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Comment by I-M-S | Hacker News Reader

Hello HN! After unveiling The Program audio series on HN in June 2018 [1], and officially launching in November 2019 [2], I wanted to give the community a quick update how this unusual fictional podcast was doing. So I wrote a blog post containing the numbers and the story of the show's reception so far. Hopefully it helps someone (thinking of) undertaking a similar endeavour.

Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback, either regarding the blog or the show itself. The discussions on this site are a constant source of inspiration for my writing, and I would be especially curious to hear of any submissions you think would make fertile fodder for future episodes (fun fact: episodes 8 and 10 contain comments that have been incorporated into the show almost verbatim!)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17425278

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21704417

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The first batch is really great, sound quality, narrative and voices are top notch! The characters and the stories moved me a lot, I'm going to listen to the others for sure. Many thanks!

Regarding ideas: - I was wondering what HN would be like under the Program, what transformations would occur? (related to the threads about moderation, or the ones thanking the community) - would the Program have "cognitive" biases like the current machine learning models? - would Apple still create iPhone SE ? How would the company react to a Steve Jobs bot created from all the digital content we has from him? (related to a thread about bots speaking like dead people made from analyzing all digital content)

Thanks again!

> related to a thread about bots speaking like dead people made from analyzing all digital content

Could you please send me the link to this? It sounds like that Black Mirror episode ("Be right back"), but I never liked how they treated the subject and was thinking of giving it a go myself

I cannot find the HN thread, but here is an article on the topic: https://www.theverge.com/a/luka-artificial-intelligence-memo...

Small bit of feedback: The title "The Program" is great, but unfortunately (as I'm sure you are aware) there is another podcast called "The Program" and while yours has "The Program audio series" (note the lack of capitalization on audio series) as its title (at least in Overcast, my podcasting app) makes it harder for people to communicate orally. I understand if you feel like it is too late to change, but if you could find a title that was more searchable I'm sure it would help. The Program Arises or something like that.

True, and yes, if I had a clean slate I would probably opt for a different title. But if you google _the program podcast_ first three hits all lead to The Program, so maybe the other one should consider changing the name ;)

Haven't listened to an episode yet, but this looks great!

One small suggestion: a direct link to download the MP3. It's easy to find, no question there, but I use the NoScript add-on and had to enable it, and then had to figure out that I should use the menu in Chrome's audioplayer to get to the download.

I understand, but a vast majority of people listen to The Program through a podcasting app or Spotify - the amount of listening that happens on the website is minuscule!

Perhaps they haven't found the download link? :-)

I get that the change won't affect many listeners, but it also couldn't hurt, considering that the change itself is of the smallest proportions.

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