So everybody is podcasting now huh

 Last night we were making momos and JD wanted to listen to a podcast since we were doing the Nepali activities. She searched for 'nepali' keyword in the podcast apps and played the first or second thing that came up.

And guess what?

It sounded familiar. The stories were just so uggh, the attitude all to familiar, the 'observations' shallow, no interest in teasing out the subtleties, and then the tales...seemed like I'd heard them before. Then it dawned on me. It was people I knew. Knew well and had hung out with until last year. And discussed big topics tm until four in the morning and gotten annoyed. People from my school, their whole gang.

I had issues. So many issues. The biggest being, the bro-talk was okay if they were 24 and bangin' but 33 yearold men shouldn't be talking about bringing 'chicks' and all that, non stop a gaggle of dudes who won't just stop talking. Then it dawned on me. It WAS a gaggle of guys who wouldn't stop talking in real life, like we'd talked about before how one of them who lives nearby is difficult to have a two-way conversation with because he won't stop talking. On and on and on and on, just won't fucking stop. Multiply that by four, four men who will talk and talk and talk, with the stories that aren't revealing, observations that aren't great, and you get some pile of bullcrap. I was pissed at first, so many podcasts, this is insane! Then I realized if people are channeling their talkies into podcasts and are willing to chill and let others speak for a change IRL, the trade is worth it absolutely.

A couple of months ago I heard a couple of younger girls from school started a podcast too. Don't know where that went but heard a snippet of it. They're all on the same topic, the Nepali student in American experience, cultural learnings  and how when you go to Subway the first time it's so overwhelming you don't know what to do and you need to watch out for other people before you can get an order in. Honestly, this has been talked about for the last hundred years, and that's only because that's when modern communication technology came to be. It's a story as old as civilization itself. The city mouse versus country mouse experience.

And for a few years I've been aware of the super nice podcast from two people I know of back from Nepal. Listened to the first two or three episodes, it was pretty good, then stopped it, I'm not the target audience and if I were I'd be long lost anyway. They're doing good work and I encourage that though.

Right as I was typing this I went out for an hour to talk to roommates and I and PK was talking about how everybody has a podcast now. I'm going to take a leap and make a prediction: people are doing podcasts because they're easier than vlogs and also you can do it from the comfort of your home. When they realize podcast production takes a long time, they're going to go more basic and start blogging. Then the media circle will have made a full 360 and we'll be back to where we were 18 years ago. Writing wins, always.

I'll be here, waiting, two thousand posts and fourteen years later.