Why I'm coming *back* to podcasting

Is This A Thing? launches next week! This time around, things are a little different.

Earlier this year, I announced that I was leaving the podcast game.

The end of an era: why my podcast is saying goodbye after seven years

Well, that’s not exactly true.

Let me rephrase.

Earlier this year, I announced that I was saying goodbye to the show I’d been making for the better part of seven years, The SSR Podcast.

But I never said I was leaving the medium for good.

In fact, I’ve hinted over and over that another pod might be on the horizon, and I’m excited to tell you now that those hints have manifested into something that’s been bringing me a lot of joy lately: a new show, hosted and produced alongside one of my closest friends.

I shout out to Abby quite frequently here, not only because she has a (wonderful) Substack newsletter of her own, but also because the friendship we’ve developed over the last couple of years has proven a space where we both get to be dreamy, ambitious, and creative. In that spirit, we are finally (finally!) launching a passion project together, which is something we’ve been hoping to do for a long, long time.

Next week, the first episodes of Is This A Thing? will hit your podcast feeds.

Let me tell you a little bit more about the show…

Abby and I wanted to make a show that would allow us to really celebrate our friendship—but we also wanted to find ways to make that a little more universal, to invite listeners into our conversations so that they would feel seen, understood, and entertained. And with the increasingly crowded podcast space still looming in my brain after shuttering SSR, I knew we needed to come up with an interesting structure for our conversations so it wouldn’t just be us yapping… because we do like to yap.

And so we came up with Is This A Thing?

On each episode, one of us brings a thing—a ritual, a habit, an obsession, a question, a challenge—to the table and we consider if it’s, well, a thing. To put a finer point on it: is it singular or universal? There are no right or wrong answers—just lots of space for comparing notes, swapping stories, and inviting listeners into our friendship.

Now, I’m going to circle back to the part where I shut down my other podcast.

Obviously, people are allowed to change their minds. I just did!

I learned a lot from making the decision to walk away from SSR. I have not traditionally been someone who is good at giving herself permission to change her mind, but my journey with the podcast really did open my eyes to a lot: “quitting” something doesn’t make you a quitter, you get to evolve the things you “quit,” and none of it is forever.

My journey with the podcast also showed me that I love podcasting.

For me, it’s been such a meaningful medium to express myself and to connect with other people. And while I don’t miss making SSR per se, I have missed the chance to take ownership of a project I’m passionate about that’s all mine—or, in this case, mine and Abby’s.

That brings me to an important question:

What’s going to be different this time around?

And—a follow-up—why does that have me jumping right back into podcasting just a couple of months after exiting stage left?