In this episode, we are all saying our farewells to the 2030Podcast.com audience, because like an old soldier, we just “fade away.”
And since our last podcast episode told about the greatest generation, of which I consider myself to be a legacy of that group, I see that bidding farewell to our audience is a great respect.
So, there will be no more controversial topics, etc., but just the memory of the show. And so we deliver to you the beginnings of the 2030podcast.com show, with the creator of the idea for 2030 in a podcast show, the Podfather himself, Adam Curry — from an interview in February of 2015.
We thank Adam Curry for his idea and for what was for us a great entertainment content experience.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2023, Matrix Solutions Corporation and 2030podcast.com and michaelandmike.com and Adam Curry. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter show, we discuss the eroding practice of podcast bumpers. This is, for us, a sad loss in creating and recognizing podcasts of value (since 2005).
As you will hear in this podcast, we mention both Leo LaPorte of TWIT and from The Audacity to Podcast show creator, Daniel J Lewis, as well as others.
So why is this very famous and heavily used practice now fading from the podosphere today?
As cases in point, we deliver some examples of past podcast bumpers which I have delivered to others, as well as other podcasters’ delivering them to myself and my shows:
Leo LaPorte and his bumper in 2013 at the NMX show;
A bumper from myself to Ray Ortega in 2 examples — one that proves the value of Ray’s show.
As you will hear in this episode, they are included.
In my opinion, the practice is eroding due to the following reasons:
Loss of value by the branding podcaster delivering the bumper (e.g., Leo LaPorte of TWIT);
Not being able to promote or deliver a bumper due to the podfading of the recipient podcast show or podcaster (e.g., Daniel J Lewis of The Audacity to Podcast, who earlier sent a bumper to the now-faded podcast show of mine, The Struggling Entrepreneur;
The change of political recognition of the podcaster who delivered a podcast earlier, but is now going woke — and the receiving podcast does not want to be affiliated by the woke podcasts;
The trend to be self-recognizing and refusing to be part of a group or podcaster that once mentioned your show of value;
Not being able to incorporate bumpers from the marketing tactics of promoting podcast conferences. This was a practice that was used by the Podcast Brothers podcast show, in preparation for the Podcast and Portable Media Expo in 2006 and 2007. Unfortunately, the owners of the new conferences tend not to include these at all any more.
So, thus, we may ask if there will be a return to podcast bumpers in the near future? I, myself, do not see this, mainly because of the ideologies of the owners of the conference, and the refusal of podcasters to be aligned or recognized with the political views of the show owners. That is, they do NOT want to damage their brand by being aligned with the political beliefs of the owners of the show.
And that also goes for the podosphere, as well. Podcasters want to be neutral in the podopshere and do not want to be canceled or censored or be discriminated because of the title or nature of their show.
So, my perspective is that the politics of the podcasters must not be included or recognized and politicized by the listeners in the podosphere so that we can all celebrate the value from the shows which we want to promote — and that means keeping political views and ideologies out of podcasting shows, conferences and potential podcast bumpers.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2023, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Leo LaPorte and Daniel J Lewis and Ray Ortega and Matt Cox. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter show, we discuss the concept of creating your memoirs as episodes in a podcast show, instead of written content in the form of a book or collection of stories in some written format.
The memoirs in which I am creating (since I am in my twilight years at this time) are going to be put into a podcast show (which is yet to be published — for I am hoping it will be in the next few years) which is called The Real Academy of Life (or RAL). And since it is not yet launched, I do have the domain for the URL and will have the host media site which will be the tools needed for this. And also, I have the first 4 episodes already recorded and ready to include in this podcast show.
Now, in the latest episode in which I greatly test the comparison and contrast of a short episode in length (i.e., a micro-cast) and a longer-length podcast show, the topic is my military experience in the military when I was in the Army as a combat veteran and served in the Vietnam War.
