Bite Size Biographies – Cory Thorpe

Bite Size Biographies is a podcast project I created. The collective episodes have been listened to over 12,000 times and it has 1,051 subscribers as of March 2021. It was featured as a Staff Favorite for over 90 days on CastBox.fm. It peaked on the Podcast charts:

“USA – Society & Culture” at #221
“Global – Society & Culture” at #311
“USA – All Podcasts” at #1,134
“Global – All Podcasts” at #1,522
“France – All Podcasts” at #1,630 (all positions according to Chartable)

Bite Size Biographies was featured as Staff Favorite on CastBox.fm for over 90 days

I created Bite Size Biographies entirely myself. The stories featured on the podcast will always belong to the guests who shared them with me, however I thought of the idea for the podcast, created the logo, created the website, and worked through the logistics of setting up, recording, editing, mastering, and releasing a podcast entirely on my own.

Inspiration

I was inspired to create Bite Size Biographies while reflecting on the recent passing of my grandfather. As I listened to a recording of my deceased grandfather, I found myself with questions I could no longer ask him. I realized that many people never take the time to tell their life story, which means that rich and interesting sagas of life are continually being lost to time. I felt something had to be done to record those stories of life, and Bite Size Biographies was my way of telling some of those life stories while simultaneously encouraging individuals to tell their own stories through the tagline “No matter who you are, tell your story.”.

The Podcast

I released 7 episodes that ranged from 1 to 1.5 hours. Each episode was a casual conversation between me and a guest, where I discussed their life from birth to the present day. I talked with them about their life experiences, what difficulties they suffered through, the joys they celebrated, and everything in between. I formed genuine connections with my guests and ensured they knew their story is their own, and I considered myself a vessel for communicating it. I never pressured them to explore topics they felt uncomfortable with, or expected them to highlight things that would grab listener’s attention. I feel I grew immeasurably as a person from my time doing Bite Size Biographies, and gained levels of empathy and compassion I didn’t know were possible.

One of the areas that challenged me the most was the logo design. Visual Design has always been a growth area for me because I feel more at home with data and concepts, though I love the feeling I get when a good visual element comes together exactly how I envision it in my head. I started the logo design process with hand-drawn ideas sketched onto a blank sheet of paper. Some of the themes I wanted to communicate were that the whole world has a story to tell, the concept of sound, and playing with the ‘biography’ name, while trying to design something that needs to be recognizable on a small screen or in icon form.

My original logo sketch concepts

Over a period of a few months I came up with multiple concepts for my logo. I started the podcast with a logo based on a book, playing on the Biography theme, and released the first few episodes using that initial logo. I created the first, and all subsequent logos, in Adobe Illustrator. After reflection and self-scrutiny, I decided to re-visit that logo and went with one of the variations I created that conveyed the transmission of sound. I worked that idea into multiple variations and released it as the new logo for the podcast, but still felt unsatisfied. While eating a bowl of ramen and pondering the direction I wanted to take the logo design, inspiration hit me like a ton of noodles! I decided to incorporate the spoon I held in my hand at that very moment, and play on the “bite” theme. This time I decided not not to focus on the idea of taking a bite “out of”, but instead simply taking a bite “of” – ramen specifically! Finally, I had my logo.

You can listen to Bite Size Biographies on any podcasting application or website.