July 16, 2025 • 33 mins
If you're a fan of old-school radio, you'll find Bill Thompson’s story especially compelling. A true veteran of the airwaves, Bill spent over 30 years behind the mic, interviewing some of the most fascinating figures of our time—leaders, inventors, entertainers, athletes, astronauts, and more. By the time he retired from radio in 2018, he'd recorded an astonishing archive of over 10,000 interviews.
Today, Bill brings those unforgettable moments back to life through his podcast, Now I've Heard Everything—a treasure trove of wit, wisdom, humor, and history.
But that’s not all.
Bill is also embracing the future by diving into the world of artificial intelligence. Through a new YouTube series, he’s helping adults over 40—especially those less tech-savvy—learn how to use AI in everyday, practical ways. He’s gathering real stories and questions from his audience to guide the series: What have you tried? What confused you? What do you want to learn?
Whether you're reminiscing about radio’s golden era or curious about AI’s modern magic, Bill Thompson is here to share, teach, and inspire.
You can find Bill Thompson here https://heardeverything.com/
On TikTok @heardeverything https://www.tiktok.com/@heardeverything?lang=en
***
You can find Billy Dees on X @BillyDees https://x.com/BillyDees
Today, Bill brings those unforgettable moments back to life through his podcast, Now I've Heard Everything—a treasure trove of wit, wisdom, humor, and history.
But that’s not all.
Bill is also embracing the future by diving into the world of artificial intelligence. Through a new YouTube series, he’s helping adults over 40—especially those less tech-savvy—learn how to use AI in everyday, practical ways. He’s gathering real stories and questions from his audience to guide the series: What have you tried? What confused you? What do you want to learn?
Whether you're reminiscing about radio’s golden era or curious about AI’s modern magic, Bill Thompson is here to share, teach, and inspire.
You can find Bill Thompson here https://heardeverything.com/
On TikTok @heardeverything https://www.tiktok.com/@heardeverything?lang=en
***
You can find Billy Dees on X @BillyDees https://x.com/BillyDees
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You are listening to the Billy D's Podcast. All right, well,
hello everyone, and welcome to the program. If you are
new here, we are primarily an interview and a commentary
based podcast. My name is Billy De's got a fantastic
(00:22):
interview lined up for you today with me. On the
line is Bill Thompson. Another Bill, Bill, How are you, Billy?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's a delight to be here talking with another fellow ols.
I'm radio broadcaster, podcaster. You're a better comedian than I
in but it's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, you know, let me tell the audience you have
the cred. There's not too often I get blown out
of the water by somebody who has a long distinguished history.
I mean, you've probably interviewed every major star that especially
during like the seventies and eighties, right, I mean you
were just interviewing every buddy.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Go ahead, Well, it's a niche, that niche, a niche niche,
what however you pronounced it? That I fell into, uh,
interviewing the authors of books, and that sounds a little boring, perhaps,
but I realized after a very short time that everybody
writes a book sooner or later, and most of them
go on book tour, and I was able to line
(01:22):
up interviews with basically one phone call to a publisher.
They say, sure, what time do you want them? And
all of a sudden in my studio walks Kirk Douglas,
and I'm thinking, Wow, that was easy.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Wow, Yeah, that well, that's fantastic, And we're going to
talk about his or his radio career. If you're interested
in some of these old interviews. The podcast that Bill
has is now I've Heard Everything, uh, And that's a
podcast where he plays back. Now, when you play these back,
do you give like a like a a modern synopsis
(01:55):
of how it how the interview happened and what it
was about to give us some context is out how
you present the exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I don't presume necessarily that you've ever even heard of
some of these people, because I know that some of
my listeners are too young to remember. You know who,
maybe Bob Feller was who I have on the podcast
this week. He was a big baseball star in the forties,
but he was Oh it was a great interview, but
that was in nineteen ninety. I did that interview, so
(02:23):
the interview itself is thirty five years old. So yeah,
I put it in a little bit of context. Let
him know. People know, yeah, he was an All Star
and had pitch three no hitters and so on and
so forth. This is where we talked. Occasionally, I'll drop
you if there's a relevant detail about Oh, in this case,
we talked on the fiftieth anniversary of his Opening Day
no hitter and that type of thing. And yes, because again,
(02:45):
even if you do remember who Bob Feller was, just
being reminded of him brings back a lot of memories
for people.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's a very pleasant experience.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I've looked through some of the names and it's
really amazing. So let's start with you and the beginning.
That's always a good place to start. Where are you from? Ottawa, Illinois.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's a little town about ninety miles to the southwestern
Chicago on Route eighty. Okay, it's it's about a two
hour drive into Wrigley Field. I'm Cubs fan. Sure, well
you're not too far or I'm in Ohio, so yeah,
Cubs fan or no, you probably Reds fan, that's right.
Or your Guardians family.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, the Guardians now formerly the Cleveland Indians. Yes, I
gotta tell you, I'm not real baseball, if that's a word.
But you got ca to mind. Him from Canton, Ohio,
which is the home of the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Yes,
as a matter of fact, my old supervisor, he was
(03:47):
an next he played with Brady and in the Patriots,
and everybody here has got an NFL connection. So and
ended up north Cleveland, Browns down south, you know, Ohio
State and my hometown. You know Paul Brown from this area,
and you know the NFL started here. So yeah, but
(04:08):
not to get you off the track, but yeah, baseball
is kind of secondary. Even when Lebron played up in Cleveland,
it was still it was still football.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I guess everybody's got one sport they're passionate about and
the others.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Like you in this area.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I mean, our culture here is beer and football. That's
pretty much the extent of it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
The town of Ottawa, Illinois, has no professional teams of
any kind. But what it did have when I was
in high school, what it did have was two radio stations.
One was an FM music station That's where I got
my start. The other was a daytime only AM station.
And the FM station, I actually got my start as
a disc jockey. And then I realized you need a
personality to do that, so I think, go ahead. That
(04:52):
came later, but I switched to the other station across town,
where I was a newscaster. Because they were an automated
station and no need for disc jockeys. I started doing newscasting.
I was seventeen at the time, and I just built
the career from there. That's fantastic. Is that something you
always wanted to do as a kid. A lot of
kids have fantasies. Well, it's our age. People fantasized about
(05:13):
being on the radio. Readeating on the radio isn't such
a big thing anymore. But you know, back in the day,
there was so many big you know stars, you know
you know, well, actually here again, back to my area, Cleveland.
