Whilst I was trawling through all of the Colombia Calling podcast episodes researching for my interview with Joey Czikk (Ep309, Reflecting on former episodes), dating back to 2013, I found myself wondering about the most popular episodes and the people involved in each of them and how to best build on these strengths.
And, so I have taken a further look at the download numbers to reveal some of the all time favourites on Colombia Calling. Unfortunately, the statistics I have available only date back to mid- 2017, but all the same, one gets a feel for what is popular and what is not.
Here are the Top 4
1. Any interview with Adriaan Alsema of Colombia Reports draws in a huge crowd and since he has been on the show on several occasions, we’ll lump all of his efforts here. His appearance last year talking about, “Protests in Colombia,” remains popular and still draws in listeners. In fact, it may be the benchmark for a podcast interview based on the political unrest in 2019 in Colombia.
2. The Making of Democracy and the Colombian Middle Class, Episode 255 from 2018, A. Ricardo López-Pedreros traces the ways in which a thriving middle class was understood to be a foundational marker of democracy in Colombia during the second half of the twentieth century. You all clearly enjoy our interviews with academics, so I am pleased to have had Julia Zulver, Abbey Steele, Alex Fattal, Gwen Burnyeat, Rachel Schmidt, Oliver Kaplan , Rob Karl, Roxanne Krystali and other notables in their respective fields on the show. Go through the back catalogue and revisit some of these episodes.
3. Travel-related episodes continue to be of great interest to most of you as well, my conversations with Lonely Planet author Alex Egerton, in particular Ep220 in Feb 2018, Off the Beaten Path Travel in Colombia, is still a mover. And just look at how popular the shows with Gabriel Torres (Ep306) and Jeff Brown (Ep312) have been in just 2020 alone.
4. Anything to do with the FARC guerrillas. I know this sounds like a lazy title, but shows with photographers Malcolm Linton and Carlos Villalon about being embedded with the FARC cause a great amount of interest as do conversations with journalist Matthew Charles, talks with Rachel Schmidt about what is going on with the FARC right now….and many more seem to be something you all want to hear about. In fact my solo piece on Coffee with the FARC guerrillas from April 2017 is still receiving hits.
So, I have decided to create this poll for both my Patreon sponsors and those listeners out there who wish to be involved and consulted, to see how best to cater the podcast to your needs and preferences.
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