Newsweek Radio Says Goodbye (And What's Next)

0:00Hey folks, you've probably figured out by the title of this episode that Newsweek Radio has run its course, and I've decided to pull the plug on the show after today. I don't come to this decision lightly, but to tell you the truth, Newsweek Radio wasn't even technically supposed to last this long because it was designed just to be a test. a prototype to see if I could maximize listener retention by talking about the politics that Newsweek readers were engaging with the most and keeping the program as short and fast as possible so that you didn't get bored with what you were listening to. Well, my little test worked, and suddenly I was getting a lot more downloads than I had anticipated, and people were listening to the entire show, often two or three shows at a time.

0:48That's kind of the only way you can make any money in podcasting, in case you were wondering, because if you don't have listener or audience retention, meaning that if you can't keep at least 70 % of people who are listening to your show by the time you're three quarters of the way into the show, you don't really have a program that should be taken to market yet. You have a vanity project that needs further development. But Newsweek Radio did not have that problem. My only agenda going into this project was to keep things entertaining. It's entertainment first and foremost. Thinking things out in real time with my offbeat filter.

1:20and amplifying a kind of water cooler style banter that assumes the listener already understands the context of the subject without beating them over the head with it because they're already presumably smart and informed. I mean, that and I'm never afraid to throw in a few fart jokes because farts are funny and we all know it. I'm sorry. No, Newsweek Radio doesn't have an audience retention problem. It has a prototype problem because even though it resonates with listeners, it wasn't designed for mass consumption. and it's nearly impossible to sell to advertisers by the simple fact that I've refused to pick a lane when it comes to politics.

1:56When I make it a point to go after the incompetence of Trump, 40 % of the room assumes I'm a liberal. And when I go after the insanities of woke liberalism, the other 40 % of the room thinks I'm a conservative nutjob. And that only leaves about 20 % of you that are actually vibing on the kind of imagination-first gonzo approach to politics that I've developed in this little mad scientist podcast laboratory I have here that the good people of Newsweek have allowed me to experiment with, unharnessed I might add. Because despite all of the intentionally crazy shit that I've said out loud here on this show over the last two years, nobody has ever told me to stop what I'm doing or even suggest that I change how I do it.

2:38The only thing they've ever asked is that I simply tell people what the show is up front, which is why I've always called it irreverent news talk and opinion. They did ask me to add the word satire to the description, which I never had any problem with. Because as far as I'm concerned, satire is the glue that is required to keep things from being entirely predictable. I think it's why Hunter S. Thompson's always been my favorite author, because he had no qualms whatsoever in blending the truth with absolute fiction for the sake of keeping the story interesting. Yes, some people should absolutely focus on facts.

3:11That's why we have journalists, and God bless them. They're doing a service for all of us. But I've always gravitated towards opinion and imagination and philosophy myself. And I see no reason that some of us can't blend it all together in an artistic fashion. And that's what I believe I've successfully proven here with Newsweek Radio. But the show still is and always has been very much a prototype by design. And prototypes, alas, are not intended for mass consumption. Yes, I could do a watered-down version of what I've been doing here, but my instincts tell me that there's something even bigger for me on the horizon.

3:48And I would rather leave this body of work as the successful thought experiment that it was and take the information I've learned from it and use that to build the model that is designed for mass consumption. And I think that next step for me is bigger than politics. And yes, I do have a lot of fun kicking Trump around on this program. As a conservative-leaning libertarian never-Trumper, I think I'm pretty good at doing it as well. But to be honest with you, I am so sick and tired of the man that I really never want to hear, let alone mention his name ever again if I ever can. And I've also grown incredibly disinterested in day-to-day politics, because it's just become this endless cycle of outrage for outrage's sake.

4:34And it's incredibly toxic. So no, I don't want to participate in it at that level anymore either. I think the biggest idea that emerged from hosting Newsweek Radio over the last two years is my own personal human-first agenda. Something that I'm seriously considering dedicating the rest of my life to, if you want to know the God's honest truth. Right now, it's become kind of the North Star of my career. So it doesn't really matter if I can turn that into an organization or just a new perch from where I plant myself that defines what I do for the next 20 or 30 years. Because I do believe that human first is how we elevate ourselves above the politics to unite as one people.

5:16Something bigger than political parties and tribes or philosophies. A place where your race and your gender or your economic status or religion or sexual orientation or nationality are only secondary to the simple fact that you're a human first. That's it. we start over from there and see what happens from within a closed group. And if something like that could take off to scale, and I obviously believe that it would, an organization like that could quickly start to gain influence over the right people in Washington. But more importantly, to set millions of people free from being reduced to superficial data points that are bought, sold, and traded by an algorithm somewhere.

5:55That's how I plan to talk about beyond surface-level politics in the future, because this division in America is absolutely ridiculous. And we're better than this. We all know better. And it needs to stop. So check your identity at the door because we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Which is just another area that I plan to explore in more detail with whatever it is that I end up doing next. Talking more about faith and religion and spirituality and consciousness itself as opposed to the latest stupid thing to fall out of the president's mouth hole today.

6:32That's why it's time to close out Newsweek Radio. It accomplished everything I wanted it to. But now it's time to evolve and become something bigger than that. And look, I'm not sure what any of that's going to look like exactly, but I can tell you that you haven't heard the last of me. I'm going to take some time off to recalibrate and recharge and recenter myself before I return to my desk with a fresh start. and in the meantime, I do plan on making occasional weekly videos and talks about some of these bigger zoomed out topics on my own personal YouTube page going forward. I'm at Radio Edwards on YouTube.

7:08That's at Radio Edwards on YouTube. If you want to follow along with me behind the scenes while I figure out what I want to build next. I'm excited for this new phase and I want to thank all of my listeners for always being so incredibly thoughtful by taking the time to track me down and tell me that they enjoy the show. It always blows my mind when it happens, and I never get any complaints, which is something I never saw coming. It's unreal. And also, you know, a big thank you to those of you who think I'm completely nuts as well, but still entertained by my thoughts as the offbeat thought experiment it was intended to be.

7:45And perhaps the biggest thank you of all goes to Newsweek for allowing me to conduct this experimental podcast. It is incredibly rare, especially in this day and age for a major legacy media company to allow this level of creativity to exist in the first place. And on that note, I think I've said everything that I came here to say. Thank you so much for being part of this thought experiment. I'll catch you over on YouTube. I'm Jesse Edwards at Radio Edwards. And that is a wrap for Newsweek Radio. So until we can see each other again on the flippity-flop, I'm Jesse Edwards signing off. And don't forget to give people that you disagree with the space to change their opinions.