Metacast: Behind the scenes

This week, we are discussing The Pragmatic Podcaster book that we’ve just self-published on Kindle and in paperback and hardcover formats on Amazon. Chapters 00:00 - Cold open 00:20 - Welcome to episode 33 01:01 - Weekly updates and private beta launch 04:26 - Newsletter strategy and social media 07:05 - Perception vs. reality of our product 09:36 - Introducing The Pragmatic Podcaster 12:51 - Why...

This week we sat down with Corey Quinn, the Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group and a big celebrity at the AWS circles. Corey is well known for his sense of humor and unrelenting focus on making some good fun of the cloud providers. In our interview, we are learning a bit of Corey’s background, how The Duckbill Group got started, and how he runs the media side of his business. As usual, we...

We’re starting season 2! Going forward, most of our episodes will be conversations about how we’re building our business. We’ll keep doing guest episodes as well, mostly with people who we and other entrepreneurs get to learn from. Listen on to follow our journey. Chapters 03:10 - Season 2 and the changes we're making to the podcast 13:22 - Rat race 17:15 - Working in-person in Vancouver 29:08...

A conversation with Startups.com founders about venture capital, bootstrapping, and finding your podcasting voice Chapters 01:11 - Introduction 03:42 - The Startup Therapy podcast 06:49 - Almost no one knows about venture capital 10:17 - Wil’s and Ryan’s startup journeys 16:12 - Venture backed vs. bootstrapped startups 22:18 - Distractions of fundraising 29:09 - Doing consulting work on a side to...

In this episode, we cover the topic we wanted to cover for the last few weeks but always ran out of time. It’s the topic of SaaS subscriptions. As a business that doesn’t yet make any revenue, we pay quite a bit in subscription fees because these days everything is a subscription. Apparently, soon we’ll be paying a subscription to heat our butts in cars — Arnab tells a story of a car manufacturer...

This week, we were lucky to talk to Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of 37signals (the company behind Basecamp and HEY) and a co-author of Rework, Remote and a few other books. Chapters 02:07 - Introduction of Jason and 37signals 04:28 - Founder role vs. CEO role 07:27 - Working with the same co-founder for 20 years 10:00 - Disagreements between founders 12:21 - Disagree and commit principle 14:04...

We are starting to share bits of what we’re working on — a podcast app! The main topic of today’s episode is podcast listening apps and the things they suck at. Also in the episode: some backstory of how we decided to work together, golden handcuffs of a big tech, the working backwards approach, and importance of checklists. Chapters 01:34 - RSS feeds, the backbone of podcasting 04:37 - Why are we...

We’ve heard feedback that listeners really love our metasodes — the episodes where Arnab and I chat about all things podcasting, careers, books, etc. We also heard feedback loud and clear that our episodes are too long… On today’s episode, we chat about these changes, producing a video episode in Descript, Conway’s law, our new merch store, our upcoming book, and a few more things. 👉 Book on star...

Starting a podcast can feel daunting but it need not be. In this episode, we've put together insights from our interviews with podcasters, creators of tech for podcasters, and radio hosts. 👉 Get our book on podcasting here: https://bit.ly/metacast-book Chapters 01:03 - Starting a podcast can be daunting 02:08 - Microphones for podcasting 06:35 - Headphones for podcasting and post-production 0...

Part 2 of the episode about taking a break from corporate careers to start our own podcast technology company. We’ll soon announce our product, so stay tuned! Chapters 02:10 - Arnab's story: from SDE I to a Principal Engineer at Amazon 06:35 - Getting promoted to your level of incompetence and leaving 11:44 - Google vs. Amazon culture 23:09 - One thing we'd take away from Amazon and Google...

We’re taking a short break from our usual programming about podcasting to dive into what’s next for us. Ilya quit his job at Google on June 1st and Arnab left his job at Amazon last year. On this episode, we’re discussing why we decided to jump ship, how we manage risk, financial planning, etc. We’re also going a bit personal and talking about our approach to career planning. Chapters 00:00 - Epis...

It’s official — we are creating a company together and in this episode we’re starting to talk a bit about that. Going forward, we’ll use our metasodes to provide an update on how the business and product development is going, so, if you’re interested in our entrepreneurial journey, subscribe/follow our show! Chapters 00:39 - Arnab’s computer possessed by ghosts 03:36 - Quick recap of the last epis...

We sat down with TechTalkRadio's hosts Andy Taylor, Justin Lemme and Shawn DeWeerd to talk about all things radio. Topics in this episode: Story of one of the very first podcasts out there What are AM and FM radio stations anyway? Role of AM radio in emergencies Syndication in the world of radio Audience measurement and ratings Live reporting for television using a satellite truck Sticking to...

