BE IT PRINT, DIGITAL, SOCIAL, AUDIO, or VIDEO, our media is so dominated by "news" that long running shows like Hearts of Space—now in our 41st year of national Public Radio broadcasting and 23rd year of online streaming—get little or no press. We're just not "new." Why bother?
So I was pleasantly surprised to receive two interview requests in the last six months, one from DANIEL BROMFIELD, a music journalist who also writes features for the local Marin Independent Journal newspaper, and another from TOM PARISH, a podcaster who covers AI from Austin, Texas.
Dan first contacted me in January for comment on the passing of New Age composer IASOS. He had thoughtful questions, and I must have had thoughtful answers, because he got back in touch in April asking for a full length interview for a Sunday feature on Hearts of Space. The article was published in August and titled "Plenty to Contemplate." 
The interview with Dan was done on Zoom and was completely normal. Dan transcribed it, did some minor editing, done. The interview with Tom Parish of "AI for Lifelong Learners" began with a routine email request and turned out to be anything but normal.
Why would a podcast focused on AI be interested in Hearts of Space? It turned out that Tom was a long time listener to the radio program and a subscriber to the online streaming service—a Space Fan. He's a lovely guy who's been patiently building an audience for AI-related content via a podcast and a Substack newsletter. If you have any interest in AI, his show is excellent. He thought his audience had a better-than-average chance of enjoying Hearts of Space, so...let's talk.
In the last ten years, podcasts have become the natural medium for long-form, in-depth interviews and documentary audio content. Unlike radio, podcasts are available on demand, can address esoteric, niche, and special interest subject matter, and can be any length. Therein lies one of the differences between interviews for print vs. audio: podcast interviews typically run an hour or more.
Tom was mystified when I told him I didn't think I'd be able to speak for an hour. He was familiar with the program voiceovers. They sounded OK. What was the problem? (Note: Ironically, the interview turned out to be only about 30 minutes.)
I explained that I'd been dealing with the slow deterioration of my voice for almost ten years. Originally I attributed it to age, but in 2016 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's, a common neurological disease that also affects voice quality. The story of this and what I've done about it became the main subject of the interview.
It's a situation I've resisted going public about for eight years due to the risk of being misunderstood. At this point it's overdue for transparency, and the podcast format allowed me the time I needed to tell the full story. There's also a second, more positive story about how I used AI "voice cloning" to solve my voiceover problem. I haven't gone public about that either, until now, and it became a fascinating part of the interview.
My deep and sincere thanks to Tom Parish for his extraordinary patience and understanding—a true collaborator.
LISTEN FREE AT THE LINKS BELOW:
"Slow Music, Fast Tech" episode page on Substack.com (most information here)
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