With Leo being something of a podcasting hero of ours, we always like to see what’s going on behind the scenes in TWiT land. Given how much of the day is spent live streaming, it’s not hard to see behind each of the shows, but Leo and team have taken it one step further. On the Inside TWiT blog, they’ve posted an hour long chat with Leo and CEO Lisa talking about the state of TWiT itself.

It’s an investment to watch, an hour long chatter about the intricate workings of a podcasting company, but we both found it fascinating. Leo is so freakishly open about everything going on - even more open than I thought, and I was already aware that he has his bathroom scales hooked up to Twitter.

In this one show, I learnt lots of little things I never knew before, including that Leo worked very briefly for CNET and has no love lost for the company. He also admitted that they offered Molly Wood a job, presumably along with Tom Merritt, and she was actually prepared to move until CBS came back with a better offer for her. I had always thought she just didn’t want to go, but now I know how close we came to keeping the dream team together, I’m gutted!

Leo also talks candidly about which shows do well, and the cost of running the studio per hour - and whether adding a podcast to the mix makes much difference to the price tag. He also admits that the downloads are where the advertising revenue is at, even though Leo (and Mr C!) still maintain that live streaming is the future.

Finally, I was surprised when he talked of the fact that Dvorak gets paid quite a lot, more than most involved, and that Leo forked out $60,000 for the new TWiT website. That seems like an awful lot to me, but I only have vague knowledge of the website design world.

There’s more to learn, as a second episode of what they’re calling This Week in TWiT was posted. We haven’t had chance to watch it yet, so whilst a part of me is hoping it is a regular occurrence, another part of me is hoping they hold off for a while so I can catch up!

The honesty and candour is astounding. I don’t know how wise it is, given that TWiT is far more than a small cottage business now, but as a fan, and as a student of the Life of Leo, I appreciate it.