25 episodes

Join Martin Feld (podcast studies researcher and co-host of Hemispheric Views) as he delves into narratives of tech-podcast fandom and the role of open RSS, featuring producers and their listeners.

Really Specific Stories Martin Feld

    • Technology
    • 5.0 • 5 Ratings

Join Martin Feld (podcast studies researcher and co-host of Hemispheric Views) as he delves into narratives of tech-podcast fandom and the role of open RSS, featuring producers and their listeners.

    Jarrod Blundy

    Jarrod Blundy

    Jarrod explains how he discovered the world of podcasting during a long road trip with a friend, going on to enjoy shows about outdoor reaction, news and the Apple fan community. He also elaborates on his experience of starting his own website, HeyDingus, along with listening to various Apple-centric podcasts—making particular reference to 20 Macs for 2020, a show by writer and podcaster Jason Snell, which blended tech podcasting with a narrative journalism format.


    Podcast case study: 20 Macs for 2020 (listener)


    Find Jarrod at HeyDingus.


    Read a transcript of the episode as a styled PDF or in plain text.


    Links and Show Notes

    The Operating System for Me 00:00:00


    Apple Inc.


    iTunes
    Apple Events video podcast
    Stevenote
    Original Apple podcast icon

    Michigan


    Michigan Ice Fest: The History of the Oldest Ice Climbing Festival in the US

    Ice climbing
    The Dirtbag Diaries


    Information about Fitz Cahall and others who work on the podcast

    Talk radio
    iPod nano
    Apple’s website in 2006 (courtesy of the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine)
    Microsoft Windows
    Mac (computer) and macOS
    Scouting
    MacRumors
    Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP)


    Casey Liss
    John Siracusa
    Marco Arment

    9to5Mac
    Six Colors
    512 Pixels
    Ars Technica


    Entertainment and Production 08:30


    Relay FM


    Clockwise
    Connected
    Cortex
    Mac Power Users
    Reconcilable Differences
    Thoroughly Considered
    Upgrade

    AppStories
    Apple News Today
    The Good News Podcast
    Core Intuition
    Dithering
    Hemispheric Views
    The Rebound
    Ruminate
    The Talk Show with John Gruber
    Vergecast
    Your Daily Lex
    Overcast
    Pocket Casts
    Castro
    RSS


    RSS reader (or news aggregator)

    Squarespace
    HTML
    CSS
    Blog
    Blot
    Twitter (rebranding to X at the time of this podcast episode’s publication)


    A Place that I Own 20:56


    HeyDingus
    Virtual assistant


    Siri
    Google Assistant

    Shortcuts (app)
    Micro.blog


    Manton Reece (creator of the service)



    20 Macs for 2020 24:02


    20 Macs for 2020 is a podcast that was delivered in three media (or formats), including an audio-only podcast at Relay FM, a video playlist at 512 Pixels on YouTube and written essays at Six Colors. The podcast creator and host, Jason Snell, can be found at Six Colors or on Mastodon.
    ’20 Macs for 2020’ (Jarrod’s blog post about the show from January 2021)
    iMac
    Macintosh 128K (or the original Macintosh)
    Power Macintosh
    Stratechery


    Accessibility 31:10


    Accessibility and more specifically, computer accessibility and Web accessibility
    Wordle
    Emoji
    Federico Viticci


    Browse the MacStories Shortcuts Archive.

    iOS 17


    A Hidden Side of Myself 33:53


    View the 7 Things category in Jarrod’s blog archive.
    Notes (Apple)
    JavaScript
    Jarrod’s store on Cotton Bureau (This item was not placed in these show notes with any sponsorship arrangement—only to reflect its mention.)
    Noun Project
    Pixelmator
    Ted Lasso


    I Haven’t Burned Out 41:57


    How to download your X archive
    Importing tweets to Micro.blog
    RoutineHub
    Things (app)
    iBook
    Jony Ive
    Jony Ive, Apple designer who started his career at tangerine, to set up his own studio


    Credits

    Recorded and edited by Martin Feld, using Audio Hijack and Ferrite Recording Studio





    Original podcast theme music by Alex Canion


    Contact


    Website: rsspod.net
    Email: martin@loungeruminator.net
    Mastodon: social.lol/@martinfeld
    Micro.blog: micro.blog/martinfeld


    A Special Note

    Jarrod is a paying subscriber of Martin’s One Prime Plus membership program for the shared podcast, Hemispheric Views; this did not influence any of the questions that were asked and did not place any expectations on Jarrod as a participant of this academic podcasting project.

