Summary

Key Topics

1. Going Independent: They discuss the challenges and rewards of moving from a large

organization like CNET to working solo. Lexy highlights the steep learning curve (editing,

graphics, production), the newfound appreciation for former team members' skills, but

also the freedom and authenticity it allows. Jason adds insights on marketing challenges

and the surprising value of community support for independent creators.

2. Headphone Reviews: They delve into the difficulties of reviewing headphones,

differentiating between highly technical reviews and more accessible,

experience-focused approaches. Lexy shares her method involving curated playlists and

acknowledges the market saturation and e-waste concerns associated with earbuds.

3. Music & Radio Background: Lexy talks about her deep love for music and her

pre-CNET experience working at FBI Radio, an independent station in Sydney. She

discusses how radio helped her overcome shyness and connect with listeners. They also

touch upon how her Australian accent has subtly changed after years in the US.

4. Broadcasting Reflections: Jason and Lexy relate the experience of radio broadcasting

to podcasting, discussing self-critique when reviewing their own work and sharing

nostalgia for their time at CNET, acknowledging its significant impact.

5. Tech Nostalgia: A significant portion focuses on formative tech experiences. Lexy

recalls the profound impact of her family's first DOS computer and playing the Super

Nintendo, describing the feeling of being completely transported. They contrast this early

sense of wonder with modern tech's tendency towards "engineered addiction" that grabs

attention but may not feel enriching.

6. Changing Music Consumption: They lament the decline in listening to full albums

start-to-finish, attributing it to shorter attention spans, the convenience of streaming

algorithms, and the loss of the tangible ritual associated with formats like CDs and vinyl.

Lexy specifically misses her Sony Discman and old Minidisc recordings. They also

discuss the recent appreciation for the imperfections and warmth of older formats like

cassettes.

7. Alternative Paths: When asked what she'd do without technology, Lexy believes she

would still find ways (even rudimentary ones) to share music and information to connect

with and help others.Key Points

Lexy's Independent Transition: Lexy recently left CNET after many years (since approx.

2008) to become an independent content creator, a move Jason identifies with.

Challenges of Independence: Going solo requires learning many new skills (editing, graphics,

etc.) and lacks the support structure of a large company, but offers creative freedom and

authenticity.

Community Support: The support from the audience and community becomes significantly

more apparent and impactful when working independently.

Headphone Reviewing: Discussed the difficulty of communicating subtle differences in audio,

catering to both technical and general audiences, and the challenge of market saturation and

e-waste.

Music & Radio Background: Lexy has a strong passion for music and previously worked at

FBI Radio (an independent station in Sydney), which helped her develop communication skills

and overcome shyness.

Tech Nostalgia: Both shared deep nostalgia for early tech experiences (first PCs, Super

Nintendo, King's Quest) that felt immersive and wondrous.

Modern Tech vs. Wonder: They contrasted past tech experiences that inspired wonder with

current tech often designed for "engineered addiction" and attention-grabbing, which can feel

less enriching.

Changing Music Habits: They lamented the shift away from listening to full albums (on CDs,

Minidiscs, etc.) towards fragmented, playlist-driven consumption via streaming, impacting

attention spans and the connection to the music. Lexy specifically misses her Sony Discman

and Minidisc player.

Appreciation for Older Formats: Highlighted the resurgence and appreciation for the unique

sound and experience of older, imperfect formats like cassettes.

Core Motivation: Lexy emphasized her drive to share technology and content that genuinely

excites her and can potentially help people.

The Sony Discman: In a bonus segment, Lexy identified the Sony Discman as the "tech that

changed everything" for her, enabling portable music and the ability to soundtrack her life

experiences.

CNET Connection: Their shared history at CNET provides common ground and a sense of

belonging to the "CNET family.

Mentions

People:

● Jason Howell: The host of the podcast.

● Lexy Savvides: The guest, technology journalist, formerly of CNET, now independent.

● Rick Rubin: Music producer mentioned tentatively by Jason as someone who discussed the appreciation of flawed media formats.

Brands:

● CNET: Technology media company where both Jason and Lexy previously worked.

● OnePlus: Technology brand mentioned by Jason in relation to headphones.

● CMF: Technology brand mentioned by Jason in relation to earbuds.

● Dell: Computer brand Jason asked if Lexy's first family computer was.

● Nintendo / Super Nintendo: Gaming console brand and specific console mentioned by Lexy.

● Sierra Online: Game company mentioned by Jason associated with King's Quest.

● Sony: Brand explicitly mentioned in relation to the Discman Lexy owned.

● Apple: Technology company mentioned in relation to the iPod.

● Creative: Brand of an early MP3 player Lexy owned.

Media:

● Techsploder: The name of Jason's podcast/show.

● FBI Radio: An independent radio station in Sydney where Lexy used to host shows.

● YouTube: The platform where Lexy publishes her independent content.

● SoundCloud: Platform where Lexy had posted old interviews.

● Buzz Out Loud: A specific CNET podcast that Lexy mentioned producing.

● TikTok: Social media platform mentioned as an example of attention-grabbing

algorithms.

● Spotify: Music streaming service mentioned in the context of modern music

consumption.

● iTunes: Apple's software used by Lexy to rip CDs for her iPod.

● Super Mario: Specific video game Lexy played on the Super Nintendo.

● King's Quest: Video game series mentioned by Jason.

● Massive Attack: Music group mentioned by Lexy.

● "Teardrop": Specific song by Massive Attack Lexy listened to on her Discman.

TRANSCRIPT

Jason: Lexy, it is so great to, uh, get you on Techsploder. Thank you for taking time for

me today. I appreciate it.

