The Flame

Looking around the indie audio sphere, you’ll mostly see creators making one show at a time. Kaitlin and Travis are unusual in - despite being such a small core team - regularly putting out multiple projects at once. This is reflected in their use of the Fool and Scholar brand as, essentially, a micro-network.  
        And, realising that they manage this while often travelling - I felt a duty to glean whatever pro scheduling tips I could from them. So if a multi-show model appeals to you, inspiration follows:

Kaitlin: “To write, I can do everything from my laptop.
       All of my designing - from my laptop. I recently started utilising my iPad more but, still, everything that I need for work can fit into a backpack. So, for me, it's pretty easy.
         Any extra space in that backpack is filled with any wires this guy needs…”

Travis: “I have a little travel kit. A super-cheap microphone stand. Half of it is just the weight of the base to make sure that the microphone doesn't fall over, half is the microphone stand itself. A pop filter. A Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 to interface with my laptop.
         And that's my entire rig to record full episodes anywhere I go - if I ever need it, if we're travelling and need something. I edit from aeroplanes with just a headset and keyboard and mouse.”

Kaitlin: “I've seen this man sit in a hotel room with a duvet over his head. So that he can get things done.”

Kaitlin: “I mean, we, we started off with - when we were still living in Florida - Travis had a little office space that he had set up. Then we moved to Portland, and we worked out of an incomplete basement. We lived in that basement and we worked in that basement.
         And when we finally had water again - he moved upstairs.”

Travis: “Yeah, I got an office.”

Kaitlin: “What was going to be an office - but, at that point in time, was a bathroom.
         And he worked in there.”

Eventually, we moved to the East Coast - we were kind of homeless for a while …and then we lived with my parents. So his recording space was actually my mother's sewing closet - filled with jackets and everything. Eventually - we moved to Germany, and Travis has an office again.
         But even for smaller trips, visiting his family - or when we were on a trip to Svalbard - we had some recording equipment with us. And it was amazing that we can then bring these very authentic sounds back with us.” 

Travis: “Yeah, a lot of field recording is the other side of it.” 

Travis: “I will clarify, I do zero of the mixing or mastering. And that is because I'm partly deaf. 
        Also, a mixing engineer's job is very complicated, requires a lot of knowledge of frequency and loudness - and I just don't have it. So I'm a simpleton that just works on making it sound good enough, and then the mix is created - with our direction - by somebody else.”

Zooming back into their best-known show - recently resurrected for a new arc - I took advantage of the fact they were sitting still for once to ask after their best and worst way-points on this journey.

Travis: “My high point was just the first episode being released - it was really well received, and that was such a surprise. We'd been doing podcasting for years but then we found a whole new audience… That first jump was for me the biggest surprise because I didn't think to dream that big.
        I thought we were having a hobby - and then, all of a sudden, that turned into the potential for a career - it's been very exciting.

We've done some amazing things. I was leaning off of an icebreaker less than a month ago with a shotgun mic as we were going through ice-fields off the coast of Svalbard. Capturing avalanches and other stuff, too. That was incredible, amazing stuff that I can only do because this is now somehow my job.”

Which must have been fairly trippy, given that you immortalised the landscape and then found yourself in it.

Kaitlin: “I never would have thought I’d have a creative career, because I didn't get to go to school for that.

And now... my father is my editor. He does the reading for everything, a fantastically smart man. He's a doctor and he was in the army. So when I have questions about terrible bone breakages in some distant place and how one would triage this, he knows all the answers.
         I think my parents really enjoy what I create. They're very supportive. And we get to take home - I know this sounds really… is it greedy or prideful? I don't know …but we get to take home awards, and have something on a shelf that - to us - says, you made something people enjoy.”

You should definitely celebrate awards. They’re meaningful.

Kaitlin: “I scare people all over the world!”

And on the other side - your low point and how you bounced back..?
         The idea being it's good for anyone thinking of going into scripted podcasts to know that it's not entirely rose gardens and kisses from puppies.

Kaitlin: “It’s definitely not those things.”

Travis: “We've worked with some partners, or contributors, or collaborators who are not our favourite people to work with. And navigating those experiences can be really stressful - very uncomfortable. Although we haven't had too many experiences like that.

When we work with somebody - if they turn out to be unethical - we usually burn all of their work and never let it see the light of day. We do that with potential sponsors, conventions, and networks, as well, who treat others poorly.”

Kaitlin: “More of a consistent low thing that happens is …you're always going to get a bunch of hate from the internet. 
         There's always going to be people who - if they don't like that there's a language other than English in a show - they're going to give it one star.
        There's always gonna be people who your content is not for. And there's always gonna be people who are just generally there to poke the bear - and you happen to be the bear.”

Travis: “...when you get 12 one-star reviews and the show hasn't come out yet…”

Well, look, I think that's all I need. Thanks, I really appreciate you taking time out to speak to me, especially considering what I know of your work schedule.

Kaitlin: “Oh, don't worry. We'll go right back to work after this.”