You know Alan Freed, all those people. Oh sure, WMMS
during the nineteen seven As far as I'm concerned, they
put Springsteen on the map. So it was you know,
(05:35):
back then, radio was the thing, and a big stereo
was the thing. Were you one of those guys you
have a big stereo in your house?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Not a big one, but we did have a stereo.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
But my music taste was so eclectic that I probably
wouldn't fit very easily into any radio stations format.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
But I did read a magazine article.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I was still in high school and actually planning to
go to law school someday. But I read a magazine
article one night and it was about the top paying
jobs in America, and of course doctor lawyer there on
the top of but like number four or five on
the list was radio personality. I don't think they met
the ord ordinary run of the mill, just shocking. I
think they met Arthur Godfree and you know, people of
(06:15):
that era. Because I don't know how old the magazine was,
but I thought radio. You know, I got a couple
of friends from high school who worked at one or
the other of our two radio stations, and I kind
of lucked into it and I've never looked back.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, well you have. I don't know how. Sometimes when
we record online, the essence of the voice doesn't come
across one percent the way i'd like it. But you
have a very soft mid tone range, and that is
excellent for voiceovers. I mean, it's kind of a misnomer
that James Earl Jones, you know the voice down here.
That's kind of a misnomer. That kind of a voice
(06:51):
has its application but if you look at like Morgan
Freeman or any of those people, they're very rich in
mid tones, and any audio file will tell you the
music lives in the mid tones, not in the really
high And you have that, and I think it's a
very inviting voice. You know, it's a very friendly voice. Yes,
(07:12):
I kind of struggle with when I'm up for voiceover jobs.
People will sometimes tell me it's too masculine, it's too gritty,
it's too rock and roll. I get that a lot.
And you know what, you can't take that personally because
it's just like you know, being a model or anything else.
So some people are going to like the way you
look and others not. But you have that a very
inviting voice. Is that something that you you capitalized on
(07:35):
when when you realized you had it, did you really like, Okay,
I got to really make this come out.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I got an early taste of it in school. From
time to time a teacher would remark it because they
would have us read in front of the class, and
every now and then a teacher would remark on, one
nice voice you have.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I was a.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Narrator in the Christmas play one year, that type of thing.
But it really wasn't until I got to high school
and I would join the speech and debate team and
that's where that's where it started to come out. And
I actually wrote to I think Floyd Calber and who
else there was a couple of other major newscasters at
the time, and said, do.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
You have any advice for somebody who wants to get
them to radio? And they were very nice.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
They were back to me said do voice exercises and
you do that?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Was that was very nice of them, very cool.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yes, that was awesome. Well, as you've how long have
you been retired? Now? If you don't do obviously don't
do radio anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Well ASTs next astros next to that. I retired from
my full time job seven years ago after I had
called after I had call in cancer and spent some
months while recovering from that, and it kind of forced
my hand. I was I was getting ready for retirement
and that kind of forced the head. But I've never
been off the air because ever since twenty sixteen or so,
(08:53):
I am actually I actually work with the National Association
of Realtors. They have a weekly radio show and podcast
called the Real Estate Today Wow, and I do. I
do four little newscasts for a little two minute newscasts
in their two hour radio show with the latest real
estate news. And I do that once a week from
my home studio. Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And it's a wonderful little way to keep my hand
in the thing.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, well that's fantastic. I knew from your TikTok that
you weren't working, you know, full time anymore. As far
as colon cancer goes, I anytime anybody mentions it, I
always remind people to get checked.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I don't know if you want to, you know, tell
a little bit about your thing. I'm due to get
checked again in every ten years. You got to go.
And I hate it, but it's worth it, right.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I've told my both my daughters who are in their
forties now, I said, it's time you got to you
got to go in and get tested. But the main thing,
you know, all of us have heard for many, many
years the warning signs of cancer. They always say one
of the warning signs and he changes in bowler bladder habits.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
And without going.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Any detail, I will say I had changes in my
bowel and bladder habits and ignored them like a guy does,
until it was kind of it wasn't too late, but
it was at that point the point where it was
either do something about it now or you're not going
to be here to do something.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
About it now.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And so you know when and luckily surgery was very successful.
But we did have some complications afterwards. That's why I
was out of commission for a while. Had a round
of chemo, round of radiation. Everything's turned out fine. I've
been six what seven years now.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Cancer freeze, Well, that's fantastic, you know, that's that's one
of those things we hear so much about diet and
all the present. Uh, you know, the preservatives that are
that are in our food and everything. And I got
my first check when I was fifty and since then,
knowing what I know now, so many friends, so many
(10:54):
people that I've known in their forties, in their thirties
have been diagnosed. Now they used to tell you fifty.
Now I think they've lowered it. I think they loaded
it to forty five. But quite frankly, I would tell
anybody you know an adult in their thirties or forties,
get checked, because that's one you definitely want to catch
(11:16):
early because it is very treatable. So yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It is not only very treatable, what my doctor told me,
is also one of the slower growing cancers.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yes, so you do have time.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It's not like some cancers where you have to have
surgery the same day, you know, to save your life.
You shouldn't wait. No, but if you do get diagnosed,
you know later than you would have liked. It's still
not necessarily, you know, going to be the death sentence
set may have once been.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yes, And despite cancer being scary, there's so many of them.
Gold and cancer is one, a thyroid is another's skin
is another way. They've done a lot of advancement, So
get checked all the time anytime you have a chance. Okay,
one of the things that you moved on to. Now,
there's two things we're going to cover here. We're going
(12:04):
to cover TikTok and we're also going to cover AI
after forty, which I find fascinating. How did you get
started with TikTok?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I got a new phone in the fall of twenty nineteen,
and you know, new phones come with pre installed apps,
so I'm going through them to see which ones I
could delete. There's games on there, and there's coupons and
things like this, and there's one called TikTok, and I thought, okay,
I think maybe it's a word game or something. So
I opened it up and it wasn't a word game.
(12:36):
These strange videos that I started, and it kind of
kind of threw me off for a while, and then
I realized this could be kind of fun. So I
made a couple, got a couple of thousand views, which
is nice, and then I had one or two that
really struck that. You know, I had some fun with it.
I kind of cut loose a little bit, and within
six months or so, I'd had my first million view TikTok,
(12:57):
which which is really hard to do now because the
alg them is changing. So I don't know, I don't
know if I could replicate that success today, but I
thought that that was kind of fun and almost you know,
probably within a year year and a half or so,
I had almost a quarter million followers.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Old guy like me.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And that's the thing you hear so much about, Well
it's just kids on there, and it's just silly stuff.
But you know, I've noticed one of the trending things
now that women are doing is this is fifty or
this is sixty and they show themselves about the filters,
and there's so many and if you think they're just kids,
you're wrong. I mean, there's obviously a lot of that
on there, and there's a lot of nonsense on there,
(13:37):
and there's a lot of silliness on there, just like
there's anything else. But there's some really talented people there.
I mean, there are some really talented people on there.
What is the future of that? I understand it's been
sold and they're going to rebrand another type of app
with and the structure for this app is going to
get abandoned in about a year. Is that basically what's
(13:59):
going to happen. That's that's essentially what I've heard.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
And how true those reports are, it's still unclear because
TikTok hasn't officially said much of anything. The Chinese government
sure isn't talking, uh, and so I'm not sure. It
does sound though, like we will be getting something resembling TikTok,
perhaps as early as September, perhaps next March, somewhere in there.
