September 9, 2025 • 7 mins
The sudden passing of Todd Cochrane, Blubrry CEO and unwavering champion of independent podcasters, has left our community in shock and mourning. Having just spent meaningful time with Todd at Podcast Movement three weeks ago, we're grateful for those final conversations, booth visits, and moments in the Podcast Standards Project room.
Don't miss the final memorial episode of the New Media Show this Wednesday at 3pm EST, where Rob Greenlee will be joined by Adam Curry, Mike Dell, and Rob Walch to honor Todd's extraordinary legacy.
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Thanks for listening and Keep Podcasting!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alban (00:00):
Some really sad news this morning.
Pod News today has the obituaryfor one of our friends, todd
Cochran.
Todd was the CEO of Blueberry,who I mean, I guess we first
knew him as a competitor butthen over the last I don't know
12 years of going to conferencestogether, I feel like Todd
really had become a friend andreally just a really nice guy
(00:21):
and it's really sad to see thathe passed.
Kevin (00:24):
Yeah, shocking and terribly sad.
I mean I do feel grateful atthe same time, like after
processing it, that we just hadpodcast movement three weeks
ago.
We only get to see Todd acouple of times a year when we
go to these conferences, and soI am grateful that we just had
that recent opportunity to hangout with him and we got to spend
a lot of good time with themthis time in particular.
(00:45):
I don't know why, like someconferences, we get a little bit
more time with people thanothers, and this time it felt
like we got a pretty good amountof time.
I got to hang out with him inthe lounge, we visited each
other's booths, we spent a lotof time in the PSP room
together, and I'm just gratefulfor that.
For people who don't know whoTodd was, todd was the CEO of
Blueberry and a major advocatefor indie podcasters and open
(01:08):
podcasting in general, so he'sbeen very involved in the
Podcast Standards Project.
He's been very involved with thePodcast Namespace Project and
helping out and contributingopinions and code and been a
trailblazer in terms of runninga podcast hosting company that
was implementing.
I think he started about twoyears ago with this idea that
(01:28):
Blueberry was going to lead thecharge of implementing from the
hosting side all of thepodcasting 2.0 and podcasting
namespace features in hisproduct.
I'm just really grateful thatwe got to spend time with him.
I think it would have hit me Idon't know a little harder, a
little more sad, if I hadn'tseen him recently.
It just would have been like,oh gosh, I hadn't seen him in so
(01:49):
long and I wonder how he wasdoing, and.
But I'm glad that we got toconnect and I got to catch up
with him, ask about his familyand ask about you know he was
spending a lot of time overseasrecently as a sweet time and
memories that I'll cherish.
Yeah, and it's hard to believethat he's gone.
We're really going to miss himin the podcasting space for
sure.
Alban (02:08):
Yeah, it's hard to overstate how probably
influential he was, especiallyfor indie podcasters.
He started podcasting in 2004.
I mean, he was early enoughthat when he podcasted about
tech issues, steve Jobs calledhim and he was friends with Adam
Curry and he'd done a show likethis one called New Media Show
that I think he did with RobGreenlee for I don't know 13
(02:31):
years or something.
Kevin (02:32):
Yeah, and speaking of the New Media Show, there is going
to be a final memorial episodethis Wednesday at 3 pm.
They do a live show.
If you can't catch it at 3 pmEastern Standard Time on
Wednesday, you can, of course,find it wherever you get your
podcasts and listen to itafterward.
But that is going to be withhis long-term co host, Rob
Greenlee, and joining him isgoing to be Adam Curry, Mike
(02:54):
Dell and Rob Walsh three reallygood friends of Todd and so
that's going to be a specialepisode.
So if you've never listened tothe New Media Show before, don't
miss this one.
It's sure to be an excellentand touching episode.
Alban (03:05):
Yeah, I mean he spoke at pretty much every podcast
movement I ever went to and wasat every pod fest.
