The audio description legend with Roy Samuelson

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello there, Radio Serrita listeners versus Preston Galer and I
am one of the supporters and avains of the Aaron's
Opinion podcast. Aaron's Opinion is a show where we discuss
critical issues in the blindness community and all across the
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(00:23):
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Speaker 2 (01:54):
Welcome or welcome back, everybody to another exciting episode of
Aaron's Opinion, the podcast for blind people. We speak about
critical issues in the blindness community and all other issues
from across the universe and galaxy. My name is Aaron Richmond.
Let's get into this one today. We have a lot
of people to think and this is going to be
a very, very fun and very dynamic conversation.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
This is going to be a blast, all right. As
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R O N s O p I N IO N six.
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all those places, all right? Oh yeah, and the premier thing,
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I'm not going to be able to watch the premiere
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(05:10):
me to comment, you know, in a premiere setting. Okay,
but of course, if you can wait for the video
to become public, and then after the video is public,
then I will be able to reply to you once
it's public, and I'd be more than happy to send
you information after the video becomes public. All right, well,
we want to take this time to first of all,

(05:31):
thank Blindy Girl Serena Gilbert, for in a very kind way,
has connected us with an absolute legend.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
An absolute an absolute.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Legend is the only word that goes with this person
in the audio description space. His name is Roy Samuelson.
He's been in the audio description space for a very
long time. He is just just that, just a legend.
He's been doing so much audio description work for blind
people that blind people enjoy from all over the world,
and it's just an absolute honor to have him on
the show today. So really, that's all I can say

(06:03):
is that he just did a great job on this
episode and he talks. We have a very dynamic back
and forth, and we really we really dig into each
other's stories and it was just a lot of fun today.
All right, so here we go. So this is our
absolutely fascinating conversation with Roy Samuelson. Click the link in
the description to learn everything you would want to know
about the audio description world.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
All right, there you go.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
So we'll cut you as we say, we'll cut you
in the outro, and of course don't forget you're listening
to the Eron's Opinion podcast. My name is Aaron Ridgemand
and now that we need a great name for this episode,
which of course is the audio description Legend with Roy Samuelson.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Welcome or welcome back.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Everybody to another exciting episode of Aaron's Opinion, the podcast
for blind people where we speak about critical issues in
the blindness community and all of their issues from across
the universe and galaxy.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Today, first of all.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
We have to thank our great friend in the community,
Serena BLINDI Girl, for introducing ourselves to an absolute I
got to say this, and you knew I was going
to say an absolute legend in the audio description in
audio Space, Roy Samuelson, I've known of you for a
lot of years. Man, I've always wanted to sit down
and have a great conversation with you, So of course
I'll ask you the question I ask everybody else. Who's

(07:12):
Roy Samuelson? The life story audio description? Everything you're doing
around the audio space, Tell me everything you want me
to know, and don't tell me anything you don't want
me to repeat, but tell them that because you know
that I have a global audience and I don't shut up,
So If you don't want me to hear Someli, if
you don't want me to repeat something, definitely don't say it.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Here go the life story. I'll meet my microphone, go
for it.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Where to start? This is a fascinating conversation just because
audio description has gained so much traction on the entertainment industry,
from TV and film to other aspects a video. And
I've found myself going from being a performer of audio
description for TV and film to stepping into the advocacy role,
stepping into producing and consulting, and wrote a book about it.

(07:56):
So there's a lot of different directions we can go.
And I think what I'm most excited about being here
with you is that, you know, the first of all,
the connection with Serena. She's amazing, and so you're amazing,
and it's just by proxy. So it's it's so good
to be here.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Oh, really good, excellent, really good.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Okay, Well let's start with with where you started started
out earlier in life with the acting. So you said
that you've done a lot of acting and D and
TV things, So what can you what can you tell
us about the acting things you've done, just to kind
of build foundation and how you how you became so
aware of audio and because your voice is perfect for
audio and all of that. So how did you get

(08:34):
into acting? What's your full background? By the way, Oh
I love it?

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Thanks So in college this is when I really started
doing theater performance. But in high school, I gotta tell you, Aaron,
I kept auditioning and I just couldn't book. I tried
the best I could. Sometimes I got like a little
background part or being in the chorus of a musical,
and there was just so much excitement around it. And

(08:58):
when the opportunity came in college to audition, it was
kind of like a reset, and I found myself in
a bunch of theater performances and then working for Disney
at Walt Disney World for a semester, and I actually
got some college credit. Believe it or not, it's a
ductorate degree. So that was kind of an unexpected curveball there.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
That's super cool. What did you do for Mickey Mouse?
What did you do for Disney?

Speaker 4 (09:23):
You know, it's funny. I think it was my first
unofficial paid audio description. It was a ride. It was
an attraction called the Great Movie Ride, and I ended
up being a gangster but I also played the role
of like a tour guide. Yeah, we would basically explain
all the movie scenes. It's like, over here is Tarazan
or over here is Indiana Jones. And it's like we

(09:48):
had to work in between the audio cues. We had
to kind of jump in and jump out like the
hokey pokey, and there was all sorts of special effects,
and it kind of primed me for what audio description is.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, that's really cool, and you definitely you definitely have
a perfect voice for that. Your voice is very warm
and very bright and very cheerful, and your voice is
definitely perfect for that.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
So really walk us through the ingredients. So how does
that work? Right?

Speaker 2 (10:16):
When they design audio description in a public setting, whether
it's a ride or an amusement park or a public event,
how does that work? How do they write the script
really really get under my skin. I really like to
get in with people and get into the nitty gritty detail.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
So how does this really work when they write scripts
like that?

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Oh that's a good question. So the ride itself, it
doesn't exist anymore, but at the time was it wasn't
audio description, but it was similar to what I do
now in audio description. So what happened was they the
imagineers at Disney, created this whole ride experience and it
was moving theater cars that would go through all these

(10:53):
different movie sets, and so everything was really time to perfection.
And just like with audio description, I was given a script.
What was different about this script is that I had
to memorize it. With audio description, I don't have to
memorize it, but I'm still given a script. And a
lot of people don't understand that that. You know, they
hear my voice on an audio description TV show or
a movie and they're like, oh, why did you write that?

(11:15):
And it's like, oh, someone else wrote it. Someone else
took a lot of time to make sure that those
words came at just the right timing for just the
right amount and just the right choices of what to describe.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Absolutely, and the words have to be perfectly timed, when
you know, with with other characters speaking and other sounds
that are in the environment.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
It's a very tricky thing. It's a very very tricky thing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, And then and then after that, so you worked
for Disney, and what else did you do for Disney?

Speaker 4 (11:45):
It was a semester then and then another few summers afterward,
and when I moved out to Los Angeles, I found
myself working on the corporate side of Disney. So that
was in the Amanima sorry, in the animation side, or
the corporate consumer products team or some other aspects. And
so I got to work in a lot of different

(12:05):
areas of Disney that's outside of what would normally be
considered movie and TV production.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Wow, can you unfold that a lot more and tell
me a little bit more about that?

Speaker 3 (12:14):
That sounds really interesting.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
It was great. And at the time I was filling
in for people that might be on maternity leave. You know,
I was a young kid and just figuring out this
whole office admin situation. And I found the people that
I worked with that really made the difference absolutely right.
It's like whatever it was if it was on the
finance team, or if it was animation, or if we

(12:37):
were working on a if we were working on a
movie on the production side, or just corporate synergy, working
through working with consultants, the people made the difference. And
every single time it, you know, different personalities and finding
out communication styles. It really taught me a lot about
messaging and what to put out there and how and

(12:58):
it's you know, I still use a lot of that
to this day.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
Yeah, very good, very good.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Specifically, though, what what projects do you remember working on
when you were working in the back office of the
Disney You know what what exactly what types of projects
were you working on?