The format I had for this longer-length podcast episode was the following:
Title and name and number and podcast show (audio);
Intro music;
Intro content — usually 3 minutes or shorter;
The segue of music to introduce the first complete and unabridged 24-minute repurposed podcast episode from the Combat Infantrymen’s podcast show called Combat and Camaraderie
The segue music to bring on the final other repurposed podcast episode which had Mack Payne, podcaster of the VietnamVeteranNews.com show interview me to discuss multiple ways in which I coped with PTSD after my return to the USA from the war;
Exit music.
And here is the long-play content with 2 episodes:
So this episode in this show lasted one hour and 21 minutes total — a complete change from my micro-cast episode format for the past 2 years or more. However, that does not mean that I did not include any longer in time content in my episodes. I did include both links and URLs and other reference resources. By pointing to these content sections in the links and other references, I allowed my listeners to link over to the details and longer-length episodes of some of my other podcasts, as well as other podcast shows from other podcasters (e.g., Dave Jackson and Daniel J Lewis and Adam Curry, etc.).
So when I finally get ready to publish and launch my new podcast show titled The Real Academy of Life and its URL to the domain, I will announce this and give it the needed quality of a good podcast show, with the details and shownotes it deserves.
So, we hope that you may find my life experiences interesting in this newer podcast show of my memoirs that will contain both micro-cast format episodes as well as longer episodes (of an hour or more in time), and that you will find it of value in your podcasting career.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Mack Payne of vietnamveterannews.com and David Jackson and Daniel J Lewis. All rights reserved.
In the podcast episode and post titled “The Top 3 Podcast Planning Mistakes,” Ben delivers a summary of what he considers are the top mistakes in planning your podcast shows:
Thinking that it is all about YOU;
“Build it and they will come”;
Not providing a clear call to action.
While certainly, these 3 are key mistakes when planning your show, I venture to say that there are others — and the gravity is a matter of opinion. In fact, Dave Jackson of The School of Podcasting show has covered in many episodes of the past other key mistakes that he feels are catalysts when a podcaster determines that he has failed and that it is time to podfade a show.
I, myself, feel that other key mistakes were NOT to understand what your objectives are in starting your podcast, as well as not knowing who your audience is and what kind of VALUE is that you need to deliver to them.
And there are others that can be classified as either smaller mistakes of less offensiveness or those that focus on the business and the personal areas.
But, in looking and listening to the podcast episode by Ben Krueger, let us not forget that Ben also delivers his own personal call-to-action for the reader or listener to be aware of his free and fee resources — both his book and his roadmap. I have seen these and they do, indeed, provide good suggestions for the new or aspiring podcaster. And this is true in the area of PLANNING your show.
Also, Adam Curry (i.e., the podfather) also gives us one mistake that beginner podcasters make is that they do not create a podcast show that is really considered “an outsanding product.” Yes, the quality of the show is reflected by the followers or subscribers, the downloads and the responses to calls-to-action of the show itself. His case in point is his show called No Agenda, where he implemented the “value-for-value” model of contributions (either “time, talent or treasure”). I mention this because many think that their show may deserve the merit of being great — when in reality, no feedback or proof (other than social proof from only reviews) can back up that thought.
When I met with Adam the last time we had lunch together and with him during his meetups in Austin over the years, the idea that came through loud and clear was the proof that many hours of preparation and thought and planning went into each episode of his show. It was not the scenario of a couple of “dudes” sitting around a microphone and ad-libbing any sort of babble with expletives, just because they were having fun.
In my situation, I also started a podcast show several years ago whose main objective was just to have fun and really just play around with the audio infrastructure of podcasting with a co-host. This was the show called Grumpy Old Bears — but we really had no plan for success nor any means of feedback of proof. It was just a fun “hobby” for us, whereas the other podcasts I do have in operation now (such as this one) provide feedback to me on the content, the downloads, the acceptance and social proof, etc., to prove and demonstrate the VALUE they provide to their intended audiences.
