Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #1000: Drive to Work

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

To celebrate my 1,000th episode, I talk all about the making of Drive to Work.

I'm pulling out the parking lot. You heard me, the parking lot. You all know what that means. It's another drive from work. So guys, it is the thousandth episode. So this morning, so I planned for the thousandth episode to be stories about making Drive to Work. So apropos that the thousandth episode would be about the making of Drive to Work. So, as is often the case when making a podcast and having a thousand episodes, I've already done a podcast on the origins of Drive to Work. So I'm not going to tell how Drive to Work came to be, because I had a podcast where I talked about how Drive to Work came to be.

So you can listen to that podcast. Because I had a podcast where I talked about how Drive to Work came to be. So you can listen to that podcast. Today is more stories about the trials and tribulations of making this podcast. And I just thought I would share it. In fact, so the first story is the reason why this is a drive from work and not a drive to work. Because this morning I was doing my podcast. And I was a good way along the way when I hit something in my car, like there's a button you can hit if you want to like make a

phone call or something. And I didn't realize I hit it and sort of started talking and I didn't know how to make it stop because I've never like normally you hit it and it says, you know, what do you want to do or whatever? And I was trying to make it stop and I couldn't make it stop. And I started laughing. And anyway, I messed that podcast up. So the other thing behind the scenes is normally I'm actually a bit ahead. In the olden days before the pandemic, I was like four to six weeks ahead. And then post-pandemic,

I've been about two weeks ahead. And then I just used up all my, for the holiday break, I burned my ones. I used them up. So I have to record this this week. Like I'm recording this episode the same week as you guys are going to hear it, which is usually, I'm usually farther ahead than this. So, and the way it works is post-pandemic, I'm now in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sometimes Wednesdays, but not this week.

So I only had two days in the office, and I wanted, this is Tuesday today, so I'm trying to get this done today because I need to get it to my Kendall's the person that I send stuff to, so they can put it up. And normally I send it to Kendall on Wednesdays, so I need to get it to my, Kendall's the person that I send stuff to, so they can put it up. And normally I send it to Kendall on Wednesday. So like, I need to get it done today.

It's going to do this morning. And then I had it messed up this morning. So I'm like, okay, I have one more chance to do drive to work while I'm driving to work. Now, normally, by the way, I could do a drive to work. Like, I do the home way, I could do a drive to work. Like I do the home versions. I could do that. But it's the thousandth episode. And I felt like the thousandth episode has to be a drive.

You know, I'd be in my car. That felt only right. So anyway, let me catch up. Last time I talked about my podcast. I talked about the origin of my podcast. I talked about being inspired by Kevin Smith. Realizing that my dream of doing a half-hour podcast worked perfectly with my half-hour drive to work.

And I started making it, and it chugged along. It is just something, I have a habit when I start doing something to just keep doing it. And so one of the big challenges of doing 1 thousand episodes is coming up with a thousand topics. And so that's the first challenge. So one of the things, so here's how I, so behind the scenes here. So I have a little list I write of ideas that I get. Sometimes people make suggestions.

Sometimes I get inspired by something. So I do have a little list that I keep. But a lot of mornings I wake up and like while I'm showering, I'm like, what's my podcast topic today? And I'll come up with a couple different ideas and think through. But then the first thing I always have to do when I get downstairs is there's a wiki that lists every episode of Drive to Work. And I go to the wiki and I search to make sure I haven't done that topic. Because on numerous occasions, I have done a topic and then when I'm all done, I'm like, oh, I did that topic. Now, usually I do it a little bit differently. And I guess I'm not against doing the same topic more than once when I'm hitting a thousand. But I do try to do different topics. And one of the things I learned, which is really interesting, like for example, uh, last week I did a podcast on budgets,

which might sound very mundane, but it was very popular. People, people really seem to enjoy the, uh, I, like I, one of the things that I found is that there is no depth to which I can go into minutia of how I make magic that there's no depth to which I can go into minutiae of how I make magic that there aren't people going, ooh, that's interesting. So, it's been fun, and it's definitely trying to find, I mean, obviously we do new sets, and

whenever we do a new set, I get to do stuff on the new set. So that's always stuff I get to do that's new. But trying to hit stuff, like, everything that I kind of thought of off the top of my head, I've done a podcast on. So now I got to dig a little bit deeper. So, okay.

