Podcast Recommendation

I've been meaning to write this post for quite a long time, and it just never materialized. But I wanted to talk about a podcast I discovered. I had never understood podcasts before. It seemed to be completely odd and random, and I couldn't figure out people's obsessions with podcasting. Then my husband got me an iPod for Chanukah. I never wanted an iPod. I thought it silly and frivolous. I now can't figure out how I ever lived without one, even though I still use it far less than most iPod owners.

Around the same time, I got a comment in my blog from Malky B. Malky and her husband Aaron have a podcast called "The Second Time Around." Amazingly enough, the podcast is largely about secondary infertility, but also of course talks about and is relevant to primary infertility issues. Malky once told me she wasn't sure how I "put myself out there" in a blog, whereas, I'm in awe of her ability to talk frankly in a podcast. "The Second Time Around" was the first podcast I'd ever listened to, but I now have several queued up to listen to.

Malky and I started an email exchange almost immediately after she left her first comment in my blog and she is delightfully articulate about her experiences with both primary and secondary infertility. Her story isn't for me to share (inasmuch as I haven't asked her permission to do so), but you can hear snippets of her story in various episodes of the podcast. Aaron, too, is delightfully articulate and forthcoming about his feelings on both primary and secondary infertility. Shortly after I started corresponding with Malky via email, she asked if I would like to be a guest on the show. I balked at the idea. I haven't anything original to contribute to the world of infertility. My story is much like anyone elses: I want a baby, I haven't been able to have one, therefore I subject myself to all the evils of fertility treatment in my quest. But Malky was persuasive and we found a time that we were all free to record an interview for use on the podcast.

The night of the interview came and I was so unbelievably sick that I'd been out of work for several days and continued to be out for several more after that. Still, putting it off wasn't going to do anyone any good, so we went forward with the interview. Listening to the episode I realize that I sound a lot better than I felt, and I don't sound great. I also said "um" far too often, and it was partly because I was having trouble breathing and partly because I'm really not terribly articulate in the first place.

At any rate, regardless of my own interview on the podcast, I would encourage everyone to consider downloading a couple of episodes and listening to them. Aaron and Malky are a lot of fun and are doing a terrific job of talking through many of the issues that we infertiles struggle with.

For more information you can visit their blog at: http://benedictfamily.org
My interview is on Episode 13: http://www.benedictfamily.org/?p=175 (note that the beginning part of the episode seems to have a bit of a synching issue where there's a lag between aaron and malky's mics, but the problem clears up in the second half of the episode)

At any rate, I hope some of you listen to the podcast. I think SaraS-P does already. I particularly recommend the episodes on coping with pregnancy loss (Episode 4 and Episode 5).