November 29, 2024 • 27 mins
Over the years, many people have contributed to our little technology podcast to make it what it is today. In this episode, Jonathan spends some time thanking those who have made their mark on TechStuff.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,
and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.
I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the
Tech Are you well Here in the United States. It
is the day after Thanksgiving, and normally I would serve
(00:25):
up a rerun on a daylight today because our office
is closed for the holiday. But considering I'm winding down
my sixteen and a half year long run on tech Stuff,
I thought instead I would do a timely episode to
talk about thankfulness and the gratitude I feel toward the
many people who have contributed to this show over the years.
(00:46):
And yes, there will be a lot of overlap with
that previous episode I did when I announced that I
was leaving the show. But starting off, the first person
I have to thank is Conall Byrne So.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Today, Connell is.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
The CEO of the Digital Audio Group at iHeartMedia, but
back in two thousand and eight, he was the new
head of a little website called HowStuffWorks dot com. So
Connell came into the company and helped broker the deal
with Discovery Communications that would see how Stuffworks dot Com
emerge from being part of a private company that was
(01:20):
called the Convex Group and into becoming a component of
Discovery Communications digital strategy. That happened in late two thousand
and seven. Now, those of y'all who have been listening
to tech Stuff for a while now know that ultimately
this relationship between Discovery and how Stuff Works didn't work out,
and Discovery would go on to sell how Stuffworks dot
Com to another company called Blue Cora several years later.
(01:42):
But none of that really matters here. So it was
Connall who came to me and to my editor and
my friend Chris Pollette and asked us if we would
consider launching a podcast focusing on technology. So Chris and
I talked about it and we agreed, and Stuff was
the result. Connell was willing to give writers and editors
(02:04):
a chance to create shows and to grow those shows
and shape them, even after we realized that using the
shows as a brand extension had limited success. Now by that,
I mean the original concept for all the podcasts under
the Stuff brand was to raise awareness for the website
HowStuffWorks dot com because we weren't monetizing podcasts or anything
(02:29):
like that at that point. But I'm sure you're all
aware or at least suspect that most people aren't likely
to take action on one platform after hearing about it
on a different platform. It's just tricky because you're not
listening to the podcast while you're also on your computer
on your browser. Keep in mind, this is two thousand
and eight. This is before people were using their smartphones
(02:52):
to listen to podcasts. Like, if you were listening to
a podcast, you were using probably iTunes to subscribe to
a podcast, and you would physically link your iPod to
your computer and transfer new episodes over to your iPod
so you can listen to them. It was a pretty
you know, clunky process at that point. And so if
(03:13):
you're listening on your iPad or iPod rather not even
iPad at this point, you're listening on your iPod and
someone mentions, hey, go to this website HowStuffWorks dot com
to learn more about it. Well, by the time you
get in front of a computer again, you probably don't
remember to do that. So it was entirely possible for
Connell to just pull the plug and say, you know,
(03:34):
this was a good idea, but it's not working out
for us and we're not making money. So let's instead
use your time to write articles for the website. He
could have done that, but he didn't. He saw that
there was still potential value for keeping the show going,
and the shows did do really well, particularly Stuff You
(03:54):
Should Know that became an early breakout success story in
the podcast world and really resonate with lots of listeners.
So we were getting lots of downloads. Even if it
wasn't moving the needle that much on the website. It
was clear that what we were doing was having some
residents out there in the world. So Connall, let us
keep doing the shows.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Over the years, Connall would rise in the ranks of
Discovery Communications and we saw him less frequently around the office.
He did remain an important part of How Stuff Works,
but we didn't see him around quite as frequently. He
eventually moved to work in a virtual reality unit as
INN he was heading up virtual reality projects. He didn't
(04:37):
move into VR. He's not science fiction though he hasn't
been an actor in a couple of science fiction movies anyway.
How Stuff Works by that time had left Discovery and
gone through a couple of other changes in ownership, and
then over time he returned to become the head of
Stuff Media, so there had been a separation for a while.
But then Conall comes back and he takes the helm
(04:59):
of stuff Media, which had split off from how Stuffworks
dot Com. And not too long after that, I Heart
acquired stuff Media, and Connall has played an important part
in Iheart's digital strategy ever since. So I don't see
him that often anymore, at least at the time. I
don't know if it's still true, but he didn't live
that far from me. But I don't see him that frequently,
(05:19):
but he does make time to chat with us old
timers whenever we run into one another at company functions
and such. And again, without Connell, there would be no
Tech Stuff. So I am thankful very much for his
initiative and his support of the show. I'm also deeply
thankful for Chris Bollett, my former editor and co host
(05:40):
I went through. I went through a lot of editors
while I was at hou Stuffworks dot Com. I don't
know if that means I was a problem child or not.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I may have been.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
One of my editors was one of the original hosts
of What would become Stuff You missed in history Class.
I went through like four or five before Chris became
my editor. Chris was the editor who would end up
spoiling me. So most editors, the way they work is
they receive a piece from a writer. They mark up
that piece and return it to the writer in order
(06:11):
for them to make changes, like if something doesn't make sense,
or if there needs to be more clarification or more detail,
or maybe there's just a mistake that needs to be fixed.
