Metacast is a podcast app for podcast lovers. We are building a powerful tool that helps you get the most out of podcasts. Auto-generated transcripts and chapters allow you to quickly skim episodes, search for content, and bookmark segments. Chapters, automated playlists, listening history & stats, and much more is coming. On this podcast, co-founders of Metacast talk about building the company and the product.
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This episode features Ilya and Arnab, co-hosts of Metacast, as Ilya details his recent departure from Google after an 8-year big tech career, following Arnab's earlier exit from Amazon. They delve into the personal and financial aspects of making such a significant career change, including battling corporate burnout, preparing family, meticulously planning finances for a new venture, and navigating health insurance. The discussion emphasizes finding purpose beyond corporate roles and the value of partnership in their new entrepreneurial journey.
It’s official — we are creating a company together and in this episode we’re starting to talk a bit about that. Going forward, we’ll use our metasodes to provide an update on how the business and product development is going, so, if you’re interested in our entrepreneurial journey, subscribe/follow our show! Chapters 00:39 - Arnab’s computer possessed by ghosts 03:36 - Quick recap of the last episode with TechTalkRadio 10:19 - Working together for 30 years on radio and in music 12:59 - Is radio ...
Andy Taylor, Justin Lemme, and Sean DeWeerd from Tech Talk Radio delve into the fascinating history and future of audio broadcasting. They explore the differences between AM and FM radio, its vital role in emergencies, and how audience measurement has evolved from Nielsen diaries to digital metrics. The discussion also covers the challenges of podcast discovery, the impact of social media influencers, and offers aspiring podcasters advice on consistency, passion, and building a genuine connection with their audience.
Arnab and Ilya talk about: Cookie-cutter, pre-recorded intros/outros (meh, we don't like those) Using GitHub to manage our podcast workflow What happens when podcasts change hosts Our inability to stick to a topic. It needed a meme, so we made one up! Tangents: video codecs, Back to the Future, music (Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Judas Priest), Tony Fadell's book "Build," and thermostats. Chapters 00:00 - Cold Open 01:44 - Cookie-Cutter Intros and Outros 03:57 - Podcasts Changing Hosts 05:52 - Meta...
Justin Jackson, co-founder of Transistor.fm, shares insights on the podcasting landscape, emphasizing the philosophical and practical benefits of decentralization for creators and listeners, enabled by open protocols like RSS. He also discusses the "Jobs to be Done" framework for understanding listener motivation and argues for the value of friction in fostering more meaningful engagement over mindless comments. Furthermore, Justin critiques the over-capitalization in the podcast industry, particularly Spotify's role, and outlines Transistor.fm's unique approach to building a "calm" company culture focused on margin and thoughtful growth.
In this episode, we shared how we promote our podcast on social networks, what worked and what didn’t so far. Obviously, we have a limited sample, but we found some success on LinkedIn and Reddit and pretty much no success on Twitter and Instagram. Chapters 00:00 - Cold Open 01:40 - Funny Podcast Ads 04:42 - Recap of Podder Episode 07:36 - Reading Listener Reviews 13:37 - Promoting on LinkedIn 16:04 - Instagram and Twitter Results 18:12 - Facebook and Enshittification 20:49 - Reddit and the Wina...
Christian Sorensen and Antoine Mazurier, co-founders of Podder, explain the complexities of podcast analytics, highlighting the inadequacy of download metrics and inconsistent industry standards. They share Podder's journey, from an initial advertising marketplace idea to a specialized platform offering aggregated, cross-platform data, unique audience insights, and GDPR-compliant solutions. The discussion also covers technical implementation, the importance of listener engagement, and strategies for podcaster growth, contrasting with US-centric data practices.
Join hosts Ilya and Arnab with guest Jenny Buechner, a former teacher who successfully transitioned to a software engineering career at Amazon after attending Ada Developers Academy. Jenny shares her journey, highlights the unique aspects of the Ada program for women and gender-expansive adults, and discusses common challenges and strengths of career switchers. The conversation delves into the importance of diversity and representation in tech teams, reflections on their own podcasting experience, and Jenny shares her favorite podcast recommendations.
