After five years of publishing my gadget column, the lovely people at Reader's Digest UK have decided to give me my very own lifestyle column, too. This means I now have the flexibility to write about all kinds of stuff, not just gadgets - my first one is all about my anxieties of being a soon-to-be Dad. It's called It's A Mann's World, and it's the first three pages you see as you open the mag each month, and it's very exciting and all that, but the best thing, really, is I now get to have myself preserved in illustrated form. Here's the first example. Phwoar!
My trade secrets revealed?
Steve Folland, host of the excellent podcast series 'Being Freelance', invited me on to his show this week to discuss my decade of, erm, being freelance. I'd never before thought of my experience as being particularly instructive for others, but it turns out I've got quite a lot to say about self-promotion, reputation building, collaboration, entering awards, experimentation, and much else besides! As well as being a great podcaster Steve is a brilliant listener - I think it might be my favourite interview of all I've ever given. Anyway, you can judge for yourselves here:
My new magazine show
The first season of my latest podcast project The Modern Mann has just wrapped: I wanted to test the water with an initial run of ten episodes, and I'm jolly pleased with how it's turned out! Over the course of the series, I met a man who has served time in America's toughest prison, I tasted some of the best burgers in the world, and I discussed with the UK's premier Father Christmas what life is like under that iconic red costume, being propositioned by Santa fetishists.
We've had 200,000 downloads and over 100 five-star reviews over the first ten weeks, which I'm thrilled with, and I'm looking forward to returning with season two in the Spring and building our audience further. You can find out more about the show at modernmann.co.uk - and producer Matt Hill has written an excellent post about how we created the show here.
When I met Instagram's CTO Mike Krieger
Olly Mann and Mike Krieger at Instagram HQ, September 2015
It's Instagram's fifth birthday, and to celebrate The Guardian despatched me to California to meet Mike Krieger, its co-founder. Our 30 minute chat is available to download HERE. For a dotcom billionaire, he's incredibly modest, and full of sage advice, e.g. "You should be able to explain your startup to a stranger at a bar" and "People who live in Silicon Valley are living in a future that is never going to happen". Too true!
Daytime TV: every time, a different pet.
Another ambition achieved today, when I appeared as the special guest on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff.
It really is the Thinking Man's daytime TV show, and it's the one I filled my mornings with as a student. I bloody loved it, and hope to be invited back soon.
Here I am holding some reptile or other brought in by my fellow guest, wildlife expert Nigel Marven.
Tonight Matthew, I will be... Aleks Krotoski!
I'm well chuffed to have been asked to host The Guardian's Tech Weekly podcast, a show I've listened to for YEARS, over the Summer.
It's daunting taking over from the wonderful Aleks Krotoski, but I just have to be my own Mann I guess. The first episode, focussing on holiday tech, is out now and features guests from Air Bnb, TripAdvisor and USwitch.
Update: July 2015 - After a succesful trial period I have now been unveiled as the permanent new host! Well, co-host: from October 2015 I'll be joined by Nathalie Nahai, and present the show on alternate weeks. I'm thrilled.
BuzzFeed ♥ My Podcasts
I was very flattered to find this Buzzfeed listicle last week, in which their Entertainment Editor Scott Bryan has chosen the '14 British Podcasts You Need To Start Listening To' - as not one but BOTH of my podcasts, Answer Me This! and The Media Podcast, have made the list. All highly subjective of course, but still lovely to see...
My new weekend show on LBC!
It's official! As my boss James Rea announced in his blog this morning, I am now the host of the weekend evening show on LBC. I'll be taking over from Ian Collins from Friday evening. I can't wait to get stuck in.
Massive thanks to all my callers from the overnight show - I hope you make the leap over with me to my new slot and tune in Fridays from 8-10pm and Saturdays from 6:30-10pm.
Christmas Dates 2014
Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without mince pies, Fairytale Of New York, and of course a bucketload of me on LBC at times you wouldn't normally get to hear me. This year's Mann schedule is as follows:
Sunday 21 Dec – Tuesday 23rd Dec: 2200-0100
Christmas Day: 1300-1600
Saturday 27 Dec: 1800-2200
Sunday 28 Dec: 1800-2100
Monday 29 – Tuesday 30 Dec: 1900-2200
New Year’s Day: 1300-1600
Our 300th episode of Answer Me This!