The editor returns into the writer and the writer makes
the changes. But Chris would just change the dang thing himself,
and he made my work better. And the same was
true for the podcast. He made that better too. Most
(06:34):
of our recording sessions were lots of fun. We would
sit across from each other that we would talk about
tech and we would make some jokes and references. I
would typically flip out over the fact that he had
never seen the movie Jaws, which is my favorite movie
of all time. He would talk about how he once
used to do things like go on tour with the
Indigo Girls. It was a great time. Of course, Chris
(06:56):
would eventually decide to change his career path and that
meant leaving HowStuffWorks dot Com and the show, but Tech
Stuff would not be what it is today without Chris
Pollette's influence. I still have a promotional poster of the
two of us, and it's hanging up on my home
office's door. And yeah, so I see Chris every day
I go to work because I see him.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
On that poster.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Now, as I mentioned in my look Back on tech Stuff,
that episode I did not too long ago. I also
have to thank Lauren Vogelbaum. She had never hosted a
podcast before she joined Tech Stuff as a new co
host once Chris left the show, and she agreed to
be a co host, even though tech was not her passion,
that wasn't an area she was particularly interested in, but
(07:40):
she was eager to learn how to podcast. She wanted
to help me out because clearly I was in, you know,
a real state once Chris left. She worked very hard
for about two years on the show before she decided
she wanted to launch some shows of her own. She
wanted to create a space for herself, not just be
part of a space that other people had already created.
(08:02):
And I fully respect that. So from twenty thirteen through
most of twenty fourteen, Lauren did me a solid by
co hosting the show once she left, things got a
lot more challenging because it really was just me as
the host. I would reach out to my coworkers to
occasionally show up as a co host, but you know,
that was dependent upon people's availability week to week, and
(08:25):
that was never a guarantee.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
So it was pretty rough. And for the last decade
or so, Tech Stuff has.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Been a solo host show. I've been the one person researching, writing,
and recording each episode. I'm not exactly sure how many
episodes I did all by myself because we also have
stuff in the feed that includes like reruns as well
as fiend drops for shows like smart Talks with IBM
and the Tech Stuff feed, So I can't just look
(08:53):
at our publishing platform and say, oh, here's how many
episodes I did. Doing some rough math, it's somewhere the
range of one thousand, five hundred episodes all by myself.
And that is a lot y'all. And I should say
the all by myself part is a little deceptive. First,
I don't really do all of this by myself. Even
(09:15):
on episodes where I've chosen the topic, I have done
all the research, I've written my notes up, and I've
done all the recording. I don't do it all by myself.
I mean I might even do a quick edit pass,
but then I have to hand my episode off to
super producer Tari, who has been with me for several
years now. And I've mentioned Tari many times over the
(09:36):
years on this show, but she typically prefers to stay
off microphone and out of the spotlight. So now I'm
going to take some time to talk about my super producer.
So Tari and I are a great team. I mean,
it's just a fact. She is positive, she is silly.
I tend to be grouchy and cantankerous, and our interactions
(09:58):
have become a source of entertainment for many of our
coworkers because I will often get very grouchy toward her,
she will smile and laugh it off, and everyone thinks
it's the funniest thing.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Ever.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
It's a great working relationship, and best of all, I
can always have the full confidence that Tari's going to
take care of the recording when I hand it off
to her. She has my full trust because she's proven
that she's capable of that. She's responsible and accountable, and
Tari and I have had several adventures together over the years.
She and I traveled a lot, especially back when I
(10:32):
was doing the podcast The Restless Ones. She can tell
you stories about traveling to places like Chicago or San
Francisco or Los Angeles with me, and I can talk
about how the two of us rode the roller coaster
on the Santa Monica Pear, though the version of that
story depends upon which of us you ask, because she
swears that I convinced her to do it, but my
(10:53):
memory is that she wanted to ride the roller coaster,
so I agreed to it. Both versions of the story
include the bit where she was praying to anyone who
would listen while we were on the actual ride. Oh
and they also had us go around the whole thing
a second time, which came as a bit of a
surprise to both of us. But more to the point,
Tari is the person we all have to thank for
(11:15):
tech stuff sounding as good as it does. She's the
producer that handles everything once I finished recording, So my
metaphorical hat is off to Tari. And as I mentioned
in that earlier episode where I looked back on the
history of the show, I have had several other producers
over the years. Ramsey Yunt was another great producer. Ramsey
(11:36):
books some of the most interesting guests we've ever had
on the show, including Steven Lisberger who directed Tron and
Jess Royle and John Hilton who worked on the series
Stranger Things. Ramsey actively sought ways to mix things up
on my show, which was always really nice, and like
I said in that previous episode, there were lots of
others to think. Right, there's Jerry, the producer best associated
(12:00):
with stuff you should know, but she produced episodes and
tech stuff as well. Tyler Klaang, who's here in the
office today. He also produced several episodes. Matt Frederick and
Noel Brown and Elizabeth Johnston and others have taken turns
sitting in the producer's chair over the years. I also
need to thank all the producers who have stepped up
to produce the show during those times when my producer
(12:23):
needs to take a holiday or a sick day. That's
one of the wonderful things about working not just at iHeart,
but like throughout every iteration of the company I have
worked for. I've done the same job, but the company
has changed. It's that there's a real sense of teamwork
and caring for each other and stepping in when extra
effort is needed. Thanks to everyone who ever did that
(12:47):
to help keep the show going. All of them have
touched the show in various ways, and I'm grateful to
all of them. All Right, the love fest is not over,
but we do have to take a quick break to
thank our sponsors.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Will be right back. So here we are.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
We're back again, and the thank train is going to continue.