So, again, I would advise the aspiring and new podcasters to give a quick listen to the 8-minute episode from Ben to learn about how one can disillusion one’s self when it comes to podcasting, and how this type of mindset can lead to creating and implementing some of what Ben Krueger considers the top 3 mistakes in podcasting. And hopefully, you can correct those and put yourself on the correct road to success in your podcasting.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Ben Krueger of cashflowpodcasting and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved.
In a different perspective, Adam told his truth about what he saw in the event — and how it has totally become different than the OPEN podcast events of the podosphere from the 2005 conference starting in Ontario, California. Now, the conference has become “woke-o-rama” and full of cancel-culture and repression of speakers and ideas, as well as censorship. What a sad thing this was to happen to what was once the last bastion of free speech.
I do not need to review all the negative things to which this event has reverted to. After all, I did participate and present at the very first Podcast Movement conference in 2014 in Dallas. And it was the event that did turn out initially to be the way that ex-founder Gary Leland had envisioned — that is, with the fervor, excitement and enthusiasm and openness for all podcasters and podosphere aficianados, but without any cancel culture, censorship or woke-ness.
And now, you can consume the episode from Adam Curry to see what the Podfather had experienced in this new woke-based event. I am sorry to hear it, and perhaps you will find it difficult to believe that it had turned into this type of event.
And I do believe Adam Curry much more so than I do the organizers and owners of the Podcast Movement conference (mainly because Gary Leland had sold his part of the movement in 2019).
Well, it is up to you to make up your minds to see if this is a turning point in open podcasting and if will be the beginning of the ruin of the podosphere. If so, then this should not be an event that I will support any more, as I do support the openness of the podosphere and podcasting.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com. All rights reserved
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a theme that I do review annually — and that is, in remembrance of the Allied invasion of France in WWII in the battle for Normandy, we reflect on Operation Overlord (i.e., called D-Day — which, for airborne troops, was something that occurred with every combat jump, because every jump was referred to as a “d-day.”). I do this because I, myself, served in the US Army Airborne in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division (which was a major unit in the assault over Normandy in the early morning of 6 June 1944). And thus, to the thousands of paratroopers and glidermen that assaulted the Normandy fields, we honor and dedicate this episode to them.
I also was able to know one of the paratroopers who did assault Normandy in operation overlord — in fact, he had made all 4 combat jumps with the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII . His name was Al Essig, and he did pass away several years ago. May he RIP. As a paratrooper some 50 years ago, I do honor and respect the bravery of such men who volunteered to go airborne.
Now, for this episode, I deliver some audio of a book that was written by another paratrooper who served with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. His name was Darrell G. Harris, and he also has passed away a couple of years ago. He wrote a book about his experiences in WWII, and it was called Casablanca to VE Day: A Paratrooper’s Memoirs. DG Harris had made 3 combat jumps — in Sicily, Salerno and Holland (in Operation Market Garden, which mission was immortalized by the book by Cornelius Ryan and movie of the same name called “A Bridge Too Far.”
The above player, and the one below, are the mp3 files for the audio content of the book by DG Harris, Casablanca to VE-Day: A Paratroopers Memoirs.
Now, Ryan was the same author who also wrote the book, The Longest Day, which was also made into a movie in 1962, with a lot of stars and celebrities playing the actual roles of live veterans from WWII, in portraying both the airborne parachute element and the seaborne invasion on the shores of Normandy. One element that was different and which started a trend in Hollywood movies was that actual Germans spoke German in their portrayal of the Axis side, while British subjects portrayed the British forces, and the French portrayed the French forces. And each group spoke in their native language with English subtitles. So you did not have American or Canadian actors portraying Nazi troops and speaking German (in their broken accents). This has now become a trend in Hollywood to accentuate realism.
So, too, in celebrating the success of this incredible and monumental operation in time of war, we reflect upon the theme that breaking new ground in your medium should be something that you, as a podcaster, should consider in order to drive to success in your area of the podosphere.