Hard to believe, but the little show I began with my friends Helen and Martin in their sitting room has now reached 300 episodes. To celebrate, we've delegated our question-answering to an all-star cast of guests, including Tony Blackburn, Adam Buxton, Sarah Millican, John Oliver and Josie Long:
Talking gadgets with Alan Titchmarsh
I'm pleased to say that I'm returning to The Alan Titchmarsh Show every Thursday this series as their resident tech expert. You can catch my items at 1545 each week on ITV.
The 'Olly Mann Diet'
I've lost a fair bit of weight this year, and loads of people keep asking me how I've done it (the simple answer: eat less bad stuff), so I've written a column for Telegraph Men about it here, if that sort of thing floats your boat.
Interviewing Richard Park on LBC
It's not every day you get to interview your bosses boss! But that's just what I did on air this morning at 2am following the passing of Lord Attenborough at the age of 90. Richard Park joined me on LBC to discuss Dickie's life and legacy. You can hear the interview here.
Talking gadgets on 'Steve Wright in the Afternoon'
I joined Steve and the gang on 28th July to chat about tablet sales overtaking PCs, the tenth anniversary of TomTom, and some Summery apps. You can hear the slot on the BBC website here.
Podcasting, 10 Years On
Following the transmission of our Radio 4 documentary, Helen and I were invited to join a Radio Academy panel at the Apple Store on Regent Street on 25 June entitled 'Podcasting, 10 Years On'. We were joined on stage by The Bugle's producer Chris Skinner and The Football Ramble / Absolute's Pete Donaldson, and chatted for about an hour about why we got into podcasting, how it's helped our careers, and where we see the medium going in 2015. The event is available as a podcast from iTunes or you can watch it on YouTube.
The Media Podcast, episode one - presented by me
Good news for anyone who mourns the death of The Guardian's excellent Media Talk podcast (R.I.P. - they axed it last week): producer Matt Hill is continuing to make a fortnightly media review show. Yes, Media Talk has been re-born as... The Media Podcast. Creative title, eh? Anyway, I was thrilled to be asked to host the very first edition.
* Update: I am now the permanent presenter of the show! You can listen each fortnight on Audioboom or iTunes.
Hosting Q+As at Soho House
This month I've had the pleasure of hosting two Q&As for Soho House: one with Yahoo's European CEO Dawn Airey, at Little House Mayfair, and the other with boy-genius Nick D'Aloisio, the founder of Summly, at Shoreditch House. After the interviews Dawn had to rush off to meet David Cameron at No.10, and Nick had to go home and revise for his A-Levels! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them both.
Our Radio 4 show about podcasting
Podcasting: The First Ten Years is a two-part documentary Helen and I have made with Trevor Dann for BBC Radio 4.
Part I goes out on Friday 4th April at 11am; Part II the following Friday at 11am. Afterwards it will be on iPlayer here. It's been chosen as Critic's Choice in The Times, Sunday Times, The Guardian Guide, The Independent on Sunday, Radio Times, The Observer and the Daily Mail.
As the title would suggest, it's a look back at how the world of podcasting has developed since Ben Hammersley first coined the word 'podcast' a decade ago, and our guests include Marc Maron, Adam Curry, Richard Herring, Keith and The Girl, Nate Lanxon (Wired), Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Kranor (Welcome To Night Vale), Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl), John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman, Ewan Spence (ESC Insight), Jemima Kiss (Guardian), Betty InTheSky (Betty In The Sky With A Suitcase), Pete Donaldson (The Football Ramble) and Theresa Thorn (One Bad Mother).
Our guest appearance on Richard Herring's chat show
Helen and I popped along to the Leicester Square Theatre last week to guest on Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, and the results have just come out online.
In the course of our hour-long chat, we discuss the benefits of time-travelling genitalia, what happens when you fall in love with someone in an oil painting, and how to get sacked from the Lorraine show. We also talk, in some graphic detail, about bumming, for which I can only apologise.
You can download the episode here: Audio (free) ● iTunes ● Video (£3.50)
The chaps at Go Faster Stripe have also uploaded a trailer of the video to Vimeo:
My new job on LBC
I am thrilled to announce I am the new permanent overnight presenter on LBC 97.3, taking over from Duncan Barkes who now will host 10pm-1am. I can't wait to get cracking talking to Londoners about the stories that matter to them. You can hear me each weeknight from 1am. More details here.
Update, 1 Feb: LBC is going to go national! In ten days' time we become 'Leading Britain's Conversation' and my show will be available each night on DAB as well as online, on TV and FM.