Farewell For Now, Part 2

Dr. Kade Goepferd: This is Talking Pediatrics, a clinical podcast by Children’s Minnesota, home to the Kid Experts, where the complex is our every day. Each episode, we bring you intriguing stories and relevant pediatric health care information as we partner with you in the care of your patients. Our guests, data, ideas and practical tips will surprise, challenge, and perhaps change, how you care for kids.

Welcome to Talking Pediatrics. I’m your host, Dr. Kade Goepferd. Just over five years ago, in the midst of a global pandemic, we debuted the Children’s Minnesota Talking Pediatrics Podcast. With the first episode in August of 2020, the goal of our podcast was to get up-to-date and relevant pediatric health information to clinicians in a format that was short and easy to digest. We focused on issues that were pressing at that time like COVID, to more common issues like asthma. We kept the format to 20 to 30 minutes, which might be about the time of a morning commute or a walk with the dog.

This podcast has been a great success with over 85,000 downloads in the last five years. We’ve reached listeners in over 25 countries, including of course the US, followed by Australia, Canada, the UK, and Germany. Our largest population of listeners is typically from Minnesota, but we also have heavy listeners in California, Wisconsin, New York, and Illinois. We average 462 downloads a week, and we’ll have recorded 180 episodes in total by the time we close. In 2022, we won the Platinum eHealthcare Leadership Award in the Best Digital Engagement category. As I mentioned in our part one closing episode, which you should go back and listen to if you haven’t, we now find ourselves at the end of 2025 saying goodbye at least for now to the podcast. Our team has competing demands that have been gradually pulling us away from the pod, and we want to leave on a high note with the opportunity to relaunch in the future if our capacity changes.

But don’t worry, due to the wonders of the internet, you can still go back and listen to all of the podcasts you missed over the last five years and re-listen to your favorites anytime you want on your favorite podcasting platform. Joining me for this final episode, the part two wrap up today are members of our podcast production team. When you think of a podcast, you largely think of the hosts, or the hosts and the guests. What you miss is the team behind the pod and all of the hours of work and effort that goes into that 20 minute episode. Joining me today are Jake Beaver, our producer and editor, Ilze Vogel, our former showrunner and EP, Amie Juba, our marketing specialist, Krithika Devanathan, our project manager, and Alec Ly, our current showrunner and administrative lead. What we’re going to cover today is all that you didn’t know, that you didn’t know about making a medical podcast, the highs, the lows, the nuts and bolts, and what it takes to get up-to-date medical information to clinicians who need it. Welcome to the podcast, Talking Pediatrics team.

Jake Beaver: Thanks for having us.

Ilze Vogel: Thank you.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: First, can you each start by introducing yourself? Tell us your role with the podcast and your role here at Children’s Minnesota. And let’s start with Mr. Jake Beaver.

Jake Beaver: I am Jake Beaver. I am the producer and engineer and editor of Talking Pediatrics.

Ilze Vogel: My name is Ilze Vogel. I am the former showrunner, executive producer, and my current role with Children’s Minnesota is I am a health professional education coordinator.

Alec Ly: My name is Alec Ly. I’m the current showrunner. And here at Children’s Minnesota, I am the administrative assistant in the marketing and communications department.

Krithika Devanathan: My name is Krithika Devanathan, and I am the project manager for both the podcast and here at Children’s Minnesota.

Amie Juba: My name is Amie Juba. I’m a marketing manager and I work on marketing and communications for the podcast.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Well, my first question for all of you is how did you get here? And some of you got here because someone told you to be here, but what sparked your interest about being a part of a podcasting team?

Ilze Vogel: Definitely I’m here because you asked me if I wanted to participate, but I was more than happy to do that because it’s fun. And I am a voracious consumer of podcasts, so it’s just kind of fun being part of one.

Alec Ly: I actually was asked to step in as showrunner from Cora Nelson, who was in my previous role. And at first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it, but I had a conversation with Cora and it just seemed really fun. And so, I stepped in and I’m really happy I did.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: We’re so glad you did as well.

Jake Beaver: I was working as a distributor for a podcast distribution company as is, and because I kind of knew the ins and outs of the podcasting world, I was asked to help with the technical aspects of things and have stuck by ever since.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Jake, I have a question for you to follow that up. What was different about this podcast as a medical podcast from the other podcasts that you’ve been involved in?

