I, Podcast

You may have thought about everything that goes into enticing someone to press play, but have you ever thought about the design decisions that have led up to the play button itself? There is a whole world of cooperation between people, far apart and personally unbeknownst to each other, that allows your podcast episode to reach your listener. This podcast industry is a marketplace that performs miracles almost every moment of every day.
Today, you and I are going to take a journey. I am going to walk you through the day in the life of a podcast episode -- from ideation to listener. There are three major segments all acting in concert with each other to form what I see as the reference model to the current layout of what we CALL the Podcast Industry. These three smaller industries consist of Production, Distribution, and Consumption. If these three smaller industries did not act in coordination with each other, podcasting would not exist.

Podcast Industry Reference Model

I've created a Podcast Industry Reference Model [PDF] to help conceptualize it as you follow along with this podcast.

NES Design Master: Leonard E. Read

Today's Master is Leonard E. Read. Mr. Read (who lived from 1898--1983) established the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in 1946 and served as FEE's president for 37 years. He was a strong defender of American liberty with a specific focus on individual freedom and private property rights. This is what led him to author 29 books and hundreds of essays.

However, his powerful yet simple essay titled, I, Pencil: My Family Tree, published back in 1958, is his most famous work. For over 60 years hundreds of thousands of Americans of all ages have read (or heard) this simple and beautiful explanation of the miracle of the “invisible hand” by following the production of an ordinary pencil.

Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) Downloads

• I, Pencil Audio [MP3]
• I, Pencil Essay [PDF]

Notable Quotes

"Leave all creative energies uninhibited."

-- Leonard E. Read

"[Markets are a] configuration of creative human energies. [Thousands] of tiny know-hows, configuring naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire. And in the absence of any human masterminding."

-- Leonard E. Read

"We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders."

-- GK Chesterton