Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the
Speaker 1: Tech Are you well Here in the United States. It
Speaker 1: is the day after Thanksgiving, and normally I would serve
Speaker 1: up a rerun on a daylight today because our office
Speaker 1: is closed for the holiday. But considering I'm winding down
Speaker 1: my sixteen and a half year long run on tech Stuff,
Speaker 1: I thought instead I would do a timely episode to
Speaker 1: talk about thankfulness and the gratitude I feel toward the
Speaker 1: many people who have contributed to this show over the years.
Speaker 1: And yes, there will be a lot of overlap with
Speaker 1: that previous episode I did when I announced that I
Speaker 1: was leaving the show. But starting off, the first person
Speaker 1: I have to thank is Conall Byrne So.
Speaker 2: Today, Connell is.
Speaker 1: The CEO of the Digital Audio Group at iHeartMedia, but
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and eight, he was the new
Speaker 1: head of a little website called HowStuffWorks dot com. So
Speaker 1: Connell came into the company and helped broker the deal
Speaker 1: with Discovery Communications that would see how Stuffworks dot Com
Speaker 1: emerge from being part of a private company that was
Speaker 1: called the Convex Group and into becoming a component of
Speaker 1: Discovery Communications digital strategy. That happened in late two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven. Now, those of y'all who have been listening
Speaker 1: to tech Stuff for a while now know that ultimately
Speaker 1: this relationship between Discovery and how Stuff Works didn't work out,
Speaker 1: and Discovery would go on to sell how Stuffworks dot
Speaker 1: Com to another company called Blue Cora several years later.
Speaker 1: But none of that really matters here. So it was
Speaker 1: Connall who came to me and to my editor and
Speaker 1: my friend Chris Pollette and asked us if we would
Speaker 1: consider launching a podcast focusing on technology. So Chris and
Speaker 1: I talked about it and we agreed, and Stuff was
Speaker 1: the result. Connell was willing to give writers and editors
Speaker 1: a chance to create shows and to grow those shows
Speaker 1: and shape them, even after we realized that using the
Speaker 1: shows as a brand extension had limited success. Now by that,
Speaker 1: I mean the original concept for all the podcasts under
Speaker 1: the Stuff brand was to raise awareness for the website
Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot com because we weren't monetizing podcasts or anything
Speaker 1: like that at that point. But I'm sure you're all
Speaker 1: aware or at least suspect that most people aren't likely
Speaker 1: to take action on one platform after hearing about it
Speaker 1: on a different platform. It's just tricky because you're not
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast while you're also on your computer
Speaker 1: on your browser. Keep in mind, this is two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight. This is before people were using their smartphones
Speaker 1: to listen to podcasts. Like, if you were listening to
Speaker 1: a podcast, you were using probably iTunes to subscribe to
Speaker 1: a podcast, and you would physically link your iPod to
Speaker 1: your computer and transfer new episodes over to your iPod
Speaker 1: so you can listen to them. It was a pretty
Speaker 1: you know, clunky process at that point. And so if
Speaker 1: you're listening on your iPad or iPod rather not even
Speaker 1: iPad at this point, you're listening on your iPod and
Speaker 1: someone mentions, hey, go to this website HowStuffWorks dot com
Speaker 1: to learn more about it. Well, by the time you
Speaker 1: get in front of a computer again, you probably don't
Speaker 1: remember to do that. So it was entirely possible for
Speaker 1: Connell to just pull the plug and say, you know,
Speaker 1: this was a good idea, but it's not working out
Speaker 1: for us and we're not making money. So let's instead
Speaker 1: use your time to write articles for the website. He
Speaker 1: could have done that, but he didn't. He saw that
Speaker 1: there was still potential value for keeping the show going,
Speaker 1: and the shows did do really well, particularly Stuff You
Speaker 1: Should Know that became an early breakout success story in
Speaker 1: the podcast world and really resonate with lots of listeners.
Speaker 1: So we were getting lots of downloads. Even if it
Speaker 1: wasn't moving the needle that much on the website. It
Speaker 1: was clear that what we were doing was having some
Speaker 1: residents out there in the world. So Connall, let us
Speaker 1: keep doing the shows.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Over the years, Connall would rise in the ranks of
Speaker 1: Discovery Communications and we saw him less frequently around the office.