Jake Beaver: Most of the other podcasts that I did were live broadcasts, where this was a recorded and edited segment, having to go through, and cut out all of the ums and buts and the stutter steps and everything like that is something that we didn’t do on our network. It was kind of a what you got is what you get sort of thing. And so, it really kind of helped me hone my skills into being able to really do that.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: And I think that’s something that’s important for listeners to know. Sometimes when you’re listening to podcasts, they are largely just recorded from live and there’s very little editing. One of the things that I have loved about this podcast is that because of the hours and hours and hours and hours that Jake has put in, everyone sounds very smooth from the host to the guest, the entire podcast process, which makes it easier to listen to. And if your goal is to get medical information into clinician’s ears, you want to make something that’s going to be easy for them to listen to. And so, having editing as a part of our process, I think has really elevated the podcast.

Amie Juba: I work on marketing and everything is short in this day and age, and a digital ad is 10 words or less, and a podcast is one of those rare things where you get to say a lot more in 20 to 30 minutes. And so, it really showcases our expertise in a way that other tactics that I work on do not. So, it’s a lot of fun to be a part of.

Krithika Devanathan: I joined because I was told that there was a need for a project manager. I work on the marketing team. And so, I work with Amie Juba and she told me that there was a lot on Ilze’s plate and that she needed some help kind of mitigating what was going on. And I, as a project manager, like to get my grubby little hands in every single project I can possibly get my hands on. And it was something very different. And as Amie mentioned, marketing is short. So this was different, it was fun, it’s new, so why not?

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Well, that kind of leads me into my next question, which is if any of you have something that kind of surprised you most about the podcasting process? I came into this largely as a podcast listener, someone who consumed a lot of podcasts. So, I really knew nothing about the behind the scenes podcasting process, and I think the thing that surprised me the most was how much work it was. I mean, I just really had no idea what went into a podcast, but I’d love to hear from any of you that want to share what felt really surprising.

Ilze Vogel: I think one of the most surprising things was just content, content, content. Just really thinking about all the topics that we would possibly want to consider, what are hot topics, what’s fresh, what’s interesting, and then keeping that going and going and going. That’s the part I found really surprising, to be honest. Yeah.

Alec Ly: From the showrunner’s point of view, I was actually surprised how many guests said yes right away.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Oh, sure.

Alec Ly: And so, on my end, it helped me just kind of navigate coordinating scheduling quickly and easier. And I think it was just surprising how many people were just so willing to jump in and to talk to all of our hosts too.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: I’ve done other podcasts as a guest and I think people really enjoyed doing a podcast. There’s something very different about it than giving a talk or coming in and doing a training or something. So, I think it’s a fun format that people like to participate in.

What was the hardest thing about producing and supporting this podcast? And when I had this conversation with the guest hosts, we’re all clinical, so we all do clinical work or we have other roles, leadership or clinical or otherwise. So, finding the time was one of the harder things, but I’m wondering from you all, what was kind of the hardest thing about being a part of the podcast?

Jake Beaver: Oh, where do I start? No, you hit it right on the head as just wrangling people’s time is very difficult between hosts and guests, and then our time as producers with everything else that we had going on, and then finding the space to be able to do it because the hospital fills up real quick in some of the conference rooms. So, being able to find that. So honestly, wrangling the time is one of the biggest headaches when it comes to podcasting for me.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah.

Krithika Devanathan: For me, because I’m in a nonclinical role, I think a lot of the heavy content and the medical forward ,obviously as a medical podcast, content was difficult for me to understand sometimes. And so, I felt a little bit out of my depth.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Sure.

Krithika Devanathan: And my typical day to day, I’m not really focused on what a doctor is doing. It’s very surface level. So, that was both interesting and it was fascinating to learn more, but difficult to understand sometimes what was going on.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Sure. What are you all most proud of with this podcast? I mean, for some of us, it’s been five years that we’ve put into this podcast, for some of us less time than that, but what do you feel most proud of having worked on this podcast?

Jake Beaver: For me, it was the amount of content we were able to put out. We put out so much content over those years, but I mean, we were doing it weekly. So if you figure weekly minus a couple holidays, I mean, we put out 48 episodes in a year.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: That’s a lot.

Jake Beaver: That’s a lot of episodes for a podcast to come out and to be able to do it consistently over the time that we did is actually really, really good.

Ilze Vogel: Yeah. One thing I’m really proud of is this podcast started in 2020, which of course is when we were all dealing with COVID. And when you had asked me to help get this off the ground, I ended up doing quite a bit of market research. I examined what are other children’s hospitals around the country doing in terms of education, period. And many children’s hospitals at that time basically shut down what they were producing because it was just too difficult. There’s definitely a few podcasts out there that children’s hospitals around the country are doing and are great, but I feel like we easily measured up to them and I feel really proud about that.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, I agree. Do any of you have one or two favorite podcast moments that you’d like to share as a member of the team?