Speaker 4 (13:14):
You know, most of them were pretty paper based, like administration.
But I can tell you I worked for recording artists
for Hollywood Records, and so we went this was a
different job, but it still was Disney under Hollywood Records,
and we got to tour with a lot of bands.
This was an up and coming artist and she and

(13:35):
her musicians, and I was the tour manager. So putting incredible.
It was so much fun. I got to tell you, Aaron,
we had we really got a lot of great opportunities,
and I think it's because of that that I ended
up going to all fifty states.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
So it was just good.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
It was a pretty pretty enjoyable experience.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
So, and are you able to tell me who some
of those musicians were that you that you managed, Well.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
It was they've changed a little bit, so I think
what was the biggest highlight for me was being able
to really figure out the logistics, like we're under a
tight budget of time, of money, of trying to get
from one place to another, and how to navigate things
when things changed at the last minute, whether that was

(14:18):
a venue that was meant to be outside but we
had rain, or we had a bunch of equipment to move,
and the guitarist got sick and we had to find
a last minute replacement. That all of these things, as
much as we planned for, there's always going to be
a curveball and being able to figure out, you know,
we still got to get this show going, how are
we going to do it? So there was a lot

(14:40):
of fun to have. I'm going to say behind the scenes.
This was not me on microphone. I wasn't on stage,
but being able to make sure that those that were
on stage felt comfortable, that they knew what they needed
to do and where they needed to be. And I
just wanted to be everyone's support system to make sure
that they got where they need to get to and

(15:01):
did what they needed to do. And they had so
much fun too.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
That sounds like a ton of fun. That sounds like
a ton of work, but that sounds like a blast
and absolute blast. And then there's all sorts of silly
things that happen, and all sorts of memories and people
saying weird stuff over the years and things like that.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yeah, of course, yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
What was your So tell me what was your craziest
memory in working as a tour manager? You know, what
was the craziest or the silliest thing that ever happened
when you were working doing this management stuff.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
I think there's two stories that come to mind in
no particular order, and I don't know why these are
sticking out, But at one point I did jump into
a pool with all my clothes on after hours, and
I thought that sneaking under the corner would hide me
from the security guard, and it did not. There was
another time we had an opportunity to ride in a
tank and we were on some base for the military,

(15:51):
and the group of us were so exhausted. We had
been up for the last ten nights performing and traveling,
and it was like the one morning where we had
freedom and we actually chose to sleep instead of ride
in a tank. And if I have, if I could
use the word regret, that's probably the closest is missing

(16:12):
out on that opportunity.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, that's really funny, That's that's really interesting. So tired. Yeah,
but I can't. I can understand.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
You know, sometimes if you're that tired, you wouldn't necessarily
want to do something crazy like that. Yeah, yeah, that
is all very all, very entertaining. Absolutely. So you you
worked in the corporate side of Disney for this semester,
and and then what happened in your life?

Speaker 3 (16:37):
It was.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
It really transitioned. I had the heart for performing, and
I found myself there were there were a few little
movie parts that I got, some scenes that I got
to do in some movies and TV shows. But I
found myself in an opportunity to be part of a
workout group for voiceover. So you can imagine going to
the gym and exercise different muscles on the different running

(17:03):
on the treadmill or lifting bench presses or whatever. But
this was for voiceover. And so a handful of us
would meet at a studio in person and we would
practice commercial copy copy, meaning scripts, little half minute commercial
scripts that we would read, or we would practice animation,
or we would do narration for something like an audiobook.

(17:25):
And the group of us really collaborated that we all
tried to support each other. It was such a safe
environment to play. We got to meet some agents that
would come in and teach us what they were looking for.
So it gave us some access to some knowledge of, hey,
this is what an agent's looking for, at least that
particular agent. And what was really interesting erin is that
all of those people have gone on to do some

(17:48):
pretty amazing things. It's been pretty neat to see, how
you know, the expression of rising tide lifts all ships.
That was definitely the rising Tide being a part of
that vo workout. And most of these are done virtually now,
so it's a little different.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Sure, absolutely, Yeah, And I've done some volunteer voice acting
as well. I love using my voice as well. I've
done some volunteer stuff playing. I usually play a character,
either an evil character or a good character, not one,
not one in the middle with my deep voice I
don't do. I don't do middle ground people. I either
play the person that's the god person or the evil

(18:26):
or the evil spirit person. Usually I've done a lot.
I've done a lot of that. But yeah, so what
can you tell me when it comes to you know,
what are you know in the voice acting space? I'm
sure a lot of blind people ask you. Let me
tell you reading a commercial, and I've done it from
my own show. When I do little sponsors segments, it's
actually pretty hard. You got to take a deep breath,
You got to get your breathing just right. It's not

(18:47):
quite as easy as people think. But why don't you
walk through for those who don't know, what what does
it really take to be a voice actor? What are
they really looking for? Apart from just a really pleasant
and strong voice, what do they really looking for?

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Well, sometimes it's not even a pleasant or strong voice.
It really depends on each project, and that's not even
you know, different genres that audiobooks has so much luxury
of time and we can spread it out. Audio description,
as you can imagine, goes a lot faster and has
to be fitting in between queues. It's a lot like
promotion TV shows, promoting TV shows, promo work. So there's

(19:25):
all sorts of different approaches. And I think one of
the things that a lot of people can kind of
get an understanding of is if they use their phone
to record their voice and then listen back to that recording,
most people are struck by what what is that?

Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know?

Speaker 4 (19:40):
You think about leaving a voice message and playing back,
it's like that doesn't sound anything because we're so used
to hearing our voice inside our own body. Everyone else
is used to hearing our voice in their body, which
is outside of our body. So it's like there's that acclamation,
that adjustment of oh, this is what I really sound
like when it's not inside my body, when I'm listening

(20:02):
to it literally outside. And then on top of that,
and I go into some of the detail in my book,
there's a lot of different voice acting approaches that work
not only for audio description but anything it's I believe,
and there's so many different approaches to acting. One of
the things that I found very effective is intent, like
what are you doing? Why are you saying this line?

(20:23):
And who are you saying it to? And those two
questions can really help play text detective and figuring out, hey,
what is the story we're trying to tell?

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Absolutely, that's you know, the why is so important when
you think about script and why it's written that way.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Absolutely, that's that's so accurate.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
And and the other thing too about you know, audio work, podcasting, YouTube,
creating videos is you know, I would think that something
that I produce, even here at Aaron's opinion, would sound
one way, But when I listened to it, I was like, wow,
it sounded like that.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
I didn't know it, did you know?

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Or you know, you never you never know what produce,
what product you actually produce until you actually listen back
to it and hear what it actually sounded like when
it came out the other end.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
You know. That's the other magical part.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Of it, you know, nicely said, but definitely yeah, no,
that's that's very, very, very accurate. So I'm sure you've
prepared for this question a lot. So how many different
how many different voices can you do? What types of
You know, not everybody does accents, not everybody does impressions
or voices, but you seem pretty impressionable. So how many
different impressions do you think you've been able to pull off?

(21:29):
You know, if you can highlight a couple of them,
maybe I'm.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Gonna pivot a little bit and use that and say
that while it may seem like there's no impressions, but
every different project that I work on, I bring something
to it based on what the script is, so it
might sound like within the same area. You know, I
don't really do the accents or different dialects. I used

(21:51):
to do that, but that's not really my focus anymore.
It's it's bringing my voice to the script in a
way that makes sure that the script stay alive and
that the audience, whether it's an audio description audience or
someone watching the TV for a promo or a video
game that I worked on, that they're in the story.
And that's really the biggest, most important thing to focus

(22:12):
on absolutely.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
So what video games have you voiced? There's been a.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
Few we go back to. You know, if you go
to IMDb, believe it or not, they've got some credits there,
and it's been fun to be a part of those.
There's some pretty big names. And you know what's funny
is that when I record it, it's not like I
get a chance to play the game right away. It
can sometimes take months or even years after it's released

(22:37):
before even being able to play, So it can be
hard to listen back without that context unless you're a
lead or something. And my experience has been playing supporting
roles that are recognizable, but you know, to find it
in a you know, thirty sixty hour game, it's it
could be kind of challenging. So I don't even know

(23:00):
necessarily how to direct people to listen to my video
games stuff.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
That would be hard because you'd have to know exactly
what point of the game and what character and exactly
where in the game you have to hear and look
to actually hear the voice.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, that would be tricky. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
Sure. It's not like YouTube where you can skip to
minute forty seven fifty or something. You know, it's it's
kind of buried in there.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
That's true. Yeah, yeah, that's that is That is very interesting. Yeah,
I think that's why video game acting. Voice acting for
a video game is very interesting because you never know
in what context the voice will come up in the end.
You know, it could be anywhere in that game. Yeah, okay,
good good.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
One of the cool things about that when it comes
to auditioning or even actually doing the recording, whether it's
video games, you know, interactive work, or audio description or
commercials or animation. What I'm really excited about is, especially
since the pandemic, that so many things have gone virtual,
that the opportunities for blind professionals that do this work

(23:56):
are going to you know, the access barriers are reding
that the things that used to keep people from even
having the opportunity to audition, those are being removed, whether
it's a screen rader or a braille display or other
aspects of access. It's really neat to see how welcoming
that pivot to virtual has opened the door.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, in some ways I think things
are a lot more welcoming. But then in the other way,
it's a lot more competitive because we're competing all online altogether.
So it's two things happening at once. The barrier to
entry is reducing, but the competition around the barrier is
certainly certainly increasing, at least I think in my estimation.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
That's a great point. Yeah, And with that, it's like
making sure that because there are so many more people,
it's making sure that we bring the best quality. And
I'm hopeful that that trend continues.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
So you said we have to bring the best quality, right,
So how do we measure quality?

Speaker 3 (24:58):
Right?