But anyway, so today I thought I would share some of the trials and tribulations of making Drive to Work. Okay, so first is I'm going to talk a little bit about interviews and talk about the origins of interviews and some of the challenges of doing interviews. So first up was my first ever interview, if you want to call it that, is I was driving to work and I was doing my podcast and Matt Cavada, who used to live right near me, and occasionally he'd go, oh, I need to drive to work and he'd drive me to work. And the first time it happened, I think I said to him, oh, I'm doing my podcast, would

you mind being on my podcast? He's like, okay, sure. And so a lot of people remember this way back. So the way it would work is I would start my podcast in my driveway. It's always due. And then I would drive and I would set up the podcast topic as I was driving to get Matt because Matt was not far away. And then I would pick up Matt and Matt would join me and then we would do the podcast.

And it was fun having Matt. I really enjoyed having Matt in the car and talking. And so Matt and I did a bunch of them because he would need a ride every once in a while. And then what happened was other people would hear the podcast with Matt and say could I be on your podcast? And it was

like, can, you know, you want to show up to my house? So a bunch of people, Ethan Fleischer and Melissa DeTora, the author of one of the books. I had a bunch of people that like went out of their way to show up at my house so that they could be on my podcast in my car. Oh, also, the other funny thing is I was taking my dad. He was in town and we were going to work

for some reason. And so I said, hey, dad, would you be on my podcast? He said, sure. And so I did a podcast. I just interviewed my dad. And then my mom heard

that I had done a podcast with my dad. And my mom said, oh, can I do a podcast? I was like, sure. So the funny story with my mom is, so before I do a podcast, I sort of run

through the people, hear the do's and don'ts of doing the podcast. And there's a bunch of things I sort of say, you know, don't do this, don't do that. So anyway, my mom's in the car, we drive to work, and we stop at the at work. So I'm like, okay, mom, just curious, of the things I told you not to do, how many did you do during this podcast? And the answer was all of them, Mom. You did all of them. So the next day, my mom came again, and we did it. So the podcast you guys have heard, if you ever heard Meet My Mom, is the second day.

So anyway, and then Rachel started going to school at a school that was near where I worked. So I started driving Rachel to school. A lot of the times, Rachel would just put her headsets on and listen to music and ignore me. But I had her on a bunch of podcasts. We did replies with Rachel where we would do mail

because it's hard for me to read mail while I'm driving. So she would read the mail. And then we did a bunch of different podcasts. We did a fun one where like I would give her magic terms and she'd tell me what she thinks it means and stuff like that. Then I had to drive my youngest daughter, Sarah, to camp one summer

and so we did a couple podcasts with Sarah and so anyways, I did a surprising number of interviews in my car. But then the podcast, not the podcast, the pandemic happened, which was challenging, because when your whole shtick is drive to work, and then you stop driving to work, I wasn't quite sure what to do. And I finally said, you know what, I mean, it's not crucial that I'm in my car.

I understand it's the gimmick of my podcast. But I'm like, okay, I still want to do my podcast. Like originally what happened was the pandemic started. And I think I was actually a bit ahead. I might have been like six to eight weeks ahead. And so I'm like, okay, I have enough podcasts. I'll get through this. Not having any idea how long the pandemic was going to last.

And then once I realized I needed to start making content, I decided to do interviews just because I can't, it's hard for me to do interviews in the car. And there's all these people I thought it'd be fun to interview that I know I wouldn't get in my car, like Richard Garfield and stuff. So I started doing interviews. Now, the lesson there was I would interview people and I would interview them about

themselves. And what I later learned worked a little bit better is interviewing people about a topic in particular. And so the podcast would be about a topic, but I would have a guest. And normally it's a topic the guest is an expert in, which is why I have them, or why the topic is that topic. But anyway, over time, there's a lot of fine tuning. I feel like I finally got to the point now where my interviews are getting, are getting better. In fact, I did a whole podcast on doing interviews. So the never endless podcast topics. Okay. So one of the funny things about doing podcasts with guests is for some reason if I'm doing a podcast and I mess up on my own which I do plenty

my normal strategy is that I just will do it again the next day or the next time I'm driving so there's a lot of podcasts where like in fact in fact, sometimes, this is very common for me, sometimes I have an idea and I haven't quite fully formed it out. And so sometimes what I'll do is I'll drive to work kind of knowing that my first take isn't going to be what I use, but it lets me sort of, you know, practice it and get a sense of it. And every once in a while, I get surprised.