Lexy: Uh, thanks for having me, Jason. Such an honor to be here with you.

Jason: Yeah. I'm so, uh, stoked to be able to do this. Part, and partial, part of the

reason is because our stories in some ways are relatively from like, I, I watched you

break out from CNET and go independent. And there was a lot that I saw kind of in that

transition of which you're kind of fresh at the start of for the most part, where I'm like, Oh

yeah, I can completely identify with where Lexy is. So first of all, congratulations. It's a

big step.

Lexy: Thank you. Yes, it's a big step, but I'm really excited to just, you know, be able to

make the content that I want to make and connect with an audience of people who love

tech.

Jason: That's, that's the beauty, right? Is like, uh, at this point you get to decide what

are the things that that really get me excited that I get to spend my time with. And you

know what, I'm not going to do that one because reviewing headphones bores me or

whatever the case may be.

Lexy: I love headphones.

Jason: So do you, how do you have...

Lexy: I do. I love.

Jason: Okay. So, so then tell me this because I'm like an audio file. I consider myself an

audio file. I've been in a music for a very long time and I know you've got a music

background, which I definitely want to talk to you about. Um, but when it comes to

reviewing headphones, like I always want to do it because I love things that sound

good. I find it really hard sometimes though, to differentiate between, like to know how

to communicate the differentiation between them. How do you, how do you tackle that?

Cause it's really difficult for me.

Lexy: It's very difficult. I think there are kind of several camps of people who enjoy

headphone reviews and there's people who want the really technical deep dives. Theywant to see all of the waveforms. They want to see all of the testing data. They want to

sort of see, you know, charted information about how they compare to other

headphones. And there are people that have the access and the knowledge to be able

to do that in such a great way. I would love to do that, but I'm not one of them. I don't

have an audio engineering background. And I freely admit that.

I am, I guess a little bit more like you and audio file. I love listening to headphones. I

have that music background, but I don't have that kind of level of technical expertise and

sound engineering that lets me do that. So there has to be a different way that you can

communicate that to an audience of people that doesn't necessarily want that. I mean, if

you think about people that a lot of people that are buying headphones, they just want

something that sounds good, that wants something that's comfortable. And so be able

to communicate that in more of a, I guess, a fun and approachable way for an audience

that's not necessarily looking for all of that technical deep dive data is what I try and do.

Do I do it successfully? Well, I used to do it at CNET, I think decently, but I haven't taken

that step as independent world yet. So I'm looking forward to trying to find different ways

to experiment with it and different ways to kind of communicate that. But it's, it's all

about having, I love having a playlist that I kind of default to that has lots of different

genres that, you know, has songs that are familiar to people and that are not familiar to

people maybe. And they, I always provide that kind of link for people to go and listen to

those tracks and then be able to talk about the particular nuances in the songs that I

hear versus what I don't hear on certain headphones. So I find that's kind of a nice way

to kind of get that information across. It's a little bit more interactive. And it's definitely,

it's just, it's a nice excuse to share some music that I like to listen to. My headphone

jams playlist, essentially.

So many different ways of doing it. There's many, many different people out there that

are looking for headphones. So it's just about finding, I guess, the way that you like to

communicate how you want to talk about music and sound quality to an audience of

people that is hopefully receptive to that. Because, you know, it's, you know, like me,

you're on YouTube and so many different other platforms and being able to find people

and, you know, communicate in a way that people want to kind of are drawn to the

content that you're trying to make is, it's kind of a part of the fun part of this. It's all about

experimentation and, and really trying to sort of niche on what makes you you. So I

would just encourage you to just try, just start talking about it in a way that makes sense

to you and see what happens.

Jason: Yeah. Yeah. No, I've definitely spent time, you know, with a lot of different

headphones, like OnePlus, you know, they have so many of their, their wireless

headphones that come out on a regular basis and I love them and I use them regularly. Ialso have like the CMF, I've got a bunch of them within reach right now. And I just, in the

early days of true wireless earbuds, for whatever reason, it was easier for me to do

reviews about them because it was new and it was fresh and it was like, okay, well, you

know, these are actually a little more comfortable than those and oh, these don't have

the low end response that I'm looking for and everything. But now kind of similar to

smartphones, the playing field has really leveled, like it's pretty easy to find a pretty solid

pair of true wireless earbuds and they probably don't cost a lot, which means there's just

a ton of them out there. So it's like the differences are few and far between at a certain

point.

Lexy: Yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's, it also does come down to price, as you said, in so

many different ways. Like there are some really great pairs under $50 that surprised me

with how good they sound. Do they last as long as a more expensive pair? Probably

not. That's what I think probably the biggest thing that I've found. So then you have to

also factor in, you know, environmental concerns like, oh, are the batteries replaceable?

Most cases, they're really not with earbuds.

Jason: Not. Super irresponsible. Yeah. This category of devices, for the most part,

when they're done, they're done. They just go into a landfill and that feels awful.

Lexy: Well, hopefully eWaste, if you participate in those sorts of programs, it does

hopefully get reused, but yeah. Some way, shape or form. Exactly. Exactly. There's so

many other factors that you have to think about just beyond price and comfort as well.

When you think about this too, at least I think about that. And does it keep me up at

night? Sometimes.

Jason: Well, so we've kind of started off on a little bit of the music side of things, which

I'm happy about because like I said, I'm big into music, you know, I have a DJing

background from way back when, and I didn't know this about you. You have like a

radio, like a music radio background before CNET at which, you know, you were at

CNET for quite a while. I think you started 2008 and then, you know, you just went

independent at the beginning of this year or the end of last year. So that's quite a lot of

time at CNET, but before that you were in radio at a station called FBI radio. Interesting

name. At least in the US, that feels interesting. But I had never heard of it before and I

looked it up and I'm like, man, they've got some really great music on there. Tell me a

little bit about your time there. I'm curious.