By this, we mean that other podcasters are now going forth with the new podcast apps, or with new practices for requesting and getting donations (e.g., using the value-for-value model, which was encouraged and widely used by Adam Curry and John C Dvorak of The No Agenda Showfor the past several years — and which other podcasters have now taken up as their own method of getting financial support in the donations from their listeners or “producers”).
So the question we ask now is “what can you do to make yourself different from the rest of the podcasts, in whichever way or manner or activity that you can bring to the table as fresh ideas?”
And if you reflect upon the enormity of D-Day, 6th of June, 1944, many of the activities and tools and tasks of the operation were new and many untried — but the end saw success for the Allies who dared to make the assault at a place and time that was not anticipated by the enemy (or, in your case, the “competition”).
What we would suggest is to have a planning session with yourself to reflect, analyze, plan and commit to a test of planning, producing, publishing and/or promoting your podcast in new ways or with new ideas in order to make your show more successful. If it works, then great! If it does not work, well, you have succeeded in sowing the seeds of perhaps what could be the next task, following, standard or item in the podosphere for others.
So if you are brave enough to plan and execute this new operation — just as the Allies did for Operation Overlord in assaulting Normandy in WWII (in many ways) — perhaps you, too, can achieve a breakthrough success for yourself and maybe for others in the area of podcasting. And we wish you well, as we will look for those who would be doing these types of innovations for success and promoting them.
So, in honor of the 82nd Airborne Division and those who found in the air and on the beaches of Normandy on 6 June 1944, we look forward to remembrance of Operation Overlord (both for the Airborne parachute and glider operations, as well as the beach assault on the shores). Remember, your contribution of creativity could actually turn out to be THE LONGEST DAY for you in podcasting.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Cornelius Ryan. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver to you the information that was espoused in Podnews.net newsletters that concerned the etymology of the word “Podcast.” And, of course, since this is not an absolute authority, and I, myself, have also some thoughts and concerns from my own experience within the podosphere since 2005.
In an earlier article delivered in the Podnews.net newsletter, James Cridland gives his views on the history of the world PODCAST. And in this post, there are links and audio players that prove the point of origin of both the eclosure and the word podcast in his experience.
“As Eric Nuzum discusses elsewhere here, the first audio referenced by an enclosure tag in an RSS feed was published on Jan 20, 2001; with Dave Winer placing one song by the Grateful Dead into a post, as a test.
Christopher Lydon is generally held to have the published the first ever original piece of audio referenced by an enclosure tag in an RSS feed on Jul 9, 2003…The first program to automatically grab an audio show like this, originally called RSS2iPod, was launched by Adam Curry on Oct 12, 2003…But these audio shows did not have a name. Yet.”
Next, there is a viewpoint of the word “Podcasting” that takes place, with examples and sound bytes, as well. And it all boiled down to Dave Winer, credited with creating the podcast episode (along with our Podfather, Adam Curry):
The term “is credited by Dave Winer, speaking in Guy Kawasaki’s podcast Remarkable People:
Adam had the initial idea for why this made sense at that particular point in time. This was the first meeting that we had, and this goes back to 2000.
He saw me do it, and then he started doing it. And then, I don’t know, by September of 2004, there were twenty or thirty people doing [it], and we needed a name. And so we had a mail list and I asked people, “What should we call this?” And a guy named Dannie Gregoire said, just call it “podcasting.”
And Adam and I were doing a podcast called Trade Secrets, and on that we discussed it. So let’s just go with podcasting, and that’s it.
Guy Kawasaki: That’s how podcasting got named?!
Dave Winer: What did you think? We hired some kind of a market research firm and they did a focus groups and shit? Come on! That wasn’t how it worked!”
