Joining the Pod Squad

After many, many years away from the interviewing game (I won't say how many, as it's that many), I'm doing a podcast series -- 6 half-hour episodes for now -- called Now & Next.

Episode 1 just went live this week, and it's called Inside YouTube: Beyond Dogs on Skateboards and Viral Video. It takes a closer look at the industry structures that are developing around the internet's leading platform for user-generated videos, with Mark Swierszcz, head of YouTube Space Toronto, as our guide.



YouTube began in 2005 as random clips uploaded by anyone, and over the years became a prime destination for both creators and viewers around the world. Today 1 billion hours of video are watched daily in over 90 countries. The platform has minted thousands of its own stars and has also demonstrated just how far we’ve come from the world of traditional approaches to creative development and broadcast schedules.

I was astonished -- no really, really I was -- to see the podcast perform so well on the charts in its first week of release. It topped the tech category for Canada on day one and ended the week at a respectable #13. Thanks everyone for your support of this new digital undertaking. The next episode goes live on October 30th and I hope you'll give it an ear or two.

The plan is to publish a new episode every 2 weeks through to the end of December, with upcoming episodes covering the role of data in the entertainment industry, the great podcasting surge of 2018, cryptocurrency and the creation of digital originals, and the mainstreaming of VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality).

Now & Next is available on iTunes and the major podcast apps. 

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Hashtag We're Number 1
(Or at least we were temporarily)