Best of Panic: Jason Hirschhorn of REDEF (Part 1) on Digital Content Creation and Other Media Trends (EP.220)

As long time listeners know, I’ve taken a few weeks off from the podcast to go climb mountains on my bike. The bike phase is over, and it ended with a crescendo when I spent my 57th birthday climbing Stelvio. So far I’ve gone from San Diego to Toronto, to New York, to Italy, to Germany and I’m now in Tel Aviv – nearing the end of the third week of five weeks on the road. To fill the gap, I’m doing reruns of some of my favorite Panic with Friends episodes. This one with my pal Jason Hirschorn is from March of 2021. 

Best of Panic: I was excited about having Jason Hirschhorn on the ‘Panic’ podcast and he did not disappoint. This interview turned into a two part series so lean back for this first part which covers Jason’s long history at MTV, Slingbox, News Corp and MySpace. Jason has some great stories that were fun for me to listen to because I have met a lot of the same people in my short media stint at CBS. I have not met another person who is so passionate about movies, music and streaming.=

In the second interview (rerunning next week), Jason covers the future of new media and streaming and the explosion of the creator economy.

Looking back, I believe that YouTube created the first explosion in the creator economy and today it is a bunch of new media platforms combined with decentralization and tokens that will create an even bigger explosion which Jason predicts will be a ‘more equitable’ version of the creator economy. 

Guest - Jason Hirschhorn, CEO and Chief Curator at REDEF 

howardlindzon.com, redef.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @JasonHirschhorn, @MediaREDEF, @MusicREDEF, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/jason-hirschhorn-820a9b43 

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Show Notes:

• Introduction (00:41)
• Welcome Jason (02:48)
• LA quarantine scene (03:28)
• MTV and MySpace (04:24)
• Blake at Slingbox (05:11)
• Tony Bennett doing Rock Band? (07:02)
• Running into Fred Wilson (11:20)
• Jason’s first company (16:43)
• Working with Barry Diller (20:02)
• MySpace decision (24:08)
• “Innovation through litigation!” (30:25)
• Getting engaged (31:27)
• Exporting American culture (38:40)
• Traveling to Israel (40:45)
• Comparing NY to LA (42:24)
• Meeting Steve Jobs (46:31)
• Jet-setting with Bono (47:53)
• Closing thoughts (56:05)