Talking Piracy with Musician Matthew Ebel (Podcast)

Changing the culture one fan at a time

Matthew Ebel would seem to be the living definition of the DIY digital artist.  With 10 albums full of satirical and thought-provoking songs, he writes, composes, and performs based out of his New Hampshire studio, where he also records a weekly live stream program attended by fans from around the U.S. and abroad.   “I’ve never even left North America,” he says, “but I have fans all over the world because of the Internet.”

Matthew’s strategy for forging a career in the age of file-sharing, torrents, and remixes is to do all he can to introduce his listeners to the man and the work behind the music.  Critical of both the traditional music industry and thoughtless file sharers, Matthew’s song The Last Pirate is what caught my attention and led me to ask him for this interview.

There are many ways to enjoy and purchase Matthew’s music.  Please visit www.matthewebel.com

Journalism in the Digital Age with Christopher Dickey (Podcast)

Christopher Dickey has been a writer and reporter for nearly 40 years. He is the Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek Magazine and The Daily Beast. He has worked for The Washington Post and written for several other publications including Vanity Fair,  The New Yorker, and Foreign Affairs.  He is a frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR as well as other radio and television networks worldwide. Dickey is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is arguably one of the world’s non-military experts on terrorism and counter-terrorism.

The author of six books, Dickey’s most recent non-fiction work, Securing the City, details the transformation of the NYPD into the world’s “gold standard” of counter-terrorism operations in the wake of 9/11.  His other books include  The Sleeper and Innocent Blood, both novels; Summer of Deliverance, a memoir of his father, the poet James Dickey; Expats, an account of foreigners living in the Arab world; and his first non-fiction work, With the Contras:  A Reporter in the Wilds of Nicaragua, published in 1986.

With a career that begins well before public use of the Web, Dickey is an old-school journalist who fully embraces the flexibility and editorial potential of new and social media.  His Shadowland Journal blog provides supplementary content corresponding to his columns on terrorism, security, and fanaticism that appear in Newsweek and The Daily Beast; he is an avid user of Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. Dickey is among an elite group of journalists I recommend following for anyone who wants to dig below the headlines.  Visit Christopher Dickey’s website.