MBMBAM (and MaxFun, TAZ, etc.) as a Time Capsule
Recently I've been reading the honestly great comments on this thread and this has caused me to consider how dated MBMBAM might feel to many.
As user TortlePow3r surmised, the idea of a "professional podcaster" feels outdated as a concept. This is not to say that podcasts are somehow a medium which no one is getting into, or that they are not profitable, but the idea of a "podcast network" in the way that MaxFun has set it up feels like it simply has no future. It's death is not fated, of course, but it feels wrong to call it alive- more aptly, one might say it is on life support. It just feels like everyone else who is into podcasting has either a massive following who they levy into other ventures (think Joe Rogan) or have an actual job outside of it (literally anybody can do this) or are just doing it casually.
I only started listening to the podcast up until 2014. (To clarify, I started listening in 2022, but 2014 is the most recent upload date of the episodes I have listened to). This is arguably one of the last years of the Obama era (excuse my American-centered phrasing) and it definitely shows. The internet and tech had become far, far more accessible by this point of course, but still had its niche facets that allowed people to have their truly own spaces. There was sort of a weird optimism in social justice. Individuals could gesture safely at the suggestion of "progress" of something without doing it, and were able to profit off of it, without centering the content of the show or their personalities around it much like the grifters of the modern age. This felt like the perfect breeding grounds for a show with (who do you call someone that is in a podcast? Like besides podcaster. Speaker?) people like the three brothers.
In the capacity I've described, the earlier episodes feel like they fulfill their purpose as a view into a microcosm of at least a little bit of internet culture at the time. However, my question to modern listeners is this: How much of this old attitude do you see in the show today? Is it a attempt to hold onto this attitude or old model of creation that is slowly fading away, has it changed to survive, or is it entirely something else? Answers to this questions and feelings/criticism of my writing is accepted. This wasn't so much of an essay as it was me writing down unstructured thoughts to start a conversation with.