The Tyler Woodward Project

Tyler Woodward
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

A broadcast engineer's podcast about the tech that owns you, the radio industry that shaped him, and the childhood junk drawer that started it all.

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  1. 1d ago

    You don't own your movies, your games, or your music

    Tyler digs into why phones, earbuds, and even video games are suddenly going backward, dumb phones, wired earbuds, and vinyl are all trending up while smartphones and streaming keep getting more bloated and expensive. He walks through the polling data on Gen Z and millennials wanting simpler tech, then connects it to something bigger: the licensing traps hiding underneath your music, movies, and games, where companies like Sony and Apple have straight up pulled purchased content from people's libraries. It's a personal, sometimes self deprecating look at why owning something physical might be the only real way to actually own it anymore.

    You don't own your movies, your games, or your music

  2. Aug 11

    Shrinkflation is a lie: how companies used inflation as cover

    Ever notice your chip bag feels lighter but somehow still costs the same? Tyler's had it with companies calling that inflation when it's really just shrinking the product, keeping the price, and quietly banking record profits. This episode walks through real examples from Doritos to Gatorade to General Mills, breaks down corporate profit margins and the growing gap between CEO pay and everyone else's paycheck, and looks at the bills in Congress that could have addressed it and died without so much as a hearing. It's less a tidy explainer and more an argument for calling shrinkflation and greedflation what they actually are, and a reminder that your gut feeling about that lighter bag isn't you being petty. It's a straight shot to the heart of consumer rights and who actually gets a say in what you pay for.

    Shrinkflation is a lie: how companies used inflation as cover

  3. Aug 4

    What actually killed Blockbuster (it wasn't Netflix)

    Tyler takes a trip down memory lane through video rental stores, sparked by a random Nova Scotia reunion and his kid watching a video store simulator game on YouTube. He walks through the whole Friday night rental ritual, the smell, the ps2 sleepovers, the late fee arguments, and then breaks down what actually killed Blockbuster, and it's not what most people think. Turns out the most hated part of the business, those late fees, was quietly propping up a huge chunk of the company's revenue, and pulling that thread unravels a story about corporate infighting, a failed mail order gamble, and a rival chain most people forget existed. If you care about how companies handle customer relationships and what happens when short term decisions wreck something people actually loved, this one's for you. Shout out to Friends Who Pretend, the actual play podcast from Nick and James: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/friends-who-pretend/id1743693947

    What actually killed Blockbuster (it wasn't Netflix)

  4. Jul 28

    Why internet radio got too expensive for regular people

    Tyler breaks down why running a small internet radio station went from a fun hobbyist project in 2009 to a legal and financial minefield today. He walks through what changed after the small webcaster provisions expired, why licensing now means dealing with multiple performance rights groups plus SoundExchange, and how the math stopped working for anyone who isn't a billion dollar streaming company. It's a plain look at how a rule meant to make sure artists get paid ended up locking out the little guy while giants like Pandora barely feel it, tying right back into the bigger fight over digital ownership and who actually gets to participate in tech.

    Why internet radio got too expensive for regular people

  5. Jul 21

    The MySpace bug that taught a generation web design

    Tyler digs into the one MySpace bug that accidentally taught a whole generation how to code: that infamous About Me box that let you paste raw HTML and CSS to completely override your profile. He walks through how millions of teenagers turned copy-pasted glitter code and stolen snippets into a real (if chaotic) education in web design, and how that kind of hands-on customization quietly disappeared as platforms shifted toward clean, algorithm-friendly templates. It's part nostalgia trip, part case study in how convenience and control replaced ownership, and it ties right back into the bigger question of who actually gets to shape the platforms we use every day.

    The MySpace bug that taught a generation web design

  6. Jul 14

    My hobby became my job, so I'm blowing up the format

    Tyler hits pause on the usual format to explain why he's blowing up the show again. He walks through the moment he realized his supposedly personal podcast had quietly turned into a second shift of his day job, and what that means for where the Tyler Woodward Project goes from here.

    My hobby became my job, so I'm blowing up the format

  7. Jul 7

    STL Redundancy: Radio's Forgotten Infrastructure Crisis

    The STL, or studio to transmitter link, is the unglamorous connection that keeps a radio station on the air, and when it fails everything goes dead silent even if every other piece of gear is working perfectly. This episode covers why most stations never built backup STL systems, how broadcast consolidation pulled out the engineers who used to catch these failures fast, and what real redundancy looks like using fiber, cellular bonding, and gear like Comrex and Peplink. It's a case study in how cost cutting quietly makes critical infrastructure more fragile, which is basically the whole tech accountability story in miniature.

    STL Redundancy: Radio's Forgotten Infrastructure Crisis

  8. Jun 30

    Plex vs Jellyfin: The Real Cost of Self-Hosting Media

    Plex just tripled its lifetime pass price and put remote streaming of your own files behind a paywall, so this episode digs into what it actually takes to switch to something like Jellyfin instead. Tyler walks through the real headaches of self-hosting, from CG-NAT and Tailscale to Synology's drive lock-in and QNAP's ransomware history. It's a grounded look at what owning your media really costs in time, money, and know-how, and why that matters for digital ownership in general.

    Plex vs Jellyfin: The Real Cost of Self-Hosting Media
See All (40)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

A broadcast engineer's podcast about the tech that owns you, the radio industry that shaped him, and the childhood junk drawer that started it all.

Information

  • Creator
    Tyler Woodward
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    40
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 tylerwoodward.me
  • Show Website
    The Tyler Woodward Project
  • Provider
    Tyler Woodward

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