Speaker 1: He did remain an important part of How Stuff Works,
Speaker 1: but we didn't see him around quite as frequently. He
Speaker 1: eventually moved to work in a virtual reality unit as
Speaker 1: INN he was heading up virtual reality projects. He didn't
Speaker 1: move into VR. He's not science fiction though he hasn't
Speaker 1: been an actor in a couple of science fiction movies anyway.
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works by that time had left Discovery and
Speaker 1: gone through a couple of other changes in ownership, and
Speaker 1: then over time he returned to become the head of
Speaker 1: Stuff Media, so there had been a separation for a while.
Speaker 1: But then Conall comes back and he takes the helm
Speaker 1: of stuff Media, which had split off from how Stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com. And not too long after that, I Heart
Speaker 1: acquired stuff Media, and Connall has played an important part
Speaker 1: in Iheart's digital strategy ever since. So I don't see
Speaker 1: him that often anymore, at least at the time. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's still true, but he didn't live
Speaker 1: that far from me. But I don't see him that frequently,
Speaker 1: but he does make time to chat with us old
Speaker 1: timers whenever we run into one another at company functions
Speaker 1: and such. And again, without Connell, there would be no
Speaker 1: Tech Stuff. So I am thankful very much for his
Speaker 1: initiative and his support of the show. I'm also deeply
Speaker 1: thankful for Chris Bollett, my former editor and co host
Speaker 1: I went through. I went through a lot of editors
Speaker 1: while I was at hou Stuffworks dot Com. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that means I was a problem child or not.
Speaker 2: I may have been.
Speaker 1: One of my editors was one of the original hosts
Speaker 1: of What would become Stuff You missed in history Class.
Speaker 1: I went through like four or five before Chris became
Speaker 1: my editor. Chris was the editor who would end up
Speaker 1: spoiling me. So most editors, the way they work is
Speaker 1: they receive a piece from a writer. They mark up
Speaker 1: that piece and return it to the writer in order
Speaker 1: for them to make changes, like if something doesn't make sense,
Speaker 1: or if there needs to be more clarification or more detail,
Speaker 1: or maybe there's just a mistake that needs to be fixed.
Speaker 1: The editor returns into the writer and the writer makes
Speaker 1: the changes. But Chris would just change the dang thing himself,
Speaker 1: and he made my work better. And the same was
Speaker 1: true for the podcast. He made that better too. Most
Speaker 1: of our recording sessions were lots of fun. We would
Speaker 1: sit across from each other that we would talk about
Speaker 1: tech and we would make some jokes and references. I
Speaker 1: would typically flip out over the fact that he had
Speaker 1: never seen the movie Jaws, which is my favorite movie
Speaker 1: of all time. He would talk about how he once
Speaker 1: used to do things like go on tour with the
Speaker 1: Indigo Girls. It was a great time. Of course, Chris
Speaker 1: would eventually decide to change his career path and that
Speaker 1: meant leaving HowStuffWorks dot Com and the show, but Tech
Speaker 1: Stuff would not be what it is today without Chris
Speaker 1: Pollette's influence. I still have a promotional poster of the
Speaker 1: two of us, and it's hanging up on my home
Speaker 1: office's door. And yeah, so I see Chris every day
Speaker 1: I go to work because I see him.
Speaker 2: On that poster.
Speaker 1: Now, as I mentioned in my look Back on tech Stuff,
Speaker 1: that episode I did not too long ago. I also
Speaker 1: have to thank Lauren Vogelbaum. She had never hosted a
Speaker 1: podcast before she joined Tech Stuff as a new co
Speaker 1: host once Chris left the show, and she agreed to
Speaker 1: be a co host, even though tech was not her passion,
Speaker 1: that wasn't an area she was particularly interested in, but
Speaker 1: she was eager to learn how to podcast. She wanted
Speaker 1: to help me out because clearly I was in, you know,
Speaker 1: a real state once Chris left. She worked very hard
Speaker 1: for about two years on the show before she decided
Speaker 1: she wanted to launch some shows of her own. She
Speaker 1: wanted to create a space for herself, not just be
Speaker 1: part of a space that other people had already created.