Lexy: Yeah. Yeah. So not FBI as would be associated with in the US. It does confuse a

lot of people when I say I used to work at FBI and they go, what? It stands for free

broadcast incorporated. It's one of Sydney's great independent radio stations. It's

entirely listener funded. And it's just provides a great platform for supporting not only

local Sydney and Australian music, but also genres from all around the world. It givesyoung broadcasters a chance to really, you know, cut their teeth in the world of radio

producing and audio engineering as well, which is fantastic.

I hosted a couple of different shows there over the years. I started off doing like the

graveyard shifts and then managed to work my way up to doing a great weekend show,

which I love. So if you want to find some kind of really, really cool cutting edge music,

FBI radio.com is the place to go. Like I haven't been on air there for, I want to say like

10, 10 plus years, but I still love it. I still listen to it. And there are some great shows and

it's really like the next generation of great radio talent and music coming out of there. So

highly recommend if you want to listen to also some Australian accents in the middle of

the night. Why not?

Jason: Right. There you go. So what kind of music were you focusing on there? Was it

more electronic based or yeah?

Lexy: All sorts of genres. I mean, my like kind of love is a little bit more on the, like an

electronic dance side, but I love all sorts of things. I used to play such an eclectic mix, a

real grab bag of content. I should go in and actually find some of my old playlists, I think,

and have a little bit of a retrospective. That would be fun.

Jason: But do they keep old, like old broadcasts and old episodes. So you could find

like Lexy early on in her career.

Lexy: I do. Oh yeah. So I actually had like a few, I definitely have a few of the

recordings still on like a hard drive of some of my favorite shows that I did. And I think

some of the playlists are still around. Like you can't listen to the audio necessarily on

demand, but you can see kind of the songs that were played. And I think, oh, I think I

did have like some interviews on my sound when I was putting everything on

SoundCloud, one or two interviews. And I listened back to them recently. And you would

not believe how my accent has changed over the past 10 years since moving to the US.

Yeah, I listened back and I sound so Australian on those recordings. And then I listened

to my voice now and I sound less Australian, more kind of not definitely not American,

but a different a very different accent. So like it's flattened over time.

Jason: That's so interesting.

Lexy: A little bit. Yeah, people definitely question my, you know, Aussie-ness when I go

home, but I think I sort of comes back out a little bit when I do visit back home. I

definitely it comes back.

Jason: That's so funny. That's so interesting. Yeah, I've never really considered that

before. Over time, it probably does kind of, you know, being surrounded by differentaccents and different ways of talking. It has a certain influence. I've always wondered

that too, is like, when you're born somewhere and you, you know, obviously you adopt

the accent of where you are, why, you know, I've wondered that if you, if you live

somewhere for a long enough time, does it really influence kind of how your voice shifts

and changes? But you're saying that it does. I just kind of assumed that it's kind of

locked into place at a certain point, but that's so interesting.

Lexy: I mean, I think overall, I don't think anyone's going to be confusing me for an

American accent.

Jason: No, no, of course not. Right.

Lexy: But I think if you, I mean, for me specifically, maybe it's something, it's about how

I've, you know, incorporated myself into into the US and US culture as well. Maybe

that's just something that's a trait of me and my voice. I don't think I could make a broad

generalization. Everybody who moves to a different place will suddenly sound a little bit

different. But for me, for sure, I've noticed that definitely.

Jason: Super interesting. What drew, what drew you to radio like to get into the radio

side of things, like in, in, you know, hosting and stuff. I mean, it's all interconnected

because then you went on to CNET and of course it's more of in front of the camera. So

there's more a broadening of skills there and, and exposure there. But what pulled you

into that side of broadcast?

Lexy: It was a love of music, but also it was, I had a period of my life where I became

painfully shy and I was really unable to communicate very well with people, both in

spoken conversations. I think I started off as a very, you know, outgoing child. And then

throughout the years of like high school, I became more and more introverted. And then

when I finished high school, I thought, well, you know, I've got to start being a little bit

better at presenting both myself and, you know, my thoughts. So I thought, well, there

was a, there was a gig that opened up at a local radio station. This was before FBI

radio. And I thought, well, let's, let's go see, learn a bit about radio. It sounds kind of fun.

And I fell in love with it, Jason, like radio was just the most amazing medium because

I'm just talking to one person. And you know, this, it's like, that's kind of the fundamental

rule when you start out in broadcasting on any kind of medium, really. It's just, you're

talking to just one person, whether that's your mom, your friend, you know, your sibling,

or, you know, just even just one person, you're just picturing who you're talking to. And

that's your conversation. And that sort of opened this world for me of just being able to

talk. And sometimes then you can't shut me up. So yeah, from then, it just became one

of those things that I love to be able to play music. I love to be able to communicateabout that music to that person that I was talking to. And, you know, and then the rest

kind of went from there.

But it's so much fun being able to press play on a song and talk about how this song

either transformed you or the relationship it has to a broader musical context, or just,

this sounds really cool. You got to listen to this. It's sharing at the end of it, isn't it? It's

just making kind of that connection with people. So that's what I loved about it. And

yeah, and it helped me become way less painfully shy at that stage and become more

like I was as a really young child as an adult. So that was a great part of what radio

gave me.