And apparently it's going to be a US only kind
(14:25):
of thing, which which is distressing a lot of TikTokers
who have international audiences. In fact, a big chunk of
my audience comes from Norway. Wow, so's yeah, it looks
like we'll have something new.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
So your content is, how would you describe what you
do on there on TikTok? What's your what's your handle
so people can find you? My handles simply hurt everything. Okay,
it's because I originally set it up simply to promote
my podcast, and and and as a matter of fact,
(14:58):
I parenthetically I you also now have a second TikTok
channel called now I've Heard Everything, you know, the whole
title in which I simply post promos for the podcast,
and it has very small you know, promotional TikTok channels
don't usually get much attention.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But my main channel has heard everything.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And I do exactly the opposite of Well, the TikTok
guru say, I don't have a niche especialty.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I post pretty much whatever I want.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well, you get lots of views, man, and I'll tell
you that's fantastic. I've been on TikTok and and in
all honesty, I haven't focused on it. I do take
little clips of some of the shows we do here
and put them on there, and sometimes I will do
a dedicated TikTok, but it probably doesn't do as much
as I should. But it's an interesting tool, and quite frankly,
(15:51):
a lot of podcasters are on there and they're very
successful with it. So yes, all right, this is kind
of why I brought you, because I find this fascinating.
AI is one of those topics that when people hear it,
they sometimes go to science fiction. You know, this is
where the computers are going to take over and they're
going to build machines that are going to wipe out humans,
(16:15):
and then we go to the other direction to where
oh that's something new again, and it's all bs and
da da. I think if the truth is somewhere in between.
I think that with AI, especially repetitive tasks, AI is
very helpful. For example, even in biology, I was speaking
to a researcher not too long ago, and so much
(16:37):
of what they do when they're analyzing results is repetitive.
So it's nice to have AI do the repetitive and
then when something is out of whack, then the human
comes in and analyzes it. So with that being said,
before we get into AI specifically, after forty what is
your feeling about AI.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
It is a tool, and that's all it is. It
is a technology. It is simply something that will improve
the way you. For example, you know the old saying
two heads are better than one. Yeah, well, what if
you had two hundred heads? What if you had two
thousand heads? What if you had two million heads? All
of them? Pinpoint focused on what your question is? Your
(17:21):
quest for information, your problem. You're wondering about something, and
you have literally a million minds, two million minds all
working on your Well, I'll be perfectly candid with you.
I'm building the YouTube channel AI after forty with the
help of AI. It's telling me here's who your audience
(17:41):
likely is, who they Here's how you can approach that
particular audience. Here's a sample script for a video if
you want to use that incredible amounts of information that
I could. I would eventually thought of it myself, but
AI did it for me in sixty seconds.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yes, there's so much good and bad to that. I
think that, you know, as far as an artist goes,
I think that, let's say a musician, you could tell
AI to analyze all the number one songs for the
last fifty years and pick the most common basslines, the
(18:18):
most common books, the most common snaps, and engineer a
song that was three or four minutes long, that all
the best attributes of all the number one songs for
the last fifty years, And would that be would that
be art? That's the thing, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
There were those who asked the same question about computers
in general a generation ago. You know, if you have
to use a computer to create it, you didn't really
create that, now, did you.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Well no, we now know that computers are just a tool,
and AI is simply a tool, and it will be,
you know, like you said, for good or for evil.
Somebody will use it to create something marvelous. Somebody else
might not be so wise about their use of AI.
But that's all it is, is just a tool. Yeah, okay,
I'll take you. I'll take that. I would agree. I
(19:15):
think that for creatives. I don't think that creatives are
going to go away. I think they could. I could
the everyday ones might be threatened.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You know. It's just like with extras and movies. Now
you can take somebody and duplicate them, and I think
that's a potential threat. But you have to adjust. Is
like so many other things we've adjusted to technology. You
have to adjust. And one of the things that I
heard that I that Cynthia's she's a co host of mine.
(19:43):
One of the things that she said that I thought
was absolutely brilliant, and I haven't heard too many people
say it is that. What we have to do too,
is we have to be as human beings more aware
of our own intelligence, our own existence, and our own
what's I'm not sure where the words you use, but
I thought it was brilliant. We have to be more
(20:04):
in tune with our consciousness to understand what is real
and what isn't and I people should develop those skills.
And I never thought about it that way, but it
is true. I think that's a good point because a
lot of people, a lot of people really are on
automatic pilot. Bill. And I'm not saying I'm the smartest ball,
you know, the smartest guy in the room, or the
smartest the brightest ball in the box. But there's a
(20:26):
lot of people on there that are on automatic pilot. Man,
I don't know if they know the living or not
so well.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
That's that's the thing. You can't expect AI to do
your entire job. And no matter what, yeah, large or small.
It'll get you sixty or eighty percent of the way there.
But it's your still your project, your job, your task,
and even if AI will write you a wonderful birthday
note to somebody, it's still up to you to personalize it,
(20:55):
give it's your own little touch. I mean, AI is
just a tool to help you get there. Okay, fair enough,
AI after forty. Here's what I hear. This is what
this is what I hear a lot about AI after forty.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And by the way, let me say this, it's a
misnomer that it just because you are quote unquote young,
that you're good with technology. Okay, because I've dealt with
a lot of college graduates that don't know anything about
how a computer works. And quite frankly, I think that's
because everything is plug and play.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
You know, when computers first started to become mass marketed
in the nineteen nineties, you know, just buying a printer
was a major project. You had to know what you
had to know, what operating system you had, you had
to know how to download the drivers, you know how
to and now everything is plug and play. And with
the exception of the gamers and the enthusiasts, I think
it's a misnomer to presume most people that I that
(21:45):
I talked to in the workforce today don't know the
difference between a hard drive memory or random access memory
or anything. So with that being said, I think it's
a misnomer. I think it's unfair to just say all
older people don't get it. I think that's unfair. And also,
here's what I hear when it comes to like chat GPT.
(22:05):
If you're over forty, the only thing you're using AI
for is to write a paragraph and say, Okay, edit this.