I have to say I'm thankful for amazing guests I've had,
like Shannon Morse and Ias Actar. Not just guests, these
are friends of mine, people I did not know before
I started podcasting, and whom I would end up depending
upon to appear on the show and be like a
(13:31):
phenomenal resource. Like they both have extensive knowledge and they're
great communicators, and they took time out of their schedules
or to appear on the show. They also were incredibly
nice to me whenever I would run into them at
events like cees, because often I would be sent to
ces by myself, and y'all, I don't know about you.
(13:52):
I don't do so well when I'm all on my own.
I get kind of lonesome and like you can be
in a big crowd feel lonely, right like if you
don't know anyone, that can be a very isolating experience.
And I found cees to be pretty dawn ding. But
then I met Ias, and I met Shannon, and I
met others like Tom Merritt and folks like that Brian Tong.
(14:14):
These were people who were incredibly welcoming and friendly toward me,
and even those who had been working in communication for
years before I got started. They were generous with their time,
their expertise, and their friendship in ways that mean an
awful lot to me. And again, I think the show
benefited from that. I learned a great deal from these people,
(14:37):
and I'm so thankful that they were so generous with
their time and their skill and that they would agree
to come on my little show and talk about tech.
I highly recommend you seek out their work. If you
like tech stuff, then look for stuff that Ias Actar
and Shannon Morris and Tom Merritt are doing, because they
(14:59):
can continue to make incredible content that is in and
around the tech field. And some of it is more
product oriented, some of it is more sort of general news,
but it's all phenomenal work. So thanks again to all
of those wonderful people. I'm also thankful for our sponsors,
so again, for the first few years of our show.
(15:22):
If you listened to that earlier episode, you know, those
first few years we weren't monetized. And it's no secret
that without sponsors, without ads, without financial support, shows just
wouldn't exist. Every podcaster I know personally is really passionate
about what they do, but that doesn't just pay the
(15:42):
bills on its own. I wish it did, but it doesn't.
So whether it's rent or mortgages, or food bills or
college funds or whatever it might be, we all need
to make a living, and sponsors and ads have created
that opportunity, and we've had a lot of great sponsors
over the years. It's also meant that on occasion we
end up being sent stuff to try it out, to
(16:04):
make sure we're willing to voice ads or do a
fully sponsored episode or an endorsement, and I can't tell
you how thankful I am for that as well, Like
these are companies that want to make sure that the
people who are reading ads are actually fans of those products,
and we've been incredibly fortunate to work with some really
thoughtful sponsors out there. Not long ago I talked about
(16:28):
Sons and how that company had sent me products to
try out. It's not lost on me how fortunate I
am to be in that position. And I'm going to
be real here, if I didn't already own a pair
of sos Ace headphones that they have sent me, that
would definitely be on.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
My wish list.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I have used them every single day since I received them.
That and the so Nos move to speaker, I use
that every single day as well. They're both really great,
and you know, I love the fact that I can
use an app to select whatever I want to hear
on them, and I can work these different products together
so that they create a full sound system in my home. Anyway, Sorry,
(17:04):
I don't need to get off on a tangent, but
that's just a great example of working with a partner
that makes really cool stuff and also supports the show
and makes it possible for me to create the show.
And I think there's some great synergy there. And it's
tricky to do. It's tricky to do ads and sponsorships
and endorsements in a way that's genuine and feels honest.
(17:28):
It's not the most straightforward path for everybody. But I've
been so lucky that the sponsors I've worked with have
been such a good fit. And also to that end,
I'm deeply thankful for our sales team here at iHeart.
So one thing that has been consistent for many years
at the Stuff Media House Stuff Works at iHeart is
(17:50):
that we've had a policy that allows us, the podcasters,
to actually decide which partners we want to work with
and which ones we would rather not work with. Pull
back the curtain a bit. This is behind the scenes,
but this is how the sausage gets made. We have
a project management tool where sales will upload new opportunities
(18:11):
and we call it vetting. We're vetting the ad opportunities.
So as the host, I would go in onto this
tool and I would see, Oh, you have an AD
opportunity with company X, and you would read up on
company X. You'd read up on what the ad was
about and what messaging they wanted to give, and then
you would decide, Okay, am I happy to voice an
AD for this company for this product, or maybe you know,
(18:34):
do an endorsement, in which case they were going to
send me whatever it is they make and I get
to try it out and then give my honest opinion
about it, or maybe even a fully branded episode. Sometimes
that was a case, but whatever it was, I would
get the chance to say yes or no, and.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
If, for whatever reason, I.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Don't feel comfortable doing it, I can decline that offer
and that's it, which is huge because it means I'm
not being compelled to voice an ad for something that
I don't believe in. So there are certain types of
products I just don't support. I'm not going to go
into detail here what products those might be.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
But if you've.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Listened to my show for a long time, then if
you don't skip the ads, and if you listen to
other podcasts out there, you can probably start piecing things together.
You can say, huh on other shows, I hear ads
for X, Y and Z, but I never hear them
on Jonathan's show. Then you can start drawing conclusions of oh,
maybe that's just something that he doesn't want to voice
an ad for. Well, the whole reason why I'm able
(19:32):
to do that is because the company supports me in
that approach, and I have a sales team that is
really understanding when it comes to that. Sometimes it can
be frustrating for them because they might be a big
sales opportunity. But if I say no, I say no,
and they don't, you know, really push back on that.
