Thirty episodes ago, that week's guest discussed with me the notion of this podcast being a one-man weekly endeavor.

"That's a grind, man," he said. "That's a grind."

He was right when he made that comment, and it made me realize that that was a good summation of what the thing had been to that point. And it hasn't changed. It really is a grind to do the outreach and the scheduling, the interviewing and the editing, the prep and the getting the thing to the places it needs to be.

There are five essential components that make it all worthwhile:

1) meeting new people and hearing their stories

2) getting exposed to music I've either never heard of or listened to before

3) having guests tell me that they've enjoyed the interview

4) experiencing real-life, there's-still-good-in-the- ...