The Beginning

Hi, I'm Seth, and this is a little blog I'm doing to chronicle my life as a new dad - and podcast novice.

Three months ago things were quite different for me. I had no podcast. Nor did I have a baby, although the fact that there was one on the way was fairly obvious.

Pregnant Alice

Then something happened. No, not the baby. I got a WhatsApp message. From my good pal Tom. Tom had seen a half-serious comment I'd made in a WhatsApp group about doing a podcast on some topic or other, and was coming to me with his own idea.

'Seth', he said, 'if you're interested in doing a podcast, I've got what I think is a great idea for one... football!' Much as I enjoy rabbling nonsensically about football constantly, I had to politely suggest to Tom that it was a topic already well served by podcasts.*

'Ok', he said, 'how about fatherhood?' I was about to shoot him down once again but I paused. Tom, a father himself, continued: 'There's not a lot out there for dads - unlike for mums - and potentially there's a big market for it...' he had my attention, '.... and you're about to become a dad for the first time, so I think you'd be a great person to front it - that and your smooth, dulcet tones and rapier-like wit'. I was sold.

In all seriousness, although we did think it was a solid idea, we mainly wanted to do it because we thought it would be a laugh. So we arranged to meet up to discuss it in person. And from there, one thing sort of led to another; we invited two other mates - Jamie (dad-to-be) and Benji (dad) - to get involved and before we knew it we were at Jamie's studio (big up Green Rock) recording episode one with our first guest, director and playwright Ben Ockrent.

The next life-changing event for me occurred just over a week later. (Yes, this time it's the baby.)

Alice holding Eliza just after she was born

Eliza Neve Wilson Singh Jennings arrived on December 23, 2017. There's a blow-by-blow account of the birth story (albeit disputed) on episode two of the podcast, but what we don't delve into too much is the whole emotional journey of becoming a parent and dad.

That's partly what I'm aiming to do on these pages. I'll also document some of the more incremental developments along the road - ones that are perhaps too subtle to get across in the rough and tumble of the podcast.

*Tom didn't actually mention football, this is a total fabrication on my part