Welcome to my new blog series, “3Top.” There are a number of issues I am going to explore in this occasional series of blog postings, all in a brief, ‘here’s what you’ve got to know’ way. And there are three motives/inspirations for this:
- Having a structured way to talk to an audience is a good thing. A format gives you boundaries to push against.
- 3Top sounds like an established name/style of writing, doesn’t it?
- Back at IBM, it was considered a wise move to have no more than 3 critical points, top objectives etc., when preparing for executive reviews of your business – or in your plans in general. Anything more than 3 gets confusing, hard to remember, hard to prioritize.
So today I am writing about the 3Top podcasts, in my opinion. This is a purely subjective list, but these are the 3 that get me a lot of the information I need to be me.
1) SoundOpinions. To quote from the site: “Based in Chicago, Sound Opinions is hosted by Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot, two of the finest and best-recognized pop music writers in the nation. In addition, they are the top music critics and dedicated competitors at Chicago’s two daily newspapers, the Chicago Sun-Times (Jim) and the Chicago Tribune (Greg).”
As a former college DJ and practicing music lover/music snob, I rely on Sound Opinions mix of music news, features and album reviews to keep me up to date on what is happening in music and to separate the good from the bad. Jim and Greg don’t always get it right (they never, ever mention my favorite French pop band, Tahiti 80 for example), but they are a reliable source for music news, reviews and interviews. Here’s links to two of my favorite recent podcasts:
- Phoenix (iTunes stream)– Yes I am a big fan, and you will be too when you listen to this interview of the French phenoms from the very boring town (their words) of Versaille…
- Defending Disco (mp3 file) – Fantastic breakdown of the why, when and how of the disco movement, featuring an amazing breakdown of the importance of the bassline from Chic’s Good Times in some of the biggest disco and non disco songs.
2) Marketplace. My brother-in-law Alex got me turned on to the Marketplace podcast. When I drove to IBM every day, Marketplace on my local NPR station delivered a welcome bit of fresh content delivery and analysis of the business news of the day. They have great reporters and great techniques for communicating complex ideas. Now that I’m mainly working from home or riding the train to NYC, Marketplace as a podcast is a welcome way to stay up to date on the world of business.
Here’s a link to the Marketplace section of the iTunes store. Just click subscribe and you will pull down podcasts on to your iTunes “client.” Then you can listen on your Mac or PC, or when you sync your iPod with your PC or Mac you can have the podcast with you. (You may need to fiddle with the iPod settings on the PC or Mac, not hard). On the iPhone, just open up the iTunes client and type in Marketplace…
3) Six Pixels of Separation/Media Hacks. Truth is, I listen to a lot more than 3 podcasts on a regular basis, so it was hard to select number 3. But Six Pixels is an essential podcast for anyone in the business world these days. From his bio: “Mitch Joel is President of Twist Image – an award-winning Digital Marketing and Communications agency. He has been called a marketing and communications visionary, interactive expert and community leader.” Mitch’s podcast will help you keep an eye on what is working and what is not in the area of web marketing, mobile and social media and delivers it through interviews with many of the top thinkers (writers, consultants, speakers) of the day.
Occasionally, Mitch teams up with a select group of other top new media thinkers/writers/consultants (Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, Christopher S. Penn, Julien Smith and Hugh McGuire) to review trends and happenings in a more free-flowing manner. The Media Hacks episodes are sure to give you a laugh and clue you in to something cool.
So there it is, my 3Top podcasts. Hope you enjoy. Happy listening.