The Talk Show With John Gruber

When Gruber started off with a solo podcast the results were sometimes scattershot and unfocused, but as of 2024 he and the show are firing on all cylinders. Topical tech subjects and good guests.

It's not The Talk Show without Dan.

John Gruber is the #1 Apple blogger on the internet, lets just get that out of the way. He is also dour, unfocused, mumbles and in general doesn't come across as an engaging personality when speaking live on a podcast… UNLESS he has the right co-host or host. The "Talk Show" produced by 5by5 and Dan Benjamin was outstanding. With the radio ready voice and steady guide in Dan it helped Gruber come alive and created an entertaining and informative 60-90 minutes. Now John Gruber has apparently, and without warning to listeners OR his long time partner Dan Benjamin, taken the title and whole show away to another Podcasting company and produced this new "Talk Show." He is acting as the primary host with guests. Its about as big a disaster as you would expect. This show was terribly unfocused, unentertaining, and frankly unprofessional. While you can be certain I will continue to follow John Gruber on his excellent website I no longer want to listen to this, the magic is gone and sadly this appears to be the kind of move (and way it was handled) that Gruber has spent years railing against on his website. I'm not angry, I'm just sad.

This is *very* different from The Talk Show of the past, which always had Dan Benjamin serving to keep the podcast focused. People didn't tune in to just listen to John Gruber ramble about a million unrelated topics, they tuned in to listen to a podcast that had at least some semblance of order. The Talk Show with Dan Benjamin was already one of the less-focused podcasts on 5by5, where Dan would prepare a list of topics and show notes beforehand, and Gruber just showed up on a bad connection and mumbled his comments to some of the topics while clearing his throat or snorting. Dan Benjamin was half of The Talk Show since its inception, and the new show has an entirely different dynamic. This new show is John Gruber unhinged, John Gruber talking to himself, jumping from unrelated topic to topic; it is unfocused to the hilt, and embarrassing to listen to.