Jason: So interesting. I can completely relate with that because I, you know, radio and

podcast share a lot in common, as you well know. It's kind of like the delivery

mechanism is a little different, but a lot of what you said, most of what you said really

applies to podcasts. And I would say for myself, before getting into podcasting, this is

about 2005, 2006, before getting into podcasting, it's not like I was shy with my friends,

but if I was around people I didn't know, I would have a really hard time carrying on

conversation. It was really distracting, kind of anxiety driven. Like I felt like I've got to fill

the air with something and it's going to, it's going to come out all wrong. And I was very

second guessy about how I communicate with people that I had never met before. And I

just really didn't enjoy it. But doing this for as long as we do, you, yeah, man, that like it

sharpens a blade on that perspective. And now thankfully I can look back and be like,

this has taught me a lot about how to communicate with people outside of just the

media that I use to broadcast, whatever my thoughts are.

Do you ever go back to old broadcasts or podcasts or even old CNET videos and watch

and you go, oh, either this was terrible or wow, I was actually better than I thought I was.

Why was I so hard on myself?

Lexy: Yeah, you can get both perspectives, can't you? Because like I remember when I

started producing Buzz Out Loud way back when, and I was kind of behind the camera

before ever really being brought into the conversation in any general sense. I would

watch the podcast happening in front of me and wonder how they do that. And then at

some point I was brought into the microphone and what I had for a very long time was

an awareness of, oh my goodness, it's time for me to talk right now. What am I going to

say right now? It better be valuable. You know, just this voice in my mind. And when I go

back and listen to some of those episodes, it's like I can plug right into that mindset and

remember what I was feeling when I was talking and it's like, it's kind of squirmy and

embarrassing and everything, but it's all part of how we grow and develop. And yeah, in

some parts of that don't get any easier. Like have you had, I'm sure you've had at some

point the, oh my goodness, I can't stand to listen to my voice thing. You know, I think alot of people are just so self-aware of how they look or how they sound in a recording.

And it's really hard to work around that.

Jason: It is.

Lexy: It does. I mean, I'm fortunate that I had a lot of kind of experience of getting that

cringe factor out of the way earlier on in like from radio and being a producer. So I was

really used to kind of isolating it when I was producing other people. And then I could

translate that to myself, isolating somebody's kind of voice from them as a person and

just listening to what they say. Excuse me. Pardon me. So we about that. Being able to

isolate somebody's voice from them as, you know, kind of the personality and then

being able to just like sort of listen and produce that as opposed to having that cringe

factor. So I'm a little bit more used to it, but as you said, like I still sometimes I watch

videos that I've made or listen to podcast appearances and I'm just going, Oh, that is

just dysLexya [likely meant Lexy, as self-correction]. Why did you say that for? Why did

you do so? It doesn't, it doesn't go away. It gets easier, but it doesn't always go away.

That's for sure.

Jason: I so know that feeling for me, what I realized, the thing that I, that I'm critical

about myself in like interviews and stuff is that I take too long to get to the point. It's like,

I've got all this set up and all this stuff that I want to say. And then I listened to it back.

I'm like, dude, you could have said that in like one sentence and just let them talk and

get out of the way. You know, it's hard. It's hard.

Lexy: It's hard. It's hard. But you're doing a great job. And I'm not fishing by the way.

You are, you are. I've loved seeing... I mean, 'cause you're, you're a CNET legend,

right? And so everybody that kind of comes after kind of looks back at, I mean, I think I

can say safely say this, you were part of the cohort of the glory days of CNET, I think.

And, and just everybody, you know, just looks up to you and the entire crew that was

there and especially everybody on, on, on video who doesn't on camera roll, like I used

to there would just look back and go, yeah, that was some great content you all did.

Jason: So it was fun. It was fun without the five years that I was at CNET, like we had in

a great time. And I feel, I immediately feel connected to anyone that has done the CNET

thing, even if I hadn't really worked closely with them throughout the time that they were

there or they came after I was already gone from CNET. It's like, we're all part of the

CNET family. Even if we don't work there anymore, it's, it's, you know, it's bigger than

that.

Lexy: That's true. Thank you for saying that. It feels really good. Yeah.Jason: Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Well, tell me a little bit about kind of where you're at

right now. Obviously, you know, your channel, Lexy Savitas, uh, S A V V I D E S. So

people should know to search that, but I'm curious to know, because your shift has been

big and I can really identify with the fact that you came from this mammoth organization

and now you've transitioned into independent work. And they're just, even though

you're, even though in many ways we're doing the same thing, we're creating the same

type of content, the roles are completely different. I'm curious to know if there's any, like,

any easy to point to lesson that you've learned in the short amount of time that you've

been doing this, or maybe, maybe even something that surprised you in that transition.

Lexy: Oh, I don't know if it's surprised me, but I have a, such a great found appreciation

of when you have to do absolutely everything yourself versus being able to kind of

outsource to people that have very strong skill sets in particular areas. So I mean, it's

just, it's, it's a huge learning curve going from a place where, you know, your primary

role is really to sort of ideate and present great content. And then you have a whole

suite of people around you who are so talented at either video editing or audio editing

or, um, lighting or producing specifically that you can kind of rely on as a broader team.

And then you go independent. I'm sure you've had this experience as well. And then all

of a sudden you are all of those people.

I, I just, I've had to like over the past four months, I've had to teach myself how to use

an entirely new editing suite. I'm not the world's strongest video editor. I don't know

anything about motion graphics. I'm learning everything as I go on the fly and just

crossing my fingers that it works and, and hoping that, you know, people who are

watching have some grace if it doesn't look exactly perfect or sound exactly perfect in

certain ways. I mean, you do the best you can and you learn as fast as you can. But

yes, again, you have a great found appreciation of the huge team of people behind you.

