431 | Open Topics | Transcripts

431 | Open Topics | Transcripts Project Zion Podcast

Josh Mangelson 00:17
Welcome to the Project Zion Podcast. This podcast explores the unique spiritual and theological gifts Community of Christ offers for today's world.

Robin Linkhart 00:33
Hello, and welcome to Project Zion Podcast. This is your host, Robin Linkhart. And our guests today are Brittany Mangelson, Sara Tubbesing, and John Wight. All three of these good people are part of our Project Zion Podcast team. And today you are going to hear a lot more about that because we are here to talk about a very important dimension of what Project Zion Podcast brings to our listeners-- transcripts. But before we dive into that topic, let's meet our guests. Welcome, friends. We are really delighted to have each of you with us today. Tell us a bit about you and what you do on Project Zion Podcast so our listeners can get to know you. John, let's start with you.

John Wight 01:28
Greetings. Let me begin by mentioning that my last name is spelled W i g h t. Uh, it looks like it should be Wright, but there's no r in it. And so one might say that because of that, I am never right. Sorry. I am officially retired. But the First Presidency has asked me to continue to serve in some of the roles in which I was serving before retirement, namely, Senior President of 70 and President of the Third Quorum of Seventy, which involve a variety of functions which I won't take time to enumerate. I also provide support to Mission Center Invitation Support Ministers in the US. I coordinate the Sunday Night Live Chat with a Minister program, uh, coordinate the work of the team that responds to inquiries from incarcerated persons around the US and a variety of other functions. Uh, for Project Zion Podcast, I edit the transcripts of some of the podcasts. I'm guessing that one reason I was asked to do this is that prior to working for the church full time, I worked in the newspaper business, uh, for 10 years, the last four years of which were as city editor of the Centralia, Illinois Sentinel, so, um, I've edited a lot of things.

Robin Linkhart 02:57
Thanks so much, John. And, uh, your little icebreaker joke there reminded me that your daughter, Joelle, tells us that you are the king of dad jokes. So, thanks for starting us off with a great dad joke today.

John Wight 03:12
Happy to do so. I got a lot more.

Robin Linkhart 03:14 I bet you do. Sara.

Sara Tubbesing 03:16
Good morning. My better half, Brian, and I have two adult children and three grandchildren within driving distance where we live here in the Phoenix Valley. We moved here in 2017, an effort to be closer to our daughter's family. And while that moved us away from a lot of, uh, good friends and family

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in the Kansas City area where we lived for the last 35 years, it connected us with more extended family, uh, which had also migrated here over the years. I'm also a retired school teacher. I taught mostly middle school literature and social studies, so, transcription was kind of a good fit for a grammar Nazi like me. I'm currently under church employment where half of my time is spent working with the USA Seeker Team and the other half as Mission Center President for Arizona. We're a small mission center, so that's a pretty doable shared role. I started working for the Mission Center in 2019, and was brought on to the Seeker Team in 2020, where there was a flurry of meetups and gatherings, um, that I attended to. So, I was just getting my feet on the ground when everything came to a screeching halt. So, while keeping my mission center connected was a challenge, I at least had a network and a rhythm already established. And I've been blessed with how the folks in my area were able to risk some new things to get and stay connected. But it was a really different story among the seeker community as a minister in early 2020. I had just a small network developing and was looking forward to the various events that were on my calendar that would broaden my network and get me well acquainted with inquiring folks. But when it came to a standstill, it was a real challenge. Early this year, Robin reached out and we discussed good use of my time. And of the various projects we discussed, one was Project Zion Podcast. So here I am.

Robin Linkhart 05:20
Thank you, Sara. And, uh, as both of you has, have helped us understand, you have unique background, giftedness and expertise that really has lended itself well to, for what us has been, two excellent, uh, transcribers. Brittany.

