A tropical thunderstorm over the Atlantic Ocean

“This evening’s podcast is 17 minutes of a tropical thunderstorm over the Atlantic Ocean.”

Dave describes a dramatic thunderstorm on his porch, with lightning flashing over the Atlantic Ocean. He comments on the spontaneity and authenticity of early podcasting, recalling a memorable moment when a listener named Raymond Port recognized Winer’s podcast while driving on a Dutch freeway. Winer suggests that the personal, unscripted nature of podcasting is what makes it special, in contrast to the commercialization that some have tried to impose. He expresses excitement about an upcoming trip to New York and an event at the Guggenheim Museum, where he plans to do more podcasting. Throughout, Winer is captivated by the powerful thunderstorm unfolding outside his window.

Good morning, everybody.
Good morning and welcome to the first genuine tropical thunderstorm with Tornado Watch podcast.
But maybe it’s not the first, it’s the first one I’ve done.
It’s April 30th 2005.
Man, you should see what I’m seeing.
It’s like I’m out looking at the beach.
I’m looking on the front porch, you know, like pull the screen back here.
So it’s like, I’m going to turn the light up.
Hold on a second.
Yeah.
Oh, the TV’s on.
I need to turn that off.
Let’s see.
Because you know why? Because it’s like making the room like and now has this big blue glow.
There we go.
Now it’s like totally dark and it’s pouring absolutely pouring outside and it’s lightning like every couple of seconds.
And the lightning is out over the Atlantic Ocean.
And so when lightning comes on, that’s what you see is like the horizon.
Of course, it’s really humid.
Oh, here we go.
I wish you could see.
You can’t see it, but I bet you heard that.
That’s pretty cool.
Man, it’s really pouring out there.
It was a hot day.
It may be today was maybe the first like really summer like day that we’ve had.
In the 80s, everybody was out at the beach, all the families and there was a little sort of a triathlon here.
Bicycles and swimmers and runners on the beach.
Then days over, then nightfall and then a huge haunted thunderstorm.
I don’t know what to say.
Here comes another one.
This is a big one.
There it is.
I don’t know how much of this you can hear.
Maybe not any of it.
Here, let me tap the screen to see what’s going on.
Oh, it’s coming through.
We’re just announcing the play- by-play out here, folks.
There’s no score in the game.
Oh, there’s a little one.
Anyway, I wanted to do a podcast today to say hooray for all the artists and I don’t care.
Only three people listen to my podcast.
One is my mom and someday my little nieces and nephews will do this and probably maybe put this stuff.
They’ll wonder what their uncle Dave was thinking about.
I don’t have a way to listen to that.
There was another podcast not too long ago with a dad who was reading bedtime stories to his kids.
I don’t want to hear any commercials on that one, I’m afraid.
I love the idea of love between human beings and using technology to create that connection.
Sorry, there’s no room for marketing in there.
I don’t want that to be sponsored by Nike shoes or Ad idas Under Arm Deodorants or Toyota, whatever.
I think a thunderstorm is a good way to express our anger and the creativity that comes from anger.
I mean anger is a cool thing.
It makes me angry when somebody comes in to a place, a little garden that we create out of our creativity, out of our excitement, our enthusiasm, our appreciation for each other.
A little back and forth that you get when one person has a creative idea that fits in really nicely with somebody else’s doing.
Somebody comes along and says, “Well, I’m just going to take over that.
Now I’m going to be the guy who decides what is good and what belongs on the airways. " See, and that’s what we were trying to get away from, and that’s what we are getting away from.
I wrote a piece a few years ago .
Oh, there’s a car going out of the beach in the middle of this .
What a trip that’s going to be for them.
Wow, what an interesting idea.
They were sitting around smoking a joint and they said, “Hey, let’s go out to the beach and check out the thunderstorm . " I don’t kind of have an idea what they’re in for. It’s pretty cool.
I wonder if they’re going to do a podcast too.
