The Reality Altering Medium: Podcasting
Here's why
Thousands of years ago, Socrates, my favorite Philosopher, and one of the world’s greatest philosophers, traveled around Athens, engaging in dialogue with every citizen who was willing. His purpose was to find the truth, discover what others knew, and eventually conclude that most do not know anything, except in their certain specializations.
“I know that I know nothing” ~ Socrates (The Apology)
As time went on, following the death of Socrates, Plato took the reins and wrote the Republic, a book that was solely written in dialogue.
So what does all this mean? The foundations for what would come thousands of years later would be laid by these legendary philosophers. Thus with the dawn of the internet, Podcasting would be born. The medium that has changed reality itself.
Welcome back, your host for today and forever Nate Crespo. My love for podcasting and my pure fascination with it will be shown in full. Three categories as always!
Niche for the Win
Greatest Minds in the World
Information Surplus
1. Niche for the Win
One of the wonderful things about podcasting is the emergence of content that consists of information with extreme uniqueness. Quick story time. A couple of years ago I and my family were exploring options to invest. My brother would find a plethora of podcasts about none other than boring businesses. Nail Salons, barber shops, and our focus, Laundry Mats. This exploration would be a prime example of how podcasting has brought to life the various niches that only existed in the deep parts of Reddit, or blog pages on the internet. Podcasting drove additional business for thousands of people bringing to light information, that did not exist before, something we will come back to later in the article.
Of course, I have directly benefited from the explosion of podcasts, especially within a specific niche. Before starting the podcast, there were hundreds of legal podcasts, but one specific market remained untouched. Podcasts made for all three Pre-Law students, Law School students, and Legal professionals across the world (at first I only thought the country). As time went on, the market presented itself, realizing I had tapped into something that had previously remained untouched.
This was a pure inspiration from my brother, who before starting my podcast, began his podcast. This would be a podcast surrounding the rap underground, interviewing and highlighting those artists coming up in the industry. Like my podcast, his specific niche did not exist prior, only to be posted on the primary app for underground rap, SoundCloud. I still remember on one of the episodes, someone commented, “People do podcasts on SoundCloud?”.
All this is to represent how podcasting has opened the floodgates for anyone to get involved in an industry and earn a reputation within said industry. From nobody to somewhat somebody. Just as me and my brother have made a name for ourselves through our podcasts. All people can do the same in any industry. It is one of the beauties that this new medium has to offer in this new age. But what other beauties exist within this medium?
It goes back to Socrates and Plato.
2. Greatest Minds in the World
Socrates and Plato, especially Plato through the Republic, used discussion to get to the Capital T Truth of the foundational philosophical questions that would be up for debate, to this day.
Now think back to the greats of our day. What would it be like if Nietzche and Dostoyevsky had a sit-down conversation debating and discussing the ideas that would paint a picture of what would come for the next century? Now, with podcasting, we have access to the greatest minds this world has to offer. Through Tim Ferris, Lex Fridman, Joe Rogan, and many others, we are allowed a view into the minds, ideas, and thoughts of the best this planet has to offer.
This is in fact, the first time in the history of the world that we can have access to this information and wisdom. It has never been easier to learn something new or have a new perspective on the world.
Podcasting has opened the gates of knowledge to all. This was the first thing I realized when first discovered the world of podcasting. Ever wonder what it’s like to hear Leonardo Da Vinci speak at length about his discoveries? or a full explanation of Hobbes's Leviathan? or what Thucyuddis's true thoughts about the Pelopension War?
All these possibilities are now possible, history can be directly mapped to the conversations being had across the country.
From my personal experience, I have allowed over 90 Legal Professionals and Law Students to explore their journeys, and drop the wisdom and experiences they had throughout their careers. All of these lawyers, law students, and legal professionals are at the top, or at least can be considered in the top 1% of the legal industry. Some are on the cutting edge of technology, some working for the largest firms in the world, or emerging on their own as a main player within their respective state.
The point is (if you have not got it yet!) For the first time, the greatest minds in the world and any industry are at our disposal to learn from. And because of this, the information that exists on the internet is in a surplus.
With so much that you could learn, what information should you pursue?
Last section.
3. Information Surplus
When you are young, like me, you have the freedom to get into whatever you want. But from personal experience, many of the hard skills (as opposed to soft skills) can be easily learned through the internet. YouTube, for example, has served me well, learning how to use GarageBand, do audio engineering, and even graphic design. The soft skills will come with time as I found out through my job at ShopRite (which I will return to one day.)
With an overflowing amount of information on YouTube, you could probably imagine, there are an overwhelming amount of podcasts. As I have said many times, to get into the top 1% of podcasts, you need at least, 20 episodes. But the beauty of podcasting is that it directly matches up with any given professional career or job. Each career path (such as a Lawyer) can be entangled into a community guided by a podcast. This community can help everyone grow their business, make friends, and drive clients. Everyone wins!
I think, (I say I think because we are rambling this morning) the point of this section is to point out just how much information there is out there in the world. All of it is at your fingertips, it’s just about having the initiative to start that podcast, begin that research, or start posting your new ideas.
Taking an idea and bringing it into a reality, is maybe what life is truly meant to be about, and is what brings us great purpose that drives us to go bigger. I could be wrong though don’t take my word for it!
Well folks, this truly was the pinnacle of my incoherent ramblings. And it’s a Friday article on a Saturday! Perhaps I changed the name to just a newsletter, I do not know. I like the consistency. Nevertheless, that’s all from your host, Nate Crespo, for today and forever.
Enjoy the weekend!