Brittany Mangelson 05:38
So, hello, everyone. Uh, the podcast is probably very familiar with me. Sometimes I forget all the things that I've shared on this podcast about myself. Uh, but as you know, my name is Brittany Mangelson and I live in Utah and I serve Community of Christ as the Social Media Seeker Ministry Specialist. And part of that role is to be the project manager of Project Zion Podcast. So, uh, I help with scheduling the website, do all the promotion, basically make sure that the machine that is Project Zion keeps running. Uh, there's a lot of different components and moving parts to producing the podcast, transcripts being one of them. And, so, yeah, it's a really exciting part of my job, but I also, uh, work with seekers on the ground here in Utah. I connect seekers with congregations and ministers all over the place and help, uh, just in a variety of projects that have to do with the Internet.

Robin Linkhart 06:38
Thanks, Brittany. And it's always fun when we get to have you join us on the other side of the mic, so to speak. All righty. Well, today's episode title is Saying Yes to Transcripts. And that's because we did not include transcripts as part of our lineup when we launched Project Zion Podcast several years ago. Brittany, tell us what brought us to consider adding tran, transcripts and what the early days of generating transcripts looked like for us.

Brittany Mangelson 07:10
Yeah, so, almost immediately, we were getting requests from listeners, uh, about adding transcripts to our episodes. So there were several requests. And I like to think that the heart of all of these requests, um, the desire for more accessibility was, was at the center of them. So, when I say accessibility, there

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are a lot of benefits to having transcripts, which we'll get into in a little bit. But really, most of them go back to just having more access to the content. So, the problem was, is we couldn't really find an affordable option. But it was really a goal of ours because we wanted to make sure that folks who couldn't hear audio or who would be, um, benefited from being able to read the content that they had the content. So, Project Zion Podcast runs on a really tiny budget. And, really, we are just paying for our hosting fees for the, uh, audio to go out on to podcasting, uh, platforms, and our websites, and, really, just to get a few mics in a few people's hands. So, that's like the, the bulk of what we spend our money on and we don't have a lot of money. And so the options that we were finding, for providing transcripts for the audio were about $1 a minute, which is expensive. So, when you think of an hour long podcast episode, that's about $60 per episode. And when we're producing two episodes a week, we just simply do not have that kind of money. So, we initially decided to ask for volunteers to manually do the transcripts. And it was a lot of work, like painstakingly, because they would have to listen to 10 seconds of the audio and then write it down as fast as they could and then listen to it again and make sure that they were getting it right. And, um, I'm talking like weeks and weeks and weeks, if not months, to do a single transcript. And, so, I'm not even sure how many volunteers we've had, uh, but it was a handful. And it was so much work. And I always felt so guilty about it because we knew that there was software out there, but it just was not in our budget. And so it was really slow. It took a lot of work. But we were committed to it. And that's, that's how we got started.

Robin Linkhart 09:33
Yeah, that was a really interesting time for us because we did have a few volunteers that were willing to press forward and try and get that done and Brittany and I tried a few ourselves. It was just painstaking work. And we continued to feel this very real press of wanting to be able to help people access Project Zion Podcasts in all the ways that they can including a transcript that they could read. So, let's take a minute now and talk about the big breakthrough event that really helped us get to a place where we could realistically commit to posting a transcript with every new episode. And that had been our goal for a while, as Brittany said. So, Brittany, tell us, um, what that was like, um, what happened and who did it.

Brittany Mangelson 10:25
So, we host our podcast through a website called Buzzsprout. And they sent out an email in July of 2019, uh, just basically going over the benefits and the importance of having transcripts with your podcast. And, so, as the podcast provider, uh, they partner with other programs to just make their platform better. So, they announced that they were going to be offering a service that would cost 10 cents a minute for transcripts, which was so much better, obviously, than a full dollar a minute. And so we were thrilled. Uh, I actually went back and read through some of those emails back and forth between me and Robin. And there were a lot of exclamation points used because we were just so excited to finally have some sort of feasible option to go forward. So, we did that starting in August. And when I say we, I mean, Robin and I took turns back and forth over who would edit which episode. So, basically, we would run our audio through the program. They would give us a very raw Word document. And then we would have to go through and make the edits because it's computer generated, uh, and clearly grammar and spelling and names and all of those things are not accurate. So, we would bounce back and forth over, um, who would, who would be editing those transcripts. Then in March of 2020, I got an email again with Buzzsprout about a beta, beta program called Temi. And this, again, would

