The only good thing about sitting in traffic is getting to catch up on podcasts. I love podcasts. This past week, two popped up in my feed that hit my sweet spot, and I cannot recommend them both enough.
From KCRW’s The Organist: A 700-Foot Mountain of Whipped Cream
This week, we’re sharing a highly subjective journey through one narrow, eccentric, corridor of radio advertising, as heard through the ears of one man. His name is Clive Desmond. Clive is a radio advertising producer, writer, and composer. He’s been doing it for more than thirty years, and he’s won some of the industry’s top awards. Through those years he’s been sort of a zelig figure: you can find his face somewhere in the margins of every one of the medium’s key aesthetic revolutions. He’s rescued beautiful forgotten nuggets of radio history, and he’s delicately arranged them into a glittering associative chain—a constellation of jingles and spots that somehow all add up, to a life: The life of Clive Desmond as heard through the radio.
This podcast reminded me about all the things I love about advertising. And, when I was a kid, I’m pretty certain I had a transistor radio exactly like the one pictured above.
From Freakonomics Radio: Are We Running Out of Ideas?
Economists have a hard time explaining why productivity growth has been shrinking. One theory: true innovation has gotten much harder – and much more expensive. So what should we do next?
I met Dubner a few years ago at a conference. Had a few minutes to visit with him. Yes, his hair is that crazy in real life. Love his podcasts, only wish he’d reconsider my idea of a Freakonomics coloring book.