Travis Unwin (born June 10, 1968), known professionally as Evo Terra, is an American
podcaster
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. ...
, author, radio broadcaster, and businessman based in
Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population ...
.
Terra is the author of ''Podcasting For Dummies'', originator of ''The Beer Diet'', a travel
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
ger, and an early pioneer in podcasting.
Career
Podcasting
Evo Terra began his audio content career as a member of the team that produced and presented an internet-based radio show in 2002.
The format focused on interviews of notable authors, including interviews with
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
,
Boris Vallejo
Boris Vallejo (born January 8, 1941) is a Peruvian-American painter who works in the science fiction, fantasy, and erotica genres. His hyper-representational paintings have appeared on the covers of numerous science fiction and fantasy fiction ...
, and
Piers Anthony
Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born 6 August 1934) is an American author in the science fiction and Fantasy (genre), fantasy genres, publishing under the name Piers Anthony. He is best known for his :Xanth books, long-running novel series set in ...
.
The show moved to terrestrial radio and then to satellite syndication in 2003.
As one of the
earliest popularizers of podcasting, Terra's first podcast episode appeared on the Podcast Alley directory on October 14, 2004, and was only the fortieth podcast produced as of that date.
''
Slice of SciFi
Slice may refer to:
*Cutting
Food and beverage
*A portion of bread, pizza, cake, or meat that is cut flat and thin:
:*Sliced bread
:*Pizza by the slice, a fast food dish
* Slice (drink), a line of fruit-flavored soft drinks
In Australia and Ne ...
'' received the
Top Rated Podcast Award in 2005
and the 2008
Parsec Award
The Parsec Awards were a set of annual awards created to recognize excellence in science fiction podcasts and podcast novels. The awards were created by Mur Lafferty, Tracy Hickman and Michael R. Mennenga and awarded by FarPoint Media. They were ...
for Best Speculative Fiction News Podcast.
In 2006, Terra was one of the co-founders of Podiobooks.com,
a website that uses podcasting technology to help authors distribute serialized versions of audiobooks from various genres.
In 2011, Terra founded ePublish Unum, a company that provided educational services for independent authors until September 2014.
Terra has also been a panelist in the podcasting track at
Dragon Con
Dragon Con (previously Dragon*Con and sometimes DragonCon) is a North American multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. , the convention draws attendance of over 80,000, f ...
in Atlanta, Georgia.
and delivered the keynote address at the
Podcast Movement
Podcast Movement (PM) is an annual conference for the podcast industry. It is one of the largest gatherings of participants in podcasting, with over 3,000 attendees in 2019. Described as "for podcasters, by podcasters", it focuses on collaborati ...
conference in Dallas, Texas in 2014.
Publishing
In 2005, the first edition of ''Podcasting For Dummies'', co-authored with Tee Morris, was published by
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in p ...
.
Terra collaborated on the second edition of ''Podcasting For Dummies'' with Tee Morris, Chuck Tomasi, and Kreg Steppe in 2008.
These were two of the earliest easily accessible books on the new medium known as podcasting, and helped popularize the new medium among content creators.
The 2007 publication of ''Expert Podcasting Practices For Dummies'' expanded on the techniques described in the first book.
''The Beer Diet (A Brew Story)'', published in 2013, chronicled Terra's experience consuming only beer and sausages for one month.
Terra also self-published two other books, ''Google Plus For Authors'' (2013),
and ''Writing Awesome Book Blurbs'' (2013).
Travel blogging
In January 2015, Terra and his wife, Sheila Dee, sold everything in order to travel the world.
The couple began a blog and a podcast called ''The Opportunistic Travelers'', as well as a second travel podcast called ''This One Time''.
The blog is known for its exploration of novel methods of financing travel, including long-term housesitting in their desired travel destinations.
Terra delivered the opening keynote address at both the TBEX Asia Pacific travel writers' convention in the Philippines in October 2016
and the MATKA Nordic Travel Fair in January 2017.
Other endeavors
Evo Terra has spoken on the subjects of
entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
,
digital marketing
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...
, and technological innovation at events such as the 2011
South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
conference
and Ignite Phoenix.
In 2015, Terra was a keynote speaker on the subject of digital strategy at the
UnGagged conference in London, England.
Terra also regularly appears at
fandom conventions in various capacities, such as panel discussions on the podcasting track at
Dragon Con
Dragon Con (previously Dragon*Con and sometimes DragonCon) is a North American multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. , the convention draws attendance of over 80,000, f ...
and even a musical performance with
George Hrab
George Joseph Hrab is a drummer, guitarist, composer and podcaster known for performing rock, funk and jazz and for exploring atheist, skeptic and science themes in his work. He has released six albums as a solo artist.
Hrab was born in Bell ...
's Triologic at
Balticon
Balticon is the Maryland Regional science fiction convention, sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS). It has been held annually since 1966. The name "Balticon" is trademarked by BSFS.
Overview
Balticon brings together over 18 ...
in 2011.
Bibliography
*Evo Terra and Tee Morris, (2005), ''Podcasting For Dummies'', For Dummies
*Evo Terra and Tee Morris, (2007), ''Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies'', For Dummies
*Evo Terra, Chuck Tomasi, and Tee Morris, (2008), ''Podcasting For Dummies, 2nd Edition'', For Dummies
*Evo Terra, (2004) ''The Fantasy Writer's Companion'' (Chapter credit: "Herbalism in Fantasy"),
Dragon Moon Press
Dragon Moon Press is an American independent publishing company, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and cross-genre novels. It was founded in 1993 by Gwen Gades, and released its first book in 1998.
The company has publishe ...
See also
*
Scott Sigler
Scott Carl Sigler is an American author of science fiction and horror and a podcaster. Scott is the New York Times #1 bestselling author of sixteen novels, six novellas, and dozens of short stories. He is the co-founder of Empty Set Entertainme ...
*
Mark Jeffrey
Mark Jeffrey (or "Big Mark") (1825–1894) was an English convict who departed England on 12 December 1849 and arrived in Australia on 30 April 1850. Mark Jeffrey was described as "A terror to those in authority. He always fought against injusti ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terra, Evo
American bloggers
American podcasters
American radio personalities
American technology writers
People from Lawton, Oklahoma
1968 births
Living people
21st-century American non-fiction writers