Recent from talks
This Week in Tech
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
This Week in Tech
This Week in Tech–casually referred to as TWiT, and briefly known as Revenge of the Screen Savers–is the weekly flagship podcast and namesake of the TWiT.tv network. It is hosted by Leo Laporte and many other former TechTV employees, and is currently produced by Benito. It features round-table discussions and debates surrounding current technology news and reviews, with a particular focus on consumer electronics and the Internet. TWiT is produced in the TWiT "eastside" studios in Petaluma, California, United States, since 2016, a few miles away from the former "brickhouse" studios where it had been produced for 5 years, and earlier TWiT "cottage", where it was produced for over 6 years. The podcast is streamed live on Sundays at 2:15 P.M. PST.
Leo Laporte typically begins an episode of TWiT by stating the show's number, title, sponsors and playing the theme tune, then introducing the week's panelists and guests. The persons hail in either live or remotely and take turns discussing their recent projects or work. The main portion of the show consists of a round-table discussion and debate, pegged loosely to a selection of the week's major technology headlines. The format of the show encourages spontaneity and the conversation often diverges wildly from technology topics. This causes the length of each episode to vary, sometimes considerably, from show to show, although most episodes run approximately two hours. Each episode typically features three or four commercial breaks, usually in the form of a "live read" from Laporte that may include interaction with the panelists (e.g., Laporte usually prompts guests for recommended audiobooks during spots for frequent advertiser Audible.com). The show closes with each panelist giving a personal "plug" for their affiliated website or Twitter account.
The most frequently recurring guests on TWiT included John C. Dvorak, Patrick Norton, Wil Harris, Kevin Rose, Robert Heron, David Prager, Tom Merritt, Roger Chang, and Jason Calacanis. Futurist Amy Webb and journalists Iain Thomson, Alex Wilhelm, and Dwight Silverman are among the frequent panelists in more recent years. Other guests include Becky Worley, Steve Gibson, Xeni Jardin, Alex Lindsay, Owen Stone, Veronica Belmont and Molly Wood.
The show has had a number of famous guests, including Steve Wozniak, Kevin Mitnick, John Hodgman, Lawrence Lessig, artist Roger McGuinn, as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher).
In September 2015, Leo Laporte famously "banned" his long-time friend and frequent TWiT guest John C. Dvorak from the show for various comments Dvorak made on Twitter. In reply to Dvorak's comments that Laporte was biased, Laporte told Dvorak "you won't ever have to worry about it again", insinuating that he never wanted Dvorak back on TWiT. Laporte apologized a few days later, but continued to berate Dvorak publicly. Dvorak returned to TWiT on December 23, 2018.
The program began when Laporte recorded a one-off round-table discussion between himself, Patrick Norton, Sarah Norton, Kevin Rose, David Prager, and Roger Chang at the 2005 Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
After publishing the show on his blog to an enthusiastic public reception, Laporte decided to rename this discussion "episode 0" and turned the round-table concept into a weekly downloadable audio file, or "podcast," featuring more cast members from his former TechTV program The Screen Savers. The first episode was posted on Monday, April 18, 2005, as Revenge of the Screen Savers, but it was temporarily renamed "Return of the [BEEP]" and shortly thereafter changed in response to a cease and desist letter sent to Laporte from Comcast, owners of TechTV's intellectual property rights, arguing it too closely resembled the defunct show's name. (TWiT started using the Screen Savers trademark after Comcast allowed it to expire, and The New Screen Savers was launched as a separate weekly program on May 2, 2015.) In episode 2, Laporte announced a contest in which listeners could suggest a new name for the show. One listener suggested This Week in Geek, which inspired Laporte to create the eventual name, This Week in Tech, or TWiT.
The weekly show was originally recorded with all of the hosts staying at their respective homes and talking via Voice over IP (mostly using Skype). Starting around episode 10, Norton began physically coming to Leo's Petaluma office during the taping. Upon Rose's announcement that he was moving to San Francisco, Laporte started to gather the panelists for public live tapings in the San Francisco area, with most episodes being videotaped and released as a video podcast download.
