Ben Webster INSIDE, Bobby Duke TUESDAY!

Bobby Duke is one of the most creative people we've seen -- he makes incredible things that are a mix of art and invention. He's hard to describe because he can do virtually anything of any size, but when you think about the term "maker," Bobby exemplifies it. We're excited to finally talk to him, so hop into the Discord on Tuesday at 6pm ET for an epic TCU night. On to the fetus...

You’d better like Unknown Sausage, because Producer Ben Webster is here to explain how it’s made. We’ve wanted to do an episode with Ben for a while because his story is pretty interesting – and he’s blended the traditional education route with hands-on work with us.

Ben had a tough decision to make when it came to going to school. First off, was it even worth it? And if so, did it make sense to wait until in-person classes returned to normal? He ended up going to one of the best communications schools in the world – and it’s the same one Matt did programs at in HTML and newspaper layout in the 1990s.

What started as handling a few terminally online tasks for TCU turned into a full-fledged producer and editor role with us. That behind-the-scenes role is extremely important, since it allows talent to be talent. But how important is it to know how to do a thing yourself before outsourcing it to the Bens of the world?

Making stuff is hard, but making stuff reliably is REALLY hard. Ben dealt with a bonkers living situation to hit every deadline for the podcast – and that’s a major reason why we committed to working with him over others in the tremendous network of people we know. Scheduling works both ways, though, and even the people who want to create with spontaneous energy need to have some structure.

Ben goes through a full example of a fake horror podcast – ‘The Spooking Hour,’ as Charles Khan decided – from having the idea to executing it to improving it. He outlines a clear, sensible process that’s a mix of what he’s picked up in school and what he’s seen working with us and Real Weird Sickos. It’s an excellent process for any online project.

None of us know what Ben will be up to in 5 years, but we do agree with him that interesting people are always trying to get better at something – and it doesn’t even matter what it is. If someone doesn’t have any ambitions at all, turn and run.

We had a great time during the live episode (aside from Matt’s technical glitches in the new setup), and thanks to both the Patrons who make this show happen each and every week and to Maingear for kicking off what’s soon to be an epic recording studio.