No Agenda Podcast Fourteenth Anniversary History and Evolution
Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak celebrate the 14th anniversary of the No Agenda podcast, reflecting on the show's origins and the development of the "Value for Value" funding model. They recount the evolution of listener credits, including the creation of knighthoods and executive producer titles, which were later imitated by other podcasters like Jason Calacanis. The hosts credit their audience for developing show tropes and maintaining the program's longevity through direct support.
adam curry· john c. dvorak· value for value· knighthoods· gitmo nation· executive producers· jason calacanis
00:00 And he's stood. Adam Curry, John C. DeVora It's Sunday October 24th 2021 This is your Ward Winnie Gibblination Media Assassination Episode 1393! This is no agenda Celebrating 14 years and we never had a fight! And broadcasting live from the heart of Texas Hill Country here in FEMA Region Number 6, In The Morning everybody. I'm Adam Curry. And from Northern Silicon Valley where everybody's celebrating the 14 years of no agenda Everybody! I'm John C. DeVore. It's Crackpot & Buzzkill...In The Morning Well well well once again another year has passed
00:41 Congratulations, John. And we celebrate in our common fashion manner with horns! Most importantly happy birthday and congratulations to all the producers all around Gitmo Nation who have made this media deconstruction podcast also known as N-Experiment a resounding success by the mere fact that we're still here And we really, really do appreciate it. Your time your talent your treasure has done it for the past 14 years Didn't we start on episode 8 or 9 or 10 with value for value?
01:24 Do you recall? Well, value... No. Not well maybe around it was early it was round maybe episode 10 but the idea but the concept was we never used a value for value phraseology You brought that in That was much later probably Months and months into it Maybe a year into it You came up with the idea And, uh… V for V. But hadn't we already decided that it would just be open-ended way before the value for value moniker? Yes, it was always open-ended and that's because we started we got all these weird numerological donations that we read yes Yeah the 6969 I think wasn't 6969 the first one. That really was massive No, no, I think it was mostly numbers like dates of the calendar dates 1394 okay 50 there's a bunch of them and then
02:24 We quickly moved to the... we quickly moved to, this is a little history for people out there. Yes yes it's 14 years in a nutshell I had this thing anyway in my craw about knighthoods because that was right yeah it was unfortunate that the Queen of England could give these things up wasn't good wasn't that around the time that I visited the Queen of England? No! It was before you visit her before. You said I'm a knight so That came into play early, very early and then it expanded to what it is today which was a big deal. And then you came up with the... after that the next thing was the next development I think pretty much the last real development. It was the second show!
03:16 No, the second show came I think before The Nightings. The second show came on pretty quickly. Then it was promising a third show for about three years. That's right! Until we looked at it and went this is a very bad idea We should not be doing three shows. More than that, we actually had done a third show... Let me just check in here one two okay... Except for eight cars. No report. Let me finish my stories. Because I kind of remember this pretty well and we did the third show thing as a tease for about three years and then a couple of times, for some reason or other that we actually did a third show that were specials and it pooped us out so much! And this is when... Yeah you're right yes gosh i remember that
04:06 We were only doing like an hour and a half shows, the two hours. But doing the third show was for some reason so taxing... Did we actually do it? Did we do a third show? We didn't do a technical third show. It wasn't really a third show. We did three shows a week A couple of times over a number of months and every time we did it that week was ruined. It just doesn't work for us, I think it's because... What was funny is that even though that didn't work the continuing lengthening of the regular show continued Yes
04:50 to the point where we're at three hours plus. We were at 2 30 for a long time, two and a half or long, long time and then it went to two 45 and then it can get bumping and bumping and bumping yeah And uh next thing you know we're out Next thing you know COVID hit. COVID hit. So might as well do three shows but doing 3 shows turned out to be different than doing too long show so Then the next of development was you deciding that everybody's a producer not a listener. And then that evolved into creating, and this was kind of joint thing, creating the executive producer or associate executive producer gimmick to give people genuine
