The New Disruptors

A podcast about artists, creators, makers, and producers and their audiences

A crowdfunding campaign to bring the show back met its goal in June 2018. New episodes ran from August 2018 to late 2019. The show’s first 93 episodes appeared from December 2012 to October 2014.

The New Disruptors tells stories that provide practical inspiration about the way that creative people and producers connect with audiences to perform, cajole, convince, sell, and interact using new methods.

Every week, I interview a creator or producer, or a “facilitator,” someone involved in making the connection between artist and audience. Interviews are far-ranging and about 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours long. New episodes may be streamed, downloaded, or retrieved via podcast apps.

In the past, most connections were facilitated by gatekeepers: publishers, banks, performance venues, retail stores, and the like. These gatekeepers both prevented most ideas from reaching the market—except the ones that could provide the biggest win—and, for those they let through, captured 50% to 90% of the net income.

The Internet changed all that, but not at once. For each field of creative endeavor and for each element of connection, it’s taken time to mature. Authors have long had ways to sell books directly to readers, and electronic books were an extension of that. But it wasn’t until billions of people had mobile phones, tablets, and ereaders that the market exploded. The same tools that let a mainstream publisher sell a million books allow a single author to sell thousands to hundreds of thousands.

We’ve seen the same developments in film, animation, performance, exhibition, product manufacture, and comics, to name just a few categories. This comes in part from better ways to bring in money. Between crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the two biggest fish, and better ways for individuals and small companies to handle credit-card transactions, the pipeline to pay for things has never flowed more easily, while charging small fees.

About your host

Hello! I’m Glenn Fleishman. I produce, host, and wash the bottles at the podcast. The New Disruptors came about because of dozens of interviews I’d conducted with people who had created their own careers and companies without requiring a distributor or gatekeeper.

I’m a veteran technology journalist, who has contributed across the years to the New York Times, Wired, the Economist, the Atlantic, Six Colors, Macworld, American History, Increment, and many others. I’ve been producing podcasts since 2006, and am part of the geeky fun podcast network, The Incomparable. In 2012, I won two episodes of Jeopardy!, a lifelong ambition finally realized. I live in Seattle with my wife and two children and a house that is not overly stuffed with technology.

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