Speaker 2 (24:58):
In such a competitive universe? How do you ruy measure quality?
How can you really tell what's quality?

Speaker 3 (25:04):
Really?

Speaker 4 (25:04):
I love this question. There's a two different approaches. The
first is the quality of what my best is. And
what I love about best is that it doesn't necessarily
follow a trajectory of a little bit better each day.
I'd like it to be. But there's some days where
I wake up and my best is simply getting out

(25:27):
of bed. There's other days where I wake up and
I can get three deadlines done in five meetings and
record some sessions and somehow make sure that my accountant
has all the information she needs to be able to
process whatever she's doing. So the best is really relative,
and so to answer the first part of that quality

(25:47):
is to make sure personally, for me, am I doing
a little bit better than I could yesterday? And if
I can't, it's given myself some grace to allow for
that space to be able to you know, my body
needs to rest. I've been pushing really hard lately and
this isn't sustainable. The other thing is, instead of pointing
my finger at other people and saying, oh, look at

(26:09):
what that person is doing, that if you can imagine
being on a freeway that I'm going to a destination
and there might be cars going faster than me, there
might be cars going slower than me, but we're all
traveling to our destination and we're all going to get there,
and being able to not look at in this context
the other cars, to not look at the other people
in the sense of comparing myself, but actually comparing to

(26:32):
what I'm doing. Am I doing a better read than
I did a year ago, or six months ago or
even last week? How am I improving? I'm still coaching.
I still have coaches that teach me how to bring
my best and that is something that keeps things going
on my own personal quality. I think the other aspect
of quality, and we can talk specifically about audio description

(26:54):
for film and TV, is that our audiences are being
educated as to what quality means. And I think there's
something incredibly important about the accessibility of the immersive experience
that for far too often our blind audience members have
found that certain projects have audio description and I'm shaking

(27:17):
my head, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's matching
what's happening on screen. And again I go into some
of the details in my book, but there's something about
that immersive experience that sometimes not all the time, but
sometimes our blind audiences are denied. And that is something
that has to do with quality.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Definitely, you really, you really have to get to quality
just right, and you really have to know, you know exactly.
With TV, it has to be just the problem with
TV with audio description. You know, it has to be
just right. It can't be almost right, it can't be
pretty right. It has to be just right. There's you know,

(27:59):
that's kind of trick. It's a very tricky balance, I
think with TV. So then you and this is in
a lot of what you just said, by the way,
is what I tell myself as a podcaster, and what
I tell other blind people who want to get into
the industry. I keep saying, over and over, stop comparing
yourself to other people. Stop worrying about other people. Other
people have so many problems they don't have time to

(28:20):
worry about you. So just take one step, one step
at a time, one foot in front of the other,
and you have to keep taking baby steps. As long
as you know where you're going, you will eventually get there.
And that's what I've been telling people for many years,
is you just have to keep stepping in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
Absolutely, yeah nice. Yeah, So then yeah, you're so right
about that.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
And so then you got into doing audio description for
TV and movies and films, So why don't you work through.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
That some The opportunity came indirectly. I was part of
a group of writers and I was an actor in
this group, but these writers worked on TV shows and movies.
They were all produced or were produced on, so it
was a pretty high caliber of content. And what they

(29:09):
would do, these writers would bring in twenty five pages
of their script and four of them would do this
every Monday night, every week. And part of that was
as an actor, I was given a script and I
would show up and be thrown a script and step
right up and go. There was no time to practice,
there was no time to rehearse. Eventually we got out

(29:31):
of actual physical paper and got into iPads, which obviously
made a big difference, not only for accessibility but also
for being able to save some paper and the page
turns and such. But what was really interesting about it
is it trained me on two things. The first is
what I mentioned, the ice cold read, where I'm given
a script and you just got to go with it.

(29:51):
That is very similar to how most of audio description
can be. It's not always like that, but it can
be very very fast. And the other aspect of that
experience was learning about story that for most of my
life I am a performer, and so I've mistakenly thought
that the spotlight is on me and me doing the

(30:15):
best I can. There's aspects to that that are true.
But what that writer's group really taught me just by
showing up and I do the best I could. And
afterward the writers were talking about the story and they
were using the performance to inform how the story unfolded.
So I was actually supporting the story. And I think

(30:36):
that was the change eron to be able to see that, yeah,
I'm doing my best for the performance, but the spotlight
is on the story, not me, And that gave me
such a radical reshift to focus on am I telling
the story the best way I can so that I
can stay out of the way and the story shines,
and whether that's through my character, if it's through narrating

(30:57):
the scene descriptions, which are very similar to audio description.
It was a great training ground. And it was through
that opportunity that I met someone who introduced me to
the company that I auditioned for for audio description.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
And what was that company? And what happened?

Speaker 4 (31:13):
Oh yeah, it was so because a lot of the
things have changed, specifically because of virtual So I live
in Los Angeles and it was a local company that
provided audio description. But what's really neat is there are
certain companies, particularly on the East Coast and the West Coast,
that are in person, and there's a lot of other

(31:34):
companies that have situations where it's browser based. So as
long as you have a fast internet and secure way
to record and it doesn't have echo and it's a
professional studio, location doesn't necessarily matter for these other companies
that don't require in person recording. So, yeah, the opportunity

(31:55):
itself was showing up for an audition, and I wrote
about this. It was such a remarkable experience to see
all these different parts of voiceover come together in the
audio description, and I was just thrilled to have the
opportunity and to discover it. That was over ten years ago.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yeah, really good.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
So what can you tell us about, you know, the
actual audition and walking through the steps of that audition
and really really what it took, you know, really what happened.
And then after you got hired by this company, what
were some of the first shows that you actually described
in the first plots and stories you told?

Speaker 4 (32:31):
Gotcha? The audition was a very short scene from I
think an Imax film, and so it was this big, swooping,
sweeping kind of universal universe kind of thing where things
were just so wonderfilled and epic, and being able to

(32:51):
bring that story out I think is something that really helped.
I worked on a handful of TV shows for the
for the network. And if you go to THEA d
n A dot org that's th h E A d
n A dot org. That's the Audio Description Network Alliance.
It's an Internet movie database style for audio description performers

(33:15):
like myself or writers, and well, I haven't kept up
with all the credits there that that's definitely the place
to go to to find all those specifics. But it's
been fun to be on the same show for for
several seasons and and how that affected what you know,
knowing the characters and knowing the flavor of the show

(33:36):
and with all the twists and plot turns and and
other things. It became really exciting to be able to
bring those stories to life and find that nuance. I
use the word nuance a lot.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Yeah, so exactly, So what is that show? By the way,
what is that show? Oh?

Speaker 4 (33:51):
Sorry, I'm avoiding I don't mean to be avoiding it,
but there's there's certain shows that if you were to
name it, I could acknowledge it, but there's there's certain
that I'm not allowed to, uh to mention.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
My sure, sure, yeah, that's fine, that's fine. That's very interesting.
You're definitely right. You you definitely have to put the nuance,
you know, and you definitely have to connect the flavor
over you know, over a period of time. You're You're
absolutely right, and that's that's a very very interesting thing.
So yeah, yeah, okay. And then so what else can

(34:23):
you you know, what else? And and then and then
after you started doing this for a few seasons, what else?
You know, what what else have you done in the
in the audio description space over over this time?

Speaker 4 (34:33):
Yeah, so the focus was definitely on the performance, and
like I said, I found that a lot of blind
audiences were aware of the work and the care and
the commitment that was going into it, especially the writing.
And it basically led up to an opportunity to present
the keynote at ACB American Council of the Blind in

(34:54):
twenty twenty to really unpack here are the different different
aspects of audio description. Here's this department, This is writing.
My part is performance, you know, taking a script and
reading it. There's also quality control. There's also the mix,
the edit, anytime that a blind audience has to fiddle

(35:15):
with the volume up and down because of the explosions
happening in the background or the audio descriptions to quiet,
that's a mix issue. It's also timing. Why is everybody
else in the audience laughing before I am? Or why
am I laughing before they are? Or why is everybody crying?

Speaker 3 (35:30):
What happened?