Occasionally they might ask for more information just so that
they understand, so that they don't bring opportunities that are
(19:55):
a waste of time to me. Right, they'll know like, oh, well,
that's not even bother asking Jonathan about that because it's
not a good fit. We'll go somewhere else. Ultimately, all
of these decisions are made to serve three purposes in
my view. Purpose one is to support the show to
earn money that allows the show to continue. Purpose two
is to bring things that I believe in as parts
(20:19):
of the ads for the show, so that you, the listeners,
have an opportunity to hear about something that I think
is legitimately pretty cool or interesting or useful. And so
hopefully if you are in need of whatever that company provides,
it's enough for you to say, oh, let me go
try that.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Purpose three is.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
That I want to be able to contribute to my
company without compromising my own beliefs, my own ethics, and ultimately,
I'm very thankful that the show has allowed me to
do that. Now, y'all, I'm not gonna lie. I know
that ads can sometimes be a lot. I am also
(20:59):
a media consumer like you. I am also not crazy
about ads popping up all the time. But it's always
been my goal to do ads as well as I
possibly can, and moreover, to pick advertisers who align well
with the show and what I want to accomplish. So yes,
I get it from those of you who find ads
to be disruptive or distracting, but you know, it is
(21:22):
a requirement if we're going to have the show unless
we put it behind a paywall. And I don't like
that idea very much. Some shows can do that and
no shade on them. It just never felt like the
right approach for me, so I never pursued it. There
were opportunities to look at subscription based models, but I
didn't really want to do it that way. So I
am very thankful to all the sponsors out there who
(21:43):
allowed me to keep doing this show year after year.
And there's one other group that I'm thankful for, and
then I'm going to have to talk about. But before
I get to that, let's take another quick break to
thank those sponsors again. Gosh darn it, I just talked
about how thankful I am. Well, let's prove it be
right back.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
So there's one more group I've got to specifically call
out as people to whom I am thankful, and that
is all of you. I am so deeply thankful for
all of you listeners out there. Tex Stuff fans are
an incredible group of people. I've been fortunate to meet
(22:32):
a few of you in person. That has always been
a huge pleasure. Some of y'all have sent gifts. Sometimes
I get postcards. Sometimes I would receive hilarious photoshop fan posters.
I got a great Star Wars one hanging up in
my office at home. I remember getting cool wire art
sculptures from a listener who took metal wire and twisted
(22:55):
them into different figures and sent them to us. The
heck One listener once built me a custom ukulele out
of hardware supplies and even included an acoustic piezoelectric pickup
on the ding dang darn thing. That's insanely cool. But
whether I've met you or not, whether you've reached out
(23:18):
or just listened to the show, I'm so incredibly thankful
for you. Way back in the old days when Chris
and I were first sitting down to record the show
back in mid two thousand and eight. We had no
idea if anyone was going to listen. For months when
we started podcasting, we didn't know if anyone was listening.
(23:38):
We didn't have any insight into the analytics, you know,
as far as we knew, we were just talking into
microphones for a couple of hours each week, and then
the file would go off into the void and that
would be it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
We would just do it again the next week.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
But the audio to us was just just echoing out
there and that's it. But over time, gradually it became
clear people were actually listening, and in fact, on occasion
we would have people right in to talk about things
we said on the show, including famous people who would
sometimes write in, usually to correct me, which you know,
that's stung, but it was important. I'll never forget the events. Surf,
(24:15):
one of the pioneers of the Internet, one of the
architects for the Internet, who was one of the big
contributors for TCPIP. He wrote to me to explain how
wrong I was about some stuff in a very nice way.
I don't want want to come across and say that
he was being rude.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
He wasn't. He was just being very clear.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And that's a humbling experience when someone who is responsible
for the very sets of rules that you depend upon
whenever you're using the Internet reaches out to say, hey,
thank you for this show, but you got a lot
of stuff wrong. You know, that's an experience these days,
I'm well aware that people listen to the show, and
then I'm not just talking into a can as oh brother,
(24:58):
where art thou would say. So, that's remarkable, and I
know that I haven't made myself particularly easy to track down.
Once upon a time, tech stuff had a fairly active
social presence. You know, we still do have a Facebook page.
I just haven't really touched it very much in years.
Same with Instagram, Twitter, also the same. If I'm being
(25:21):
totally honest and vulnerable, it's because I reached a point
where being active on social media was taking such a
taxing effect on my mental health that I needed to
stop doing it. And I didn't have anyone else to
handle the social accounts for the show, so they kind
of died. And that's sort of send number one. With podcasting,
(25:45):
you know, if you're doing a good job with podcasting,
one of the things you want to do is create
a space for your community so that your community can
connect with one another as well as to connect with you.
And I didn't really have the mind share to do
that over the last several years, and yet people still listened.
And when I made the announcement that I was stepping
(26:06):
away from the show, several people have found creative ways
to reach out and let me know what the show
has meant for them. And that is beyond remarkable because again,
I haven't made it easy to do that, and the
fact that people still took the effort to find ways
to get in touch with me and let me know
that says a lot about the impact the show has made,
(26:26):
which makes me feel great because obviously I don't get
up and just talk it to a microphone just because
it's my job. I do it because I really believe
in it and I have a real passion for it,
and so to hear people respond well to that it
means the world to me. So for all of you
out there who have listened, whether it's to just one
episode or one hundred episodes or, bless your heart, a
(26:48):
thousand or more episodes, what are you doing but no,
thank you? It really means the world to me. And
we've still got new episodes of the show coming out
between now and when I step away in January of
twenty twenty five, so I'm looking forward to chatting with you.
Then hopefully we'll get a few special guests on for
some of those episodes. That's what we're working on now.