Speaker 1: And I fully respect that. So from twenty thirteen through
Speaker 1: most of twenty fourteen, Lauren did me a solid by
Speaker 1: co hosting the show once she left, things got a
Speaker 1: lot more challenging because it really was just me as
Speaker 1: the host. I would reach out to my coworkers to
Speaker 1: occasionally show up as a co host, but you know,
Speaker 1: that was dependent upon people's availability week to week, and
Speaker 1: that was never a guarantee.
Speaker 2: So it was pretty rough. And for the last decade
Speaker 2: or so, Tech Stuff has.
Speaker 1: Been a solo host show. I've been the one person researching, writing,
Speaker 1: and recording each episode. I'm not exactly sure how many
Speaker 1: episodes I did all by myself because we also have
Speaker 1: stuff in the feed that includes like reruns as well
Speaker 1: as fiend drops for shows like smart Talks with IBM
Speaker 1: and the Tech Stuff feed, So I can't just look
Speaker 1: at our publishing platform and say, oh, here's how many
Speaker 1: episodes I did. Doing some rough math, it's somewhere the
Speaker 1: range of one thousand, five hundred episodes all by myself.
Speaker 1: And that is a lot y'all. And I should say
Speaker 1: the all by myself part is a little deceptive. First,
Speaker 1: I don't really do all of this by myself. Even
Speaker 1: on episodes where I've chosen the topic, I have done
Speaker 1: all the research, I've written my notes up, and I've
Speaker 1: done all the recording. I don't do it all by myself.
Speaker 1: I mean I might even do a quick edit pass,
Speaker 1: but then I have to hand my episode off to
Speaker 1: super producer Tari, who has been with me for several
Speaker 1: years now. And I've mentioned Tari many times over the
Speaker 1: years on this show, but she typically prefers to stay
Speaker 1: off microphone and out of the spotlight. So now I'm
Speaker 1: going to take some time to talk about my super producer.
Speaker 1: So Tari and I are a great team. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just a fact. She is positive, she is silly.
Speaker 1: I tend to be grouchy and cantankerous, and our interactions
Speaker 1: have become a source of entertainment for many of our
Speaker 1: coworkers because I will often get very grouchy toward her,
Speaker 1: she will smile and laugh it off, and everyone thinks
Speaker 1: it's the funniest thing.
Speaker 2: Ever.
Speaker 1: It's a great working relationship, and best of all, I
Speaker 1: can always have the full confidence that Tari's going to
Speaker 1: take care of the recording when I hand it off
Speaker 1: to her. She has my full trust because she's proven
Speaker 1: that she's capable of that. She's responsible and accountable, and
Speaker 1: Tari and I have had several adventures together over the years.
Speaker 1: She and I traveled a lot, especially back when I
Speaker 1: was doing the podcast The Restless Ones. She can tell
Speaker 1: you stories about traveling to places like Chicago or San
Speaker 1: Francisco or Los Angeles with me, and I can talk
Speaker 1: about how the two of us rode the roller coaster
Speaker 1: on the Santa Monica Pear, though the version of that
Speaker 1: story depends upon which of us you ask, because she
Speaker 1: swears that I convinced her to do it, but my
Speaker 1: memory is that she wanted to ride the roller coaster,
Speaker 1: so I agreed to it. Both versions of the story
Speaker 1: include the bit where she was praying to anyone who
Speaker 1: would listen while we were on the actual ride. Oh
Speaker 1: and they also had us go around the whole thing
Speaker 1: a second time, which came as a bit of a
Speaker 1: surprise to both of us. But more to the point,
Speaker 1: Tari is the person we all have to thank for
Speaker 1: tech stuff sounding as good as it does. She's the
Speaker 1: producer that handles everything once I finished recording, So my
Speaker 1: metaphorical hat is off to Tari. And as I mentioned
Speaker 1: in that earlier episode where I looked back on the
Speaker 1: history of the show, I have had several other producers
Speaker 1: over the years. Ramsey Yunt was another great producer. Ramsey
Speaker 1: books some of the most interesting guests we've ever had
Speaker 1: on the show, including Steven Lisberger who directed Tron and