05:40 you know, it turns out. Yeah real credits! Just like a knighthood only this one's a little more recognized and this one became very popular to the point where we had people trying to copy it including that guy that your friend down in Southern California The guy talks a little bit like this, the lispy guy. Why am I not remembering his name? I have no idea what you're talking about! In Southern California?! Yeah the Southern California podcaster that stole the Twitch show thing from Leo
06:17 Jason Calacanis. Oh, Jason Calacanis! This Week in Startups? Oh okay I got it. So Calacanis decided that hey... It's not a list but more like this. Okay talk like this. I'm Jason Calacanis and I am an investor who takes my money. Angel Investor And I have no problem mocking him because he does have voice of mind too Yeah he does all kinds of voices He can handle it by the way I'm not worried about Jason Calacanis Well Anyway, so he decided all this was he made a big point saying this is one of the greatest ideas that Podcasters have ever come up with this executive producer idea. So he decided to do it and months later He was back to ads Yes It wasn't you couldn't do it like there's a there's a There's a trick to doing it and he didn't he never figured that part out. So well what you'd the trick is And this is what we learned
07:11 It's really about what we call producers, but what we mean it. This is the new type of radio. It's not just I'm broadcasting to the audience No! They're going to feed back to you whether you like it or not. It's up to the podcasters decide what to do with that. Yeah, We have a two-way communication thats little more extreme than normal broadcasting. And remember the number one trick is an outstanding product Right which Calacanis didn't have That was the problem, ah yes. Now um... Yes the product was there but these ideas were kind of- The feedback was really what makes them work I mean we never came up with douchebag or any of these things
07:59 that was all done by the audience. And the audience and producers, they're the ones who created half of this idea and they're the ones who adopted them. They are the ones who went along with the idea being a knight or producer which we had two... I remember during this era where these experts would come in and tell us what we should be doing. My favorite one was... Experts! Yeah And my favorite was this guy, your problem is you guys have got to do gamification. Who was this brilliant light? This is like in about the fourth or fifth year of this gamification guy and I kept looking at him... there was corresponding on email and thinking Do you have any clue what knighthood's are? What kind of consultant are you?
08:52 I mean do you have any... these are, this reminds me, this, I mean gamification is what the first thing we did. Yeah! But It was like, these are the experts. These social media experts that work for these corporations I'm the social media expert at Salesforce and you go to their Twitter account they got 1200 followers Was this Gary Vaynerchuk who gave you this advice? No no, I've never corresponded with him Me neither But we should say that Again, a lot of that was the producers pushing that. No and the producers... They wanted it! They wanted to play games! That's the whole point. For humanity was a big flop I mean we had a lot of stuff they didn't go over but this stuff that went over we picked up on it because were very close to the audience The producers themselves We you know they respond so we continued with their otherwise would have never gotten two people being dukes grand duke
09:55 This just never would have happened if nobody was responding positively to it. I can't believe that you actually brought up Nap for Humanity What was the promotion with that? I don't remember Don't remember We were supposed to sleep to save carbon dioxide It was something to do with shortening this show, i think Not sure Maybe Who knows? Not for humanity. That was one of the major flops we've had The other thing is, we have done I don't have a list of them Somebody could probably put one together Of all these ideas that just never went anywhere Oh! We had a lot of ideas that were total duds Yeah So it's really hit and miss It's the only way you can do it Well so far its been a super fun ride And as long as it's fun I think we can keep doing it
10:45 It's been too long. Okay, don't say these things people get very upset. Now our function seems to be serving the public with the kind of information they can't seem to get from the media has dropped the ball. Yeah before we were just a lark now it's like people tune in and depend on us yeah kind of it's like the difference is The media has just, I don't know what they've dropped the ball. And they can't seem to find a way to pick it up What do you mean they've dropped? You mean the ball for them to... They're not providing the public with information that need It's interesting that you say that They are lying to the public The next door neighbor was on Gutfeld