I will do a brand new topic that I haven't really thought through and just kind of work it out as I'm driving. And it turns out great. And other times I have a podcast and it goes horribly awry, but I learn from it so that in the next one, I can, I can work on it. Now, there are some podcast topics that I try and I realized after doing it once that either I don't have enough material or the stories aren't quite compelling enough. And so, but anyway, normally if I mess up in a normal podcast, I'll just do it the next day. Now, there are a couple exceptions. The two big exceptions, two stories left out.

One is the two times I've edited. I've edited the show twice. I've edited the show twice, and I'll get to, that show's been edited by somebody else once. So what happened the first time was, I was interviewing somebody. I won't out them. I won't name their name.

And I give the normal spiel. And at the end of... And one of the things I say in my normal spiel is no swearing. So we're at the end of the podcast and I say to them, oh, you did a really good job. Just one note. Were you a war you swore? And they're like, what are you talking about? I go, well, in the middle of it, about halfway through,

I actually, I noted the time so that I could edit it. I said, you swore. And they're like, really? So the person in their daily life swears enough that they just didn't notice that they swore during our podcast. Even though I was telling them not to swear.

I've had a number of guests that have told me they've almost swore because I tell them not to swear, they catch themselves. But anyway, so one of the two times that I had to edit, and this wasn't even me editing actually, I handed over to Kendall and then had them edit it. But I wanted them to bleep it so that you knew they swore, because I thought it was kind of fun. But

they ended up just taking it out. So you'll never know the mystery of who swore. You can try to figure it out. The other time, the one time I had to edit it was I was talking and I was referring to the set and I referred to it as our initial visit to blah-de-blah. And then I realized like two seconds later I'm like, wait a minute, I just said initial. So I

tagged the time so I could remember it. And then afterwards I went back and listened to it. So it turns out that at the time the place that I said initial to, we hadn't visited yet. And so I was like, oh, well, initial implies that, like, we've gone back there,

and at the time, we hadn't gone back there. So I had to get out, and I had to get out the word initial. So I really liked how the podcast went. Like, oftentimes, if I mess up, I'm like, I'll just record tomorrow. But I really, really liked how the podcast went. Like, oftentimes, if I mess up, I'm like, I'll just record tomorrow. But I really, really liked how the podcast went. So, it turns out that you can trim out, like, the smallest thing you can trim out is a second.

And I had paused just enough around it that I could trim it out, and so the word wasn't there. So, that was my one time that I edited. Well, there's another exception. So I was doing a podcast with Jimmy and Josh together. And my thing stops in the middle, which had never happened in an interview before. For somebody, it just stops. And so we picked it up. And then Jimmy said, or Josh said, Josh said, well, just send it to me and I'll edit it.

And so Josh spliced it together and sent it back to me. But then I was having an interview later after Jimmy and Josh with, I think, Henry Stern. And it happened again where I was just in the middle of it stopped. And then Henry and I figured out how to like, how to restart it because you can edit. Once you finish it, you can edit it and you can add to it or you can remove stuff from it. So I figured out how when it stops midway, how I can pick it up again.

And so I could go back a little bit and figure out a question that was a good question and then we started back up again. So I've actually had to self-edit a couple of times. But once again, that's not true editing. It's just where it messed up and we start over and then it's all together so you don't know that it messed up and we start over and then it's all together. So you don't know that it stopped. So we've had a little bit of that.

