The Velvet Hammer Podcast Version 2.0 with Mo Hamoudi

The Velvet Hammer Podcast (TM) was becoming not exactly a chore. And not exactly a bore. But it was destined to either dry up and wither away slowly. Or it needed a major redo.

I loved doing it that first year with Andrew, my kids, and other guests. But then covid intervened. Mike bought me a mic for my phone. And it became a solo adventure from then forth. Still as my kids will attest - I have no problem talking all the time. And it did still interest me. Until it didn’t.

Well thanks to the other members of the team including Kassie, Mo and Mike, the podcast has been reborn. And oh - it is so exciting to watch this baby grow. We started the adventure two months ago when I asked if we could turn VH into a video/podcast. And not just by pointing a camera and turning it on. But a professional looking podcast shot at different angles. From there Kassie and then Mike researched how to do that. Turns out we needed lighting and multiple cameras.

Next I recruited Mo who came to this office exactly one year ago. We click so well. And I thought this would be super fun to do it with him. We could riff off each other I said. Sold he said.

The podcast was set in my office. Julia came to take photos. We had no idea how much gear we would need. Turns out a lot. Then there was the prospect of Mike having to take it all down and put it all up each time. That would have been too burdensome.

So Mike Kassie and I walked around the building to the lesser used areas. First, we looked at our ping pong table game room that no one ever uses. That could work we thought. 20’ tall ceilings. We wondered about the acoustics. Plus maybe one day people would want to play ping pong or throw darts. Next we went to the observation room behind the secret (obvious) two way mirror from which we used to watch focus groups occurring in the adjoining conference room. No one used it anymore since observers now just watch via zoom. This is it, we decided. It was filled with stacks of chairs, Sally the skeleton, and many other things. Mike cleared it. Then Gustavo painted the back wall a dusky gray blue.

Over the weekend, Lauris and I hauled furniture down there and hung pictures. We decorated it with two stately chairs from our Hoquiam office that no one wanted, the coffee table from my office, Chinese porcelain from my airbnb which is about to be turned back into a rental apartment, and other cozy stuff. Then hauled all the camera/lighting/audio gear downstairs. So Mike just had to plug everything back in.

By this time, Mo and I had pre-recorded 8 episodes. Mike had figured out how to edit everything. Kassie had figured out youtube in association with the podcast sites and designed new artwork that matched the new designated room.

The video podcast goes live starting Feb. 4 with new episodes released every Wednesday. I am so grateful to Kassie and Mike for making this dream become a reality. And to Mo for being so much fun to talk with.

Photo: By Kassie of Julia taking our picture. The original two episodes were shot upstairs in this (my) office before we went down to the blue room.