I get that information

Frank: almost all the time they're right and it gives me another opportunity to write

Frank: a review on a great podcast.

Danny: And I will be sure to leave all these links in the show notes and I highly recommend

Danny: checking them out because Frank does a great job at really going in depth with

Danny: every review and recommendation so I highly recommend checking out I'll be sure

Danny: to leave the links in the show notes to be make sure you check them out to link

Danny: through to so again Frank I appreciate your time today oh Danny Danny,

Frank: Thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. I appreciate it.

Danny: Thanks for listening to 5 Random Questions. If you enjoyed this week's episode,

Danny: be sure to follow for free on the app you're currently listening on or online

Danny: at 5randomquestions.com.

Danny: And if you feel like leaving a review, well, that would make me happier than

Danny: that time I found out I could replace blogging with podcasting because I could

Danny: never be as talented or as fruitful as Frank when it comes to typing speed and output.

Danny: Seriously, if you want to leave a review, you can do that at 5randomquestions.com

Danny: forward slash review. you, it would make my day.

Danny: Until the next time, keep asking those questions.