PAPO Podcast Transcript: Episode Two

This is a transcript of episode two of the Pop A Pod On Podcast. It contains 4 podcast recommendations covering business, slow news, the NZ sports and sports broadcasting landscape, and vaping.

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Intro

Welcome to episode 2 of the Pop A Pod On Podcast. Thanks for joining me today! Let’s not waste any time and get into this episode’s recommendations.

Recommendation 1: Boardroom Out Of office

Today’s first recommendation is Boardroom: Out of Office, hosted by Rich Kleiman and Gianni Harrell.

This interview-based series provides an inside peek into the minds and experiences of incredibly accomplished and innovative thinkers and doers in business, sports, technology, entertainment/media and so much more!

Kleiman, himself is a successful businessman and sports manager who not only has a wealth of experience and a deep curiosity for people but who also appears to be insanely well connected (sidenote: the power of developing connections, fostering relationships, and building networks is a recurring theme across this podcast series).

But back to the recommendation: In this podcast you get to hear first-hand, the stories of Kevin Durant, Mark Ronson, Jimmy Iovine, Omar Raja (House of Highlights), Maria Sharapova, Brian Koppelman (co-creator of Billions), Larry Jackson, Jack Dorsey, Arianna Huffington, a tonne of sports starts.

This podcast, now having surpassed its 50th episode, provides hours of some of the most compelling and inspirational storytelling out there.

And it’s important to highlight that Klieman's closeness with so many of his guests affords the podcast a truly unique level of authenticity… an easy intimacy you know? While Harrell, I believe he’s in his 20’s, provides a youthful perspective we all need. It strikes a brilliant balance between chewing the fat and delving deeper into challenges and achievements that influenced the lives and careers of these change-makers.

There are so many beautiful lil nuggets of advice peppered throughout each episode, it’s definitely a podcast where you can take on whatever you need in that moment or simply enjoy the storytelling.

This is not your average business or career-focused podcast. It is so much more than that. And I love it. It is one of my absolute favourite podcasts of all time. It comes HIGHLY recommended!

Episodes run from around 40 – 90 mins or so and are uploaded weekly on Wednesdays.

Recommendation 2: Slow Newscast

Now I don’t know about you, but if you are anything like me the current news cycle can leave you feeling frazzled, frustrated, and less informed than you feel you should be. News moves so quickly and is driven by influences I won’t go into here, that it takes a lot of work to keep up.

Enter Slow Newscast, an elegantly composed weekly podcast that focuses on one story per episode. Hosted by journalist and editor of Tortois Media, Basia (Besha) Cummings, time is taken to investigate and report on important news that may have been gobbled up by, or missed, in the chaos of how we normally consume news.

Underpinning each episode is robust investigative journalism, a clear narrative, and we often hear the voices of people directly involved in any given story. It makes for utterly compelling, engaging often moving listening.

The Slow Newscast doesn’t shy away from the difficult or challenging, tackling stories of murder, corruption, human rights abuses, big pharma… you get the drift… the powerful.

Recently the Slow Newscast has interrogated Pfizer’s operations since the emergence of the pandemic and, of course, its vaccine. It’s covered the true impact of Trump’s treatment of children, and families for that matter, on the border of Mexico. And it’s highlighted how a certain social media platform influenced the reporting and investigation into the disappearance of Gabby Petito this summer.

So while the Slow Newscast covers often complex and sensitive topics, it’s hard not to feel that the story is in safe hands.

So if you are looking for some solid investigative journalism, head over to the Slow Newscast for more. It doesn’t ask much from you time-wise, with episodes running around 40 – 60 mins long, and they are uploaded weekly on Thursdays.

Recommendation 3: Between Two Beers

Today’s third recommendation is Between Two Beers, a podcast hosted by two mates, Seamus Marten and Steven Holloway, who interview some of the most prominent people in sports and journalism/broadcasting in New Zealand.

Steven is a sports journalist and Seamus a sports administrator turned marketer. Between them, they create a relaxed but thoroughly informed team, comfortably navigating interviews with a broad range of guests, and even some of their childhood heroes.

I need to put my hands up and admit that I am not a diehard sports fan, not by a country mile. But as with all humans, whether they are accomplished sportspeople, business leaders, teachers, chefs, artists, there is more to their story than their sporting or more publicly acknowledged achievements.

And while the podcast focuses on the more public aspects of the guests lives, Seamus and Steven take it a lot deeper, respectfully exploring their guests paths to success, what happened behind the scenes, the challenges, the laughs, the sacrifices and the learnings. If you are interested in the lives of others, this is a great listen.

Being stuck in lockdown hasn’t slowed these guys down either, with some of my favourite episodes having emerged from the latest NZ lockdown period. As I mentioned, I am not a huge sports fan, but, if you asked me who my favourite NZ sports person was, I wouldn’t hesitate to say John Kirwan. He always seemed to be such a gentleman, on and off the pitch, and when I saw his name in an episode title, I stopped what I was doing and listened. John Kirwan is one of NZ’s most loved ex All Blacks, husband and father, coach, broadcaster, mental health advocate, author, and entrepreneur. The life or lives he has lived, the stories he has to tell, and the wisdom he has to proffer is immense, and we get some of it in episode 59.

Now up to its 63rd episode, there is so much to explore with this podcast. Episodes do run kinda long, 90 mins long, plus and are uploaded weekly on a Sunday… or a Saturday, depending on where you are in the world.

Recommendation 4 : The Vaping Fix

If you’ve ever wondered where and how all of these new vapes and vape shops suddenly appeared from, then today’s final recommendation might provide you with a few answers.

Hosted by Laura Beil, The Vaping Fix, breaks down the spectacular rise and fall of JUUL, the Silicon Valley startup, that set out to revolutionise the tobacco industry with its e-cigarette technology.

If you’re not familiar with JUUL, for a while there it was one of, if not the, most popular manufacturer of e-cigarettes, also commonly known as, vapes. Essentially the company designs and sells e-cigarettes that provide a nicotine hit, without the side effects of inhaling burned tobacco as done when smoking cigarettes.

While its founders initially set out with altruistic ambitions and JUUL experienced what can only be described as rapid success, a lot of that success was borne of intense popularity among teenagers. And so, as users of JUUL began suffering side effects, and JUUL’s marketing practices became increasingly controversial, the company and its products began to attract escalating controversy and scrutiny.

JUUL has had personal injury, government entity and other cases filed against it, it has been investigated by the FDA, its availability in certain markets completely banned, and so much more. But that little tidbit barely scratches the surface, which is why I recommend The Vaping Fix. This podcast does a great job dissecting the fascinatingly potent story of JUUL over a gripping 6-part series. Episodes are about 30-45 minutes long and were all released earlier this year. It is just sitting there waiting for you to find it and binge your heart out.

Outtro

That brings me to the end of today's episode. Thank you for listening!

I’d love to hear what you think of today’s recommendations, and if you have any recommendations of your own, get in touch, all the ways you can contact me are in the show notes.

See you next week!