Author: Merlin Mann Running Time: 17 Min. Offered: Bi-weekly

Subscribe to this: (Click the above links to open this Podcast in the listed podcast sites.)

Click Stars to Rate: Review this title

The Merlin Show Video Podcast by Merlin Mann

About Podcasting:
For those of you new to podcasting, Click Here to read our "Introduction to Podcasting" Article.

Be the First to Review The Merlin Show Video Podcast

Podcast Feed URL:

(Copy the above URL into your Podcast Application. Click Here to learn more.)

020: Interview: Jesse Thorn, Part 2

Author: Merlin Mannthemerlinshow@gmail.com (Merlin Mann)
Mon, Jun 18, 2007

Merlin talks with The Sound of Young America’s Jesse Thorn about how podcasts let him engage with a wider audience, the greying of public radio’s average listener, and how radio can be programmed to become almost unnoticeable.

Note: This is the second segment in our six-part interview with Jesse Thorn. Don’t miss the other segments.

Click To Play

Also mentioned in (or related to) this segment: UC Santa Cruz; KZSC; Maximum Fun Forum; WNYU; photos from Jesse’s recent meetup; TSOYA Flickr Group; Spiderman 3; KKSF (San Francisco’s Smooth Jazz); WFSU; WFSQ, and their playlist; Scott Simon (Scott, we kid because we love.); Fresh Air; MC Solaar; Killer Mike; Andrew W.K.; Jesse’s somewhat infamous letter to Weekend ATC; Matisyahu, a hasidic hip-hop artist; Orientalism; Google Answers: Average listener age for public radio; Jesse’s MaxFun post: NPR Listeners: Exactly How You Picture Them; Kelefa Sanneh; KPCC.

• The Sound of Young America
  Episode Archive, Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Jesse’s terrific interviews with comedians, writers, actors, and other people he finds awesome.
• Coyle & Sharpe: The Impostors
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  More info at their site. Vintage street terrorism from the skinny-tie 60s. Classic bits from the original and quintessential “man on the street” comedy put-on team.
• Jordan, Jesse, GO!
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Jesse and his pal, Jordan Morris (Boy Detective), do free-form. And it’s really funny. Seriously.
• Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast
  Episode Archive, Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Sketch comedy from San Francisco’s hilarious “Kasper Hauser” comedy group, perhaps best known for their “Sky Maul” catalog parody.
• The College Years
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Santa Cruz-era episodes of The Sound of Young America, decanted for your present-day enjoyment.

• Merlin’s personal picks for a few Sound of Young America episodes to get started with:

  • October 13th, 2006 — Best Friends - “Guests John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton. Our guests were college classmates, and remain close friends today. Hodgman is an author and is regularly seen on The Daily Show. Coulton is a comic singer-songwriter.”
  • April 10th, 2007 — Jack McBrayer - “We talk with Jack McBrayer, who plays Kenneth, the lovable NBC Page, in the NBC sitcom ‘30 Rock.’”
  • August 26th, 2006 — The Impostors - “Guest Mal Sharpe. Mal Sharpe was half of Coyle & Sharpe, a ground-breaking team of put-on artists who terrorized 1960s San Francisco.”

Merlin talks with The Sound of Young America’s Jesse Thorn about his roots in radio at UC-Santa Cruz and how having to borrow his Mom’s car led to him putting his radio shows on the web. We also learn some surprising things that Jesse has in common with basketball superstar, Manute Bol.

Note: This is the first segment in our six-part interview with Jesse Thorn. Stop back soon for more.

Jesse Thorn (a/k/a, “America’s Radio Sweetheart”), is a nationally syndicated public radio host, raconteur, and podcaster who’s best known for The Sound of Young America and several other podcasts under the aegis of his “Maximum Fun” site:

• The Sound of Young America
  Episode Archive, Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Jesse’s terrific interviews with comedians, writers, actors, and other people he finds awesome.
• Coyle & Sharpe: The Impostors
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  More info at their site. Vintage street terrorism from the skinny-tie 60s. Classic bits from the original and quintessential “man on the street” comedy put-on team.
• Jordan, Jesse, GO!
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Jesse and his pal, Jordan Morris (Boy Detective), do free-form. And it’s really funny. Seriously.
• Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast
  Episode Archive, Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Sketch comedy from San Francisco’s hilarious “Kasper Hauser” comedy group, perhaps best known for their “Sky Maul” catalog parody.
• The College Years
  Recent Episodes, Subscribe, iTunes
  Santa Cruz-era episodes of The Sound of Young America, decanted for your present-day enjoyment.

• Also mentioned in this episode: Bob Odenkirk (TSOYA episode), The Human Giant (TSOYA episode), Manute Bol, Ira Glass, Terry Gross
• Jesse has dibs on the term “The New Sincerity” - "A perfect example of the New Sincerity is Evel Knievel. There's no way to take Evel Knievel literally. It's impossible."
• Merlin’s personal picks for a few Sound of Young America episodes to get started with:
  • October 13th, 2006 — Best Friends - “Guests John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton. Our guests were college classmates, and remain close friends today. Hodgman is an author and is regularly seen on The Daily Show. Coulton is a comic singer-songwriter.”
  • April 10th, 2007 — Jack McBrayer - “We talk with Jack McBrayer, who plays Kenneth, the lovable NBC Page, in the NBC sitcom ‘30 Rock.’”
  • August 26th, 2006 — The Impostors - “Guest Mal Sharpe. Mal Sharpe was half of Coyle & Sharpe, a ground-breaking team of put-on artists who terrorized 1960s San Francisco.”
• Merlin Show/Jesse Thorn trivia: Jesse and TSOYA are mentioned in the first sentence of Merlin’s first interview with Jonathan Coulton.
• Super-nerdy Merlin Show trivia: This is the first set of interviews shot with our new HV-20s (amazon). That film look comes from the tasty new 24p functionality. Hope you all like the new fanciness.

