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.

The comment line number for my podcast has been changed to 206-350-8045.  Sorry for the confusion!
--Len Edgerly

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.

I met Paul Foley through Steve Garfield's Boston Media Makers, and today Paul joined me for a conversation about his explorations of multimedia tools and the Internet.  An accomplished freelance environmental portrait photographer, Paul sees a squeeze developing in the market for such work, especially in print.  In his mid-50s, he is ready to cross the digital divide into story telling through still photography, video, and audio. He's also looking to social networks such as Twitter for worldwide distribution.  After our interview today at my Cambridge place, Paul e-mailed me a handsome portrait of himself that I used as the thumbnail for this episode. 

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!

Veteran Podcaster Dean Whitbread, a founder of the UK Podcasters Association, was in town this weekend for Podcamp Boston 2. We met online mainly through Twitter, and I enjoy following his smart and artful blogs, The Blog of Funk and Dean Whitbread.  The iTunes Music Store contains his audio podcast, the Pod of Funk, and his video podcast, deek deekster: innit, both highly recommended. He also introduced John Cleese to podcasting. All this gives Dean lots of experience in podcasting and blogging, so it was a great opportunity to learn from him.

Also on this episode, I hear from Simon Young of Auckland, New Zealand, who left an audio comment at the Pod Chronicles line, 206-202-0890. Simon and his wife have a new consulting venture, iJump, helping organisations jump into the social media playground. I first heard about him in an interview he did with Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand podcast, and I was very impressed with what he had to say about different kinds of writing styles.

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

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 

Rob Simon, the founder 30 years ago of Denver's well-known alternative weekly, Westword, has in the past few years turned his creativity and entrepreneurial talent toward podcasting. His company, BurstMarketing, created the impressive Cherry Creek Arts Festival podcast and continues to help business clients find solutions in podcasting.  In this interview on Sept. 4, 2007, at Common Grounds Coffee Shop at Wazee and 17th Streets in Denver, he talked about what makes a successful podcast and about what he's looking for in the podcasting contractors whom he's hiring to help keep up with the opportunities.   Special thanks to Twitter friends Goldiekatsu and Genuine for suggesting questions to ask Rob!

Yesterday I took Amtrak's Downeaster from Boston to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, hoping to capture words and sounds reflecting my lifelong love of trains. I also hoped I'd find someone to interview.  Enter Peter McHugh. I think you'll enjoy his story.
Flickr photo by Eric Olson (username: broccolbee)
"Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD

August 4, 2007 was the 46th birthday of Barack Obama, and the New Hampshire campaign celebrated with a canvass in several cities. I answered the call to go to Portsmouth, where I spent four hours in very hot weather knocking on doors in nearby Dover.  My partner was Will Gattis of Falmouth, Maine, who happens to be a terrific singer-songwriter, as well as a young man who believes Obama is a dream candidate who just might change the country.  You can hear "Christopher," Will's song that closes the podcast, and several others at his MySpace page .

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.

I'm at a board meeting of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) in Northampton, Mass., where today we focused on the organization's new Native Arts program to support Native American artists in New England and across the country.  I was struck by the role arts and culture have played in preserving the identity of native people through centuries of incredible hardship.  Before dinner, I interviewed Pamela Kingfisher of LarsonAllen, who is working with the Ford Foundation to help create an entirely new national foundation to support native arts.  In this episode, she provides some context and emphasizes the importance of the New England initiative, also supported by the Ford Foundation.

Background music is taken from the live performance before dinner by Thawn Harris and his wife Elanor Dove Harris, members of the Narraganset tribe in Rhode Island.

I think I've uncovered something that connects Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, in an odd sort of way.  I'm an unabashed Obama backer, but I am also intrigued by Romney. This episode contains excerpts of a huge conference call with Obama, as well as Romney on Leno and a famous quote from Romney's father, George.

(Note: Despite what I say in the audio, this is Episode 36)

Last week I attended my 35th reunion of the Harvard College Class of 1972. It was a lively, poignant event which featured an address by the school's most successful dropout, a reminder by the Rev. Peter Gomes that we are a community of the living and the dead, an anti-war ditty, real good music by Livingston Taylor, and a classmate's  words of wisdom at the final brunch in Eliot House.

http://www.maho.org/Tomorrow morning I leave for St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to spend two weeks with my wife and her family at Maho Bay Camps.  It's a very rustic setting, and I've decided it's not worth the hassle to try and keep to my weekly podcast schedule while I'm there.  So I'll be back with the podcast in early June.

This evening at the Plus Gallery at 2350 Lawrence St., Denver, three artists gave talks about their work, and afterward I spoke with gallery owner Ivar Zeile about how he groups artists in a show and what he hopes to hear in Artists' Talks.  The artists were Bruce Price, John McEnroe, and Evan Colbert.

At the Salt Lake City Airport before flying home to Denver, I begin a recap of the presentation I gave today at the Mountain West Conference on the Arts.  My talk was titled "What the Heck is Web 2.0 and Can It Save the Arts?"  The room was filled to overflowing, about 60 people, and they seemed to enjoy the tour I took them on of seven sites showing new ways the internet is being used to connect people.  I hope lots of seeds were planted that may help arts organizations leaders and artists at the conference experiment with these new capabilities.  I'm exhausted after a short night last night, and I can relate to the little girl crying in the background here in Terminal 2.
I have links to the seven web sites I presented here. And here are another seven I didn't have time to discuss.

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!

