Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Odle.
Hi Mike, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Irritable Dad Syndrome started, quite simply, as just two dads trying to pass the time telling each other stories. Darin’s son Cameron and my son Andrew had been friends for a while and were in the Boy Scouts together. Any parent who has a kid in scouts knows that there’s a whole lot of time for the parents to sit around and stare at their phones, stare at each other, and sometimes talk. We would crack each other up throughout the meetings – and never seemed to run out of things to talk about.
We began to notice that many of our conversations began to sound a lot like some of my favorite podcasts that were more conversational in nature. I pitched the idea to Darin, he was interested, and that’s pretty much how we started – back at the end of the Summer in 2020.
Darin asked his friend Dave Lay to be our announcer early on to give the show a bit more class. Dave has been with us since the beginning and has become an integral part of the show.
Since then, we’ve learned tons about how to put a show together, edit effectively, add production value, keep a story going, and – most importantly – have fun doing it. Darin and I have enough in common to be able to carry a conversation on just about any topic, and we’re opinionated (and stubborn) enough to keep things interesting when we don’t agree.
Irritable Dad Syndrome, despite what the name implies, is really about finding humor in everyday life. It’s about taking the mundane things that we all have to go through and injecting them with a bit of fun. We want people to listen while they’re going about their routines and crack up along the way.
We’re in a our fourth season now – and each episode keeps us excited to come back and record the next one. We’re excited for what the future holds for the show.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Both Darin and I went through job changes at different times of the podcast. In both of these situations, our personal lives required quite a bit more attention which could have taken away from the show. We had decided early on that we would always give people an episode each week, and we meant to stick by that regardless of what was going on. Had we not been using rundowns and general planning when those changes hit – it’s possible the show could have been negatively affected.
We both also ended up getting COVID at different times – forcing us to record remotely. Recording a podcast remotely shouldn’t be considered much of a challenge as most podcasts are done that way. For the feel and rhythm of our show, however, both of us being in the home studio adds to being able to react quickly and naturally to how things are moving in the episode. Quite a bit of the personality of our show is how we riff off one another and play off each other’s stories. Adding in the delay and general disconnectedness of remote recording into that mix can be detrimental. We made it through those episodes – but when I listen back to them, I can tell they’re a bit off compared to our normal shows.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Both Darin and I have “day jobs” – Darin is a promo producer for Antenna TV, and I work in the manufacturing industry. Our jobs are practically polar opposites of one another in that his is a primarily creative job whereas mine is based around data, trends, and facts. We both use the podcast as our creative outlet for comedy as well as a lens to look at everyday life with a positive twist.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
The biggest lesson we learned from COVID was to have a plan. Wherever you land on what needs to be done or not done with regards to masks, vaccines, etc. – you should have a plan for how you’re going to manage your life and your happiness when going through something like that. In our case, we both made sure to use masks when appropriate as well as social distance as needed (our studio, up until very recently, had our respective desks approximately ten feet apart).
We knew it was important for us to, as much as possible, be in the same room when we were doing the show. We also wanted to protect our families as much as possible. In our case, it made sense to keep up to date on the latest updates of the crisis as well as protect ourselves and our families as necessary while keeping the show going.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.irritabledadsyndrome.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irritabledadsyndrome/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IrritableDadSyndrome/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DadIrritable
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@irritabledadsyndrome/featured
