So far, over the last two weeks, over 25,000 people have downloaded a new podcast that we introduced by the moniker “Father Daughter.”
If you haven’t seen it yet, it is just a half-hour conversation between me and my daughter Malkie Hirsch, who over the last year has become one of our outstanding, much-read, and much-commented-upon columnists.
The original idea was to breathe life into what is otherwise committed to the written page. Reading has the potential and ability to engage the imagination, and do we really need anything more than that? When you have the capacity to bring the written word to life and hear the words of the people who usually produce this material, well, there might be nothing better than that.
So as to the question about whether there is a breakthrough or anything earthshattering here, I don’t know. There are probably millions of podcasts floating around social media, so this is just one of them. I personally only listen to a few of them, and as of this moment I don’t know of any that have a father and a child (a daughter, in this case) indulging in an extemporaneous exchange of ideas with nothing scripted or prepared in advance.
To date, we have recorded three half-hour episodes and they are definitely resonating with viewers. Up to this point, we tackled a variety of topics — from why we decided to undertake a project like this to inviting Malkie to ask me any question that she wants. When it came to that, she first asked me how it was that I charted a multi-decade career in media as opposed to law or finance, and then she asked me to describe what I see as the unique or particular talents in her and all her siblings.
In one episode, we dedicated the full half-hour to talking about the books or periodicals we are reading and, more importantly, why we read what we do. I haven’t shared any future ideas with Malkie, but I think some of the next episodes will deal with the types of music we enjoy, and then I think I want to do a segment on our grandparents.
That is an opportunity to familiarize listeners with my grandparents, and then Malkie can share her thoughts about her grandparents, who are my parents and my wife’s parents. I haven’t really thought beyond that, but maybe at some point we will introduce some of her five siblings — one at a time — into the mix. I think that at this juncture, with only three episodes in the can, so to speak, we are still feeling our way and getting comfortable with the exchanges.
I suppose it is not important to update you or let you know what happens. Whatever it is, it will be right out there for the taking, seeing, and believing.
