Stop Podcasting Yourself creators argue that there's artistry in podcasting

Dave Shumka and Graham Clark are the creators behind one of the most popular podcasts in Vancouver. Stop Podcasting Yourself is in its ninth year with over 400 episodes, but a lot has changed since the duo began podcasting.

"We remain the absolute cliché of what podcasters are: two white guys in a basement talking into whatever microphones they could find," says Shumka. The biggest change he has noticed since starting back in 2008 is that there is artistry in the podcasting of today. "There are people using their technical skills to tell stories and it's not just a bunch of buddies sitting on a couch," admits Shumka. Clark explains that when the pair started there was only a handful of popular comedy podcasts and now there are thousands.

On starting the podcast, Shumka jokes, "I know a lot of funny people and none of them are famous." This made it easy for him to convince his friends to do the show. Shumka says they were already hanging out and cracking jokes backstage at comedy clubs, so it made sense to turn this into a podcast. "Comedians are really funny off stage, sometimes funnier than even when they are onstage," Clark explains and the podcast was a nice way to capture that.

Shumka and Clark will be appearing at JFL NorthWest happening this February in Vancouver. You can find more details on their JFL performance here.

You can listen to their podcast here.