JL Lewitin and Kimberly Jacobs from the Women Who Code communications team share insights into their podcasting journey and the organization's mission. They detail how Women Who Code leverages content, especially from its vast community, to produce multiple podcast series aimed at technical growth, career navigation, and personal experiences. The discussion also covers the organization's history, global reach, and efforts to address the gender gap in tech by empowering women and providing resources for their career advancement.
We recorded this episode when Ilya was visiting Arnab in Vancouver. This is the first time we did it in person and boy did it make a difference. Enjoy the sparkle of a wonderful human connection! Chapters 00:00 - Hard Work Should Feel Pleasant 00:31 - Welcome and In-Person Setup 01:45 - Traveling with Audio Equipment 03:06 - Recording Video Together 04:45 - Dogmen Books Sponsorship Joke 05:27 - Meta Layoffs and Zuckerberg 07:17 - Two-Mic Bleed and Pro Tips 08:23 - Reflecting on the Justin Franke...
In this episode, Justin Frankel, creator of Winamp and Reaper, discusses the early days of MP3 players and digital audio. He shares insights into Winamp's development, its acquisition by AOL, and his independent journey creating the powerful digital audio workstation, Reaper. The conversation also delves into his unique philosophy on software development, the impact of streaming services on artists, and his personal approach to music consumption and technology. Listeners also get a lightning round of questions about Reaper's technical aspects and future.
The video we never published, hugging guitars and missing the office. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 00:34 - Welcome and the video experiment 05:19 - Hugging guitars in Peru 07:23 - Episode numbering and scheduling 09:23 - Cloud recording vs local tracks 13:01 - Meet Masha and Misha, our editors 20:13 - Discussion format vs interview format 22:37 - Writing emails that get a yes 23:08 - Previewing the Justin Frankel episode 31:00 - First Spotify rating 31:52 - The Sandman audiobook experience 34:10 - Tak...
Ronak Nathani and Guang Yang from Software Misadventures share their experiences, from starting a podcast with no name to securing high-profile guests like Kelsey Hightower. They delve into balancing technical and universally appealing content, career transitions from big tech to indie hacking, and the nuances of remote work. The episode also covers their podcasting tools, production workflow, and strategies for listener engagement and growth.
A reflection on the previous episode with the hosts of the Hearts in Taiwan podcast and a random chatter about everything (as usual). Chapters 00:00 - Intro 00:27 - Welcome to the Metaiwan Metasode 03:43 - Did we talk enough about podcasting? 06:16 - Listener stats and feedback 09:22 - Takeaways from Hearts in Taiwan 11:07 - The Procrustean bed and labels 18:02 - Navigating sensitive topics 19:14 - Does publishing schedule matter? 24:10 - Taiwan's semiconductor dominance 27:36 - Flying on a Hell...
Ilya and Arnab from Metacast interview Angela Yu and Annie Wang from Hearts in Taiwan, a podcast exploring heritage and identity as second-generation Asian-Americans. They delve into the complexities of Taiwanese and Chinese identities, the impact of historical pressures, and how personal journeys shape cultural understanding. The discussion also covers the podcast's behind-the-scenes, including audience engagement, production workflows, and the challenges of discussing sensitive topics with vulnerability.
In this metasode (meta-episode about creating Metacast, our podcast about podcasting), Arnab and I go back to the topic we brought up in the very first episode. We talk about the importance of checklists that we ourselves consistently failed to use for our podcast. This has caused us to forgot to ask people’s names, forgot to mention where to find them, etc., etc. Being lousy doesn’t feel good... Chapters Show notes Software Ferrite -- a DAW for the iPad that works with the Apple Pencil SquadCas...