Speaker 4 (35:31):
Oh? Okay, now I get it. That's a timing issue.
And all of these things work together like links in
a chain, and any single one of them, if it's broken,
it's not going to provide the access. And so it's
really fascinating to see how the audio description awareness has
been built simply because of the different departments, and also understanding,

(35:54):
you know, the last step of distribution. How does audio
description get, you know, a recorded audio description track get
into the ears of someone who's watching the TV show?
And why has it change? Why does it sometimes happen
at the theater and not on certain streaming shows. The
whole cinema to streaming to streaming thing is something else
I address in the book. It's it's a serious thing

(36:17):
that a lot of people are working really hard on,
and I find that as the wild West of audio
description is starting to shrink. There's a lot of things
that we can be hopeful for.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Absolutely, yeah, So can you break down and explain to
the listener who might be cited or might not be
fully aware. So what is this whole disconnect between theater
to stream stream to theater, this whole thing that you
just said about how sometimes audio description is available in
theater but not at home on you know, streaming platforms,
really break break that down and explain that. I think

(36:49):
a little bit more.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
I'd love to, first of all, acknowledge the frustration that
it doesn't make sense. You know, I if I go
to the movie theater and I watch a movie, I
should be able to watch the same movie at home
when it's on the streaming service. And that doesn't happen.
So what's happened. What I believe is happening is that
here's the good part, and I want to make sure

(37:11):
that this part is seen as the good part. That
the streaming services recognized the gap that there were all
these titles coming in TV shows and movies that did
not have audio description, and they recognized we're missing out
on market share. Here's this opportunity for expanding our audience

(37:31):
to blind people, and we're missing it now. It could
have been that, you know, there were some behind the
scenes threats of being sued and you better or else.
That's also, you know, a possibility, and true, there's a
lot of motivation to make sure that audio description is
included as a requirement. But these distribution channels were recognizing

(37:54):
the opportunity and started creating audio description. And so the
distribution company, for example, I'm going to name names, whether
it's Netflix or Hulu, or Disney Plus or Amazon Prime.
These companies were inheriting titles that didn't have audio description,
and they, the distributors, were selling out money to hundreds,

(38:15):
if not thousands, of projects to create audio description. So
I want to celebrate that that that step now carved
the way for audio description to have from maybe a
few dozen to a few hundred titles to have over
twelve thousand. The last time I checked on the Audio
Description project site, over twelve thousand projects have audio description.
I think a lot of it has to do with

(38:36):
the streaming services stepping up. The problem with that is
that production or even post production, who owns the content,
who filmed it, who created the mix for the audio
who edited it. That this content was sent to the
distribution without audio description, and now all of a sudden,

(38:59):
distribution owns the audio description because they bought it. So
if that content moves from one distribution place to another,
it doesn't necessarily mean that the content is moving. So
one of the points I make in the book, and
I'm pretty it seems to make a lot of sense,
is if we can let production know about this, if

(39:21):
production is a where hey, audio description is going to
bring access not only to blind people, but to blind audiences,
friends and family and those who turn on audio description
on a commute, or who might want to have access
to the different names, all these benefits of audio description.
You as production, if you include it in your budget,

(39:44):
then the distribution channels they've already paved the way. They
already know how to turn on or off the audio description.
So just you pay for it, you own it. Production
company send it to the distribution, and when that distribution
goes to another, production still owns the audio description, so
it's tethered. The audio description is stuck with the original production.

(40:05):
I'm really getting into the weeds erin.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
No, no, that's fine, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
That's exactly what I want you to do is to
really get into the to really get get under my
skin and get into the details.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Absolutely well.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
I mean, I think what would need to happen is
that these audio production companies would need to decide before
we sell our product to a streaming service, we have
to sell it with the audio description embedded, and then
it's up to the blind viewer at home whether they
want to turn it on or not.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
You know, I would wonder, you know what it really
comes down to.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
How have you done a study? And I have not
done a study about it, so I don't know. But
have you conducted a study to know how much more
money a production company would make if they make sure
that blind viewers are able to watch watch their their productions?
You know how much? I guess what I'm wondering is
how much of how much of the audience are people

(41:02):
who need audio description? What can you tell me about
the need behind audio description?

Speaker 4 (41:07):
I guess it's funny you bring that up. I don't
have the numbers in front of me, but it is significant.
There's I know Serena mentioned it on the Comic Con
panel that I put together a few weeks ago, so
we'll have to review that and send it to you
for a clip. What I'm finding is that it's you know,

(41:29):
if you look at it from a if you look
at it from the current situation, a streaming service is
stepping up to create audio description for hundreds or thousands
of titles, which means that they are now responsible for
hundreds or thousands of audio description tracks. That is a lot.
If we pivot to the production company, that's one and

(41:53):
that's one entity. The production company, it has a vested
interest in the creative storytelling, in making sure that the
all audiences are included. That they have a stronger motivation
than a distributor who has hundreds of projects to work together.
That it's going to be a different focus. The distributors

(42:14):
want to get as many titles of audio description as possible.
The production company wants to make sure that the best
story is being told, and that is where the money is.
So pivoting to production it's a drop in the bucket
to their budget, assuming it's included early. And that's something
that I'm really working hard on to advocate for. And

(42:37):
I've had some successes in the entertainment side on that.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, absolutely, that is really interesting, you know. Yeah, I
mean for me as a blind person, audio description is important.
You know, I do use my usable vision, but especially
for people who are who cannot see it all, who
are totally blind, or children or really anyone, audio description
can really you know, you know, breathe life into auction
for a lot of people. So, you know, I've interviewed

(43:05):
other people in other countries who are also you know,
making a huge impact on audio description too, and what
they've told me it's very similar to what you've said,
is that this is a really really important thing. That
the problem is is that most of society is not
fully understanding the importance behind it. And this is this
is a huge thing to get people to understand how
important audio description actually is. Yeah, which is critically important.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
But yeah, that's all very all, very very interesting. Yeah.
And so by the way, when did you when did
you write your book? And of course you knew that
I was going to ask, is it on audible?

Speaker 4 (43:41):
By the way, better than that, it's on Bard, So
any blind users who have a Bard account, it's it's
available if you go to Royce samuelson dot com slash
book there's links to audible. If you prefer that. It's
also on Spotify, and I think there's another audio sourced version.

(44:06):
And you know, it's a completely different experience the audiobook
versus the digital book or even the print version. The
audiobook has quotes from my podcast that includes the actual
words of the people that said it, and so you
know that's a lot different than reading it on a
braille display or a voice overread.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, so no, that's super good. I will
definitely take a look at that, and we should definitely
include that, by the way, in the description. I'll definitely
get more information about that for sure, for sure. So yeah,
I mean, as far as far as your podcast goes,
how long have you been podcasting?

Speaker 4 (44:41):
By the way, it's been about five years. We've got
two hundred and fifty episodes, so it's been about once
a week with a little hiatus just so I could
get the book finished.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Okay, so you started right abound when I started around
five years ago too, during the pandemic.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
That's interesting.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Yeah, yeah, what made you? So what made you get
into podcasting? How did you start it? And what exactly
do you just talk about audio description or your life
or so how do you focus your podcast that's super cool.

Speaker 4 (45:09):
Yeah, it's called the aDNA Presents and it's tethered to
the Audio Description Network Alliance, and so the idea was
to peel back the curtain and behind the scenes audio description.
And since then we've had other focuses on accessibility in
general and how it ties into audio description for film

(45:30):
and TV. We've interviewed people that have experienced doing live theater.
We've interviewed quality control specialists who are blind. We've interviewed
an HR representative of Certosila and how she's brought accessibility
training for coaching people in interview situations. We've had major
gifts from AFB that each different interview tethers to building

(45:55):
awareness of accessibility. And primarily it's about film and TV
audio description, but you can see the spillover effect.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
You absolutely can.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Have you interviewed now that I'm going to name drop
because the name just popped into my and you know
when you're thinking of a name and it just pops
right up on the screen on the scripture.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Have you interviewed Jeremy Opperman? No? Do you know who
he is?

Speaker 4 (46:17):
I would love to interview Jeremy.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
Do you know who he is?

Speaker 4 (46:20):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Oh, Okay, you do you do? You're you're very good
at me You're very Who taught you that? Who taught
you that evasive thing? That's you are good at invading?
You are really good?

Speaker 4 (46:31):
It's well, it's you know.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
What school did you go to?

Speaker 1 (46:35):
Do that?

Speaker 3 (46:35):
I asked, I ask a question.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I have to ask you yes or no question twice
and eventually get yes yes, I know.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Who What do you say, Am I really that intimidating?

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Well, no, it's not the intimidation.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
Yeah, I know, I know, but it's like, you know, I.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
Think it's uh BPM Associates.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
Is that.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
I think that's the I think that's the company if
we're talking about the same person. And that's why was
hesitated because I didn't want to.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Yeah, I don't know what the company is called. It's
a South African guy that I interviewed. He's done for
one thing, well, for one thing, he's done a tremendous
amount of work and audio description and advocacy for audio description.
For another, he's a history buff. I actually recorded three
episodes with him, three or four different installments with him.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Once.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
We did one episode where he walked through audio description
and then in the same conversation. We did a whole
history about his whole life and his family and his
relative who fought in the Boer War or something like that,
you know, so he can walk you through the history
of South afric He's just a fascinating Yeah, and he's
a huge leader in audio description.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
So yeah, that's really really, really interesting.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
So you've interviewed a lot of people in the audio
description space, Yeah, what about have you interviewed people from
other countries, you know, around the world. What have you
done internationally as as far as audio descriptions is concerned.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
Yeah, we've done some Europe, there's been a few interviews
in the UK and some others. So that's that's really
been interesting. And I'm sure you've experienced too that there's
different cultural approaches to accessibility. It's really interesting to see
how those play out.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
Yeah, definitely. And I also noticed that different.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
In different countries interact differently, you know, online and in
the audio space. I actually interviewed the voiceover network too,
and I interviewed some people over there in England and
they have a very interesting story and a very different
way of going about voice acting. So that's always interesting. Yeah, definitely,
there's a lot of Have you interviewed anybody from France?