And then Cridland also records the words by Adam Curryabout the naming of the word. And a section of the post ends with the first mention of the term “podcast.” And so, the term caught on, as is stated: “The term was quickly taken up. Adam Curry mentioned podcasting on his blog for the first time on Sep 21 2004; Dave Winer blogged ‘what is podcasting?’ on Sep 24 2004, by Doc Searls, who blogged about podcasts on Sep 28 2004, and Dan Gillmor on Sep 28 2004.”
And then some of the earlier podcasters stated the term, as well, in the media: “As an example that the term was already well-embedded, Todd Cochrane posted the first “Geek News Central Podcast” on Oct 9 2004; and, on the same day, Rob Greenlee posted a comment announcing the new name on the Web Talk Radio Show website. Evo Terra followed on Oct 13, 2004.”
The post finally ends with the question of “who invented the term podcast?” And so, the final reply to this inquiry is delivered from the viewpoint of Mr. James Cridland: ”
“Ben Hammersley was the first to use the term in print, in a widely-read publication.
Dannie J Gregoire was the person to make the term popular in the community: and it’s very possible that without Gregoire’s use of the term in Sep 2004 – and its enthusiastic use by Adam Curry and Dave Winer – we’d be calling audio referenced by an enclosure tag in an RSS feed something quite different.”
In my own viewpoint, the term podcasting has meaning for us early podcasters as requiring an RSS feed and adhering to certain criteria — which, today, is being “bastardized” by the younger set that want to define it in their own way, just because they wish to do so.
But for myself, the older meaning and etymology will stand as the true types for the terms. Why? Well, for me, you can pry the term “podcast” from my cold, dead fingers(reciting a pun from an old saying by Charlton Heston of the NRA).
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and James Cridland of podnews.net. All rights reserved.
As you will hear in this repurposed episode, the comparison and contrast is that of a requested deliverable (usually by subscription) like a podcast episode that is designed for CONSUMPTION as opposed to the “shiny object” like the social media post that usually results in just a momentary quick hit.
As for myself, I have been off the social media for now quite a few years, and it has been a healthy and remarkable experience — healthy in both body and mind and soul. In other words, as Adam Curry of the No Agendashow states, I am “OTG” or “off the grid.”
I firmly agree with what Paul Colligan summarizes in his article, and what the end thought of this podcast episode is — that social media posts are momentary, quick hits of emotion where you are being spoken down to, as well as brainwashed. And also, the podcast episode is a deliverable where you can do some thinking, contemplating, and judging or acting upon the result — in other words, CONSUMING.
Yes, this is consumption of the podcast vs. emotional momentary quick hits of social media without having the real benefits of consumption.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Dave Jackson and schoolofpodcasting.com and Paul Colligan and ThePodcastReport.com. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we deliver an episode that deals with 2 issues: (1) a podcast episode that has some remembrance of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. (and its effects on podcasting); and (2) how the post-pandemic environment is affecting podcasting (especially audio quality).
11 September 2001
In this first topic, we have seen how terrorism from the Muslim extremists have changed our environment. And many podcast shows are now mentioning the threat of extreme muslim attacks within the USA, in order to destroy the fabric of the American culture, American environment, American system of productivity, American capitalism and American nationalism (and they are, of course, aided by the Democrats in congress, as well as the incumbent white house tenant, Bo-Jiden.
So now, with the censorship in full mode with the Social justice warrior and woke cultures, neither the lame-stream media nor the social media dare to speak out on this topic and include both sides of the conversation (because of the refusal to really communicate both sides), the podcast shows were the only pillar of trying to deconstruct the issues and hear both sides of the conversation, with proof points in the form of articles, audio and video clips and past promises and statements that catch the bad actors (like Fauci and Bo-Jiden) contradicting themselves on the “promises” made to the public.
However, the podcast community has many shows as of the date of this episode when the content was created that delivers the true journalistic approach of having an intelligent conversation and fair discussion and a non-censored approach that would promote any political narrative to the listener — in fact, the listener would be encouraged to use his own critical thinking to analyze the situation and then make up his own mind, instead of being brainwashed by the lame-stream media and social media.
