Dear Friends,
And if you have downloaded even one episode of Talking Space, I consider you to be a friend.
The following is a “mea culpa” and one, I think our long-term listeners deserve.
As the classic story “A Tale of Two Cities “ starts, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” And indeed, it has been behind the scenes here at Talking Space. To those of you who have been with us for a while, my sincere thanks for sticking it out along with us and yes, you deserve to hear the words, I’m sorry and we’ll do better.
By way of explanation, it has been a perfect storm of sorts. There have been internal family, personal, and medical trials and transitions for most of the crew, some delightfully pleasant, others were jam-packed with drama, the likes of which I’ll spare you from. It can all be chalked up to the simple phrase, “life happens.”
Another wrinkle: Talking Space is an unparalleled passion with us, but sadly for most of the team, it’s not our day job, and the demands of those employers have occasionally exceeded the bandwidth we need to put even a biweekly effort together. When it comes to creating a podcast, our goal is to put something together that is well-crafted, meaningful, and thoughtful. We respect you, our audience, and would rather give you a quality program. Not something thrown together in a slapdash fashion just to get content out.
And then there was, well, me, grappling with the unthinkable: thoughts of shutting the show down.
When Talking Space first started in 2009, we were one of only a handful of “new media” outlets discussing space exploration. ( I think the only other podcast out there doing close to what we do was called "Space Task Force." They're long defunct.) Today, we’re just one very small fish in an oversaturated pond, competing for your very precious and limited time.
Then there was the advent of the YouTube Vloggers, some of them ( and you know who you are) delivering content on space and NASA in particular, that was both over the top, and utterly bogus. Early on, we made a conscious decision to stay a podcast rather than going to YouTube. Like radio, we felt podcasts allowed for more of a connection with our listeners on a higher level. Besides, I have a face for radio and podcats. However, the YouTubers were ruling the day, getting most of the eyeballs, eardrums, and sponsorship. Even members of the venerable TWiT Network saw pink slips as a result of lost revenue from their podcasts, with sponsorship dollars going to the YouTube channels. It seemed like you had to be outlandish to get people to listen to you and if that were the case, it was a path I wasn’t willing to walk on. I didn't want the show to become a parody of itself for the sake of getting higher download numbers.
Then there were my views on how the world of podcasting was evolving. If your name isn't Joe Rogan, you were succeeding in podcasting if: you were a celebrity or already had a platform in film, on TV, or radio, or if your subject matter included one of the following topics: Self-Help, True Crime, Paranormal "Research", or if you were an entrepreneur talking to other entrepreneurs about being entrepreneurs.
I felt between the costs plus the time and effort it takes to produce a substantive show, the justification to continue the drain on my pretty much empty wallet simply to keep the lights on (never mind other associated out-of-pocket costs) just wasn’t there. I was ready to wave the white flag and surrender. It was the rest of the team, in particular Mark Ratterman, Dr. Kat Robison, and Larry Herrin, plus words of wisdom from others covering space (and you know who you are) and a few of our listeners who talked me "off the ledge" on this one.
The final incident in our tale: the failure of our website, an implementation I thought was our most elegant to date. One day in late autumn of 2023 it was chugging along as it had been for years, the next day it fell off the face of the Earth. My first thought was that it had been hacked and we’re still not going to rule that possibility out. It did return for a while but then, vanished once more, never to be seen again. One thing I do know is it wasn’t the fault of our previous webmaster (who runs a business maintaining websites for small companies and graciously gave us the space on the server without cost) but the web hosting service that was being used. Despite the struggles that our webmaster endured on our behalf, the hosting service was …well, shall we say since I’m in polite company…” below standard.” So, it was time to punt and try something else.
Thus, with Year 15, comes the launch of a new website and a new Talking Space. There are some new tools that the new site gives us that we didn’t have in the past. These will let us engage with you more and truly open up a dialogue. Something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Soon, it will be easier for you to tell us what you are thinking about the show and what we’re presenting. More importantly, we’ll be doing more than just talking at you and presenting material. We’ll have the opportunity for conversation and discussion. We’ll test these new and innovative apps, and roll them out periodically over the coming months.
This blog section too will become active with news perspectives and opinions from the team.
This isn’t us (or me for that matter) making excuses, it’s just throwing the facts out there, letting you know of our travails, and letting you pass judgment. I'm hoping you find it in your heart to stick with us as we go through some of these growing pains, and bring you what you are used to from Talking Space: a quality program without the background noise, or wearing “team jerseys" that some outlets do these days. A podcast that will present unique stories about spaceflight you might not hear anywhere else. A program that we love doing and I trust, you look forward to downloading it onto your favorite device and listening.
Once more, a thousand "thank yous" for staying with us! We'll make it worth your while.
