Podcast to catch on: Chhavi Sachdev

...says radio journalist Chhavi Sachdev, who will be conducting a workshop on podcasts in the city. In a chat she tells us how the medium still remains under-utilised.

How would you like it if you were given Maggi for a meal everyday According to radio journalist Chhavi Sachdev, you wouldn’t know there are far more nutritious meals waiting, since you haven’t been informed about them. Chhavi brings up this analogy to compare radio listeners and podcast users. “In radio, the scope is limited. Firstly, there’s a geographical limitation, then there’s the real-time glitch and thirdly, the lack of good content,” she says. But it’s the third that bothers her the most.

“Most of the radio programmes are an insult to human intelligence,” Chhavi says, commenting on the current content on most Indian FM channels. And it is her confidence in podcast as a mass communication medium capable of becomming the new-age radio that has provided her with a major impetus to organise her upcoming ‘podcast workshop’.

“Podcast is a radio programme that’s available on demand, which means one can receive it anywhere on their phones, tablets or computers. All you need is internet. And you can listen to it wherever and whenever you want.”

When podcasts made their first appearance in the online world, Chhavi was working in the U.S. with several radio channels. “Initially, it was way more complicated — you had to have a specific device, attach cables to your computer, and so on. But now with smartphones and fast internet, things have become much more easier,” she points out, adding, “Now, you can download and keep it on your mobile devices and listen to it at your convenience.”

Apart from her ongoing relationship podcast titled Love, Sex & Dating or The LSD ‘Cast, Chhavi is soon going to start a new podcast titled Tall Tales Takeaway, which has been modelled on a popular American podcast titled The Moth, which will be a non-fiction genre-hopping storytelling platform with real people and real incidents she says.

An avid podcast listerner herself, Chhavi lists The Dinner Party Download, The Hidden Brain, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Limetown, The World and Salt as some of her current favourites.

Through the workshop, she wants to introduce more people to the “transporting” magic of podcasts. “You can be sitting in Mumbai and listening to a podcast from Rwanda or Ranchi and that’s the beauty of it,” she says. However, India is still yet to discover the full potential of the medium. “India is still small in numbers, but I think it could catch on, and it will. People need to understand that it is not as esoteric, or alien or frightening as it can sound. People are too used to video, and audio has always been a little out of reach, which it needn’t be,” she explains.

So how does one make good podcasts “To know more, one has to attend my workshop,” she quips.

Chhavi will conduct her workshop on July 23 and August 20. For registration, log onto: http://www.sonologue.com/or mail at: info @ sonologue.com.