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have been integrated with Buzzsprout and they offered us a few months service for free, which was exciting, because we had already been paying for a transcription service, but we were going to try out this new one for free. And, essentially, Buzzsprout was testing out all sorts of transcribing options. And since they're a huge platform, all sorts of companies were coming to them in hopes of being chosen as the transcription service that Buzzsprout would provide. So, then in May 2020, uh, Buzzsprout, they had collected several different programs, and they said that, um, you know, if you want a, a good discount, then use our code and you can get this whole year's worth of transcription services for $80. So, we went from $1 a minute to $80 for a full year with basically unlimited, uh, unlimited minutes. So, again, we were absolutely thrilled. So, it was a ride to get here. Project Zion Podcast has been around for years and years and years. Uh, but I think that the twists and turns in the story show how quickly the technology has been changing and developing. And since we were part of the beta test runs, uh, we really got to get our hands in different softwares and figure out what we wanted. So, ultimately, we chose a program that combined, um, the best of, of the various programs that we had been working with, and so that's called Otter, and, again, we went from having options that were about $1 a minute to $80 a year for unlimited minutes which is really, really exciting and how we've been able to produce transcripts with every podcast from then up until today.

Robin Linkhart 13:45
Thanks for that, uh, trip down memory lane, Brittany. A lot happened in a really short period of time. And then as time went on, we realized that we really needed to have a team of dedicated people who could devote their attention to transcripts, um, and willing to take on a piece of the weekly lineup on a regular basis. Uh, we work with a lot of volunteers on our team. As John indicated, he's a volunteer right now. Uh, we have pieces of our full time employees and Latter-day Seeker Ministries that try to fit part of this into their already buried full list of responsibilities. But we really, really needed to have some people that would be willing to pick up even just a chunk of the ongoing work. And that's when I reached out to chat with Sara and John about this. And, so, this is where we want to get into the nitty gritty of what it's like to do a transcript. So, John, tell us all about what it was like to dive into the deep end of doing this and what kind of system you have developed in order to make it work into your very busy schedule. John?

John Wight 15:02
Well, to be honest, uh, I found it to be a bit of a challenge at the beginning for a few reasons. One was that I had to learn a new software program. Another was that I had to work it into my schedule, as you have just suggested, Robin. The system that I found that works best for me is to not try to do the transcripts in one sitting. I work on them for small blocks of time. And I have a pad of paper that I keep next to me, uh, on which I record the timestamp, uh, where I end each session so that I can easily resume the next time I work on a transcript. One practical thing that I learned was that it is much easier to do this work if one uses earbuds, or earphones. Uh, these are all definitely part of my system.

Robin Linkhart 16:01
Thanks, John. Gosh, you already gave some tips that I hadn't thought of when I do it. So, that's awesome. Sara, let's hear from you.

