 So yeah, if you've just got an audio recording, you don't have any of this. This is Danielle Ward, a podcasting legend here in the UK. Danielle has not only managed to create two hit podcasts from scratch, one of them is called Do The Right Thing and has four guests every episode. It has won awards, it has a live studio audience, gone to I think seven seasons now. Another podcast is called Any Stupid Questions. That is now in a double digit number of episodes and every episode has an expert and a guest comedian. This is the Podcast Producers podcast with me Neil Mossy. It's a place where podcast producers share their tips and experience so that anyone can start a podcast and keep it going. So the best way to get to know you, Danielle Ward, is if you had one podcast that you could download right now, just one, what would it be? Oh, Blimey, the Adam Buxton podcast probably. It's good, isn't it? What is it about Adam's podcast? He's so gentle and funny and though actually as soon as I said it, then I realised that I'd actually swap Adam Buxton for Adam and Joe, I think. I really love his solo podcast, but actually thinking about it, the Six Music, because I listened to the Six Music show go out so I don't really think of it as being a podcast, but actually afterwards when I went back and revisited the podcast, which have extra bits on them, the Adam and Joe podcast from Six Music was really, really brilliant. It's the chemistry, I think. I think that's what makes podcasts work. Not all of them need it. Some of them are just one person talking to different people, but from my experience of the stuff I've done, I think people really buy into the relationships. You're not a fan of just one person just gobbling off for an hour? I don't think I've ever listened to a podcast that is just one person talking. I don't even know how that would work. Do they just talk? Yeah. Who are they talking to? Well, there's this guy, Jocko Willink, who is a Navy SEAL, who is taking his Navy SEAL experience into the world of self-help, and he seems to manage it quite well. But I think you need to be probably as intense as him to be able to pull that off. I think I'd run out of steam off. I don't think I'd be able to do either. So I used to really, I still do. I'd love to be a radio presenter. I've always loved that. I did it at university. It's the thing that I've always wanted to do. It's why I got into comedy is because I'm at a radio show, but I wanted a proper radio show with music, not radio for. I wanted like the sort of when Lee and Herring used to do their shows on Radio One or Amanda and H.E. But I always thought, I'd never imagined it just me. I always thought there would be a co-host. I think you need someone to bounce off. I need someone to bounce off. The podcast that you've done seemed to be quite well structured rather than just a chum cast. Yes, because I like formats. I couldn't just go, let's sort of just chat about something. I sort of feel, I think in formats, everything I do has a format point. So it seems then that the podcasting is a way that you can express yourself in format terms. Yes, for me certainly. It's something I probably use podcasts in a way that I use stand-up comedy, which is if I have a thing that I want to communicate with the world, I go out and do it on stage. I guess if you don't do that, then podcasting is probably a better way of doing it. But for me, podcasting is more about exploring formats. Who are you and what is your role in the podcast universe? So I am Daniel Ward and I am the co-creator and host and writer of Do The Right Thing podcast. I am the creator and host of Any Stupid Questions podcast. And I am the co-creator and former host of Film Fandango podcast. I was Dave Gorman's co-host on Absolute Radio. And my thing was doing, I think this round-up called Ward's Weekly Word, which is where I would, and I'd literally write it at 10 to 10 in the morning just before we went on air. So that's why it was always ridiculous. And I'd do a cultural summation. And one of the easiest things to do is film reviews because they come out weekly. So I'd kind of go, this film is about this, this film is about this. But I also really love films. And so Absolute Radio said, why don't you do a film podcast where you talk about films? But I didn't want to just do new releases because that means that then you have to go to the cinema all the time and also Mark Mose sort of has that nailed down. So I did a podcast where we talked to people about their favorite films. That was format point number one. And then we would sometimes go and see some new releases. That was another format point. It was just a chance to talk about films that we love. But rather than it just being like, oh, I like films, you like films. That's all about films. It felt like it needed more than that. So you brought the structure. I brought the structure to it, yeah. And also I was like hosting it. I think maybe this is because I come from a radio background. So everything has to have some sort of structure because otherwise it's just people chatting and it's a bit meandering. And also if you said it's a podcast about films, is it films that you watched yesterday? Is it your favorite films? Is it new release films? I think you have to have some sort of order to things. And so it felt quite natural for me to put format points in. But like I said, it might be the terrible grounding that I had at the BBC. Where if it doesn't have any format points, A, someone can nick your idea for a start. And also how do you differentiate it in a crowded market? That's not what I was thinking when I started doing podcasting. But I guess that is an instinct that was there. What were you thinking? Because you had already developed formats for Radio 4. You had already been on something that could be called a podcast that was from a radio station. Did something then give you a leap or a ping or an idea or a light bulb that you could do this under your own steam? It was the frustration of waiting for things to get picked up by Radio 4. So I had a format in with Radio 4 that was a really good idea. And from the initial treatment, so the piece of paper with all the ideas on it, to it getting a series took three years. And in that time it didn't change a f***ing bit. Because it was a really good format. But it had to go through all these hoops. And it was just so frustrating that Ben Walker, who was also a radio producer, said to me, I think it's a really good idea. Why aren't they picked it up? What's going on? And I said, I don't know. And he said, why don't we make it as a podcast? And I went, what's a podcast? No, I knew it was because of the Absolute Radio show. But because that was made by Absolute Radio. So it was a podcast that went out in town. The Absolute One was how they did it was they would have their show that went out live and then they would cut together all the bits of the talking without the adverts and the music and that would be the podcast. So I was still thinking that podcasts were attached to radio shows basically. And Ben Walker said, we could make our own podcast and it would be attached to anything. And I was like, why would you do that? Who's going to listen to that? That's surely like putting something on YouTube. It's going to, you know, how does that happen? And Ben was like, trust me. And so he, we rejigged this idea that I'd had for Radio 4 and worked it into something much more interesting and freer. And that's kind of how do the right thing came about. Thanks for listening. The next episode is listed in the description along with all the episodes for the podcast producers podcast. And if you've reached this far, thank you. You could send me a little signal with a little thumbs up or a subscribe or maybe even a comment. All of those helped me to keep this thing going and I appreciate them all. And I'll see you over on the next episode. Can you please help my daddy get 1000 subscribers? Just click on his face. Thanks. Bye.