Amie Juba: One of my favorite moments was when Ilze and I watched the award ceremony for the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, and this was back in 2022. So, we gathered and it was just the two of us watching it on our computers, and they started listing the silver and the gold and we’re just kind of like, “Oh shoot, we didn’t win anything. That’s too bad.” And then, we got announced for the Platinum Award and we were cheering in these offices. No one else was around but the two of us and we were so excited.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, and that was a really special moment. I don’t know about podcast awards or kind of the industry itself, but to be recognized in that space for what we were doing, I think was really great, and I think is a good recognition and something that we should be proud of that we not only measured up, we filled up the measuring cup all the way to the platinum line. So, that was really good.

Alec Ly: I don’t know if you want to call it a favorite moment, but I had just been onboarded and I think one of the few episodes I kind of coordinated was with you, and I forget their name, but you had messaged me early in the morning at 8:00 or 9:00, and you said, “Hey, I don’t know what this person looks like.” And in my head I go, “Oh, I don’t know what this person looks like either.” So, I quickly Google searched them and I really wish I remember their name. And I said, “Well, this is the first image that pops up and all the other images match it. So, I think this is who you’re looking for.”

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah.

Alec Ly: And I think after that, it was definitely a learning moment, but that was a favorite moment of mine. I’m like, “Yeah, maybe going forward, I should make sure everybody knows who they’re meeting with.”

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Right, right. Who am I meeting in the lobby?

Alec Ly: Yeah. I just assume all the hosts know who they’re meeting with. And I’m like, “No.” Going forward, I’m going to make sure, put a face to the name.”

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah. Okay. The next question is, and this is kind of designed to get those who are now hearing how amazing this podcast is and they want to go back and listen to episodes that they might have missed or some of the best. So, what are your three favorite episodes that everyone should go back and listen to if they haven’t already?

Jake Beaver: It’s tough to pick one, but anything Patsy.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, Patsy Stinchfield.

Jake Beaver: Anything Patsy Stinchfield, they were always prepared no matter what. I loved the Trailblazers series, the Marc Gorelick one stands out big time for me as well. And then if I had to pick a third, it would probably be COVID Clocks.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, yeah. Got it, got it.

Ilze Vogel: I actually wrote down which Patsy Stinchfield episode that you’re referring to. There was one, it’s called COVID-19 Vaccine, What You Need to Know, and Patsy explains what the mRNA technology is. I cannot tell you how many times I forwarded that very episode to family members or friends because at the time, we didn’t, as non-clinicians, like what? How does this work? And Patsy did such a great job of explaining that. Unbelievable.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: It’s politically relevant right now because I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there around what mRNA vaccines are and it’s being sort of used to shut down research and potentially really helpful new innovations in vaccines that could help us address other diseases because there’s such misunderstanding about what that vaccine process is. There’s this assumption, well, it’s new and so it must be something that we should be afraid of. But Patsy did a beautiful job of talking through that. So definitely, that’s one to re-listen to. Do you have two more?

Ilze Vogel: I wanted to mention Dr. Bryan Fate and Crack the Case, and specifically his episode, I think it was a case that perhaps you brought to him. It’s called, Is It Growing Pains? And it’s a differential diagnosis type episode, but it’s just really good. What’s all the testing? What are the symptoms? And the conclusion that you come to, yeah, really good. And then the Book Club episodes that Gabi Hester did. I really enjoyed those.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, those are great.

Amie Juba: You mentioned a lot of the ones that I had on my list too, but I also like really practical episodes, like the clinical guidelines that give ways that we can partner with referring providers or providers on the best care of kids because that’s really the mission of Children’s Minnesota. So, the podcast does go back to what we are trying to do and take care of kids in our community.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: So early on, those were Guidelines with Gabi. She was the host of those. And then, we transitioned that over to Dr. Courtney Herring, Evidence Based Charm with Dr. Courtney Herring. So, we kept that guidelines throughout because that is so important.

Alec Ly: Not to be biased, but it was Ian’s episode with Tou Ger about Hmong practice and spirituality. Yeah. Again, not to be biased because I am Hmong, but it was a really good episode.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Well, that is actually one I haven’t listened to. So now Alec, I’m going to listen to that one today. So, thank you for that.

Krithika Devanathan: I’m a very indecisive person, so it was difficult to narrow it down to three, but I will say I really enjoyed the health equity episodes and the intersectionality between equity and health. And there was a lot to think about and a lot to take away from, and it wasn’t just learning, and it’s something that I could apply into my everyday life. And I think those were really important episodes as well.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: This podcast was designed for clinicians and I am sure that we have many people who listen who are not clinicians who may be in health care or maybe not in health care, and I agree those health equity episodes are really applicable across different environments. And one thing I love about those episodes is, we launched in 2020, James Burroughs, who’s our Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer here at Children’s Minnesota. He was relatively new to the organization at that time. I think he joined us in 2019. That was really when Children’s was starting to put health equity really into action as part of our strategic plan. So, not just something that we talked about in words, but how did we act in ways that really upheld that value? And I think actually having that segment as a part of this podcast was an example of that. It’s not something that we’re just going to say, but we’re going to teach people about it and help people understand it.