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Sara Tubbesing 16:09
Sure. Thank you, John. I appreciate your tips. This is good for me. Um, I, uh, my first transcripts were so slow. I didn't have a good system. And I reached back out to Brittany with things like foreign words and, and names. And, so, I created a three-step system. And I'm like, John, you can't do this all in one time. It's just, um, first it, it has to be paced out. So, I in my three-step system, it sounds like a, a, an AA meeting or something, I have three steps. Um, I read through the transcripts just to look for context. That's where I can tighten up the words and even make a first stab at punctuation. And when we speak in natural conversational language and not formal prepared language, we tend to use a lot of run on sentences and significantly stutter. So, we overlook that in real time face to face interactions. So, this is where I attempt to, uh, filter out those. And it's a little bit easier for making corrections. I got to do The Three Wives of Joseph III podcast recently with Wendy Eaton. And then the subsequent ones featured Audencia Smith Anderson, and her name is used quite a bit throughout the, the transcript, um, repeatedly, uh, it, throughout the whole thing, and often in each paragraph. But I noticed that the program interpreted Audencia as audacious. So, that first pass through caught all of those and I could just copy and paste those corrections which sped up the process a little bit. Then, like John, I grab the headphones or earbuds and spend some uninterrupted time, uh, listening with the audio. And this is where I listen for all the nuances of every single word so that if there is a negative, uh, contracted like, uh, weren't or wasn't, I don't inadvertently call it were or was. And that changes what the speaker's intent was. There's also, um, the first pass through with the program sometimes picks up gibberish. And will just fill in words, what might sound like words, and when there's laughter involved, or when folks, uh, talk on top of each other, which in a group like this, we sometimes would do. And I can sort through some of that. There's kind of a nice feature on, um, my audio version that allows me to slow things down to about half speed. And that's when I can also do some, uh, slowing down and listening with those conversations. And then I make one final pass through with the audio and almost real time. And that's where I still catch a few of my errors. So, that's my process.

Robin Linkhart 19:14
Thanks so much, John and Sarah. That has been really informative. And I, I appreciate the processes that you have identified and use to make this, I hope this makes it easier for you to do on a regular basis. You've already addressed some of the challenges, but are there some particular challenges that you can share with us, um, as you got into doing this and developed a, a system for yourself that worked well? John?

John Wight 19:45
Yeah, as you say, I've already mentioned a few, but, uh, let me share some others. Uh, one is, and Sara has alluded to this as well, one is when people talk over each other during a podcast. Sometimes it's a real guessing game as to what is actually being said. Similarly, uh, if there is background noise, it makes it much more difficult to hear exactly what is being said. Sometimes you can carefully listen and eventually figure it out. But other times, that's just not possible. So, occasionally, uh, you just have to put ellipses in parentheses and hope people can figure out what was being said. Another challenge, uh, is the equipment that's being used by those being interviewed. I don't mean this in any way as a criticism, but sometimes the devices being used are really not equipped to record very well. And, so, uh, sometimes you have to kind of think through and, and listen extra hard. And that is exacerbated by people not sitting close enough to the microphone that they are using. One last challenge, uh, when

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guests make reference, and again, Sarah has alluded to this, uh, when guests make, uh, reference to an obscure author, or a location, or a book title, etc., uh, I find it helpful to keep a second browser open to search with to, uh, figure out to whom or to what they are referring, and, so, I can type in what I think they have said and then that other browser will bring up, uh, some possible, uh, references that I can use then.

Robin Linkhart 21:39
Thanks, John. Sara, how about you?

Sara Tubbesing 21:42
Well, my first transcript, I mentioned earlier, um, was about the early church in Korea, and of all the things I don't want to do, one of them is offend by misspelling or even miss naming conventions with, um, throughout the international church. And, so, trying to be sensitive to customs and those conventions, I found I would have to go back and, and just inquire with the, the person that was interviewed to make sure and then they would email, usually through, uh, Brittany, this is the correct spelling, this is the name of the city. So, those are, uh, like John said, those are tough. Uh, my self diagnosed OCD forces me to keep a tab open, too, John, and I use that as my research page. And I use it a lot with Tony and Charmaine because they use, they are, you know, they bring a scholarly, theological, academic lens, and they throw around a lot of ancient Hebrew and Greek. So, that tab is really handy. Uh, I really enjoyed, I really enjoy, but they do bring a little more challenge with my less savvy ear, uh, when I meet up with a non-American English speaking accent. So, I got to work on a transcript that, uh, featured Apostle James. And afterwards, I had an occasion to reach out to him on another project and happened to share my enjoyment about that transcript, and he seemed almost apologetic for his Welsh accent. But really, that was less of a problem than just the colloquial terms that, uh, weren't familiar to me. You know, kind of like in, uh, trying to translate American idioms to somebody else, they just don't seem to make sense and I always worry I'm not picking up the actual statement on that. Um, just yesterday, I finished a fascinating transcript with Gina Colvin, an indigenous New Zealander. And on that one, I not only had the unfamiliar phrasing, um, but she would periodically bring in Maori phrases. So, I was comfortable that I caught about half of those phrases and could verify them on the internet, but I had to refer back to Brittany for the balance of those. Again, I just don't want to mistranslate the richness of the language and while Google Translate works for some things, I don't trust it for the transcripts.

