pod bites: Generally Spooky History with Kieran MacRae
“If you've got an idea of something you'd like to do, just dive in and have a go. ”
Kieran MacRae and his wife Eilidh decided to start a podcast when the world into lockdown.
They’re now five seasons in to the Generally Spooky History podcast with the next season due any day.
If you love learning about history, like settling in to listen to a good story, or just enjoy getting a little spooked, then this is the podcast for you.
In this episode you can learn how Kieran and Eilidh got started, how podcasting has helped Kieran and which podcast he is a fan of.
Subscribe to the podcast so you get all future episodes direct on your device.
Prefer to read? Read the transcript below.
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Alison: [00:00:00] Welcome to the show, Kieran.
Kieran: Hi, thanks for having me.
Alison: You are one of the co hosts yourself and your wife, Eilidh, of Generally Spooky History podcast. Can you tell us what your podcast is about, even though it is kind of obvious in the title?
Kieran: Well, yeah, it's kind of the name says it all, but we are a Scottish history podcast. We do the deep dive into Scotland's history, myths and legends, and kind of look at the spooky stories associated with a lot of the history as well.
Alison: How did you get started in it? Because I mean, I've been listening to some of your really early episodes and the early ones don't sound like you're new to podcasting. It sounds like you're really into your history already.
Kieran: Oh, that's, that's always nice to hear. Well, it came about, I think in the very first COVID lockdown, actually during the pandemic, we were at home, as so many people were, and my wife was looking for a new project, Eilidh was talking about how much she loves history and things, and how she wanted to explore that with kind of a purpose behind it, as opposed to arbitrary research, and she was thinking about a podcast. So I was like, oh cool, I'd be, I'd be well up for a podcast if you want to do it together. Because we have a lot of projects going on, but they're always totally independent.
So I was quite excited at the thought of having something we can work on together. So then Eilidh kind of dragged me along into it and we got started that way as a sort of outlet for Eilidh's creativity.
Alison: It's like she's telling you the story and sometimes you guess as to what's going to happen and Like, it's the surprise of the outcomes.
Kieran: Yeah, so the, the format is Eilidh takes the lead. She does the the lion's share of the work, researching the historical stories and places we talk about. And she writes the script and then she tells it to me. So I come in. totally blind. I might know the title if I'm lucky, but otherwise I'm hearing the story for the first time, just as the listeners often are, and I get to kind of ask different difficult questions, which is always fun, and make witty comments, kind of liven it up.
I've got quite a knack for asking the questions Eilidh apparently doesn't want me to ask, so just like the one bit she decided not to look into, that'll be the question I ask.
I think, so I think it really is my fault that the episodes just kept getting longer over time. During our very first season, we've done five seasons now, it's about two and a half years we've been doing the podcast I think. Uh, it was about an hour or two, an hour and a half an episode, and then I think we peaked at three hours 45 for a single episode when we covered Culloden, which is, uh, the Battle of Culloden's a major point in Scottish history, and that was the, the peak length where we thought maybe we should scale it back just a little bit, like, that was that, that was a long episode.
Alison: We'll break it into two or three episodes.
Kieran: Yes, that's the, that's the latest idea, yeah, with multiple parters. Yeah. So we covered. Edinburgh Castle recently and I think that spread into four parts and was, if you listen to it back to back, I think it's like six hours or something.
Alison: Well there's a lot, a lot to be said about Edinburgh Castle as, as you have discovered.
Kieran: Yes, there is indeed and you know, being the capital city of Scotland, everybody who's anybody in Scottish history passed through Edinburgh. So, and then when I'm asking difficult questions and leading us off on tangents, he likes to... Be prepared.
Alison: Do you record all in one go? Like, so your Battle of Culloden episode was that just a sit down three hour 45 for maybe a little bit longer?
Kieran: It was, yeah. If it's now, the parts are done as individuals. So we record a part start to finish. And then if we have more script ready to go, we'll maybe record another part after. But yeah, we just sit down, maybe have a bathroom break part way through if it's particularly long, but just to get it done, start to finish.
Alison: How long does it take then to produce an episode from start to finish? Eilidh does the lion's share of the work with the research. So how long does that generally take her?
Kieran: So, hmm, kind of varies because now and again she'll kind of hit her stride doing the research and then the script just falls to place really easily.
Now and again it's a bit more of a slog trying to take really kind of different parts to try and craft the narrative because Eilidh's storytelling really comes into its own in the podcast. So she'll be maybe I want to say about 10 hours, 10 to 20 hours even, uh, for her share of the episode. And then I think I'm maybe eight hours, I think, because it's the time it takes to record it.
