My longtime Casper, Wyoming, friend Neil J. Short is almost 62 and does not put in an inordinate amount of time on exercise. But he's passionate about the benefits of daily exercise, as he shows clearly in this conversation we had today in my living room in Denver. 

Neil couldn't possibly have been talking to someone less involved in outdoor exercise, but even I am convinced that there is no denying the truth of what he says so well. 

You can contact him at NeilWyo AT (NO SPAM PLEASE) gmail DOT com.

Ron Lyle of Denver, a retired heavyweight boxer who fought Muhammad Ali in 1975, visited  his alma mater, Manual High School, on February 10, 2009, to talk with students working on the school magazine, Boom. 

This is the unedited recording of the conversation, featuring Lyle's heartfelt encouragement of the kids to experience the rewards of focus and commitment in any endeavor.

This is an interview I did today (January 19, 2009) with Jason L. Owens, volunteer manager for Volunteers of America - Colorado.  I was inspired to check out VOA as part of President-Elect Obama's call to service on Martin Luther King Day.  VOA is one of 5,000 organizations where volunteers signed up to help today.   Obama himself did some painting today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Jason gave me two volunteer applications, for my wife and I to fill out.  We will do so and plan to spend some time learning what volunteer opportunities are nearby our home in Downtown Denver.

My college friend Ben Beach, editor of The Wilderness Society's Wilderness Magazine, never misses a Harvard-Yale football game and always holds a tailgate barbecue before the game.  In this podcast Ben talks about the hard-to-define pleasure he gets from this regularity, and he and I remember the most famous Harvard-Yale game in the 125-year history of the classic, 1968's version which ended in a 29-29 tie.  The podcast contains audio clips from Ben and his wife Carol's 36th consecutive barbecue this year, and also some audio from a showing at a local movie theatre of "Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29," a new documentary out about the game.  I highly recommend the movie, which The New Yorker calls "a fascinating feat of cultural archeology."

This is the mp3 version of this week's Audio Pod Chronicles interview with Jeff Cutler.

Writer and podcaster Jeff Cutler was one of the only Boston Media Makers without a device feeding him information from the Internet at our meeting on Sunday, August 3, 2008, at Doyle's Cafe in Jamaica Plain.  It turns out his laptop was in the shop.   This prompted him to lead a lively discussion among the 22 of us at the meeting about how much we depend on being connected at all times to the Internet.  

Jeff is a thoughtful guy who is on what he calls a one-year "Writing Sabbatical" during which he is aiming at a new phase of his career that will involve more commentary and opinion writing.  

He uses his podcast, "Bowl of Cheese" in an effective and unusual way as a supplement to his blog of the same name.  All in all, Jeff Cutler is doing creative, original work in the new media space, and it's always good to connect with him, even when he's unplugged!  I think you'll enjoy this profile of a writer from Hingham, Mass.,  who is using new media to full advantage.  

Music for my podcast is “Going to the Sun” composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon.  It’s from their excellent Glacier Journey CD .

Photo of Jeff and me is by Steve Garfield of SteveGarfield.com .

I’d love to hear your feedback on this topic or any other. You can leave a voice comment at 206-666-2713 or you can send me an email to PodChronicles@gmail.com or leave a comment here.

NOTE: If you are a Kindle owner or merely intrigued,  I hope you will check out my new weekly podcast, The Kindle Chronicles, uploaded each Friday.  It's also available for free subscription at the iTunes Store.

Video evangelist Steve Garfield met me this morning at Sweet Finnish at 761 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, where each month for the past two years he has hosted Boston Media Makers in a back room filled with fascinating media creators, artists, and gadget freaks who have a chance to meet and share enthusiasms and info. BMM meets the first Sunday of the month at 10 a.m. for two hours.  In this interview, Steve remembers how he first got into blogging, then video blogging, a genre he pretty much invented, and now live mobile "storycasting."   Steve shows how a playful, experimental, happy engagement with new technology can yield results far beyond a mere effort to "monetize" internet innovation.  He does talk about the nuts and bolts of moving toward making a living in this space, as well as what he's learning right now about the new frontier of mobile live broadcasting.    

The music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

This is an audio portrait of The Phoenix Concept, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility for homeless men.  Contributions may be sent to The Phoenix Concept, 2162 Lawrence St., Denver, CO 80205. The phone number is 303-293-3620.

Music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig, and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

Please feel free to send your feedback to PodChronicles@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the show notes page.

Jerome (Jerry) Lau of Construction Support Services, Inc., in Centennial, Colorado, has spent 50 years developing expertise in hydromechanics.  Jerry has never written a poem about water, but the depth of his understanding of the topic struck me as similar to the level of attention an artist must devote to his or her subject in order to succeed.  He recently finished a water-leak study of our building, and this morning he spoke with me about his work.  The power of his expertise means he doesn't have to advertise or market the services he and his partner provide.  His customers find him by word of mouth (and the occasional podcast). If you'd like to contact him,  email me at PodChronicles@gmail.com.

