It takes ten years to become an “overnight” success. It also takes 100 episodes to become a “professional” podcaster.

The metrics are brutal:

78% to 92% of podcasts fail to make it past their first seven to ten episodes. By episode 3: Roughly 44% to 90% of all shows are abandoned. By Episode 7 to 8: Around 78% of podcasts stop publishing entirely. By Episode 10: Only about 8% to 22% of podcasts are still active.

These stats are from an AI search on Google, but that doesn’t mean the stats are wrong.

The fact is that while there may be around 8 million or so shows on the Internet calling themselves podcasts, the number that make it to the top of the popularity mountain that you’ve heard of is infinitesimally small. And that’s even before we get to the Rogans, the “Call Me Daddy” -ies, and the podcasts hosted by ex-Presidents.

This week, I dropped a panel discussion with the help of my podcast guest hosts, friends all, discussing the state of affairs for leaders in the post-literate world we are all about to inhabit in the West. It was a lively and wide-ranging discussion and, while we all didn’t agree on the conclusions, the conversation itself was the juice. Without gaslighting, strawman arguments, or social media flame-warring.

Imagine that. Twelve adults having a conversation without vitriol or personal attacks. I’m telling you, it can be done.

But even more so, the medium of podcasting allows for the space to do this. Outside of the marketing and corporate shows brought to you so long ago by NPR and its ilk, and now with a zone flooded by marketers and brands, the space of podcasting stands as the lone bulwark against the tide of polarization and seeing people, not as people, but as mere avatars that dance and move across the stage, signifying nothing more than a canvas for us to work out our psychological traumas on. Podcasting, podcasters, and the entire idea of podcast creation contains worlds that have a need to be explored.

Writing, recording, producing, and distributing two hundred regular episodes (in addition to another two hundred and fifty bonus episodes) has taught me many things. Chief among them is perspective. Leadership Lessons from the Great Books is a podcast designed for the leader who is a reader. And it’s designed for the leader who isn’t a reader but has the curiosity to know that there are ideas hidden in books that they may not know about. And it’s designed for the leader who is afraid of reading and just wants to dip their toes into the water a little bit at a time, with a host and a series of rotating co-hosts who won’t disrespect their intellect, insult their intelligence, and converse with about challenging ideas like the adults we know we all are.

And all of that inside an hour-and-a-half to two-hour-long conversation.

Very few people have the perseverance, self-control, discipline, or desire to do two hundred of anything. Particularly where it’s hard to get paid, the expense of time and attention is high, and the accolades are few and far between. The writer and gadfly Wendell Berry, who just died, would understand, though. And he’s one of the many authors we’ll be bringing to our listeners in the future.

I’ll close with these five lessons I’ve gleaned from the last 200+ conversations I’ve had and books I’ve read with people I respect deeply:

Reading is fundamental.

Leaders are readers.

Books are the best technology humans have invented for smuggling ideas across time to each other.

The novel might be on its last legs, but books are not.

And we all owe it to the future to remember that literacy, like freedom itself, is only ever one generation away from being snuffed out.

Thanks to the following guests for their contributions, insights, and sparring over the last three and a half years. In podcasting as in jiu-jitsu, you’re only as good as your training partners:

David Baumrucker, John Hill, Christen B. Horne, Richard Messing, Dorollo Nixon, Jr., Brian Bagley, Hana Kabele Gala, Moumin Quazi, Neal Kalechofsky, Zac Stucki, Tom Libby, Claire Chandler, Ryan J. Stout, Josh Poland, Atlas Aultman, Katie Mestres, Libby Unger, and Harvey Seifter.

…and all of the various authors, thinkers, consultants, educators, and more who have joined me over the last two hundred-plus bonus episodes.

Excelsior!

[Listen to the 200th episode by clicking on the link here.]