LISTEN TO THIS | Bro Call

I’m a pod­cast junkie, and LISTEN TO THIS is a recap of my favorite tid­bits, sound­bites and short bursts of bril­liance that I can’t help but share with every­one who will lis­ten. After digest­ing hours and hours of pod­casts, here’s the best 9 min­utes from what I heard this week.

THE JOHNNY CARSON OF PODCASTING

THE BRO SHOW | Dan Benjamin

Thanks to Myke Hur­ley and Terry Lucy for invit­ing Dan Ben­jamin to switch sides and be inter­viewed instead of inter­view­ing. Dan Ben­jamin is the Johnny Car­son of pod­cast­ing. He’s thought­ful, authen­tic, funny, intel­li­gent and a gen­uine giver. I am impressed by the qual­ity of every­thing Dan does. His expla­na­tion of the Talk Show demon­strated a level of class that serves as a new per­sonal stan­dard for me to try to achieve. My favorite sec­tion of this Bro Show inter­view comes at 15:03 where Hur­ley asks about the cur­rent state of pod­cast­ing. Check it out.

TREAT A CUSTOMER AS THEY SHOULD BE

HBR IDEACAST | Who Your Cus­tomers Want to Become

“If cus­tomers don’t want to go where you want them to go, my good­ness, you’re going to have a prob­lem win­ning in the future.”

~ Michael Schrage

Michael Schrage is look­ing to update the ques­tion “What busi­ness are we in,” orig­i­nally posed in Ted Levitt’s Mark­ing Myopia, by ask­ing, “What are we ask­ing our cus­tomers to become?” The ques­tion pro­vides a slightly dif­fer­ent angle of attack in approach­ing your busi­ness strat­egy. If you want a quick intro to the idea, skip to 4:28 where he illus­trates the premise with Dis­ney princesses.

EMOTIONAL EXPERTISE

THE MOTH | What Can’t be Fixed

Martha Man­ning tells a pow­er­ful story of serv­ing as a ther­a­pist for Annie who suf­fered from a ter­mi­nal case of breast can­cer. I highly rec­om­mend that you lis­ten to the entire story (it’s only 16 min­utes long) and that you have a tis­sue on hand when you do. Man­ning frames the jour­ney with a pow­er­ful per­spec­tive that chal­lenges what it really means to be an expert. At a min­i­mum, catch Annie break­ing the bad news of her diag­no­sis to Martha at 3:21.

Pod­cast Test Drives:

1. WNYC’s Radi­o­lab — well crafted and edited. Dan Ben­jamin rec­om­mended dur­ing his interview.
2. On the Media — another excep­tional WNYC show. This one rec­om­mended by Mer­lin Mann in his Back to Work Bulk Bag newslet­ter.
3. Rod­er­ick on the Line — Clowns, pirates, and gang­sters. Down­right funny.

Unsub­scrib­ing from:

Get-It-Done Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Work Less and Do More — one too many corny puns (like run­ning the local prison’s lit­er­ary book club — Prose and Cons).

OTHER PODCAST POSTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

• Work­flow of a PODCAST JUNKIE
• LISTEN TO THIS | You Can’t Give More Than 100%

What about you? What pod­casts did you enjoy this week and what do you rec­om­mend? Leave your favorites in the com­ments below.