And the surprising thing is, you know, I had a lot of experience during COVID of kind of

doing a lot of things myself. So I think that was almost like a little bit of a mini crush

course. So I'd have to set up like a whole view space. I'd have to run lighting. I'd have to

run audio. I'd have to run the camera. You know, the amount of times that I would hit

start and hit record and my audio recorder wouldn't work and or, or the battery would

run out and I didn't know because there was no one there to tell me. And you have this

moment where you just, you think, great, I did a fantastic job. That video is done. I'm

ready to ship it off to somebody who's going to edit this for me. And you look at your

memory card and it's wasn't recording. It's corrupted. The audio wasn't rolling. You had

food in your teeth. I don't know. You got to do it over again. Got to start over.

Jason: That was the best take too. By the way, that was the best take that you'll ever

have. And now you got to start over again and recreate that magic.Lexy: Yeah. I mean, I have that all the time in the world of being independent. And so

that's, it's frustrating. It's very frustrating. There's a lot of swear words that come out, I

think when you realize that that really is the big, the big shift, I think, coming from the

perspectives that you and I both share coming from a team.

Jason: It really helps. It helps me to appreciate the skill and the awesomeness of the

people that I've worked with in the past. Like, you know, I think to a certain degree, kind

of take it for granted when it's just the normal. And then when it's not the normal

anymore, then it's easy to go back. Then it becomes easier to go back and see it

through fresher eyes and be like, man, you know, that person was amazing at editing

because he or she was able to knock that out in like two hours and it takes me 10 or

whatever the case may be. It's such a different experience going from a team to

completely solo.

Lexy: It is. The other thing I would say about shifting to independent though is like the

freedom that it does open up in the way that I like to be able to communicate. So I feel

like it's the most authentic version of me. It's the most sort of raw, I guess, raw version

of me in the best way possible. Whereas I think when it goes through multiple people

and multiple layers of production in a team environment, you gain so much from that

through other people's experience, but you also can potentially lose a little bit of what

makes you as a personality or you as a journalist or presenter, however you want to

kind of term yourself. So going independent has definitely made me appreciate that.

Like I do have that full kind of vision over the entire process, but yeah, when I'm editing

at two in the morning and I'm like, please, this is so hard. Why is this my 20th take?

Jason: And not just the editing, right? It's kind of like at the end you publish and then

there's all the work of making sure that people see that you published and spreading it

around on social. And like right now I'm starting to kind of lean into pulling clips from

podcasts, kind of longer clips. And every single one of those takes X amount of time

and attention on title and description. And it's just, it's an endless stream of work. At a

certain point, you just kind of have to realize like I am one person. What is the most

effective use of my time? What are the things that make the most sense and that I

enjoy?

Lexy: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It is what, well, what do you, I mean, that's sort of curious,

like as someone who's also moved to the independent space, like what is the thing that

you most enjoy about the process that you didn't necessarily expect?

Jason: Oh, I, well, I, that I didn't necessarily expect that's the twister because I would

say the thing that I most enjoy is just being able to decide on a whim that that's the thing

I'm doing next. It could also be though that that's kind of to my detriment because in

being so impulsive with what I choose to do, sometimes I overlook really obvious things,which is, you know, probably at least to a certain degree a part of my ADHD brain

overlooking the obvious stuff. But yeah, I don't know if that answers your question. I

mean, that might not be the thing that I, that I least expect. I mean, I know that the

things that I don't love in my heart of hearts, I don't really enjoy the marketing aspect. I

don't enjoy going back over something 20 times to extract value and, and do that stuff. I

think the thing that I love the most is picking a new thing and doing it. And then when I'm

done with that, being able to just look over there and be like, that's the thing I'm doing

now. Let's go. Let's create, you know? And that's much easier to do when you've got a

team to take care of the rest of the stuff. I don't know. You gotta, you gotta make

choices. You gotta make sacrifices. It's not all driven by me. It's kind of driven by

necessity to a certain degree.

Lexy: Yeah, exactly. And you also have to think like what resonates with the audience

that you have and the audience that you want to appeal to essentially too. And that I

think is also, you know, like to your point, the marketing of it, the packaging of it, kind of

the analytical side is something that it's a very, very particular skillset. And I have so

much respect for people that have that in their arsenal essentially, because it is hard as

somebody who primarily thinks about content and being able to like, as I call it, make

the meat and potatoes, you know, but like the person that can, it's making the meat and

potatoes, right? And then the person that can put the garnish on it that can package it in

this way that makes it appealing. That's for me at least the really tough part because,

you know, I know I make good content, but is it something that somebody wants to click

on? And that's always like, that's a skillset that is so valuable. And I think, you know, the

people that are the most successful in the industry have a little bit of all of that. I mean,

obviously, if you have the ability to outsource to, you know, a team or a bunch of people

that are really skilled at that, that's the ultimate. But they're really successful

independent creators that are just doing it all themselves, I think have that ability to kind

of really hone in on that. And it's a skill, I hope that I can learn it too. I really hope, I

really hope so.

Jason: Yeah. The more you do, the more you work through the difficulties of, Oh, that

didn't work. Let me try this. Oh, man, that was horrible. Let me try this. And at a certain

point over a long enough time, you do get better. And it's just not always comfortable

getting better. I think I have a better answer for what you asked, because what you

asked was more about what I didn't expect, but that I really enjoy. And I think, I think you

could probably identify with this on a deeper level too, is the, I know the value of

community in what we do. Because if we don't have people in our corner, we don't really

have anything. We can create all the great content, like you were saying. But if we can't

find the audience for that, or give them what they're looking for, then kind of what's the

point, you know, it'll just stagnate and stay there. And I think the thing that has surprised

me, and I wonder if this has happened for you, is the people who are so committed tothe work that I do, that they've reached out to me and said, Hey, I want to help you. I

appreciate what you do. I can do this stuff that I hear you say you don't like doing. I can

do that. And I'm happy to do it. And I've got a few people, few amazing people who

have done that, and literally made my life more comfortable and what I'm doing more

effective because of it. That I did not expect. And it's been amazing.