(27:10):
In the meantime, I hope you are all happy, healthy,
and surrounded by your loved ones.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I'll talk to you again really soon.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,
and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.
I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the
Tech Are you well Here in the United States. It
is the day after Thanksgiving, and normally I would serve
(00:25):
up a rerun on a daylight today because our office
is closed for the holiday. But considering I'm winding down
my sixteen and a half year long run on tech Stuff,
I thought instead I would do a timely episode to
talk about thankfulness and the gratitude I feel toward the
many people who have contributed to this show over the years.
(00:46):
And yes, there will be a lot of overlap with
that previous episode I did when I announced that I
was leaving the show. But starting off, the first person
I have to thank is Conall Byrne So.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Today, Connell is.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
The CEO of the Digital Audio Group at iHeartMedia, but
back in two thousand and eight, he was the new
head of a little website called HowStuffWorks dot com. So
Connell came into the company and helped broker the deal
with Discovery Communications that would see how Stuffworks dot Com
emerge from being part of a private company that was
(01:20):
called the Convex Group and into becoming a component of
Discovery Communications digital strategy. That happened in late two thousand
and seven. Now, those of y'all who have been listening
to tech Stuff for a while now know that ultimately
this relationship between Discovery and how Stuff Works didn't work out,
and Discovery would go on to sell how Stuffworks dot
Com to another company called Blue Cora several years later.
(01:42):
But none of that really matters here. So it was
Connall who came to me and to my editor and
my friend Chris Pollette and asked us if we would
consider launching a podcast focusing on technology. So Chris and
I talked about it and we agreed, and Stuff was
the result. Connell was willing to give writers and editors
(02:04):
a chance to create shows and to grow those shows
and shape them, even after we realized that using the
shows as a brand extension had limited success. Now by that,
I mean the original concept for all the podcasts under
the Stuff brand was to raise awareness for the website
HowStuffWorks dot com because we weren't monetizing podcasts or anything
(02:29):
like that at that point. But I'm sure you're all
aware or at least suspect that most people aren't likely
to take action on one platform after hearing about it
on a different platform. It's just tricky because you're not
listening to the podcast while you're also on your computer
on your browser. Keep in mind, this is two thousand
and eight. This is before people were using their smartphones
(02:52):
to listen to podcasts. Like, if you were listening to
a podcast, you were using probably iTunes to subscribe to
a podcast, and you would physically link your iPod to
your computer and transfer new episodes over to your iPod
so you can listen to them. It was a pretty
you know, clunky process at that point. And so if
(03:13):
you're listening on your iPad or iPod rather not even
iPad at this point, you're listening on your iPod and
someone mentions, hey, go to this website HowStuffWorks dot com
to learn more about it. Well, by the time you
get in front of a computer again, you probably don't
remember to do that. So it was entirely possible for
Connell to just pull the plug and say, you know,
(03:34):
this was a good idea, but it's not working out
for us and we're not making money. So let's instead
use your time to write articles for the website. He
could have done that, but he didn't. He saw that
there was still potential value for keeping the show going,
and the shows did do really well, particularly Stuff You
(03:54):
Should Know that became an early breakout success story in
the podcast world and really resonate with lots of listeners.
So we were getting lots of downloads. Even if it
wasn't moving the needle that much on the website. It
was clear that what we were doing was having some
residents out there in the world. So Connall, let us
keep doing the shows.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Over the years, Connall would rise in the ranks of
Discovery Communications and we saw him less frequently around the office.
He did remain an important part of How Stuff Works,
but we didn't see him around quite as frequently. He
eventually moved to work in a virtual reality unit as
INN he was heading up virtual reality projects. He didn't
(04:37):
move into VR. He's not science fiction though he hasn't
been an actor in a couple of science fiction movies anyway.
How Stuff Works by that time had left Discovery and
gone through a couple of other changes in ownership, and
then over time he returned to become the head of
Stuff Media, so there had been a separation for a while.
But then Conall comes back and he takes the helm
(04:59):
of stuff Media, which had split off from how Stuffworks
dot Com. And not too long after that, I Heart
acquired stuff Media, and Connall has played an important part
in Iheart's digital strategy ever since. So I don't see
him that often anymore, at least at the time. I
don't know if it's still true, but he didn't live
that far from me. But I don't see him that frequently,
(05:19):
but he does make time to chat with us old
timers whenever we run into one another at company functions
and such. And again, without Connell, there would be no
Tech Stuff. So I am thankful very much for his
initiative and his support of the show. I'm also deeply
thankful for Chris Bollett, my former editor and co host
(05:40):
I went through. I went through a lot of editors
while I was at hou Stuffworks dot Com. I don't
know if that means I was a problem child or not.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I may have been.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
One of my editors was one of the original hosts
of What would become Stuff You missed in history Class.
I went through like four or five before Chris became
my editor. Chris was the editor who would end up
spoiling me. So most editors, the way they work is
they receive a piece from a writer. They mark up
that piece and return it to the writer in order
(06:11):
for them to make changes, like if something doesn't make sense,
or if there needs to be more clarification or more detail,
or maybe there's just a mistake that needs to be fixed.
