A vulnerable issue: Inside Audio Currents

Plus, three audiobooks to combat imposter syndrome

Hey there,

Sorry I’ve been MiA for a while. I was working on something that made me feel everything on the terrified to exalted spectrum. Today’s is a special issue because I want to talk about this thing, it’s birth, and why it scared me so much.

You might have met it already: Audio Currents. I tweeted about it, made my first Instagram reel, and even put up an embarrassing teaser picture for it.

What I didn’t do is publicly acknowledge how terrified I am was.

I’ve refrained from doing this for two reasons: 1) It felt like a weird publicity ploy to do it and 2) I didn’t know how to say it in 280 words or less.

Disclaimer: this is a long issue but hey, this is my space and my therapist says I should take it.

Start at the beginning, but make it short.

My writing career began when I was 5 years old and published a poem titled Books in a youth magazine called, well, Young Times. That kind of thing can make you believe you’re meant to be a writer with the confidence of the person in the picture below.

But, we’re not starting that far in the past.

We’re just going to start with my time at Inside Podcasting.

Summer of 2020. First dip in Covid-19 cases in Vancouver. The air was full of romance, hope, and possibility. Three things that most artists would swear have the same effect as the most potent drugs.

Melody Ma, co-founder of Podyssey, and friend of my mentor Alice Ko got me the gig at Inside Podcasting. For some reason, Melody thought I’d be perfect for the role. I suspect it was because I touted the importance of sound in the silence of those Covid times.

Audio had never been more important to me than it was that year.

Not even when I had first moved continents away from India to Canada with no job and prospects, and just some money.

Not even when I first came out as bisexual and I needed all the Disney villain songs in the world to comfort me.

Perhaps, not even when I discovered the most important sound to me in the Universe.

So, I took the leap to fill in some very large shoes (have you met Skye?) Because not writing would mean that I wouldn’t get to spread the love for audio, especially podcasts, that I felt.

To condense nearly three years of hard work in one sentence — not writing Inside Podcasting would be a disservice to the podcasts that had held me in a very trying time.

That was unacceptable.

With the grace of the industry, support of my community, and my dogged determination to defeat my twice-weekly anxiety, both Inside Podcasting and I grew.

The magic words: oral storytelling.

For me, podcasts can be distilled into two words — oral storytelling.

The more I covered podcasting, the more I realised that are other things that can also be distilled into those two words — music, audiobooks, and (wholesome) streaming channels.

All these oral storytelling media had held my hand through tough times. So, it was evident that it was time to start servicing those industries and the very talented people in them.

I wanted to write about more than podcasts. I wanted to write about oral storytelling.

This thought sat very heavy with me; like a hero’s quest breathing down my neck every Tuesday and Thursday. With every passing week, the thought turned into desire and then eventually, desperation.

Now, any of us that engage in any kind of storytelling know that no hero should not embark on a quest in the absence of: 1) the right moment and 2) the right crew.

I had to do my waiting for both.

Enter: The Fellowship of Recordical

I’ll let Michelle, the CEO of Recordical, tell the story of its birth at the time of her choosing. But, I will say that never have I ever met another collection of souls that have the same ambitions, fears, and whimsy as me.

Alignment like this is hard to come by.

Recordical had the same hunger as me — to empower oral storytelling and storytellers.

Michelle, or MK as I call her, heard me out about my quest that weighed heavy on me. She solved it in a typical MK way. By being honest: “why don’t you just write it?”

Do you know those people who’s dreams are contagious? Yeah, that’s Michelle.

Her faith in me and the undying support of my core community led to Audio Currents.

However, something morbidly funny began to happen.

Each time I picked up the pen (and I did actually use a physical pen at first) to create the editorial calendar for Audio Currents, I cried.

Over the weeks of creating content, logos, and design templates, tears and paralysis ensued.

Is this how heroes feel when they are ready to jump off the cliff and dive straight into unknown (excuse the pun) currents?

The voice in my head that was sure that I was not ready was constantly at war with the voice that maintained that this was my duty to an industry I loved. The industry of audio. The industry of oral storytelling.

Now would be the part where I share a revelation that helped me write and release Audio Currents to the world. Sorry to disappoint.

The first issue dropped on Tuesday. The second issue comes out Friday. My hands still shake before I write it. The voices are still warring in my head.

However, when you do something you love so deeply, not doing it is simply not an option.

Thus, not writing Audio Currents for me is simply not an option.

While my community exalts me every step of the way, there are three audiobooks that help me everyday.

Three Audiobooks to Combat Imposter Syndrome

The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer

I don’t own the rights to this cover. I am simply sharing the beauty of Palmer.

Palmer says she is so scared of The Fun Police. They will come at any point, knock on her door, and tell her to get “a real job” like in accounting or something. This is how imposter syndrome feels. The audiobook, complete with singing, shares how to accept your demons and how to fight them through the simple yet complicated art of asking.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski

I don’t own the rights to this cover. I am simply grateful to the Nagoski twins.

Through research, honesty, and songs about broken technology, the Nagoski twins show us how to settle into our skin. Complete with worksheets, this book shares how we can achieve our potential without burning out.

Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

I don’t own the rights to this cover. I am simply in awe of Rovelli’s storytelling.

Sometimes, we need to see the bigger picture to help put our insecurities into perspective. Rovelli’s poetic prose about how humanity’s mathematical understanding of time pales in front of nature will melt your woes. And if that doesn’t, narrator Benedict Cumberbatch definitely will.

Thank you for reading.

Next time on Shreya’s Audio Affairs:

A podcast playlist to accompany your move to a new city.