Music for the podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

mp3 version

A special Christmas week interview with my wife, Darlene, in which we discuss strategies for spouses married to social network addicts, quilting compared with podcasting, how to live in two cities, and how to transform Christmas shopping from a form of torture into an ordinary challenge, compliments of author Harville Hendrix and the dialog technique described  in his book How to Get the Love You Want. 

I'm a big fan of The M Show podcast featuring John Wall and the lovely Carin, his wife, so this interview is indirect homage to them.

The music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

An interview in Maynard, Mass., with Randy Corke, left, president and chief marketing officer of RPM Communications, and Simeon "Sim" Margolis, co-founder of Utterz.com and head of new media at RPM.  They credit Christian Burns, Eric Rice, and Chris Brogan as among the key users who helped Utterz gain impressive early success since its official launch in September. I love Utterz, because it enables me to use my iPhone to transfer immediate photos, audio, and text (and video as soon as the iPhone has it) to my blog, to Twitter, and Flickr, as well as to the Utterz website.  In classic startup style, our interview was punctuated by a really loud fire alarm, due to construction in the building, but we finished the interview with a different mic and I eventually was able to find my way out of the building.  Thanks to Twitterers KityKity, ConnieReece, AverageJoe, and BethDunn for great questions, not all of which I had time to use in the podcast. Sim gave shoutouts to Utterers Robert, ChrisBrogan, ThePete, iJustine, LauraBelle and Tojosan.  If YOU want to be herd, check out Utterz !  You might also be interested in their related product, Foonz for easy group calls from your mobile phone.

An interview November 27, 2007 at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard with Nolan Bowie, senior fellow and adjunct lecturer in public policy, after a class in his course, "New Media and Democracy."  Addressing issues of propaganda and the internet.

Jeff Pulver hosted a social networking breakfast this morning at the S & S Restaurant and Deli in Cambridge, Mass. This podcast episode contains excerpts of conversations I recorded during the two-hour event.  Included are Bryan Person, Israel Drori, Chris Brogan, Joyce Bettencourt, Michael Mikek, Oleg Puzyreff, Ian Carpenter, Steve Garfield, and Jeff Pulver.  That much creativity in one room left me energized and glad for the chance for face-to-face time with people I find so intriguing when I encounter them on my computer screen. Many photos were taken and uploaded, mostly to Facebook, as well as some to Flickr.
The music for my podcast is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig, and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD.

Loïc Le Meur, the charismatic Frenchman who is starting a video conversation startup named Seesmic, spoke with me in the hallway today at Video on the Net (VON) in Boston. 

Loïc explained why radical transparency in his venture is not a risk, but a competitive advantage. That's why he and his team are posting videos five times a week, showing every detail of the startup and asking for help from the approximately 2,000 people subscribed. They give lots of it.  Tres interessant!

The waiting list to join Seesmic stands at about 5,000 and I'm right in there, hoping to get a chance to try it out.  Loïc is wisely waiting until the alpha program is well tested before opening up to everyone who is eager to join the video conversation. He says in this interview that we will only have to wait another month or two. 

Photo by Nate Aune. Thanks, Nate!

I'm glad I had a quick trip scheduled to Denver this week, because it gave me a chance to experience the stunned joy of Colorado Rockies fans looking forward to the club's first-ever World Series.  I turned to two of my most baseball-savvy friends for explanations, Kes Woodward who was in town from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Michael Drummy, a longtime Red Sox fan who moved to Colorado 10 years ago.  This episode has other voices, all helping tell an amazing sports story.

Music is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD .

At my 30th reunion of the MBA Class of 1977 from Harvard Business School last week, I asked 13 of my classmates what was the most important thing they had learned at HBS. The answers were as varied as the people with whom I shared the B-School experience.  Was it the people? Was it a way of thinking that amounts to applied common sense?  All of the above and more.  It was fun and enlightening to be with these folks again, and I'm grateful to everyone who spoke with me for this podcast episode.  See you in 2012!

Erin Trapp, director of the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, talks about how a new cultural center could reinvigorate Denver and help establish the city's claim as the Creative Capital of the West, as Mayor Hickenlooper likes to say. In this interview in Erin's office today, I learned some things I didn't know about the historic Carnegie Library/McNichols Building, where a cultural center might be created in Civic Center Park.
 
The Audio Pod Chronicles theme music is "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon, from their Glacier Journey CD 

Via phone, I caught up last night with Baratunde Thurston, a Boston-based writer, comedian and vigilante pundit whom I first met on Twitter .  It turns out that Baratunde and I share a couple of common experiences, more than twenty-five years apart in Cambridge.  In this interview, he talks about his personal history, his approach to comedy, his podcast, Twitter, and the recent Democratic presidential debate.

