Echoes in an empty room

A little while ago I found a post on another blog "Blogging for the Working Mathematician: Another mathematical blog and podcast" by Jan Grabowski. This contains a description of my podcast. In contrast to other links I have seen to the podcast, this does not simply repeat my own description but appears to be an original interpretation from a listener.

I record the podcasts on my travels, usually, and edit them mostly on trains. I then sit in my office or living room and record my bits - the hello and goodbye sections. This is quite a strange experience, sitting and speaking into an empty room. I then put the podcast episodes online and people download them (I have seen the logs, they are definitely downloaded). What happens next is a mystery. I hope people listen to the episodes they download and enjoy them but it is hard for me to say. I know the few people I have met on my travels who listen have told me they enjoy the podcast, sometimes people retweet the links on Twitter and I have seen links to the podcast from other sites, which are good signs. 21 people have declared themselves "fans" of the podcast on Facebook (this is a small proportion of weekly downloads). It would be good to know what happens beyond me speaking into an empty room.

This is why Jan's blog post is fantastic news. It is a message back from beyond the empty room that is obviously not just an echo of something I have said about the podcast. Someone is definitely receiving and listening to the podcast and has thought well enough of it to write a blog post describing it to his readers. This is very heartening. I recommend you go and read Jan's description. I used it as a PowerPoint slide a few weeks ago when I spoke to the Maths Promotors' Network as a description of podcast, rather than giving my own version. The Blogging for the Working Mathematician blog is an occasional one in which Jan picks out mathematical and science items which interest him from around the web and features a blogroll of interesting mathematical blogs.