Hello, readers, listeners and fans. With the arrival of spring, I feel a new energy to complete all the projects I’ve been working on, with little progress for … well, I’m embarrassed to say how long. But the good news is: I have some new help in producing Beyond Barbarossa, the first English-language podcast in the world to focus on the full story of the Eastern Front of World War 2.

The good news

After months of work and training, Daisy the Danger Doodle—whose presence in the Red Beard Studio (where I record every episode) is indispensable—has learned to edit those unfortunate pops, clicks and sighs I inadvertently make in my podcast.

It’s her extraordinarily sensitive ears that make this work. Daisy can hear the sound of a treat bag opening from hundreds of metres away, and together, we’ve turned that ability into something useful. 

With Daisy taking care of that editing process, I can move on to researching the next episode. It’s a great weight off my shoulders. Producing each episode is extremely time-consuming. I have to do the research, which entails a lot of seeking sources, reading and parsing what’s credible and what’s propaganda. 

Then, I write the script, review it, rehearse it, and then record it.

Then comes editing the audio: listening to the recording, noting all the hesitations, the stumbles, removing the sections where I have to go back and repeat carefully the passage where I mispronounced something or completely muffed a word or phrase. 

I also listen for those annoying audible breaths, sighs and clicks, the coughs and the pops that I unconsciously utter as I record.

Please, readers and listeners, join me in thanking Daisy and giving her lots of praise for learning a new trick. I’ve set up a “buy me a coffee” page where you can buy Daisy a liver treat. Don’t worry about the suggest amounts—you can give as little as $1.

Happy April 1, everyone!