Admin: Plan For The Future

Transcript  As many of you will have noticed, the podcast hasn't been exactly regular in the last year or so. For the first couple of years of the podcast I had a buffer of several scripts written in advance, which allowed me to keep getting episodes out on a weekly basis even if stuff got in the way. But starting in late 2020, I had a series of massive life crises that essentially meant that I ate up all my buffer scripts, and from that point on any time anything caused even the slightest inconvenience, that would have a knock-on effect which would make the episode late. For the last fifteen months I have only averaged about an episode every ten days. It's no exaggeration to say that 2021 was the worst year of my life by quite some way.  Most of those crises have either passed or become the new normal, but they meant I used up all my buffer and then some, and it's been challenging to build up another buffer while running to catch up. I managed for several weeks at the beginning of this year to get weekly episodes out again, but with no buffer any temporary problem knocks me back off schedule. Luckily, everyone has been extraordinarily understanding about this, but I can only expect so much understanding before people start demanding results, so here's what I'm going to do. Episodes 146 through 150 will take as long as they take. I'm aiming for once a week, but I do have a couple of commitments in the next month that might make that difficult. Realistically, you can expect those to continue at about the same rate as the last year or so, an episode every ten days, give or take. I have previously taken two-week breaks when I got to an episode that was a multiple of fifty -- annual breaks that also mark the start and ends of new books in the series of books based on the podcast. When I get to episode 150, I will take a longer break. That break will last however long it takes for me to write four full main episode scripts. My best estimate of that is that it will take three weeks, but I'll keep people updated in the unlikely event it takes longer. Episode 151 will be up as soon as I have four scripts done. I will do another pledge week in the middle of the break, posting some old Patreon episodes to the main feed to show you what backers get, and so the feed won't be completely devoid of content. I will then once again have a buffer -- a month's worth of scripts prepared -- that should mean that I'll be able to get back on a properly regular schedule again, and stay there. Thank you all for your patience and support.