500 Episodes and Growing: The History and Evolution of the Lean Blog Podcast

Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership

Episode page with transcript and more

My guest for Episode #500 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is me, your usual host Mark Graban. Today, I'm mixing up the format with a solo episode that celebrates 500 episodes over almost 18 years.

I'll share some of the origin story and history of the podcast. You'll hear clips from Episode 1 (with Norm Bodek) and Episode 50 (where Jamie Flinchbaugh asked me about getting started). You'll also hear a clip from a recent conversation where Barry McCarthy, of AME Australia, asked me about persisting with podcasting all these years.

Thanks for listening, whether this is your first time, you've listened to them all, or somewhere in between!

The podcast is brought to you by Stiles Associates, the premier executive search firm specializing in the placement of Lean Transformation executives. With a track record of success spanning over 30 years, it's been the trusted partner for the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare sectors. Learn more.

This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Notes and Highlights:

• More than 500 episodes in 921 weeks, a little more than one every two weeks for 17.75 years
• 3,276,745 total downloads / listens, although I'm not convinced the stats are 100% consistent
• The top 10 most downloaded episodes
• The most frequent guests (#1 is Norman Bodek with 14 episodes)
• One anonymous guest
• Where listeners are from
• The origin story and the intro to Episode #1
• A clip from Episode #50
• My reflections on the clunky podcast name
• A shift over time from “big names” to highlighting new faces and their stories
• The one time I forgot to record!
• In memoriam: guests who have passed away