That's the only thing you're doing. And I would agree
I use it for that purpose. I use it for
other things. But you're what you are trying to get
across to the over forty group is there's a lot
(22:25):
more that you can do than just clean up your
emails right, well, exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
And the point that you just made about when when
we were learning computers, you had to learn everything about them,
and it did seem very scary and very confusing and
very foreign, and we're thinking, how am I ever going
to learn all this? And somehow we learned all of
it and we mastered it and we advanced AI. Is
the same thing it's not difficult to learn. I'm in
(22:50):
the process of learning myself and that's partly my motivation
for starting AI after forty because I'm trying to expand
my own knowledge of this. But it's amazing. Is a
lot easier to learn than you might think.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, yes, okay, let's say someone over forty and I
would you know as a general rule, I mean stereotypes
exists because there's some truth to them. It's probably it's
probably a general role if you're of a certain age,
as they say, if you're of a certain age, you're
probably getting your news from cable news and you're using
computers to send emails. And that's about it. Okay, there's
(23:23):
so much more you can do with this technology. You're
the the AI over excuse me, AI after forty. You
have the YouTube channel. What's one of the first things
that you would want to get across to somebody who
says this AI thing, What would be one of the
first things you'd want to introduce them to.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, for example, I had a Facebook friend just yesterday
wrote to me and said, I've heard about AI, know what,
know what it's for, It's just but what can you
do with it? And At first I thought, well, what
can't you do? But then I thought that's a serious question,
and there is a whole range of things. So the
first thing that someone should consider is what do I
(24:06):
need done? Do I need help in writing a letter?
Do I help need help in organizing my household? Do
I need help in just planning meals for the week?
Do I need help in planning the rest of my
career where my career path is going to go, Or
the case of what I was creating AI after forty
Do I need help creating a new YouTube channel? Whatever
(24:29):
your need is, there's probably an AI agent that will
help you do that and do it very fast. Interesting.
What's one of the ones that you lean on the most?
What's one of the apps that you lean on the most?
I probably do chat GPT, not necessarily because it's the
OG of the AI apps, but it seems to be
(24:50):
that for one thing, it remembers me every time I
log on, not only remembers the last time we talked,
but all the times that we've talked. So recently. I
asked a question that that referenced something that we talked
about maybe two months ago, and it picked up right
where we left off, and it was because again, machines
don't forget yes and that, and it knows kind of
(25:14):
what I like. It knows, it knows. Actually, it intuits
or seems to. I don't want to ascribe human characteristics
to it, but it seems to intuit who I really
am and what I'm really interested in. And that's that's
a powerful concept.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
It's very powerful. I know that might even make some
people nervous.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
It does.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, yeah, what what does this thing know about me?
You know? So that when people go to the website
excuse me, well, it is a website YouTube AI after
forty and I know you're working on a on a
dedicated website and that's to come. But what's how many
(25:57):
do you have a history of videos? There is like
a one they should start with or to get out.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I've got a handful of I've got a yeah, I've
got a handful of videos up there now, because to
be honest, we are still very much in our infancy.
It's only been up for a matter of days and
I'm still what I'm actively searching for is And I
will invite any of your listeners and viewers to contribute
any ideas you have because what I'm hoping to build,
what I want to build. This is my vision to
(26:22):
build a community of forty plus adults who can all
share with each other, all of us sharing ideas on Hey,
I tried this and this work. I tried this and
give me such good results. But wait till you try
this thing that I did. And we as we start,
because this is again how you and I learned computers
back in the day. We sat around, we swapped stories
(26:43):
of Oh, I can do this with my disk drive,
and oh, you wouldn't believe I did with this thing
over here. You start building ideas and then build on
each other, and that's how community forms that we can
support each other.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yes, that is all fantastic, stick Bill, you're an interesting guy.
A couple of places I want to send people.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
First of all, you're TikTok and here again, if you
are of a certain age, as they often say, uh,
don't be dissuaded from TikTok because that's where all the
kids are. Because yes, that's there, but there's all people
of all ages with all kinds of different causes. I
don't care. There's people on there way, some of the
ones I got to be honest with you. Some of
(27:26):
the heartbreaking ones are the ones who are battling chronic illness.
They create these diaries on there and you get caught,
you get you get connected with these people and their
their emotional journeys, and uh, it's yes. I mean, so
there's that on there. There's people talking about news, there's
(27:48):
lots of politics on there. There's people who have you
been through a bad divorce, There's people that are going
to tell you how to sell cars. I mean, it's
just all over the game. So if you enjoy in
their short form videos. So Bill is on there and
it's the big one that you have that's heard everything,
(28:13):
heard everything okay.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And then then the channel that promotes my podcast is
now I've heard everything okay. And I guess this would
be an opportune time to also mention that I did
launch the other day a new TikTok channel for Ai
after forty, So that's a third wave is you can
find me on TikTok Ai after forty.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Absolutely fantastic. The next question would be the podcast itself.
Are you on the major platforms? Where where can people
find it? Now?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I've heard everything, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, because I do video versions.
Obviously with my old radio archive, there's no video to
go with it. But I do use a variety of
visuals and various effects that would that will keep you
entertained if all you can do is, you know, if
you just want to watch the video and he listened
(29:00):
to the interview. But yeah, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, as we say,
all major podcast platforms yea, and even someplaces where you
can't find podcasts.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Well, you know, I as being in the podcasting business,
I can tell you that most podcasts that are on
YouTube don't get watched. I mean they don't get watched
as and people sit down and watch them. People usually
open them in a secondary browser and listen to them
while they're at work or whatever. So and that kind
of you know, you're kind of from that school where
(29:30):
the spoken word and audio was an art form, and
so often now I think people just kind of regard
it as a necessary evil. You know, you have to
have audio on your video, and then they just strip
it off and slap it onto a podcast. To me,
that's not you know, that's not that's not like what
Paul Harvey did you know you mentioned somebody, you know,
Paul Harvey, his way of speaking was an art form,
(29:54):
and his storytelling was an art form, and it was
an audio only. Watching video of that would have actually
taken away from it. Do you agree with that? Have you?
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Have you come across any of somebody on TikTok is
repurposing his old rest of the story.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Oh? Really? Yes?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
And I listened to them whenever they pop up in
my for you feed, I listen, and it's just takes
me back, because you're right, the storytelling ability is astounding
of that man.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yes, people like Burl Lives was another one that's this
is going back. Those people have just had this here Again.
It wasn't necessarily a high or low voice, but it
just was so rich and the storytelling came out so well.
James Shepherd. Yes, there's so many good ones. Lauren Green.
A lot of people don't know that Lauren Green did
(30:40):
it all? Oh yeah, yes, yes, so oh well, we
can talk about a lot. A lot of people wouldn't
know what we're talking about, but we could certainly talk
okay Ai after forty there is a website coming, But
in the meantime, do check out the TikTok bill. It's
(31:01):
been great talking to you. We'll have to do another
show one of these days and talk about some of
maybe some of your best interviews, some of the worst ones,
and you can kind of give us that. That would
be great if some of them, if you would like
to do that, and.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I'll tell you about the personality that I may have
accidentally killed.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Oh really, okay, is that something you want to tell
You're going to save that? Okay, we'll leave it as
a teaser. Very good, Okay, talking to the wonderful Bill Thompson.
Thank you so much for coming on the program. It's
been a pleasure chatting with you.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Oh, Billy, my pleasure. But you you're terrific. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Oh, thank you. I'm probably not terrific. I'm fifty to
fifty most of the.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Time, but.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I'm Billy D's. You can find the Abilities Podcasts on
your favorite podcasting platform. We're on all of them, and
we have about a ten year history. In its current form,
the Abilities podcast has about a ten year history, so
you can find us very easily. Kind of like my
social media home I'm going to say is x, which,
for those of you don't know, is the former Twitter at.
