Here is a podcast from Dan McClellan today. Dan is actually hiking while podcasting, but his video is not shaky, unlike the Interpreter's podcast. Dan is using a $400 GoPro with a handheld stick: https://youtu.be/dWH1Cf9-Nco?list=TLPQM ... zKJA&t=338
The Interpreter should be ashamed.
The fact that McClellan has salient and well supported thoughts makes it pretty easy listening. He could be talking through a tin can and the substance of what he is saying would still capture attention.
The best interpreter can do is put people to sleep.
The problem with an Interpreter podcast that extends beyond its technical problems, lack of formatting, and lack of editing, is that it's straightforward tier 3 apologetics. Nobody wants that. There is no demand for it. Interpreter is like a self-appointed PR department for an authoritarian regime. Nobody is going to tune in to some Chinese podcaster who has taken it upon themselves to defend every last jot of CCP propaganda in an obvious and straightforward manner. "No! those are real living trees, they are not props with green spray paint! Anyone who says otherwise is plotting genocide against China!"
The only reason to do such a thing is to score points with the regime, not to gain viewers. There is lots of podcasting out there that strikes me as propaganda for China, but the stuff that gets lots of views is subtle. Interpreter doesn't understand subtlety.
And so the Afore's venture is doomed to be a failure. He's not going to listen to listen, I get that. Dan M. definitely has a political agenda to his podcasts. While there may be a niche demand there, what makes his podcasts good at a program level, is that you can learn something. I learned a ton of stuff just watching three or four. Like, hell, the valley of Gehenna as the refuse burning dump is actually incorrect. Wow, that's interesting. Why couldn't I have learned that from Interpreter? Don't they have scholars? Only a bunch of CGI books?
The Afore had a good idea years ago with the tier 1 apologetic program translating Arabic medical texts. That might not work for a podcast (although it probably would get more views than their current lineup) but it's a good example of creative content that somebody other than Dan P's immediate circle of friends and the handful of psyche patients from his blog would consume.
We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have. They get rid of some of the people who have been there for 25 years and they work great and then you throw them out and they're replaced by criminals.
That is painful. I honestly feel embarrassed for Interpreter the same way I used to feel embarrassed for those faithful who bore inappropriate testimonies on Fast Sunday back in my youth. Are the Mopologists so utterly disliked that they can't find anyone with a basic technical background to help them at least get the audio to a listenable level? It's absolutely ridiculous. Anybody on the planet, it doesn't matter how poor the country, could put up a self-made YouTube video that looks and sounds better than this. This is an organization funded by millions and millions in donations!
And the backgrounds! Don't even get me started here. The Scripture Central folks had blurred rooms that showed real bookshelves in the background and a place fit for study. One of the Interpreter guys has the camera facing a wall, and the other has a stock background with fake books. It makes it look like these guys are a couple of rubes who don't read or study or have any connection to their topic, just a couple of old friends recording a video call and then throwing it on YouTube.
I am puzzled by the stock background behind Mister Tanner. First, are the objects to his left and right supposed to be piles of books? They seem to be floating. Second, why did the podcast producer decide to place the name of the podcast in garish neon letters that would be at home in Las Vegas’s Neon Museum? Those letters are hard on the eyes. Plus, Mister Tanner’s head blocks part of the name during most of the segments that I watched.
The Interpreter radio program had production problems from the start, so I am not surprised that the production quality of the first Interpreter podcast was terrible.
Blast from the past: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=149730 (Doctor Scratch on the then-new Interpreter radio show).
“But if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong.” Heber C. Kimball, 8 Nov. 1857
This was posted by Peterson a few days prior to his admission that the podcast was embarrassingly bad.
After considerable discussion that began several months ago and grew more intense within recent weeks, we at the Interpreter Foundation have decided to move on from our long-running radio program and to turn, in its place, to a video and audio podcast. Our inaugural effort, in two parts, can be accessed through the following links. We appreciate constructive feedback, and we hope that you’ll find these both enjoyable and useful.
From this we can conclude one of two things: Either Peterson recommends Interpreter content to his readers that he doesn’t deem worthy of spending his own time checking out (he should really caveat his recommendations by informing his readers as to whether or not he has personally invested the time he is suggesting they invest). Or he has checked it out and thought it was okay until he saw this thread. My inclination is that it’s the former.
Given that this was a “premiere” of a newly formatted content stream for Interpreter, something he says that “they” talked through long and hard, it’s quite shocking that he didn’t personally review the content for quality prior to its release to public viewing. Really quite negligent.
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
Conclusion. Therefore, the best evidence for the Book of Mormon is notoriously unreliable.
Peterson recommends Interpreter content to his readers that he doesn’t deem worthy of spending his own time checking out
This is almost certainly the case. He’s too busy to eat the “dogfood” himself. It’s meant for the handful of less intelligent readers who will grab on to any low quality slop to buttress their faith.
Hell, they even have Kyler R. do a short summary of each article because even most of the readers can’t be bothered to sift through the garbage.
Interpreter's YouTube channel has ~8K subscribers. Scripture Central, on the other hand, has over 275K. They are absolutely blowing Interpreter out of the water--it is not even a competition. Scripture Central is totally crushing them. And didn't I just see the Afore plugging some piece by Matthew Roper? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Roper's main appointment with Scripture Central? So, he's basically "on loan" to Interpreter in an effort to help them out--sort of like tossing a life preserver to someone who's drowning?
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
Not completely related, but there aren’t many DCP threads in the front page to stick this in:
There’s a commenter on SeN that has been doing an absolutely stellar job of tactfully and stealthily making me literally laugh out loud every time I read their comments.
I don’t want to say too much for fear of DCP banning said commenter. But I want to acknowledge their efforts have not gone unnoticed!
Not completely related, but there aren’t many DCP threads in the front page to stick this in:
There’s a commenter on SeN that has been doing an absolutely stellar job of tactfully and stealthily making me literally laugh out loud every time I read their comments.
I don’t want to say too much for fear of DCP banning said commenter. But I want to acknowledge their efforts have not gone unnoticed!
I think I know which commenter you’re referring to. Said person would make a great guest on the Interpreter podcast, measurably improving the podcast’s entertainment value.
“But if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong.” Heber C. Kimball, 8 Nov. 1857
