Jonathan Marsh

Podcast Host & Producer

Bedtime stories - going to the movie theater - writing my own fiction - storytelling has always been with me in one form or another.

My background was originally in journalism, but I quickly found a need to tell creative stories in a different way. Podcasting has given me the opportunity to combine multiple passions, and I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do!

That's the short version ... read on for extra tidbits.

[dramatic pause with imaginary sound effects]

I was first exposed to podcasting back in 2009, as part of a class in college. I was immediately hooked! There was something about playing with all those fancy tech toys, and then editing the audio, that I really enjoyed. I think podcasting made me feel like I had my own late night talk show, like my favorite, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Anyways ... after I finished doing my podcast project for a class, I wanted to keep doing it ... and so I talked with some of the folks at my school newspaper. They were fine with me continuing to publish content, and so I did. Oh yeah - did I mention that my newsroom at college had recently upgraded their recording studio? It was awesome. Barely anyone was using it, so I had a lot of access to experimenting with editing and recording. But - after I graduated in 2010 - I stopped doing podcasting for a while. Back then, it wasn't nearly as simple as it is now to host your podcast somewhere. You had to have more technical knowledge about RSS feeds, and I definitely did not have that! There was a super nice IT guy at the school paper (shoutout to Jay) who helped me publish the podcast to iTunes when I was a student, but then I lost access to those resources after graduating - so there was big pause in my audio career.

Fast forward to 2020 during the pandemic. I kept hearing about how podcasting was becoming more popular and more people were doing their own shows. I had purchased my own microphone years earlier, but had only been using it for miscellaneous projects here and there. When I heard about everyone else doing podcasts - I thought - "why did I never kick off my own podcast?" It had been on my to-do list for so long, but it got lost in the shuffle when I was focused on looking for a job and starting a career after college. So I started digging into what was needed to kick off a podcast ...

The Marsh Movie Mix kicked off in 2021 and that was my next attempt at fame and fortune in the podcast industry, lol. I experimented with a variety of formats and segments in that podcast, but a funny thing happened by accident. I did a holiday special where I made up a story with sound effects and music. By the end of it, I realized I wanted to do more of THAT kind of podcast. I still hate to think that I gave up on my movie podcast, because I really do think I was starting to crank out some solid content and finally find the show's footing toward the end, but it wasn't quite scratching the right itch. I needed to do something a little different. Enter: Afterlight Fictions.

Afterlight Fictions is purely a passion project. Sure - I'd like to make money from it some day. It's always nice when people enjoy what you create, because it provides some sense of reassurance. But here's the cool thing for me - this show is my creative outlet. So the act of making each episode is giving me what I need creatively ... artistically ... and whatever "ly" word you want to throw in there too. Everything else is just icing on the cake. I don't know if you can relate to this next statement, but sometimes I have a literal urge to write a story. I'll get inspiration for a story idea and then need to write it all out until there's nothing left. I NEED to get those stories out, and this is my attempt at that. My only regret is that I DIDN'T START SOONER. So if you're thinking about doing your own show - GO FOR IT! You won't regret it. Podcasting is such a fun and rewarding hobby. Don't let the unknowns intimidate you. Take the risk, and start the first episode for your own ideas. You won't get better if you don't start.