Gears and Grades: The Student Driven Podcast, Retrospective.
If you're looking to start a podcast and want to learn from a former-podcaster's mistakes, then you may want to give this a read.
Gears and Grades: The Student-Driven Podcast was a product of the podcasting renascence of the 2020s. What started with two guys chatting about automobile news and hot takes, ended in a comedy of scheduling and personal errors.
Podcasting and 2020:
As someone going through journalism school during the 2020s, I noticed the proliferation of the podcasting medium. To the listener, the podcast was a means of comfort and a way to consume whatever subject matter appealed to them. To the creator, their podcast is a fun way to research and discuss a topic quasi-authoritatively. However, the 2020s also introduced the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation.
Without pointing fingers, 2020 became the year of fearmongering, misinformation and disinformation. People were on edge due to the pandemic, and society was amid a long-overdue social and societal awakening. 2020 was when North American society reached a crisis point, and people wanted answers. In a vacuum of a mass societal crisis, people find comfort in information — and in the context of 2020, sources of information weren’t always accurate.
Idealistically, podcasting served as a reliable, less news-y source of infotainment to keep people grounded during those uncertain times. Unfortunately, it almost didn’t matter if the information was factually correct. Podcasting has the luxury of not being associated with journalism unless otherwise associated with verified news outlets. Better still, people had to be wary of the content they were consuming, as reputable and reliable information only came from a select few sources without political bias — Reuters, Associated Press and the World Health Organization.
What does all that have anything to do with my automotive-themed podcast? The story doesn’t start in 2020. It actually started in late 2019 during my first year of journalism school, in my first-ever j-school class — “Introduction to Journalism.”
To a class of about 15, I introduced myself as an automotive enthusiast, and rather embarrassingly, emphatically read Jeremy Clarkson’s thoughts on the Renault Espace to the class as my favourite journalistic quote, from my favourite journalist.
“This is a Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that's much to shout about. That's like saying 'Oh good, I've got syphilis, the best of the sexually transmitted diseases!” — Jeremy Clarkson
Not one of my brightest moments — I admit — especially because nobody found it funny, except for one person. At the end of class, he quietly introduced himself as Ben Bell an automotive enthusiast from London, Ontario, who also liked Clarkson’s work. Bell and I became fast friends, and throughout late 2019 and into 2020. During that time, we toyed with the idea of starting a podcast. Finally, in November 2020, we created Gears and Grades: The Student-Driven Podcast.
Bell and I wanted the name of our podcast to reflect our status as students while also indicating its automotive theme. We considered two options: “Gears and Grades,” suggested by Bell, and “The Student-Driven Podcast,” which I proposed. Neither one of us disliked the other’s name suggestion so we used both.
Gears and Grades: The Student-Driven Podcast, Episode 1: Our Future Cars?
The podcast’s first episode, which premiered on YouTube, wasn’t the first episode we ever recorded. Bell and I sounded rehearsed because, in a way, we were. Throughout late October, and early November 2020, Bell and I attempted to record the first episode from his basement apartment. I borrowed a directional stage microphone, while he went all-out and purchased a podcasting mic.
These recording sessions, however, were fraught with technical difficulties — incorrect mic levels, scripting errors and scheduling errors. The cherry on top was realizing that my directional mic only recorded in mono. If I recall correctly, we only managed to get one episode recorded from his house, but the audio was unsalvageable. To my recollection, we unsuccessfully attempted to record the podcast’s first episode within three to four sessions, each lasting upwards of six to seven hours.
Perfectionism got in the way of productivity, which meant that the early recording sessions were primarily spent trying to nail down our flow. At the time, I hadn’t had much exposure to podcasts, so I was under the belief that podcasts had to be recorded in one long take, and not to be edited down. I also failed to recognize that successful podcasts’ episodes rarely exceeded one hour — our first episode, both rehearsed and posted to YouTube was three.
The first episode was a bit of a mess, seeing as the plan we’d originally had for it changed numerous times. Our multiple failed attempts at recording the podcast’s first episode at Bell’s apartment made us pedantic — questioning the contents of each segment and changing subjects ad nauseam. Tied with the constant technical difficulties, the podcast’s first episode’s content became the product of trial and error, exhaustion and apathy masquerading as determination.