(48:41):
I'm also I'm a bilingual English French guy. By the way,
have you interviewed anybody in French.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
Or in France? So I don't believe.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
So, yeah, French French people can be pretty shy.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
I've noticed in the podcast space and in the audio space.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
I have noticed that over the years.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Yeah, definitely, yeah, No, that's all really all really really interesting.
So yeah, so a couple hundred episodes where you basically
focus on you know, audio description and interviewing the people
around the industry. That's that's really that's really really cool. Yeah,
what has your audience been for that podcast? You get
mostly Americans or people all over the world who tune

(49:18):
into it, or what has been your audience over the
years for that?

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Primarily US? There has been an uptick in international. I
founded the Audio Description Discussion group on Facebook and we've
got about four thousand members and it's visible without having
to log into Facebook. So not even sure how many
people are visiting, but I've expanded a lot of awareness
of the podcast.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
That's super good outside of US.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have a Facebook group here at
Aaron's Opinion too.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
That's growing very rapidly too.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Well, what's yours called the audio description pro discussion audio
description discussion.

Speaker 4 (49:55):
Yeah, it's a little on the nose.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's really good, So all definitely definitely
take a look at that group. Yeah, and that's a
public group on Facebook that anybody can just filter into,
I guess, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
There's Lively Conversations. Serena is also admin for it, so
she's been really great about keeping the conversations flowing and
the Lively conversations are are playful, and people have different
approaches and it's wonderful to see how each perspective joins
or doesn't join in the conversation.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Absolutely, do you do you have you had a lot
of have you able to? Have you had a lot
of luck? On discord?

Speaker 2 (50:32):
By the way, discord has become a very fascinating platform
for discussion.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
What's your take on Discord.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
I'm enjoying it. It's a little I'm a little I'm
not going to call it social media, but it feels
like there's an element of that that it's it's that
one extra thing. But I also understand how it really
benefits and I see how the different approaches work. I'm
on a few Discord sections, but I just haven't explored

(50:58):
how it I mean, navigation. It's it's like it's uh,
I will say, with what I'm doing now the social
media with UH with Facebook occasionally Instagram and LinkedIn, along
with the regular work I'm doing, some consulting work I'm doing,
and others that it can it can feel like a lot.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Yeah, no, it is a lot. And that's why I
don't pay attention to.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
A lot of it, because it's hard to keep track
of it all because it's just too many, too many
different things. That's why I kind of circulate around a
couple groups that I really like and you know, kind
of hover around around those types of communities. You know,
that's that's a really important thing. Yeah, absolutely, I think
you know. As it comes to audio though, I think
the thing with Discord though, if you get into a
voice channel with people who want to hear you, I

(51:44):
think Discord does have a lot of power in the
voice channels. Yeah, but the other problem is not everybody
wants to hear what you have to say, you know,
So it is it is a very.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
No no, no, no, no, I'm not saying that about you
I'm just saying.

Speaker 4 (51:58):
That's take it in personally, I agree with all.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
It's just like it's just in general, Like you know, Pete,
people on discord, everybody, you know that. That's the other
thing that always weirds me out is people always say,
you know, well we want to hear you talk, and
then I say something and then they say, well, no,
I don't want you to say that. I say, but
you know, it's like it's like these people. It's like
some people. I saw a comment today. I don't even
know who it was or what group it was in.
It was a major group and somebody wrote a complaint

(52:24):
excuse me in a group and they said, and then
somebody wrote a comment under that and they said, you know,
rather than complaining, you could have just swiped right and
not even not even gone to this group.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
You know.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
It's it's people are so funny how they have to
spend time complaining when you know, and and I get it,
people get frustrated. But I've noticed that on social media
people are a lot more resistant to complaint now, Pete,
people don't listen to complaining nearly as Wow.

Speaker 4 (52:52):
Yeah, yeah, oh that's really good to know.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
I like that people don't really like complaints.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
People like not not complaining, and people like going along
and maybe you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:04):
It looks like my voiceover just hang out.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Oh that's it, that's fine. No worries, sure, no worries.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
Yeah yeah, Well that's that's all really all really fascinating.
So what are some other you know, things that you've
you know, seen within the industry. For example, you know, I've,
as I've mentioned, I've got into voice acting a little
bit as a volunteer, and I love I love doing
voice acting in a volunteer sense. What what types of
projects have you you know, been thinking about that you

(53:31):
would want to do in the future, or maybe including
other blind people, because there's a lot of blind people
that want to get into voiceover, but like just for fun,
like what's your what's your whole philosophy about approaching voiceover
from you know, a hobby perspective. There's the hobby, there's
the professional side that you do obviously, but then there's.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
A lot of hobby voiceover too. Yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
I have been focused on the professional side, so I
hire blind I hire blind professionals both as voice talents
and quality control and also writing, and that's been a
fascinating hurdle, even within both sited and blind communities. How
can a cited How can a blind person write audio description?
You have to be cited. And I've hired two blind

(54:13):
audio description writers and it's been amazing results. So most
of my work has been, as you said, on the
professional side, but for practicing, I know that you describe
dot org like you described, dot org is a great
resource for blind people who have YouTube videos that they

(54:34):
want to have audio description for. I haven't been on
the site for a long time. There's also, you know,
the same sort of thing with the workout group. I
occasionally do a workshop and really focus on the collaborative
get together with others and support each other because that
is the way to grow.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
Yeah, no way, yeah, absolutely right. I've never given this
any thoughts.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
So let's say a blind person has a YouTube channel,
which I do certainly, how I guess what I'm wondering is, so,
if you are a YouTuber, how would audio description fit
into a YouTube video that you produce?

Speaker 3 (55:07):
How would that work? I've never really given that thought.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
It's a great question, and I'd like to make the
I'd like to make the comparison to making a film
in the backyard for fun where you had people with
pizza or use a garage and make something up, versus
a multi one hundred thousand dollars episode of television or
a multimillion dollar TV show. That we're talking different executions

(55:34):
on audio description. That if someone's putting together a cute
little nephew video in the backyard and just want to
make sure that their blind friends can watch it, the
audio description is going to be a different level than
something that is professionally produced, and so allowing for that
and saying, hey, I want blind people to have access
to this, And then the next question is what visuals

(55:56):
do blind people need to have for this? And to
think about it ahead of time, you know, do you
want to create some space to allow for audio description.
Do you want to introduce the scene pre described similar
to how they do in the live theater for blind
audiences to be able to get a sense of the
set or the costumes or the characters so that you
can dive in right away and understand what's happening. That

(56:20):
YouTube itself is such a powerful resource for not only visuals,
but for storytelling absolutely, why not include you know, our
audio description, and there's ways to do it. I am
very much surprising people when I say there are appropriate
uses of synthetic voice, and this is one case in particular. Sure,

(56:44):
if you do not have time or money and you
want to provide information only of what's happening visually, then
create a synthetic voice to make sure that our blind audiences.
But also understand that is the use case that is
information based, that's not story based. And you know people

(57:04):
are putting together a YouTube video to the best of
their ability, Let's figure out how to do the audio description.
If you use a human that's obviously optimal, but there's
space for other spaces too to be able to make
sure that the visuals are there. I just am really
cautious and cautious. I'm very cautious about applying synthetic voice

(57:27):
as if it's a fix for everything. And I think
as synthetic voice grows and gets better, that emotional nuance
that context will catch up. But it's not there yet.
And we can all tell.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
I mean, and I'm one to think that there's a
purpose for AI, and there certainly is, but we have
to use the AI properly. There's a proper use of everything.
There's a proper use of a podcast, of audio description
of anything. It's just how we use it, you know.
That's where it has to fait in. So you can
use AI a synthetic voice when it's appropriate, you know,
for a short project, for something that's creative, for something

(58:07):
that's you know, low budget, that's that's totally fine, you know,
that's that would be my my stipulation with it. But
I think if we use AI in the right way,
I think it would be I think it can be
very very very powerful.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
It just has to be harnessed, that's all. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (58:24):
Yeah, And who's who's harnessing? Who's making that decision?