Robin Linkhart 24:13
Thanks. Those are fascinating challenges. And Sara, you've already mentioned a little bit about the joy, but we really want to hear about what you enjoy most about doing transcripts. And Sara, we'll start with you.

Sara Tubbesing 24:27
On the second read, it's really challenging, but it also causes me to rest in the stories a lot deeper. I rest in the conversation, probably deeper than most listeners because I'm focusing on every single word, every single interruption or pause of, of, of acknowledgement. So, that is, um, an opportunity for

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me to really deeply spend time in some Old Testament with, uh, Tony and Charmaine, these wonderful rich stories of some of the historical women in the church. Um, in recent months, uh, I have been on the road a little bit more with, um, my mission center work. And, so, I'm finding that rather than listening to whole books on audible, for instance, I pull up old Project Zion Podcast that I haven't transcribed. And particularly some of the categories I really find engaging, like Hebrews and Shebrews and Cuppa' Joe and, and I've kind of gotten turned on to fair trade with Gina. So, those have been some engaging topics and, uh, guests, and I like to rest in those. And I get to do that as a transcriber.

Robin Linkhart 25:41 Thanks, Sara. John.

John Wight 25:44
I find it really fun, uh, listening to good friends talking about things that they are passionate and incredibly knowledgeable about. And as a result of that, to learn new things about subjects that I know nothing about or am only somewhat familiar with. I also really enjoy knowing that the information that's being shared will be heard by a wide variety of people around the world.

Robin Linkhart 26:17
Thanks, John. So, I'm assuming that doing this, uh, taking this journey with Project Zion has perhaps impacted your take on or experience of Project Zion Podcast. So, how has doing transcripts maybe shaped and formed or impacted, uh, how you experience Project Zion Podcast? Sarah?

Sara Tubbesing 26:48
Well, I'm an administrator for a couple of Facebook groups, one for Arizona seekers and one for my Arizona Mission Center. And once I, um, really got kind of turned on and hooked on the podcasts, I was a lot more pumped about sharing those across those web pages. And so I do that a lot more into those two groups, and get, um, I think, a significant response from those audiences at times, depending on the podcast. Of course, Brian, my husband, gets really tired of me breaking into a room to share, Oh, my gosh, you got to hear this one. I had never thought about that. Or, This is so fascinating. But when we road trip together, he does enjoy them as much as I do. So, I think we've just discovered, uh, I've just discovered that this is a rich opportunity. And, um, I'm wanting to share and promote it a lot more because I'm so much more aware of, like John said, the messaging in the stories that are told in that really have a strong and powerful message. And I've appreciated those and I think other people will too.

John Wight 28:02
As for me, um, I guess I would say that, that I was already pretty familiar with Project Zion Podcast before I started doing the transcripts. So, I don't know that my take, uh, has been impacted significantly. Of course, I am much more aware of the variety of topics, uh, that are covered. And especially the amount of hard work that goes into each episode. I knew it was hard work, uh, but now, being in this role, I just appreciate so much all the hard work that all the hosts do, that the editors do, etc., etc., etc.