(32:03):
Billy D's is on there. We also have Ability's podcast page.
That's very very small, but we talk about other things
besides how great my latest episode is. We talk about
how we market it, how we some of sometimes new
equipment that we've bought, new software that we're using. So
a lot of nerds I guess who are really into podcasting.
(32:24):
You follow that page. Thank you very much for listening,
and we will talk to you again very very soon.
Thank you. I'm Billy D's and host of the self
titled podcast, The Billy D's Podcast. We are primarily an
interview and a commentary based podcast featuring authors and creators
talking about their craft, advocates for community issues, and myself
(32:47):
in an array of co host discussing current events. There's
no partisan renting and rating going on here, just great content.
You can find The Billy D's Podcast on your favorite
platform and on Twitter. Billy Dees thank you, and I
hope you listen in
You are listening to the Billy D's Podcast. All right, well,
hello everyone, and welcome to the program. If you are
new here, we are primarily an interview and a commentary
based podcast. My name is Billy De's got a fantastic
(00:22):
interview lined up for you today with me. On the
line is Bill Thompson. Another Bill, Bill, How are you, Billy?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's a delight to be here talking with another fellow ols.
I'm radio broadcaster, podcaster. You're a better comedian than I
in but it's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, you know, let me tell the audience you have
the cred. There's not too often I get blown out
of the water by somebody who has a long distinguished history.
I mean, you've probably interviewed every major star that especially
during like the seventies and eighties, right, I mean you
were just interviewing every buddy.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Go ahead, Well, it's a niche, that niche, a niche niche,
what however you pronounced it? That I fell into, uh,
interviewing the authors of books, and that sounds a little boring, perhaps,
but I realized after a very short time that everybody
writes a book sooner or later, and most of them
go on book tour, and I was able to line
(01:22):
up interviews with basically one phone call to a publisher.
They say, sure, what time do you want them? And
all of a sudden in my studio walks Kirk Douglas,
and I'm thinking, Wow, that was easy.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Wow, Yeah, that well, that's fantastic, And we're going to
talk about his or his radio career. If you're interested
in some of these old interviews. The podcast that Bill
has is now I've Heard Everything, uh, And that's a
podcast where he plays back. Now, when you play these back,
do you give like a like a a modern synopsis
(01:55):
of how it how the interview happened and what it
was about to give us some context is out how
you present the exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I don't presume necessarily that you've ever even heard of
some of these people, because I know that some of
my listeners are too young to remember. You know who,
maybe Bob Feller was who I have on the podcast
this week. He was a big baseball star in the forties,
but he was Oh it was a great interview, but
that was in nineteen ninety. I did that interview, so
(02:23):
the interview itself is thirty five years old. So yeah,
I put it in a little bit of context. Let
him know. People know, yeah, he was an All Star
and had pitch three no hitters and so on and
so forth. This is where we talked. Occasionally, I'll drop
you if there's a relevant detail about Oh, in this case,
we talked on the fiftieth anniversary of his Opening Day
no hitter and that type of thing. And yes, because again,
(02:45):
even if you do remember who Bob Feller was, just
being reminded of him brings back a lot of memories
for people.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's a very pleasant experience.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I've looked through some of the names and it's
really amazing. So let's start with you and the beginning.
That's always a good place to start. Where are you from? Ottawa, Illinois.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's a little town about ninety miles to the southwestern
Chicago on Route eighty. Okay, it's it's about a two
hour drive into Wrigley Field. I'm Cubs fan. Sure, well
you're not too far or I'm in Ohio, so yeah,
Cubs fan or no, you probably Reds fan, that's right.
Or your Guardians family.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, the Guardians now formerly the Cleveland Indians. Yes, I
gotta tell you, I'm not real baseball, if that's a word.
But you got ca to mind. Him from Canton, Ohio,
which is the home of the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Yes,
as a matter of fact, my old supervisor, he was
(03:47):
an next he played with Brady and in the Patriots,
and everybody here has got an NFL connection. So and
ended up north Cleveland, Browns down south, you know, Ohio
State and my hometown. You know Paul Brown from this area,
and you know the NFL started here. So yeah, but
(04:08):
not to get you off the track, but yeah, baseball
is kind of secondary. Even when Lebron played up in Cleveland,
it was still it was still football.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I guess everybody's got one sport they're passionate about and
the others.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Like you in this area.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I mean, our culture here is beer and football. That's
pretty much the extent of it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
The town of Ottawa, Illinois, has no professional teams of
any kind. But what it did have when I was
in high school, what it did have was two radio stations.
One was an FM music station That's where I got
my start. The other was a daytime only AM station.
And the FM station, I actually got my start as
a disc jockey. And then I realized you need a
personality to do that, so I think, go ahead. That
(04:52):
came later, but I switched to the other station across town,
where I was a newscaster. Because they were an automated
station and no need for disc jockeys. I started doing newscasting.
I was seventeen at the time, and I just built
the career from there. That's fantastic. Is that something you
always wanted to do as a kid. A lot of
kids have fantasies. Well, it's our age. People fantasized about
(05:13):
being on the radio. Readeating on the radio isn't such
a big thing anymore. But you know, back in the day,
there was so many big you know stars, you know
you know, well, actually here again, back to my area, Cleveland.
You know Alan Freed, all those people. Oh sure, WMMS
during the nineteen seven As far as I'm concerned, they
put Springsteen on the map. So it was you know,
(05:35):
back then, radio was the thing, and a big stereo
was the thing. Were you one of those guys you
have a big stereo in your house?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Not a big one, but we did have a stereo.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
But my music taste was so eclectic that I probably
wouldn't fit very easily into any radio stations format.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
But I did read a magazine article.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I was still in high school and actually planning to
go to law school someday. But I read a magazine
article one night and it was about the top paying
jobs in America, and of course doctor lawyer there on
the top of but like number four or five on
the list was radio personality. I don't think they met
the ord ordinary run of the mill, just shocking. I
think they met Arthur Godfree and you know, people of
(06:15):
that era. Because I don't know how old the magazine was,
but I thought radio. You know, I got a couple
of friends from high school who worked at one or
the other of our two radio stations, and I kind
of lucked into it and I've never looked back.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, well you have. I don't know how. Sometimes when
we record online, the essence of the voice doesn't come
across one percent the way i'd like it. But you
have a very soft mid tone range, and that is
excellent for voiceovers. I mean, it's kind of a misnomer
that James Earl Jones, you know the voice down here.
That's kind of a misnomer. That kind of a voice
(06:51):
has its application but if you look at like Morgan
Freeman or any of those people, they're very rich in
mid tones, and any audio file will tell you the
music lives in the mid tones, not in the really
high And you have that, and I think it's a
very inviting voice. You know, it's a very friendly voice. Yes,
(07:12):
I kind of struggle with when I'm up for voiceover jobs.
