Happy 1-Year Podiversary, Hackers!

Wow, someone pinch me! I’ve been the Host of The HackerNoon Podcast for a year already?!

Happy Podiversary, Hackers!

It’s me, Amy Tom - your podcast host of The HackerNoon Podcast and self-proclaimed best friend. I’m wishing you, my beautiful podcast listeners, a wonderful 1-year podiversary!

1 year ago, I released my first podcast episode of The HackerNoon Podcast. 🎉

The HackerNoon Podcast: How it All Began

A few years ago, the HackerNoon team started The HackerNoon Podcast. In its infantry, it was hosted by various HackerNooners, including CEO David Smooke, (former) VP Natasha Nel, VP Utsav Jaiswal, and others.

When I joined HackerNoon (as employee #16 at the time 🥺), I started as an Editor.

A few months after I joined the team in December 2021, we decided we wanted to launch a new short series on the podcast, and we weren’t sure who would host it. Looking back, I can’t remember if I was asked or if I volunteered haha - but I somehow ended up as the host of the series.

And on March 26th, 2021, I released my first episode as host of The HackerNoon Podcast. What I thought would be a fun project to run with for a few episodes turned into one of the largest projects of my career as a Content Creator to date.

What I’ve Learned as a Podcast Host

It may have been easier to title this section - “What didn’t I learn as a podcast host?”

The HackerNoon Podcast, across the 90+ episodes I’ve produced over the year, has grown so much - and so have I!

Not only did I learn about audio production, but I also got to chat with some REALLY COOL people.

I talked to Steve Hall, the CEO of the American Ultimate Disc League, and learned about the NFTs they created after the launch and success of Dapper Labs and NBA’s Top Shot.

I talked to my international HackerNoon colleagues about Facebook’s name change to Meta before it was officially announced. At the time, we laughed and guessed that they would change their name to MetaBook. After the official name change, we laughed some more.

I did a series where I interviewed the founders of the startups nominated for HackerNoon’s Startups of the Year awards. I talked to the founders of tech startups from around the world like Kate Bradley Chernis from Lately.ai, Jon Mux from Mux, Thierry Schellenbach from Stream, Tom Sosnoff from tastytrade, Sean Salas from Camino Financial, and so many more.

During pride month, I talked to my HackerNoon coworkers about rainbowification. We discussed how it seems like some big companies exploit the LGBTQIA+ community during pride month by offering pride-related merchandise without donating very much or bringing more discussion into the space.

And then, who could forget the time I talked to a Dogecoin millionaire. Garry LaChance told me about investing $300 into Dogecoin and watching it grow. We talked about Elon, Dogecoin, and decentralized partying. It was perhaps the strangest podcast episode I’ve ever done.

The Top 5 HackerNoon Podcast Episodes of 2021

Let’s take a lil’ throwback to the top 5 episodes of The HackerNoon Podcast over the past year.

1. What is Web 3.0 and Why Do We Need It?

This is an episode I recorded with Jaro Šatkevic, the Head of Product at Mysterium Network, where we talked about Web3.0.

We released this episode right after the 30th anniversary of the first webpage, which felt very appropriate.

2. How Decentralized Can We Get in the Modern World?

This was the very first episode I released! It was with Sharmini Ravindran, the CMO at Mysterium Network.

We talked about the implications of a decentralized internet for the world, world news and censorship, and more. If you listen back to this one, sorry for the nerves. We’ve come a long way y’all. 😅

3. Demystifying DeFi, DEXs, and AMMs with AllianceBlock Team

On this episode of The HackerNoon Podcast, Utsav was the host. He chatted to some super cool people from AllianceBlock about DeFi and DEXs.

Rachid Ajaja (CEO), Houman Falakshahi (CRO), and Matthieu Mariapragassam (Head of Quantitative Analytics) were the guests on this episode.

4. Media Conglomerates Are Taking Over The World

This was an episode of the podcast where we discussed what went down This Week On Planet Internet. David, Utsav, and I discussed the world of big media conglomerates - think Facebook, Disney, Comcast, ATT - and how they rule the world.

This seems a VERY KEY discussion again now that Elon owns Twitter.

5. Document Databases Vs. Relational Databases

On this episode, I talked to Eric Bishard and Arun Vijayaraghavan from Couchbase about the differences between a Document Database and a Relational Database.

LOL, guys, can I make a confession to you? I distinctly remember recording this episode and watching a YouTube tutorial to prep for the episode to figure out how to say JSON out loud. Again, wow, we’ve come a long way 😂

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Hackers, thank you so much for tuning into The HackerNoon Podcast over the past year. It’s been such a blast, and I’ve loved every single second of it.

I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to talk to you not only about technology but also its impact on the world. I’m proud to have discussed how technology relates to gender equality, world relations, wealth disparity, and more.

But most of all, I’m so honoured to be your host, and I love y’all so much.

Thank you for listening to The HackerNoon Podcast! Until next time, stay weird, and I’ll see ya on the internet 😉