And the other thing that's funny is when I mess up, sometimes when I mess up, I'm not sure whether I messed up. One of the things is normally if I think I messed up, I'll continue because sometimes it's not as bad as I think it is when I listen to it again. So normally what happens

when I mess up is I'll, if it's going well. If it's going badly, whatever, I'll just stop. But if it's going well, I'll note where it is and then I will go back after and listen to it.

Normally what happens is I do my podcast in the morning and in the evening I'll listen to it as I drive home. I'll listen to it as I drive home. I'll listen to it and see how it went. Normally I've done enough of these. I have a general sense if it went well.

Like, I can tell whether I'm happy or not with the podcast. And that's just from doing so many of them that I can get a general sense. But, so the famous one, the that I I think I mentioned once before but it's a funny story so I will tell it again because one of the hallmarks of my podcast is I will repeat stories

and the reason for that real quickly the reason that I repeat stories is one of my philosophies and this is true of my articles as well as my podcast is

I design each one in a vacuum to be the best that it can be. I know there are people that listen to all my podcasts and read all my articles and thank you very much for doing that. You are not the majority of people and the majority of people do not listen to them all. In fact, the data I have says the vast majority of people on my podcast pick and choose the podcast and just listen to the ones that are entertaining to them.

podcast, pick and choose the podcast and just listen to the ones that are entertaining to them. And so one of the things that like one of the evolutions of this podcast is trying to figure out what people like and so that I can sort of shift. Like my article, my general goal with this podcast is to do a lot of different kinds of things and a lot of different kinds of episodes so that, you know, you can sort of find the kinds of episodes you like and listen to those. And so some of them are more storytelling and some are more, you know, more taking it and going deep on a topic or something. But anyway, different people like different things. So I try to mix it up.

But anyway, so sorry, I'm deviating. So my point is, if I have a good story that I know is a funny story, I will tell it multiple times. When I tell a story that I know I've told, I try to tell it a little bit differently. So even if you've heard it before, it's not quite the same telling of it. But if a story is a good story

and I help an individual episode, I will tell the story even if I've told it before. Part of the cause, the other thing, by the way, is I've done so many podcasts and so many alternate versions

of podcasts because I record multiple times if I, you know, try to get a podcast right. Sometimes I'm not 100% sure if I've told the story. That's another part of it

is like, oh, I told the story in attempt number two, but I printed number three. So I don't always know which stories are out there and not out there. Although this one, I believe, is out there. Okay, so the story, this is

sort of my most famous mess up. So I'm driving and I'm telling the story. I don't even remember what the topic was. But I'm telling the story. I don't even remember what the topic was. But I'm talking about something and then I make mention of a product that

doesn't exist yet. And not even a product that you could guess exists. Not like something in which, well, we haven't officially announced it back when we had Corsets. It wasn't one of those products where like, well, you know, yeah, you could have guessed we're going to do this. It was something that we had neverorsets. Like, it wasn't one of those products where, like, well, you know, yeah, you could have guessed we're going to do this. It was something that we had never mentioned before.

And I just, like, I'm usually pretty good about knowing what's public and what's not. So I just, I was just really into my story. I just was telling the story, and I was very excited. And I just, in passing, mentioned this product that didn't exist yet.

And so one of the big no-no's in my podcast is I can't give away stuff I'm not supposed to give away. There are some famous examples, which I can get to in a second, where I gave away things and didn't realize I gave it away. But anyway, if I say something I know I can't say, that's automatically reasons for scratching it. And even though I've done a few really tiny edits, I don't really tend to edit my things. So usually if I

mess up, that means it's over. I'll do it again tomorrow or next time I drive. So I was in the meat of it and I realized I said something. And normally when I say something wrong there's this little, sometimes when I'm talking, if I ever get silent for a second, it is me sometimes thinking about what I just said to make sure that what I said was okay. I'll do a little edit of myself. And sometimes I talk, I run through my head what I just said and go, oh, that's okay. Or sometimes I go, oh, that's a problem.

