How Cole Uses Greek Myths to Spark Curiosity (and Conversation)

Meet Cole from Lasting Legends

Cole is a high school student with a deep love for Greek mythology and storytelling. What began with a school writing contest submission has now grown into a podcast that connects kids with ancient myths in fresh, thoughtful ways. Inspired by shows he listened to as a kid, Cole now creates the kind of content he always wished existed. His thoughtful sound design, smart writing, and clear passion make him a rising star in the podcasting space.

Links

• Listen to Lasting Legends on Pocket Casts⁠
• Listen to Lasting Legends on Apple⁠
• Listen to Lasting Legends on Spotify⁠
• Try Show Notes Sidekick to name your episodes, write your show notes, and more

Unedited transcript of the episode: 

 As a mom of three littles, I am extremely fond of kid podcasts. I use them in the car during quiet time and at bedtime. So when Cole reached out and asked if he could be on the podcast to talk about his kid podcast about Greek mythology, I knew that I had to have him on the show. Hi. I’m Andy Smiley, your friendly podcast guide.

I help you create and grow a podcast that is fun and fulfilling without burning you out. I share tips, stories from my own journey and insights from podcasters I admire. I forgot to mention earlier that Cole is no ordinary podcaster. Cole is a high schooler.

It’s so cool for me when I get to chat with kids who podcast because honestly, I’m a little jealous that they get to start their podcasting journey so much earlier than I did. But no matter, I’m so excited for you to hear Cole’s insights into podcasting. And just as a reminder, if you only have the capacity to implement one thing at the end of the episode, I’ll tell you what that one thing should be so you don’t feel overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start.

I. Before I introduce you to Cole, I need to tell you about the part of podcasting I used to thoroughly despise, and that is writing show notes. I dreaded it, like avoid it until the last minute.

Hope no one notices that they’re barely there. Kind of dread, but then I realized I could actually do something about it. Not just for me, but for you too. So I built show notes sidekick a custom GPT that helps you. Name your episode, write SEO Rich show notes, turn them into a blog post and get social media ideas to promote it all in five minutes flat.

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Sidekick handle the boring stuff. You focus on the fun parts sidekicks. Got the rest. Okay, now onto my conversation with Cole.

I am so excited to have Cole on the podcast today. He has a podcast called Lasting Legends. Greek Myths surround us, and he’s a bit of a celebrity at our house this week because my son just did a whole unit on Greek mythology and then Cole reached out and I was like, this is perfect timing.

You’re a big deal at our house right now, Cole, so thanks for making the podcast that you do.

It’s crazy here. I’m so happy to be here.

Awesome. So what is your favorite part of creating Lasting Legends?

Um, I really just love choosing my topic. I would say that’s the most fun part for me. I really go through like five ideas of myths I wanna tell, and then I just kind of think about how I can tie them to the modern day. Um, coming up with that and the titles, it’s, in my opinion, like the most creative part, and that’s just the most fun for me.

Totally. Okay. So how do you choose them? Like what Do you have like a criteria or is it just kind of whatever fits your fancy?

I try to make like a list of, um, myths that I think would work well. And I just try to think if there’s anything I could tie them, um, if there’s like events going on, like I made one for. That was Christmas theme, Thanksgiving themes. So I, I just started, um, with something in the modern day and tried to tie it back.

But most of the time I like to start with, um, a myth and then just see how it, um, is in the modern day, um, and how it can just tie back.

I love that. I listened to your Christmas one with my son and he really liked it, and it’s so fun, isn’t it, to like see history and be like, Hey, look like we still use parts of that,

right?

Yeah, a hundred percent. And it’s like way easier at least for me to learn when it’s something that I already know or something I’m familiar with, um, because then it’s easier to comprehend and it just feels more personal for me, and I hope it feels the same way for others. I.

Definitely. So I’m assuming that you’ve liked Greek myths for a while now, but what made you decide to like create a podcast about it?

I really have two interests that kind of led me here. One was podcast, the other was Greek mythology. Um, my love for Greek mythology kind of stemmed where a lot of peoples did, which was the Percy Jackson books. Um, after I read those, I just started reading every book I could get my hands on.

Um, Aire, I read all of Rick Re’s books. Amazing. And I just started reading like The Odyssey, the Iliad, um, and anything I could really just get my hands on. In sixth grade or fifth grade, I really can’t remember. I wrote, A submission to, a like library contest. And it was titled Greek Mythology Surrounds Us and it was kind of about me trying to link myths back to the modern day. So one day I was listening to, a podcast, with my mom. And I said, I really want to do something like a podcast like this.