Speaker 1: Jess Royle and John Hilton who worked on the series
Speaker 1: Stranger Things. Ramsey actively sought ways to mix things up
Speaker 1: on my show, which was always really nice, and like
Speaker 1: I said in that previous episode, there were lots of
Speaker 1: others to think. Right, there's Jerry, the producer best associated
Speaker 1: with stuff you should know, but she produced episodes and
Speaker 1: tech stuff as well. Tyler Klaang, who's here in the
Speaker 1: office today. He also produced several episodes. Matt Frederick and
Speaker 1: Noel Brown and Elizabeth Johnston and others have taken turns
Speaker 1: sitting in the producer's chair over the years. I also
Speaker 1: need to thank all the producers who have stepped up
Speaker 1: to produce the show during those times when my producer
Speaker 1: needs to take a holiday or a sick day. That's
Speaker 1: one of the wonderful things about working not just at iHeart,
Speaker 1: but like throughout every iteration of the company I have
Speaker 1: worked for. I've done the same job, but the company
Speaker 1: has changed. It's that there's a real sense of teamwork
Speaker 1: and caring for each other and stepping in when extra
Speaker 1: effort is needed. Thanks to everyone who ever did that
Speaker 1: to help keep the show going. All of them have
Speaker 1: touched the show in various ways, and I'm grateful to
Speaker 1: all of them. All Right, the love fest is not over,
Speaker 1: but we do have to take a quick break to
Speaker 1: thank our sponsors.
Speaker 2: Will be right back. So here we are.
Speaker 1: We're back again, and the thank train is going to continue.
Speaker 1: I have to say I'm thankful for amazing guests I've had,
Speaker 1: like Shannon Morse and Ias Actar. Not just guests, these
Speaker 1: are friends of mine, people I did not know before
Speaker 1: I started podcasting, and whom I would end up depending
Speaker 1: upon to appear on the show and be like a
Speaker 1: phenomenal resource. Like they both have extensive knowledge and they're
Speaker 1: great communicators, and they took time out of their schedules
Speaker 1: or to appear on the show. They also were incredibly
Speaker 1: nice to me whenever I would run into them at
Speaker 1: events like cees, because often I would be sent to
Speaker 1: ces by myself, and y'all, I don't know about you.
Speaker 1: I don't do so well when I'm all on my own.
Speaker 1: I get kind of lonesome and like you can be
Speaker 1: in a big crowd feel lonely, right like if you
Speaker 1: don't know anyone, that can be a very isolating experience.
Speaker 1: And I found cees to be pretty dawn ding. But
Speaker 1: then I met Ias, and I met Shannon, and I
Speaker 1: met others like Tom Merritt and folks like that Brian Tong.
Speaker 1: These were people who were incredibly welcoming and friendly toward me,
Speaker 1: and even those who had been working in communication for
Speaker 1: years before I got started. They were generous with their time,
Speaker 1: their expertise, and their friendship in ways that mean an
Speaker 1: awful lot to me. And again, I think the show
Speaker 1: benefited from that. I learned a great deal from these people,
Speaker 1: and I'm so thankful that they were so generous with
Speaker 1: their time and their skill and that they would agree
Speaker 1: to come on my little show and talk about tech.
Speaker 1: I highly recommend you seek out their work. If you
Speaker 1: like tech stuff, then look for stuff that Ias Actar
Speaker 1: and Shannon Morris and Tom Merritt are doing, because they
Speaker 1: can continue to make incredible content that is in and
Speaker 1: around the tech field. And some of it is more
Speaker 1: product oriented, some of it is more sort of general news,
Speaker 1: but it's all phenomenal work. So thanks again to all
Speaker 1: of those wonderful people. I'm also thankful for our sponsors,
Speaker 1: so again, for the first few years of our show.
Speaker 1: If you listened to that earlier episode, you know, those
Speaker 1: first few years we weren't monetized. And it's no secret
Speaker 1: that without sponsors, without ads, without financial support, shows just
Speaker 1: wouldn't exist. Every podcaster I know personally is really passionate
Speaker 1: about what they do, but that doesn't just pay the
Speaker 1: bills on its own. I wish it did, but it doesn't.
