Tom Scharpling is an OG radio host and podcaster. He started to host and produce a radio show called "The Best Show" on WFMU back in 2003. The show featured call-ins from listeners, stories and special guests like comedian Patton Oswalt.

In 2014, The Best Show went off the air, and re-launched as a podcast.

Tom has paved the way with his old WFMU show for Marc Maron and WTF, to Chris Hardwick of Nerdist, and many other comedy podcasts in the modern day.

Listen to the Best Show:  http://thebestshow.net/podcast/

Buy Tom's Best Show merch and tickets to his live show:  http://stereolaffs.com/

Buy Rock, Rot and Rule:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QZUBKS

What we learned on the show:

Our website:  http://www.influencereconomy.com/

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ryanjwill 

Jonah Keri came on the podcast in December and he was a fantastic guest. He was so good, that I wanted to re-publish this episode for all the new listeners to the show.

He's a writer at ESPN's Grantland, NY Times best-selling author, and one of the smarter minds around baseball analytics in journalism.

We get into a lot o great topics here.  Specifically how he started his journalism career, where he got his first big break as a writer, and how Bill Simmons picked him to write for Grantland.  Side note, I interviewed him when Bill Simmons still worked for ESPN, so I wasn't able to ask him about Bill's recent exit!

Subscribe and Leave a review:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/stories-from-influencer-economy/id820744212?mt=2

Our archives:  http://www.influencereconomy.com/

Jonah Keri's website:  http://jonahkeri.com/

I was really excited to sit down with Cenk from The Young Turks. He's one of the pre-eminent political voices online, and his TYT YouTube network is a mini empire on YouTube.  I went to his office and studio in Culver City to speak to him on the podcast. They were kind enough to host me in their newly built studio, on The Young Turks set.

What's remarkable about Cenk and his team, is how deep their community connection runs. In many ways, their community is an additional host and correspondent on the Young Turks Network. The Young Turks have a continual open dialogue with their audience and it's destroying the TV model of network filtered news. 

Cenk is building the next CNN, but better and much improved. We talk at length about their shows, political beliefs and the old networks and out-dated models in news and politics.

Our older acrchives:  http://www.influencereconomy.com/

Please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/stories-from-influencer-economy/id820744212?mt=2

The Young Turks:  http://www.tytnetwork.com/

Find the TYT on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks

Cenk:  https://twitter.com/cenkuygur

Cenk's background:

Cenk Uygur is the host and co-founder of The Young Turks online which is the largest news show on the Internet.

Uygur is the former host of The Young Turks on Current TV, MSNBC Live and has appeared numerous times on CNN, CNN Headline News, E! Entertainment Channel, Al Jazeera, ABC News, Voice of America, NPR and even Fox News Channel. He is one of the most popular bloggers on The Huffington Post, and also a contributor to Daily Kos and Politico. Uygur is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and Columbia University Law School. He worked as a lawyer, television writer and television host before co-founding The Young Turks.

What if you were a writer who let it all hang-out.  What if you wrote about failure and not just success. And what if you approached topics such such as wishing that your daughter becomes a lesbian or listing your business failures for all to learn from.  That's what James Altucher does.  James is a writer, investor, start-up founder, podcast, father, and literally an open book when it comes to his creation.

I was excited to have him on the show to discuss all things Choosing Yourself and the art and science about how he professionally self-published his own best-selling book.

In this episode you'll learn:

Our archives:  http://www.influencereconomy.com/

James on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jaltucher

James' website:  http://www.jamesaltucher.com/

James' book "Choose Yourself": http://www.amazon.com/Choose-Yourself-James-Altucher-ebook/dp/B00CO8D3G4 

Ideas and people mentioned:

Jemele Hill is a podcast host, TV show host, and modern day multi-platform journalist. She works at ESPN, hosts the His and Hers TV show and podcast with her show partner Michael Smith. And she's an overall social media maven and an old pal from SXSW and other digital sports event.  

Note: We had some static on the skype line during parts of the episode with Jemele. We worked hard to edit out the reverb as much as possible and spent considerable time touching it up. We think this is an episode that you'll enjoy, and thanks again for listening.