And I was brainstorming what I could do, what interests I have that would. Be good and I could have it to be educational and just a fun thing to do. And I saw on my wall, the fifth and sixth grade honorable mention for, the contest. So I thought, why not try to turn this just simple idea into a podcast?

So that’s kind of where it at least came for me.

That’s awesome. Oh, I love that. Well, and I love that it’s kind of been like percolating for a while now and you were like, oh, hey, that thing I did a while back, plus podcasting. This feels like a good match. My kids love to hear. My kids don’t mind listening to adults doing kid podcasts, but when they get to hear another kid doing a kid podcast, that always like skyrockets it to the top of the list. They’re like, yes, I wanna hear another kid. Why would I not wanna hear another kid?

So yes, I love that you are putting yourself out there and trying something new. Like starting a podcast is not for the faint of heart, so it’s so awesome.

Yeah. Um, it’s just been awesome ’cause I used to listen to a lot of podcasts. I think the first one I listened to was called. It was like short and curly. I must’ve been like five or six at the time. And it was a podcast that would kinda like teach ethics through like examples. There was one, talking about I think it was should we allow like robots to like fight in wars?

And it was in like a really understandable, kid friendly way. And that’s kind of what I try to do on mine is to just kind of tackle some, topics or just kinda like tiny histories that sometimes can be complex but just try to explain them in the easiest way so that they’re engaging and you can just like learn something from them.

Totally. And I like that you’re taking Greek mythology, which most people have a decent idea of what’s going on. And I’ve noticed. At least with the episodes that my son and I have listened to.

usually when we’re done with the episode, we keep talking about it. And I love that. Through your podcast, that’s not that long, like 10, 15 minutes-ish. We’re able to like have entire conversations and a touch point where we can come back to it and my son can be like, Hey, remember when we learned about that?

I’ve been thinking about it in this way, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I’d love that. Your podcast has help me to have another connection point with my son in a way that like I’m interested too, instead of like listening to his video games, which is fine. It’s fine to hear about like him leveling up and whatever, but it’s much more fun for me to like talk about Greek mythology with him.

So yes, I love all of the sound effects that you use in your episodes too. What made you wanna add all of those, like the extra things that aren’t just your voice telling the story and relating it to today?

Yeah, for sound effects, I think a lot about it because I don’t wanna, I wanna still have things that like make sense, but things that are like engaging and things that. Because I feel sometimes when I’m just listening to like someone speak or myself speak, it’s helpful just to have like some, to just like capture your attention a little bit or to give you more of like a visual image in your mind.

Um, and sometimes whether that be like a background song, whether that be just like a oh no sound effect, it can kind of like jolt your brain and put like more like an image and just add more emphasis on that. Just I feel like my voice itself just can’t.

Totally. I love that and truly. Listening to your podcast and a couple of other ones. I’m realizing that, I think I need to do that in my show too. So we’ll see. We’ll see what, what, what I end up adding. But I really, it’s true when I listen to a podcast that even if it’s just, um, ’cause I think I’m. You can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was in the Christmas one. There’s like at one point you have like fire crackling in the background or something and like that’s not, I feel like that didn’t like jolt me back, but it definitely set the scene and it helped me to like feel like I was more in the moment.

So I feel like. My podcast. I’m not like talking about warriors or anything crazy, so I feel like I can’t have like swords clashing, but maybe I do add something that’s a little more subtle to kind of help set the scene and I, yeah, I’m seriously gonna be brainstorming how to do that more with my own show.

’cause I loved that in yours. It was so, so awesome and, and. I’m assuming it doesn’t take that much extra time. Like it obviously takes extra time, but not like hours of extra time, and I think that the payoff is definitely worth it.

No, I mean, probably just trying, I mean, I cycled through like a lot of sound effects and now I’m trying to document each one, so I could try to have like a few like recurring sounds. Just to try to like tie and, because it’s like kind of hard sometimes. ’cause if I want, like, like I wanted for one episode, I think it was the Thanksgiving one, I wanted like bacon sizzling.

And that was really hard to find because all of them are just like that. I, like, I, I had really specific vision and just like trying to find like that was kind of difficult. So I just have I think like 50 to like 70, just like. Files now that, now that I’ve been like categorizing it, of just all the sound effects to try to like speed up the process, but it’s not time consuming.

But it definitely, it, it does take some time.

