Chris the Podcaster

By day Chris Christensen is the Executive Vice President of Engineering and Operations for a Silicon Valley company that runs communities for fortune 500 companies - LiveWord, but in his copious free time Chris has a passion for travel, podcasting and blogging in addition to his passion for technology.

Podcasts
Chris's podcasts include:


 * Amateur Traveler Audio - a weekly podcast of about 30 minutes in length. The main portion of the show is an interview with someone on a particular travel destination. This show is available in mp3 and in iTunes enhanced format with pictures and links
 * Amateur Traveler Video - a twice monthly video podcast of about 5 minutes in length. In this podcast Chris basically narrates home movies and passes them off as real content... but he has gone to some interesting places.
 * The Bible Study Podcast - a weekly audio podcast with a very unimaginative name. This is a Christian podcast that is about 10 minutes long (although for some it will no doubt seem longer) and focuses on what the bible says without all the political gunk that some people try and wrap around it.

Blogs

 * Inside Chris's Head - A view of technology, life in SIlicon Valley and whatever strikes Chris as funny, which sadly is just about everything. Medication does not seem to be helping.
 * Tripinator - Travel 2.0 - All the travel news, resources, videos, etc that did not fit in the Amateur Traveler. A must for people who either like Chris or travel or who simply owe him money.

Press
The press has had this to say about the Amateur Traveler:

Men’s Journal says: “One of the 4 best adventure travel podcasts”

The Chicago Sun Times included the show in their list of 10 “Best travel sites”:

Notable Contributions
NSA's New Business Plan


 * Video

The Last Laugh

How sharper than a serpent's tooth is to have a thankless technology podcaster triumvirate.

I bet you think you are so smart. But as you sit there in your smug smugliness drinking your half-caf-mocha-latte-frapa-chino and thinking how you have powned me, know this.

It was in fact I who did the powning.

And now is the time to reveal my sinister plan.

Clearly the Buzz Out Loud show has an enviably larger audience than the Amateur Traveler. So how to get the Amateur Traveler promoted on the air. Clearly this was against BOL policy so the plan must be intricate, ingenious, diabolical.

1) Invent the character of "Chris the podcaster" and establish it with some familiar regular contributions to the show. 2) Convince the CNET management to send the cast of Buzz Out Loud to the Podcast and New Media Episode. This was accomplished through a series of incriminating photos taken at last year's company Christmas party. Eggnog? I think not. 3) Send a brilliant piece of audio feedback the week of the show so that "Chris the podcaster" is fresh in everyone's memory. 4) Arrange for a speaker at the show to have an untimely accident so that Tom gets a speaking slot. 5) Hand deliver fake schedules to almost all the conference attendants that mislabels Tom's talk as "A Case for Cooperating with the RIAA... with root kits" so that most of the attendees are dissuaded from attending Tom's talk. 6) Offer "helpful" comments during the talk to establish a rapport. 7) Casually use hypnosis so that Tom and Jason invite me to lunch and think it is their idea and that they are simply "hungry". 8) Cement the relationship with casual banter and a ride to the airport. 9) Wait 10) Submit a very badly done audio clip for the show that is too painfully funny not to use but will instill enough guilt that Tom will feel the need to plug the Amateur Traveler in return.

Pownage

I cannot believe you could fall for such a simple plot. And now the next time someone is craving the voice of a well spoken, erudite, prepared podcaster they will... oh wait! ... oh no! Oh crap. Back to the drawing board.

P.S. Thanks for the plug

Personal
Chris was born at a very early age. He was born in Ohio because he wanted to be near his mother at the time. He was moved without his consent to Salinas California at the age of 3.

His family was of modest means. They used to burn furniture but not for heat, for laughs. They were poor but they had a sense of humor.

Chris has worked at IBM, HP, Momenta (spectacularly unsuccessful pen based computer company), Apple Computer (on the Newton and eWorld) and LiveWorld.

Chris has a B.S. and a M.Eng. in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.