Robin Linkhart 28:47
Thanks, John and Sara. Okay, now we just have to get to the fun part. We are dying to know about some of the funny bloopers that, that you have, uh, encountered in your work as a transcriber. And we

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know that bloopers for transcribers are different than the bloopers that our audio editors might encounter. So, John, tell us, uh, some that you have to share with us today. And then Sara, just jump right in and share yours.

John Wight 29:16
Okay, how long do we have?

Robin Linkhart 29:19 As long as you need.

John Wight 29:22
I actually started writing some of these down a while back because I was finding them so humorous. So, I'll just share some of them here. Um, Sara has already mentioned one and so I'm anxious to hear the others that, that she's run across, too. But let me just, uh, share a few that, that I wrote down. In one podcast, the word ministries became mysteries. Lamoni Stake became Apollo Monterey. I'll never understand how that one happened. Lamoni became ramen I. Lamoni also became lamorna and Lamorne. Geez, like we might say with gee whiz, geez became cheese. Stake s t a k e not surprisingly became steak s t e a k. Stake President became State President. Guys became ice. Apostolic became apistamic. In case you were like me, I didn't know what that word meant and it means relating to knowledge or to the degree of its validation. One of my favorites, First Presidency became first frenzy. Creed became creep. Another of my favorites, one of the, uh, hosts Mike Hoffman, his name became my coffin. Chaplain President became javelin friends. Graceland in one podcast became Greece. And in another it became bracelet. There, uh, have been, there have been many others, but I won't take any more time here. I'll let Sara share some of hers.

Sara Tubbesing 31:44
Those, those are pretty good, John. I, uh, I could probably add to the list that what usually comes are those kinds of ironic substitutions like audacious for Audencia, and so on. But I have to say the funniest thing is when I need to slow down the audio to half speed so I can capture what I need to. It's this, you know, it's a wonderful feature and it helps when participants speak pretty quickly. And, and it's really helpful when I'm trying to pick up on a trailing off sentence or, um, the occasional walking on each other. But if you're familiar with Drunk History, that's what folks sounds like. When they're running at half speed. It sounds like a bunch of drunks and really funny when they laugh. So, you almost visualize everyone slowly throwing their heads back and wiping the drill from their chins. It's an imagery that, uh, it's not intended, but it's kind of hilarious and I find that that's probably one of the funniest things that I get to experience is apostolic, uh, uh, say, I don't know how to describe it, but it's, it's pretty comic and I get to laugh through some of that.

Robin Linkhart 32:56
Thanks. You have really, we've been chuckling here. We usually mute when our guests are responding to the questions so we don't have any of that talking over one another stuff happening inadvertently. But, um, Brittany and I have been laughing a lot as we've been listening to these, uh, funny bloopers.

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Okay, well, how about some tips that you might offer someone else who wants to try their hand at doing transcripts? John, why don't you go first and then Sara?

John Wight 33:26
Okay, well, again, I've already shared some and, and Sarah has already mentioned one that I think is really important. And, and I'll share a few others. Um, I permanently set the speed setting on the, on the thing that we use, uh, to listen to the podcasts at 75% rather than 100%. It just makes it much, much easier, uh, to hear and understand what is being said. So, that's one recommendation that I would make. Just don't even try it at 100%. Just always start with it at 75%. Um, I agree wholeheartedly with what Sara said about 50%. It is hilarious sometimes to listen to, uh, how they, how the, the people sound when you're at 50%. But sometimes you do have to do that. So, don't hesitate to slow it all the way down. Uh, that is very helpful in trying to figure out exactly what's being said. Also, uh, be prepared to listen to portions multiple times to make sure that you're hearing as correctly as possible. Uh, that, that sometimes can be very numerous times and so don't, uh, don't hesitate to, to do that. Be prepared to do that. Um, and then, Sara has already mentioned this, one of the things that I strongly recommend is don't hesitate to write or call the host or the person that was interviewed, uh, to ask them about something that you just aren't hearing or understanding correctly. Uh, I've done that numerous times. It's extremely helpful. And I've not had anybody, uh, who got irritated with me for doing that. Um, the other one that I would suggest, and, and, again, both of us have, both Sara and I have, uh, mentioned this, don't hesitate to take frequent breaks.