Definitely. Even as you were talking, I feel like that’s a fun, like creativity part of podcasting that maybe we aren’t taking full advantage of. We, meaning me, you’re doing a great job. Um, but I feel like if you’re feeling like your podcast is a little like blah, that could be an easy way to add like. A creativity boost for you and for your listeners.

Like, hello, that sounds awesome and delightful.

So what has been most surprising since you started your show?

Um, I mean maybe just like how many countries it’s in, and just how many states. And I’ve had like lists like one or two listeners from like Kazakhstan, like Macedonia, like Indonesia, like places, Japan, places that like, don’t even speak English.

And that’s just been like a super cool thing. And of course like some of those plays can just be from people like accidentally clicking on it. I think that makes it even cooler just to know someone was like looking for a podcast and that they found mine interesting enough to play and it was also in 30 US states above 30.

So I’ve, I guess half the country at least one person has a heard my voice, which is kind of a cool thing just to think about.

Totally. Oh, I love that. Yes. It is so fun to see, like when you put something out into the universe like. Where it lands. It’s so fun. I love, I love that you brought that up because I feel like as podcasters, that’s something that either unconsciously or consciously we’re like, I’m putting my voice out there to try and help somebody.

And so it’s really fun when you like, Hey, look, somebody actually like was helped. Somebody listened to this and got something out of it, so ugh. I love that. That is. I feel like that spoke to my podcaster heart. So I do wanna ask you what, what is your favorite episode that you’ve put out so far?

I mean, I kind of feel like it’s picking between like my children. Um, I just, like, whenever I do wanna just get like so into it, I spend so much time like writing the script. Um, I. I feel like I’ve been trying to like improve, which with each one, like I look back to my Nike one and the audio quality is not great.

The, my editing style is like, I, I, I don’t feel like I did a great job on it. So I feel like each and every one I’ve gotten better. I learned things. I’ve like changed editing softwares because at one point I edited an, an entire podcast and um, I lost it on one editing software, so I had to move to another.

Um,

I hate that. That has happened to me too. It’s the

So I, I’d to completely re-edit. Um, so I would say that maybe my latest one about, the Labyrinth and the Mour, um, because, just ’cause it was my latest. But I feel like my answer will change when the next episode inevitably comes out.

That’s valid. I do have one more question for you before as we’re wrapping up. Um, okay. No, I have two. But first, what is your biggest piece of advice for someone that wants to start a podcast?

Um, I think. Figure out exactly what you want it to be. Think about how you want it to be like structured. I feel like the structuring is, was really important for me. I feel like I was lucky that I just kind of was able to pick a structure and go with it. But even like mine has changed. I used to have more of like the sound effects be like after the clips, which just felt kind of like choppy to me.

Um, and I feel like just having like a form sticking to it. Like even in my scripts, I try to maintain the same form. But just kind of like having an idea, solidifying your idea, and then just like continually executing it. You can learn, you can adapt, but just know exactly what you want. At least for me before going in.

’cause I feel like that just definitely helps. I.

Yeah. Okay. I absolutely love that because like you said, you knew what you wanted going in, so you were like firm in that, but then you were like, oh, that thing that I thought I wanted, maybe that’s not exactly what I wanted. And you can like course correct. So I feel like I love the idea of going in with a plan, but being willing to like tweak that plan when it’s not working as well as you want it to.

I love that. Okay. Um, as we’re wrapping up, please tell people where they can find you and your show.

Um, I try to. Put my show on every platform. So Spotify, um, apple Music, Amazon Music, geezer, audible, um, just really any platform where you can find podcasts. It should be up

I love it. Okay, perfect. And I will make sure to link it at least in like, the major places like Apple, Spotify, and I love pocket casts. I’ll link it there too.

Perfect. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for creating such an awesome podcast. And you were delightful. Thanks for hanging out with me today.

Thank you so much.

Are you now joining My jealous train? We can all be jealous of coal together I love that he took his passion for Greek mythology and turned it into a podcast as a high schooler. How cool is that? So here’s your next step, especially if all this feels a little overwhelming, try adding one sound effect to your next episode.

It doesn’t have to be big or perfect, but adding sound will definitely help you keep your listeners’ attention

if you have a podcasting friend who’s been feeling meh about her podcast, will you share this episode with her? It’ll help her remember how delightful creating a podcast really can be. Thank you so much for listening to this bonus episode. I’ll be back releasing weekly episodes this fall when season four starts on September 2nd.

I hope you’re having a marvelous summer. 

 So I would say that maybe my latest one is my one about, um, like myths. Uh, sorry, all about myths.  Um,