The editor returns into the writer and the writer makes
the changes. But Chris would just change the dang thing himself,
and he made my work better. And the same was
true for the podcast. He made that better too. Most
(06:34):
of our recording sessions were lots of fun. We would
sit across from each other that we would talk about
tech and we would make some jokes and references. I
would typically flip out over the fact that he had
never seen the movie Jaws, which is my favorite movie
of all time. He would talk about how he once
used to do things like go on tour with the
Indigo Girls. It was a great time. Of course, Chris
(06:56):
would eventually decide to change his career path and that
meant leaving HowStuffWorks dot Com and the show, but Tech
Stuff would not be what it is today without Chris
Pollette's influence. I still have a promotional poster of the
two of us, and it's hanging up on my home
office's door. And yeah, so I see Chris every day
I go to work because I see him.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
On that poster.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Now, as I mentioned in my look Back on tech Stuff,
that episode I did not too long ago. I also
have to thank Lauren Vogelbaum. She had never hosted a
podcast before she joined Tech Stuff as a new co
host once Chris left the show, and she agreed to
be a co host, even though tech was not her passion,
that wasn't an area she was particularly interested in, but
(07:40):
she was eager to learn how to podcast. She wanted
to help me out because clearly I was in, you know,
a real state once Chris left. She worked very hard
for about two years on the show before she decided
she wanted to launch some shows of her own. She
wanted to create a space for herself, not just be
part of a space that other people had already created.
(08:02):
And I fully respect that. So from twenty thirteen through
most of twenty fourteen, Lauren did me a solid by
co hosting the show once she left, things got a
lot more challenging because it really was just me as
the host. I would reach out to my coworkers to
occasionally show up as a co host, but you know,
that was dependent upon people's availability week to week, and
(08:25):
that was never a guarantee.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
So it was pretty rough. And for the last decade
or so, Tech Stuff has.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Been a solo host show. I've been the one person researching, writing,
and recording each episode. I'm not exactly sure how many
episodes I did all by myself because we also have
stuff in the feed that includes like reruns as well
as fiend drops for shows like smart Talks with IBM
and the Tech Stuff feed, So I can't just look
(08:53):
at our publishing platform and say, oh, here's how many
episodes I did. Doing some rough math, it's somewhere the
range of one thousand, five hundred episodes all by myself.
And that is a lot y'all. And I should say
the all by myself part is a little deceptive. First,
I don't really do all of this by myself. Even
(09:15):
on episodes where I've chosen the topic, I have done
all the research, I've written my notes up, and I've
done all the recording. I don't do it all by myself.
I mean I might even do a quick edit pass,
but then I have to hand my episode off to
super producer Tari, who has been with me for several
years now. And I've mentioned Tari many times over the
(09:36):
years on this show, but she typically prefers to stay
off microphone and out of the spotlight. So now I'm
going to take some time to talk about my super producer.
So Tari and I are a great team. I mean,
it's just a fact. She is positive, she is silly.
I tend to be grouchy and cantankerous, and our interactions
(09:58):
have become a source of entertainment for many of our
coworkers because I will often get very grouchy toward her,
she will smile and laugh it off, and everyone thinks
it's the funniest thing.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Ever.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
It's a great working relationship, and best of all, I
can always have the full confidence that Tari's going to
take care of the recording when I hand it off
to her. She has my full trust because she's proven
that she's capable of that. She's responsible and accountable, and
Tari and I have had several adventures together over the years.
She and I traveled a lot, especially back when I
(10:32):
was doing the podcast The Restless Ones. She can tell
you stories about traveling to places like Chicago or San
Francisco or Los Angeles with me, and I can talk
about how the two of us rode the roller coaster
on the Santa Monica Pear, though the version of that
story depends upon which of us you ask, because she
swears that I convinced her to do it, but my
(10:53):
memory is that she wanted to ride the roller coaster,
so I agreed to it. Both versions of the story
include the bit where she was praying to anyone who
would listen while we were on the actual ride. Oh
and they also had us go around the whole thing
a second time, which came as a bit of a
surprise to both of us. But more to the point,
Tari is the person we all have to thank for
(11:15):
tech stuff sounding as good as it does. She's the
producer that handles everything once I finished recording, So my
metaphorical hat is off to Tari. And as I mentioned
in that earlier episode where I looked back on the
history of the show, I have had several other producers
over the years. Ramsey Yunt was another great producer. Ramsey
(11:36):
books some of the most interesting guests we've ever had
on the show, including Steven Lisberger who directed Tron and
Jess Royle and John Hilton who worked on the series
Stranger Things. Ramsey actively sought ways to mix things up
on my show, which was always really nice, and like
I said in that previous episode, there were lots of
others to think. Right, there's Jerry, the producer best associated
(12:00):
with stuff you should know, but she produced episodes and
tech stuff as well. Tyler Klaang, who's here in the
office today. He also produced several episodes. Matt Frederick and
Noel Brown and Elizabeth Johnston and others have taken turns
sitting in the producer's chair over the years. I also
need to thank all the producers who have stepped up
to produce the show during those times when my producer
(12:23):
needs to take a holiday or a sick day. That's
one of the wonderful things about working not just at iHeart,
but like throughout every iteration of the company I have
worked for. I've done the same job, but the company
has changed. It's that there's a real sense of teamwork
and caring for each other and stepping in when extra
effort is needed. Thanks to everyone who ever did that
(12:47):
to help keep the show going. All of them have
touched the show in various ways, and I'm grateful to
all of them. All Right, the love fest is not over,
but we do have to take a quick break to
thank our sponsors.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Will be right back. So here we are.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
We're back again, and the thank train is going to continue.
I have to say I'm thankful for amazing guests I've had,
like Shannon Morse and Ias Actar. Not just guests, these
are friends of mine, people I did not know before
I started podcasting, and whom I would end up depending
upon to appear on the show and be like a
(13:31):
phenomenal resource. Like they both have extensive knowledge and they're
great communicators, and they took time out of their schedules
or to appear on the show. They also were incredibly
nice to me whenever I would run into them at
events like cees, because often I would be sent to
ces by myself, and y'all, I don't know about you.