People will sometimes tell me it's too masculine, it's too gritty,
it's too rock and roll. I get that a lot.
And you know what, you can't take that personally because
it's just like you know, being a model or anything else.
So some people are going to like the way you
look and others not. But you have that a very
inviting voice. Is that something that you you capitalized on
(07:35):
when when you realized you had it, did you really like, Okay,
I got to really make this come out.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I got an early taste of it in school. From
time to time a teacher would remark it because they
would have us read in front of the class, and
every now and then a teacher would remark on, one
nice voice you have.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I was a.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Narrator in the Christmas play one year, that type of thing.
But it really wasn't until I got to high school
and I would join the speech and debate team and
that's where that's where it started to come out. And
I actually wrote to I think Floyd Calber and who
else there was a couple of other major newscasters at
the time, and said, do.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
You have any advice for somebody who wants to get
them to radio? And they were very nice.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
They were back to me said do voice exercises and
you do that?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Was that was very nice of them, very cool.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yes, that was awesome. Well, as you've how long have
you been retired? Now? If you don't do obviously don't
do radio anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Well ASTs next astros next to that. I retired from
my full time job seven years ago after I had
called after I had call in cancer and spent some
months while recovering from that, and it kind of forced
my hand. I was I was getting ready for retirement
and that kind of forced the head. But I've never
been off the air because ever since twenty sixteen or so,
(08:53):
I am actually I actually work with the National Association
of Realtors. They have a weekly radio show and podcast
called the Real Estate Today Wow, and I do. I
do four little newscasts for a little two minute newscasts
in their two hour radio show with the latest real
estate news. And I do that once a week from
my home studio. Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And it's a wonderful little way to keep my hand
in the thing.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, well that's fantastic. I knew from your TikTok that
you weren't working, you know, full time anymore. As far
as colon cancer goes, I anytime anybody mentions it, I
always remind people to get checked.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I don't know if you want to, you know, tell
a little bit about your thing. I'm due to get
checked again in every ten years. You got to go.
And I hate it, but it's worth it, right.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I've told my both my daughters who are in their
forties now, I said, it's time you got to you
got to go in and get tested. But the main thing,
you know, all of us have heard for many, many
years the warning signs of cancer. They always say one
of the warning signs and he changes in bowler bladder habits.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
And without going.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Any detail, I will say I had changes in my
bowel and bladder habits and ignored them like a guy does,
until it was kind of it wasn't too late, but
it was at that point the point where it was
either do something about it now or you're not going
to be here to do something.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
About it now.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And so you know when and luckily surgery was very successful.
But we did have some complications afterwards. That's why I
was out of commission for a while. Had a round
of chemo, round of radiation. Everything's turned out fine. I've
been six what seven years now.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Cancer freeze, Well, that's fantastic, you know, that's that's one
of those things we hear so much about diet and
all the present. Uh, you know, the preservatives that are
that are in our food and everything. And I got
my first check when I was fifty and since then,
knowing what I know now, so many friends, so many
(10:54):
people that I've known in their forties, in their thirties
have been diagnosed. Now they used to tell you fifty.
Now I think they've lowered it. I think they loaded
it to forty five. But quite frankly, I would tell
anybody you know an adult in their thirties or forties,
get checked, because that's one you definitely want to catch
(11:16):
early because it is very treatable. So yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It is not only very treatable, what my doctor told me,
is also one of the slower growing cancers.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yes, so you do have time.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It's not like some cancers where you have to have
surgery the same day, you know, to save your life.
You shouldn't wait. No, but if you do get diagnosed,
you know later than you would have liked. It's still
not necessarily, you know, going to be the death sentence
set may have once been.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yes, And despite cancer being scary, there's so many of them.
Gold and cancer is one, a thyroid is another's skin
is another way. They've done a lot of advancement, So
get checked all the time anytime you have a chance. Okay,
one of the things that you moved on to. Now,
there's two things we're going to cover here. We're going
(12:04):
to cover TikTok and we're also going to cover AI
after forty, which I find fascinating. How did you get
started with TikTok?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I got a new phone in the fall of twenty nineteen,
and you know, new phones come with pre installed apps,
so I'm going through them to see which ones I
could delete. There's games on there, and there's coupons and
things like this, and there's one called TikTok, and I thought, okay,
I think maybe it's a word game or something. So
I opened it up and it wasn't a word game.
(12:36):
These strange videos that I started, and it kind of
kind of threw me off for a while, and then
I realized this could be kind of fun. So I
made a couple, got a couple of thousand views, which
is nice, and then I had one or two that
really struck that. You know, I had some fun with it.
I kind of cut loose a little bit, and within
six months or so, I'd had my first million view TikTok,
(12:57):
which which is really hard to do now because the
alg them is changing. So I don't know, I don't
know if I could replicate that success today, but I
thought that that was kind of fun and almost you know,
probably within a year year and a half or so,
I had almost a quarter million followers.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
So wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Old guy like me.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And that's the thing you hear so much about, Well
it's just kids on there, and it's just silly stuff.
But you know, I've noticed one of the trending things
now that women are doing is this is fifty or
this is sixty and they show themselves about the filters,
and there's so many and if you think they're just kids,
you're wrong. I mean, there's obviously a lot of that
on there, and there's a lot of nonsense on there,
(13:37):
and there's a lot of silliness on there, just like
there's anything else. But there's some really talented people there.
I mean, there are some really talented people on there.
What is the future of that? I understand it's been
sold and they're going to rebrand another type of app
with and the structure for this app is going to
get abandoned in about a year. Is that basically what's
(13:59):
going to happen. That's that's essentially what I've heard.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
And how true those reports are, it's still unclear because
TikTok hasn't officially said much of anything. The Chinese government
sure isn't talking, uh, and so I'm not sure. It
does sound though, like we will be getting something resembling TikTok,
perhaps as early as September, perhaps next March, somewhere in there.
And apparently it's going to be a US only kind
(14:25):
of thing, which which is distressing a lot of TikTokers
who have international audiences. In fact, a big chunk of
my audience comes from Norway. Wow, so's yeah, it looks
like we'll have something new.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
So your content is, how would you describe what you
do on there on TikTok? What's your what's your handle
so people can find you? My handles simply hurt everything. Okay,
it's because I originally set it up simply to promote
my podcast, and and and as a matter of fact,
(14:58):
I parenthetically I you also now have a second TikTok
channel called now I've Heard Everything, you know, the whole
title in which I simply post promos for the podcast,
and it has very small you know, promotional TikTok channels
don't usually get much attention.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But my main channel has heard everything.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And I do exactly the opposite of Well, the TikTok
guru say, I don't have a niche especialty.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I post pretty much whatever I want.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well, you get lots of views, man, and I'll tell
you that's fantastic. I've been on TikTok and and in
all honesty, I haven't focused on it. I do take
little clips of some of the shows we do here
and put them on there, and sometimes I will do
a dedicated TikTok, but it probably doesn't do as much
as I should. But it's an interesting tool, and quite frankly,
(15:51):
a lot of podcasters are on there and they're very
successful with it. So yes, all right, this is kind
of why I brought you, because I find this fascinating.