Arnab and Ilya talk about: Cookie-cutter, pre-recorded intros/outros (meh, we don't like those) Using GitHub to manage our podcast workflow What happens when podcasts change hosts Our inability to stick to a topic. It needed a meme, so we made one up! Tangents: video codecs, Back to the Future, music (Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Judas Priest), Tony Fadell's book "Build," and thermo...

Justin Jackson, co-founder of Transistor.fm, shares his views on decentralization in podcasting, the unrealized hype created by Spotify investing $1B into podcasting, and the benefits of friction in leaving comments. Chapters 00:00 - The Philosophy of Decentralization 00:26 - Welcoming Justin Jackson of Transistor.fm 01:38 - Justin's Journey: Podcasting and Startups 05:13 - Podcasting's Gr...

In this episode, we shared how we promote our podcast on social networks, what worked and what didn’t so far. Obviously, we have a limited sample, but we found some success on LinkedIn and Reddit and pretty much no success on Twitter and Instagram. Chapters 00:00 - Cold Open 01:40 - Funny Podcast Ads 04:42 - Recap of Podder Episode 07:36 - Reading Listener Reviews 13:37 - Promoting on LinkedIn 16:...

We sat down with Christian and Antoine, co-founders of a podcast insights platform Podder ( https://www.podderapp.com ), and discussed why podcast analytics is such a pain. We talked a bit about technical complexities of the distributed podcasting ecosystem and how Podder aggregates data across multiple platforms and data sources to provide podcasters with cross-platform insights. Chapters 00:21 -...

We sat down with our dear friend and ex-colleague Jennie Buechner to reflect on how her career took a sharp turn after a bootcamp at Ada Developers Academy. Chapters 00:00 - Welcome, Metasodes, and Guests 01:48 - Quirky Introductions and Podcast Detours 08:13 - Teacher to Software Engineer Journey 11:07 - Ada Developers Academy Program Details 14:44 - Navigating the World of AI and ChatGPT 19:38 -...

An Interview with Women Who Code's Communications Team - Kimberly Jacobs and JL Lewitin. Chapters 00:00 - Welcome and Guest Introductions 01:39 - Women Who Code Podcast Genesis 02:12 - Pivoting to Multimedia Content 05:36 - Member-Focused Podcast Strategy 07:45 - Kimberly's Role and Podcast Types 08:46 - Women Who Code Organization Overview 11:08 - Empowering Women with Resources 12:45 - I...

We recorded this episode when Ilya was visiting Arnab in Vancouver. This is the first time we did it in person and boy did it make a difference. Enjoy the sparkle of a wonderful human connection! Chapters 00:00 - Hard Work Should Feel Pleasant 00:31 - Welcome and In-Person Setup 01:45 - Traveling with Audio Equipment 03:06 - Recording Video Together 04:45 - Dogmen Books Sponsorship Joke 05:27 - Me...

A conversation about early days of Winamp, Justin's time at AOL, creation of Reaper and questions from our listeners! Chapters 00:00 - Welcome Justin Frankel: Winamp and Reaper 01:48 - Early Music Discovery and Winamp's Genesis 03:25 - Creating Winamp: MP3 Decoding and Metadata 05:51 - Download Speeds and Music Formats Past 06:56 - The Evolution of Music Listening 09:37 - Winamp's Icon...

The video we never published, hugging guitars and missing the office. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 00:34 - Welcome and the video experiment 05:19 - Hugging guitars in Peru 07:23 - Episode numbering and scheduling 09:23 - Cloud recording vs local tracks 13:01 - Meet Masha and Misha, our editors 20:13 - Discussion format vs interview format 22:37 - Writing emails that get a yes 23:08 - Previewing the Just...

In this episode we sat down with hosts of the Software Misadventures podcast Ronak Nathani and Guang Yang to chat about podcasting, careers and remote work. Chapters 00:00 - Initial Banter and Introductions 02:16 - Guests' Backgrounds and Podcast Origin 04:54 - Securing First Podcast Guests 06:43 - Balancing Technical and General Topics 11:59 - Memorable Episodes and Career Inspiration 21:22 -...

A reflection on the previous episode with the hosts of the Hearts in Taiwan podcast and a random chatter about everything (as usual). Chapters 00:00 - Intro 00:27 - Welcome to the Metaiwan Metasode 03:43 - Did we talk enough about podcasting? 06:16 - Listener stats and feedback 09:22 - Takeaways from Hearts in Taiwan 11:07 - The Procrustean bed and labels 18:02 - Navigating sensitive topics 19:14...

A conversation with hosts of the Hearts in Taiwan podcast, Angela Yu and Annie Wang, about culture, identity and running a podcast that touches on sensitive topics Chapters 00:00 - Introduction to Metacast and Hosts 01:54 - Introducing Hearts in Taiwan Podcast 03:31 - Hearts in Taiwan: Heritage and Identity 04:12 - Cousins Exploring Family History 05:08 - Bridging Cultures: American Born Confused...