Intro and outro music from "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD.  Used by permission.

After Mike Daisy's powerful one-man show, "Monopoly" last night at the Zero Garden Street Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., I spoke with him briefly about how he came to be fascinated with inventor Nicola Tesla, and I found out he makes none of his material up, including inside stories from his friend Ray who works at Microsoft. "Monopoly" continues for three more shows, followed by a final monology, "Tongues Will Wag," Daisy's take on pets, to be performed Tuesday May 8. Highly recommended!

This week I visited the corporate headquarters of Me.dium in Boulder, Colorado, and spoke with Dean Steadman, left, community management director, and Tobias Peggs, business development director.  This startup is in beta, available by invitation . It adds a window to your browser that shows who else is visiting sites you might be interested in, and where you can follow them and chat online. 

I loved the high energy of their funky offices, filled with bicycles and more than 25 (to me) very young employees.  When I suggested a photo, Dean and Tobias left the conference room to don company T-shirts, a spontaneous bit of corporate enthusiasm and pride that I never saw when I worked for a natural gas utility. 

Me.dium is a potent evolutionary advance for browsing the internet.  When the Twitter buzz dies down, I can imagine an even bigger phenomenon: people realizing they don't have to browse the internet alone anymore.  If as many people cross over as Dean and Tobias and their gang hope, one day in the foreseeable future it may well be all about Me.dium.

I've been thinking about how the internet is changing what we mean by "friend," and how technology such as podcasting makes it possible to reach out to strangers despite differences in geography, ethnicity and other ways by which we separate ourselves from others.  For specifics, I turned to a new friend on the excellent Me.dium site, and to a few strangers on the Boston subway's red line this morning.

Music: "Going to the Sun" on the Glacier Journey CD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon  Link here. Used by permission.

Photo of a Boston subway station by Michelle Barrette of Kingston, Canada, courtesy of Flickr.

Blake Allison of Dingman Allison Architects in Cambridge, Mass., has begun work on our home remodeling project. After our first meeting this morning with our contractor, I asked Blake some general questions about the role of an architect. Afterward, we had a chance to admire his and his partner Nancy's work in a completed remodeling project, also in Cambridge, courtesy of Polly, who showed us through her remarkable transformation of a 110-year-old home.
     Music: "Going to the Sun" on the Glacier Journey CD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon  http://www.earthpassage.com/glacier.htm . Used by permission.

Denver's Su Teatro, the nation's 3rd oldest Chicano/Latino theatre company, is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year with an exciting move to a new and bigger location at 215 South Santa Fe Drive.  At the kickoff this week, I interviewed longtime Artistic Director Anthony J. Garcia and visiting Hollywood actor Jesse Borrego about the importance of Su Teatro's work.  Tony at one point says, "You realize that what you ended up building is what you wanted all along."  This is a terrific example of the power of art to change lives, and I urge anyone interested to consider helping out with Su Teatro's $3.5 million capital drive now under way.

Each year the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver hosts the top steer from the National Western Stock Show.  This year's top steer was deemed too skittish to make a solo appearance in the ornate hotel, so his runner-up came along for company.  I interviewed the hotel general manager, Miss Colorado Rodeo, the boy who raised Titan, and my friend Michael Drummy and his sister-in-law, among others.  I love this event for combining Denver's elegance with its cow country history.

I have deleted the original episode 15, recorded a week ago after my return from Macworld Expo in San Francisco.  What happened is that the person I interviewed ended up feeling very nervous about having his words up on the internet, so he asked me in very strong terms to take it down.  He needn't have pressed so hard, because I had no intention of making him uncomfortable.  I'm sad, because I loved his story and have listened to it several times for my own pleasure.  But I completely honor his desire for privacy, so I immediately deleted the episode when I received an e-mail from him.  I'm putting this episode in its place, so my numbering isn't thrown off, and to explain what happened.

My uncle Bert Tighe in 1963 began a new water works supply business, Ti-SALES, in Sudbury, Massachusetts.  He and Aunt Edna this morning talked about the single quality which seems to have led to that company's current success: the refusal to quit.  We also heard from Peter, my cousin who worked for the family company for 18 years, and Kevin, who is now president. 

I remember when Uncle Bert's office was in the basement of their house, and we kids had to be quiet around the stairway, because he was working hard down there to get his new venture going.  Now the company employs 29 people and has annual sales of more than $20 million.  It's a great story of the value of persistence and the wisdom of figuring out new ways to do things when the old ways won't work.

Music for this episode is "Until Dusk" from "When You're There" by Frank  LoCrasto, courtesy of the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA) Promonet.

My sister's partner, Tim, talks about Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and the type he has, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), in an interview this morning in a quiet corner of the Radcliffe campus in Cambridge, Mass.

Show Note Links:

The Hoffman Institute

The Hallowell Center

Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.

Delivered from Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.