AI is one of those topics that when people hear it,
they sometimes go to science fiction. You know, this is
where the computers are going to take over and they're
going to build machines that are going to wipe out humans,
(16:15):
and then we go to the other direction to where
oh that's something new again, and it's all bs and
da da. I think if the truth is somewhere in between.
I think that with AI, especially repetitive tasks, AI is
very helpful. For example, even in biology, I was speaking
to a researcher not too long ago, and so much
(16:37):
of what they do when they're analyzing results is repetitive.
So it's nice to have AI do the repetitive and
then when something is out of whack, then the human
comes in and analyzes it. So with that being said,
before we get into AI specifically, after forty what is
your feeling about AI.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
It is a tool, and that's all it is. It
is a technology. It is simply something that will improve
the way you. For example, you know the old saying
two heads are better than one. Yeah, well, what if
you had two hundred heads? What if you had two
thousand heads? What if you had two million heads? All
of them? Pinpoint focused on what your question is? Your
(17:21):
quest for information, your problem. You're wondering about something, and
you have literally a million minds, two million minds all
working on your Well, I'll be perfectly candid with you.
I'm building the YouTube channel AI after forty with the
help of AI. It's telling me here's who your audience
(17:41):
likely is, who they Here's how you can approach that
particular audience. Here's a sample script for a video if
you want to use that incredible amounts of information that
I could. I would eventually thought of it myself, but
AI did it for me in sixty seconds.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yes, there's so much good and bad to that. I
think that, you know, as far as an artist goes,
I think that, let's say a musician, you could tell
AI to analyze all the number one songs for the
last fifty years and pick the most common basslines, the
(18:18):
most common books, the most common snaps, and engineer a
song that was three or four minutes long, that all
the best attributes of all the number one songs for
the last fifty years, And would that be would that
be art? That's the thing, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
There were those who asked the same question about computers
in general a generation ago. You know, if you have
to use a computer to create it, you didn't really
create that, now, did you.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Well no, we now know that computers are just a tool,
and AI is simply a tool, and it will be,
you know, like you said, for good or for evil.
Somebody will use it to create something marvelous. Somebody else
might not be so wise about their use of AI.
But that's all it is, is just a tool. Yeah, okay,
I'll take you. I'll take that. I would agree. I
(19:15):
think that for creatives. I don't think that creatives are
going to go away. I think they could. I could
the everyday ones might be threatened.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You know. It's just like with extras and movies. Now
you can take somebody and duplicate them, and I think
that's a potential threat. But you have to adjust. Is
like so many other things we've adjusted to technology. You
have to adjust. And one of the things that I
heard that I that Cynthia's she's a co host of mine.
(19:43):
One of the things that she said that I thought
was absolutely brilliant, and I haven't heard too many people
say it is that. What we have to do too,
is we have to be as human beings more aware
of our own intelligence, our own existence, and our own
what's I'm not sure where the words you use, but
I thought it was brilliant. We have to be more
(20:04):
in tune with our consciousness to understand what is real
and what isn't and I people should develop those skills.
And I never thought about it that way, but it
is true. I think that's a good point because a
lot of people, a lot of people really are on
automatic pilot. Bill. And I'm not saying I'm the smartest ball,
you know, the smartest guy in the room, or the
smartest the brightest ball in the box. But there's a
(20:26):
lot of people on there that are on automatic pilot. Man,
I don't know if they know the living or not
so well.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
That's that's the thing. You can't expect AI to do
your entire job. And no matter what, yeah, large or small.
It'll get you sixty or eighty percent of the way there.
But it's your still your project, your job, your task,
and even if AI will write you a wonderful birthday
note to somebody, it's still up to you to personalize it,
(20:55):
give it's your own little touch. I mean, AI is
just a tool to help you get there. Okay, fair enough,
AI after forty. Here's what I hear. This is what
this is what I hear a lot about AI after forty.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And by the way, let me say this, it's a
misnomer that it just because you are quote unquote young,
that you're good with technology. Okay, because I've dealt with
a lot of college graduates that don't know anything about
how a computer works. And quite frankly, I think that's
because everything is plug and play.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
You know, when computers first started to become mass marketed
in the nineteen nineties, you know, just buying a printer
was a major project. You had to know what you
had to know, what operating system you had, you had
to know how to download the drivers, you know how
to and now everything is plug and play. And with
the exception of the gamers and the enthusiasts, I think
it's a misnomer to presume most people that I that
(21:45):
I talked to in the workforce today don't know the
difference between a hard drive memory or random access memory
or anything. So with that being said, I think it's
a misnomer. I think it's unfair to just say all
older people don't get it. I think that's unfair. And also,
here's what I hear when it comes to like chat GPT.
(22:05):
If you're over forty, the only thing you're using AI
for is to write a paragraph and say, Okay, edit this.
That's the only thing you're doing. And I would agree
I use it for that purpose. I use it for
other things. But you're what you are trying to get
across to the over forty group is there's a lot
(22:25):
more that you can do than just clean up your
emails right, well, exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
And the point that you just made about when when
we were learning computers, you had to learn everything about them,
and it did seem very scary and very confusing and
very foreign, and we're thinking, how am I ever going
to learn all this? And somehow we learned all of
it and we mastered it and we advanced AI. Is
the same thing it's not difficult to learn. I'm in
(22:50):
the process of learning myself and that's partly my motivation
for starting AI after forty because I'm trying to expand
my own knowledge of this. But it's amazing. Is a
lot easier to learn than you might think.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, yes, okay, let's say someone over forty and I
would you know as a general rule, I mean stereotypes
exists because there's some truth to them. It's probably it's
probably a general role if you're of a certain age,
as they say, if you're of a certain age, you're
probably getting your news from cable news and you're using
computers to send emails. And that's about it. Okay, there's
(23:23):
so much more you can do with this technology. You're
the the AI over excuse me, AI after forty. You
have the YouTube channel. What's one of the first things
that you would want to get across to somebody who
says this AI thing, What would be one of the
first things you'd want to introduce them to.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, for example, I had a Facebook friend just yesterday
wrote to me and said, I've heard about AI, know what,
know what it's for, It's just but what can you
do with it? And At first I thought, well, what
can't you do? But then I thought that's a serious question,
and there is a whole range of things. So the
first thing that someone should consider is what do I
(24:06):
need done? Do I need help in writing a letter?
Do I help need help in organizing my household? Do
I need help in just planning meals for the week?