    • 47 min
    John Gruber

    John Gruber

    John shares his personal narrative as the writer of Daring Fireball and host of The Talk Show with John Gruber, which is now both a podcast and a live show with Apple executives, held during the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. In the conversation, John explains what first captivated him about computers at an early age, expands on his passion for reading and writing and outlines how he has carved out a life of independent production and commentary, based on his technological interests. Last, he describes what he’s most proud of.


    Podcast case study: The Talk Show with John Gruber (producer)


    Find John at Daring Fireball.


    Read a transcript of the episode as a styled PDF or in plain text.


    Links and Show Notes

    The Director’s Commentary 00:00:00


    The Talk Show by John Gruber and Dan Benjamin was hosted on a different site, which can now be found in the Internet Archive.
    Dan Benjamin


    Hivelogic now redirects to the site above.

    Internet radio
    Daring Fireball
    iPod
    USB
    FireWire
    FM radio
    Apple Inc.
    iPhone
    Mac (computer)
    Substack
    Blue Microphones
    Amazon (company)


    Amazon Web Services (AWS)

    MP3


    Audio data compression

    YouTube
    Blog (a truncation of ‘weblog’)
    Ad tech = online advertising technology
    Domain name


    A Voracious Reader 00:10:12


    Computer science
    Apple IIGS
    Drexel University
    Stephen King
    Isaac Asimov
    Internet


    I’ve Carved Out this Life 00:17:04


    Atari 2600
    Pong
    Word processor (electronic device)
    Typewriter
    Liquid-crystal display (LCD)
    World Wide Web
    Dave Winer


    scripting.com

    Jorn Barger


    Robot Wisdom was Jorn’s early blog, which can now be found in the Internet Archive.
    Robot Wisdom and How Jorn Barger Invented Blogging

    Usenet
    TidBITS
    HyperCard
    Mailing list
    Jason Kottke


    kottke.org

    Macworld
    Browse an extensive library of MacUser PDF magazines at vintageapple.org.
    The Philadelphia Inquirer
    Pulitzer Prize
    The New York Times
    The Washington Post
    Center City, Philadelphia
    The Talk Show with John Gruber


    Freely Honest 00:38:04


    Zoom (software)
    Skype
    COVID-19 pandemic
    iOS
    Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)
    Daring Fireball on YouTube, featuring videos of John’s annual The Talk Show Live events with Apple executives
    Mimi Sheraton


    Remembering Mimi Sheraton, Innovative New York Times Food Critic (John’s mentioned article on Daring Fireball)

    Android (operating system)
    Walled garden (technology)


    A Loose, Unofficial Community 00:52:29


    RSS
    Twitter (rebranding to X at the time of this podcast episode’s publication)


    @gruber
    @daringfireball

    Content management system (CMS)
    Reddit
    John’s three mentioned Twitter/X alternatives and his accounts on each one


    Mastodon (social network)


    @gruber@mastodon.social

    Bluesky Social


    @gruber.foo

    Threads (social network)


    @gruber


    TikTok
    Facebook
    Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)


    A Vision for the Whole Internet 01:00:52


    Spotify
    Joe Rogan
    Bill Simmons


    The Ringer

    Ghost (blogging platform)
    Marco Arment


    Overcast

    Castro
    Application programming interface (API)
    News aggregator


    NetNewsWire
    Reeder

    XML
    Paywall
    Dithering
    Ben Thompson


    Stratechery

    Bob Dylan


    It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (the song with the lyrics that John quoted)

    Banner ad
    YouTuber
    Patreon
    Google


    Pretty Proud of That 01:18:00


    John’s full searchable archive at Daring Fireball
    Markdown
    A few articles about Apple’s Brushed Metal user interface


    Aqua (user interface) on Wikipedia, with mentions of Brushed Metal throughout the article
    Brushed Metal and the HIG on Daring Fireball
    The iTunes 5 Announcement From the Perspective of an Anthropomorphized Brushed Metal User Interface Theme on Daring Fireball
    The Brushed Metal Diaries: An Introduction, a Trojan Horse and a History of Abuse on 512 Pixels



    Credits

    Recorded and edited by Martin Feld, using Audio Hijack and Ferrite Recording Studio





    Original podcast theme music by Alex Canion


    Contact


    Website: rsspod.net
    Email: martin@loungeruminator.net
    Mastodon: social.lol/@martinfeld
    M

    • 1 hr 23 min
    Baldur Bjarnason

    Baldur Bjarnason

    Baldur reflects on his family’s history in radio broadcasting, his path to interactive media and writing books and how he moved away from listening to tech podcasts.


    Content warning: some coarse language


    Podcast case study: Accidental Tech Podcast (listener)


    Find Baldur at baldurbjarnason.com.


