Speaker 0: Todd Cochrane, a great podcasting pioneer, advocate for
independent podcasters, and 1 of my good friends, died Monday
morning, September eighth 20 25.
Todd was among the first 50 podcasters launching Geek News
Central on October '4.
And he wrote 1 of the first books about podcasting, the
podcasting do it yourself guide, published on June '5, nearly 3
weeks before Apple launched support for podcasts in iTunes, and
before I even heard of podcasting.
You may never know how you touch the lives around you.
And while I certainly can't tell you of everything Todd has done
and given to others, I would like to share how I knew Todd.
And I'll try to make it through this.
Although I'd learned about Todd's company Blueberry sometime in
20 o 6 or 20 o 7, I didn't meet Todd until June '8 at PodCamp
Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.
Todd was speaking on podcast sponsorships.
I remember it well because of his answer to 1 of my questions
back then when I knew nothing about podcast sponsorships.
I asked something like, I play video games with the marketing
director from this major company.
What should I do to approach him about a sponsorship of my
podcast? And Todd said, why haven't you talked to him yet?
And the other thing that happened, I still remember this.
This was it's just so funny.
During his presentation, at 1 moment, he said something.
I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was he spoke badly
about Google.
And right after he said that, lightning struck right outside the
window where we were.
And we didn't even know there was a thunderstorm coming yet.
It was was perfect.
It was as if, you know, the voice of God was like, how dare you
insult Google? But Todd wouldn't have minded.
Todd created the People's Choice Podcast Awards, the first
podcast awards.
Todd was also the founder of the Tech Podcast Network of which I
was a member for many years.
In January 2013, I had the opportunity to attend the Consumer
Electronics Show or CES in Las Vegas with Todd Cochrane and a
team of other podcasters from Tech Podcast Network.
I was a bit hesitant to go.
For 1 thing, it was Las Vegas and also just the expense of it and
the time.
It overlapped with New Media Expo or NMX, which was also in Las
Vegas at that time, so I could do both at the same time.
But I just wasn't sure that even both events together were worth
the trip for me.
But Todd very kindly pressured me to commit to attending CES with
me.
He told me about all the relationships that he had built from
going to CES year after year and how much fun it was, and the
opportunities there would be to network and to discover new
products and all of this.
It turned out that he also wanted me there to be there live at
New Media Expo because Leo Laporte was hosting the Podcast Awards
ceremony, and that's when the Audacity to Podcast won its first
award.
Of course, Todd couldn't reveal that I had won, but he was clever
in convincing me to be there so that I could have the joy of
receiving the award in person from 1 of my podcasting heroes.
It was at that same conference that Steve Lee and Dave Lee shared
the idea of International Podcast Day and asked me to help and be
1 of the cofounders.
And I would not have been there if it wasn't for Todd Cochrane.
Those years of covering at CES provided great memories too.
Todd and I partnered up several times.
He would run the camera while I interviewed a company I found
interesting, and I would run the camera for him when he would
interview someone.
We would also livestream coverage throughout the day from our
Tech Podcasts Network booth outside the North Hall of the Las
Vegas Convention Center.
I remember a funny time during the live coverage that someone
brought up a water based eye massager.
It looked like a VR headset, but it was for massaging your eyes,
and it had water in these little pockets or bubbles or something
like that on the inside.
I thought it was kind of weird, and we'd seen plenty of weird
gimmicks during our time there both on the floor and people that
came to the booth, but we would interview anyone who had
scheduled the time at the booth. So I wore contacts at that time.
And while Todd continued interviewing the representative from the
country or from the the company there, who was from a different
country, but while Todd was interviewing him, I decided to go
ahead and slip on this headset because I thought, well, yeah, I
wear contacts, so I'm not sure if it's a good idea.
But then again, I wear contacts. My eyes are kinda stressed.
And when I slip that on and turned it on, I actually let out a
sort of sigh and moan, like, because of the relief that it
brought on my stressed eyes.
And Todd burst out laughing saying, I don't think we've ever had
someone moan live in our coverage before. And Todd was like that.
He would just roll with things.
He was popular for saying that don't edit your podcast.
Don't edit anything because he said if he ever edited his
podcast, it would kill him.
Just he wanted to get it out there and as raw and with whatever
problems it had in it.
And Todd was like that, very raw, very unfiltered, but yet he
cared. Yeah.
He could say some harsh things have been against companies and
such, But then, like, at dinner or afterward or you'd see him
sitting and talking to people, laughing with people, even people
that he might have ripped to shreds in some statement on x or
some other social network platform or at a conference, but he was
still friendly.
He still cared about people no matter their backgrounds.
At the end of those CES events also, Todd would treat the whole
team to dinner at Tony Roma's a restaurant in Fremont Hotel, and
that's where many of us had the best cheesecake of our lives.
I will not repeat what Todd had said when we all tasted that
cheesecake. But Todd was always generous like that.
When we would hang out in the evenings at podcasting conferences,
he would frequently buy everyone's meals or drinks at the table.
At the conversations or in the conversations at those
conferences, it was always so fun hearing him tell all of these
stories from his past in the navy, and he would do so without
compromising national intelligence or any of his top secret
clearance or anything like that that he still had.