If we get a search engine, maybe someday Feedster or Pub/ Sub will figure out that we were both in the same place doing a podcast at the same time, watching the same thing from two different points of view.
One in a car and one in a second story apartment.
Now we’re looking at the same beach, same ocean, same storm.
So yeah, somebody comes along and says, “Well, that’s a nice garden and we better get ready to put ads in the middle of that garden. " And I go, “Well, you can put an ad in there, I suppose. " But jeez, that wasn’t the point . That’s not why we did it.
So why don’t you come back later and maybe we’ll figure out how to include you.
And by the way, why don’t you ask if it’s okay instead of saying, “Hey, I’m just going to take over and by the way, you ’re not going to make any money and I’m going to make all the money. " But that’s okay because you do this for art, right? I mean, it’s true.
But you see, I don’t need any help with the distribution.
In fact, we’re in a really weird place where right now me, because I’m a little bit better with the technology than the marketers are, I have better distribution than they do.
So this will get a little bit better compressed and the pipe will be a little bit bigger.
And by the way, pretty much just a few people are going to be listening to this.
It’s not going to be like a great big proclamation of anything major and even very important.
But there’s something kind of nice about not even having to be very important.
Just sort of say what you see and get an idea, “Hey, that thunderstorm might make any podcast and, you know, production isn’t going to be very good. " But like, who scripted the car coming down there? They’re just sitting there with the headlights on, looking out at the ocean.
I hope they’re not going swimming. That wouldn’t be very smart.
No, no. It didn’t seem like that would be very small at all .
I think the storm is fading out now, folks.
I think the heavy part is past.
It’s still rather pretty outside.
If a camera wouldn’t do this justice, it really wouldn’t.
If a camera would, you know, how would you know when to snap the shot? I can try, though. The flash would go off, though.
You know what I can try doing? Making a movie.
Maybe I should try making a movie.
Now, the question is, should I stop the podcast to make a movie, or would it be more authentic if I actually tried to make a movie during the podcast? Unfortunately, I can’t ask you what you think.
I won’t find out what you all think until later.
We’re eight minutes into the thunderstorm.
I think I’m going to try to do the movie quite independently of this.
Oh, there’s another car going out. This time it’s a lifeguard truck going out there.
Maybe they’re going to tell the guy, “This really isn’t a very good time for you to be on the beach, buddy. " Probably isn’t.
Oh, we saw the lightning on that one.
Oh, it’s not. Another tourist.
I’m going to have to check it out.
Maybe it is okay to be on the beach.
I think I heard somewhere that being in your car is the safest place to be during the lightning thunderstorm.
If a lightning bolt is going to hit something, you want it to be hitting something metal that ’s encasing you and gets it right into the ground and not into your body.
Then I always wondered about the rubber wheels because they ’re a total non-conductive thing .
Yeah, more lightning.
Maybe I was wrong. I don’t think it’s winding down.
Looks like a crickety. It’s picking up again. The rain’s coming. I mean, like sheets.
Here’s something to think about . Somebody actually did a math study on this. I don’t remember what the answer was.
The question is, it’s raining outside. You’re leaving your office and you’re heading to the subway.
This is a New York thing.
And you want to minimize the amount of raindrops, the amount of water that hits your body.
You don’t have an umbrella.
It doesn’t matter whether you ’re wearing a coat or not.
It’s just how many drops of water hit something that’s on your body.
The question is, which is a better strategy? Running or walking? Think about it. I don’t remember the answer.
I remember reading a thing that was very long and they were sort of waffling.
I don’t think they ever actually did decide which way it was or if they did. I don’t remember what it was.
One thing for sure is, if you were out walking in this mother , you’d be getting wet.
Yep.
You know, this is a little personal note. After having listened to it, I really didn’t want to talk directly about the strategy cast.
But there were really some great moments there in the early days.
We laugh about the early days of podcasting, because it wasn ’t really all that long ago.
But it was definitely a qualitative difference.
