The Spoon

Ben Hammersley is a prolific guy. From the five books he's authored, to writing for The Guardian and Wired, to his time as a war correspondent in Afghanistan, to his time working with the UK government and much much more, Ben has lived more than a couple lifetimes for someone only 36 years old. But the one thing that Ben is most known for - perhaps unfairly given his lengthy list of accomplishments - is for creating the word podcast. He first used it in an article for The Guardian entitled 'Audible Revolution' and now, almost 10 years later, I catch up with Ben to talk about what he was seeing at the time and what has unfolded since. Meta for sure, a podcast about podcasting, but it was a really good conversation that covered a lot of ground. So have a listen! If you like this podcast, please subscribe using one of the following channels: iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nextmarket/id579455690 RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/soundcloud/JEcj or Stitcher: http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/32010/episodes

Where can you find GIFs of Anderson Cooper getting blasted in the face with a leaf blower and videos of beagles doing the cha cha cha next to news about the Obama administration's new cabinet or immigration reform? Buzzfeed of course. And the man behind it all is Jonah Perreti. Perreti, a former schoolteacher, first became fascinated with media hacking and experimentation at MIT media lab, where he created such memorable experiments such as his letters to Nike and Blackpeopleloveus.com. He soon took what he learned in the lab and applied it, helping to create The Huffington Post. It was in the wake of the 2004 presidential election, at a time when the Drudge Report gave the right a huge advantage in terms of swaying opinions and setting the agenda for the political conversation in America, but soon Huffpo, with its celebrity bloggers and catchy headlines, became an important and influential answer to Drudge and was expanding into other topics such as celebrity gossip, technology and more. As Huffpo grew, Perreti, ever the experimenter, knew he wanted to continue to his media hacking ways, so soon he set up his own personal media lab in Buzzfeed. Before long, Buzzfeed's focus on viral content, memes and other stuff for the bored-at-work crowd translated into fast growth, and Peretti was a man with two jobs. He eventually left Huffpo to run Buzzfeed full time, and today Buzzfeed has over 40 million monthly unique visitors, making it one of the highest traffic sites on the web. In this NextMarket podcast, Jonah and I talk about his journey from MIT to Buzzfeed, the state of the current media landscape, emerging media business models, the state of political media and what's next for Buzzfeed. Enjoy. If you like this podcast, please subscribe using one of the following channels: iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nextmarket/id579455690 RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/soundcloud/JEcj or Stitcher: http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/32010/episodes

At one of the CES 2013 press shows, I happened across Chris Pirillo, the one-man tech media whirlwind doing what he does best: talking to someone about tech and capturing it on video for his quarter million Youtube fans, not to mention his many other subscribers at Google+, Twitter and elsewhere. I've long been aware of Chris Pirillo; if you're in the technology industry or are a tech enthusiast, it's almost impossible not to be. For the last two decades he's been around in some form or another, starting in the mid-90s with one of the first big technology newsletters, which morphed into Lockergnome, Gnomedex, TechTV, Chris.Pirillo.com and most recently hrough his daily vlogs on YouTube. After seeing him in action, I thought it'd be good to catch up with him about what he's doing, how he got to where he is and how he makes a business of all his various online activities. We also talked about the origins of Lockergnome and Gnomedex, about his time as a host on TechTV, his 24//7 live-streaming on u-stream, his plans for a new conference about vlogging, and the Seattle tech scene (and how it compares to Silicon Valley). So Listen! If you like this podcast, please subscribe using one of the following channels: iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nextmarket/id579455690 RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/soundcloud/JEcj or Stitcher: app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/32010/episodes

Readmill is perhaps one of the most visible companies over the past year or so trying to integrate the utility of social and sharing into the reading experience. Readmill, which just announced its forthcoming iPhone app into beta, has been attempting to prove that readers want to enhance their reading experience with digital books using a social annotation sharing and discovery-centric e-reader that is independent of a specific piece of e-reader hardware. I caught up with Henrik in mid-December, about a year after we talked last and I got an update on the progress of the company, some lessons learned and the company's plans for 2013. If you're interested in listening to more NextMarket podcasts, subscribe at iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nextmarket/id579455690