(13:52):
I don't do so well when I'm all on my own.
I get kind of lonesome and like you can be
in a big crowd feel lonely, right like if you
don't know anyone, that can be a very isolating experience.
And I found cees to be pretty dawn ding. But
then I met Ias, and I met Shannon, and I
met others like Tom Merritt and folks like that Brian Tong.
(14:14):
These were people who were incredibly welcoming and friendly toward me,
and even those who had been working in communication for
years before I got started. They were generous with their time,
their expertise, and their friendship in ways that mean an
awful lot to me. And again, I think the show
benefited from that. I learned a great deal from these people,
(14:37):
and I'm so thankful that they were so generous with
their time and their skill and that they would agree
to come on my little show and talk about tech.
I highly recommend you seek out their work. If you
like tech stuff, then look for stuff that Ias Actar
and Shannon Morris and Tom Merritt are doing, because they
(14:59):
can continue to make incredible content that is in and
around the tech field. And some of it is more
product oriented, some of it is more sort of general news,
but it's all phenomenal work. So thanks again to all
of those wonderful people. I'm also thankful for our sponsors,
so again, for the first few years of our show.
(15:22):
If you listened to that earlier episode, you know, those
first few years we weren't monetized. And it's no secret
that without sponsors, without ads, without financial support, shows just
wouldn't exist. Every podcaster I know personally is really passionate
about what they do, but that doesn't just pay the
(15:42):
bills on its own. I wish it did, but it doesn't.
So whether it's rent or mortgages, or food bills or
college funds or whatever it might be, we all need
to make a living, and sponsors and ads have created
that opportunity, and we've had a lot of great sponsors
over the years. It's also meant that on occasion we
end up being sent stuff to try it out, to
(16:04):
make sure we're willing to voice ads or do a
fully sponsored episode or an endorsement, and I can't tell
you how thankful I am for that as well, Like
these are companies that want to make sure that the
people who are reading ads are actually fans of those products,
and we've been incredibly fortunate to work with some really
thoughtful sponsors out there. Not long ago I talked about
(16:28):
Sons and how that company had sent me products to
try out. It's not lost on me how fortunate I
am to be in that position. And I'm going to
be real here, if I didn't already own a pair
of sos Ace headphones that they have sent me, that
would definitely be on.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
My wish list.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I have used them every single day since I received them.
That and the so Nos move to speaker, I use
that every single day as well. They're both really great,
and you know, I love the fact that I can
use an app to select whatever I want to hear
on them, and I can work these different products together
so that they create a full sound system in my home. Anyway, Sorry,
(17:04):
I don't need to get off on a tangent, but
that's just a great example of working with a partner
that makes really cool stuff and also supports the show
and makes it possible for me to create the show.
And I think there's some great synergy there. And it's
tricky to do. It's tricky to do ads and sponsorships
and endorsements in a way that's genuine and feels honest.
(17:28):
It's not the most straightforward path for everybody. But I've
been so lucky that the sponsors I've worked with have
been such a good fit. And also to that end,
I'm deeply thankful for our sales team here at iHeart.
So one thing that has been consistent for many years
at the Stuff Media House Stuff Works at iHeart is
(17:50):
that we've had a policy that allows us, the podcasters,
to actually decide which partners we want to work with
and which ones we would rather not work with. Pull
back the curtain a bit. This is behind the scenes,
but this is how the sausage gets made. We have
a project management tool where sales will upload new opportunities
(18:11):
and we call it vetting. We're vetting the ad opportunities.
So as the host, I would go in onto this
tool and I would see, Oh, you have an AD
opportunity with company X, and you would read up on
company X. You'd read up on what the ad was
about and what messaging they wanted to give, and then
you would decide, Okay, am I happy to voice an
AD for this company for this product, or maybe you know,
(18:34):
do an endorsement, in which case they were going to
send me whatever it is they make and I get
to try it out and then give my honest opinion
about it, or maybe even a fully branded episode. Sometimes
that was a case, but whatever it was, I would
get the chance to say yes or no, and.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
If, for whatever reason, I.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Don't feel comfortable doing it, I can decline that offer
and that's it, which is huge because it means I'm
not being compelled to voice an ad for something that
I don't believe in. So there are certain types of
products I just don't support. I'm not going to go
into detail here what products those might be.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
But if you've.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Listened to my show for a long time, then if
you don't skip the ads, and if you listen to
other podcasts out there, you can probably start piecing things together.
You can say, huh on other shows, I hear ads
for X, Y and Z, but I never hear them
on Jonathan's show. Then you can start drawing conclusions of oh,
maybe that's just something that he doesn't want to voice
an ad for. Well, the whole reason why I'm able
(19:32):
to do that is because the company supports me in
that approach, and I have a sales team that is
really understanding when it comes to that. Sometimes it can
be frustrating for them because they might be a big
sales opportunity. But if I say no, I say no,
and they don't, you know, really push back on that.