Kevin (03:10):
One of the first inductees into the podcast hall
of fame.
Oh really, yeah, If not thefirst one, maybe the second or
third.
Like very early in thepodcasting hall of fame he was a
huge proponent for just getstarted.
Alban (03:23):
Podcasts are really cool because you control your own
destiny, you're not beholden tothe platform.
So he was very fierce advocatefor RSS, for owning your owncom,
as he used to say.
Right, and just over the yearsI started going to my phone and
pulling out old photos of himfrom all these conferences.
(03:44):
We had one where I convincedhim for some reason to watch the
Buzzsprout booth.
We were next to each other fora few days in LA and so I've got
Todd Cochran running theBuzzsprout booth for a few
minutes and just like he was youknow he's always out he was
telling people about podcastingand he was just a.
He was more than happy to talkto someone for 30 minutes, even
(04:06):
if they ended up, you know, witha different podcast host.
He just loved the medium asmuch as really anybody did, and
it's going to be sad to not seehim at conferences going
forward, because he reallypoured so much of himself into
podcasting and, honestly,podcasting would not be the same
if it wasn't for him.
Kevin (04:24):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean it is a major loss, forI know he had a pretty large
family and he had tons offriends and would talk about all
of his Navy friends.
He was a United States veteran,served our country proudly,
talked about that all the time.
So I know he had a large circleand they're heartbroken and are
gonna miss him dearly.
But he also, you know, moreconnected to us and what our
(04:47):
relationship was was that he wasvery influential in the
podcasting space and so like,and he just had a way about him
that he could say things as theycame to mind, with no filter,
no holding back.
You always got his raw, honestopinion, like regardless of what
the consequences were and therewere consequences like people
(05:08):
would all the time be like Ican't believe Todd said that and
there were some businessconsequences or relational
consequences or whatever.
For a long time when I first gotinto the industry, todd was in
the industry longer than I was.
I was like that's not a personI'm super interested in getting
to know because he seemed sogruff.
And then over time Alvin hasthis good way of just seeing
like the good in people and justsaying I know that there's like
(05:29):
Kevin give him a chance.
Sure enough, like over timeAlvin's persistence in getting
me to continue to engage withTodd I really did get to see how
nice and caring he was andthat's.
He didn't have a filter, but hewas, he was thoughtful, but he
just kind of as he processedstuff, he processed out loud.
So initially you'd get like thekind of gruff initial response
(05:50):
and then as you process more andmore and more you got to see
that oh, it's coming from aplace of caring, it's coming
from a place of passion andwanting to be able to support
this industry long-term.
And so maybe his initialreaction of when he tweeted
something or just said somethingit wasn't just as rough as it
sounded on the surface thatthere was a lot of care and
(06:12):
compassion behind it.
And I finally got to see thatafter years and years and years.
And one regret I have is thatit took me so long to befriend
him that it's really only inlike in the past three or four
years that I really got to seethat side of Todd and got to
connect with him in that way.
Alban (06:27):
Yeah, I, the way I explained it to my wife was Todd
was made for podcasting andpodcasting was made for Todd,
Like this whole idea of you getto connect your audience
directly and nobody gets to bethe filter.
And that is what Todd was.
He shot from the hip and thereare plenty of times that someone
would send me a tweet from hisand it has one like and they're
(06:48):
like hey, see what Todd said.
I completely agree there yougo?
Kevin (06:53):
I would never say it.
I'm glad he did, yeah, yeah.
Alban (06:56):
But there are times where he's like, hey, I'm, stuff
would change in the industry andhe'd go.
You know, I don't know if thisis the right path with
consolidation or with companiesselling, and he'd go.
I don't like it.
Here's why I don't like it.
He was willing to be the firstone to say it and then,
privately, people would be like,yeah, actually, I totally agree
with Todd.
If we're all about RSS, maybethe changes with YouTube or
(07:17):
Spotify aren't exactly right.
