TWiT Guest Fatigue?

Is it just me, or are the number of guests available for TWiT starting to dwindle? It seems it’s always the same people that just rotate every 2-3 weeks. Yes, I know you need to take who’s available, and I know other guests have had to step back due to their real job and potential conflicts, but it just seems there’s no “variety” lately.
Just off the top of my head, we haven’t seen Oh Doctah or Brianna Wu in ages.
I don’t mean this to say that the current guests haven’t been good, just that seeing the same people every 2-3 weeks is getting tiring.

I think Brianna is on the same list on the husband/wife (forget their names) who were running a real estate scam and fled the US.

It’s a big ask for people to give 3 hours on a Sunday night and there are a lot more outlets for people to get their voice out than there used to be. The joke “everyone has a podcast” is kind of true.

That said recently there have been a few new additions to rotation, and some long time Twit guests coming back after huge breaks. It’s always great to hear from the likes of Harper Reed, Will Harris, and Patrick Beja.

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Your thinking of Clayton and Natali Morris. and I haven’t heard anything regarding Brianna Wu being in the same category as what the Morris’s are accused of.

I think Leo is trying to get some newer voices on as I’ve heard people that I hadn’t previously heard before. But I did notice recently that Oh Doctah and Baratunde (to name a couple) hadn’t been on in a while.

I personally prefer people who are tech journalists, like Ed Bott and the like, to people who are more tech personalities - but that’s me.

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I took a nap today and I guess my brain was reflecting on this thread. My brain showed a TWIT solo episode of Leo just talking for 2 hours. I would love to see that

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Not to derail this thread, but that’s wild! I remember Clayton Morris from one of the morning shows in Philly back in the day, I recognized the name when Natali started doing TWiT. I had no idea they were on the lam. Natali was always a fun guest.

I think this was called “The Screensavers” :grin:

Bring back some of the original people. John Dvorak, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, Robert Heron, David Prager, Becky Worley, Jason Howell, etc.

I think AaronK is making a fair point. When I see Leo has certain guests, no names, I stop watching and there are others, such as Mike Elgan, Father Robert, Patrick Beja, and Alex Wilhelm, who I am very interested to hear.

Speaking of Aarons whatever became of that guy who used to be on FOSS Weekly… Aaron Newcomb? I used to like him as a co-host.

I like it when my favourite guests turn up, but I’ve never heard a guest that was so bad I wanted to turn off the podcast.

I might disagree with some guests, but that encourages healthy debate, when somebody holds a different viewpoint. I listen to what they have to say and decide whether they have any valid points and whether it is worth mentioning my thoughts in the comments.

If they all agreed 100% with my point of view, it would be very boring. Even the regular hosts on the network, like Leo, Steve Gibson, Paul Thurrott, Jeff Jarvis sometimes rile me up, because they have misunderstood something or they say something I don’t agree with, but it doesn’t make me turn off the show.

Jeff can be especially borish, when he starts talking about Europe and especially Germany. He has been to Germany several times, but mainly Berlin, from what he has said, and he speak (bad) German, but he then claims he knows how Germans think and he speaks for “us”. As somebody who has lived in Germany since 2002 and who is now a German citizen, I can say that he certainly doesn’t know Germans, at least not outside of German media and tech moguls and maybe the people he has met in the big cities. I have lived in rural German towns and villages in the North and the South and what he often says about Germany is very different to the everyday experiences and views of the hundreds of Germans I know.

I have often corrected him in the forums, but it hasn’t made me abandon the TWiG/IM.

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David, to be clear, my choice not to watch a particular edition of TWiT when certain guests participate is based on their personal communication style rather than information content or opinions. At my advanced age I feel free to spend my time with people who please!
I did not list Jeff Jarvis, in my previous comment, along with those I enjoy listening to because he rarely appears on TWiT, but TWiG, sorry IM, is the only podcast on this network that I always watch. I do not have your insight into German culture and attitudes but as a Brit with US citizenship I appreciate an international perspective. Jeff and the others I listed bring this.

It wasn’t exactly a scam, but there was a 3rd party company that they partnered with that left some people high and dry, and the Morris’s didn’t exactly do their due diligence. They are still in the real estate business and I think they moved back. They have a fairly successful YouTube news channel “redacted”. https://www.youtube.com/@RedactedNews. I still like listening to them.

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I agree with many of those mentioned here and in the comments, also loved Jolie O’ Dell, Molly Wood, Xeni Jardin, Veronica Belmont.

I believe Jolie O’Dell has left the tech reporting industry altogether. The last I heard was that she was working in the opera industry, but that’s been a few years ago. I really enjoyed her perspective and was disappointed to learn she had left tech reporting.

Regarding Molly Wood - the last I heard was that she went to NPR, and I think she has occasionally appeared on Tom Merrit’s podcast, Daily Tech News Show, however it’s been sometime since I last listened to it, so that may have changed.

I did see that Jolie left tech, now that you mention it. I did hear Molly on Tom’s news podcast occasionally, and they actually do one together weekly, although not about tech.