PreviewCast

PreviewCast is a podcast spearheaded by teenage friends Laurence Anderson (amacgenius) and Douglas Bell (webmacster87). The show has evolved to take the form of a technology roundtable podcast which almost always includes Douglas, usually features Larry, and also an assortment of other “PreviewCasters”–friends and other techies who appear on the show from time to time. Each episode usually features a very different group of participants with different sizes, resulting in each episode having a different “feel,” so to speak. Episodes are produced irregularly, usually on either a weekly or biweekly basis depending on availability.

Although the show is in the form of a tech roundtable (a la this WEEK in TECH or MacBreak Weekly), the usual “rules” and “standards” of those shows go out the window. The term “randomness” is practically synonymous with PreviewCast, as the topic often meanders. The participants often make fun of each other, and have heated arguments. The most recurring of these arguments have been “browser wars”, involving a heated debate over which web browser is better. PreviewCast does have an acknowledged “Mac bias.”

However, PreviewCast occasionally breaks away from this traditional format to feature special guest segments. PreviewCast has covered the past two WordCamp conferences and has had interviews with folks like Leah Culver, Adam Christianson, and Lorelle VanFossen.

History of PreviewCast

PreviewCast began in July 2005. The idea to start up a podcast came shortly after podcasting features were introduced into iTunes by Apple.

The name PreviewCast originated from a search for our theme music. One of the ones we found had a little voice in the background saying “Preview” every few seconds, which gave us the idea to call it Preview. In fact, in our pilot episode (episode 0), we called it Preview. Douglas came up with PreviewCast afterwards to have a more unique name. However, that particular jingle was replaced with the jingle that we have used since episode 0 (and we don’t remember where we got it from!).

A total of 5 episodes were released in 2005. The first few episodes turned out well (although did vary quite a bit as the show tried to find its place). However, a mishap in episode 4 and growing tensions between Larry and Douglas led to the two breaking up for a few months and the end of the show.

However, in July 2006, Larry and Douglas decided to revive the podcast (once again, we were bored). The original intent was to keep the show the same as it was back in the first season–just Larry and Douglas together talking about technology and goofing off with randomness. However, as many episodes went on, Larry and Douglas began recruiting friends to help them fill in and to just participate in the episodes, until eventually, it became a habit to include friends on an episode.

About the Hosts

Laurence Anderson (amacgenius) is a 18 year old teen who lives in East Aurora, NY. He is a devoted Mac user who switched many years ago. He also highly dislikes Firefox. He is a Photoshop enthusiast and enjoys web design. He was a moderator on the no-longer-existant JulesTM Mac fansite until its demise in July 2004, and ran the Macintosh forums MacPlace.net from July 2004-July 2005. He also operated a webhosting service, AMacGeniusMedia, until August 2006. He is an occasional writer on his blog, amacgenius.com, which he has run since October 2004. Larry has been responsible for designing many past versions of the PreviewCast album artwork, and edited PreviewCast episodes in 2005. Larry also hosts the PreviewCast.com website on the servers which host his blog.

Douglas Bell (webmacster87) is a 16 year old teen who lives in San Mateo, CA. He is also a devoted Mac user who has been using Macs all his life. He differentiates himself from the crowd by disliking Safari; he regularly uses Camino, and Firefox when he’s forced to use Windows. When not worrying about his high-stakes classes at his high school, he volunteers much of his time and technology expertise for various levels of the PTA and his school’s Peace Club, of which he is president and founder. He has received many awards for his work, both related and unrelated to technology. He was also a member of the phpBB MOD Team from November 2005-August 2006, and continues to cover phpBB on his phpBB Weekly podcast. Today Douglas records and edits episodes of PreviewCast, and does the most “preparation” for them. His blog is Webmacster87.info.

Other Participants

Although PreviewCast is headed and maintained by the two co-hosts, they regularly invite friends and other guests to appear on episodes, therefore giving each episode a unique “feel” and a unique set of perspectives. Below lists some of our more frequent guest hosts.

Robert Preston
Mitchell Joyce - Website
Ara Kourchians - Website
Caitlyn Imburgo - Blog
Matthew Skok
Anthony Cole - Blog
Sam Jackson - Website / Blog

We’re also looking for anyone else interested in becoming a regular PreviewCaster. If you’re interested, let us know!

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