And then editing is about an hour and a half per hour of footage. What's it called? Audio? Yeah.
Alison: So Eilidh does the prep work and you do the post work.
Kieran: Yes, that's the, that's the deal. So yes, we're probably about 30 to 40 hours per episode of work between the two of us.
Alison: That’s a lot of work for an episode.
Kieran: Yes, yes it is.
Alison: But, if anyone who's listening has never heard an episode, it comes across so well. I mean, I've learned heaps about Scottish history. And we were saying before we started recording, um, I used to work at Edinburgh Castle, and I listened to your Edinburgh Castle episodes, and I learned things that I never knew.
Kieran: Yeah it's quite, it's quite something. Eilidh's ability to research is, oh, it astounds me. She kept joking for a while that I should do an episode. I'm like, it just, it won't live up. It'll be terrible. It'll be like 20 minutes with a brief overview, and that'll be it. The people will be left hungry.
Alison: I guess, know your strengths.
Kieran: Yeah, that's it.
Alison: Do you contribute to any of the ideas for your podcast or is it all just Eilidh saying this is what we're going to be talking about this week?
Kieran: It's 95% Eilidh's ideas and I think when we very first started and we made a big like master list of oh what can we talk about I kind of threw in a couple there but very occasionally I'll request an episode and then if I'm lucky it might come in because It's planned quite far in advance.
So two years later, I might get to find out more about it.
Alison: Let's talk about this planning because I recently did a workshop about planning podcast content and how to make sure that you don't run out of ideas. Um, do you know, you know, weeks in advance what the subject is going to be for your podcast?
Kieran: Yeah. So we, we have a season system because as we were starting, we saw a lot of people are either weekly or, every two weeks. And we kind of thought like, oh, it's a bit never ending if you do that. So I feel, because we're both tend towards working too hard, we might never take breaks if we do that.
So we decided to do a season. So we do 10 episodes for a season, and then we have a break, and then we start again for another season. So before the season's begun. The ten episodes are picked out, or the ten topics, sorry. So at the start, we know what that is, and sometimes even the season after as well, it's kind of pre decided.
Because there's certain things we like to have in each season, so each season has a folklore episode, a castle episode. Uh, some sort of, like, ghost story based episode and a figure. Historical figure, usually. A person rather than a place or an event. Yeah.
Alison: That's a really good variety of... of topics within the topic.
Kieran: Yeah, because it's, it would be too easy to do all castles, because it's Scotland and there are a lot of castles here. So it's nice to kind of mix it up and it makes it more interesting for us as well, so we're not getting too, too samey week to week.
Alison: And I guess your listeners love it because you're still doing it.
Kieran: Yeah. Yeah. We get good feedback, which is nice.
Alison: Yeah. Um, I noticed that you have a Patreon as some podcasts do. When did you decide that you were going to have a Patreon with your podcast?
Kieran: I think, let's see, we. It started in March time, March April, and I think it was the following January, so 9 10 months later, we decided to launch the Patreon.
With the agreement that if nobody signed up, that was okay, we were gonna put content up anyway, so then people would have a back catalogue. But we did get signups on that, when we launched it, so that was nice. But it was not something we had in the cards when we decided to start. It was something that over time we decided to introduce.
Alison: I like the idea though that you said if no one's signed up you're still going to put things in there because that's... Almost like foretelling that people will join.
Kieran: Yeah, because it's the, it's a difficult thing, isn't it? Because if you don't, if there's nobody in there and you've got one, it's tempting to not put any content onto it until you get someone to join.
But if someone's looking to join and there's no content there, they'll go, Oh, what's the point? There's nothing there. Why would I join? So you have to kind of commit either way, at least for a time.
Alison: What's been a memorable moment that you've had as a result of podcasting?
Kieran: There was. I can't remember if it was January this year or January last year, but we got a really wonderful message through the Instagram.
Eilidh runs the podcast Instagram page and chats to a lot of our listeners through there. And a woman reached out to say she'd lost her mum just before Christmas. She'd passed away, I think, from cancer and was having a really hard time. But she couldn't face doing anything. Except listening to the podcast because she said it cheered her up when we were keeping her company because she was feeling really lonely and it was a really touching moment to get that come through that you would just get to give that a little bit of kind of joy in someone's life because a lot of it all a lot of our kind of banter in the podcast is just husband and wife bickering almost, I guess. Uh, and it's nice to hear that that's having such a positive influence on someone who's going through such a hard time.
Alison: Well, you never know who's listening, do you?
Kieran: Yeah, that's it, exactly
Alison: And what have you yourself got from podcasting?