Our website:  http://www.influencereconomy.com/

Follow Ryan on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ryanjwill

Jemele on Hill:  https://twitter.com/jemelehill

Jemele at ESPN:  http://search.espn.go.com/jemele-hill/

What we talked about: 

Links we mentioned:

Blogs with Balls:  http://blogswithballs.com/

Anthony Saleh:  https://twitter.com/dude_br0

John Corcoran is a lawyer, former writer for The White House, and even had a stint working in L.A. in the entertainment industry. He is now the purveyor of Smart Business Revolution, a multi-media business company. His work as at the forefront of the new generation of business media brands, where people actually help each other succeed.

John or "The Relationship Doctor" as I like to call him, is one of the most well-networked people in the podcast business community. He's part of a new breed of entrepreneur, building his company off of his content. He sells online classes on "How to Connect with VIP's," offers webinars on connecting with influencers, hosts a weekly podcast, has an immensely popular email newsletter, and is the ultimate business connector.

John shares stories about how he make $1000 from a single Tweet, how he snowballs his income buy selling products to his audience, and he years of secrets to connecting with VIP's and influencers. 

John's website: http://smartbusinessrevolution.com/

 John on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/johncorcoran

Our website:  http://www.influencereconomy.com/

Follow Ryan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanjwill

Greg Goodfried joined the show this week for Episode # 52.  

Greg was a trailblazer in the online "viral video" world back in 2006, when he created the epic online videos series: LonelyGirl15. This was back when "viral videos" were a big thing. He then went onto be a founder of EQAL, one of the first digital media companies to partner celebrities with major brands. 

He's now a digital agent at UTA in Los Angeles, and we stopped by the his office to this week for Stories From the Influencer Economy.

Greg is passionate about partnering with YouTubers, Viners, and Instagram creators, and helping them grow and monetize their business opportunities.  He manages online talent, helping them to build out long term financial opportunities from their work.  

We talked in detail about how YouTubers and online creators collaborate build their audiences and what habits make a successful YouTuber. We also talk about how the normal person can grow their own social media and video followings. And we agree that "being a good" person goes a long way to create success in the online world. Greg also shares stories about working with YouTubers like Shane Dawson and iJustine, and how he created a web phenomenon with LonelyGirl15

Ryan on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ryanjwill

Influencer Economy website: http://www.influencereconomy.com/

Greg on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/GregGoodfried

Greg on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/greggoodfried

Listen to all our The Influencer Economy episodes and subscribe on iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/stories-from-influencer-economy/id820744212?mt=2

Our buddy Flula came on the podcast last year. He was a favorite guest of the show, and even prouced our intro theme music. He's also featured in Pitch Perfect II, so we thought we'd re-post the episod for everyone to learn more about Flula!

lula in Germany is here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxKivzjCFNg  

Flula on YouTube:  http://youtube.com/flula Flula on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flula Flula on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/flula Flula on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/flula  

Ryan on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ryanjwill

Ryan on Instagram:  http://instagram.com/ryanjwill 

I was excited that Veronica Belmont stopped by to talk about her hit shows Sword and Laser and Vaginal Fantasies, while diving into her overall creative process. She's an old school podcaster and we talk about how she got her career start after graduating from Emerson College back in the day. 

Veronica on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/veronica

Sword and Laser:  http://swordandlaser.com/

Vaginal Fantasy:  http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/62938-vaginal-fantasy-book-club

AJ Jacobs is a N.Y. Times best-selling author and hosting the world's largest family reunion. He's also cousins with both Hilary Cinnton, Barack Obama and Kevin Bacon. He's probably cousins with you too and out to show the world we have a lot more in common than we may realize.

In this podcast, we dive into AJ's writing process, book history, and his upcoming family reunion. 

Our website:  http://www.influencereconomy.com/

Ryan on Twitter:https://twitter.com/ryanjwill

Please leave a review on iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/influencer-economy-ryan-williams/id820744212?mt=2

AJ on Twitter and his Global Family Reunion Website

https://twitter.com/ajjacobs

http://globalfamilyreunion.com/