Speaker 1: So whether it's rent or mortgages, or food bills or
Speaker 1: college funds or whatever it might be, we all need
Speaker 1: to make a living, and sponsors and ads have created
Speaker 1: that opportunity, and we've had a lot of great sponsors
Speaker 1: over the years. It's also meant that on occasion we
Speaker 1: end up being sent stuff to try it out, to
Speaker 1: make sure we're willing to voice ads or do a
Speaker 1: fully sponsored episode or an endorsement, and I can't tell
Speaker 1: you how thankful I am for that as well, Like
Speaker 1: these are companies that want to make sure that the
Speaker 1: people who are reading ads are actually fans of those products,
Speaker 1: and we've been incredibly fortunate to work with some really
Speaker 1: thoughtful sponsors out there. Not long ago I talked about
Speaker 1: Sons and how that company had sent me products to
Speaker 1: try out. It's not lost on me how fortunate I
Speaker 1: am to be in that position. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: be real here, if I didn't already own a pair
Speaker 1: of sos Ace headphones that they have sent me, that
Speaker 1: would definitely be on.
Speaker 2: My wish list.
Speaker 1: I have used them every single day since I received them.
Speaker 1: That and the so Nos move to speaker, I use
Speaker 1: that every single day as well. They're both really great,
Speaker 1: and you know, I love the fact that I can
Speaker 1: use an app to select whatever I want to hear
Speaker 1: on them, and I can work these different products together
Speaker 1: so that they create a full sound system in my home. Anyway, Sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't need to get off on a tangent, but
Speaker 1: that's just a great example of working with a partner
Speaker 1: that makes really cool stuff and also supports the show
Speaker 1: and makes it possible for me to create the show.
Speaker 1: And I think there's some great synergy there. And it's
Speaker 1: tricky to do. It's tricky to do ads and sponsorships
Speaker 1: and endorsements in a way that's genuine and feels honest.
Speaker 1: It's not the most straightforward path for everybody. But I've
Speaker 1: been so lucky that the sponsors I've worked with have
Speaker 1: been such a good fit. And also to that end,
Speaker 1: I'm deeply thankful for our sales team here at iHeart.
Speaker 1: So one thing that has been consistent for many years
Speaker 1: at the Stuff Media House Stuff Works at iHeart is
Speaker 1: that we've had a policy that allows us, the podcasters,
Speaker 1: to actually decide which partners we want to work with
Speaker 1: and which ones we would rather not work with. Pull
Speaker 1: back the curtain a bit. This is behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: but this is how the sausage gets made. We have
Speaker 1: a project management tool where sales will upload new opportunities
Speaker 1: and we call it vetting. We're vetting the ad opportunities.
Speaker 1: So as the host, I would go in onto this
Speaker 1: tool and I would see, Oh, you have an AD
Speaker 1: opportunity with company X, and you would read up on
Speaker 1: company X. You'd read up on what the ad was
Speaker 1: about and what messaging they wanted to give, and then
Speaker 1: you would decide, Okay, am I happy to voice an
Speaker 1: AD for this company for this product, or maybe you know,
Speaker 1: do an endorsement, in which case they were going to
Speaker 1: send me whatever it is they make and I get
Speaker 1: to try it out and then give my honest opinion
Speaker 1: about it, or maybe even a fully branded episode. Sometimes
Speaker 1: that was a case, but whatever it was, I would
Speaker 1: get the chance to say yes or no, and.
Speaker 2: If, for whatever reason, I.
Speaker 1: Don't feel comfortable doing it, I can decline that offer
Speaker 1: and that's it, which is huge because it means I'm
Speaker 1: not being compelled to voice an ad for something that
Speaker 1: I don't believe in. So there are certain types of
Speaker 1: products I just don't support. I'm not going to go
Speaker 1: into detail here what products those might be.
Speaker 2: But if you've.
Speaker 1: Listened to my show for a long time, then if
Speaker 1: you don't skip the ads, and if you listen to
Speaker 1: other podcasts out there, you can probably start piecing things together.