So, that’s a great call out. All right. Let’s close with what advice would you give to others, whether there’s clinicians listening or folks like yourselves who are non-clinical, who want to start a clinical podcast that think, well, Talking Pediatrics is leaving, there’s going to be huge void in the market. We could get those 462 downloads a week. What advice would you give them?

Alec Ly: It doesn’t happen overnight.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah.

Alec Ly: For sure. It takes a team. What people don’t understand is there’s a whole village and you just kind of maybe just hear the host, but boom, here we are as a production team.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, absolutely.

Krithika Devanathan: Take so many notes so you can keep everything together. We had a very comprehensive document that had all of our information, all of the podcast episodes, the content, the recording, scheduling, that if we didn’t have something like that, it would have been a nightmare. So, definitely lots of notes.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, and I think people may not realize how intentional everything from the guests and the topics, but also the timing of the release so that we were spacing out hosts. And we had some hosts that recorded more like four to six episodes a year and some that recorded double that. And so, kind of there was a lot of production planning that actually goes into that.

Ilze Vogel: I just keep thinking, man, go into it with your eyes wide open. Everything from what’s all the equipment that you’re going to need, defining the roles on the team. But again, the biggest thing is, what is your content going to look like over time? It’s one thing to say, “Okay, I have these three great ideas.” All right, after those three, then what? Yeah, because you have to keep it going.

Amie Juba: I’d say bring in your marketing and communications team early on in the planning because you can distribute it on existing channels. There’s lots of places that you can put your podcast, but your internal team might also have places that you can distribute it as well. So, what already exists for your marketing and communications channels? How does it fit into that? And that will help you get more listeners.

Jake Beaver: Be sure you have the time. Legitimately, there’s a lot of time that goes into this and invest in that, invest into it. Not just monetary, but your time as well. It’s going to be a long haul with editing, producing, but get good mics, get a good board, get a good box thing that…

Dr. Kade Goepferd: A good box thing with knobs on it.

Jake Beaver: That Kade doesn’t know about. But if you’re going to do it, be serious about doing it and really put in the efforts towards it.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, and I think the only thing I would add is know your purpose and know your scope. There were so many times when we’d have different guest hosts who would join or things like that and they would bring topics in and we had to say, “That’s not really for this podcast. This is a clinical podcast and we’re putting it out for a clinical audience.” Do parents listen? Probably yes. Do non-clinical people listen? Probably yes. But our audience is the clinician. And so, I think it really helps to scope your podcast because otherwise it can get pretty loose, pretty fast. And so, I think kind of being really clear about who you are, what the spaces you’re taking up, why you’re on the air, what you’re doing, I think can be really helpful. Anything else anyone wants to kind of close with? This is our final episode, so I just want to throw it out if people have things they want to close with.

Jake Beaver: It’s been fun. I really appreciate the time that you guys and the trust that you guys have had in me and being your guys’ producer. And I greatly appreciate you helping me build my skills when it comes to editing and my confidence when it comes to it as well. And it was a really good project and I’m glad that I was a part of it.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Thanks, Jake.

Ilze Vogel: I feel like it’s actually really been an honor to be a part of this. I really feel that way just in terms of conceiving of the podcast from the beginning and then getting to work with you all. It’s definitely a bonding experience, so I’m really grateful for that.

Alec Ly: I’ve only been with the podcast for maybe a little over a year, but I’m super happy that I was asked to be a part of it, and just honored to be surrounded by so many great folks like you. And I think, fun fact, for me, this was our first time in person together.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Yeah, yeah.

Alec Ly: Yeah. So, it’s just nice seeing everybody’s faces in person as a team.

Krithika Devanathan: I just want to say that this has been so much fun and I’ve learned a lot from every single one of you, and I hope I will see you in other projects and other things I do. Please don’t let this be a goodbye. Yeah.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: I think some kind of celebration is in order for sure.

Krithika Devanathan: For sure.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Well, I’ll just close with thank you for listening to Talking Pediatrics. It was an honor to be your host, Dr. Kade Goepferd, and really appreciate this team and really appreciate our listeners and our hosts and everyone who has poured their time and effort into this podcast for the last five years. We are going to sign off for now. This may be a temporary goodbye, but we are going to close this chapter of Talking Pediatrics.