    Read a transcript of the episode as a styled PDF or in plain text.


    Links and Show Notes

    Fourth Generation 00:00:00


    RSS
    Perl
    Interactive media
    RÚV is the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.
    World War II
    British invasion of Iceland
    Allied occupation of Iceland
    Attack of Pearl Harbor
    Telegraphy
    Axis powers
    Hotel Borg
    Vox populi (or vox pop)
    Web development


    Interactive Media Environments 00:08:13


    Software widget
    Graphical widget
    COVID-19 pandemic
    HyperCard
    Macintosh SE
    Solitaire
    Tetris
    What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG)
    Comparative literature
    Computer science (or ‘comp sci’)
    University of the West of England (UWE)


    Bower Ashton campus map

    BBC Radio
    Dot-com bubble (including reference to the dot-com crash)
    Adobe Flash
    Sandbox (software development)
    Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
    ebook
    Amazon Kindle
    iPhone
    iPad


    Defamiliarisation 00:15:43


    Artificial intelligence (AI)
    Cryptocurrency (or ‘crypto’)
    Popular culture (or ‘pop culture’)
    The Real World of Technology by Ursula Franklin


    Recordings of public lectures in the Internet Archive

    Processor (computing)
    Musical genre mash-up!


    Pop-punk
    Post-punk

    Neosurrealism
    Accidental Tech Podcast
    Jason Snell
    Defamiliarisation
    Viktor Shklovsky
    Bertolt Brecht
    YouTube
    Line Goes Up – The Problem with NFTs
    Defunctland


    Disney’s FastPass: A Complicated History

    App Store (iOS/iPadOS)
    Tom Abba
    *This is not the future of the book
    Out of the Software Crisis by Baldur Bjarnason
    Open source


    Pick and Choose 00:31:03


    Round table
    Narrative journalism
    20 Macs for 2020 was released in multiple formats:


    a podcast on Relay FM;
    a series of written blog posts at Six Colors; and
    a YouTube playlist hosted at 512 Pixels

    Facebook
    Twitter (rebranding to X)
    Revenue sharing
    Threads (social network)
    Bluesky Social
    Mastodon (social network)
    Algorithm
    Patreon
    Whisper (software)
    Descript
    Substack
    Email list
    Apple Podcasts
    Spotify
    du jour = ‘of the day’, e.g. ’soup *du jour’ = soup of the day


    My Computer Identity 00:44:05


    Mac (computer)
    Macintosh Performa
    Microsoft Windows
    macOS (previously referred to as Mac OS X and OS X)
    Pro Tools
    Apple Human Interface Guidelines
    User interface design
    Apple simplified System Settings for macOS Ventura, moved many items from AppleInsider
    System Settings (previously named System Preferences)
    Disk Utility
    Linux
    GNOME
    Safari (web browser)
    ARM architecture family
    Amy Hoy
    User experience (UX)
    ChromeOS
    Software bug
    Netscape
    Jamie Zawinski (a.k.a. jwz)
    HAL 9000


    Plumbing of the Web 01:01:05


    HTML
    XML
    Markup language
    Static websites
    Flat file
    Client-side
    iBook G3 ‘Clamshell’ (or what Baldur’s dad refers to as the ‘toilet-seat iBook’)
    NetNewsWire
    OPML
    Domain name
    Stacking the Bricks (podcast)


    Credits

    Recorded and edited by Martin Feld, using Audio Hijack and Ferrite Recording Studio





    Original podcast theme music by Alex Canion


    Contact


    Website: rsspod.net
    Email: martin@loungeruminator.net
    Mastodon: social.lol/@martinfeld
    Micro.blog: micro.blog/martinfeld

    • 1 hr 10 min
    Marco Arment

    Marco Arment

    Marco tells the story of how he became a Mac enthusiast, indie app developer and tech podcaster, covering his work on Tumblr, Instapaper, Overcast and Accidental Tech Podcast, among other projects. He also explains why he thinks it's so important to maintain the open Web and podcasting through RSS, in the face of more exclusive publishing platforms and audio hosts.


    Podcast case study: Accidental Tech Podcast (producer)


    Find Marco at marco.org.


    Read a transcript of the episode as a styled PDF or in plain text.