But he'd have all of these fun stories, And we would talk into
the late hours about podcasting and how we could help podcasters
and make the whole industry better because Todd cared.
Indeed, he cared very much about independent podcasters
especially, but also the whole podcasting industry.
And he was a strong proponent for anyone to be able to speak
freely in podcasting.
I remember him often saying something like, I may not like what
you have to say or I may not agree with it, but I will defend
your right to say it.
In fact, Todd was such a great supporter when I was inducted into
the Podcast Hall of Fame too.
And Todd was in the first group in 2015.
I've been trying to find his speech from that.
If I can find that, I'll put it in the chapters and in the notes
for this episode along with several other things about Todd,
special landmark or hallmark episodes that he has put out or
certain pieces of content.
And look in the notes and look in the chapters for this episode
for those links to things.
I I really recommend that you check it out, see some of the
things he's done, he said, he's contributed.
But when I was inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame, I'd
recently experienced an attack and defamation campaign.
And there were actually some concerns about my safety at that
ceremony and the behavior of the crowd as well.
But Todd was very direct with me because at some moment, I was
expressing some concern to him and even some some self doubt and
saying, I I don't do I really deserve this? I don't think I do.
I I help podcasters. Yeah. But I don't think I deserve this.
And he told me, no. He said, Daniel, you deserve to be here.
And he also said that if there were any hecklers during my speech
and when I got the award, he would personally escort them out of
the room and get them out of there. Because Todd was like that.
He stood up for others. He he fought for our country too.
He risked his life for our country, serving the navy in multiple
aspects.
And it was also because of Todd that I started listening to No
Agenda with the pod father, Adam Curry and John c Devarak.
And listening to that podcast is what helped start my friendship
with Adam Curry.
And then also how I first learned about podcasting 2 when Adam
was just formulating the ideas.
Todd was known for many things, but 1 of my favorites was that he
would often say, getyourown.com.
And ironically, he was the 1 who owned the domain cnnpodcast.com,
which is now under the ownership of the actual CNN.
And it was in a conversation with him that I was joking.
I said, oh, you know, you could call it the Cochrane News
Network, but that's when CNN was demanding the domain and he had
to give it to them.
But he's also the owner of what'sapodcast.com, for which he
recently entrusted me to make the website for it to publicize a
podcast definition. And I talked about that in a recent episode.
And he just said, yeah. Go ahead. Make that site for it.
He didn't critique anything I did on it. He didn't say, no.
This is wrong or anything like that. He loved it. He shared it.
Todd and I spoke many times, especially at podcasting events.
He really stood up for the podcasting community countless times.
He was making some enemies along the way because of his advocacy
for others.
But he cared more for the podcasters to build their own
platforms.
Todd was the 1 I would frequently think about when I would tell
podcasters like you that you don't need the voice of angels to be
successful.
And Todd fully owned that he didn't have a radio voice, but that
didn't stop him.
In his own podcast, Todd was all about his ohana, which is a
Hawaiian term for family, and he loved his reel and podcast
family very much.
It was while he was visiting family in Washington that a blood
clot reached his lungs and the doctor's best efforts were not
able to save him.
Sadly, while Todd was always friendly toward Christians and
people of any faith and any background, I don't believe he knew
Jesus.
But if you listening now want to know about Jesus, then I would
be happy to talk with you.
I know that's kind of weird for me to say in an episode like
this, but please reach out if you want to know more.
The podcasting industry lost a great pioneer who helped drive
many innovations, many standards, and helped countless podcasters
to launch and grow through his more than 2,000 episodes of Geek
News Central, New Media Show, and Podcast Insider, and several
other podcasts about podcasting that he's launched or been part
of, through his podcasting companies, Raw Voice and Blueberry,
through Blueberry's involvement in defining the IAB podcast
measurement guidelines that so many companies use, thanks to a
lot of the stuff that Blueberry had developed, and that was
thanks to Todd's leadership, through his teaching, through his
podcast, through conferences, through conversations, through his
freely serving the community with PowerPress for WordPress, and
through his leadership and advocacy in the podcasting industry.
I will greatly miss my friend Todd Cochrane.
All his laughter, all his insights, his leadership, and most of
all his friendship.
And I think it's very fitting to into this special with his own
words that can inspire they inspire me, they can inspire you and
other podcasters too.
Speaker 1: I am not the best orator. I still destroy the English language.
I'm still a nerd.
I'm still a techie, and I like giving my perspective.
But I think 1 thing that we have to understand is that podcasting
is today because of RSFs and no gatekeepers, which has allowed
people like you and I to create content without asking anyone's
permission and doing it our way.
I I just think back to all the moments, and we've shared a lot
together over all these years.
And and I do say we because you are Ohana.
You are our family here.
And I am definitely not the best podcaster out there.
I'm not a Joe Rogan nor will I ever be.
But what I am is a guy that grew up in the country with humble
beginnings, high school education followed by a bachelor's degree
late in life on a field that I'm not even working in right now,
and 1 that definitely destroys English words on a regular basis.
And by god, if I can do it, If I can do this and succeed, anyone
can.