Tails And Tales: Regulars Share Human Side Of Dog Park In Podcast

BREWSTER – The Brewster Dog Park officially opened in May 2022, and since then has become a popular spot for dog owners of the Lower Cape. Now it’s becoming more than just a sanctuary for the dogs. 

 In early June, a group of 2 p.m. regulars launched a podcast titled “Dog Park Chronicles” which offers 10- to 15-minute episodes detailing conversations between owners, anecdotes shared among the group, interviews with interesting characters and spotlights on dogs every month. The podcast, created by Larry Glickman, is a personal project that, in his words, stemmed from a joke that threatened to become reality. 

 Glickman has been going to the dog park ever since he got his two-and-a-half-year-old Havenese, Charlie. For his and Charlie’s schedules, 2 p.m. became the most convenient time to stop by the park for an hour or so every day. 

 Glickman realized pretty quickly that he continued to see the same faces in the small dog area at the same time every day. At first it was cordial hellos and small talk among the group, but about a year or so ago, he found they started sharing more unfiltered thoughts. 

 Last December, Glickman was attending an annual fundraiser at the park hosted by the Friends of the Brewster Dog Park. 

Santa Claus was onsite to take photos with the pups for the holidays, and a Lower Cape TV reporter was there covering the event. The reporter approached Glickman and another regular, Terry Hayden, asking if they were interested in an interview for the segment. Although they demurred, they pointed her in the direction of the unofficial “mayor” of the park for her segment. 

After, Hayden went up to the reporter and asked her if she knew how to start a podcast. Glickman had been joking about starting a podcast for awhile, noting that their conversations were worthy of a platform. 

“Prior to the [event], we had been joking in our conversations that this should have been a podcast,” he said. “This is so funny, and having been a big fan of the TV series ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ I used that as a comical way to talk about a podcast.” 

The reporter put them in touch with Rafal Kowalczyk, the then-director of production at Lower Cape TV, who had a wealth of experience and knowledge about the initial steps of starting a podcast. Within 10 days, Kowalczyk reached out to Glickman and gave him a bunch of helpful information to get started. 

Glickman used AI tools to create the podcast artwork, which was chosen out of around 50 different creations. He then went through and chose a royalty-free theme song to create the intro and outro for each episode. 

 By May, they were ready to start recording. Sal Coco, CFO of the podcast, collected initial funding from the group to purchase a subscription to a platform which would host the podcast and push it out to streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. Hayden was dubbed the director of operations because she was so influential in making the project come to fruition. Denise Darrigrand acts as the marketing manager, helping to create posters and flyers for the group. 

Darrigrand’s husband has also played an important role. Once Glickman had the recordings, he was unsure how to put them out in the world. Darrigrand offered the services of her husband, Dan Dougherty, a computer services professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Dougherty is now the official IT department and helps to edit and upload each episode. 

As of early this week, the podcast had 860 downloads, was listened to by users in 132 unique cities and has fans internationally. In pulling up the statistics of the podcast, Glickman rattled off 16 foreign countries that had listeners including Germany, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Italy and India. It’s also become a coast-to-coast phenomenon in the states, from California to Connecticut to Texas to Oregon. 

The draw? It’s an unfiltered, raw conversation between a community of people about something that brings them together: their pets. The podcast topics don’t delve into political ideologies or topical news events, but instead appeal to basic human nature, what it means to create community at a place where you go for pure enjoyment. The tone is warm, the laughs are authentic and the friendships are real.

Glickman shared some debilitating health issues that forced him into the hospital in early July. He was unable to visit the dog park for nine days while he recovered from spine surgery. Over the course of that time, he received texts and calls from his “park peeps,” uplifting his spirits and pushing him to recover. 

 “My park peeps, they’re called, were very concerned that I wasn’t here and how are we going to continue this podcast,” he said. “And I would get cheer-me-ups and notes, and I just couldn’t wait to get back.”

 In that time, he thought of a 30-year old story he couldn’t wait to divulge to the group (and the podcast). 

 “I got to a point where I was misty-eyed because I felt I was home,” he said of finally returning to the park with Charlie. 

 Although he was given the title of creator, Glickman credits the success to the group of people he has worked with to get it off the ground. The stories and the camaraderie are why the podcast has become such a success, he said. 

 He also recognized the importance of the Friends of the Brewster Dog Park for being such strong advocates of the project and promoting it through their marketing efforts. 

 The podcast currently has seven episodes, with the first introduction an attempt that they don’t count as the first episode. Glickman said the episode titled “The Rabbit” is his return to the park after his stay in the hospital. It chronicles a story from his time living in a neighborhood north of Boston with a neighbor that had a 10-year old rabbit. The full episode, around 11 and a half minutes, is worth a listen to for the ending, but it’s recommended to start from the first episode. 

 Episodes are released every 12 to 14 days and can be found on Apple Music and Spotify.