Hub AI
This Week in Tech AI simulator
(@This Week in Tech_simulator)
This Week in Tech
This Week in Tech–casually referred to as TWiT, and briefly known as Revenge of the Screen Savers–is the weekly flagship podcast and namesake of the TWiT.tv network. It is hosted by Leo Laporte and many other former TechTV employees, and is currently produced by Benito. It features round-table discussions and debates surrounding current technology news and reviews, with a particular focus on consumer electronics and the Internet. TWiT is produced in the TWiT "eastside" studios in Petaluma, California, United States, since 2016, a few miles away from the former "brickhouse" studios where it had been produced for 5 years, and earlier TWiT "cottage", where it was produced for over 6 years. The podcast is streamed live on Sundays at 2:15 P.M. PST.
Leo Laporte typically begins an episode of TWiT by stating the show's number, title, sponsors and playing the theme tune, then introducing the week's panelists and guests. The persons hail in either live or remotely and take turns discussing their recent projects or work. The main portion of the show consists of a round-table discussion and debate, pegged loosely to a selection of the week's major technology headlines. The format of the show encourages spontaneity and the conversation often diverges wildly from technology topics. This causes the length of each episode to vary, sometimes considerably, from show to show, although most episodes run approximately two hours. Each episode typically features three or four commercial breaks, usually in the form of a "live read" from Laporte that may include interaction with the panelists (e.g., Laporte usually prompts guests for recommended audiobooks during spots for frequent advertiser Audible.com). The show closes with each panelist giving a personal "plug" for their affiliated website or Twitter account.
The most frequently recurring guests on TWiT included John C. Dvorak, Patrick Norton, Wil Harris, Kevin Rose, Robert Heron, David Prager, Tom Merritt, Roger Chang, and Jason Calacanis. Futurist Amy Webb and journalists Iain Thomson, Alex Wilhelm, and Dwight Silverman are among the frequent panelists in more recent years. Other guests include Becky Worley, Steve Gibson, Xeni Jardin, Alex Lindsay, Owen Stone, Veronica Belmont and Molly Wood.
The show has had a number of famous guests, including Steve Wozniak, Kevin Mitnick, John Hodgman, Lawrence Lessig, artist Roger McGuinn, as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher).
In September 2015, Leo Laporte famously "banned" his long-time friend and frequent TWiT guest John C. Dvorak from the show for various comments Dvorak made on Twitter. In reply to Dvorak's comments that Laporte was biased, Laporte told Dvorak "you won't ever have to worry about it again", insinuating that he never wanted Dvorak back on TWiT. Laporte apologized a few days later, but continued to berate Dvorak publicly. Dvorak returned to TWiT on December 23, 2018.
The program began when Laporte recorded a one-off round-table discussion between himself, Patrick Norton, Sarah Norton, Kevin Rose, David Prager, and Roger Chang at the 2005 Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
After publishing the show on his blog to an enthusiastic public reception, Laporte decided to rename this discussion "episode 0" and turned the round-table concept into a weekly downloadable audio file, or "podcast," featuring more cast members from his former TechTV program The Screen Savers. The first episode was posted on Monday, April 18, 2005, as Revenge of the Screen Savers, but it was temporarily renamed "Return of the [BEEP]" and shortly thereafter changed in response to a cease and desist letter sent to Laporte from Comcast, owners of TechTV's intellectual property rights, arguing it too closely resembled the defunct show's name. (TWiT started using the Screen Savers trademark after Comcast allowed it to expire, and The New Screen Savers was launched as a separate weekly program on May 2, 2015.) In episode 2, Laporte announced a contest in which listeners could suggest a new name for the show. One listener suggested This Week in Geek, which inspired Laporte to create the eventual name, This Week in Tech, or TWiT.
The weekly show was originally recorded with all of the hosts staying at their respective homes and talking via Voice over IP (mostly using Skype). Starting around episode 10, Norton began physically coming to Leo's Petaluma office during the taping. Upon Rose's announcement that he was moving to San Francisco, Laporte started to gather the panelists for public live tapings in the San Francisco area, with most episodes being videotaped and released as a video podcast download.