Once upon a time: A podcasting tale
By: Erin Martin Kane
Tags: Podcasting, Parenting, Working Moms, Moms, Parenting Teenagers

What happens when a retired podcaster puts her toe back in the water?

The original cover art

There was a time, many years ago, when I would blog regularly. I wrote almost every day. My boys were young then. Babies, really. And there was so much to write about. Every day was a new adventure as they spoke their first words, hit their first baseball, brushed their teeth or tied their shoes for the first time on their own. I found a great community of moms through writing. For the most part, writing for strangers proved to be a very therapeutic endeavor. There wasn’t all the nastiness that seems to be a natural part of the Internet landscape today.

After writing for a while, my friend Kristin and I decided to try our hand at podcasting. This was before there was a native podcast app on the iPhone. To listen, moms had to sync their iPods through their computers to download the latest episode. In the beginning, there was no Stitcher or Spotify or easy podcast streaming option. It was iTunes, period. Every week we ranked in the Top 10 for Kids & Family content. Eventually we hit number one.

We smartly released new episodes of Manic Mommies every week on Sunday nights. As working moms ourselves, we often experienced the weekly “Sunday dread” — a feeling of separation from our motherliness, knowing that on Monday morning we’d be handing our precious little ones over to day care so we could go to the office. Make no mistake, there were times when going to the office felt like a vacation! But for many working moms with young kids at home, there is an intense feeling that creeps in on Sunday nights, one that tells you it’s time to shift gears from crafting, Legos, and story time, and into work mode.

I suspect that for many of our listeners, the new podcast episodes were a nice distraction on the commute to work Monday mornings. Many described listening as a ritual or “like having coffee with friends.” We shared the highs and lows of our own experiences as mothers and we were refreshingly honest about our struggles and our mistakes. Of course, as the show grew in popularity, there were more iTunes reviewers who described us a self-absorbed, clueless about all things, and would call us out for our first world problems. But we could take it.

Then the kids grew up. They got older and figured out how to download episodes. Podcast listening became technically easier to do. To keep up, we’d have to embrace all the streaming platforms, really putting Manic Mommies out there. We got concerned for the kids’ privacy and worried we’d say something that would embarrass them or become a risk to us professionally. As the middle school years approached — and with it all that natural drama — we decided to pull the plug.

Recently, we recorded a reunion episode of the podcast as a fundraiser for Kristin’s Pan Mass Challenge Ride. We released it only on Facebook, where a few thousand of our original listeners are still connected to a fan page. We were completely surprised by the response. Thousands of engagements on Facebook in the first 24 hours and thousands of downloads of the mp3 file in the first week.

As a result, Kristin asked whether I would consider bringing back the podcast. The teen years are rough and we are all navigating new territory. “Who could do it better?” she asked me. Even our kids started encouraging us. But honestly, I think that’s because they have visions of becoming YouTube stars and getting free stuff. Apparently, they are less concerned about their privacy than I am.

I don’t know that I can return to podcasting. It’s a totally different game now than it was in 2005 when we first launched. But what I know for sure is we moms always need the support of friends. Whether our kids are babies, in elementary school, or applying to college, there’s comfort in knowing you are not alone in your struggles.