Speaker 2 (58:27):
You know that is well we the creator, the YouTuber, me, you,
the creators over time will make those make those judgment
calls about where AI fits in. I suppose, you know, yeah,
I don't know. I don't know how audio description would
fit into. It wouldn't be applicable in my case, you know,
being that I talk the whole time doing these long
form interviews. But I think you're right. I think for

(58:48):
maybe a blind person who maybe vlogs right, goes out
into their community, goes to restaurants, interacts with people. I
could sort of see voiceover fitting into that in some
in some regard, Yeah, definitely, but it does.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
It does depend on on the context.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah. And okay, so that's another that's
another huge resource that I've never never known of.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Very good.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Okay, And so what are some other what are some
other creative projects that you want to work on?

Speaker 4 (59:23):
By the way, I'm in the midst of some uh,
some fascinating pivots. Last week, I did a keynote for
a conference and it was there was something there that
I recognized the work I do in audio description applied
to how the keynote was delivered. So I'm starting to
approach executive communication using the audio description skills that I've

(59:48):
developed and and show showing not only for accessibility for
blind people, but also some other aspects of voiceover that
I think really apply to corporate communications. Obviously, what book
is something that I'll go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
Sure, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
What are those other aspects of voiceover that apply in
the corporate world? Yeah, what are some other aspects?

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
I think that's part of the message is that this
you know, I've been doing this for close to thirty years.
I've done audio description for the last ten and there
are a lot of things, and again it's some of
the specifics are in the book. But I think what's
most important is that there are ways to communicate words
that can connect to the audience. And connection is whether

(01:00:33):
it's giving a speech about quarter five results or motivating
your employees. That there's ways to be authentic and connect
and still get the message across. So it's not just
oh yeah, I heard that and nothing gets done. And
I'm seeing that that aspect is something that a lot
of executives did not recognize as being something that might

(01:00:56):
be useful.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Hmmm.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
That's really interesting. That's really interesting because you're.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Very you're very genuine, and you're very approachable, and your
eye can tell that you're very authentic, you know. So
for me, let me just tell you that for me,
as a blind person, I can tell authenticity twenty miles away.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
You can smell it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Huh, smell it twenty five miles away. Okay, we can
tell right away. We can tell right away the difference
between someone who's authentic you and someone who's not, and
it's immediately noticeable. I don't even have to I don't
even have to utter.

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
A word I can tell what is to tell?

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
I don't know, you just know it, right, It's just
this sixth sense.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
You know, there's just certain people that over time, you
just certain certain ways that you have to know to
connect with people. And I knew months after I spoke
with Serena blinding girl so much and you know that vibe.
Once I got that vibe, and then once you know,
once she said, oh, I know Roy Samuelson, I said, oh, really,
I've been trying to get in touch with him for

(01:01:57):
by the way, it's something personal.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
I've been wanting to interview you for a while.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
I'm sure you get this, get this a lot, and
I'm so appreciative that we're able to finally talk today.
All is good and everything. But what I would say,
what I'll say is, you know, I can tell the vibe.
You know, some people are really genuine on my podcast
and and others. Every few years you'll get someone that's
less genuine, and it's very noticeable.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
Wow, Yeah, you just know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
I love that loves It's just a sixth sense. I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
When you're podcasting, do you ever do you ever have
a feeling in your heart of the podcaster of you know,
genuine versus less genuine.

Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
You know that slight subtle difference.

Speaker 4 (01:02:32):
Oh yeah, you can, Yeah, it's similar. It's that's part
of Uh. I'm not blind myself, I'm cited, but there's
there is something to what you said that that authenticity,
and I'm sure you, as a podcaster can recognize it
and try to guide that conversation to be more authentic
and personal. That's something that I think is part of
our our job as hosts.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Sometimes sometimes I can guide, but in many cases I
can't guide all anenticity just because I can't teach motivation.
I'm a teacher when I'm not when I'm not podcasting,
I'm teaching.

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
You can't teach motivation.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
I can teach you English, I can teach you French,
but I can't teach you motivation. Gotch so I can't
teach I can't teach genuine. I can't teach that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
Yeah. Yeah, why do you use voiceover?

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
You know it's funny. As soon as you said voiceover,
I started thinking, wait, is he asking about Apple's voiceover
or is he asking about voiceover? Voiceover?

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
And then it got in general because your voiceover turned
on and then you said you're cited, So anybody in
the audience would would want to know, well, why are
you using voice a voiceover product?

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
It just turned on again. There's a few reasons. I
want to see how I communicate with others, and when
I send a text message, I want to know how
it comes across to my friends, and if it sounds stilted,
then that might be a time where I need to
actually record a voice message. I'm playing with punctuation, I

(01:03:58):
play around with going to websites. My own website has
had an accessibility audit. We did pretty good, and I'm
really pleased with that, but we still have a lot
of things to get better. So, yeah, you're laughing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
It's interesting that you Most people would Most people would
would throw that little Most people would kind of shy
away from that one thing, admitting that their website needed
an accessibility audit. That's that's that's endearing, that's very well.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
The thing is, it's like, this is part of the journey.
It's never going to be perfect. That's true, So let's
let's do the best we can. Because I know when
you know, I'm literally appreciating blind professionals, I'm supporting anyone
that's interested in growing their career and doing the best
I can, and if my website is giving them a
glitch that feels hypocritical, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
Sure that's good. No, that's good.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
That's great that you're so open to it. Yeah, so
I've never thought about it. But so how does an
accessibility audit work?

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
Like what is that? Like?

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
How do they actually audit a website? And then how
do they help you improve?

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
It's blind people that just scour it. From I understand,
they did not From what I understand, they did not
do a mobile test, and I think it was only
on a Windows machine, but still they were able to
catch a lot of you know, it's cag stuff. It's
the typical you know, here's something where we were absolutely
blocked and we could not get out. They're only a

(01:05:23):
handful of those. There's also some pretty hard things. There's
some medium things, and then there's some like kind stuff
like you know the difference between decorative and hidden and
being able to understand, oh yeah, we don't need to
decorate everything because that's going to slow things down. So
it's like it's subtle things like that, and you know,

(01:05:44):
this literally just happened. So you know, if you go
to my website. There's going to be some issues, but
we're working on it. And that's the point part of
the accessibility conference. Last week we had a pre conference
day and the very first thing they said, well, and
I'm not going to name the name of it, but
they said, if you use this program, it's not accessible.

(01:06:04):
And I had used this program to create the PDF.
So I spent the next day and a half redoing
the pdf and still kept the PDF, but also create
a blog post that had all the content from the
pdf that was accessible. And so it's like, all of
a sudden, now this document became live on the website
and it just became that much more accessible. So it's

(01:06:27):
like we're all learning, we're all trying to do our best.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
That's so good, that's great, that's wonderful that you're willing,
and that's so good that you're willing to actively improve.
And this is something that I teach people on my
podcast and in real life that if you're not willing
to improve, I'm kind of not willing to work with you.
So the fact that you're willing to improve make motivates
me further to listen to what you have to say.
That's that's a really cool thing. That's really excellent. Yeah,

(01:06:51):
really really good. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
Do you have on your website?

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Do you have all of your social media links and like,
all of your stuff on the website Royce Anderson dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:06:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:06:59):
Yeah, if you go to Royce Samuelson dot com, it's
Royce Samuelson. On LinkedIn, Instagram is roy Samuelson. I'm not
as active there, and then uh, yeah, so yeah, I
go to the website and sniff around and if you
get stuck, let me know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
Yeah, good, No, we'll definitely, we'll definitely check it out
because obviously I like to include links in the in
the episode description, which you did provide a nice a
nice paragraph. But then I'll also have to go in
and add in a couple of links too, so that
people completely connect with you and things like that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
And that's that's all really all really interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Yeah, yeah nice and so so so, by the way,
were you born on the East Coast or were you
just born your did you live your whole life, by
the way, in California.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
I moved out of Pennsylvania many many years ago. Yeah,
and so it's uh, it's just a different it's different.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
And what made you originally leave Pennsylvania.

Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
It was time. I was a tour touring a theater
traveling theater company and the contract was up and it
was now or never, so I wanted to get away
from the slush and snow.

Speaker 3 (01:08:09):
Yeah, I understand what town in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
Central Pennsylvania. So I lived in Pittsburgh. That's usually easy
for me to say. I loved I loved Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Oh interesting, interesting, Yeah, Yeah, that's yeah. I've heard I've
heard mixed stories about Pennsylvania. Some of the towns are nice,
you know. I've heard both good and bad things about Pennsylvania.
So it just depends on what neighborhood and where you know,
where you are. Yeah, yeah, Pennsylvania is a very interesting
place for sure. Yeah, definitely, Okay, good good And so

(01:08:39):
have you done a lot of traveling overseas. You strike
me as someone who would be very adventurous.

