Also he has no basic decency to announce cancelation and left Tims hanging, for many of whom it was the podcast.
Compare that with Cortex where Gray can talk productivity systems and his unanswered love for Apple all day long. Endless content there, as you can never overthink it too much.
I know that Haran eventually posted a brief comment on Reddit acknowledging the hiatus, but it struck me as a strangely subdued way to announce the end of a regular series that had been very successful for several years.
I would say in particular lots of these people started doing "community slacks/discords" and then they realized that being able to produce podcast episodes doesn't make you a good community manager.
There's been specific drama with Relay and people around that extended universe as well, so lots of podcast hosts in that space are basically done with fan interaction.
I'm being a bit glib but I totally get it. If you have the choice to just walk away from dealing with CM stuff then it's a pretty nice proposition.
I remember that both the hosts encouraged audience engagement in different ways — several episodes featured long discussions about topics on the Subreddit, and they solicited audience participation in various projects.
A show that I listen to skipped a week during the early stages of the pandemic. I was concerned that one of the hosts was ill / possibly dying. It was some planned thing, like a vacation or something. A little notice would have been nice.
Sure, these are strangers and my emotional investment is a bit like teen girls crying when they saw the Beatles play: “Really?”. But I love the show and would have missed it, so I was anxious about its (possible) demise.
I think you’ve nailed it with this.
I’d imagine it can be a real grind, endlessly producing a podcast week after week. If it’s anything more than walking up to a mic and talking stream of consciousness, the prep work must take hours.
Most podcasters have other jobs. On one hand, I’m surprised that we don’t see people taking a seasonal approach, to give themselves a break, recharge, and maybe put in work writing and researching in the down time. On the other, it seems so many are afraid to walk away, even temporarily, for fear of losing an audience.
Serious question: why? So an episode doesn't show up in your feed one week. I doubt I would even notice in the first place, much less jump to being concerned about the hosts' health or much less jump to feeling put out by the lack of warning.
Seems reasonable to me.
I have a podcast app (Overcast) which I use for everything, and nothing that I can't subscribe to in that will ever get my ears.
Spotify is the first serious challenger, but so far the only ones to go Spotify exclusive as the really big ones that are paid handsomely to do it.
They stopped it right when the pandemic hit. That messed up podcast advertising for a while, and also the usual stuff they talked about.
Meanwhile they both have other projects and may have decided their time or energy was better spent elsewhere. Who knows?
A little unusual not to say anything but hey, they end episodes without goodbye so not a giant surprise. And Brady has said they’re on a break and on good terms so it isn’t totally secret either.
I enjoyed it while it was around and wish them well, but I don’t think they owe us anything. I subbed to Goodbye Internet to give a small incentive to them restarting, and that’s it.
But to my larger point, it is still an asset. If the community atrophies 40% while they’re gone...it’s still 60% of a great asset.
But he already burned a lot of good will by doing it so glib. For example, I don’t click “like” on his videos anymore, and I’m not subscribing to his paid director’s commentary. It only applies to Grey, we all know it’s not Brady’s fault.
It's hard for us to visualize since having such an audience sounds like a responsibility we'd take seriously. But to Grey it's just a small income stream on the side. He doesn't have an actual relationship with the members of the audience, even if the audience might believe otherwise.
I'm not saying you're wrong, just that considering the change of perspective is an interesting exercise.