And usually, like I said, I'll just, I'll note when I said it so that I can afterwards go back and listen to it and make sure it's okay. But sometimes I say something I just know I'm not supposed to say. Like, it's not, I don't have to review it in my head. And this was one of those times. But, it was one of those drives

where everything was perfect. There's certain drives when I do a podcast and I'm just in the zone and like everything's lining up and I'm just like, you know, en fuego, as they say. I'm just, I'm on fire and everything is going great. And I believe I messed this up

like right by work. I was like, you know, my work is 30 minutes, drive is 30 minutes. So I'm like 27 minutes into this and I mess it up and I And I mess it up. And I knew I messed it up. So I just start swearing

because I was mad that I messed it up. And I swore probably for a full minute. And anyway, so the interesting thing about this is I've told this story before. This one I know I've told.

Because people seem to want to hear the tape of me messing up and swearing. I don't think I erased it, but I don't know whether I could find it or not, even if I wanted to. But there exists a tape of me, if you ever say, here's what, I've never really heard Mark swear for a full minute. I wish somewhere there was a tape where Mark is just for a full minute just swearing at the top of his lungs. If such a thing exists, it does exist.

So you guys can rejoice in knowing that it exists. Not that I think I'm going to play it. But anyway, it was, it's the most animated I've ever gotten.

I mean, I get pretty animated. Sometimes I get animated while doing things. Like, one of the things I've learned is from doing this podcast for a while is that the more I'm me, the more people seem to like the podcast.

I went to Magic 30, which was the event in Las Vegas. I met thousands of people. I met a lot of people. The most interesting thing was that the number one comment I got is, I listen to your got is I listen to your blog or I like your blog or not blog. Sorry. I listen to your podcast. Like, um, I mean, there are people that read my blogs, people that read my articles and

everything and people comment on that. But the, the most common thing people talk about when they meet me is, is the podcast. Uh, there's a lot of people that really like the podcast. And so, um, it's always funny to me in that it's so low tech. It is very guerrilla pod. Like, it's just me with my phone with my normal. Actually, I finally got my old headset was acting up. So I went and bought a headset, the same basic like Apple headset, but I just bought it. That's only for the car that only use it to record now.

Oh, another little tidbit here that you guys might enjoy, just behind the scenes. So, one time I recorded a bunch of episodes, and I turned them in, and some of them weren't recording. There was something going wrong with my, the microphone from my phone. And I just had a couple episodes that, like, didn't record. Which is a bad thing when you're trying, you know. So I had to redo them. But anyway, now before I pull out, I always do a couple episodes that didn't record, which is a bad thing when you're trying to, you know. So I had to redo them. But anyway, now before I pull out, I always do a little check. And so every morning I'll do a little check before I drive out to make sure that my microphone's working.

And so that's become part of my process. So there exists infinite recordings of me doing things that I don't release. I wonder if someone asked me once, what's my ratio of recorded material to released material? It's getting better over time. The more I do this podcast, the more I'm able to do one-shot records where I have an idea. Sometimes, by the way, it depends on how much in advance I come up with the idea and how much I have this general sense of it. Sometimes I map things out and I have some structure and then I'm able to

do it the first time. But sometimes one of the things that is fun for me and I think maybe because this entertains me more than anything else is I'll have a general idea and I'll just get in the car and go. And a lot of those ones the first one usually isn't necessarily the one I use. But it's kind of fun. One of the ways that I sort of form it out sometimes is I'll just get in the car and do it. And then I'll see where the successes are and where not. There is a... One of the things that's important to me when I do this podcast is

I want to make sure that I'm making something that's entertaining and I'm making something that's hitting whatever point I'm trying to do. And so it is, there is sort of a, there's a natural state where I'm sort of maximizing what the podcast wants to be. And some of that is just a structure thing and some of that I can do upfront. But some of that is just a feel thing and and some of that I can do up front. But some of that is just a feel thing, and sometimes I just record multiple times to get that. But, oh, anyway, so the—I just want to talk a little bit about the—this is my thousandth episode. And I'm—it is really funny. The podcast started almost as this little mini experiment.