Lexy: Oh, that's wonderful. I love to hear that. That's so heartwarming as well. Because

you've made that genuine connection with people and they, you know, and that's such a

testament to what you do. I think that's the ultimate really is when you can make that

connection. And you have somebody reach out to you, because I feel like a lot of the

time, maybe you've had this experience too, you feel like you create content almost in a

vacuum because, well, at least when I was doing it for a larger media company, like the

feedback that you would get would either be nothing or it would be negativity, you know,

sort of do it and you go, Oh, well, maybe it's, maybe it's not resonating in the way that,

you know, I think it does. But I think there's been a definite dramatic shift that I've

noticed in going independent is that this sense of, you know, people that actually like

what you do as an individual, like, and people take the time to reach out and leave a

comment or even just support in different ways, which is so like, it's heartwarming. I

know it sounds really cheesy to say that, but it's so nice because I feel like, you know,

it's been, it's been a hard journey being a content creator for a media company as well.

It's like, it's been amazing and wonderful, but it's also been hard because there's a lot of

the time when you're on the receiving end of just a lot of people's negativity for not

necessarily just because it's you and your content. It's just, it just is because you're seen

as a representative of a larger brand, but as an independent, hopefully I think people

have a little bit more of a kind of an understanding of, Oh, like, you know, they're just

doing it on their own and it's, it's them. It's not necessarily, you know, a big, you know,

corporation or anything like that. So that's been kind of nice to see. And I'm so glad that

you had people to reach out and give you that support too. That's, that's the ultimate

really.

Jason: It is. Yeah. It's 100%. I mean, community, you know, behind podcasts, behind

what we do on YouTube and all the other things, if you don't have that, man, that you

don't have, that can only take you so far without that community. And it, and it helps, it

helps to not feel so isolated and alone just sitting on a computer, writing my reviews and

doing, you know, moving on to the next thing. That's fun. That's enjoyable. But you gotta

have the community I'm used to having an office with someone sitting next to me. And I

don't have that anymore other than my dogs who come in every once in a while. But so

yeah, it's, it's really, really nice.

With this show, I like, I like, I like to dive into the stuff that we are right now. And I like to

get a little nostalgic. So I'm kind of curious, actually, we're going to take a quick break.When we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about kind of your nostalgic history

with technology that's come up here in a moment.

(Break Annoucement - No actual break in transcript)

Jason: All right, this is, this is, this is part of the meat and potatoes of Techsploder, in

my view, is kind of diving into what makes your tech story very unique. And it's not just

where you worked and what you do. It really all kind of in my, in my experience, it all

kind of, you know, goes back to some particular moment in your life where you either

made the recognition that technology means something greater to you, or you were

introduced to a product that you were just like, Oh my goodness, that product opened

my eyes to what technology could be. Maybe it's even your earliest technology memory

or something along those lines. That's just a few kind of ideas. But what comes to mind

when I kind of set that up? Is there a thing in technology that you're like, Oh yeah, that's,

that's it.

Lexy: I guess there were kind of two moments for me. The first was when we got our

first family computer. And so, you know, it arrived. This was all as a newfangled, Oh,

what is this? It's a, it's a screen and a keyboard and it arrived.

Jason: Is it a Dell?

Lexy: It was a generic, it was a very generic put together, you know, tower that, you

know, a family friend kind of brought over and, and it was, you know, it was running

DOS. And I was sitting there going, what is this newfangled machine? This is amazing.

And immediately I was drawn to it. I immediately felt like I knew how to use it. And it

was, you know, I was really young at the time. I was probably like four or five years old

or something. And then I got straight on and I started playing a game that was on it. And

I was absolutely engrossed in it. So much so that my parents had to sort of say, no, no,

no, we need to remove you from this. Like this is not a great idea to have as your

primary area of focus. Like, cause I was locked in Jason. Like I just would not, I could

not be torn away. So there was that moment.

And then once we kind of had, you know, the next computer, I think beyond that, that

this was just for word processing specifically. And it had like one or two games on it. But

then the next computer that we had, I really started going, oh, there's this stuff that I can

do. I can start learning like HTML. I can start coding. This was really like, oh, there's a

browser on this. I can learn how to hook up to this thing called the internet. This is

awesome. And so I started really kind of getting into the world of coding and, you know,

making my own web pages and being a real geek from an early age. I studied comp sci

back in the day at college university. And then I decided I didn't want to be a coder. So I

thought, well, what else could I do with that kind of that move in tech? So it was reallylike, you know, getting deep into that whole world of, you know, PCs, building PCs,

adding RAM coding and all of that.

But then there was the other side, which was, I remember the first time I was really

young, I was in hospital for a few days. And there was like, it was in the kids' hospital.

And so they brought in entertainment and then they had a console and it was like being

wheeled around to certain kids on different beds. And I was sitting there like, what is

this? This looks really cool. And then they finally, I was like, can I have a go at that? And

it was the Super Nintendo. And I was hooked. It was like one of those, again, one of

those moments where you just lock in. And I was playing, I don't know, it was Super

Mario probably. And I just was like, this is amazing. I need this in my life. And so then

the Nintendo console game of version, Lexy came out and again, like screens were just

a huge part of my childhood for better or for worse. Really, but that was one of the other

things that kind of really fostered that love of technology is just going, this is so cool.