Occasionally they might ask for more information just so that
they understand, so that they don't bring opportunities that are
(19:55):
a waste of time to me. Right, they'll know like, oh, well,
that's not even bother asking Jonathan about that because it's
not a good fit. We'll go somewhere else. Ultimately, all
of these decisions are made to serve three purposes in
my view. Purpose one is to support the show to
earn money that allows the show to continue. Purpose two
is to bring things that I believe in as parts
(20:19):
of the ads for the show, so that you, the listeners,
have an opportunity to hear about something that I think
is legitimately pretty cool or interesting or useful. And so
hopefully if you are in need of whatever that company provides,
it's enough for you to say, oh, let me go
try that.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Purpose three is.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
That I want to be able to contribute to my
company without compromising my own beliefs, my own ethics, and ultimately,
I'm very thankful that the show has allowed me to
do that. Now, y'all, I'm not gonna lie. I know
that ads can sometimes be a lot. I am also
(20:59):
a media consumer like you. I am also not crazy
about ads popping up all the time. But it's always
been my goal to do ads as well as I
possibly can, and moreover, to pick advertisers who align well
with the show and what I want to accomplish. So yes,
I get it from those of you who find ads
to be disruptive or distracting, but you know, it is
(21:22):
a requirement if we're going to have the show unless
we put it behind a paywall. And I don't like
that idea very much. Some shows can do that and
no shade on them. It just never felt like the
right approach for me, so I never pursued it. There
were opportunities to look at subscription based models, but I
didn't really want to do it that way. So I
am very thankful to all the sponsors out there who
(21:43):
allowed me to keep doing this show year after year.
And there's one other group that I'm thankful for, and
then I'm going to have to talk about. But before
I get to that, let's take another quick break to
thank those sponsors again. Gosh darn it, I just talked
about how thankful I am. Well, let's prove it be
right back.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
So there's one more group I've got to specifically call
out as people to whom I am thankful, and that
is all of you. I am so deeply thankful for
all of you listeners out there. Tex Stuff fans are
an incredible group of people. I've been fortunate to meet
(22:32):
a few of you in person. That has always been
a huge pleasure. Some of y'all have sent gifts. Sometimes
I get postcards. Sometimes I would receive hilarious photoshop fan posters.
I got a great Star Wars one hanging up in
my office at home. I remember getting cool wire art
sculptures from a listener who took metal wire and twisted
(22:55):
them into different figures and sent them to us. The
heck One listener once built me a custom ukulele out
of hardware supplies and even included an acoustic piezoelectric pickup
on the ding dang darn thing. That's insanely cool. But
whether I've met you or not, whether you've reached out
(23:18):
or just listened to the show, I'm so incredibly thankful
for you. Way back in the old days when Chris
and I were first sitting down to record the show
back in mid two thousand and eight. We had no
idea if anyone was going to listen. For months when
we started podcasting, we didn't know if anyone was listening.
(23:38):
We didn't have any insight into the analytics, you know,
as far as we knew, we were just talking into
microphones for a couple of hours each week, and then
the file would go off into the void and that
would be it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
We would just do it again the next week.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
But the audio to us was just just echoing out
there and that's it. But over time, gradually it became
clear people were actually listening, and in fact, on occasion
we would have people right in to talk about things
we said on the show, including famous people who would
sometimes write in, usually to correct me, which you know,
that's stung, but it was important. I'll never forget the events. Surf,
(24:15):
one of the pioneers of the Internet, one of the
architects for the Internet, who was one of the big
contributors for TCPIP. He wrote to me to explain how
wrong I was about some stuff in a very nice way.
I don't want want to come across and say that
he was being rude.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
He wasn't. He was just being very clear.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And that's a humbling experience when someone who is responsible
for the very sets of rules that you depend upon
whenever you're using the Internet reaches out to say, hey,
thank you for this show, but you got a lot
of stuff wrong. You know, that's an experience these days,
I'm well aware that people listen to the show, and
then I'm not just talking into a can as oh brother,
(24:58):
where art thou would say. So, that's remarkable, and I
know that I haven't made myself particularly easy to track down.
Once upon a time, tech stuff had a fairly active
social presence. You know, we still do have a Facebook page.
I just haven't really touched it very much in years.
Same with Instagram, Twitter, also the same. If I'm being
(25:21):
totally honest and vulnerable, it's because I reached a point
where being active on social media was taking such a
taxing effect on my mental health that I needed to
stop doing it. And I didn't have anyone else to
handle the social accounts for the show, so they kind
of died. And that's sort of send number one. With podcasting,
(25:45):
you know, if you're doing a good job with podcasting,
one of the things you want to do is create
a space for your community so that your community can
connect with one another as well as to connect with you.
And I didn't really have the mind share to do
that over the last several years, and yet people still listened.
And when I made the announcement that I was stepping
(26:06):
away from the show, several people have found creative ways
to reach out and let me know what the show
has meant for them. And that is beyond remarkable because again,
I haven't made it easy to do that, and the
fact that people still took the effort to find ways
to get in touch with me and let me know
that says a lot about the impact the show has made,
(26:26):
which makes me feel great because obviously I don't get
up and just talk it to a microphone just because
it's my job. I do it because I really believe
in it and I have a real passion for it,
and so to hear people respond well to that it
means the world to me. So for all of you
out there who have listened, whether it's to just one
episode or one hundred episodes or, bless your heart, a
(26:48):
thousand or more episodes, what are you doing but no,
thank you? It really means the world to me. And
we've still got new episodes of the show coming out
between now and when I step away in January of
twenty twenty five, so I'm looking forward to chatting with you.
Then hopefully we'll get a few special guests on for
some of those episodes. That's what we're working on now.
(27:10):
In the meantime, I hope you are all happy, healthy,
and surrounded by your loved ones.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I'll talk to you again really soon.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
TechStuff News
Host
Jonathan Strickland
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