I just remember when Adam was driving in his car on the Dutch freeway.
I can’t remember the guy’s name . Raymond Port.
I listened to this clip a million times because it had this spontaneity to it.
You couldn’t create it any other way. You couldn’t script it. It just had to happen.
Adam was recording his podcast and sort of rambling on about college radio.
This guy holds up an iPod.
Believe me, you can totally get the picture of this, just listening to it.
Adam rolls down his window and you can hear that at first he doesn’t quite understand.
The guy is saying, “I’m listening to the daily source code right now,” and he says it in Dutch.
Adam says, “Hey, Raymond, buddy !” He doesn’t even say something up to Mamre.
I don’t know what that meant. I asked Adam later. I don’t really remember what he said.
But it was beautiful.
That was a little Godcast. They joke about the Christians and how they do podcasting and how it’s kind of like a Godcast.
There was God sort of getting in on the fun, right? I’m just going to put this guy, Raymond Port. There’s only one guy listening to Adam’s podcast in all of the Netherlands right now.
How many people could there be at that moment listening to him ? I couldn’t do that many. I’m going to put him right next to Adam in the fucking car on the freeway in presumably enough traffic so that they could slow down and actually have a conversation.
There it was on the podcast. I couldn’t have scripted it. It was one of those real moments.
It makes me think that sometimes I think that was it always just about being commercial and setting it up so that the marketers could come in.
I mean, it never was that for me. I could give a shit. I don ’t think it’s going to work.
I mean, honestly, I don’t think that they’re going to actually be happy with the results they get here because how the hell are they going to compete with a guy talking to his nieces and his nephew? I mean, the whole thing about this is that it’s real. It’s people. It’s not actors. It’s not drama. It’s not fake drama.
It’s real drama.
It’s a spontaneous medium. It’s just for fun.
We’re taking back media and I guess media isn’t going to let go of us that easily and send us people like Raymond Porte to remind us that we’re doing the right thing.
This is what we’re supposed to be doing and don’t you worry about it. Just don’t worry about it. It’s going to turn out okay.
And that’s what I think. I think it has turned out okay.
And I’m really kind of digging the storm. Oh, cars turning around. I guess they had enough .
I’d like to point it right at me now. I wonder if they’re looking at me saying, “Wow, that guy’s doing the podcast too. " Or maybe they’re spying. Oh, there’s a car honking his horn.
He doesn’t want to get out in this rain. He’s picking somebody up at a place next door.
He doesn’t want to get out of his car. Somebody’s coming running out. Yeah, getting in the car.
Oh, more people coming. They’re having a little party. They’re like excited about this weather , man. That’s really cool.
Hey, I wonder if Raymond Porte Raymond, what are you doing, buddy? Something, something, Optimaemer.
Alright, I’ve had enough fun for one night. Hey, so I’m going to New York. It’ll be different there, that’s for sure.
I’m going to a meeting at the G uggenheim Museum on Monday and then going for dinner with Robert Skilville and Steve Re bell and anybody else if you’re in New York on Monday night, 6 p. m.
If you go to my blog right now, Scripting News, www. scripting.
com, you’ll find the link to the dinner and come on in and tell me what you think of this podcast.
And I’ll bring my Archos or Ar cos. Somebody please tell me how you pronounce it and I’m going to bring it and of course I’ll be doing a podcast there with it.
So maybe I’ll do more than one.
Maybe. We’ll even get you a contract if you’re really good enough.
But then I got this casting catch. I want to show you up in my office and I got some cute little pastel etchings in my stamp collection.
Okay, that was pretty cool. I don’t want to go though. I’m kind of digging the store one.
Well, whatever. I don’t think it’s time.
Okay, so today’s April 30th, 2005. This is the Thunderstorm Watch Beach Podcast, deal Dave Winer, morningcoffinodes. com/r ss. exe.
Hey, y’all take care. Stay warm , okay? Bye.
[wind blowing]