Posted by Chris Gondek, Producer/Host of the Yale Press Podcast

Apart from being the first episode of the show, this show had a lot of personal firsts for me as well. Those of you who have heard me on my show, The Invisible Hand Podcast, know that my skills as an audio engineer are mixed. This was the first time I recorded a podcast in a professional studio, and I must say, it is an experience that I could get used to. Having an actual engineer on hand to worry about sound levels, or, on an even more primal level, whether the recorder is turned on, which is a recurring nightmare I have when I do my own show, was sweet relief.

Another first was that this was my first multi-guest show, both in terms of multiple segments, and within a segment, with the Brunetti/Hignite discussion being my first group discussion. I think both turned out well, although not captured in either the show or Ivan Brunetti’s extended interview was an engineering hiccup that caused both Ivan and me to hear very tinny piano music being piped in from another studio. I thought for sure that Schroeder from Peanuts was bugging the line. Ah, the things you can fix in post production!

All the guests were great. In retrospect, I wonder if I should have followed up Adrian Goldsworthy’s admission that it was Hollywood epics that introduced him to the classical world to ask whether Rex Harrison really captured the essence of Julius Caesar in the Taylor/Burton version of “Cleopatra”. (I think I already know the answer to that question) I also should have followed up with Fred Shapiro to find out exactly what quotation of his got tossed out of the book.

I hope you like the show and I am thankful that Yale University Press is letting me do it. See you in 2007.