Episode one was originally posted in February 2022.
My brain was still heavily influenced by Covid at this time and writing, reading and editing this episode was more challenging than I’d like to admit.
If you’re unfamiliar with my story, you can read about on this guest post I did for David Farrier’s Webworm.
I’d been taking sitcom writing night courses prior to making this series and had reported back to my neurologist that all the writing projects seemed to helping my brain recover.
She encouraged me to find other outlets to push myself and when I found out Radio New Zealand weren’t following the entirety of the Kākāpō breeding season like they’d done previously, the Kākāpōd was born.
I found RNZ’s 'Kākāpō Files’ addictive listening in 2019. A podcast that attached me to New Zealand while I was living in London on the other side of the world.
I wondered how many others treated shows like this as an anchor to their homeland and felt duty bound to make sure it continued.
My friends in Cricket Farm provided the music, while Kate Harrison helped with the production side of things.
Given how difficult I was still finding cognition at the time, there was a lot that went right in terms of keeping me engaged. The episodes were short, the structure was weekly and I challenged myself to write the most paper thin jokes I could.
If only I hadn’t butchered the pronounciation quite so badly in week 1.
*criiiiiinnnnnge*
It does improve, I promise.
One thing that doesn’t change is what I’ve come to call my ‘sleepy bobo’ voice.
I recorded the first episode at work and was trying to keep my voice down.. I then had to use that same voice for the rest of the season and later learned people used it very effectively to go sleep.
On some level that’s a compliment.
EP 01: Sex & Pipettes