Sara Tubbesing 35:25
Okay, I would just echo everything that John said. First, just give it a try. Pace yourself. I think it is good to have a, a system. I'm really lucky. I have a techno savvy husband and that means I've got a lot of acu, computer equipment sitting around my house. And I found my laptop paired with a monitor gives me a better experience than trying to manage both the recording and the document on one screen. But having said that, this isn't something that takes any real special equipment or high level clerical skills. It can be done with a laptop or a desktop and basic word processing skills. That and a little time is what I found I've needed and that seems to work for me. And I think it would work for a lot of other people.

Robin Linkhart 36:13
Thanks for those tips, John and Sara. And you may have guessed this listeners, one of the reasons I asked that question today is because Project Zion Podcast has set a goal in 2022. We will complete transcripts for all the Project Zion Podcast episodes that posted before we started producing transcripts for every single episode. Brittany, tell us a little bit about the benefits of having transcripts for all the podcasts that we have on our Project Zion Podcast website.

Brittany Mangelson 36:50
So, as I said earlier, most of our benefits come down to accessibility. So, we have audio content, but audio doesn't work for everyone. Some folks can't hear the audio at all. And, so, at no fault of their own, they've missed out on a lot of content. And I am really proud of the work that Project Zion has done. And we've recorded history, we've, uh, recorded stories of mission, spiritual practices, etc., etc. And, so, the fact that a lot of that content is not accessible for folks is something that just hangs over me. And, so, getting the content out to more people is, is our ultimate goal. Uh, we have people that also

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just prefer reading to listening. So, maybe their attention span might hold better when they're, when they have something physically in their hands and they're reading the content. They might be able to retain the information a little bit better. Uh, it's also a lot easier to go back and reference a transcript because you can highlight things, underline things, bookmark, etc. So, if you're using a transcript for a sermon or for a class, it's just a lot more practical. I know I have used some of our interviews as oral history resources in seminary when I was in Community of Christ seminary. And I didn't have transcripts. And, so, I was constantly going back and making manual timestamps of different interviews and listening to that part of the conversation over and over and over again just so I could make sure I'm getting the quote right. Uh, transcripts also make it easier for groups to study. So, some of our episodes have been used in a class setting, kind of like a book club, except for podcasts, or for a Sunday school class, etc. So, when participants have that transcript in front of them, even if they've already listened to the audio, it makes it easier to have a conversation about it because content is right there in front of you. And we've also found that transcripts have, transcripts have been really helpful for the international church. It's so much more work to translate something without a transcript. So, when you think of the big things at World Conference, uh, a lot of those scripts, the, the things that are already scripted, those are handed to the translators beforehand, well beforehand so they are able to provide a real time, like a real life experience for the folks who are getting those words translated. And, so, if you try to do live translations, you have to speak really slow, you have to use, uh, you know, universal words in a way that we just don't do on the podcast. And, so, uh, the transcripts can be given to multiple people. They've run them through Google Translate or other different softwares and they're able to then edit in their own language as needed. So, I know we've heard from several folks in Europe who have been working on translating the transcripts. And, so, again, this is just getting the content out to more people, and it makes it so it's, uh, so much more accessible for folks all over the world, um, no matter what your ability to hear is or your attention span, etc. So, there's a lot of benefits, um, but most of them come down to just accessibility, which is important. It's an important value for Project Zion.