It's, I kind of likened it to, you know, that feeling when you kind of open a book and you

get so transported into a different world. It kind of was the same feeling for me. Like I

grew up, I also loved reading, but it was that same feeling that I got from turning on

those computers for the first time and interacting with them or playing, you know, those

early games on the Super Nintendo and just having that transformative moment of

going, I'm in another world. And almost like there's nothing else going on around me

because I can completely lock into that. And that was just the most amazing feeling. I'm

trying to recapture that all the time with new technology. Sometimes it works, sometimes

it doesn't, but that's almost like my benchmark of like, is this transformative enough to

give me that moment of this is just this world that exists in a different space that it's

transported me into.

Jason: Yeah, that's, that's harder and harder to do as you get older in the world of

technology. And that's, that's part of the reason why I love nostalgia around technology.

Because it reminds me of that, right? Like I, as you're talking about kind of your

experience diving into a computer, like what came to mind for me was going to my

aunt's house and she had a PC and, and she had King's Quest. I don't know if you ever

played the old school kind of like point and click King's Quest, I think it was Sierra

online. And, and I would have that same experience. I would get lost in, in that kind of

that journey and that world. And it's, it's like I would almost see like when I wasn't there

playing, I could pretend or imagine what it was like to live in that world when I was

playing or doing my own thing as a kid. And yeah, I love, I love remembering what that

felt like, because as we get older, it is, it is harder to find that kind of connection with,

with smartphones, right? Like they, they kind of stopped being interesting out of the

sheer fact that they're just a smartphone. They're, they're so, they're so ubiquitous now,but there was a time when they were new and they really did capture our imagination.

It's just, you know, times change, I guess.

Lexy: Yeah. And I think if they capture our imaginations in slightly different ways, I think

there's, it's more, I think now over an engineered addiction in certain ways. And in terms

of like the, the tools that we're using on phones are specifically in many times

engineered to kind of capture our attention. So it has a similar effect, but it's almost

without that wonder and without that feeling that you're left with that makes you feel

enriched, right? So I, you know, if you compare, sometimes you'll get sucked into

scrolling on TikTok and you know, the algorithm seems to be surfacing stuff that you're

interested in, but it gives you that almost same effect. Like you've got nothing else going

on around you. You're in this world, but you leave it and you don't feel as satisfied. You

don't feel as enriched. You feel a little bit more empty, right? And so I think that's the

difference. So I think the attention grabbing and that creation of that world is still there,

but it's without that, I guess...

Jason: Sure. It's that childlike kind of fascination with it.

Lexy: And those experiences, you know, it's, it's kind of hard to separate because I

think as you get older, you obviously have that nostalgia that you look back on and you

go, Oh, didn't that feel wonderful? But we still have the ability to do that. It's just that the

platforms and the tools that we have are not necessarily engineered to create the

wonder anymore. They're engineered to create the attention grabbing nature of it. So

that's, that's also...

Jason: Not letting go. Which, which I can, I can remember being a kid not wanting to let

go, but it came from a different place.

Lexy: Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You're right. Absolutely. The engineered aspect of it. I

like how you put that.

Jason: Is there a piece of technology that you loved that you got rid of and you regret

not having anymore? Like, so that might be a hard one to kind of throw on you, but

yeah, I mean, multiple, I mean, there's multiple things, I guess.

Lexy: I think the biggest ones probably relate to music. So yeah, I had a stereo that had

a mini disc player in it. And look, mini disc was not the most, it was a great format for a

very specific use case, but it was so expensive and it was so sort of difficult to kind of

get that, you know, uptake and you couldn't find, I used to sit and just like record radio

shows onto my like mini disc stereo. And I used to love it because I had a lot of like

great gems on there. And then this is like, you know, people used to sit and record like

on cassettes. So I've sit on mini discs. And so when that, that kind of disappeared andthen I had all these mini discs and I was like, well, I can't do anything with them. I love, I

love this format. It's just, it was almost like, it was just almost too, too good or too early

in the time frame something. I don't know. It was, it was a difficult, it was a difficult

format. It was a troubled format, but I still love it. And I still wish that I had the ability to

kind of access those, those mini disc recordings that I made.

Jason: And the other one. Don't have those anymore. Don't have those like off in a box

somewhere.

Lexy: They probably are somewhere in Australia, somewhere in a box in Australia,

they're probably there. And then, yeah, and the same two for, I mean, it gets us all

comes back to music, doesn't it? It's the Discman. That was kind of my, my love as well,

because it was, I could take my music anywhere. And I had a huge collection of CDs.

And so, you know, as CDs started to be phased out, obviously, and didn't become as,

you know, a ubiquitous of a format. I still miss that kind of ability to sit and just listen to

an album from start to finish.

Jason: Yes.

Lexy: On, on, you know, and the iPod, I guess, in many ways, like had that ability and

capability as well. But it didn't have the same effect, because you didn't have that,

again, lock in moment of just listening to that one artist, or that one CD of whatever

compilation it was, and just having that end to end moment. So I do, I do miss that. And

also my attention span is completely shot these days. I don't know about you, Jason,

but like, can I, can you sit down and listen to an album? I don't have the time, but I also

don't have the attention span.

Jason: And you know, it's really, it's very different. I think we've been D, D conditioned

or unconditioned. Unconditioned? Would that be the word? I'm not sure what the word

is. But yeah, I think over time, we've, we've, we've been exposed to this other way of

sampling pieces, you know, and the sampling a song from a track, because the singles

approach is just what works on these digital platforms now, versus the album approach.

And I got a really, it's like, if it's going to happen, if I'm going to listen to an entire album,

it's got to be like, when I'm on a drive somewhere, and I'm going to be there for an hour.