Drawing on examples from Adam Curry, David Allen and Adam Weiss, I arrive at five rules for good podcast interviews.  Tim Donovan of Mowhawk Shade & Blind Co. in Cambridge was here at the house while I worked on the podcast, and he agreed to an interview.  This gave me a chance to practice my new rules!

Leaders of the six regional arts organizations in the U.S. gathered during the past two days at the Admiral Fell Inn, in Baltimore, for a planning meeting led by Toby Herzlich of Santa Fe.  This podcast episode comprises thoughts about the future by the executive directors of the RAOs, in this order: David J. Fraher, Arts Midwest; Alan W. Cooper, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; Gerri Combs, Southern Arts Federation; Mary Kennedy McCabe, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Anthony Radich, Western States Arts Federation, and Rebecca Blunk, New England Federation for the Arts. Major funding for the RAOs is provided by the National Foundation for the Arts.

Yesterday I attended the first meeting of a Project Evaluation Panel at Denver International Airport, convened to guide the process of choosing three new, temporary artworks from emerging Colorado artists.  Two will be on a median strip of Pena Boulevard leading to and from the airport. The other will be on a new Regional Jet Facility nearing completion on Concourse B.  This podcast contains interviews with panel members after our meeting, as we took a hardhat tour of the Concourse B area.

This book review of The Laws of Simplicity by MIT professor John Maeda follows David Tames's compelling recommendation of the book at last week's Boston Media Makers meeting.  I loved this book and plan to read it again and maybe again.  The writing is playful and clear.  The concepts are subtle and powerful. Highly recommeded. 

Flickr photo of John Maeda by Keith Jenkins, Picture Editor of the Washington Post.

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.

OK, I admit it. I'm hooked on Twitter, the deceptively simple site that asks "What are you doing?" and gives you 140 characters to answer the question.  I can't help posting these microblog entries, and I look forward to receiving them from my friends on my Motorola Q phone, a steady stream of innocent little posts which delights me, especially when I hear from my "real-world" buddy Kes Woodward in Fairbanks.  Others on my list include Dave Winer, Cali Lewis, Kris Krug, Will Pate,  Leo LaPorte, and Stephanie Booth of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Music: "Going to the Sun"on the <a href="http://www.earthpassage.com/glacier.htm">Glacier Journey</a>
CD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon&nbsp; Link <a href="http://www.earthpassage.com/glacier.htm">here</a>. Used by
permission.

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.

Merle Goldman, professor emerita at Boston University and an associate at the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Resarch, last night addressed the Mothers' Club of Cambridge Thursday night open meeting, hosted at the Cambridge Historical Society on Brattle Street.  My mother has belonged to this club for decades, and I can see why she seldom misses its events, even in bone-chillingly cold weather like we had in Cambridge last night.  This episode contains a brief interview I did with Prof. Goldman during the reception after her talk, in which she put China's incredible economic growth in historical perspective and posed questions about whether the nation of 1.3 billion can make political changes fast enough to sustain the ongoing economic phenomenon.

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.

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.

This visit to Cambridge marks the beginning of our remodeling plans for our new home here that will complement our base in Denver.  I've combined two artistic impressions of Cambridge in this podcast, a poem I wrote about the birth of my grandson a year ago, and an anthem sung by the Fellows of the University Choir this morning at Harvard's Appleton Chapel.

John Joseph of Denver responded to an invitation to a podcast interview that I posted through the Mile High for Obama group at BarackObama.com. Having just finished The Audacity of Hope, I was looking for someone to discuss the book with me.  John, who is 27 and a programmer, met me at a Starbucks and shared insightful perspectives on the book and what he thinks may be ahead in the long campaign.  I liked the originality and nuance of his opinions.  For example, near the end of the interview he revealed why, even though he is a huge fan of Obama, he might actually prefer another Democrat to win the nomination this time, with Obama as Veep.  Not that he wouldn't be thrilled to see Obama elected president in 2008.  Anyway, it was great getting to know John through the Obama web site, which is smartly designed to make it easy for Obama supporters to connect and share ideas and activities.

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.

I am working on a presentation to the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs about how we might use Web 2.0 capabilities to advance the arts in Denver.  As part of my cogitations, I spent some time learning about Me.dium, a Boulder-based startup which hopes to transform the way we browse the web.  A more modest Web 2.0 initiative, goodreads, pointed me to possible communities in Denver which could be brought together using these new internet tools. 

Which presidential aspirants are taking the best advantage of podcasting's potential?  A review of the candidates' offerings on iTunes shows John McCain and Rudy Giuliani as no-shows.  Hillary's well-done video chats don't show up in iTunes, but there is an old podcast in the directory which doesn't do much to help her, and she should take it down ASAP.  At the head of the presidential podcasting class are Tom Vilsack, John Edwards, and Barack Obama.  Mitt Romney has an effective enthusiast's site up, MyManMitt.com featuring the MittCast, hosted by Justin Hart.  This episode of the Audio Pod Chronicles, recorded in Denver, contains excerpts from the podcasts and thoughts about what works and what doesn't in this powerful new medium.

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.

Can Hillary overcome the shrillness of her voice?  Can Obama demonstrate  substance worthy of his own charismatic voice? 

I pondered these questions as I spent much of today listening to a speech which Hillary Clinton delivered last October to the Council on Foreign Relations, comparing it with the latest episode of Barack Obama's weekly podcast.  What I thought would be a simple win for Obama turned out to be a little more complicated.  If all goes as expected, this will be a most interesting contest.