Early on when I was doing the podcast, I don't submit the podcast. I turn them in and then the work puts them up. So I don't have access to any of the data. So I don't really know necessarily how many people are listening to my podcast. I mean, I have some tricks that I've learned to get a general sense. But so for there was a period of time early on when I honestly didn't know people listen to the podcast. You know what I'm saying? Like I was recording and then I every once in a while someone would mention it. I knew somebody was listening to it. But then I finally one day got numbers. Like I was bugging whoever and they

finally sent me numbers. And it was, like, a lot of people. Like, I think at some level, for a long time, I was in this illusion of, like, you know, I'm bored going driving to work, so this is just entertaining me that I pretend to make a podcast,

and that entertains me while I drive to work. And then sort of making the realization that, like, a lot, a lot of people listen to the podcast. It was very interesting. So I want to thank everybody. Part of this podcast is not just give behind the scenes,

but I want to thank everybody who takes time and who listens to all my listeners out there. And I do appreciate you guys. And it is so much fun when people, either in person or online, you know, I'd love to hear about what people do and don't like. I mean, I'm a thousand in, but I'm still trying to figure out, like, what other podcasts people will enjoy more.

Like, for example, I'll give an example here. So when the pandemic first started happening, I started doing interviews. I hadn't done a lot of interviews. And so I had this idea like, oh, well, let's meet all these people. And so the interviews were really sort of like meet this person. And then I finally started getting some feedback. And the interviews people liked more were where there was a focused topic, where it was about something.

And so what I do now is I still do interviews and I try to do about one a week just because the reason I do so many interviews is one of the challenging things of doing a thousand podcasts is, man, I chew up a lot of material. And so the nice thing

about having guests is they're just talking about things that I know I haven't talked about because I don't know it. And one of the things I really have fun with is really finding a lot of neat and interesting guests. Recently, I've been trying to get a lot of old timers. I've had a bunch of people like Barry Reich or Joel Mick

that are like actual alpha play tefters to talk a little bit like what it was like to be an alpha play tefter and just early magic. So it's a lot of fun. I really enjoy my interviews with Richard because I've been working on magic for a long time, but I wasn't there at the very beginning, so it's really fun for me

to talk to people that just tell stuff I literally don't know where I get to be the fan. Like, ooh, I didn't know that. A lot of times my interviews is something I worked with him, so it's fun to hear their take on it or sometimes they tell stories I don't know, but that's always fun. Or just their vantage point is something I worked with him. So, like, it's fun to hear their take on it. Or sometimes they tell stories I don't know. That's always fun. Or just their vantage point is different than my vantage point.

But usually I was there. So, like, I have a general sense of what's going on. But when I interview people from, you know, they're talking about pre-me being there, I tend to fan out a little bit. It's really fun. Like, ooh, I didn't know that. So that's always cool. Other behind-the-scenes things. I'm close to fun. Ooh, I didn't know that. That's always cool. Other behind-the-scenes

things. I'm close to home. Ooh, interestingly, one of the little tidbits, I've done drive-to-works and drive-from-works. Normally, drive-to-work takes more time than drive-from-work because there's more traffic driving to work than from. So normally, when I'm driving to work, it's 30 minutes.

And when I'm driving home, it's like 25 minutes. But normally, what I do when I do drive-from from home and when I do them is I'll sit in my driveway. I'll make sure you guys get 30 minutes. I won't cut you off just because I like traffic. So my general rule of thumb, and even when I'm home, my rule of thumb is I try to always make the podcast 30 minutes. I will go over a little bit and sometimes I have a guest that's really interesting and I'll go over a little bit. I try not to go over too much. I try not to go past 40. I mean, there are—when I'm driving on the road, the rule is that I started my driveway and ended at work,

and so I have had some long podcasts in the car. The super famous one is the bread truck episode where there was an overturned bread truck, and I—I don't know, it was like an hour, 10 minutes or something. Oh, okay, I'll let you in on some secrets here. My normal rule is I do driveway to parking lot. I have had a couple occasions where I had a lot of extra traffic where I was going long and it was a topic that I just did not have enough. I mean, I had half an hour, probably had 35 minutes.