And even then, it's not a sure thing. Like, I kind of have to convince myself to do it,

because there's so many other ways you could go podcast, audio book, whatever. And

like, am I sure that I want to commit an hour to listening to this album start to finish?

Like, it used to be a no brainer, right? It used to be very tangible. And it's like the, the act

or the art of like choosing the CD or choosing the album and putting it where it goes and

knowing this is the action that I go through in order to listen to this start to finish. And it

was just a different mentality than, than it is now.Lexy: Yeah, I think we've given over it, like to your point, we've kind of given over to the

luxury of having a lot of those decisions taken out of our hands. Like if you're listening

on a streaming platform, you can just put on a playlist that you didn't curate, or that the

algorithm is kind of put together for you based on things that you might be interested in.

And you kind of fall into that mentality, be like, well, I don't really know what to listen to.

So I'll just listen to something that's being pre-made, or, you know, a podcast that's

being put together. So from start to finish in a way that I don't have to necessarily make

those decisions. So I think that's also been a, like a really interesting shift to me over the

past few years is as someone who was like a huge music enthusiast and still is, but the

way in which I've consumed it has completely changed because I don't go over to my

CD library or, you know, my huge song library and decide what to listen to most of the

time. It's often like, I'll just put on a playlist because it kind of knows a little bit more

about my taste, maybe I'll discover something else. And also it's easier. We're all falling.

I mean, I've fallen into that trap. Absolutely.

Jason: Yeah. Life is, it's another decision to be made sometimes. Like, I just don't have

the time for another decision. You know, I keep, I keep threatening myself, threatening

to get a record player again, used to have them, you know, back when I was DJ, of

course I had a couple of record players. But I keep saying like, I want to get one

because then if I get one, then there will be albums that I will buy and I will make time

for it. And I think the reason that I continue to not do that is because I'm afraid that if I

do, I will prove myself wrong, that I'll get it and I'll get those things and I'll still not make

the time for it. And I think part of that is just because the tracks are so well-worn at this

point. It's just a different, different time and a different approach to how we enjoy music

these days.

Lexy: I think so. And we're also getting older and things age with time, right?

Jason: Oh my goodness. It always comes down to time. The older you get, the more

time matters. Real quick before we kind of round this out, if, if technology did not exist

and, you know, or, or rather if your tech, if your tech universe and your life was not so

entrenched in technology right now, what do you think you'd be doing right now with

your time? Would it be music? Would it be making music or what would alternative

universe Lexy do?

Lexy: Oh, that's a, that's a great question. What would alternative Lexy be doing?

Probably sitting with a tin can radio and just broadcasting and just playing songs on an

old cassette player and hoping someone would come by and listen. And you know, it's

probably would be sharing stuff about music and it would be, but, but I also, the other

part of me that like, the reason why I love what I do is that I can genuinely, I mean, I

hope that I can really genuinely share things that are exciting and things that can makeyour life better. And that's really, really important to me. So I, I like to focus a lot on, on

communicating and finding those kinds of technologies. I mean, I know the question that

you asked is if technology didn't exist, but technology has to exist in some way. There's

something, something has to, even if we don't call it technology, it's something hopefully

that the underlying drive of all of it, I hope is something that will make people's lives

better. And it's finding that aspect and sharing that aspect with people that is really

important. So there'd be some variation of that, that I would probably be doing alongside

playing random songs on an old cassette player with my teeny hand and talking into it

and hoping someone's there listening.

Jason: Yeah. You know what I love about the, you keep mentioning the cassette and

something that I love is this like resurgence of appreciation of the imperfection of

previous formats like the cassette. There is something, there is something about the

sound. Like I've got a box, like literally I've got a box that is huge and filled with

cassettes. Most, you know, a lot of them music that I created when I was younger with

different bands and whatever, but some of them like compilations that I made and

whatever. And even though I could find those songs on Spotify and listen to them purely

digital, pristine, blah, blah, blah, there is something that when I actually have broken out

the cassettes and played them through there, there's a warmth and kind of like an

immediate like sound noise print that takes me to another time listening to that music in

a different sense. And I just love that there's an appreciation for that, that there are

people now selling their music on cassette because it's just, it takes you back to a

different time and it has its own kind of signature to it. And that's, that's amazing. I love

that.

Lexy: You know, in like 40 years, the people are going to be talking about, remember

when I used to listen to that song on Spotify and how that used to sound and now it's all

like conducted into my brainwaves and who knows the nostalgia, you know, maybe

that's what's going to happen. We're going to have a full circle moment like that. And

people are going to be nostalgic for the era of streaming music.

Jason: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There is a, I can't remember who it is, but there is a producer

who God, is it Rick Rubin? I can't remember who basically said like any, any delivery

mechanism of music as flawed as it is at the time will be unappreciated for those flaws,

but eventually will be like people will strive for those flaws. And I think about like low bit

rate MP3s and that kind of like washy weird kind of garbled. And I think that's like the, I

don't believe that that will happen with that, but I could be proven wrong. I could be

proven wrong. We'll just have to wait and see.

Lexy, thank you so much for taking time with me today. This is a ton of fun and I love

getting the chance to get to know you a little better and talk to you about kind of theunique soup of technology that makes you, you. So I appreciate you coming with me

today.

Lexy: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. It's such an honor to be on the show.

I appreciate it. And it's been great fun.

Jason: Yeah. Everyone should definitely go check out Lexy's YouTube. It's

youtube.com/@LexySavvides (S A V V I D E S). And yeah, go subscribe, check out

Lexy's content. And yeah, thank you again, Lexy. We'll talk to you soon.

Lexy: See ya.

Lexy Savvides

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