Do I need help in planning the rest of my
career where my career path is going to go, Or
the case of what I was creating AI after forty
Do I need help creating a new YouTube channel? Whatever
(24:29):
your need is, there's probably an AI agent that will
help you do that and do it very fast. Interesting.
What's one of the ones that you lean on the most?
What's one of the apps that you lean on the most?
I probably do chat GPT, not necessarily because it's the
OG of the AI apps, but it seems to be
(24:50):
that for one thing, it remembers me every time I
log on, not only remembers the last time we talked,
but all the times that we've talked. So recently. I
asked a question that that referenced something that we talked
about maybe two months ago, and it picked up right
where we left off, and it was because again, machines
don't forget yes and that, and it knows kind of
(25:14):
what I like. It knows, it knows. Actually, it intuits
or seems to. I don't want to ascribe human characteristics
to it, but it seems to intuit who I really
am and what I'm really interested in. And that's that's
a powerful concept.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
It's very powerful. I know that might even make some
people nervous.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
It does.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, yeah, what what does this thing know about me?
You know? So that when people go to the website
excuse me, well, it is a website YouTube AI after
forty and I know you're working on a on a
dedicated website and that's to come. But what's how many
(25:57):
do you have a history of videos? There is like
a one they should start with or to get out.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I've got a handful of I've got a yeah, I've
got a handful of videos up there now, because to
be honest, we are still very much in our infancy.
It's only been up for a matter of days and
I'm still what I'm actively searching for is And I
will invite any of your listeners and viewers to contribute
any ideas you have because what I'm hoping to build,
what I want to build. This is my vision to
(26:22):
build a community of forty plus adults who can all
share with each other, all of us sharing ideas on Hey,
I tried this and this work. I tried this and
give me such good results. But wait till you try
this thing that I did. And we as we start,
because this is again how you and I learned computers
back in the day. We sat around, we swapped stories
(26:43):
of Oh, I can do this with my disk drive,
and oh, you wouldn't believe I did with this thing
over here. You start building ideas and then build on
each other, and that's how community forms that we can
support each other.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yes, that is all fantastic, stick Bill, you're an interesting guy.
A couple of places I want to send people.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
First of all, you're TikTok and here again, if you
are of a certain age, as they often say, uh,
don't be dissuaded from TikTok because that's where all the
kids are. Because yes, that's there, but there's all people
of all ages with all kinds of different causes. I
don't care. There's people on there way, some of the
ones I got to be honest with you. Some of
(27:26):
the heartbreaking ones are the ones who are battling chronic illness.
They create these diaries on there and you get caught,
you get you get connected with these people and their
their emotional journeys, and uh, it's yes. I mean, so
there's that on there. There's people talking about news, there's
(27:48):
lots of politics on there. There's people who have you
been through a bad divorce, There's people that are going
to tell you how to sell cars. I mean, it's
just all over the game. So if you enjoy in
their short form videos. So Bill is on there and
it's the big one that you have that's heard everything,
(28:13):
heard everything okay.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And then then the channel that promotes my podcast is
now I've heard everything okay. And I guess this would
be an opportune time to also mention that I did
launch the other day a new TikTok channel for Ai
after forty, So that's a third wave is you can
find me on TikTok Ai after forty.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Absolutely fantastic. The next question would be the podcast itself.
Are you on the major platforms? Where where can people
find it? Now?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I've heard everything, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, because I do video versions.
Obviously with my old radio archive, there's no video to
go with it. But I do use a variety of
visuals and various effects that would that will keep you
entertained if all you can do is, you know, if
you just want to watch the video and he listened
(29:00):
to the interview. But yeah, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, as we say,
all major podcast platforms yea, and even someplaces where you
can't find podcasts.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Well, you know, I as being in the podcasting business,
I can tell you that most podcasts that are on
YouTube don't get watched. I mean they don't get watched
as and people sit down and watch them. People usually
open them in a secondary browser and listen to them
while they're at work or whatever. So and that kind
of you know, you're kind of from that school where
(29:30):
the spoken word and audio was an art form, and
so often now I think people just kind of regard
it as a necessary evil. You know, you have to
have audio on your video, and then they just strip
it off and slap it onto a podcast. To me,
that's not you know, that's not that's not like what
Paul Harvey did you know you mentioned somebody, you know,
Paul Harvey, his way of speaking was an art form,
(29:54):
and his storytelling was an art form, and it was
an audio only. Watching video of that would have actually
taken away from it. Do you agree with that? Have you?
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Have you come across any of somebody on TikTok is
repurposing his old rest of the story.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Oh? Really? Yes?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
And I listened to them whenever they pop up in
my for you feed, I listen, and it's just takes
me back, because you're right, the storytelling ability is astounding
of that man.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yes, people like Burl Lives was another one that's this
is going back. Those people have just had this here Again.
It wasn't necessarily a high or low voice, but it
just was so rich and the storytelling came out so well.
James Shepherd. Yes, there's so many good ones. Lauren Green.
A lot of people don't know that Lauren Green did
(30:40):
it all? Oh yeah, yes, yes, so oh well, we
can talk about a lot. A lot of people wouldn't
know what we're talking about, but we could certainly talk
okay Ai after forty there is a website coming, But
in the meantime, do check out the TikTok bill. It's
(31:01):
been great talking to you. We'll have to do another
show one of these days and talk about some of
maybe some of your best interviews, some of the worst ones,
and you can kind of give us that. That would
be great if some of them, if you would like
to do that, and.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I'll tell you about the personality that I may have
accidentally killed.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Oh really, okay, is that something you want to tell
You're going to save that? Okay, we'll leave it as
a teaser. Very good, Okay, talking to the wonderful Bill Thompson.
Thank you so much for coming on the program. It's
been a pleasure chatting with you.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Oh, Billy, my pleasure. But you you're terrific. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Oh, thank you. I'm probably not terrific. I'm fifty to
fifty most of the.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Time, but.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I'm Billy D's. You can find the Abilities Podcasts on
your favorite podcasting platform. We're on all of them, and
we have about a ten year history. In its current form,
the Abilities podcast has about a ten year history, so
you can find us very easily. Kind of like my
social media home I'm going to say is x, which,
for those of you don't know, is the former Twitter at.
(32:03):
Billy D's is on there. We also have Ability's podcast page.
That's very very small, but we talk about other things
besides how great my latest episode is. We talk about
how we market it, how we some of sometimes new
equipment that we've bought, new software that we're using. So
a lot of nerds I guess who are really into podcasting.
(32:24):
You follow that page. Thank you very much for listening,
and we will talk to you again very very soon.
Thank you. I'm Billy D's and host of the self
titled podcast, The Billy D's Podcast. We are primarily an
interview and a commentary based podcast featuring authors and creators
talking about their craft, advocates for community issues, and myself
(32:47):
in an array of co host discussing current events. There's
no partisan renting and rating going on here, just great content.
You can find The Billy D's Podcast on your favorite
platform and on Twitter. Billy Dees thank you, and I
hope you listen in
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