Robin and I started with very limited ambitions, it wasn’t quite “more listeners than presenters” but not far off. We agreed to do episodes until the end of the academic year and then see where we stood. At that point we had not got much further than me telling Robin he and I should start a podcast and then months later him finding the statistic that about 50% of schools in the UK have one or zero physics teachers. We just wanted to try something, try to build a community and see what happened. I am a regular listener of The Cycling Podcast and modelled a lot of our approach on them.

As we started I had no idea about format, content, approach, social media, iTunes ratings, post production, how to talk to a microphone and had never considered a T-shirt or shop (or adding a forum) But I am top loaded with running web sites and general geekery, so I figured I would muddle through.

It was a revelation to me (physics teacher, but never an audiophile) to find that a microphone has preferred orientation. Listening back you can tell the episode where I worked out where to point my mouth when recording.  I found a great T-shirt supplier when looking for somewhere to buy a jokey shirt for Robin. They actually make the shirts on demand and provide a WordPress plugin, so one thing led to another and now… a shop! Just a bit of fun of course, as Robin says in Episode 9, this is nothing about money… But if it helps build a community then that’s brilliant.

As I went to sleep on the night before episode 1 I was not convinced I wouldn’t grab my phone at 4am and cancel it. Now, as we approach the recording of episode 10 I feel more comfortable hearing my own voice. I’ve also been dragged kicking and screaming in to social media and I feel a community is growing. (We have had a few emails thanking us for doing it and the interaction on Twitter has been fun). It has also been hugely enjoyable talking to different people and learning from them: I recorded another PIM this week which will most likely be in Episode 11. Please do continue to send us ideas. We love hearing them all. You can use the form below.

Finally, to get some 5* ratings in iTunes is pretty stunning to be honest, so thank you very much, listener(s!).