In the final episode of Merlin’s talk with John Roderick, Hotrod explains the the perils of self-producing a record and Ken Stringfellow’s method of punching-in vocals, three words at a time.

Pick quote: “The Wrens made a whole career out of an ADAT and a 12-pack.”

Note: This is the final segment of our epic 4-part interview with John Roderick; don’t miss part one, part two and part three.

Click To Play

• Here is the web site of The Long Winters
• John wrote and performed The Merlin Show’s theme song, “Blue Diamonds,” which is the first track on 2003’s wonderful When I Pretend to Fall
• The Long Winters’ latest record, Putting the Days to Bed is out on Barsuk Records and is available for purchase on the Barsuk site
• You can download high-quality MP3s (including “Blue Diamonds”) from The Long Winters’ web site
• Musical acts mentioned in this segment include The Wrens, My Bloody Valentine, Ken Stringfellow (from The Posies, R.E.M., and the reunited Big Star), and, of course, The Vienna Boy’s Choir.
• Here are photos of John Roderick wearing a cape

More Long Winters on Video

Preview of Through with Love Long Winters movie

Dorsiafilms is making a documentary about The Long Winters called Through with Love. This ten-minute preview/trailer includes some excellent “spoodely spoodely” guitar work by John Roderick, starting around 05:37.

Video for “Fire Island, AK”

Video for a song from the latest Long Winters record, When I Pretend to Fall. Also, this is the song you hear over our credits for The Merlin Show.

Video for “Blue Diamonds”

Video for a song from the second Long Winters record, Putting the Days to Bed.

”Pushover,” Live @ Easy Street Records

Merlin talks with John Roderick, the singer and songwriter for “The Long Winters” (and the man behind The Merlin Show’s theme song, “Blue Diamonds”). John and Merlin discuss string art, learning how to play guitar, and the surprising achievability of most people’s dreams.

Note: This is the third segment of a 4-part interview with John; don’t miss part one and part two.

Click To Play

• Here is the web site of The Long Winters
• John wrote and performed The Merlin Show’s theme song, “Blue Diamonds,” which is the first track on 2003’s wonderful When I Pretend to Fall
• The Long Winters’ latest record, Putting the Days to Bed is out on Barsuk Records and is available for purchase on the Barsuk site
• You can download high-quality MP3s (including “Blue Diamonds”) from The Long Winters’ web site
• String Art can include owls
• Both John and Merlin deny being French
• Stripper Shoes have high heels and are often clear
• “Grok” was coined by Robert A. Heinlein (not Arthur C. Clarke)
• Here’s the tablature for Pinball Wizard, She Said, She Said, Bringin’ on the Heartbreak, La Grange, and Breaking the Law
• Here are photos of John Roderick wearing a cape

Preview of Through with Love Long Winters movie

Dorsiafilms is making a documentary about The Long Winters called Through with Love. This ten-minute preview/trailer includes some excellent “spoodely spoodely” guitar work by John Roderick, starting around 05:37.

Merlin talks with John Roderick, the singer and songwriter behind “The Long Winters” (and the man behind The Merlin Show’s theme song, “Blue Diamonds”). John and Merlin discuss the myths of celebrity, bullshit, and the problem of Ben Affleck’s hair.

Note: This is the second segment of a 3-part interview with John; don’t miss part one.

Click To Play

Merlin talks with Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats about building a sustainable career in independent music, how prolific recording and touring keeps the lights on, and how having the right fan base (and a little bit of luck) makes all the difference.

Click To Play

Merlin talks with San Francisco indie rocker (and longtime Mac user) John Vanderslice about how he manages his fan email list, as well as JV’s tips on taking a Mac on tour, and how internet access in Australia can be like a vibrating bed. Bonus footage includes the video for John’s song “Exodus Damage,” by Brent Chesanek.

Click To Play

Merlin talks with Google's Chris Wetherell about working from the road, the surprisingly modest stakes of touring, opportunity costs, and failing utterly at email.

Click To Play

Merlin talks with John Roderick, the singer and songwriter behind "The Long Winters" (and the man behind The Merlin Show's theme song, "Blue Diamonds"). John curses at on-set hippies, wonders about making money on the web, and demands that indie rockers learn to behave more like building contractors. Roffle, roffle, roffle. (Contains PG-13 language, ribald exchanges, and frank discussion of show business ["it's not 'show friend...'"])

Click To Play

Merlin talks with Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats about the logistics of wired touring, keeping a tour diary on LiveJournal, and why The Mountain Goats don't have a MySpace page.

Click To Play

Merlin talks with San Francisco indie rocker John Vanderslice about giving up on a large volume of email, meeting the people you admire, and having no patience for people who act like rock stars. 2nd of a 3-part interview. (FYI: Contains PG-13 language)

Click To Play

Merlin talks with Google's Jeffrey Veen about making the best of meetings (and the time around them), lofi capture, and the beauty of simple tools. We also learn how Jeff has learned to use his commute for firewalled time.

Click To Play

This Author: Merlin Mann

We want LearnOutLoud.com to be the most complete and accurate resource for audio and video learning titles. Please let us know if you've found information missing or incorrect on this page.

Fill in the box below and click the 'Submit' button to suggest a change or email us at: suggestions@learnoutloud.com. Alternatively, feel free to add your suggestion directly to our Suggestion Wiki.

Your Email Address:
Email Address is not required. We will not use your email address in any wa