Last year, I started producing a fortnightly podcast called Si ‘Cast to try satisfy an itch; talking about things from tech, personal experiences from my day job and even discussions with friends.

I was fully aware of my limited capacity and how easy it is to burn out with extra commitments from side projects so I time-boxed the project to 3 months and planned to evaluate the situation after that.

It was quite satisfying to get back into multimedia production as this was my first foray back into video production since the “noughties”. I’ve been producing a house music podcast called House Finesse since 2005 which has been relatively successful in waives and definitely taps in to a niche audience who have loyally followed for all these years, as well as giving myself a platform to share my love for house music when I have a hankering for a mix.

I’m not a fame-hungry YouTuber but I was also keen to explore the process it takes to produce a regular video series, how the tools work and the potential impact it has. Needless to say, it was an education and a huge minefield of intricacies to work through. I can see why it becomes a full-time job but you can certainly reap the benefits if you get it right.

Following a festive break and refreshed enthusiasm to get back into it, I reached out on Twitter to see if anyone was interested in collaborating. I’m always keen to partner up with people on side projects – there’s endless advantages of sharing work which I won’t go into here but I also knew a two-way conversation would be more engaging than me talking to myself.

Luckily for me, James Norton – a good friend and acquaintance – responded with intrigue. We had several conversations about what we could possibly talk about, format, schedules etc and finally came up with a plan. Verbal Diary was born.

(I actually planned to use the pun on a slightly different side project but it never surfaced so I repurposed it for this one.)

We’re aiming to record our discussions every fortnight talking about a broad range of topics – tech, people, tools… – edited into 30-60 minute episodes. Like Si ‘Cast, I’m keen to break the podcast into seasons. We’ll see how the format evolves. So far, we’re four episodes in with a mix of topics covered along with the expected “rants and bants” from two opinionated ex-techies.

For now, subscribe to the podcast or follow @VerbalDiaryShow on Twitter for announcements and show updates.