    Links and Show Notes

    The Stronghold of Podcasting 00:00:00


    This Week in Tech (TWiT)


    This Week in Tech (podcast)
    MacBreak Weekly

    The Word Nerds (Archive)
    Tumblr
    You Look Nice Today
    Ricky Gervais


    The Ricky Gervais Show

    Stack Overflow


    The Stack Overflow Podcast

    Joel Spolsky
    Jeff Atwood
    Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP)
    CD-R
    MP3
    CD player
    iPod
    The iPod Video was the fifth generation of a product line that is now collectively referred to as the iPod Classic.
    iPhone
    This American Life
    COVID-19 pandemic
    Audiobook
    Cable television
    Leo Laporte
    AM broadcasting
    Talk radio


    Self-taught 00:09:11


    Videocassette recorder (VCR)
    Microsoft Paint
    BASIC
    3-2-1 Contact Magazine was an American educational television show about science that aired on PBS from 1980 to 1988, with an adjoining children's magazine, and which can now be found in the Internet Archive.
    Windows 3.1
    Disk operating system (DOS)


    MS-DOS

    QBasic
    Visual Basic (classic)
    C (programming language)
    Unix
    Solution stack
    Sun Microsystems


    Scalable Processor Architecture (SPARC)
    SPARCstation
    Solaris

    Segmentation fault
    Mac (computer)
    IBM PC compatible (now more of a historical term that relates to our current usage of the term ‘Windows PC’)
    Vivísimo


    Yippy (originally developed and released as ‘Clusty’)

    Computer memory
    Version control
    Software bug


    Tumblr 00:20:24


    Craigslist
    Tumblr
    Software development
    Indie (disambiguation)
    West Coast of the United States
    Amazon (company)
    Bloomberg L.P.


    Bloomberg Technology

    Davidville
    David Karp
    PHP
    Shard (database architecture)
    Twitter
    Content management system (CMS)
    Microblogging (The first micro-blogs were known as ‘tumblelogs’.)
    Myspace (formerly known as MySpace)
    Facebook
    LiveJournal
    WordPress (content management system)


    A Great Time to Be a Mac User 00:33:02


    Apple, Inc.
    Desktop computer
    Windows Update
    Digital Visual Interface (DVI)
    Vim (text editor)
    Terminal emulator
    Linux
    Server (computing)
    Ruby on Rails
    TextMate
    MacBook (2006–2012)
    PowerBook G4


    A Better Audience 00:38:13


    Web development
    5by5
    Weblogs, Inc.
    Engadget
    Gizmodo
    Lifehacker
    RSS


    News aggregator (or in certain cases or implementations, RSS reader)

    Digg
    Reddit
    Hacker News
    Dan Benjamin
    Instapaper
    iPad
    Build and Analyze was a weekly news and discussion show about technology by Marco Arment and Dan Benjamin, which can now be found in the Internet Archive.
    YouTube
    Overcast (app)
    Merlin Mann
    John Siracusa


    Accidental Tech Podcast 00:49:43


    Neutral
    Casey Liss
    Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP)


    Membership program

    Relay FM
    John Roderick (musician)


    Overcast 00:58:16


    Overcast


    Overcast (app) (further information)

    Music (software) (The app to which Marco refers was originally known as the iPod app on iPhones.)
    Downcast (app)
    Android (operating system)
    Pocket Casts
    Apple Podcasts
    Stitcher
    App store


    App Store (iOS/iPadOS)

    TikTok
    Instagram
    Proxy server


    How the Internet Is Supposed to Work 01:05:06


    World Wide Web


    Web standards
    (redirecting from ‘open Web’)
    Decentralisation

    Comcast
    Verizon Communications, Inc.
    UUNET
    Internet Protocol (IP)
    Walmart
    Monopsony
    Google
    Amazon Kindle
    Spotify
    Trade magazine
    Eddy Cue


    Credits

    Recorded and edited by Martin Feld, using Audio Hijack and Ferrite Recording Studio





    Original podcast theme music by Alex Canion


    Contact


    Website: rsspod.net
    Email: martin@loungeruminator.net
    Mastodon: social.lol/@martinfeld
    Micro.blog: micro.blog/martinfeld


    A Special Note

    Martin is a paid subscriber

    • 1 hr 18 min
    Grace Teng

    Grace Teng

    Grace is a developer and podcast fan, who shares her experience of following various independent shows over the years and in producing her own chatcast, titled Monkey Mind. During the conversation, she also covers her passion for video games and considers the key differences between aural and visual media, drawing on her own study of film and background in video production.


    Content warning: discussion of clinical depression


    Podcast case study: Connected at Relay FM (listener)


    Find Grace at graceteng.me.


    Read the transcript of the episode as a styled PDF or in plain text.