Kieran: Uh, I'm a lot more confident, I think, than I was before I started. And particularly with speaking.
Like with, if I'm in a group setting, I'm much more open to... Kind of contributing to it, because often, even within my family, if there's a big family get together, I'd be quite quiet, typically, just kind of sat off to the side, but doing the podcast, and in the position I am, where I'm not scripted, and I have to offer up kind of entertainment and be quite engaged.
I had to push out of my tendency to be quiet to learn to speak up. So now, in such a family setting, I'm much more comfortable to just speak up and tell a story, um, which has been really nice and really satisfying.
Alison: That's a nice, nice outcome. What tip would you give to a brand new podcaster?
Kieran: Um, well, if there's anybody who's thinking about starting, I'd say just... Start right away. Like, don't worry too much about how to get it just right or what specifically you're going to talk about. If you've got an idea of something you'd like to do, just dive in and have a go. I have a friend who about five years ago told me he wanted to start a podcast about movies because he loved going to the cinema.
He loved keeping up with new movies. And I was like, yeah, man, like you should do it. That'd be great. And a year went by and I asked him like, Oh, so like, are you going to do it? Like, yeah, I'm thinking about it, but maybe I need a, uh, someone else to do it with. Cause it'd be more fun if there's somebody to chat with.
I was like, Oh, fair enough. Yeah. Who do you think you'll do it with? Oh, I'm not sure yet, or oh, I'm not sure what ideas I have, and it's five years later and unfortunately it still hasn't even started. Whereas for Eilidh and I, it was a case of like, oh, we've got this idea. Okay, roughly how will we make it work?
Okay, that'll do. Let's just have a go and do one episode and see what happens. And if you can manage that, that's, that's a lot of the hard work done. You can change everything else after that. The format, the content. We, we rebranded recently from Generally Spooky Podcast to Generally Spooky History because we realized we were talking much more history than spooky compared to when we started.
Alison: I’ve noticed, uh, you've got new, um, new imagery for your, like, On the podcast app and on your Facebook, and I love it.
Kieran: It's great, isn't it? That was Eilidh again. She designed that.
Alison: It's so cool. Um, I noticed it on my app just, um, a few days ago and I was like, there's something different. I'm sure that wasn't pictured before, but it looks so cool.
Like, it's almost like it's, you know, it's been there forever. Because it is, it does just sell your podcasts for what you do. And so kudos to Eilidh.
Kieran: Yep, I'll let her know. That was our, third attempt at our logo.
We had the one we started with, which Eilidh did as well, and then we changed that for Generally Spooky podcast. And then we decided to kind of do this rebrand to Generally Spooky History and went, oh, that means new graphics and new logos, but Eilidh got stuck in and got it all together.
Alison: Very talented, the pair of you.
Kieran: Oh, thank you. We're, we're jacks of all trades, that's our thing, not afraid to have a go.
Alison: But you've shown though that you can change. What you have isn't what you are stuck with.
Kieran: Mm hmm. Yeah, one of, uh, a podcast, I see clips of it all the time, and I really enjoy it. It's the Basement Yard podcast, and there's two guys do it, Joey and Frank, I think, and they're just...
Their chat is hilarious. I think they're school friends and they're so funny together. I was looking into it, and I forget which one, but one of them wasn't on the podcast originally. He was an occasional guest, and then they went, oh, he's a lot of fun. We should get him on full time, and now they, now they do it together.
I'm like, oh, well, that's the one who started solo and then found their co host after the fact. You never know how it's going to end up, but you have to start to get to where it's going, if that makes sense.
Alison: It totally does. Final question, what's one podcast on your playlist that you would like to tell listeners about?
Kieran: Um, ooh, just one. Hmm, the Mum's Mysteries and Murder podcast is an excellent one. That's another independent Scottish podcast. Marti and Effie host that and it's a true crime podcast focusing on kind of the The Mysteries and Strange Goings On. We, Eilidh and I, connected with them because they did a Loch Ness Monster episode.
As we did as well. So we got chatting about that, which was excellent. And, one of them's Australian, one of them's Scottish. So you get the quite different world views coming together. It's really good, really enjoyable. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a new podcast.
Alison: Thank you so much. Um, is there anything else you'd like to tell listeners?
I'll put how to find you in the show notes, but anything else you want to share?
Kieran: No, just if you're, if you're thinking about starting a podcast and you haven't yet. Just go and do it. It's great fun. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Alison: Cool. Thank you so much for coming on, Kieran.
Kieran: You’re very welcome. It was great being here. Thanks for having me.