Speaker 1: You can say, huh on other shows, I hear ads
Speaker 1: for X, Y and Z, but I never hear them
Speaker 1: on Jonathan's show. Then you can start drawing conclusions of oh,
Speaker 1: maybe that's just something that he doesn't want to voice
Speaker 1: an ad for. Well, the whole reason why I'm able
Speaker 1: to do that is because the company supports me in
Speaker 1: that approach, and I have a sales team that is
Speaker 1: really understanding when it comes to that. Sometimes it can
Speaker 1: be frustrating for them because they might be a big
Speaker 1: sales opportunity. But if I say no, I say no,
Speaker 1: and they don't, you know, really push back on that.
Speaker 1: Occasionally they might ask for more information just so that
Speaker 1: they understand, so that they don't bring opportunities that are
Speaker 1: a waste of time to me. Right, they'll know like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: that's not even bother asking Jonathan about that because it's
Speaker 1: not a good fit. We'll go somewhere else. Ultimately, all
Speaker 1: of these decisions are made to serve three purposes in
Speaker 1: my view. Purpose one is to support the show to
Speaker 1: earn money that allows the show to continue. Purpose two
Speaker 1: is to bring things that I believe in as parts
Speaker 1: of the ads for the show, so that you, the listeners,
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to hear about something that I think
Speaker 1: is legitimately pretty cool or interesting or useful. And so
Speaker 1: hopefully if you are in need of whatever that company provides,
Speaker 1: it's enough for you to say, oh, let me go
Speaker 1: try that.
Speaker 2: Purpose three is.
Speaker 1: That I want to be able to contribute to my
Speaker 1: company without compromising my own beliefs, my own ethics, and ultimately,
Speaker 1: I'm very thankful that the show has allowed me to
Speaker 1: do that. Now, y'all, I'm not gonna lie. I know
Speaker 1: that ads can sometimes be a lot. I am also
Speaker 1: a media consumer like you. I am also not crazy
Speaker 1: about ads popping up all the time. But it's always
Speaker 1: been my goal to do ads as well as I
Speaker 1: possibly can, and moreover, to pick advertisers who align well
Speaker 1: with the show and what I want to accomplish. So yes,
Speaker 1: I get it from those of you who find ads
Speaker 1: to be disruptive or distracting, but you know, it is
Speaker 1: a requirement if we're going to have the show unless
Speaker 1: we put it behind a paywall. And I don't like
Speaker 1: that idea very much. Some shows can do that and
Speaker 1: no shade on them. It just never felt like the
Speaker 1: right approach for me, so I never pursued it. There
Speaker 1: were opportunities to look at subscription based models, but I
Speaker 1: didn't really want to do it that way. So I
Speaker 1: am very thankful to all the sponsors out there who
Speaker 1: allowed me to keep doing this show year after year.
Speaker 1: And there's one other group that I'm thankful for, and
Speaker 1: then I'm going to have to talk about. But before
Speaker 1: I get to that, let's take another quick break to
Speaker 1: thank those sponsors again. Gosh darn it, I just talked
Speaker 1: about how thankful I am. Well, let's prove it be
Speaker 1: right back.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So there's one more group I've got to specifically call
Speaker 1: out as people to whom I am thankful, and that
Speaker 1: is all of you. I am so deeply thankful for
Speaker 1: all of you listeners out there. Tex Stuff fans are
Speaker 1: an incredible group of people. I've been fortunate to meet
Speaker 1: a few of you in person. That has always been
Speaker 1: a huge pleasure. Some of y'all have sent gifts. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I get postcards. Sometimes I would receive hilarious photoshop fan posters.
Speaker 1: I got a great Star Wars one hanging up in
Speaker 1: my office at home. I remember getting cool wire art
Speaker 1: sculptures from a listener who took metal wire and twisted
Speaker 1: them into different figures and sent them to us. The
Speaker 1: heck One listener once built me a custom ukulele out
Speaker 1: of hardware supplies and even included an acoustic piezoelectric pickup
Speaker 1: on the ding dang darn thing. That's insanely cool. But
Speaker 1: whether I've met you or not, whether you've reached out
Speaker 1: or just listened to the show, I'm so incredibly thankful
Speaker 1: for you. Way back in the old days when Chris
Speaker 1: and I were first sitting down to record the show
Speaker 1: back in mid two thousand and eight. We had no
Speaker 1: idea if anyone was going to listen. For months when
Speaker 1: we started podcasting, we didn't know if anyone was listening.
