This is why, when people over the years tell us, “I really want to do a podcast,” my first recommendation is: “Same time, same day, every week. Forever.” That’s the only guidance I give because if you can manage that for a year and then ask what else to do, we can have that conversation.
If you’re not prepared to be that professional, good luck. I doubt you’ll gain much traction with an audience, because so much rests on that consistency.
Ben: The podcasts I listen to during the week are something I genuinely look forward to—those shows showing up at the moment I habitually listen. So we’ve been fortunate to settle into a place under a lot of people’s skin—
Adam: Is that how we know, Ben? Like, we’re not just the president of Hair Club; we’re also the customers? I think we understand what matters to a podcast listener because we are listeners ourselves. Lately, new podcasting seems full of hosts doing it because it’s profitable in their niche, you know?
Ben: Wait, this can be lucrative? Shit, what have we been doing?
Ars: I’m at a point in my life right now—and maybe you guys are, too—where I find it really hard to emotionally engage with the news. I catch myself turning off the news on the radio and my phone in ways I didn’t three or five years ago. I used to be all in: every story, every update, all the time. And I just can’t now. I want to hear some people talk about martinis.
Ben, you mentioned earlier that this is a show about the hang, and it’s sort of loosely anchored around the thing that you love, Star Trek.
Do you get that same feeling when you’re chatting with Adam Pranica about Baywatch? Does the subject matter to you both at all? Or does Star Trek carry a particular emotional resonance in a way that, you know, lawns don’t?
Ben: I think the Trek aspect remains really important to the show. We’re living in an era where the news is both devastating and exhausting, and, you know, Trek contains a lot of politics.
Adam and I share many political views, but we also, I think, try to keep this as a place where the horrors of the world aren’t the main focus.
