Brian Russell’s History with the Early Days of Podcasting

I started podcasting in 2004 after learning about it from Adam Curry’s show Daily Source Code. I also read David Winer’s blog (10/26/2005) at the time.

It began with Ruby Sinreich giving me an early iPod for my birthday. I thought, “What can I MAKE to put on this thing?”

The answer to my own question was the Audio Activism podcast in 2004. Here is an old version of the Audio Activism website (October 4, 2004). This is my very first podcast from October 3, 2004. The show was called “3 URLs” and it was my take on important and fun website content. Part review and part “Check this cool stuff out!”. HUGE thanks to ibiblio.org for hosting lots of my work over the years!

In 2005 I began organizing the world’s first self organized conference focused on teaching people how to podcast. It was called PodcasterCon and was held on Saturday, January 7, 2006, at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. Over 200 people attended. Half came to Chapel Hill from outside of the state of North Carolina. Big thanks to Paul Jones for his help. Many others assisted. Here are some photos from PodcasterCon 2006. This is a movie someone else made that includes me opening up the event to a crowd of people.

Here are a few newspaper articles that describe my work at the time.
Podcasting takes off – News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC) – March 22, 2005
Radio cast in a new light – News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC) – January 8, 2006

This is one newspaper article I wrote that was published in print.
DIY radio – Or how I learned to stop worrying about the media and start podcasting, (Wayback Machine archive link), December 18, 2005

When time allows I’ll add more info about my work and all the fun I had then.

Back to Podcasting

One area I’m most proud of innovating in is Podcasting. I got involved because Ruby bought me an iPod in early 2004 and I wondered, “What can I make for the iPod instead of just consuming with it.” A few months later I started the 3URLs show on AudioActivism.org. On October 3, 2004 I released the podcast episode 3URLs 10/03/04. Thanks to Ibiblio for hosting the mp3s and website for all these years.

Recently I’ve started a new show called Flathead Monster. It’s just interviews with interesting people about what they do. I still have a RSS feed for FHM but I also share it on Youtube. As one does in 2019.

My first episode on fhmon.com is with Brendan Love and we talk about tattoos.

Flathead Monster Podcast by Brian Russell, Episode 001, Brendan Love on Tattoos
Flathead Monster Podcast by Brian Russell, Episode 001, Brendan Love on Tattoos

NCSBC Pre-conference skills session

Yesterday Anton, Bora, and I helped introduce blogging to about 12 people. It was a pre-conference event for the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference.

Check out Anton’s EXCELLENT NCSBC Pre-conference skills session page. These exercises were quite effective in helping people get hands on experience with blogs. You could see the fear of blogs melt away.

Anton’s Blogs, wikis & podcasts primer is good too.