Two guys, no script, no censorship, news and infotainment. That's the short description of the bi-weekly podcast
No Agenda.
No Agenda is run by Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak. Both individuals have a history in tech and podcasting. Dvorak is a well-known US columnist and TV personality. Adam Curry can claim a history of TV and podcasting. He's not called "podfather" for nothing, of course. Curry has been running his one-man podcast "Daily Source Code" since mid 2004.
Both Curry (co-founder) and Dvorak (VP) are members/owners of the
Mevio network. In 2007 Curry and Dvorak decided to start the No Agenda podcast.
The roles defined quite clearly. Adam Curry is the Crackpot, who's usually feeding conspiracy theories to the listeners. John C. Dvorak is the older, "wiser" man, who kicks the brakes when Adam's theories go too far. Together they make a well balanced pair, with good voices that a nice to listen to.
Subjects of No Agenda are very diverse, but recent focus is on the Bailouts, Financial Stimulation Packages, Corruption, Obama, Climate Change, and the New World Order that is being constructed as we speak. I would like a bit more attention to european issues, the show is highly focussed on US, with usually only brief mentions of european (mostly UK) news and info. I guess the balance there is still not quite even.
Dvorak is located in the US, Curry in the UK, and (live) broadcasting usually takes place at about 16.00 CET. Which means Dvorak just got up and is enjoying his breakfast (quite often noticable in the podcast, munching away on his food), and Curry has probably just finished most of the regular day, and is enjoying the occasional spliff during the show (you can hear him lighting the joint). These and other details also make the show have a personal feeling, and I disagree with people stating it needs a video feed. Now you can have an almost old-fashioned radio show and visualize events yourself.
This year (2009 d'uh), Adam decided to up the No Agenda podcast to a 24/7 live stream with music, promos of other podcasts, and, most interestingly, tweet casts. He's been able to convert the textual twitter tweets sent to
@noagendastream into a computer-voice spoken audio sample. Everyone can contribute, but he's also gathered a few news sources on twitter that are cycled every 15-20 minutes. You'll never miss the most up-to-date news when listening to the No Agenda stream!
Personally I think No Agenda should be an example for other podcasters on how to create an entertaining and informative, and just as important,
lasting podcast. They also deserve some donations, for that go to
Dvorak's site or
Curry's preferred URL. It's still not quite clear what they're going to do with the donations (wine, hookers?), but donating $50+ will grant you a mention and "IN THE MORNING!" jingle. And if you're witty with your donation (I donated $66,60 - the number of the beast), you possibly also get a mention and "IN THE MORNING!" jingle.
Links:
Unfortunately, the Daily Source Code has been put on hold indefinately. However, there are (vague?) plans to move No Agenda to 3 days, which would mean there really isn't any space left for a DSC. Who knows what will happen in the future, but I believe Adam is at his best with another person on his side.
Just check it out, you may love it or hate it, usually there's no middle ground :-)