Listening Chronicles #20
Listening Chronicles #20
Documenting thoughts on the podcasts that I listen to and those I would recommend.
Hi,
Welcome to the 20th Edition of the Listening Chronicles !
The Listening Chronicles is my space for geeking about podcasts. I share my thoughts on some of the stuff I’ve been listening to, and why I would recommend them.
Some of the episodes in this edition share a common theme.
Let’s get started !
Podcasts I Listened To
Jack of All Knowledge | Amit Varma on being an oral historian of our times
I first want to start of with a friend’s podcast - Jack of All Knowledge. Divyanshu has a wonderful conversation with Amit Varma.
Divyanshu’s Jack of All Knowledge, as I’ve written earlier is a podcast where he explores his personal rabbit holes (and they are many). His earlier episodes are also really nice. The questions are thoughtful, the guests are comfortable enough to share their learnings and each episode has some great moments.
One of the rabbit holes, for Divyanshu, was The Seen and The Unseen.
I have followed The Seen and The Unseen’s and Amit Varma’s journey since 2017. While I may not have listened to all of the 300+ episodes, it is definitely one of my favorite conversation podcasts out there. So, when I found out that Amit was going to be a guest on Divyanshu’s podcast, I knew I had to listen (unfortunately, took me a long time to get around to listening to it)
I don’t want to brag but the first question to start off the interview is something I suggested and it’s a fun, engaging conversation.
Give it a listen ! Worth every minute.
The Ongoing Twitter Saga
I use Twitter a lot. Borderline addictive usage. I like Twitter and as a user, I’m invested in knowing about the platform’s future.
I want to know if they’ll change the recommendation algorithm, will the Edit button feature come to India, will they go the route of YT Shorts/TikTok? It doesn’t really effect me in the grand scheme of things, but I still care.
So, when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, I started listening to a bunch of Twitter related podcast episodes. I wanted to know what happened, what went wrong, how’s he planning to improve the platform, does he even have a plan (seemed unlikely), and should I be quitting Twitter soon?
It feels like Twitter is taking a journey through hell, hoping it’ll come out better through that experience. I’m not so sure if that’ll happen.
The episodes recommended below are all the ones I’ve listened to, which have something to do with Twitter, its history, business and the ongoing crisis the company, its employees and users are facing.
Acquired | Twitter
In this episode, the hosts of Acquired speak to Dick Costolo, the former CEO who generated the first dollar of revenue, scaled it to a real business, and took it public.
The story of Twitter is an interesting one. I didn’t know that Twitter were in talks to acquire Instagram instead of Facebook. Also didn’t know just how much Twitter struggled to build a good product.
One of my favourite parts in this episode is the missed opportunities that Twitter didn’t take up at the time which would have led them to generate more revenue and improve the state of the company. They were either beaten by competitors, or didn’t take crucial decisions on time.
Why? Listen to the episode and find out.
The Daily - Twitter in the Time of Elon Musk
This is an episode from the beginning of November, right after the Twitter acquisition.
If you want a brief overview of how Musk ended up acquiring Twitter, I think you should start off here. I think it’s helpful to understand the Musk alone isn’t purchasing Twitter. There’s a lot more debt involved to purchase Twitter. After the acquisition, Twitter needs to pay an approximate $1 Billion in interest payments.
One good thing about all this is, I’m feeling less frustrated at my credit card bills, after looking at Twitter’s debt situation.
Tech Won’t Save Us - Tech Billionaires Are Reshaping US Politics
Tech Won’t Save Us is a podcast with the specific intention of critiquing the tech industry. This is from their About Us page
They challenge the notion that tech alone can drive our world forward by showing that separating tech from politics has consequences for us all, especially the most vulnerable. Taking inspiration from the Luddites, Tech Won’t Save Us isn’t simply about tearing down tech. It examines how technological development is constrained by the need to serve capitalist imperatives, which include controlling workers and commercializing everything. But it’s also interested in radical ideas for a better world, and how technology fits into those futures.
I really like this podcast because when you’re constantly bombarded with content that tech is the solution for everything, it helps listening to some alternative, thoughtful and well-reasoned conversations.
In this episode, they discuss a trend among tech billionaires that we’ve been seeing - where increasingly technology investors and billionaires are entering and stepping into politics. Before, they may have said they only want to focus on innovation. They want to shape the conversation around elections, voting and a lot of different policies which don’t directly have to do with their businesses.
Hard Fork - A Verified Mess: Turmoil from Twitter to FTX
This is the last one in the Twitter set of suggestions.
Hard Fork is hosted by two prominent tech journalists - Kevin Roose and Casey Newton. In this episode, they discuss more updates from the Twitter saga - blue ticks,
Many key employees have resigned from Twitter (this is after the massive lay-offs). A lot of regulatory compliances are required whenever Twitter makes a change to the product offering. And well, that isn’t happening right now. So, apart from the interest payments, Twitter also has to deal with millions of dollars of penalties. I would also suggest reading this report from the Verge.
“a company lawyer is encouraging employees to seek whistleblower protection “if you feel uncomfortable about anything you’re being asked to do.”
It’s hard to keep track with what’s happening with Twitter now. But, all of these suggestions are a good place to start.
Bonus Recommendation
One of my favourite YouTube channels - ColdFusion has a nice video about how Twitter started, and why even the beginning of Twitter isn’t as simple as it seems.
That was it for this edition !
Let me know what you’ve been listening to these days. Anything you would recommend?
Happy Listening !
Take care,
Nirmal Bhansali