Podcamp Media

When Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton greenlit the Seth Rogen film, "The Interview," he expected there to be controversy.

But a North Korean cyber attack? Damaging data leaks? A corporate reputational crisis? No one saw that coming!

On the latest , we talk with Michael about what he says is the biggest mistake he ever made in his career.

And we're a little stunned to discover that the reason he made it... is good ol' fashioned peer pressure.

Lead Balloon Ep. 68 - Seth Rogen Film, The Interview, Sparks a North Korean Hack Attack and a Hollywood PR Debacle for Sony Pictures' CEO Seth Rogen's "The Interview" sparked a diplomatic crisis and a PR debacle for Sony Pictures.

Happy birthday to podcast editor and occasional co-host Matthew Covarrubias, pictured here enduring Dusty's singing voice and rethinking his life choices at the Wisconsin Esports Conference today.

We met Matt three years ago at this event. Today, he does a majority of the dialogue editing on our clients' podcasts. Life comes at you fast.

Thanks for all you do, Matt.

We will be bringing you the event play-by-play next week at the Wisconsin Esports Conference, which has quickly become one of our favorite annual events in Milwaukee. If you're interested in competitive video games, make sure to get this on your calendar!

If you're not based in NYC or LA, sometimes it feels like it's twice as hard to get taken seriously in this business.

Nominated for "Best Indie Podcast Host" and "Best Business Podcast," I was REALLY counting on this trip to The Podcast Academy Awards in New York.

Not just because it's fun as heck, and an incredible event.

Not just because I really need a new professional headshot of me in a suit on the red carpet.

But because, as a small publisher based in Milwaukee, I count on big events like this to help raise my profile in the industry.

So instead of shaking hands in the reception line or chatting over cocktails, consider this virtual entreaty:

"Hi! I'm Dusty from Podcamp Media! Our peers recognize our work as being ON PAR with that done by NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Morning Brew Inc. and more."

"We're here in Milwaukee, we're open for work, and we've got GREAT stories to tell here in 'flyover country' too!"

"And we'll be crossing our fingers to bring home some hardware tonight."

One of these nominees ain't like the others.

It is still so wild to us that our little passion project keeps getting recognized among industry giants like these.

NPR. Wall Street Journal. NerdWallet. Wondery. Morning Brew. Masters of Scale!

And our rinky-dink marketing podcast, Lead Balloon.

The Podcast Academy's 2026 nominees for "Best Business Podcast."

We're pumped. Stay tuned.

Some precious metal in the "Creativity and Marketing Podcasts" category, as Lead Balloon nets a Silver in this year's Signal Awards.

Grateful to the team, proud of the accomplishment, and still having fun telling tales that matter to professional communicators and storytellers.

The flooding in Wisconsin taught us an important lesson last week.

Strategic communicators from local municipalities and departments of transportation have to get with the times.

So on the latest , we explore some of the options for communicating about emergency road closures with Scott Oppmann from Esri's Arcgis.

Because it's naïve to expect people to come to you for information in 2025. You have to meet them on the platforms where they already are.

Lead Balloon Ep. 62 - Modernizing the Way We Communicate About Road Closures (Especially During an Emergency) with Map Apps, feat. Scott Oppmann from ArcGIS Local municipalities and DOTs need to get with the times.Most people get travel information about road closures from Google Maps, Apple Maps or a similar smartphone-based application.But when a road is closed, most transportation agencies put out a press release.And this disconnect is not only annoy...

Are ChatGPT and other LLMs going to "kill the golden goose?"

Generative A.I. is trained on Wikipedia, traditional media sources, and other online sources of text and information.

But if traffic to these web pages dries up, it stands to reason that many will simply go away.

So exactly how, then, is Silicon Valley planning to train the LLMs of the future? And is a world without authoritative sources really a world we want to live in?

It's a conversation that few seem to be interested in having lately, which is why we were so pumped to talk to Wikipedia expert Bill Beutler of Beutler Ink on the latest .

Lead Balloon Ep. 61 - Will Wikipedia survive Artificial Intelligence? And Can A.I. Survive Without Wikipedia? Is ChatGPT killing its own Golden Goose?Wikipedia readers consume nearly one billion articles per day from the online encyclopedia. In its 25 years of operation, this compendium of human knowledge has become an integral tool for understanding the world in which we live. But artificial intelligence t...