Speaker 1: We didn't have any insight into the analytics, you know,
Speaker 1: as far as we knew, we were just talking into
Speaker 1: microphones for a couple of hours each week, and then
Speaker 1: the file would go off into the void and that
Speaker 1: would be it.
Speaker 2: We would just do it again the next week.
Speaker 1: But the audio to us was just just echoing out
Speaker 1: there and that's it. But over time, gradually it became
Speaker 1: clear people were actually listening, and in fact, on occasion
Speaker 1: we would have people right in to talk about things
Speaker 1: we said on the show, including famous people who would
Speaker 1: sometimes write in, usually to correct me, which you know,
Speaker 1: that's stung, but it was important. I'll never forget the events. Surf,
Speaker 1: one of the pioneers of the Internet, one of the
Speaker 1: architects for the Internet, who was one of the big
Speaker 1: contributors for TCPIP. He wrote to me to explain how
Speaker 1: wrong I was about some stuff in a very nice way.
Speaker 1: I don't want want to come across and say that
Speaker 1: he was being rude.
Speaker 2: He wasn't. He was just being very clear.
Speaker 1: And that's a humbling experience when someone who is responsible
Speaker 1: for the very sets of rules that you depend upon
Speaker 1: whenever you're using the Internet reaches out to say, hey,
Speaker 1: thank you for this show, but you got a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff wrong. You know, that's an experience these days,
Speaker 1: I'm well aware that people listen to the show, and
Speaker 1: then I'm not just talking into a can as oh brother,
Speaker 1: where art thou would say. So, that's remarkable, and I
Speaker 1: know that I haven't made myself particularly easy to track down.
Speaker 1: Once upon a time, tech stuff had a fairly active
Speaker 1: social presence. You know, we still do have a Facebook page.
Speaker 1: I just haven't really touched it very much in years.
Speaker 1: Same with Instagram, Twitter, also the same. If I'm being
Speaker 1: totally honest and vulnerable, it's because I reached a point
Speaker 1: where being active on social media was taking such a
Speaker 1: taxing effect on my mental health that I needed to
Speaker 1: stop doing it. And I didn't have anyone else to
Speaker 1: handle the social accounts for the show, so they kind
Speaker 1: of died. And that's sort of send number one. With podcasting,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're doing a good job with podcasting,
Speaker 1: one of the things you want to do is create
Speaker 1: a space for your community so that your community can
Speaker 1: connect with one another as well as to connect with you.
Speaker 1: And I didn't really have the mind share to do
Speaker 1: that over the last several years, and yet people still listened.
Speaker 1: And when I made the announcement that I was stepping
Speaker 1: away from the show, several people have found creative ways
Speaker 1: to reach out and let me know what the show
Speaker 1: has meant for them. And that is beyond remarkable because again,
Speaker 1: I haven't made it easy to do that, and the
Speaker 1: fact that people still took the effort to find ways
Speaker 1: to get in touch with me and let me know
Speaker 1: that says a lot about the impact the show has made,
Speaker 1: which makes me feel great because obviously I don't get
Speaker 1: up and just talk it to a microphone just because
Speaker 1: it's my job. I do it because I really believe
Speaker 1: in it and I have a real passion for it,
Speaker 1: and so to hear people respond well to that it
Speaker 1: means the world to me. So for all of you
Speaker 1: out there who have listened, whether it's to just one
Speaker 1: episode or one hundred episodes or, bless your heart, a
Speaker 1: thousand or more episodes, what are you doing but no,
Speaker 1: thank you? It really means the world to me. And
Speaker 1: we've still got new episodes of the show coming out
Speaker 1: between now and when I step away in January of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, so I'm looking forward to chatting with you.
Speaker 1: Then hopefully we'll get a few special guests on for
Speaker 1: some of those episodes. That's what we're working on now.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, I hope you are all happy, healthy,
Speaker 1: and surrounded by your loved ones.
Speaker 2: I'll talk to you again really soon.
Speaker 1: Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.