    Links and Show Notes

    How the Habit Started 00:00:00


    Major depressive disorder (or clinical depression)
    The Pen Addict (blog)
    Relay FM


    The Pen Addict (podcast)

    Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP)
    99% Invisible
    Planet Money
    Myke Hurley
    John Siracusa
    Merlin Mann
    43 Folders
    Cortex
    Mac Power Users
    Ungeniused
    Playing for Fun
    Celeste (video game)
    Analog(ue)
    Connected


    The Dynamic 00:09:18


    Mac (computer)
    Casey Liss
    Parasocial interaction
    Google
    Amazon (company)
    Blog
    iPhone
    Early adopter


    Monkey Mind 00:18:49


    Monkey Mind
    Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
    COVID-19 pandemic


    What Sound Can Do 00:26:17


    Software engineering
    Start-up company
    Multimedia
    Apple File System (APFS)
    NPR
    This American Life
    Montage (filmmaking)
    Juxtaposition
    YouTube


    Not a Purist 00:36:46


    Chatcast = a podcast with a conversational format, rather than a narrative one
    RSS
    Adam Savage
    Adam Savage’s Tested
    Speedrunning
    Dear PB
    Games Done Quick


    Think Fast! Sly Another Day (video example)



    Credits

    Recorded and edited by Martin Feld, using Audio Hijack and Ferrite Recording Studio





    Original podcast theme music by Alex Canion


    Contact


    Website: rsspod.net
    Email: martin@loungeruminator.net
    Mastodon: social.lol/@martinfeld
    Micro.blog: micro.blog/martinfeld

    • 44 min
    Shelly Brisbin

    Shelly Brisbin

    Shelly is a writer, editor and podcaster who tirelessly advocates for greater accessibility in digital technology. Joining Really Specific Stories, she shares her journalistic and storytelling experience, explains her audio projects, such as Parallel with Relay FM, and illustrates how far we’ve come (and still have to go) in making hardware, software and media accessible.


    Podcast case study: Parallel at Relay FM (producer)


    Find Shelly at brisbin.net.


    Read the transcript of this episode as a styled PDF or in plain text.


    Links and Show Notes

    Mindful of Ethics 00:00:00


    RSS
    Macworld/iWorld


    Watch the Macworld 2005 keynote in the Internet Archive.

    Adobe Pagemaker
    Mac (computer)
    Desktop publishing
    Laser printing
    Linotype machine
    Macintosh Plus
    Page layout (with further information about galleys)
    Rubylith
    Light table
    See a scan of the top portion of Supercomputing News (Vol. 1 No. 3) from 1988, which was kindly provided by Shelly because the publication preceded the Web. This was her first editing job!
    Hydra (operating system)
    Cray-1
    MacUser
    Apple Inc.
    Microsoft Windows


    Go My Own Way 00:07:44


    Trade journalism
    Tech Podcast Network
    History of podcasting (with references to couplecasting)
    Accessibility and more specifically, computer accessibility and Web accessibility
    Diversity (politics)


    Accessibility in the Mainstream 00:16:36


    Disability
    Assistive technology
    Google
    Microsoft
    Software bug
    Pro Tools
    iRiver
    MP3
    iPhone
    Artificial intelligence (AI)
    Transcription software
    Content management system (CMS)
    iOS Access for All: Your Comprehensive Guide to Accessibility for iPhone and iPad by Shelly Brisbin
    Jason Snell
    Use Switch Control on Mac
    Use Switch Control to navigate your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
    iOS Switch Control Demo (YouTube video excerpt of Todd Stabelfeldt's keynote from Apple's WWDC 2017)


    Parallel and Relay FM 00:35:31


    Parallel
    Relay FM
    Stephen Hackett
    Myke Hurley
    iOS
    macOS
    Android (operating system)
    Twitter
    Slack (software)
    Discord


    Feedback and Engagement 00:45:24


    Mastodon (social network)
    Mention (blogging)
    Wallflower (people)


    Aural Inclusivity, Niches and Narratives 00:49:49


    Fortune 500
    36 Seconds that Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk
    Narrative journalism
    Radio documentary


    Credits

    Recorded and edited by Martin Feld, using Audio Hijack and Ferrite Recording Studio





    Original podcast theme music by Alex Canion


    Contact


    Website: rsspod.net
    Email: martin@loungeruminator.net
    Mastodon: social.lol/@martinfeld
    Micro.blog: micro.blog/martinfeld

    • 58 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
5 Ratings

5 Ratings

ClarkSavageJr. ,

If you love what podcasts are…

If you love the idea of podcasts, and would like to hear about why people create podcasts, what podcasts mean to people who create and listen to podcasts, and much more about podcasts, then give this show a listen. Top quality production values, some of the best show notes (I think Hemispheric Views might be just a bit better - you get emoji’s in those notes!), and a very thoughtful host. I look forward to future episodes.

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