But this has only happened a couple times where I'm hitting 40 minutes and I'm like, I'm five minutes past having material to talk about. And so I've actually ended a couple times on the highway. I have a podcast. I think it went well. I'm really proud of it. And I've tried to talk a little beyond my normal talking stuff just to fill time. But at one point I'm like, okay, I have run out of things to talk about and I'm nowhere close to work. And so I have, on rare occasion, I don't do that very often, on rare occasion, I have ended while I'm still driving. I think one of them I told you that.

ended while I'm still driving. I think one of them, I told you that. One of them, I actually, I mentioned that I did that because I had to, oh, I had to call in. I was late for a meeting and I had to call into the meeting. So I acknowledged that I had to stop

because I had to call into the meeting. And I think one other time I didn't, I didn't acknowledge I was doing that. Normally, I acknowledge when I'm doing stuff just because why not? But other behind the scenes stuff. The other thing that is interesting is

I do get some feedback, although I'd like more feedback. I do not get, for how many people listen to my podcast, I do not get a lot of feedback. But I would love, on social media I get some. What I'm finding is that there are certain kinds of podcasts that people really like

the card by card stories people really like the storytelling one a lot of people are like I like when you tell stories tell more stories and so I have a couple podcasts where it's just all the podcast is is me telling one story or two stories people seem to like those

and then the other one that I've been doing more recently is I just try to dive deep, like my budget one, for example, where I'm just like, okay, let me talk about art budgets and things, and people are like, ooh, tell us more. So I am, it is, like I said, it is something where I'm I'm

trying to, like my article, I used to have a lot more space for Like, my article... I used to have a lot more space for experimentation in my article. But as we do more topics, more and more of my articles have to be like, I'm previewing that, I'm previewing that. Like, more of my articles are just trying to talk about all the things we're doing.

But my podcasts are actually in the space where I do two podcasts a week. Like, the articles have a certain amount of, like of things I have to do and previews and stuff. And my podcasts don't have that. I do try to do podcasts based on new stuff, just stuff to talk about. But I have more sort of room for experimentation. Back in the day, I had a lot more room on my articles. I used to do a lot more experimentation and articles that are all pictures and things like that.

So I have been branching out a little bit. I think my podcast is where I've been trying more different things. I am definitely open to people. If you have cool ideas or a question, like a larger question,

like some of my... I've had some interesting podcasts recently where somebody online has asked a question or on my blog has asked a question. I'm like, that's a great question. I can't possibly answer that on my blog, but ooh, I could talk about that on my podcast. There was a really good thing.

Somebody was talking about four-color sets. I'm like, wow, four-color sets are hard to do. So I did a whole podcast on why four-color faction sets would be almost impossible to do. And I did a whole podcast on, like, why four-color faction sets would be almost impossible to do. And I, you know, I was able to go in-depth on that. And so I enjoy when people ask me, like, one of the things that's really fun for me is when someone asks a really interesting question

that I haven't talked about and I'd like to answer it, I do enjoy using my blog for places like that. Anyway, guys, I am almost home. I'm driving up my street. So thank you for joining me for my thousandth episode. I hope the behind the scenes of the podcast itself was interesting.

Try the other stories. It's definitely the thing I find... I'm almost home here. The thing I find most interesting about doing a podcast in which I drive is how often weird things happen. Because, like, I had a podcast where I filled up in gas, although it's hard to do, so I don't want to do that again.

I've had podcasts where there were, not my accidents, but other people's accidents. I even had one or two podcasts where I had to drive a different way. Like one time there was an accident and so I went a different way but it's not a way I'm used to and one of the reasons I can do my podcast is because I know where I'm driving. I don't have to think about where I'm going. Trying to do a podcast where I'm trying to figure out where I'm going while also doing a podcast,

the same reason that the fill in the gas is so hard. I can't, it's really, really hard to do something where I have to think about the other thing and do a podcast. And so I tend to avoid those things. Anyway, guys, I'm now at home. So I hope you enjoyed my rambling-sized episode. I'm not quite sure if this... Anyway, hopefully it was full

of some stories. But I am now home. And so we all know what that means. Instead of me talking magic, it's time for me to be eating dinner. So guys, thanks for joining me for my thousandth episode, and I'll see you all next time. Bye-bye.