Jason Calacanis in Oxford Road podcast: “Skip the video.”

Podcast pioneer, A-list entrepreneur, and RAIN keynote speaker Jason Calacanis is guesting in the current episode of Oxford Road Presents The Divided States of Media. In it, he evangelizes audio and podcasting, while sketching a history of how his show (This Week in Startups) and the resources needed to produce it. It’s an interesting glimpse into one of the longest-running and successful audio/video podcast hybrids.

Speaking of video, one of the most fascinating moments near the start of the episode has Calacanis recommending against producing a video component: “My advice to anyone who is considering doing this: Skip the video. Unless you have the resources. Because video is going to be 80-90% of your life.”

This Week in Startups has produced over 1,100 episodes. We might compare that with Joe Rogan’s output of 1,500+ shows. Calacanis describes how the business side got going in the early days. Microsoft approached him with a sponsorship need for the soon-to-launch Bing search engine. When asked about terms, Calacanis says, “I just made it up.” Terms accepted, the show was off and running as a business asset.

Host Dan Granger asked his guest whether he would still do a podcast if there weren’t a business application.”Yeah,” Calacanis replied. “I did it when there wasn’t a business application!” He noted that this Week in Startups has six full-time people on the production side booking guests, creating clips, uploading everywhere, and a bit of light editing.

After these preliminaries the conversation moves into a wide range of social issues including policing, automation, politics, and climate change. There is a tech entrpreneur’s optimism expressed throughout.

Listen here:

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Brad Hill