The Numlock Podcast

Oct 27 2024 25 ep. 29 mins 26

The Numlock Podcast artwork

Numlock News is a daily morning newsletter that pops out fascinating numbers buried in the news, highlighting awesome stories you're missing out on. Every Sunday, Walt Hickey interviews someone cool. Sometimes he records it in quality befitting a podcast.

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Numlock Sunday: Stephen Follows on the horror movie boom

Oct 27 2024 33 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Stephen Follows, author of The Horror Movie Report.Stephen and I go back a ways, he’s a pop culture data journalist I really respect and you’ve seen him in the newsletter lately based on his great work on stuff like Hallmark movies. He’s out with a really fun new book diving into horror movies, one of t

Numlock Sunday: Joanna Robinson and Dave Gonzales on the reign of Marvel Studios

Oct 20 2024 32 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Joanna Robinson and Dave Gonzales, coauthors of the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, out in paperback this week.I really loved the book, it dives into what is the main flywheel of mainstream entertainment, for better or for worse, and dives into the fascinating history of the MCU. Whether you're a fan o

Numlock Sunday: Julia Alexander on the insatiable maw of human attention

Jul 28 2024 35 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Julia Alexander, digital strategy consultant and author of the new blog Posting Nexus.Julia’s brilliant, she’s been one of the most insightful and compelling minds on attention — where we allocate it, how we measure that, and what becomes of that — for several years now, and when I learned about this

Numlock Sunday: Glenn McDonald on the future of music in the algorithmic era

Jun 30 2024 36 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Glenn McDonald, author of the new book You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favorite Song: How Streaming Changes Music.I’ve followed Glenn’s work for years now, and this book is the result of decades of work in the field, and comes from a perspective not only of technology’s bleeding edge but also a sincere, per

Numlock Sunday: Zach Weinersmith talks A City on Mars

Nov 12 2023 30 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Zach Weinersmith, who with his wife Kelly Weinersmith wrote the brand new book A City On Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?, which is out this week. I loved this book. I’ve been looking forward to it for years since they announced it, and I loved thei

Numlock Sunday: Justin McElroy, Chicken Sandwich War correspondent

Sep 10 2023 32 mins

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Justin McElroy, who you might know from his work on the podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me or The Adventure Zone.Wednesday will mark a shocking milestone: As of September 13, the Chicken Sandwich Wars will have gone on longer than the armed conflict of the American Civil War. Yes, the conflict between quick-service rest

Numlock Sunday: Ashley Carman talks tumultuous times for the audio business

Aug 13 2023 22 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman, who writes the Soundbite newsletter. Here's a recent thing what I wrote about it: The hottest thing in music touring right now is selling affluent 30-somethings their old eye shadow and tight pants back for a considerable markup, with alt-rock bands making a killing on the road. T

Numlock Sunday: Neil Paine on the rise and fall of NASCAR

Apr 23 2023 33 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to my friend Neil Paine, a sportswriter at FiveThirtyEight who can also be found at Neil’s Substack. I’ve been following some recent spat going on in NASCAR between ownership and the different charters; here’s a recent thing I covered about it: NASCAR team owners collectively boycotted a quarterly meeting

Numlock Sunday: Abraham Josephine Riesman on Ringmaster

Mar 26 2023 29 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Abraham Josephine Riesman who wrote the explosive new book out this week Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. I have been looking to this one for a while, I was a massive fan of her 2021 book True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee.The subject matter of this one will be of interest not

Numlock Sunday: Megan Garber on Misdirection

Jan 15 2023 31 mins

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Megan Garber who wrote the new essay collection On Misdirection: Magic, Mayhem, American Politics from The Atlantic. Megan is a writer at The Atlantic, and the magazine has compiled a number of her essays into the new book. It’s a great read, an exploration into the ways that American political actors have