The Inevitable Breakup or Death of Podcasts

When you love something or someone, you never want it to end. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. As podcasts and podcasting have increased in popularity, many of us have fallen in love with different podcasts, becoming loyal fans and making them a part of our everyday lives. But what happens when the inevitable happens and your favorite podcast breaks up or dies completely?

I remember the first podcast I fell in love with. It was in 2019 when I discovered the Joe Budden Podcast. I had heard of Joe Budden from a song he had with Lil Wayne, but I did not know anything else about him except the fact that he had that one song. Fast forward to 2019, I was living in Baltimore, Maryland, and I somehow stumbled upon the Joe Budden Podcast, and I became hooked. For three hours every week, I would listen to a bunch of guys talk about recently released music as they offered their opinions on the music and other things happening in pop culture at the time. I had never been a patient person, but somehow, I suddenly found the patience to listen to a three-hour podcast while driving, doing laundry, or even doing dishes. I got so used to it that I wouldn’t even notice the three hours go by. If the podcast was not released, my life would feel incomplete, like something was missing. Until one day two years later, Rory and Mal left the podcast. I did not know how to feel. I did not want them to break up, but as is the case with life, nothing lasts forever. I never listened to the Joe Budden podcast again. I have seen the clips online but have never watched a full episode since.

The saddest day of my life, however, happened when the Surving Nairobi Podcast died. As a Kenyan living in the diaspora, simply listening to the Surviving Nairobi Podcast made me feel like I was home. For example, by just listening (this is before they had video), I would feel like I could relate to what was happening back home, and I became hooked. There has never been a better podcast combo like Hafare and DJ IV until one day the podcast ended, and each went their separate ways, leaving us with no podcast.

Its sucks but we have to let podcasts break up or end. You cannot grow if you stay in the same place. The Joe Budden podcast continues after the breakup and is bigger than ever with new hosts. Surviving Nairobi ended, but Hafare and DJ IV have gone on to find success in other things. As fans, we might get sad, but it is important that as we start to love a podcast, we also understand that, eventually, the podcast will either die or break up. That’s life.