I started a podcast

Mead podcastingI don’t know if I ever had “regular” readers of The Blogging Dentist. But if I did, I probably made them think that I’m not writing any more. I’ve fallen down on the job. I’ve published inconsistently. I’ve been lame. What can I say?

Well…I started a podcast. I used to think that writing a blog took a lot of time. And it does. Kind of. But podcasting takes even more time. So the time I might have spent writing here has been spent getting a podcast up and running.

I’ve been listening to podcasts for a long time. For those who’ve never listened, a podcast is a radio show that can be downloaded from the internet. They’re usually free downloads and the best place to find them would probably be the iTunes store.

I like podcasts because they’re often done by regular folks in their spare time and this gives them a really nice authenticity. The typical podcaster is someone who’s an enthusiast on a subject (think Harry Potter, triathlons or Thai food. Or at least they used to be. A lot of radio stations and professional entertainers have come to realize the power of being able to syndicate your own show for next to nothing and have begun to use the format as well.

It’s actually a blast. I’m enjoying the interviews and discussions with my friends and colleagues. I’m enjoying the fact that I’m spreading ideas. In fact, that’s the same reason I like to write a blog here and at meadfamilydental.com.

There are a lot of similarities between blogging and podcasting. The similarities are all about being a “content creator.” So much of what dentists post on the canned “our blog” part of their websites is written by whoever it is that manages their office’s social media. When I read those blog posts they usually don’t seem authentic. I’d much rather read something a little less polished that I can tell was written by the dentist who is connected to that website.

That’s the spirit we’ve tried to bring to the podcast. The format is half interview and half group discussion. We’re interviewing people that my co-host (Jason Lipscomb) and I find interesting on topics that we find interesting. We call the group discussion “the Brain Trust.” It’s informal. Kind of like the discussion you’d have with colleagues at dinner when you’re taking some CE.

The DentalHacks PodcastThere are a lot of laughs and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Which some may consider a fault. I think it’s our biggest strength.

So, go check out our podcast. I think you’ll enjoy it.

And I’ll try to start posting more here, too.

 

eBay saved searches

I’m obsessed with dental microscopes. There. I said it. I’m still a beginner user even though I’ve had one for more than 2 years. I’ve been obsessed with the concept for probably 8 years or more. I do better dentistry because of magnification and the microscope is really the pinnacle. But that’s not what I want to talk about.

What I really want to talk about is a cool way to use eBay. I’ve been trying to find my “sweet spot” for my microscope’s objective lens (the distance from the bottom of the scope lens to the patient) and I didn’t want to pay thousands of dollars to figure it out. Global Surgical microscopes use an objective lens that’s pretty common amongst medical operating microscope manufacturers. And eBay has a ton of them. But let’s say you’ve got better things to do than search eBay every day for microscope objective lenses. What do you do? You make a “saved search.”

This feature may have been there forever, but I never noticed it. I think it’s particularly cool for dentists, though. Every dentist has that shelf in the strorage closet where the amazing and practice changing technologies they’ve purchased that didn’t work out sit. You can sell this stuff on eBay to dentists that could use it. And if there’s stuff you’re interested in, you can create a saved search so eBay will let you know when someone has something on their shelf that you might be interested in!

How does it work? After you enter a search for an item on eBay a button will appear on the right side of the search box that says “Save” and with a little star next to it. When you click on this button it defaults to “email me daily when new items match my search.” This means, it will send you an email when something that fits the search is listed on eBay. You can opt out of the email option, but you’ll still need to check eBay regularly.

So, give it a try! You might be helping some other poor dentist clear their “shelf of shame” of stuff that’s useful to you!