The Leanpub Podcast

Christoph Molnar is the author of the Leanpub book Interpretable Machine Learning: A Guide for Making Black Box Models Explainable. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Christoph about his background, what it takes to work on a Ph.D., his book and interpretability, as well as machine learning generally, some dystopian possibilities for the future, and at the end, they talk a little bit about his experience as a self-published author, including the systemic use of a free translation tool.

This interview was recorded on January 22, 2019.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Frontmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Jay Hoffmann is the author of the Leanpub book The History of the Web, Volume I. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Jay about his background and career, starting and maintaining a popular newsletter, his book, the history of the web, the challenges the web presents to historians, some of the more interesting stories that he's researched, and at the end, they talk a little bit about his experience self-publishing.

This interview was recorded on January 16, 2018.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Frontmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Nathan Bransford is a freelance editor and media strategy consultant, an author, and a former literary agent for Curtis Brown. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Nathan about his background, studying English at Stanford during the dot com boom, work as a literary agent, getting published, and current issues facing the book publishing industry.

This interview was recorded on January 9, 2019.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Sandy Maguire is the author of the Leanpub book Thinking with Types: Type-Level Programming in Haskell. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Sandy about his background, working at Facebook and Google, retiring at a young age and travelling, Haskell, his book, and at the end, they talk a little bit about his experience as a self-published author.

This interview was recorded on December 18, 2018.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Frontmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Brad Sams is the author of the Leanpub book Beneath A Surface: The Story of How Microsoft Overcame a $900 Million Write-Down to Become the Hero of the PC Industry. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Brad about his background, his work for the Blue Whale Web Media Group, being a tech journalist, the tricky business of handling leaks and anonymous sources, his book, and the fascinating product and brand story of the Microsoft Surface, and at the end, they talk a little bit about his experience as a self-published book author.

This interview was recorded on December 11, 2018.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Frontmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

David Vandagriff is known by people in the publishing industry as Passive Guy, his persona on his popular publishing industry blog, The Passive Voice.

In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with David about his background, how he got into the law after studying speech and literature, his early innovations with desktop publishing in the preparation of legal documents, his work in advertising and how he got into the tech world, as well as recent issues in the book publishing industry generally.

This interview was recorded on November 6, 2018.

Michael T. Lombardi is the author of the Leanpub course pwshop: A PowerShell 101 Workshop. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Mike about his background in tech, restorative justice and workplace conduct, what PowerShell is, the success of the PowerShell Conference Book in raising money for a scholarship, his course, and at the end, they talk a little bit about his experience as one of the first people to create a Leanpub online course.

This interview was recorded on December 4, 2018.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Frontmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Orna Ross is an award-winning author and poet who founded the popular Alliance of Independent Authors, an influential professional association for self-published authors.

In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Orna about her background in publishing, the changing roles of literary agents, getting her rights back from a big publisher, the huge transformation in the self-publishing in the recent past, Self-Publishing 3.0, her Go Creative! series, and a number of other topics.

This interview was recorded on October 30, 2018.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Backmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

Guerric de Ternay is the author of the Leanpub book The Value Mix: Create meaningful products and services for your audience. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Guerric about his background, how studying law can help you in business, launching fashion brands, the profound ways marketing has changed in the last century, the unique insights he offers to marketers and product-builders in his book, and at the end, they talk a little bit about his experience as a self-published author.

This interview was recorded on November 29, 2018.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Frontmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Associate Professor Rebecca Giblin about her background, her e-lending and Author's Interest projects, DRM and creator compensation, the potential role unfair competition law could play in regulating dominant companies, and author compensation in relation the economics of library ebook lending and the book industry generally.

This interview was recorded on September 18, 2018.

The full audio for the interview is here. You can subscribe to the Backmatter podcast in iTunes or add the podcast URL directly.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.