Pete Cashmore: what the Mashable CEO listens to on his way to work

I live a 30-minute car ride from my office in New York and use Lyft, a ride-hailing app. Driving anywhere in the city is hard work and you end up paying a lot in parking, so it is an affordable way to travel without the hassle of having a car.

The drive gives me time to go through emails before I get to work. On the way back I chill out a little, listen to podcasts and catch up on the news. I look at the Snapchat Discover channel, which provides quick snippets of news with photos and text overlaid. It is a full-time job keeping up with world events these days.

Audio

I listen to Anderson Cooper 360° podcast from CNN, and for culture I like Fresh Air, a weekday magazine programme; The Frame, which is about movies; The Vulture, which covers television; and another Hollywood one called The Business.

When travelling, there is dead time during which I can get a lot of information quickly with podcasts.
I probably spend multiple hours a day listening to them — and I am optimistic about them as a growing trend.

Films

Our other major office is in Los Angeles and about once a month I am on the road.
I try not to travel too much, but over the summer I am hoping to get to our London office. When I fly, if I have WiFi I work straight through, but if I don’t, I download movies. When I am disconnected is the only time I have an excuse to consume something entertaining.

I have been trying to catch up with the Oscar nominees so I have a bunch downloaded for my next flight. I just watched Hell or High Water, a western, and I’ve got Loving, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, and Nocturnal Animals lined up.

I watch lighter sci-fi when on the treadmill because it is all about connectivity. I have also been watching Deadpool and Star Trek Beyond .

Books

I have been rereading a book called Blockbusters by Anita Elberse. It is about how you build media franchises. What is really interesting is that, even in the digital realm, it is all about having franchises that people can identify with; Star Wars is still the biggest and it can be replicated in different ways — a franchise can be a movie, it can be a theme park, it can be a television show, it can be merchandise.

We are dealing with all these different storytelling formats; so rather than having these individual pockets of information or news, can we have franchises that run on every different platform or work in multiple ways to tell a story?

I avoid ebooks. But I like audio books because they force you to slow down and reflect, and I remember things well when I hear them — for me the medium is very personal.

Television

Last year I got into Black Mirror, Westworld and Stranger Things. Westworld is discussed heavily on internet forums and on social media — it has a whole different life online. People are engaged with it rather than just consuming it. It is also just this pure exploration of where artificial intelligence will go and what it will mean for us as humans.

I watch a lot of sci-fi because that really is the intersection between tech and entertainment.