''No Agenda'' is a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

hosted by

Adam Curry Adam Clark Curry (born September 3, 1964) is an American podcaster, announcer, Internet entrepreneur and media personality, known for his stint as a VJ on MTV and being one of the first celebrities to personally create and administer Web sites. ...

and

John C. Dvorak John C. Dvorak (; born 1952) is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. He was vice president of Mevio ...

that is recorded twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays at 9 a.m.

Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

. The show is primarily focused on mainstream media deconstruction. The show has no advertisers and instead subsists entirely on donations. There are no guidelines for the amount and frequency of contributions; instead, these are left to the discretion of the listener, a model called "value for value" by the show's hosts. The show also relies on its listeners—dubbed "producers"—to provide artwork and audio clips. In July 2016, the show won the Podcast Award for Best Podcast in the category "News & Politics." In September 2013, the show was nominated for

Podcast Awards The People's Choice Podcast Awards, better known as the Podcast Awards, are global awards given annually to the best podcasts as voted by the general public. Founded in 2005 by Todd Cochrane of Podcast Connect Inc., the Podcast Awards changed han ...

in two categories, "People's Choice" and "Politics / News".

Talkers Magazine ''Talkers Magazine'' is a trade-industry publication related to talk radio in the United States. Its slogan is "The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media". In addition to radio, it also covers talk shows on broadcast and cable television, a ...

featured the podcast in their "Frontier Fifty", an alphabetically sorted list containing a "Selection of Outstanding Talk Media Webcasters". In December 2009, the show announced they had reached 450,000 listeners. During an appearance on ''

The Joe Rogan Experience ''The Joe Rogan Experience'' is a podcast hosted by American comedian, presenter, and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. It launched on December 24, 2009, on YouTube by Rogan and comedian Brian Redban, who was its sole co-host and producer unti ...

'' in July 2021, Curry stated that ''No Agenda'' has 1–1.4 million listeners per episode. A primer has been produced for newer listeners, both as an introduction and a discussion of the show.

History

''No Agenda'' debuted in October 2007. Its premise was that the co-founder (Curry) and then vice-president (Dvorak) of

mevio Mevio Inc. (formerly known as PodShow) was an American internet entertainment network, founded in San Francisco, California in October 2004 by Adam Curry and Ron Bloom. History PodShow Inc. was founded in San Francisco, California in October 200 ...

(until Oct. 2012) would have an unfiltered dialogue. The impetus for starting the show, according to Curry, was a 4-minute phone call made to Dvorak saying that they "should do a show together." Little thought was given to what the show would be about, in fact only the name was agreed upon before the first show was recorded. The original tagline of ''No Agenda'' was that it would be the show with "no sponsors,

jingles A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

, and of course no agenda." The show's only sound effect came during the closing minute, where the jazz song ''On the Seventh Day'' by the Marriott Jazz Quintet played as the hosts signed off. Topics included the news of the day, restaurant reviews, and family. The show gradually moved in the direction of news and political commentary.

Jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

s have been introduced, and have evolved into catch phrases. The show discusses current news and

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

, with the hosts discussing topics in response to their belief that the

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Chomsky, Noam, ''"What makes mai ...

glosses over what they see as the real facts. Celebrity gossip and other soft news stories are brought up for ironic effect, with the one that has garnered the most attention often being named "Distraction of the week". The podcast does not accept advertising and is supported by the listeners to prevent conflicts of interest. Through this direct listener-supported model, those that contribute amounts above a predetermined level are referred to as

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

s. ''No Agenda'' was named to

's Frontier Fifty list for 2011, a list of 'Outstanding Media Webcasters.' The show received five out of five microphones in review published by ''Podcast Magazine''.

Influences

Curry tends towards a more counter-cultural outlook of the world. He often discusses links between current world events and historical events, both past and present. Dvorak is even-tempered and often references his knowledge of history and his own life experiences to shed light on the topics of the day. He does share many of Curry's opinions on different topics. Inside jokes and references to previous topics recur with great frequency in each episode which may take time for new listeners to fully grasp. The hosts prefer not to provide a recap or explanation of a phrase or anecdote unless necessary, and Curry will often sound an alarm if Dvorak begins repeating something previously discussed. The show was influenced by the run up to the 2008 Election, the

financial crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...

starting that September (the September 13th show carried breaking news of the collapse of

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

), and the transition to the Presidency of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

No Agenda Stream

Starting in early 2009, Curry began to

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

the audio production of the show live, with both hosts advertising the beginning of the show via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. During the week of March 15, 2009, Curry began to experiment with running the audio stream 24/7, carrying music when No Agenda was not being recorded. By March 19 the stream contained computer speech integration and an auto-DJ. After a few songs the station would break for podcast promos, news updates, and

messages sent to the No Agenda Twitter account from listeners. The music and speech integration has since been replaced by a schedule of podcasts currently consisting of the latest episode of the show Tech5, music interludes and DH Unplugged. In 2011 the No Agenda Stream added a new daily live show, ''Dirty Boxers''. In between each podcast are one or two No Agenda jingles or soundbites. On Thursdays and Sundays the loop is interrupted for the Pre-show of the No Agenda live recordings, which most often occur in the morning, thus the catch phrase "In The Morning"; and lasting up to about three hours. During this time Curry plays listener produced novelty songs and voice-overs while reading feedback from and interacting with the audience until he is joined by Dvorak. As of November 2019, the No Agenda stream features the following podcasts in regular rotation: Airline Pilot Guy, Congressional Dish, Cordkillers, DH Unplugged, Grimerica, Grumpy Old Bens, Hog Story, Mark and George Show, Nick the Rat, On the Odd, Randumb Thoughts, RynoTheBearded, That Larry Show, and Who Are These Podcasts. The No Agenda stream also features live podcasts on a regular schedule. Hog Story airs Monday nights starting at 7:00PM Central. DH Unplugged airs Tuesday nights at 8:00PM Central, Nick The Rat airs Wednesday nights starting at 10:00PM Central, No Agenda airs Thursday mornings starting at 11:00AM Central, Grumpy Old Bens airs Friday mornings starting at 11:00AM Central, Mark and George Show airs Friday afternoons starting at 2:00PM Central time, RynoTheBearded airs Friday nights starting at 6:00PM Central time, No Agenda airs Sunday mornings starting at 11:00AM Central.

No Agenda Social

No Agenda Social
serves as the flagship social media platform for the show. A goal of this platform is to avoid the censorship, restrictions, and rules found on many " Big Tech" social media platforms. It runs

Mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

software and is connected to a network of distributed social media platforms known as the

Fediverse The fediverse (a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe") is an ensemble of federated (i.e. interconnected) servers that are used for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting, but which, wh ...

. The show hosts are active on the platform, as are numerous listeners and fans of the show.

References

External links