One of my introductions to pop culture or geek culture podcasts was a primarily interview-based podcast called Geektitude. Readers might assume that means a person’s geek attitude, but it doesn’t. In fact, it refers to a person’s geek aptitude. Host Joe Hogan begins every episode by talking with guests about their geek expertise, what motivates them, and what listeners will enjoy about their projects. Joe was kind enough to stop by and answer some of our burning questions.
nK: Thanks for taking some time to chat. If you were going to elevator pitch your podcast, how would you describe it?
JH: Thanks for asking me to do this! Geektitude is a casual geek culture podcast dedicated to encouraging positivity in the geek community. We explore all different types of fandoms and geekery. We believe that no one can be an expert on every type of fandom, but every fandom is valid and people should be allowed and encouraged to like what they like.
nK: Is this your first podcast? If so, why this subject matter? If not, what other podcasts have you been involved with?
JH: Yes! Though I’ve started and ended several other podcasts since geektitude got underway. I started it in September of 2015! It’s kind of hard to believe it’s been 5 years since I began this adventure. I picked geek culture because at the time I didn’t have a lot of people to geek out about things with and I wanted a chance to talk about the stuff I was into. I also enjoyed learning about other fandoms, so it was exciting to think about talking to people who were geeks about things I wasn’t as familiar with.
I also saw a lot of negativity on the internet surrounding the geek community and I wanted to try and put out positive content that people could feel good about. That doesn’t mean that we don’t debate and criticize the stuff we geek out about, but we try to not attack other people for liking what they like.
nK: What’s the schedule for releasing episodes?
JH: Ideally we release weekly, but right now it tends to be “when we can.” Both my cohost Ray and I are extremely busy. Because we both work in education, we tend to fall behind in the last 3rd of the year. So there is often an unscheduled hiatus here or there, especially in the fall months.
nK: When I first started listening, you were flying solo, but now you have a guest. Tell me a little about your co-host.
JH: Ray’s awesome. I’m a teacher, and we actually met back in 2009 when he started substitute teaching at my school. I had an X-Men: Onslaught poster up in my room and he asked me about it. I think I said something like, “Onslaught was a horrible storyline, but I like the poster because it has the Scarlet Witch in it and you never see her on merch.” We’ve been good friends ever since. When he would sub for me I would usually have 2 piles on my desk. One had all the work for my students and the other had a bunch of comic books for Ray to read while the kids worked.
Originally, he would just come on the show when I was covering big geek movies. But there were so many times that I had a guest scheduled and they cancelled at the last minute, that I asked him if he’d become more full-time so I didn’t have to rely on guests for content. We don’t get to see each other much these days since we both have new jobs, so this gives us a chance to hang out.
nK: Couple of related questions: What would you tell a younger version of yourself before you got into podcasting?
JH: I think I would tell myself to get into podcasting a lot earlier than I did. It’s so much fun and I’ve met SO many awesome people because of it. I listened to podcasts for a long time before ever considering starting one. It didn’t really occur to me back then that I had anything to say that would contribute to this kind of public forum.
nK: What would you tell someone new to or interested in podcasting?
JH: Press the publish button. It’s so easy to get caught up in setting everything up just so. It’s a lot better to just jump in feet first. Don’t let yourself overthink it. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to other podcasters. Podcasters like to podcast, so you’d be surprised who is willing to be on your show if you just ask. And if you need someone to talk about geeky stuff, let me know! I’m always game.
nK: How do you decide what gets covered on the podcast? Is there a veto process or subjects that you simply would never cover?
JH: I think that has changed a bit over the years. I’ve always tried to keep the content current, so if there’s a big trend that people are excited about, I try and make sure we cover it. In the beginning, it was a combination of getting guests from podcasts I enjoyed listening to and covering stuff I was excited about. Occasionally someone will ask to be on the show to promote something they are working on and I think that’s only resulted in one or two people that I wouldn’t have back on my show. And usually only because they were a difficult person to interview.
As far as a veto process goes, I don’t think I’ve ever had a reason to say no to anyone. We of course would never invite people who are about spreading negativity or hate, but I don’t think they would want to be on our show anyway, so it has never been an issue.
Overall, it really is about getting people who are passionate about something and letting them geek out about it. Ray and I are firm believers that anything can be geeky if you are into it enough so that leaves us a lot of room for all sorts of subjects.
nK: Tell me about the Geek to Geek Media Network. How did you come to get involved with that?
JH: Well, I first heard about the Geek to Geek podcast back when I was looking for new podcasts to listen to. I sent out a tweet asking people what podcasts I should be listening to. I think it was almost 8 months later when I randomly got a message from Beej saying, “We think our podcast is pretty neat.” I listened to the show, thought Void and Beej were awesome, and had them on my show shortly after. I think that was around summer of 2016. They had just added The Comic Box with Rob and Void and Beej each had a solo show at the time, so the 4 shows made up the Geek to Geek Network.
A few months later they asked me to join. My understanding is the conversation went something like: “We need an interview show… kinda like Joe’s. We should really have an interview show like geektitude on the network. We should find a podcast like geektitude where people get interviewed about geeky stuff.” Finally one of them said, “Why don’t we just ask Joe to be part of the network?” I was exceedingly flattered that they wanted me on the team so couldn’t say yes fast enough.
Since then, the Network has really expanded. I think we’re up to 10 podcasts, we have 3 twitch streamers and a small army of bloggers. Everyone is very positive and I think we all are in it to create positive spaces for our community. We’ve all worked very hard to build up a community that people want to be part of and where they can feel safe being themselves.
nK: Do you have a favorite episode or at least type of episode?
JH: I’m a little embarrassed to say that my favorite episode is actually one of our least positive episodes. I really disliked the movie X-Men: Dark Phoenix and so episode 145 is basically a 90 minute rant about how much Ray and I dislike that movie. But it was very cathartic to get out all that pent-up frustration. And we always try to explain why we like or dislike something and not just praise it or pan it. So, I think we worked really hard to argue our points in a fair and even manner. It’s the only episode I’ve listened to multiple times.
In general, I think I love our movie reviews the most. I have a theatre/English background and Ray has an art/film background so those episodes really play to our strengths. Those episodes tend to be our best content. Before the pandemic, we were really in the golden age of geek cinema and it provided us with a LOT of things to analyse and talk about. Plus, we love trying to guess what’s going to happen next in each franchise.
nK: Where can our readers find your podcast?
JH: We’re in all the usual places: Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Google Play. etc. But you can also find us at geektitude.com and you can find us and all the other Geek to Geek Media content at geektogeekmedia.com.