The subtitle of today’s post asks the question that is on no one’s lips: “Is the world clamoring for yet another podcast by a white guy?” The short and long answer is, “No.” The longer answer is, “Hell no!”
Of course no one is clamoring for yet another white guy’s podcast. Seemingly every other white guy I know in the thirty-to-fifty age range either has a podcast, has attempted a podcast in the past, or is plotting one in the future. A cursory glance of what is available on iTunes Podcasts shows that honky dudes are very comfortably in the lead for the number of creators. By a lot. I assume that the same holds on Spotify, but I deleted my account utterly when they chose to monetize fascism.
In the very early days of this newsletter, I sent up a trial balloon about having a blog-related podcast and it came crashing down like the Hindenburg. Though the votes in a poll I made barely cleared the hurdle to make a podcast, I decided not to. I was met with stronger resistance to the idea than I expected. Much stronger resistance. The poll may have said yes (barely), but every email—and there were many, were adamantly opposed to a podcast. I was expecting to see the majority of the reactions to fall somewhere on the range of Meh. to Why Not?, but the responses were almost uniformly in the No. to Hell No! range. I took that to be a sign not to do a podcast. Back then.
When I first wrote about having a podcast, I was only about five weeks into this blog and I think that people were concerned that I would be taking time away from the challenges that I set forth to accomplish in a year, and that I would be taking focus away on writing. Let us be frank, after almost two-and-a-half years, the challenges are all but forgotten by me. I may pick them back up one day, but I think that Covid pretty much killed my desire to pursue the challenges. Who knows? I am just coming out of a longish depressive episode, so who knows where my ambitions may lie in a couple of months?
For now, I want to do a podcast. I already own all of the gear required to start a podcast.
Here is my plan:
I will record myself reading aloud the existing back catalog. These will be recorded newest to oldest. I will skip over posts that are newsletter housekeeping or Zoom party invites, et cetera. Zoom party tonight, by the way.
For now, the podcasts will only be on Substack. If I start to get outsized interest in the podcast, for instance a lot of people sharing the podcast posts or lots of feedback about wanting the podcast on another platform, I will consider putting it on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and the like. But not Spotify. Me and them are done for good.
They will be available for everyone. I originally thought about making the podcasts for paid subscribers—that maybe a podcast would drive more people to paid subscriptions, but that fairly reeks of capitalism, and y’all know that ain’t my bag. I want people to subscribe or donate because they wish to support me and my writing. Period. Do I feel that there should be more perks for subscribers? Yes! Do I think that gatekeeping podcast access should be one of those perks? No! I really do need to reward my paid subscribers better, and I promise that I am working on it.
They will come in dribs and drabs—whenever I feel like recording. I will try to do at least one a week, but my focus must be on writing the blog first and foremost.
I am open to suggestions on other ways I can use the podcast feature of Substack, but I am no longer asking for permission as to whether I am doing this or not. This is just a courtesy call to let y’all know that this ol’ Bronc is doing this. The blog’s going talkie!
I will not have guests. I hate the ‘a bunch of jagoffs talking over each other podcasts’ so much that I convinced myself that I hated all podcasts. I may mellow out on this and have one guest occasionally—if the topic at hand is appropriate to speak to another person about.
Send me those emails and let me know if there is something that you really want me to do in podcast form. If you are or remain adamantly opposed, let me know—I value your opinion as well. You are unlikely to change my mind, but I want you to be heard.
Mom is doing much better. Her kidneys are functioning normally again, which is a massive relief. She is still in the hospital, but much improved. Improved to the point of boredom. That is good news, really sick people are rarely bored, they are too sick. She is going to go into rehab from the hospital, which is not good news, and she is not happy about it, but it seems like there is no choice. She needs to build up her strength more to be able to go home. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers, please.
Thank you, as always, for reading.
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