Zach Moreno and Rock Felder, founders of Squadcast, delve into the creation and evolution of their remote podcast recording software. They explain Squadcast's core features, emphasizing local, high-quality multi-track audio and video recording, its reliability, and efficiency compared to other platforms. The conversation also covers their journey from a sci-fi podcast idea to bootstrapping a successful company, the growing trend of video in podcasting, and the importance of community engagement in product development, highlighting the collaborative spirit of the industry.
Back in December 2022, Arnab and Ilya sat down to record episode 7, a metasode about podcasting. But we started talking about The Sandman and Dune and got carried away so far into the sci-fi land that we didn’t talk about podcasting at all. On the other hand, I got to show off my terrible guitar playing skills completely butchering Enter Sandman! We got to talk about all of our favorite sci-fi authors, books, and movies. We discuss Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic series, its Audible version, and the...
In this metasode (meta-episode where we talk about our own podcasting experience), Arnab and Ilya discuss how the previous recording went, how to deal with initial awkwardness, and how to fix audio quality. We go through a few most important audio repair effects in the iZotope RX software and cover things like removing echo, breaths, mouth clicks (yuck!), hums, noises, and other unwanted artifacts that make you sound like a rookie. It wouldn’t have been a good metasode if we didn’t go on tangent...
Steph Colbourn, CEO of editaud.io, delves into the complexities of full-suite podcast production, from pre-production to distribution and marketing. She discusses the company's growth, balancing the CEO role with creative editing, and their mission to uplift diverse voices in the industry. Steph also offers practical advice on audio tools, editing techniques, and budgeting for podcasting, sharing memorable moments and insights from her journey.
Arnab and Ilya react to Jonathan Courtney's (the guest of our previous episode!) new podcast "The Unscheduled CEO" and ramble about the usual podcasting stuff like multi-track recording, NSA dropping in to give us a 5-star review, and dog farts. Chapters 00:00 - Welcome and what's been happening 02:01 - Brian McCullough's shoutout on Techmeme Ride Home 03:37 - Camping in Florida next to the Everglades 05:34 - Binging Jonathan's Unscheduled CEO podcast 08:52 - The 10-12 rule for CEOs 10:04 - Work...
Jake Knapp and Jonathan Courtney, formerly of the Product Breakfast Club podcast, join Metacast to discuss their unique, rambling approach to podcasting born from their strong chemistry. They share the origin story of their show, their philosophy on avoiding strict schedules and embracing an unscheduled life even while running businesses, and how they navigated criticism and controversial topics. The conversation delves into the freedom and challenges of independent work versus corporate life, the power of moments, and finding creative activities that provide value regardless of external reception.
In this inaugural metasode, we chat about our first and second episodes, checklists, Napster, bootstrapping a podcast in listening apps, internet porn, and room tone. Sounds like a pretty random list but the conversation flowed so well, so believe it or not, it’s actually a cohesive set of topics. We also discussed Arnab’s reflections on being a first-time podcast host and how both of us made a mistake of trying to get feedback from our families. Chapters 00:00 - Welcome to the Metasode 01:30 - ...
For our second episode (and the very first one with a guest!), we sat down with Brian McCullough, creator of the Internet History Podcast , one of Ilya’s all-time favorite podcasts. Brian’s current podcast is Techmeme Ride Home , a popular daily summary of tech news that has over a million downloads every month. Brian is also an investor running the Ride Home Fund and a resident at TED (check out Brian’s talk ). Brian is on Twitter as @brianmcc ( https://twitter.com/brianmcc ). Chapters 00:00 - ...
In this inaugural episode, Arnab interviews his Metacast co-host Ilya on his experience starting a podcast. We talk about inspiring stuff like how to get used to the sound of your voice, the boring stuff like gear, tools and software, and random stuff like how Ilya lost all of his gear when his car was broken into on a road trip in California. Chapters 00:00 - Cold Open 00:29 - Welcome and Introductions 03:52 - Ilya's Russian Podcast 09:05 - Non-English Podcasting Challenges 12:47 - Getting Used...
