Podcast Spotlight: The End of Privacy
Mendelson has authored two books around how the innovations in technology have impacted our personal lives, Social Media Is Bullshit and Privacy: And How We Can Get It Back. His podcast is a natural extension of those books with less restrictions on an editor and publisher so he can have commentary for real-time events.
The End of Privacy aims to provide short, informative, and entertaining episodes that listeners can binge through and come away with a better understanding of how companies are profiting off their personal data.
Discover Pods and BJ discussed the podcast and privacy over email, see below for the Q&A.
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher
Discover Pods: How’d you get into podcasting?
BJ: I’ve been playing around with the medium on and off since 2007. I was a big fan of Tom Merritt and Molly Wood on CNET’s Buzz Out Loud. My problem is that I’m very good at a lot of different things, and so it’s difficult to stick with something when you’re being pulled in other directions that can make you money. So I knew I always wanted to go into podcasting, but if I did, it would have to sound professional, be a limited run (to avoid me flaking out), and maybe even automated to some extent.
That’s what I’ve managed to do with The End of Privacy podcast. It’s automated*, narrated by a fantastic voice actor named Roger Wayne (people may know his voice from the audio edition of 2017’s bestselling audiobook, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck), and I don’t have to do much beyond a quick blog post twice a month to let people know a new episode has arrived.
*Automated here in the sense that someone else is handling the uploading and scheduling (Podcastmotor.com does that for me) and the show itself has already been recorded.
DP: In your own words, why should people tune into The End of Privacy?
BJ: It’s a mini-series and the episodes are short. So there’s not a huge amount of commitment involved. I love all the Kevin Smith podcasts, but those are so long that you really have to commit to listening to them. I’m not at that level yet, so there’s only 22 episodes and no episode is more than 12 minutes. Plus, Roger’s narration and the text is hilarious. So not only are you getting something that’s low commitment, you’re also getting something that’s really funny and educational.
Privacy is a hard thing to talk about because it can get weirdly technical or go down some crazy conspiracy theory rabbit hole. I don’t do any of that. I just wanted to let people know what’s going on with their data, how it affects them, and why they should get a cut of the profits. 19% of America’s GDP is tied up in the sharing and collection of our data, and yet I can count on one hand the number of companies and organizations that profit from that.
DP: As an author, how do you view the medium relationship between writing books and podcasting?
BJ: There’s a few different places the two interact with each other. First, books are a luxury item. Most people don’t read, and the few that do don’t make it past one book a year. The people who do read regularly are higher income, more educated, and a little more sophisticated when it comes to their use of technology. That’s all a long way of saying the odds are good that most readers are podcast listeners. I think NPR’s success with podcasts backs up that assertion.
Second, I think for authors like me who aren’t household names, you need to remove as many barriers as you can between you and the reader. So the podcast puts your work (if not your voice) right into the head of the listener, making the experience more intimate and bringing the reader and the author closer together than if someone were to just pick up the book and read it cold.
Finally, for authors, podcasting gives them a great way to promote themselves. It used to be that the only way to sell copies of your book was to tour, do radio interviews, and get as much press as you can. Podcasting creates another avenue and one that’s often overlooked. Sometimes for dumb reasons. If someone has a podcast with two listeners, you should absolutely do the interview with them. I’ve seen now, more than a few times in the past decade, people I did interviews with on their blog or podcast when no one knew who they were, and now they’re on television. So you never know who you’re talking to and should absolutely talk to everyone you can if they’re willing to talk to you about your book.
DP: With connected devices, Google, Facebook, and others, privacy is a hot-button topic. What are the few tips you give on how best to protect yourself?
BJ: I’m old school, so I tell people to do low tech things like put your passwords in a notebook offline and update them once a year. You should absolutely put a post-it note over your laptop camera (or a piece of tape), and you should use whatever tools are available from the Electronic Frontier Foundation like Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere to help make your current browser and surfing experience more secure than it is.
That said, there are more technically advanced things people can do to protect themselves, but the majority of people don’t know what a VPN or Tor is, so I try to keep things super easy.
I think the Brave Browser is a pretty good solution that’s also on the simple side: https://brave.com/
And if you’re into cryptocurrency, there are apps coming down the pike like Flexa that will let you spend those currencies privately. So, the tech is coming for people to quickly and simply protect themselves and their data. 2018 will be a great year for that I think.
DP: What’s the most difficult part of podcasting for you?
BJ: The commitment. I have a lot of respect for podcasters because I come from the world of radio. So I know the whole deal where, for every hour you spend on the air you should spend two hours preparing for it. Now imagine doing that each and every week for years on end with shows like Film Sack or Magic Mics. I don’t have that endurance. That’s why this show had to be prepackaged and ready to ship otherwise it just wouldn’t have happened.
The good news is that everyone can do a podcast, the bad news (which is actually great news for podcasters) is that few have the commitment or the patience to put out a show for a year or two where no one is listening and still do the preparation required each and every week to make it a great show.
Right now I have this list of comic book podcasters. There are thousands of them, but I’d say more than half have given up on doing their shows for exactly that reason.
DP: What podcasts are you listening to now?
BJ: I used to listen to a lot of marketing podcasts, but they were turning me into a rage monster in the process, so I went cold turkey and now just listen to Hollywood Babble-On, Fatman on Batman, Edge & Christian’s Pod of Awesomeness, Film Sack, Magic Mics, Word Balloon with John Suntres, and The Masked Man Show with David Shoemaker.
I’m a big comic book and pro wrestling fan, as you can tell from that assortment of shows. I keep joking about doing a show about women’s professional wrestling and each week profile a different girl on the independent scene, but the show would boil down to “Are you The Cuban Diamond, Diamente? And if not, why are you not Diamente?” (Can you tell she’s my favorite?)
DP: Anything else you’d like to add?
BJ: Nothing I’ve said here should be shocking. Producing a good show is hard work, and if you’re not going to put the time in like me, you have two options. A) Don’t waste your time or other people’s time. B) Do a short mini-series and have it prepackaged and ready to go before launch so you don’t have to do anything once it’s ready.
The one thing I want to say to podcasters is that you have to put the reps in. Marketing is not rocket science. You just put out a good show that people like and tell their friends about. That’s it. The trouble is, in order to keep pulling in new people, you have to stick it out, even when no one is listening, and work your ass off. If you do, you’ll get rewarded. Maybe not in the way you think or hope, but generally, you will.
Previous Story
Audio drama podcast, The Amelia Project, helps fake deaths
Next Story
Dear podcasts, you're ready for prime time
Comments
Comments are closed.