We certainly hope that it will continue to do so in a fair and accurate way of delivering truthful and uncensored content to the listeners.
Post-Pademic Audio quality for podcasts
In addition, we wanted to let you know that there is some discussion as to the effects of the sham-demic (many people refer to this as pandemic) environment in creating content and its quality and publishing it.
In an earlier article from current.org, this issue is discussed, with the emphasis being on at-home recordings and productions of podcast content for shows — and especially, the lower quality that has resulted from not emphasizing professional audio quality standards.
Yes, with the lock-downs that occurred, the poor quality from the Zoom meetings and other episodes recorded from locations within the home, the audio quality has lacked the professionalism which delivered good content to the listeners before the year 2020.
And now, as the article states, self-recording techniques and apps and other “solutions” have been trying to address this situation.
However, as with everything involved with the lockdowns and other restrictive measures in 2020, we see this quality NOT IMPROVING, but merely being “accepted” by the audiences (who will throw the baby-out-with-the-bath-water) and just assume that poorer quality will be the norm for the future.
We hope that this is not so, and we encourage you, the podcaster, to deliver your content with great audio quality and as professionally recorded and edited and published as could be.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and current.org. All rights reserved.
In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss a theme of the possibility of censorship in podcasting for the podcaster, as well as the infringement of free speech to those whose passion could be curtailed by not being allowed to publish and distribute their message.
In this episode, Dave interviews Adam Curry of the No Agenda podcast show (which he publishes with his co-host, John C Dvorak) and talks about podcasting and its future with Dave, and especially how podcasting can be one of the last areas of free speech in this woke-filled culture.
So, in this hour of the published episode from Dave, the topic of free speech is touched upon. With the censorship of the lame-stream media and the news media so strong in the broadcast area of the media, this was very important to me.
I saw what the cancel culture and censorship results were from “reviews” of podcasting. I got this very early in my career of podcasting, and I quickly had a bad taste in my mouth from a couple of reviews that were just opinions and baseless (and remember, opinions are like “elbows” — everybody has a couple 🙂. And thus, when I re-started the web site and the podcast show publications for this particular show, it did not matter to me that I would not be included or promoted on the Apple platform or any other platform. I did not care for reviews by mindless people who are not like-minded and only want to complain or publish negativity in “reviews.” And this has turned out to be a great result for my podcast show. In fact, this podcast show has grown its audience without any marketing or sales or promotion — it has developed as a good resource for its own audience, and I said to myself “the heck with reviews — they are meaningless, anyway, because the social proof that they claim to provide is not worth the woke-based environment that it brings, and the aggravation of the negative comments are not worth even considering.” And thus, I have not looked back at reviews or subscriptions for these shows that I currently have.
And so, I could understand very well the topic of censorship and cancel culture being discussed by Dave and Adam in the episode on the School of Podcasting. And, as Adam Curry states: “podcasting is one of the last few openly distributed eco-systems” that promotes free speech and avoids censorship and cancel culture at the whim of the ideologies of management of these firms — at least, on the part of the media host that will provide your episodes to the distribution platform to get your messages to the audience who want it.
Thus, I would heartily suggest that you consume this episode to understand both the free speech element of the eco-system and how the benefits of Podcasting 2.0.
And as for this podcaster, my view is: as long as the media host stays out of the business of cancel culture or censoring my messages (and the signal for this is seeing that a “moderator” is appointed as lord of content to allow only the ideology of management to be published), then podcasting can actually be the last frontier of free speech — and it would not be a platform of brainwashed or woke directions, but that of free speech.
We hope that you enjoy the content of the episode interview that is given in these show notes from Dave’s podcast show, and that you can also understand and appreciate the nature of the eco-system of podcasting as an area of free speech for your message.
Thank you for your attention.
Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com . All rights reserved.
