My Worst Interview Ever

Some people notice things. Other people do things. Some people talk. Other people act. Some people complain. Other people create. Our guest today is other people.

After noticing discrepancies between what's true in Washington and what's reported about Washington--and a severe lack of transparency within Congress--Jen Briney decided to do something about it. She created the Congressional Dish podcast, whi...

It seems like nearly every podcaster has a "day job." A job that pays the bills and provides the knowledge and/or expertise a host needs for his show. Over the course of this podcast, one of my favorite parts has been learning my guests' wide variety of "day jobs." Accountants, consultants, developers, radio hosts.

Today, I talk with Buck Ballard who--in real life--is a truck driver. And he managed to tu...

As much as I don't want to admit it, I can be an "excuses guy." Miss an appointment with a client? Blame it on not enough sleep or a congested calendar. Bad night playing volleyball? Perhaps I ate too much or didn't stretch. It often feels like the last thing I want to do is admit that I'm the issue rather than my circumstances.

Today's guest on My Worst Interview Ever apparently doesn't struggle with th...

Just like Los Angeles is filled with actors masquerading as waiters, Nashville is packed to the rafters with musicians waiting tables as well. The competition for available gigs is extremely steep and the odds for making a living are extremely long.

Several decades ago, Nashville-born David Hooper realized that his skill set made him less of a candidate for playing music and more of a candidate for marke...

Since starting RINGR, I learned of a phrase called "first to market." Entrepreneurs and investors particularly like it because the concept is seen as a major advantage in the business world. It stands to reason that--if you can be the first company to present X product to market--then you'll have a better chance of getting and retaining a majority of the consumers who have been looking for X. Even if others come along...

I first met Matt at an investor meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio. A mutual friend introduced us, knowing that we had each spent significant amounts of time in the audio space. Matt on the technical side. Me on the creative side. Also, Matt was carrying a large rubber ducky which made it nearly impossible to not strike up a conversation.

Anyway, as it turns out, Matt is a really cool (and smart) dude...and he ...

Ana Marie Cox is a political columnist and culture critic and is the Senior Political Correspondent for MTV News. She writes about politics and policy, and hosts the “Talk” interviews featured in The New York Times magazine. She lives in Minneapolis, MN and—despite frequently tweeting about cats—has more than 1.3 million followers on Twitter.

SHOW NOTES:

0:36 - How d...

There are things in life we wish we could do. And then there are things in life we're willing to do.

For example, I really wish I could speak Spanish. However, after taking two years of Spanish in high school, going on four extended trips to Peru, and owning a timeshare in Mexico, it's apparently not going to happen. If those things aren't going to motivate me to learn a new language, I'm not sure anythi...

Since the day that I met her, the voice on my wife's phone has been that of a burly Australian man, rather than Siri. I don't know that he has a name, but I've always been kind of jealous of him...speaking all sultry-like to Noel as she drives.

Anyway, Joshua C. Liston has a super-cool Australian accent that makes me jealous too. But Joshua also has an unbelievable worst interview that you just have to h...

I never really started to feel like I was old until recently. I'm rapidly approaching 40, which is the age I remember my parents being when I thought they were old. College students call me "sir" now. And my joints hurt for days after playing volleyball.

Our guest today didn't help matters when he told me that--as a kid--he used to listen to me on the radio. One one hand, that's awesome. On the other han...

When I lived in Chicago, I became friends with a guy named Manny who operated a halfway house of sorts for men who had just been released from prison. Manny was from South America, and he frequently would say to people, "I went to Yale." However, in the Spanish language, the letter J is often pronounced like a Y. So, what Manny was really saying was, "I went to jail." Which he did.

Our guest today, Vasav...

"People are like teabags.  You find out what's really inside them when you put them in hot water."

I have no idea who first said that, but it's one of my all-time favorite sayings. When life is going well, it's easy to appear calm, cool and collected. However, when things begin to fall apart, that task is infinitely more difficult. In a nutshell: how we handle the bad stuff in our past directly impacts t...

Back in 2014, at the very first Podcast Movement, I met Daniel J Lewis. I was new to the podcast world, new to my business, and standing alone at the RINGR booth trying to meet as many people as possible. Daniel asked a ton of technical questions about RINGR that I didn't really know the answers to. Partly because I'm not a technical guy. Partly because we didn't have an actual product at the time...just an idea for o...

From the time I was in high school, I have loved creative job titles. In fact, while I was drawing floor plans for home builders in our area (at 17 years old), I called myself a Custom Residential Designer. (Apparently, calling yourself an architect without the degree or license is illegal!) But, I digress.

Apple uses "Genius." Quicken Loans has a "VP of Misc. Stuff." Matrix Group calls its CEO the "Chie...

As a kid, before I ever dreamed of being in broadcasting, I love listening to my grandpa tell stories of his days in radio. He worked overnights in Detroit for a time and, every morning before signing off at 5 or 6am, he would play my grandma a love song. It sounded super romantic. However, knowing how much my grandma enjoyed sleep, I'd be surprised if she was ever awake to hear the dedications. But, regardless, the s...

The say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Which in some cases is absolutely true. Unfortunately, imitation can also be plagiarism, copyright or patent infringement, or just plain old laziness. It's two sides of the same coin, I suppose.

Having been in the space since the beginning, Dave Jackson knows a lot of podcasts. He knows a lot of podcasters. And he knows--pretty much instantly--when a p...

I spent 17 years working in, primarily, Christian radio. I had a lot of fun and probably pushed the envelope more than most do on these types of stations, though we admittedly had to operate in a much smaller "box" than most. From topics to language to attitudes, my shows lived in a uber-conservative landscape.

Dave Kirby and I met while working at one of these stations during a fundraiser to help feed a...

From the time I was in junior high, I had a "side hustle," though that term hadn't been invented yet. First it was a paper route. Then a job at a shoe store. Then I turned my love for architecture into a drafting business. My high school actually paid me to skip study hall to go draw floor plans of the various buildings in our district.

In college, I picked up radio...and then voiceover and production gi...