To understand our headspace, here’s a summary of the first episode. We completely forgot to introduce ourselves and instead discussed Bell’s accident with his Mazdaspeed 3, reviewed Bell’s rental car, debated Freaktune’s philosophy of pushing borderline unreliable power out of the Ford C1 platform, and then finally delved into the episode’s namesake topic, ‘our future cars.’ Buring the lead aside, and botching the introductions, the episode made for an interesting introduction to the podcast. However, after its release, we found ourselves in a bit of a slump.
In the early stages of podcasting, the last thing two newfangled podcasters should do is seek instant gratification. Podcasting, even when done right, takes time to foster an audience — especially one that’s willing to stay and listen to three hours of automotive conversation. With all the perfectionism, I noticed a shift in Bell’s attitude towards podcasting, becoming less passionate and more passe. Nevertheless, we pushed through without addressing the increasingly evident, elephant in the room.
Episode 4 - GUEST EPISODE! Bodacious BMWs, Radical Raptors, Nifty Nissans!
Around the time of taping “Episode 4 - GUEST EPISODE! Bodacious BMWs, Radical Raptors, Nifty Nissans!” I spent more time on the podcast. Most of my free time went towards editing videos, managing the podcast’s social media pages — including the YouTube channel — and researching and rehearsing my segments. Admittedly, my approach was borderline excessive. That notwithstanding, however, the early in-person recording sessions revealed weaknesses in my hosting skills that only I believed overshadowed Bell’s effortless hosting style. Nevertheless, this was a personal insecurity; one that was only amplified when Bell proved himself more knowledgeable than I was.
Bell’s contribution to the podcast was his extensive knowledge of the automotive market, the tuning scene, and some of the more underground/nuanced elements of automotive enthusiasm. Bell also had a lot of natural charisma. For a seemingly novice podcaster, he had great presenting chops. Because I spent most of my time running the back end of the podcast, Bell had a lot of time to plan for the content within each episode which meant he had ample time to prep for his segments, where I’d only have a fraction of the time.
"You can't be an old man and have that car. I think the, I think the traditional Corvette man won't be able to fit in that car, if you know what I mean, the... the jorts wearing, wife-beater..." — Jeremy Honess
“Episode 4 - GUEST EPISODE! Bodacious BMWs, Radical Raptors, Nifty Nissans!” was a product of my connections and one of my proudest achievements in the podcast’s history. The guest, Lucas, was an old friend who, by chance, was also an automotive enthusiast. I reconnected with him in late 2019, and over the next few months, we caught up and shared some fascinating experiences in the underground car scene. During that time, I’d asked Lucas if he’d be interested in being a guest on our podcast, he agreed, as long as there’d be some degree of anonymity attached to his likeness.
Lucas went on to tell stories of takeovers — an infamous type of car meet where attendees do some form of stunt driving on public streets or parking lots. Lucas was part of a community of car people who were a little less than couth, but the stories he could tell about them and the activities they took part in made for great content.
This is a clip from “Episode 4 - GUEST EPISODE! Bodacious BMWs, Radical Raptors, Nifty Nissans!” where Lucas talks about his experience with the infamous H20i 2023 car meet in Wasaga Beach, Ontario — more specifically, how he was a part of the areal video taken from a helicopter that made Canadian news for weeks.
This clip was edited using OpusClip Ai.
I was surprised by how much detail he was willing to share about his experience at H20i 2023. At the time, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) issued a new non-tolerance policy surrounding “Illegal Car Rallies,” introducing increased fines for those partaking in these uncouth events. Remember, at the time, we were actively enrolled in journalism school. This would have been considered a massive scoop. Lucas was a part of something that fundamentally changed the way the OPP policed these types of events. Not only that, H20i is an event masked in some secrecy, their social media pages are private and are invite-only. It’s hard to get information about these meets/rallies ahead of time unless you’re in the know.
Lucas provided a unique perspective on the infamous Wasaga Beach car rally because he was an attendee who, to my knowledge, didn’t get fined for his actions. Though I disagree with the actions of everyone who attended H20i, I felt as if this was a fair and accurate representation of what took place. Lucas damn-near turned our pokey little podcast into a Canadian version of VinWiki Car Stories.
Episode 4 set, what I believed to be, the gold standard for Gears and Grades: The Student-Driven Podcast episodes moving forward. Lucas told great stories, the media he shared provided much-needed depth, and Bell appeared to share engaging and meaningful repartee that contributed to the episode’s content by leaps and bounds. While this episode could be considered Honess-centric due to the Lucas connection, Bell’s contributions added the essential perspective of a seasoned car owner — a perspective Lucas and Bell shared.
