Tech Brew Ride Home - New Year Podcast Announcement

Episode Date: January 1, 2019

Happy 2019! And... here's what we've got on tap for the pod in the new year! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to 2019, everybody. Hey there, Brian here. Happy New Year.

I'm just sliding into your podcast feed to wish you and yours all the best for our latest collective trip around the sun. But also, I want to share some important news about the podcast. As of a week or so from today, this podcast is 10 months old. We just passed three million lifetime downloads. We will do half a million downloads this month, January. We just passed our 200th episode. I can't thank you all enough for making this podcast a daily habit and also allowing me to have absolutely the most fun I've had in years. So here's what we've got on tap for 2019.

Actually, for the very, very near future. When we first conceived of this show, the idea was not to just read you the headlines, because like literally you could program up a bot to do something like that. The idea was to give you headlines along with context and commentary. Just telling you what happened in tech today is one thing, but explaining how and why it happened is another thing entirely and giving you a, taste of how the greater tech ecosystem is reacting to the latest news is something else again. And over time, we've sort of evolved into explaining narratives and history and all sorts of other stuff, explaining how the pieces all fit together. And I think we've done that mostly successfully. But we always knew that we could do more. I mean, the long reads,

actually, the long read suggestions, they weren't planned at all. They were literally just a way for me to delve deeper into ideas that I couldn't cram into a normal show's rundown. And so for a long time, we've known that we could do even more of that if we actually spoke to people as well. If you've been listening long enough, you'll notice that we have experimented now and again with interviews. So starting this month, we are going to add bonus episodes on the weekends. So essentially, we're going to be a 365 days a year show. or at least we're attempting to ramp up to that. And these bonus episodes coming out on the weekends, on the holidays going forward,

they will largely be interview episodes. They will still be 15 to 20 minutes long, but they will allow me to dive deeper into things that we've been talking about. Like, here's some examples of what we could do. What was the big story of this week? Who had the best take on it? Well, I can call them up and talk to that person. About that take? Who wrote the best story of the week? I can call them up and get more background. Who wrote the most interesting long read suggestion this week? I can talk to them for more details and background and a deeper dive. Who can best explain some long-term trend or narrative that I've been harping on on the show a lot recently? Again, I can get someone on and do some punditry with them. Did someone specifically make news if they're willing to come on the show on?

the show and talk about it for 15 minutes or so, then we can do that. Did a company make big news this week? Heads up, all you comms and PR people going forward. We're open to having someone from your company come on and give us more context about your news. Podcast at techmeam.com. You might want to put that in your rolodex. But also, this can be anything. Like maybe sometimes Chris and I will just pop in on a Saturday to do an episode where we kick around the latest gossip. and tech narratives. Heck, it's even technically possible that you guys, we could set it up ahead of time and you could call in to my Skype number and we could do a whole listener call-in show. So bottom line, beginning this month, beginning kind of technically, I think next week, we're going to give this a go.

Weekend bonus episodes. The idea is we'll just evolve it into whatever turns out making the most sense. So on the weekends, on the holidays, not the news. not the headlines, because frankly, there aren't enough of those on the weekends and holidays anyway, but also who needs news on the weekends, right? No, I think the idea of these bonus episodes is that we're just going to lean further into what I feel like is the core mission of this show, which is news and headlines, yes, but context and commentary and deeper understanding more. In a weird way, every day when I sit down to write the show for you, my mental model is sort of imagining you. you out there listening to me, going out to a dinner party or something, and the world of tech comes up in conversation. I want you to be fully versed in all of the nuances of everything so that you

can totally hold your own and sound like a total tech industry guru. So these bonus episodes are furthering that aim. Happy New Year to all of you again, to you and yours. Thank you for listening again. And let's keep this mutant podcast. Army strong and growing into 2019. Talk to you tomorrow, actually. But since it is New Year's, I'll take you out on the usual Friday party music.