On episode 45 of CMD + Space Myke Hurley and Stephen Hackett shared that the 512 Podcast would be ending in it’s current form after two more episodes. Myke mentioned that they’d be working on a show he’d been wanting to do for about 3 years now. On episode 65 of the 512 Podcast (out today) this show was revealed to be The Prompt, 5by5’s newest show. I reached out to Stephen to find out how he got started with 70Decibels and find out about the transition of the 512 Podcast to The Prompt.

CC: I’d like to start off by getting some backstory on how you got started with podcasting. How did you get involved with 70Decibels and how did the 512 Podcast come to be?

SH: Back in early 2011, Myke Hurley invited me on The Bro Show. At the time, TBS was the only show Myke did. We really hit it off, and began chatting off-air. I was on The Bro Show several more times, and we started kicking around the idea of doing a show.

At the time, I didn't want to do a tech show, so we landed on covering random Wikipedia articles.

By that time, Myke was already doing several other shows, and was laying the ground work for a podcast network. In October 2011, we launched Ungeniused., and 70Decibels, all on the same day. Myke, Terry Lucy (Myke's co-host on TBS) and I were the founders, with Myke doing most of the heavy lifting.

By February 2012, I had changed my mind about a tech show, and we launched The 512 Podcast pretty quickly.

Doing two shows at once was a lot for me to handle, and by May, it was pretty clear Ungeniused had run its course. It was a very time-consuming show to prepare for, as you might guess.

CC: What lead to the 512 Podcast coming to a close?

SH: I don't think of it as the 512 Podcast ending. It's just ... changing. Myke and I have both wanted to do something with Federico for a while, and this seemed like an obvious time to do it, with the transition to 5by5 after the merger.

CC: What can we expect the format of The Prompt to look like?

SH: With The Prompt, Myke and I are trying to break the two-guys-on-mics format that a lot of tech shows our size use. When you look at huge shows, like The Vergecast or MacBreak Weekly, it's much more of a panel discussion, and that's what we're trying to re-create.

The twist is on the guest side of things. While some combination of Myke, Viticci and I will always be present, we're going to pull in guests for interviews or pre-recorded stories as the news or our topic demands.

Speaking of topics, we're not always going to just follow the week's news. While that will be the driver some weeks, for sure, this format gives us flexibility. If we wanted to do an episode (or an arc of several shows) on a specific topic, there's nothing stopping us from doing that.

Thanks to Stephen for taking the time to share a glimpse of his history in podcasting and what’s to come with The Prompt. Episode 1 is due out in merely two weeks so we don’thave long to wait! You can read Stephen’s announcement, amongst all of his other fantastic writing at 512pixels.net.