HW#15 How I turned a no into a yes for a podcast interview

When I heard about the Geeky Dads talk about Geeky Things podcast, my immediate reaction was the same as Hulk when he considered taking up the Infinity Gauntlet.

“It's like I was made for this.”

I pitched the host about doing a Star Wars themed episode. I’ve been a Star Wars geek since I was six-years-old. He wrote me back and said he already had a Star Wars episode planned with a Christy Award finalist author.

I understood, but I was crushed.

A few days later, he emailed me back and asked if I would be interested in a doing an episode on our Five Favorite Candy Bars.

Candy bars? Really? What’s geeky about candy bars?

Initially, I was going to decline, but I then I decided at the very least, this would give me a chance to practice. So I said yes. I prepared for the interview like a final exam. I not only knew my five candy bars, I knew their origin story, how they got their name and some weird fact about them.

I did the interview, and it went great. The host and I had a great time. (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-7-top-5-candy-bars-w-ted-atchley/id1625017438?i=1000574725850)

Fast forward a couple of months and I get an email from the host asking me if I was watching the Obi-Wan Disney plus series.

It’s Star Wars. Of course, I was.

He asked if I wanted to come back and talk about Obi-wan. It was the fastest YES email I’ve ever written. (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-3-the-star-wars-kenobi-discussion-with-ted-atchley/id1625017438?i=1000568822273)

That led to me coming back on to talk about Andor (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-24-the-andor-discussion-with-ted-atchley/id1625017438?i=1000587846443), The Bad Batch (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-34-talking-bad-batch-with-ted-atchley/id1625017438?i=1000607713698), and The Mandalorian (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-37-discussing-the-mandalorian-season-3-with-ted-atchley/id1625017438?i=1000610640090). I was on the podcast five times, including the candy bar episode. I would have been on more times, but the podcast shut down.

All because I said yes to a topic I wasn’t initially all the excited about.