March 6, 2006

The Top 10 People Who Should Be Podcasting

Yup, there are a lot of cool people podcasting these days. But there are also a lot who haven’t started yet. I realize that a lot of people will never podcast for reasons ranging from a simple lack of time to the fact that a few words one way or another in a podcast could swing their companies’ stock prices pretty radically (e.g., Mr. Gates, Sergey and Larry). But I think there are a bunch of people who out there who could be persuaded into giving podcasting a try. Who knows, maybe if this article gets enough buzz one of them will give it a go. So without further ado, here’s my Wish List of the Top 10 People I’d Love to See Podcasting:

10. Steve Wozniak – One of the co-founders of Apple, Woz is always interesting to listen to. He’s been on This Week in Tech a couple of times and also has the proud distinction of being the subject of the most popular IT Conversations episode of all-time. Here’s one vote for Woz starting a mobile podcast that he’d record while in his Prius or on his Segway.

9. Mark Cuban – Blog Maverick, Cuban’s blog, is among my favorites. He’s got a great perspective on business, sports and entertainment. As those worlds converge at an accelerating pace Cuban’s dialogue becomes more and more relevant. He’s a busy guy these days but sticking a mic on him once a week to get his thoughts on the future of media, his advice on investing and entrepreneurship and the occasional rant about Phil Jackson would be pretty frickin’ sweet. While we’re waiting on the CubanCast check out his interview with John Furrier from the InfoTalk Podcast and his conversation with John Heilemann from the Web 2.0 Conference.

8. Margaret Cho – She has a blog, a My Space site and even a line of belly-dancing clothes. What more could the Notorious C.H.O. want? A podcast, that’s what. Give her an open mic and an RSS feed and just see what happens. I have no doubt that it would be interesting and most likely offensive to at least half of the people listening…

7. Tom Peters – Crazy passionate. That’s the best phrase I could think of describe Tom Peters. He’s been a blogger for a while now but to really experience Peters you need to listen to him. Give an ear to a bit of Re-Imagine! and tell me if this guy isn’t on fire. He’s always on the road giving speeches and presentations. Someone needs to start recording some of them and putting them out there for the rest of the world to hear. Pretty please…

6. The Dalai Lama – The Dalai Lama is the author of dozens of books, many of which have been published on audio and which he has personally narrated. Belief Net has a number of “mini-dharma” talks available but it would be cool to see an audio and/or video podcast feed. No doubt thousands or even millions of people around the world would tune in.

5. Jason Calacanis – I had a chance to see Jason offer up a rant last weekend at BarCampLosAngeles. I love hearing him speak. He’s definitely one of the most opinionated guys out there but he’s on the mark at least 98% of the time. Check out his interview on the Web 2.0 Show for a glimpse into what a CalacanisCast might sound like. No dull moments guaranteed!

4. Guy Kawasaki – The managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and another high-profile author who just started blogging. Based on the volume of his posts Guy either has some time on his hands or types very, very fast. Personally, I can’t keep up. Now if he’d make some of those articles available on audio it might give a guy a fighting chance! Watch his presentation here to the UCLA Anderson School or listen to a chapter from The Art of the Start and see if this isn’t a guy who would be a good entrant into the Podosphere.

3. Andrew Sullivan – Gay? Conservative? Practicing Roman Catholic? Intriguing. I’ve been following Andrew’s blog The Daily Dish off and on for the last couple of years. It’s one of those that I’d like to have the time to digest but never quite get around to. Now if he podcasted it would be totally different. I could listen during my daily jog, when I’m driving around, etc. I’ve never heard him speak but if his podcast would be even half as interesting as his blog it would be worth the subscription.

2. Seth Godin – The author of Permission Marketing, Purple Cow and most recently All Marketers Are Liars has one of the most popular blogs going. He’s an innovate thinker and a dynamic speaker (Godin recently was chosen as on of “21 Speakers for the Next Century” by Successful Meetings Magazine). Check out the recent talk he gave to Google to get a sense of what a Godin podcast might sound like. I’d certainly subscribe.

1. Bill Clinton – He has some spare time on his hands these days right? Well actually he has been quite busy doing a lot of work with his foundation and with former President George Bush raising money for last year’s tsunami and hurricane victims. Even though he is retired from office it would be interesting to see him follow in the footsteps of other political figures like John Edwards and Barack Obama and put out a podcast. For an example of what it might sound like check out an interview of Clinton from this year’s World Economic Forum. It would definitely be interesting to more stuff like that.

Of course one-person podcasts don’t seem to end up working out that well. So perhaps (and I know I’m reaching now) some of these people could team up. A Cuban/Calacanis podcast? (Cuban invested in Weblogs, Inc., the company Jason recently sold to AOL.) How about Godin and Peters? (That would be some good brain candy.) Or maybe we could use the husband-wife formula that worked so well for Dawn and Drew and get Hillary and Bill to podcast together? On second thought…