Odd Lots Revisited: Our First Episode with Tom Keene

Joe Weisenthal (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:15)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:16)

Tracy, you know what I just found out? People have asked me, when did Odd Lots start? And I didn't know the date up until just now.

Tracy Alloway (0:22)

The exact date?

Joe Weisenthal (0:23)

Yeah.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

I know roughly in 2015

Joe Weisenthal (0:25)

Our first episode, November 6th, 2015 I think I would have said a little bit earlier, but no, that seems right.

Tracy Alloway (0:30)

Yeah, I thought it was like October.

Joe Weisenthal (0:31)

Yeah, like summer 2015 or something. But we've been doing this, so that's crazy. So it's like seven years?

Tracy Alloway (0:37)

More than seven years. Time flies when you're having fun.

Joe Weisenthal (0:42)

That's a long time. And when we first started, you were in New York.

Tracy Alloway (0:46)

Yes.

Joe Weisenthal (0:47)

And then you went to?

Tracy Alloway (0:48)

I went to Abu Dhabi. And I remember sitting on my living room floor on this big oriental carpet with like a Moroccan poof in front of me and recording Odd Lots episodes at 6 p.m. in the evening.

And then I went to Hong Kong.

Joe Weisenthal (1:04)

And then you made your life even, then you made it even more difficult by yourself.

Tracy Alloway (1:07)

It was like 10 or 11 p.m. at night. And I was recording these episodes from an apartment that was mostly made out of cement, which means that the sound just echoed off of the walls. And it was a complete nightmare from an audio perspective.

Joe Weisenthal (1:21)

When in that process did you get your dog?

Tracy Alloway (1:24)

Oh, that was 2020 So he was a pandemic puppy.

And so he would have been making noise in the background while I was huddled under a blanket. And I used to cut the air conditioner in Hong Kong as well, because it was really noisy. So I'd be in a cement apartment under a blanket without any air conditioning. And the humidity is like 100%, and it's 90 degrees out, and the puppy is whining behind me. So I'm glad to say that, at least from my perspective, the recording options have improved vastly since then.

Joe Weisenthal (1:55)

Yeah, I'm glad you're back. I felt bad by the end, like you having to do these episodes at 10 o'clock.

Tracy Alloway (2:02)

So wasn't there one that I did at like 3 in the morning?

Joe Weisenthal (2:04)

I think so, but it must have been a really good guest.

Tracy Alloway (2:06)

Yes, it was all worth it.

Joe Weisenthal (2:08)

I'm sure it was worth it.

Tracy Alloway (2:09)

It was all worth it. And it led us to this moment here where we're reunited in the New York office. We're in a proper recording studio. And we get to talk about our first ever episode.

Joe Weisenthal (2:21)

So I think we actually recorded that episode in the exec studio that we're in right now. We've recorded it in a few different places, but I think it was literally in this room.

Tracy Alloway (2:29)

Right. So for this festive holiday season, we are re-releasing our first ever episode. Our guest for that episode was Tom Keene, who is our colleague over here at Bloomberg News. You might recognize him from Bloomberg Television. He hosts the Surveillance Morning Show.

And when you listen to it, you might notice that a few things are different.

Joe Weisenthal (2:51)

A few different here and there, you know, we probably sound a little bit different. We also like, well, we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know what Odd Lots was going to be. I mean, I still don't know what it is, but we definitely didn't know at the time.

And so it was one of these things where like, well, podcasts seem fun. A lot of people are listening to them. And you know, before we joined Bloomberg, like Tom Keene, sort of this legendary figure at the company, sort of like someone that many of us idolize, or I certainly did, and his interview style and his intelligence and just the sort of like general flair and aesthetic of Tom Keene for those who know him, a very distinctive figure. So it's like, got to talk to Tom.

Tracy Alloway (3:29)

You said distinctive figure. For those who don't know, Tom is like, what, six foot seven or something?

Joe Weisenthal (3:35)

He wears a bow tie.

Tracy Alloway (3:35)

He's big. He wears a bow tie. I think he used to play hockey.