Thinking On Paper

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Claimed

► Tell us about you and your podcast

Thinking on Paper is a podcast and book club hosted by Jeremy Gilbertson and Mark Fielding. We come from opposite sides of the tech world, Jeremy from systems architecture and product strategy, Mark from journalism and storytelling. What unites us is a shared obsession: understanding how technology is quietly reshaping power, trust, identity, and the way society operates.

The podcast is about the impact of different technologies on business, culture, society and entertainment. It's not just the tools or trends, but the underlying architectures. We talk to AI researchers, quantum physicists, blockchain founders, designers, and systems thinkers. Our goal isn’t to hype tech but to ask and understand what it really does, and who it’s for.

Our listeners are builders, CEOs, tech professionals, policy advisors, engineers, educators, investors, and high-agency generalists.
 

► Why & how did you start this podcast? 

We started Thinking on Paper in 2023. We met on LinkedIn, had a conversation about technology and life and decided almost instantly that other people should be part of our conversation. It felt important. The first podcast came soon after. And wasn't the highest quality. Looking back now at the fuzzy camera and bad audio, we can see how far we have come.

The initial goals were for our own education. We wanted to unpack tech trends and the obvious way was to speak to the people building and creating products. The CEOs and founders in blockchain and AI. It soon spiraled and became more about education and helping our listeners connect the dots between different tech in a human and non technical way.

We don't listen to lots of podcasts, a select curated few. Part of thinking on paper philosophy is about curating content and blocking out the noise. You get more - and can trust more - a few podcasts with quality content over a scatter-gun approach. At least in our opinion.
 

► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?

We release a new interview every Monday and a new book club every Thursday. I didn't mention the book club much, but in order to really get under the skin of how technology is changing culture we read books with our community too.

Anyway, how do we find time? It's not easy. Juggling jobs and families and podcasts. And we fund it all ourselves. Which adds a layer of complexity. But because we get so much and because our audience gets so much from the conversations, that is reward in itself. So we stay up late editing and recording and writing.
 

► What do you gain from podcasting?        

Thinking on Paper doesn't have sponsorship - we'd love to, if anyone is interested. We would do the show if nobody listened, such is the value. And that's where the main benefit is. Mark is a writer and speaker on technology. Jeremy is a writer too, there is no better way to think and expand our roles in our professional lives than with the podcast.
 

► How does your podcasting process look like? 

Mark takes care of guest outreach. This is done via Linkedin, our guests - we always ask for recommendations - and twitter. As we have gained traction and a higher calibre of guest, we now have a number of PR agencies who send us guest recommendations.

Tools: Riverside. Adobe Podcast. Opus Clip. Canva.

Hardware: Rode mic. Focusrite. Razer.

AI: Claude, ChatGPT, OpusClip. Truboscribe. Invideo. Audio Trimmer

Every episode is scripted and prepared a week in advance.
 

► How do you market your show?

How do listeners find our show; SEO from website. Twitter. LinkedIn. Instagram. Substack. Word of mouth.

Marketing channels: LinkedIn is our most productive marketing channel.
 

► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?

There’s a difference between being interesting and being understood—and that wasn’t obvious to us at the start.

Reading The Audience is Listening helped us realize the listener isn’t just consuming content—they’re scanning for trust, momentum, and signal. It changed how we structured our intros, our pacing, and even our tone. We stopped trying to “fill” the time and started building each episode like an idea unfolding in real time.

The Art of Explanation taught us to resist the temptation to sound smart and instead focus on clarity. That meant saying “this feels like Lego blocks” instead of “it’s a modular composable architecture.” It also reminded us that good explanations don’t simplify—they sequence. That mindset changed the way we prep for interviews and how we frame questions.

Most helpful resource? Listening back to our own episodes. Nothing teaches faster than hearing yourself try to explain a complex idea and realizing you lost the thread. I'd recommend all aspiring podcasters study their own show and others who have come before them.

And read the Audience is listening by Tom Webster.

Then read it again.
 

► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?

The Thinking On Paper HQ is www.thinkingonpaper.xyz