So he was a trailblazer.
He shot from the hip.
He was a really genuinely kindperson and I wish his family and
his friends and everybody atBlueberry that he worked with
the best.
You'll definitely be in ourthoughts and prayers.
Kevin (07:33):
Yeah.
Alban (07:33):
Godspeed Todd.
Some really sad news this morning.
Pod News today has the obituaryfor one of our friends, todd
Cochran.
Todd was the CEO of Blueberry,who I mean, I guess we first
knew him as a competitor butthen over the last I don't know
12 years of going to conferencestogether, I feel like Todd
really had become a friend andreally just a really nice guy
(00:21):
and it's really sad to see thathe passed.
Kevin (00:24):
Yeah, shocking and terribly sad.
I mean I do feel grateful atthe same time, like after
processing it, that we just hadpodcast movement three weeks
ago.
We only get to see Todd acouple of times a year when we
go to these conferences, and soI am grateful that we just had
that recent opportunity to hangout with him and we got to spend
a lot of good time with themthis time in particular.
(00:45):
I don't know why, like someconferences, we get a little bit
more time with people thanothers, and this time it felt
like we got a pretty good amountof time.
I got to hang out with him inthe lounge, we visited each
other's booths, we spent a lotof time in the PSP room
together, and I'm just gratefulfor that.
For people who don't know whoTodd was, todd was the CEO of
Blueberry and a major advocatefor indie podcasters and open
(01:08):
podcasting in general, so he'sbeen very involved in the
Podcast Standards Project.
He's been very involved with thePodcast Namespace Project and
helping out and contributingopinions and code and been a
trailblazer in terms of runninga podcast hosting company that
was implementing.
I think he started about twoyears ago with this idea that
(01:28):
Blueberry was going to lead thecharge of implementing from the
hosting side all of thepodcasting 2.0 and podcasting
namespace features in hisproduct.
I'm just really grateful thatwe got to spend time with him.
I think it would have hit me Idon't know a little harder, a
little more sad, if I hadn'tseen him recently.
It just would have been like,oh gosh, I hadn't seen him in so
(01:49):
long and I wonder how he wasdoing, and.
But I'm glad that we got toconnect and I got to catch up
with him, ask about his familyand ask about you know he was
spending a lot of time overseasrecently as a sweet time and
memories that I'll cherish.
Yeah, and it's hard to believethat he's gone.
We're really going to miss himin the podcasting space for
sure.
Alban (02:08):
Yeah, it's hard to overstate how probably
influential he was, especiallyfor indie podcasters.
He started podcasting in 2004.
I mean, he was early enoughthat when he podcasted about
tech issues, steve Jobs calledhim and he was friends with Adam
Curry and he'd done a show likethis one called New Media Show
that I think he did with RobGreenlee for I don't know 13
(02:31):
years or something.
Kevin (02:32):
Yeah, and speaking of the New Media Show, there is going
to be a final memorial episodethis Wednesday at 3 pm.
They do a live show.
If you can't catch it at 3 pmEastern Standard Time on
Wednesday, you can, of course,find it wherever you get your
podcasts and listen to itafterward.
But that is going to be withhis long-term co host, Rob
Greenlee, and joining him isgoing to be Adam Curry, Mike
(02:54):
Dell and Rob Walsh three reallygood friends of Todd and so
that's going to be a specialepisode.
So if you've never listened tothe New Media Show before, don't
miss this one.
It's sure to be an excellentand touching episode.
Alban (03:05):
Yeah, I mean he spoke at pretty much every podcast
movement I ever went to and wasat every pod fest.
Kevin (03:10):
One of the first inductees into the podcast hall
of fame.
Oh really, yeah, If not thefirst one, maybe the second or
third.
Like very early in thepodcasting hall of fame he was a
huge proponent for just getstarted.
Alban (03:23):
Podcasts are really cool because you control your own
destiny, you're not beholden tothe platform.
