(Aug. 11, 2016) After little more than six months, the Berlin-based podcast “So, What’s Your Story?” is earning more than 1,300 unique views last month.
Cohosted by author Tony Russo and Salt Water Media Founder Stephanie Fowler, the show focuses on local authors and has released more than 20 episodes already this year.
This Friday, as part of the town’s monthly art stroll, Fowler and Russo will shake things up a bit, recording for the first time with a live audience. As an added twist, a former “So, What’s Your Story?” guest, author Jeff Smith, will sit in the host chair and Russo will appear as a guest, discussing his book “Delaware Beer: The Story of Brewing in the First State.”
Fowler said she was pleasantly surprised by the success of the podcast.
“To me it’s astonishing and stunning,” she said. “The whole point of doing the podcast was to try to connect the authors to their audience, and have another place to tell these really cool stories to a wider group of people.”
Less successful, according to Fowler, have been the author signings and appearances during 2nd Friday in Berlin. Because her shop is slightly removed from the main drag of Main Street, on 29 Broad Street, traffic is intermittent, and attendance can range from less than a dozen, to close to 100 people.
“I don’t know if it’s that people aren’t paying attention to the map, or if it’s just a long way or we don’t have good signage,” she said. “We’ve had some 2nd Friday’s where it’s 80 or 90 people, and others we had no one has shown up. It’s either been feast or famine.
“What we thought was, instead of having this thing where we have authors show up and sit here and no one shows, what if we changed that up and had an event?” Fowler continued. “We’re going to have chairs set up and we’re going to record a podcast in front of a live audience. We thought we could do something a little more interesting for the authors than to just show up and have us all hang out and stare at each other and drink wine and eat cheese until 7:30.”
Fowler said she chose Jeff Smith, author of “Mesabi Pioneers,” because she is a fan of his work, and because his episode went very well.
“It was a great podcast, and he is a hands-down, super-cool, very nice guy,” she said. “He’s very funny, very warm, very Zen and he’s an excellent writer.”
She added that Russo will be the guinea pig so that, “if it goes terrible, we’ve only humiliated Tony.”
Russo’s second beer book, following “Eastern Shore Beer: The Heady History of Chesapeake Brewing” released in 2014, examines the history of craft brewing in the First State.
“When you’re going to do a bunch of books that are the same, essentially, you want to find a different theme,” he said. “In the first book, I talked about how there were two types of people who are making beer – people who needed to make a living and people who just love great beer. This time, if there was a theme it would be beer gardens in the community.”
German immigrants in particular, according to Russo, came to Delaware and found beer gardens to be a “cultural center,” similar to what they had experienced in their home country.
“You bring your kids, you bring your dog, you bring your wife, you hang around and drink beer and you bring your own food and you meet people,” he said. “When new people would come over who often didn’t speak the language, they’d find the beer garden and people would help them get set up.
“One of the things that I think makes craft breweries generally popular destinations is they have this kind of beer garden atmosphere where, yes, there’s beer, also there’s some sort of food or you can bring your own, and there’s games and there’s hanging out, and children are welcome,” Russo added. “The difference [in the new book] is the focus on how the community comes together around beer.”
The podcast will record at 7 p.m., and most episodes last about 30 minutes. A brief question-and-answer period will follow, and the episode would likely be available online during the early part of the following week.
“Delaware Beer: The Story of Brewing in the First State,” is available at Salt Water Media. Autographed copies are also available online via a “virtual book signing” on www.shorecraftbeer.com.
Cohosted by author Tony Russo and Salt Water Media Founder Stephanie Fowler, the show focuses on local authors and has released more than 20 episodes already this year.
This Friday, as part of the town’s monthly art stroll, Fowler and Russo will shake things up a bit, recording for the first time with a live audience. As an added twist, a former “So, What’s Your Story?” guest, author Jeff Smith, will sit in the host chair and Russo will appear as a guest, discussing his book “Delaware Beer: The Story of Brewing in the First State.”
Fowler said she was pleasantly surprised by the success of the podcast.
“To me it’s astonishing and stunning,” she said. “The whole point of doing the podcast was to try to connect the authors to their audience, and have another place to tell these really cool stories to a wider group of people.”
Less successful, according to Fowler, have been the author signings and appearances during 2nd Friday in Berlin. Because her shop is slightly removed from the main drag of Main Street, on 29 Broad Street, traffic is intermittent, and attendance can range from less than a dozen, to close to 100 people.
“I don’t know if it’s that people aren’t paying attention to the map, or if it’s just a long way or we don’t have good signage,” she said. “We’ve had some 2nd Friday’s where it’s 80 or 90 people, and others we had no one has shown up. It’s either been feast or famine.
“What we thought was, instead of having this thing where we have authors show up and sit here and no one shows, what if we changed that up and had an event?” Fowler continued. “We’re going to have chairs set up and we’re going to record a podcast in front of a live audience. We thought we could do something a little more interesting for the authors than to just show up and have us all hang out and stare at each other and drink wine and eat cheese until 7:30.”
Fowler said she chose Jeff Smith, author of “Mesabi Pioneers,” because she is a fan of his work, and because his episode went very well.
“It was a great podcast, and he is a hands-down, super-cool, very nice guy,” she said. “He’s very funny, very warm, very Zen and he’s an excellent writer.”
She added that Russo will be the guinea pig so that, “if it goes terrible, we’ve only humiliated Tony.”
Russo’s second beer book, following “Eastern Shore Beer: The Heady History of Chesapeake Brewing” released in 2014, examines the history of craft brewing in the First State.
“When you’re going to do a bunch of books that are the same, essentially, you want to find a different theme,” he said. “In the first book, I talked about how there were two types of people who are making beer – people who needed to make a living and people who just love great beer. This time, if there was a theme it would be beer gardens in the community.”
German immigrants in particular, according to Russo, came to Delaware and found beer gardens to be a “cultural center,” similar to what they had experienced in their home country.
“You bring your kids, you bring your dog, you bring your wife, you hang around and drink beer and you bring your own food and you meet people,” he said. “When new people would come over who often didn’t speak the language, they’d find the beer garden and people would help them get set up.
“One of the things that I think makes craft breweries generally popular destinations is they have this kind of beer garden atmosphere where, yes, there’s beer, also there’s some sort of food or you can bring your own, and there’s games and there’s hanging out, and children are welcome,” Russo added. “The difference [in the new book] is the focus on how the community comes together around beer.”
The podcast will record at 7 p.m., and most episodes last about 30 minutes. A brief question-and-answer period will follow, and the episode would likely be available online during the early part of the following week.
“Delaware Beer: The Story of Brewing in the First State,” is available at Salt Water Media. Autographed copies are also available online via a “virtual book signing” on www.shorecraftbeer.com.