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
I've got he's not living there now, but I've got
a family member that lived in in Japan, So it
was once I got the flight out there, it was
a place to kind of anchor down and explore. So
I was able to see a lot of Asia and
in Thailand and Philippines, as well as Japan. Yeah, yeah,

(01:09:05):
a little bit of Europe. And you know, I'm still
I'm still enjoying the exploring.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
Absolutely when you were in in Japan and these countries
in Asia, what do you know about audio description in
that part of the world. Do you think there's audio
describers like you in Japanese and tagt og and other
languages in Asia?

Speaker 4 (01:09:23):
I did not know about audio description when I traveled there,
so it'd be so much fun to go back. And
my experience there was before a lot of the translation
services on the on the apps. It was it was
like a I call it dark ages. I still had internet,
but it was a different time. So I'd be really

(01:09:46):
interested to see how they've grown. And you know, thinking
about some of the international destinations, the tourist destinations, I'd
be so curious to see how how those are there.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
But uh, yeah, yeah, i'd be gary to know how
many blind people in those countries watch movies with Japanese description,
you know, just like you do. I'm sure there's people
in Japan who do exactly what you do, just in Japanese,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
Yeah, with your with your Facebook.

Speaker 2 (01:10:14):
Group there that you mentioned the audio description discussion. You know,
have you gotten a lot of international Are there a
lot of other international people in there that are doing
audio description just for other countries? You know what, what
can you really tell me about the dynamics of that group.

Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
Yeah, it's and I think it's so interesting because there
is sometimes a nuance and sometimes a really different approach.
And that's what's been so wonderful is that these silos,
these isolated areas are breaking down, not just in the geography,
but in approaches that people have incredibly different approaches, and

(01:10:50):
it's it's really interesting to see how that conversation is
happening that people disagree and say, oh, I do it
this way, and I see how you do it your way,
and so it's it's neat to be able to be
able to have that discernment and those options of different approaches.
One of the things that's come up a lot is
here's a unique approach to AI. And it was on

(01:11:12):
one of more more recent podcast episodes where they talked
about AI being able to have different descriptions in the
sense of details like costumes or shot angles or facial
expressions or limited so it's just bare bones audio description
that everyone has their own different approach to what they want,

(01:11:34):
and that kind of personalization is possible with AI.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
Yeah, that's really interesting because AI can be used to
describe you know, costumes or things within a within a room.
So that is that is a interesting use of AI
for sure. Yeah, No, that's that's very very very interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:11:54):
Yeah, it's aspirational.

Speaker 3 (01:11:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
I would just wonder, you know, when in these groups
how much I guess what I'm really wondering is how
much networking have you done with other audio describers around
the world? You know, how many you know, do you
network with all the other describers all over the place much?

Speaker 4 (01:12:12):
I It depends on what you mean by describers. So
there are a handful of companies that actually train audio
description writers, like AD Training Retreats, that's AD Training Retreats
dot com and they've trained some of the top audio
description writers for TV and film, and so there's a
there's a network there as far as the performers. Like

(01:12:32):
what I do, Yeah, I've I've stumbled in. I've I've
referred a lot of people, and I like to if
there's a project that I'm not a good fit for,
I like to refer other performers. So you know, there's
you know, with twelve thousand projects, you know, some of
those are going to be synthetic voice, but there's a
lot of uh, there's a lot of new companies that

(01:12:53):
are coming out. There's a lot of different voice talents
that are entering this with voiceover background, and so the
network is growing and it's exciting to see how each person,
no matter where they're from or their background or experience,
has a way to contribute to this this field and
make it even better than what it was before they joined.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Yeah, that's really good.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
You know, if we can keep improving the field and
making it more genuine, you know, that's what that's what
really matters to me as a blind person. It's about
the genuine It's about how much you love doing it,
how much you care. You know, that's what it's about
for me. Yeah, that's super good, super super good. Yice, Yeah,
thank you for this.

Speaker 3 (01:13:30):
This is great.

Speaker 4 (01:13:30):
It's so good to talk to you.

Speaker 3 (01:13:31):
Erin.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
How many so how many other podcasters have reached out
to you over the years. How many other times have
you been on podcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:13:37):
That like not enough.

Speaker 4 (01:13:39):
I'm going to say not enough and I wish I
could have had I met you outside of Serena, I
definitely would have been interested in and had the conversation.
So I'm encouraging. I'm encouraging more more of of that.
So there's I've been on a few, and I try
to keep I try to keep those updated.

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
Yeah, so what other what other podcasts have you been on?
Because maybe I know that maybe they're other blind people
that I've spoken with, or no, maybe.

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
Yeah, there's a I think I'm going to direct you
to a CB ADP dot ACB dot org. The Audio
Description Project has a list of all the podcasts that
have to do with audio description. It's a big list,
and it's it's starting to grow. I really am appreciating
all the all the different things that are out there.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
Yeah, so I tek in other words, you're saying there's
a so you're saying, there's a list of podcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:14:28):
That just talk about audio description.

Speaker 4 (01:14:30):
The Audio Description Project ADP dot ACB dot org, Audio
Description Project, American Council of the Blind dot org.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
That's a pretty that's a pretty specific thing, you know.
I did you know, And that's good for me to
know because that's a very specific niche that I didn't
I'm not surprised it's there, but that's a very specific thing,
and that's that's very very good to very very good
to know. Yeah, so when you're not in the and
the other thing that I would wonder is, and I'm
sure at vary some projects project, how many hours there's

(01:15:01):
a professional audio performer like you spend on any given
scene or project.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
You know, does it all depend how long do these
things take?

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
It all depends. There's sometimes I've got six cues and
I get them at two am and they're doing at
six am. There's sometimes where I've got fifty cues and
it's due three business days from now. There's sometimes I
have to show up in a studio and they're printing
the scripts as I'm showing up, or they're uploading it
to a device. It really depends. It all vary varies,

(01:15:32):
and so that's the other thing is being adaptable and understanding, Hey,
this company likes to work this way. This company likes
to work that way, and every project, even though it's
audio description, can be approached differently.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, So what are your hobbies when you're
not doing all this work?

Speaker 3 (01:15:50):
What else do you do in your free time? What what
are your hobbies?

Speaker 4 (01:15:53):
I like escape rooms. Eron, have you heard of escape rooms?

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
But you know what, I think you should describe because
you have a perfect escape room voice.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
Thank you, it's it. That's right. It's like an indoor
scavenger hunt with you. No, I've done it all right, Okay, cool,
They're not so.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
Good for they're a little bit let's say this is
another thing. An escape room is a little bit less
applicable for blind people. That's a little bit harder for blind.

Speaker 4 (01:16:18):
I pitched IRA. I pitched IRA the a part of
the audio description for an escape room, like I've done
an audio description, not audio description. I've done a virtual
escape room where it was entirely on video. And if
you can imagine an IRA agent dedicated to the audio

(01:16:40):
description for an escape room, who knows the plot and
the turning points, and you know, a glasses or whether
you wear like a little clip on video, it's like
it's the same thing. You just it's like having a
team member that isn't that is virtually there. So I
I pitched that to IRA like four or five years ago,

(01:17:01):
and now I want to reapproach them and be like, hey, listen,
I just talked to Aaron. We've got to get this
audio description going for escape.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
That would be so much fun for the IRA agent
because then they'd be able to like sit there and
they'd be watching the blind person like fumble around, and
they'd be like they'd have to mute cause they'd be
like laughing or trying to say no, no, no, nut
du't that's that first, No, no, no, not there not that,
you know.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
So that would be a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
I don't know how applicable it would be, and I
don't know how much use they would get out of it,
but it would definitely be a really challenging project and
a fun one for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:17:34):
So much fun, so much fun.

Speaker 2 (01:17:37):
Yeah, really good, really good. And then outside of that,
what else do you do with your free time?

Speaker 4 (01:17:42):
I have been taking walks, Aaron, I am interrupting the workflow,
which seems to go from six like today is a
pretty intense day. I've got about two more hours of
audio recording to do and three more meetings, plus I've
got some deadlines to get done. I had three meetings
this morning already. It just doesn't stop, and so what

(01:18:03):
I'm doing is forcing a stop. So I've got a
little alarm that goes off, And when the alarm goes off,
I stop whatever I'm doing and I go outside and
I walk. And that has really a life changing thing.
I wish I would have learned that when I was
a kid.

Speaker 3 (01:18:17):
Yeah, you got to stay physically active. You have to
be physical.

Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
You have to stay physically fit and physically active to
be able to perform at your best.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
That's that's a trick. Yeah, Yeah, what.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
Are some I'm sure you have a lot of questions
for Aaron Richmond and Aaron's opinion. So to really get
under my skin, to really make me spoil, what do
you really want to ask me? You know, Aaron Richmond,
Aaron's Opinion. I'm sure you can ask me some great questions.

Speaker 4 (01:18:40):
What did you want to get out of this interview
with me?