So he was very fierce advocatefor RSS, for owning your owncom,
as he used to say.
Right, and just over the yearsI started going to my phone and
pulling out old photos of himfrom all these conferences.
(03:44):
We had one where I convincedhim for some reason to watch the
Buzzsprout booth.
We were next to each other fora few days in LA and so I've got
Todd Cochran running theBuzzsprout booth for a few
minutes and just like he was youknow he's always out he was
telling people about podcastingand he was just a.
He was more than happy to talkto someone for 30 minutes, even
(04:06):
if they ended up, you know, witha different podcast host.
He just loved the medium asmuch as really anybody did, and
it's going to be sad to not seehim at conferences going
forward, because he reallypoured so much of himself into
podcasting and, honestly,podcasting would not be the same
if it wasn't for him.
Kevin (04:24):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean it is a major loss, forI know he had a pretty large
family and he had tons offriends and would talk about all
of his Navy friends.
He was a United States veteran,served our country proudly,
talked about that all the time.
So I know he had a large circleand they're heartbroken and are
gonna miss him dearly.
But he also, you know, moreconnected to us and what our
(04:47):
relationship was was that he wasvery influential in the
podcasting space and so like,and he just had a way about him
that he could say things as theycame to mind, with no filter,
no holding back.
You always got his raw, honestopinion, like regardless of what
the consequences were and therewere consequences like people
(05:08):
would all the time be like Ican't believe Todd said that and
there were some businessconsequences or relational
consequences or whatever.
For a long time when I first gotinto the industry, todd was in
the industry longer than I was.
I was like that's not a personI'm super interested in getting
to know because he seemed sogruff.
And then over time Alvin hasthis good way of just seeing
like the good in people and justsaying I know that there's like
(05:29):
Kevin give him a chance.
Sure enough, like over timeAlvin's persistence in getting
me to continue to engage withTodd I really did get to see how
nice and caring he was andthat's.
He didn't have a filter, but hewas, he was thoughtful, but he
just kind of as he processedstuff, he processed out loud.
So initially you'd get like thekind of gruff initial response
(05:50):
and then as you process more andmore and more you got to see
that oh, it's coming from aplace of caring, it's coming
from a place of passion andwanting to be able to support
this industry long-term.
And so maybe his initialreaction of when he tweeted
something or just said somethingit wasn't just as rough as it
sounded on the surface thatthere was a lot of care and
(06:12):
compassion behind it.
And I finally got to see thatafter years and years and years.
And one regret I have is thatit took me so long to befriend
him that it's really only inlike in the past three or four
years that I really got to seethat side of Todd and got to
connect with him in that way.
Alban (06:27):
Yeah, I, the way I explained it to my wife was Todd
was made for podcasting andpodcasting was made for Todd,
Like this whole idea of you getto connect your audience
directly and nobody gets to bethe filter.
And that is what Todd was.
He shot from the hip and thereare plenty of times that someone
would send me a tweet from hisand it has one like and they're
(06:48):
like hey, see what Todd said.
I completely agree there yougo?
Kevin (06:53):
I would never say it.
I'm glad he did, yeah, yeah.
Alban (06:56):
But there are times where he's like, hey, I'm, stuff
would change in the industry andhe'd go.
You know, I don't know if thisis the right path with
consolidation or with companiesselling, and he'd go.
I don't like it.
Here's why I don't like it.
He was willing to be the firstone to say it and then,
privately, people would be like,yeah, actually, I totally agree
with Todd.
If we're all about RSS, maybethe changes with YouTube or
(07:17):
Spotify aren't exactly right.
So he was a trailblazer.
He shot from the hip.
He was a really genuinely kindperson and I wish his family and
his friends and everybody atBlueberry that he worked with
the best.
You'll definitely be in ourthoughts and prayers.
Kevin (07:33):
Yeah.
Alban (07:33):
Godspeed Todd.
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