My Podcast
That’s right, now I’ve got one too.
For those playing the home game, you should be aware that this is the second time around for me. About ten years ago, when people could relate the term podcast to the long-forgotten iPod, when Steve Jobs was alive and Apple dominated the music world, I had a podcast with Rhino Records wherein I analyzed tracks and covered the oeuvre of artists.
That hit a wall.
Maybe because its supporter, David Dorn, moved on to greener pastures, i.e. Apple itself, and the podcast format spun its wheels and seemed to be going nowhere.
Until radio consolidation and LTE and the on demand culture suddenly made podcasts surge.
The turning point was “Serial,” the NPR podcast about a convicted murderer who maybe shouldn’t have been, convicted, that is. That’s when those not paying attention were finally clued in, that this new longform concept was strangely intimate and riveting, a world where you could go deep when everything else seemed to be hit and run. You put on the headphones and enter a world seemingly disconnected from everyday life, but is somehow more real than regular existence.
I’ve been hooked.
Let’s see, have you listened to Esther Perel analyze relationships? Via a real therapy session? You should, she’s the go-to expert these days, with the CV to demonstrate authority. And if you’re an anti-Trumper, you’ve got to pull up NPR’s “Embedded,” where they’re now going deep on the players in the Trump saga, Trump himself, Kushner…you’ll learn stuff you never knew, in a world where you think everything’s being served up on a platter. And speaking of NPR, I’m addicted to “How I Built This,” was just listening to Ben & Jerry tell their story, although they did not admit that the distribution squeeze cost them their company. And the “Axe Files” and Bill Simmons… Simmons had Costas on and it was riveting, even though Bill interrupted too much at first, we wanted to hear Bob, but to hear Costas cover his late night show, his opportunity to go on after Letterman on CBS, the change in the culture…in a dumbed-down world it’s great to hear smart people pontificate. And the episode with Chuck Klosterman…we don’t think in the music business, we just count the dollars, but when Simmons wondered why there was no nostalgia for the aughts, Chuck said that the rock acts of that era were just derivative of what had come before, they didn’t push the envelope at all, and I said voila! You feel so lonely in this world, then you find out someone feels exactly like you.
And for every good podcast, there are ten bad ones. Actually, many more, but who’s counting.
So when TuneIn approached me…
Actually, they were not the first. Never underestimate the power of a great performance, I killed on the Recode podcast so a YouTube magnate tracked me down to do a podcast, but he had no experience, but he had youth and hunger, and I was gonna make a deal but then a radio chain piped up and we were at paper when TuneIn came to the table, and my conversation with John Donham, their CEO, closed me. Because he understood the process. He said he expected it to get better, to start off walking and then start to run.
And that’s how a new venture always works.
I know, I know, you expect your tech products to hit the ground running fully realized, but when it comes to people and their products, there’s development, and they’re never perfect.
So right now I’m utilizing the classic format, i.e. interview. But we’re gonna stretch out from that. Although certain doors are closed because of music rights, publishers want to get paid for everything, but Joe Walsh did agree to let me use “Meadows,” Saturday night he told me to use what I wanted, and to tell you the truth, his big riffs fit perfectly. I was thinking of “County Fair,” which is so meaningful, just the sound, but it’s a bit too slow, then again there’s “Welcome To The Club,” but anyway I used “Meadows.
And the podcast is gonna come out every Tuesday.
AND TODAY’S THE DAY!
The first episode is me being interviewed by my old friend John Boyle, Chief Growth Officer of Insomniac. Actually, at first I’m interviewing him, and I learned stuff I didn’t know. That’s one of my goals, to excavate the backstory, find out who these people are.
And then Boyle interviews me. So, if you want to know more about where I came from and who I am, this is the episode for you!
In subsequent weeks there will be more people, but I’ll save their identities for then.
For now…
If you’re podcast veteran, you know the drill.
If you’re a newbie, I’m gonna list four links that will allow you to listen.
As for TuneIn itself, there’s an app, you can listen for free to radio stations all over the world, and the company is VC funded and has lots of revenue and people either know it or they don’t. But now you do. You can pay monthly and get the NFL and MLB, but it’s free to listen to my podcast, just download the app.
Or just go to your Podcast app on your iPhone and search on “Lefsetz,” or just click on one of the links below.
This is an adventure. This is just the beginning. Come along for the ride and see where I go.
Thanks!
Bob
The Bob Lefsetz Podcast – TuneIn
The Bob Lefsetz Podcast – iTunes
