In 2017 I started a podcast, like almost everyone else.

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Optimistically, I thought I'd do an episode every two weeks. This was quickly revealed to be a BONKERS idea and I readjusted my expectations to one episode a month, with frequent breaks when I was too busy to record or couldn't line up guests who had any free time. Then 2020 happened, and having strangers or casual acquaintances in a small room in my basement started to seem like a bad idea. There were some missed months and also some fun and creative work-arounds, including an extended series with my daughter Emma Cole. Honestly, it's been a journey. 

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The premise of the podcast for the first few seasons was simple: I invited a guest or two in for a face-to-face, in-person conversation about books. The books we've loved, the books that have shaped us, even a few books we've hated. If the guest was a writer, as many of them were, we talked about how their reading shaped their writing, but the main focus was always on talking among ourselves as readers.

In Summer 2021, Emma and I started a series called "Bookswap" in which a fifty-something mom and her twenty-something daughter recommend a book for each other and then discuss the books. This was so much fun we kept doing it occasionally.

For 2023, I decided the "Bookswap!" format was so much fun, I was going to do a whole bunch of Bookswaps with different guests. In the summer I started a three-episode mini-series on the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels. Those are some of my favourite books in the world, and the first one was published 100 years ago in 1923, so that seemed worth spending three episodes on! For 2024, I'm planning a mix of bookswaps with different guests (Emma will be back also for an episode or two), episodes where I have a guest on and we take a deep dive into a single book, and maybe some other formats -- all book-focused!

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The podcast theme music is composed and performed by my son Chris Cole, who also did production work on most of the episodes to make them sound as good as my inexpensive mic and at-home setup could sound. As of 2024 I started recording in Chris's studio, Bad Times Club, with the help of Chris and his sound wizard-slash-business partner James Benoit, so big thanks to Chris and James for their help!

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See the links below for an archive of episodes and show notes. The podcast is available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most any other place podcasts happen. You can, and should, subscribe to Shelf Esteem on your favourite podcast app; all the "Listen" links below are to the SoundCloud pages.  The "Show Notes" links take you to a list of all the books and any other media we discussed during the episode.