Reflections: Pod-estrian Pursuits

Introducing: DETOURS, a podcast by Country Roads magazine

It's been years in the making, but our magazine is finally going to the airwaves

James Fox-Smith

The podcast app on my phone looks like a Rorschach test for disorderly minds. Among the thirty-odd podcasts to which I am subscribed are: an economics program delivered by a voluble Scotsman; a British satirical comedy series; an astronomy podcast recorded in a beauty salon; a show named Fall of Civilizations in which a sonorous historian drones on about Assyrians, the Inca, and whoever left the huge statues at Easter Island; a program in which a physicist and a comedian quiz famous people about the laws of the universe; a sociology podcast that explores how people relate with one another; and a show for people obsessed with eating things that they find in the woods. There are series devoted to philosophy, current affairs, revolutions, professional cycling, conspiracy theories, furniture caning, the climate crisis, Arthurian literature, the rise of artificial intelligence, and a dozen other topics about which I am variously curious, enchanted, alarmed, suspicious, or confused. While listening I’ve absorbed enough information about superconductivity, catfish, Bauhaus architecture, composting, how our beliefs shape reality, St. Augustine’s Confessions, the correct way to cook a woodcock, and what it would take for Louisiana to go carbon-neutral, to be annoying in polite conversation.

Considering this collection, a thought ful observer would probably conclude (a) that the subscriber is an English major with too much time on his hands, and (b) that these days, just about everybody is doing a podcast. On both points the observer would be correct because be ginning this month there’ll be yet anoth er podcast added to this esoteric cast of thousands when Country Roads’ Detours podcast finally becomes available.

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot pictured interviewing Michael Papajohn for an episode of Detours in the EBRPL Recording Studio. Look close and spot co-hosts James Fox-Smith and Alexandra Kennon in the reflection.

James Fox-Smith

For readers, writers, and storytellers, the medium is irresistible. So, given that Country Roads’ editorial department is run by people accurately described by all three labels, the obvious question is “What took you so long?” Well, we have been talking about doing a podcast since 2017, when former editor Chris Turner-Neal made an impassioned case for doing so, right before leaving to take the job of managing editor of 64 Parishes (We hold no grudges. Chris remains a cherished contributor; you’ll find pieces by him on pages 58 and 66 of this issue). The project then sat on the backburner for years, making us feel bad as the medium of podcasting grew from a quirky, niche activity into a mainstream media powerhouse, and while the magazine and its three editors carried on not-getting-any-younger. Finally, last year, while discussing how we would mark Country Roads’ fortieth anniversary, we could ignore it no longer. The time for podcasting was nigh. But how? Sure, we had experience researching and writing down the stories all around us. But could we talk about them? And more importantly, would anyone want to listen? Only one way to find out.

We began by doing what people who don’t know how to do things have always done: we went the library. There on the third floor of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s River Center Branch is a state-of-the-art recording studio specifically designed for recording music and, yes, podcasts. All you need to use it is a library card, and a whole lot of help from the library’s patient staff to figure out what all the knobs and dials do. Once given the keys to this high-tech kingdom, during January and February we spent a lot of time turning those knobs, while sitting across from our favorite story subjects from recent issues, attempting to capture their stories in a new medium. It’s been a thrilling, occasionally overwhelming, learning experience. But now, when we consider how Country Roads will tell a story, we’re thinking about it in a whole new dimension. The opportunity to deliver it in spoken form, complete with the voices, the accents, the music, and the background sounds that are part of every story ever told—well, we think the possibilities are endless.

Actually, there is one shared characteristic that unifies the motley collection of shows populating my podcast app: all are presented by people absolutely passionate about their area of interest. So passionate that they, like us, could not resist the allure of a free, fast-growing medium offering the promise of conversations with an audience of like-minded enthusiasts. So, dear reader, if you love stories about the endlessly evolving cultures of Louisiana and Mississippi and the way Country Roads tells them, I hope you’ll give Detours a try. By the time you read this, we’ll be putting the final touches on our first season, which will be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and our website on April 18 (so long as we pushed the right button). Happy listening.