Robin Linkhart 40:20
Yes, there are so many ways that transcripts can help us out, um, in all dimensions of church life and beyond. I remember one reunion a few years ago, a new Project Zion Podcast would come out and on the evening before I was going to be speaking at the reunion, um, I listened to that podcast and I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I really need to use this story in my sermon tomorrow. And I stayed up late into the night with my earbud, buds and my cell phone, and, uh, just scratching out a, a transcription as best I could, a little bit of manuscript, to capture that story. And, and that would have been so good if there had been a transcription already in place. Okay, so this brings us to our big invitation. We are looking for volunteers to help us make our goal of getting transcripts in place for 237 podcasts that were aired before we had transcription going for every single episode. That's 196, full length episodes and 41 extra shots. And we would love to have you help us out. Even one transcript would be a help. So, listeners, if you want to volunteer to help us reach our goal of completing our backlog of 237 transcripts by the end of 2022, just email me, Robin Linkhart, rlinkhart@cofchrist.org. When you send that email, just say, Yes, I want to help do transcripts and we will follow up with you for details. Even if it's just one, one time, we're happy to have you help us out. If you think you want to try it and maybe do more, that's great, too. We can work with you. So, before we wrap things up today, is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners? Sarah?

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Sara Tubbesing 42:28
Yeah, I, I want to say Project Zion Podcast is very informative. We've talked about that. But it also brings us into a storied, and I want to say colorful, complex world, often first person, which I love, like Brittany mentioned. These are, uh, I, I feel like we're on an episode of NPR, um, sometimes with these personal stories. It brings us into other people's lives. And sometimes that's painful. Sometimes it's touching. But it's always engaging and informative. So, when you take on transcription, you're invited into some really interesting lives and conversations, and you get a preview before everyone else. And so that's a little gift from this side of the experience.

Robin Linkhart 43:17 Thanks, Sara. John.

John Wight 43:20
I would just like to say that I think it's great that this means is being used to share the message of Jesus Christ and His mission. The Apostle Paul wrote about how important it was for him to, quote, Become all things to all people that by all means, end quote, he might share the gospel. I think it's wonderful, when we are able to observe how people are using a variety of means and methods to convey the joy, hope, love and peace of Jesus Christ to the world.

Robin Linkhart 44:00
Amen. Thank you, John. Brittany.

Brittany Mangelson 44:04
So, I feel pretty lucky that I have been part of the Project Zion Team since day one, and even since before the podcast launched. And I am convinced, through all of the stories that I've heard, through the, the overview of our theological development and learning more about the enduring principles and, and all of the things, uh, I, I firmly believe that Community of Christ has an important message to share. The way that we do church and the way that we do theology, the way that we do church history and scripture, and we engage with all of these topics is a message that the world needs to hear. And Project Zion is incredibly inexpensive. Uh, it's an incredibly inexpensive way to do that. And being part of the team, the overall team whether you are sharing your story on Project science or whether you volunteering to help with the transcripts or whether you just share an episode with a friend or with a seeker on your own social media, uh, you become part of telling the church's story. And, again, I think that that story is important. And I think that it is relevant. And I have seen it change lives, including my own life. And, so, when you say yes to Project Zion, even if it's just listening or sharing an episode, you are becoming part of a story, uh, that is just so important and will continue to be told for decades and decades and decades. And that just makes me really excited.

Robin Linkhart 45:38
Thank you, Brittany. And thank you so much for being with us today John, Sara and Brittany. It's been such a joy to hear your stories as we talk about Project Zion Podcast and all the pieces that go together to make it what it is today. And, of course, a very special thanks to all of our listeners. Remember, if you

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want to help us meet our 2022 transcript goal, see the instructions and link in the show notes. This is your host, Robin Linkhart, and you are listening to Project Zion Podcast. Go out and make the world a better place. Bye, bye.

Josh Mangelson 46:27
Thanks for listening to Project Zion Podcast. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or whatever podcast streaming service you use. And while you're there, give us a five star rating. Project Zion Podcast is sponsored by Latter-day Seeker Ministries of Community of Christ. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are of those speaking and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Latter-day Seeker Ministries, or Community of Christ. The music has been graciously provided by Dave Heinze.

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