Leading up to this episode, Bell and I found a functional middle ground where our collective automotive knowledge made for half-decent informative content, but it wasn’t necessarily effortless. Bell’s extensive knowledge of automotive news and car ownership was something I could’ve only aspired to have. At the time, I lacked the practical experience tied to automobile ownership that Lucas and Bell had, which made it difficult for me to relate to them.
Like how Michael McDonald felt about leading The Doobie Brothers after Tom Johnston left, imposter syndrome silently enveloped me, and much like McDonald, I realized that I was overcompensating in areas that likely wouldn’t get a lot of recognition, but would mean a lot to me. To Bell’s credit, he did a lot of heavy lifting, he’d always be quick to help me out of a segment should there have been any issues and frequently played the role of the road tester. That said, there was an unspoken imbalance between us — one that would ultimately end the podcast for good.
Episode 5 - The Battle of the Compact SUV Pt. 1
Rather poetically, the fifth and final episode — which was supposed to be a two-parter is Bell’s episode. This episode’s lead was that Bell had driven the then-new Toyota Corolla hatchback and thus provided some of his thoughts. Bell then discussed the reliability of the Mazda 3 — citing his mom’s Mazda 3’s clean bill of health by their mechanic as proof — then pivoted swiftly to Bell’s list of compact SUVs. However, things were different in this episode.
To provide further context, Bell moved back to London during the lockdowns and made it so that he could continue his post-secondary education from his childhood home. Upon doing so, Bell became a little less communicative with me.
Again, Bell and I were in our first year of college, which meant neither of us could afford to spend hours on a podcast without it affecting our marks. If our videos were three hours long, we were likely working for at least four to five hours. Between classes, school work, work and the podcast there wasn’t much time to sleep.
I remember one of our first scheduled in-person recording sessions taking place one particularly cold and snowy late afternoon. Unfortunately for me, I found out the hard way that Bell had insomnia. Yes, I stood outside the door of his basement apartment, knocking and calling him for about 20 minutes.
With that distant memory in mind, Bell suggested we pause production of the podcast until there was enough free time to justify producing another episode. Shortly after that conversation, Bell ceased all communications with me, thus temporarily ending the podcast.
To save the brand’s internet presence, I edited down some of our videos to make compilation videos, namely the two-volume “Tesla Rants” series. Both volumes were popular by my standards and garnered some positive community engagement. I remember spending quite a bit of time editing those videos and making myself audibly laugh with some of the visual gags I included. However, this wouldn’t be enough to keep the channel afloat.
"I don't—I don't see how that was something like, who’s owning a Tesla [and] is complaining about how much time they lose out of their day using the shifter? Who complains about this sh*t? Like, I swear to God, is it—is it a Karen? Is it a Karen who's complaining?" — Ben Bell
Lockdowns killed the podcast. There’s no need to bury the lead any further. I’ll be the first to admit that I had some doubts as to the podcast’s longevity post-lockdown. Bell had all but disappeared, leaving me to choose whether or not to continue the podcast without him or leave it as a relic and reminder of what life was like as a first-year college student.
I considered altering the podcast to suit a new co-host, beginning a new era of the podcast that catered to a broader audience but decided against it. Gears and Grades: The Student-Driven Podcast worked because the dynamic between Bell and I, two car guy friends, was the lightning in the bottle. However, because we were relatively new friends, we let things slip.
Unless you’re Rhett and Link from Good Mythical Morning, new friends shouldn't do business with one another, as it’s a risk. From my perspective, I was taking the logically pragmatic approach to managing and running the podcast while Bell was along for the ride. The more I pressed him about scheduling and preparation, the more I noticed him distance himself from the process.
The story of Gears and Grades: The Student-Driven Podcast ends with both dissatisfaction and disappointment. Understandably, life moves on and sometimes that means disconnecting from people from the past. Bell had a future ahead of him that may not have included the podcast, which is completely understandable. That said, after investing copious amounts of time in making the podcast what it became, I felt a tremendous sense of loss when it all ended.
If there’s a lesson to be learned from Gears and Grades: The Student-Driven Podcast’s story, you need to be on the same page with the person you’re running the show with. If there’s even a shadow of a doubt about the longevity of the podcast, address it accordingly, and don’t let pre-established standards slide as it will come back to bite you both. Communication is vital; your podcast will go nowhere if you set a flimsy set of boundaries and goals.