Home Youth Inspiring youths with ’18 Minutes With Satyal and Silwal’

Inspiring youths with ’18 Minutes With Satyal and Silwal’

550
0

Kathmandu, May 15, 2016: A recently launched podcast series is seeking to inspire and engage youths in town by bringing in perspectives from different walks of life to start a conversation.

’18 Minutes With Satyal and Silwal: a podcast from the Himalayas,’ jointly produced by Sagar Satyal and Ashish Silwal, has been engaging youths to discuss into the issues that matter to the youths in the modern day society ultimately enriching them.

Inspired by ‘TED-Talks,’ the programme aired weekly on YouTube Channel and SoundCloud, follows the standard length of TED-Talks, 18 minutes, to bear the name on the masthead itself.

Every episode in the series is a package of lively discussion session with various special guests, answering of queries and feedbacks from the audiences, tips to the youths on some important and burning issues and much more.

Basanta Kumar Dhakal from Glocal Khabar talked to the faces behind the popular show. Here is an excerpt from the lively discussion with them:

 

Glocal Khabar: How did you come up with an idea to launch the podcast ’18 Minutes With Satyal and Silwal’? What was the inspiration behind launching the show?

Satyal: As kids, both of us wanted to become commentators. Somehow, for 24 years we had been abandoning the thought of doing what we wanted to do so much as kids.

One day, out of the blue the idea surfaced and we just took out the laptop and starting recording a sample. We were on a high and just wanted to launch it formally. As we always say, it’s never too late to start.

Glocal Khabar: How did the plan of launching the podcast materialize? And, how was your experience on recording the first show of the series?

Satyal: Like we mentioned, the idea just germinated one day. It just happened. One of our friends was supposed to meet us the same day we had the idea. He had recently come back from his two-month trip to Australia. So in view of materializing the local resources available to us, we convinced him to share his experience on the podcast so that others going to Australia would benefit. And luckily enough, another friend who has a PR in Australia arrived a day before the actual recording of the 1st episode. And so we called him in as well.

There was a lot of excitement especially after Animesh Shrestha, our technical guru agreed to help us with the fabulous designs and post-production. We knew we were a little raw to start with, but we wanted to release anyways; especially when the enthusiasm was so high.

Silwal: I remember it was Tuesday. We’d recorded our episode, but it was raw. We were excited and our energy was high, but we weren’t totally sure about it. Around midday Animesh emailed us the logo of our podcast. That’s when we looked at each other and told ourselves there was no turning back from here. We posted the logo on Facebook and the rest they say is history.

18 minutes

Glocal Khabar: It has just been six episodes and you have already got around 5 thousand views on YouTube. Plus, there are around 800 followers in Facebook and the Facebook wall is very engaging with your audiences actively interacting with you. How is it possible?

Silwal: Is it? That’s very kind of you. We personally feel it’s not that great. However, we’ve told ourselves that it will never be about the views. Those are surficial stuffs. Our main happiness is when someone writes to us after listening and tells us how it helped them in a certain way. Like we’ve always mentioned, we want to be those two friends who provide perspectives and are there for our listeners.

Glocal Khabar: How do you select guests for the programme?

Satyal: Everyone has a story to be heard. We’re always on the outlook for interesting content and for people who have amazing insights or stories to share; not necessarily big names or success stories. That’s why we ask our listeners to suggest guests they think should come over and join us.

Glocal Khabar: You have increased the frequency of the podcast from a fortnightly show to a weekly one. Congrats for that! So, how has the audience response been so far on this?

Silwal: Thank you! We realized a fortnight would be too long a wait for people who actually see us as a part of their life. And so, we decided to do it on a weekly basis.

Like we mentioned earlier as well, we don’t really think that we’re that popular but it’s a refreshing feeling when people write to us and tell us how Tuesdays remind them of 18 Minutes with Satyal and Silwal.

Glocal Khabar: What is your lesson to the people who want to be in similar path like you i.e. starting a YouTube channel/podcast?

