Things I know to be true:
- I’ve worked in computer security for 25 years. I’m basically a dinosaur.
- I love listening to podcasts – whether they’re about computer security, Doctor Who, The Beatles, BBC Radio Four documentaries, magic, technology… I can’t get enough of them. Heck I even listen to podcasts about making podcasts.
- And although I’ve timidly dipped my toe into occasionally appearing on other people’s podcasts, I’ve never actually made my own. Oh, and I can’t actually perform any magic tricks either.
The problem is that I know that I love being safe in my comfort zone, and doing things that I find easy. I’m lazy like that.
But whenever I got together with my friends Carole Theriault and Vanja Svajcer we found ourselves chatting more and more about the podcasts we loved, sharing recommendations, and we realised that we had an itch that needed to be scratched.
So we’ve created a podcast. It’s called “Smashing Security” and you can find it on iTunes, Google Play Music, Stitcher, or your favourite podcast app. If all else fails, grab the RSS feed from smashingsecurity.com.
“Smashing Security” is a weekly conversation between three friends, where we chat about (surprise surprise…) staying safe online, with the occasional interruption from my dog, or teasing Carole for forgetting to put her phone on mute (people who’ve listened to episode #003 will know it plays the theme tune from “The Simpsons”).
Yeah, we’re professional like that.
For a few weeks Smashing Security was only available as series of videos on my YouTube channel, but now you can enjoy/endure it in audio-only form on your daily commute, while you’re at the gym, or as a nightcap last thing at night (Vanja’s Count Dracula-like vocals can have quite a nocturnal impact I’m told).
We don’t really know what we’re doing, and we probably need to improve the sound quality, but it’s more important to us that it stays fresh and real rather than anything else. Do not expect us to be slick or corporate. That just isn’t our style.
If it sounds like the kind of thing you might like, please check us out, subscribe, and do leave some feedback/review on iTunes as it really helps get us seen by more people – and hopefully spread the word. Just search for “Smashing Security”.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. The response has been terrific and means a lot to us.
Oh, and please leave a comment here or on our Twitter at @SmashinSecurity (there’s no ‘g’ in our Twitter handle because, sigh… Twitter says the name is too long) with any suggestions on how we could improve the show, or subjects we could tackle.
Cheers!
Blimey. I thought the link to Google Play Music (GPM) was broken because it didn't work for me but after a bit of digging it turns out that Podcasts in GPM don't work outside of the US and Canada. I'm in the UK.
That's a bit disappointing isn't it?
If you are are outside of the US and Canada and are keen on using GPM to consume podcasts then people report that the usual trick of using a VPN to appear in the US seems to enable it (you only have to do this once). This reportedly works for other US-only google products.
Yes, it's baffling why Google Play Music only supports podcasts in N America at the moment…. and why they can't display a proper error message explaining why you can't access podcasts if you're in the rest of the world.
No matter. Android users might like to try the Pocket Casts app which (I believe) has "Smashing Security" in its library. Other podcast apps may be listing us too, as a lot of them appear to grab their podcast catalogue from iTunes…
Excellent. I could not get some of your guest podcasts, but I subbed easily to your podcast in iTunes. About the only odd thing was the "Clean Lyrics" tag on your page. Do you sing in your podcast ? :-)
I like the Posterior Maximus tag :-). I could do with Superior Tasmaniensis or Tazus Devilus :-)
Thanks for subscribing Campbell! Appreciate your support!
When you submit a podcast to iTunes they ask if you use explicit language or not (I guess to protect the sensitive ears of little people). But yes, in the latest episode I do (very briefly) break into a Roberta Flack classic…