San Diegans Share Life-Changing Moments In Second Season Of 'My First Day' Podcast

It said that everyone has a story to tell and some San Diego residents told their stories on the podcast my first day. The first season featured stories about people's first encounters with San Diego and their feelings about the city. The my first day podcast has just started its second season and the focus has changed a bit. We'll still hear from Sandy Agins but they'll bring us into some of their life changing moments. My first day as a podcast produced through the PBS explore Project an initiative to bring original content from and about the San Diego community. And joining me is Andrew Brackin creator producer and host of my first day. Andrew welcome. Thanks for having me. Let me start out by asking you about the first season of my first day. What kind of response did you get from listeners. It was wonderful to hear from so many people. A lot of us have these sort of experiences a lot of people are not originally from San Diego and I think it triggered a lot. We've got a lot of great responses from people and I still continue to hear people when they hear a story and honestly not even just from San Diego but also from outside San Diego. So that was a pleasant surprise to get such feedback from people. Do you think there's something special about hearing people from your own city talk about their experiences. When I think of the origin of this it's almost what I like to think of is when you get to know your neighbors. And a lot of times we can live next door to somebody and you don't know anything of their backstory or you know where they came from. And just to kind of take some time sit down and just listen to people stories. It's been a great way to kind of connect to to the community and to people here. What kinds of production lessons did you learn in the first season. Well what are the lessons I learned. I may not be abiding by just because my interviews go long as it's not so much a question and answer it's really more about listening right. So I end up recording quite a bit more than than I use. I kind of refer to it sort of as a curated oral history in a sense where we kind of explore a lot of different territory around these sort of first day experiences. And then I have to go and Chisel Chisel Chisel to make it into kind of a coherent piece you know. So wondering podcasts are becoming more and more elaborately produced kind of level of production. Have you determined to be right for this podcast. To me it all comes back to the person's voice and that's what I most want to capture. I mean sometimes I do interviews in people's homes I do like them to feel comfortable and just to be in your own space I think is important. Of course sometimes you know we do it in the studio and you want it to be clear to be able to connect with them. But my main mission at least when I do interviews from a production standpoint is to just have people be comfortable and be able to speak and not be intimidated by the camera. I mean by the by the microphone rather you know sometimes I don't have a microphone and in front of your face can be a little intimidated and you can kind of feel like the spotlight is on but really just kind of letting it relax and discovering the story along the way. How did you go about deciding what the second season would focus on. One thing I learned from the first season was just how varied these people stories were and sometimes that maybe they had a story for their first day in San Diego. But really the turning point or the thing that connected them SanDiego happened a little bit later happened at a different point. So of the idea became to sort of widen the lens a little bit. It's still San Diego stories people that live here and a lot of maðr still those kind of you know how they came to San Diego. But just you know widening that lens a little bit to explore more stories along those lines. Tell us about the range of kind of life changing moments that this podcast will will talk about in the second season. I mean one thing from the you know even from the first season that's been really important to us is to find you know a wide range of a wide variety of voices. And this season we're kind of expanding that out to those first day experiences so we're talking about everything from the first day going to college particularly from student athletes perspective. Another about losing a loved one. Basically when he passed away I was like it shook me to the core. But he's changed my my relation to life. You know I was like OK. I I really want you to be happy. I really need to enjoy life. I'm like because I saw how quickly you can die. The first episode that launched last week is about Jane Vaja and her experience actually becoming ordained as a Roman Catholic Women Priests and her ordination ordination process with that. And so you're just fueling people come. And put their hands on your hand. Affirming. That they call you to this wrong. And all the responsibility. That goes with. So again it kind of runs the gamut in terms of experiences and types of people that are featured in this season. Andrew how do you go about finding the people whose stories you want on this podcast. We find people in a variety of ways. I mean one joke I have that's fairly serious as well as my wife just seems to know people from across all strata and from different experiences and those really interesting people. So she's a great resource. I think ultimately it's also just kind of pounding the pavement and just talking to people these sort of talking to your neighbors talking to your friends and learning things about people you may have known for years but didn't know their backstory. I think oftentimes we're just living our day to day lives and we don't take time to sort of look back and reflect on the experiences that made us who we are. I mean I I mean one thing I do love is when someone says to me Oh I don't have an interesting story so I don't know why you would talk to me. It's a very kind of common response. And that really excites me and gets me going because I feel oftentimes we don't value our own stories as much as we may. Something that we see in the media often and I think kind of taking time to tell our own stories is really valuable. Now the first episode came out last Wednesday. How long is this series. There are a total of 12 episodes in this season so they release every Wednesday through mid October. And how can people find the podcast my first day. You just fire up your podcast app whatever you use. My first day. Type it in there. You can also find through the website KPP Dorgan my first day. I've been speaking with creator producer and host of my first day Andrew Brackin. Andrew thank you.