Satyal: People will ridicule you, and urge you to do something more ‘stable’. You’ve got to find believers. At the end of the day, it’s your life. You’ve got to do what is meaningful to you. And also, don’t focus much on surficial stuff like views. It’s about the content you bring and your intention of doing it. The WHY of you starting the podcast has to be meaningful. Otherwise, you’re likely to quit early.

Silwal: Just Start! Don’t wait for the perfect time or the perfect weather. Start now and worry about the details later. Sometimes too much planning kills ideas! Whether it is creating a YouTube channel or starting a podcast you’ll need to believe in yourself, have patience, and enjoy the process because you’ll be creating something that didn’t exist before. And also, you don’t have to listen to every opinion that other people may have for your channel. Some people just make noise. Listen to your inner voice!

Glocal Khabar: We have seen many YouTube channels come and go and those that fail to last long. What is there in your closet to make it last longer?

Satyal: Passion to positively impact lives. That’s enough. Even if one person says he/she is listening and learning from what we have to offer, we’ll continue doing it for them. Like I mentioned earlier, the WHY of starting it has to be meaningful.

Silwal: We keep pushing each other and pick one another up when one of us is feeling low. We always remind each other why we are doing the podcast and it re-energizes us to continue doing it. I believe it is the dynamic-duo partnership that makes us go the extra mile!

Glocal Khabar: How do you record the programme and where? And, how do you carry out post-production?

Silwal: The recordings are done through Satyal’s Mac. We usually go to the guest to make it easier for them. If the guest is from overseas, we do it through Skype. The post-production is carried out by Animesh Shrestha, aka Animax without whom this would never have been possible.

Glocal Khabar: What is behind choosing the day for the podcast to come out on Tuesday?

Satyal: It’s a tribute to Morrie Schwartz from our favorite book, “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom.

Glocal Khabar: How do you prepare for the podcasts? And how do you come up with different and special ideas for every single episode? Every episode is nicely packaged with different sections. How do you sort/arrange different sections in it.

Silwal: We try to be as creative as possible without forcing ourselves too much. The only restriction is to do it under 18 minutes. Apart from that, we want to carry that sense of unpredictability about us.

Glocal Khabar: Would you please share some funny incidents from the journey so far?

Satyal: Silwal swears a lot during the recording. It’s a norm.

Silwal: There’re many! On our first test recording I held up my phone close to the Mac with music blaring and slowly pushed it away from the Mac to have that faded sound effect for the intro. That tells a lot about our computer skills perhaps! Thank God we found Animesh!

I have another one! We were supposed to record our 2nd Episode with our guests early morning. Before leaving home, I texted Satyal saying “Satyal I’m out.” He thought I cancelled up on him. Poor boy! I can only imagine the emotions he went through. He sure panicked a lot. He called me a few times, but I didn’t pick up as I was riding my bike. Talk about miscommunication! The look on his face when I got there – precious!

Glocal Khabar: What is it that makes you to continue the podcast?

Silwal: Making a podcast has never felt like work. The podcast is like our baby! And I love that we are creating 18 minutes of content for that someone listening to us that’ll help that person in their life or perhaps even just bring a smile on their face makes me want to continue the podcast.

Glocal Khabar: Why are the podcasts on audio-only format? Will the audiences of the channel be able to see episodes on video format, soon?

Satyal: We have faces for radio – that’s why! Doing a video means added variables. Since we are home-based organic idea, we didn’t want to make the process too cumbersome for our own liking.

And about the video, we’re definitely open to it. Let’s see. We don’t want to rule anything out just yet!

Silwal: We don’t know how to use a Camera!

 

The intro to the producers:

Sagar Satyal is a passionate educator who loves sharing his experiences in the form of teaching, writing and speaking.

He is also a visiting trainer at King’s College.

He maintains his blogs at sagarsatyal.blogspot.com

 

Ashish Silwal is an educator and a passionate teacher for the last five-years.

He is also a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu School of Law.

He blogs at silwalwrites.wordpress.com