In September of 2012, 3D printer pioneer Makerbot announced their fourth generation printer, the Replicator 2. The announcement of the Replicator 2 was significant in that it marked a shift towards a less technical user, a move that the company began a year ago with the Replicator (through releasing a pre-assembled device for the first time), but completed with the Replicator 2. In essence, the device is more targeted at an end user who is less interested in spending time hacking a 3D printer and more interested in actually making 3D prints. Another change was the Replicator 2 marked a slight shift on the company's stance on the open source nature of its products. Pettis indicated that they were seeing a number of companies knocking off its printer design (which was evolved from the early work of the Rep Rap project), and in order to counter that a small number of the technology design was not released into open source for the Replicator 2. I discuss these changes with Pettis, and we also talk about the broader 3D printing movement. In addition, we discuss 3D printing in the education market, something I think has huge potential given how other engineering-centric programs have thrived in schools, efforts such as First Lego League (a competitive robotics league which uses Lego Mindstorms) and the emerging use of Minecraft as a teaching tool in elementary and middle schools. We also talk Thingiverse and online 3D design exchanges, as well as who will become the "Amazon of 3D printing" and more. If you're interested in listening to more NextMarket podcasts, subscribe at iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nextmarket/id579455690

Many saw 2012 as the year music streaming became mainstream. One company in this space that seemingly came of out nowhere in 2012 was Songza, who by the end of the year had what I would estimate at over five million users in North America. The reason for the company's growth? They relied on man rather than machine. The company's Music Concierge app, released in March, utilized human curators to develop a series of mood-driven playlists which seemed to strike a chord with listeners who are tired of thumbing music up or down or having to create a playlist. This is interesting to me because so much has been written in the past few years about about how algorithmic recommendation has eclipsed the traditional model of human driven music recommendation, and here we have a company like Songza which has thrived on human driven recommendation. I caught up with the company's CEO, Elias Roman, on December 21st (Mayan Armageddon day), and we talked about the company's growth, what Songza looks for in a curator, their plans for 2013, working with Sonos and Elias's own picks for music for an end of the world playlist. I'd suggest you give the conversation a listen!

In December I caught up with Mark Cuban, the Internet entrepreneur turned sports mogul and reality TV star. Mark and I talked about a variety of topics, including the impact of Internet TV on the traditional broadcast industry, the future of book publishers, Kickstarter & crowdfunding, the technology valuation bubble, Mark's investing criteria for Shark Tank companies and how he manages his Shark Tank portfolio as it grows. If you're interested in listening to more NextMarket podcasts, subscribe at: Website: http://nextmarket.co iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nextmarket/id579455690

Richard Nash is a publishing visionary who not only will tell you where he thinks the book publishing world is going, he's also out there trying to explore and innovate at the edges himself, first with famous independent publisher Soft Skull Press, then his own startup Cursor and, most recently, with Small Demons. No matter where he's at, Nash always has an insightful take on the current state of publishing and where he sees it going and this conversation is no exception. In fact, I'd venture to say that this podcast is a must-listen for anyone trying to figure out what book publishing will look like in a few years. Richard and I first talk about Small Demons and the concept behind the company, which is looking to marry big data and the world in between a book's covers. We then examine the broader industry, where we talk about future business models for the traditional "big six" publishers, the future of the book itself, vertical integration of content industries like music, movies and books, social reading, and efforts like Pottermore and Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible as examples of possible leading lights for the future of publishing going forward. This conversation was a bit longer than my normal podcast (over 50 minutes), only because Richard and I had so much to talk about. Again, if you're interested in the future of book publishing, I really suggest you give this one a listen. If you're interested in listening to more NextMarket podcasts, subscribe at iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nextmarket/id579455690

Here I talk to musician Mike Doughty, the prolific artist behind Haughty Melodic, Golden Delicious and, most recently, The Flip is Another Honey. I'd learned about Mike's newest album through a tweet, played a track here on Soundcloud, and then bought it over at Amazon. The new normal, right? Not so fast. I thought I'd ask Mike himself about selling albums in the age of Twitter, as well as the modern music landscape. We also talk about how Mike's subscription club, the Lo-Fi Lodge, has performed. So listen already!

A caught up with Anthony Wood, CEO of Roku, to talk about the DVR more than a decade after it's introduction, how Roku has competed with the big players in streaming, and where he sees the world of streaming and cloud-based media going. This is the full length version of the podcast, which was recorded in the last week of November 2012.

I had a conversation with Matt McRae, who I've known since his days at Cisco. Matt's come a long way since then, and today he steers the technology and product vision for one of the fastest growing consumer electronics companies in the world. We talked about the smart TVs, the future of the TV interface, social and second screen, as well as a little about Matt's career trajectory.

This is a conversation I did in early 2012 with comedian and podcast giant Marc Maron. We talk about his app, Louis CK, his expectations when he started podcasting, his monetization strategies for the podcast, and where he sees the medium going.