Speaker 2 (01:18:44):
I wanted, well, certainly it's a great interview, for sure.
What I wanted to get out of it was what
I just got out of it, which is a great conversation.
And I learned a lot from you. I actively learned
from you. And the thing that I like is how
you really like to have a back and forth conversation
if you listen, go back to a lot of my
pre episodes in previous work, you'll hear that in some
cases I let the guests talk for a very long

(01:19:04):
time in a long form setting. Not all guests want
to have a back and forth.

Speaker 3 (01:19:08):
I'm glad you do.

Speaker 2 (01:19:09):
I'm glad you do, because back and forth can be
really fun when we bounce off each other like that.
So I really liked the dynamic of having such a
great back and forth conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
I really really like that.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
And that's really a really subtle thing that podcasters have
to practice, is how to have a back and forth conversation,
you know. So that's that really stood out to me.
How much you want to interact. You're very, very very interactive,
and that's very very good.

Speaker 3 (01:19:34):
Yeah. Nice, thanks, Yeah, absolutely, What else do you want
to know?

Speaker 4 (01:19:38):
It's the what is something that you're looking.

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
Forward to continuing to build more podcast episodes because I
find that people really need this. I find, as you do,
that blind people need podcasts to listen to. Whether it's yours, mine, Serenus,
whosever it is, we need more content. You know, there
are so many blind people who are maybe not maybe

(01:20:02):
not working full time like we are, maybe not you know,
maybe they need you know something genuine to fill their time.
And I find that audio audio consumption and podcasting is
a great sense, a great source of time, is a
great use of time for people. So that's why you know,
we keep doing it and why I keep building out
the next episode.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
Nice, I can't wait to hear this one.

Speaker 2 (01:20:23):
Oh, I'll definitely tag you. I'll tag you on, I'll
tag you on all the socials as we say. Yeah,
that's why I was asking about that, because tagging people
appropriately is how is how the audience finds out. You know,
you'd be surprised. You know, you can have hundreds of stuff,
but if nobody listens, then it's it's harder. You know,
that's a weird thing too. It's getting the word out
about stuff that's getting harder. It's like all these groups,

(01:20:43):
it's all a blur sometimes, you know, standing out is
really hard.

Speaker 4 (01:20:47):
Yeah, well, thank you for this. This is wonderful. I've
had such a great time.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
You're very welcome, right, absolutely, you are forever welcome in
the Erin's Opinion family. And before we go, I always
like to ask if you can ask me one question
to make me have to get under my skin as
a podcast or what do you want to ask or
have you asked all your questions?

Speaker 4 (01:21:04):
What temperature does the room have to be for you
to sweat?

Speaker 3 (01:21:08):
Oh? I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
I don't I mean, I mean I live on the
East Coast, so it gets pretty warm where I'm from.

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
But yeah, yeah, so if I had access to your thermostat,
I would turn up the temperature to make you sweat.
I don't know how else to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
It's pretty clever.

Speaker 4 (01:21:26):
It's the best I got.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
If somebody wants to get in touch with Roy, how
can they How can they reach you, Bro, Roy Samuelson.

Speaker 4 (01:21:37):
Yeah, Royce Samuelson dot com and go to the website.
At the bottom of every page there's a get in
touch form to get on the newsletter. I do a
lot of blogs and such. Absolutely, and somebody wants to
email me, it's my name at Roy Samuelson dot com.
So that's Roy at Roy Samuelson dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
All right, And this has been Aaron's opinion, Royce Amuelson.
As I said at the beginning, it's been an absolute
honor to interview a great legend in the audio description
community like you, and I really love the conversation. So
thank you so much. And do you know how I
end an episode of Aaron's Opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:22:09):
Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (01:22:10):
This has been great.

Speaker 3 (01:22:11):
He'll me we say thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
Keep podcasting out there and have a great toay everybody,
and until next time, help one person today, help one
million people tomorrow. You've been listening to the audio description
Legend with Roy Samielsen right here on the Aeron's Opinion podcast,
the podcast for blind people where we speak about critical
issues in the blindness community and all other issues from
across the universe. And galleax sy, Roy, you did a

(01:22:34):
great job. Sarena, you did a great job at BLINDI girl,
and we will get to you. We will get to
both of you in a moment. As we always like
to say. If you want the easy way to get
in touch, request my electronic business card if you want
to make it harder. One two four zero six eight
one nine eight sixty nine Aeron's Opinion six at gmail
dot com. Following follow along on Instagram at Aaron's Opinion.

(01:22:55):
Aaron's Opinion podcasting community joined the WhatsApp community along with
the Facebook group. Don't Forget That Facebook group is growing
very rapidly, and we're very appreciative of that. So keep
joining that thing and keep participating.

Speaker 3 (01:23:06):
And another thing that just occurred to me.

Speaker 2 (01:23:08):
You know, there's a lot of new people in that
group and we would really like you to participate. So please,
you know, comment on the post. Please post you know
about what you're doing in your life. We would love
to know, especially if we don't know who you are.
It would be a really great thing if you commented
and posted in the Facebook group Eron's Opinion podcasting community.
If you have any issues or problems getting into the group,
please let us know in Either me or one of

(01:23:28):
the other admins will get back to you and we
will certainly help you to get into the group if
in fact you do belong there. Don't forget about liking, following,
and writing a review of the Facebook page Aeron's Opinion
podcast that's also on Facebook, and that's the only way
for other people to find out about the important work
we do here at Aaron's Opinion, Rate and review.

Speaker 3 (01:23:44):
That's the kind thing to do.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
Don't forget about the fact that this week's download contest,
United States, Canada and the United Kingdom were the leaders.
This week. You know within the last seven days roughly.
It is of course very competitive. I am, you know,
looking through the whole chart, looking through the whole list,
and I am very proud to see that there are
many new countries that are joining us. So if you

(01:24:05):
want me to say your country, if your country needs
to be in the top three, well that means download
this in many other episodes, and it is very very competitive,
So please keep downloading and listening and enjoying it. Don't
forget about joining the Patreon of course as a free
member to be the first person to see the video.
And don't forget about following along on TikTok in case
we post there. Don't forget the premieres of the video

(01:24:27):
will be the time that they are available to be
downloaded on Apple podcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:24:30):
Or wherever you listen.

Speaker 2 (01:24:31):
So that's ad a very good strategy to know when
the episode is coming out. Look at when it premieres
on YouTube. That's a huge clue. Don't forget about following
along on x and everything else like that. All right, Well, anyway,
first of all, first and foremost, blindy Girl, Serena, thank
you so so much for not only taking the time

(01:24:54):
to get me connected with Roy Samuelson, but thank you
for connecting me with such an incredible person. I really
don't hesitate in saying this at all. I had always
wanted to talk to Roy, and I've always wanted to
have him on the show, but without you know, the
reality is, sometimes you need a little bit more of
a connection and a little bit more of a backing.
And now that we have that, ever appreciative of Blinding
Girl and Roy Samuelson. So thank you so much to

(01:25:16):
Blindy Girl for that. Roy did a great job. I
really enjoyed the dynamic, man, I really enjoyed the back
and forth and the flow of the conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:25:23):
And you're just You're just really fun to talk to. You.
You speak in a very meaningful way.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
You take audio description seriously, obviously, but then I can
also tell how much you enjoy it and how much
you enjoy talking to people. You're very easy to talk
to and very understandable, and you're just a great person
to have in the community. So Roy Samuelson, keep describing,
keep creating great audio, and remember you are always welcome
here on Aaron's Opinion and in the Erin's Opinion family.

Speaker 3 (01:25:48):
Thank you so much, all right, we.

Speaker 2 (01:25:50):
Want to take this time to thank all the other
podcasters and radio stations out there for syndicating the message
of Aaron's opinion around the universe each week or day.

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
Whenever you do. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:25:57):
We couldn't do it without you. Of course, thank you
to all the guests, past president in future who continue
to share the knowledge that they have about the world
with us each week or day on the podcast when
they do come here, thank you. We couldn't do it
without you either. And of course thank you to you
the listener at home from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom,

(01:26:18):
many many other countries around the world, many different many
different continents, many different seasons, many different environments. Wherever you're
listening and downloading, we say thank you because we know
there's millions of choices, and we thank you for choosing
Eron's opinion. All right, everybody, let's see here next week.
I think we're actually going to go go over to
I think next time we're going to go over to
South Africa, and then we're going to go home to

(01:26:39):
the States after that. So, of course, thank you so
much everybody. Absolutely absolutely great episode today, and we couldn't
have done it without Serena and Royce Samuelson. So thank
you to everybody for participating. It was an absolutely great,
great episode today and until then you're listening to the
Erin's Opinion podcast. My name is Aaron Richmond. Thank you
so much. Have a great day, all right, that's it.
Thank you so much, and of course, help one person today,

(01:27:01):
help one million people tomorrow.

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