July 2008

Tonight, I welcomed Dr. Philip Merrill to the program. Dr. Merrill is the author of several books and a tremendous collector of historical archives, specifically surrounding African American history.

We spent the hour with stories from the The World War II Black Regiment That Built the Alaska Military Highway, a book written from the first hand account of an black soldier who, today, is 90 years old.

We did a giveaway of a signed copy of the book during the show. Erin Kotecki Vest won the giveaway, signed by Dr. Merrill and William Grace, the soldier. Go Erin!

We also were read letters from Frederick Douglass.

Toward the end of the show, we shifted gears to discuss a seemingly lost generation and the rescue of culture, both black and otherwise.

Thank you, Dr. Merrill for sharing your insights. Follow him on Twitter.

You can listen to Episode 3 or subscribe in iTunes.

We’re a way out yet from August 30th, but I wanted to let you know in advance that Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) will be joining us. Obviously, the first thing that I’ll want to ask him about will be about progress made on changing House rules to allow representatives to use social media.

I covered this story earlier in the month and, so, decided to extend and offer to Mr. Culberson to come on the show and talk about it. I imagine we’ll talk about other things as well.

More details will follow on this appearance, especially as the date grows closer. Meanwhile, join us tonight to hear stories from little known and understood African American history. Storyteller, author and historian, Philip Merrill is joining us. Tune in live and participate in the show, or catch it in archives here or on subscribe in iTunes.

If you’re interested in sponsoring the show or providing giveaways to audience members, email me at aaron@technosailor.com.

I’m finally nailing down the desired format here and so I want to let anyone who might be listening in to archives know… I am switching to a 1-hour show format. This is for a few reasons

1. Sheer Length of Time. Shows running over an hour begin to lose audience interest and though we’ve had fun two hour shows so far, I can certainly see the benefit of a 1 hour show instead.
2. Efficiency of Guests. I much prefer to have one kickass guest every episode. It’s easier to promote. Easier to rally around and allows me to be able to schedule more reliably way out in front (I’ve just about confirmed guests all the way into September at this point)
3. Filesize and Bandwidth. Shorter shows = smaller files = less bandwidth and disk space. ‘Nuff said.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the first few shows. Many more very eclectic and interesting conversations to come in the next months.

I’m excited to announce that Philip Merrill will be joining us on the show this week. Philip is a historian, in the truest sense of the word. His focus is on African American history and has collected many artifacts and memorabilia from the past.

The other day, I watched as he transcribed a letter written by a slave in the 1830s. It was fascinating to read it.

You can find out more of Philip and the work he is doing, including the two books that bear his name, The Black America Series: Baltimore and The Art of Collecting Black Memorabilia and The World War II Black Regiment That Built the Alaska Military Highway, over at NannyJack.com.

Join us at 9pm EDT right here on the Live Show Page.

Fun show tonight.

Jared Goralnick, the CEO of AwayFind joins guest co-host Jimmy Gardner, joined us to talk about email management and productivity much like I’ve been talking about in my Email Ninjahood series.

Later in the show, we enjoyed an open line surrounding a segment I’ve heard over at Ron Smith’s WBAL show occasionally. The segment was “Someone Had to Say It” and gave everyone a chance to gripe about things like friends wanting free consulting services, etc.

Listen to the Episode 2. Also, you can subscribe in iTunes.

If you like what you hear, consider reviewing the show on iTunes as well.

Also, congratulations to Shaun Farrell for winning the one year subscription to Shuttlebus from our friends over at Freshbooks. Congratulations and thanks for listening, Shaun.

You can listen to Episode 2.

Saturday night, I was joined by Leslie Bradshaw, Leslie Poston and Andrew Feinberg in an interesting discussion about policy and technology inside the beltway. Steve Hodson and S. Dawn Jones also joined in during the show.

It was a fascinating discussion, and borderline offensive at times, as discussions revolved around Congress and Social Media, which I covered here last week, racism on the internet and the iPhone 3G, which Hodson found offensive.
To be clear, because I heard loudly and clearly from many listeners, politics is a sensitive area. Everyone thinks they are right and people typically prefer arguing than dialogue. I prefer dialogue and tried to maintain some semblance of give and take. For my part, I remain independant with both conservative and progressive views on various issues. I don’t mind arguing and debating or even people telling others that they are completely wrong. The line that I draw is one of respect and when the respect line is crossed, that’s where I have issues. Despite the sensitive nature of some of our discussions, I don’t believe the respect line was crossed and I support the right of all the panelists to express their opinions, even if it offends some.

While this was the first episode of the Aaron Brazell Show (successor of the failed video show Technosailor TV), it won’t be the last. Next week, Glen Stansberry and Jared Goralnick join to discuss productivity and Freshbooks is giving away a one year subscription to it’s Shuttlebus package.

You can listen to Episode 1.