Reflecting on 1000 episodes.

Hey. This is a thousand episodes, okay? This is a thousand. I did a thousand of these. This is crazy. I don't think people maybe like understand how much it takes to create something like this. We're here at Stray Vista. Shooting on a volume again. And we're just we're going rogue and we're shooting on a on a spreadsheet as you can see. But then later today we are switching to like a pre-rendered environment. So what we've done this time differently should have we didn't do last time. We didn't like build out an environment. This time we have we've got like a desert thing with props and stuff that ties the foreground to the background. A huge practical element which is the Airstream camper van thing. And then he's the most Texan man on Earth. So we have to have him in a desert. Of course we do. He's he's stressing about technical things. We just hit 1 billion views. So I wonder if there's some way we can get like use the numbers to get to a billion like in the middle of the spreadsheet. And it's like an Easter egg. I think a thousand episodes signifies a lot of different things. For Chris it's obviously seven years of hard work. >> Especially in this business there's no stopping. Like when a movie comes out you have the movie you have the premiere you have the weekend box office you have all the things that like signify that it's a success and in this business you just you keep going you keep grinding. There's not really like a stop or reflect moment. And I think what we've been able to do and why Stray Vista was a place that we wanted to come back to was because every time we've been here it's been for a purpose and it's very monumental and it pauses us to at least like stop and smell the roses. Who's the desk holes or oh this is the cool guy. Let's [ __ ] go. What's up whites? We're back baby. LET'S GO. I HAVE NEVER BEEN INSIDE a spreadsheet. I think my business partner made me feel like that. I imagine this is actually what the inside of government looks like. So we have I need these balloons. Oh. So we have we have balloons to show Chris because Yay. Oh well not if you do that. Thousand episode baby. LET'S GO. [Applause] LET'S GO. >> I'M DYING INSIDE. [Laughter] I don't think people maybe like understand how much it takes to create something like this. Like we had a pre-light day for this. Um so it was a whole day of making sure it's fine. I mean there's a lot that people don't see. So like that's why I like these to show what we do and how much goes into it. It's episode 1000 with Matthew McConaughey. I'm speaking to Sam Korkos this morning as well who's the first person from Doge to give a long form interview. So that's going to be exciting. And then we get to round it out with me and McConaughey starting off in a jet stream and then walking out on the set. So big day. Feels like celebration. [Music] Hi. So Hello. we get a lot of questions about what the setup is for the podcast. It's been the most basic setup in history which is this guy. This guy, thank you very much. Episode 1 was in my old office in Newcastle upon Tyne filmed on an iPhone camera with a single Blue Yeti mic placed up in over. Anything you do where your platform grows because the line goes up and to the right most people know you just within the this brief sliver of now. Every month is the biggest played month. It's the most people that have ever seen you. Which means that so few people have context. Even if you've been doing it for ages because of the nature of that line going up everybody is usually just in the like 50% of it is the last six months always, right? And um it's funny because it means that the vast majority of the people watching your stuff have arrived just now basically. And you go what? This is all of this? I've been around for ages. Where were you? [Music] Four to five hundred with just me and Dean. It was only at episode 700 or something that we got an actual member of staff that had like a job to do. Releasing a piece of content or pieces of content every single day for five years is quite feat. As much as it looks like from con from the outside there is a there's a there's a lot of hard work and it's blood sweat and tears that goes into it. I did every title every thumbnail every clip every timestamp. I did all of the edits. I re-recorded every ad read individually for every episode at three a week. So 36 ad reads a month. >> In other news If you don't like it they will give you your money If you don't hit me. Okay, there we go. Throws like a girl is a really dangerous accusation when you're one foot away from me. And if you don't like it they will give you your money back. Okay, right now I don't think I've done a thousand of anything of anything in my entire life. And having been in the podcast space for so long like the number one thing you hear is pod fading which is people don't make it past I think seven episodes. Just like the magnitude of a thousand episodes is insane to think about. It's a lot of episodes man. Um that's a lot of episodes. I didn't realize we had shot that many. You couldn't convince me five years ago that we'd be doing this other thing now. It's absolutely insane. This is [ __ ] crazy. It went from his living room sofa to this. I'm proud of the fact that I kind of ripped this [ __ ] thing off the launch pad through like just crushing volumes of effort. It's strange when you're doing the same thing and yet your goals change. The reasons that you start doing something are not they are often not the thing that keeps you going. And that's weird. Like I have this and I don't know why maybe it's because of the McConaughey thing and Interstellar and I've got this idea of a rocket ships the way rocket ships work. When you're trying to sort of take off there are different fuel sources at each altitude. And you know when you get off it's this the big one that comes out the middle. Whatever that's called. And then that one shuts off and then it goes to the booster rockets and then after a while they fall off into the Atlantic or whatever and then you know it reaches escape velocity in coast. That's been a a challenge for me to navigate which is how do I do the same thing when my reasons for doing it have changed and which have stayed the same and which do I need to cling on to because that's a shiny thing which is trying to replace something that is the core of the the project. And how many do I need to actually dispense with because that is a fuel source that has been fully spent. You know I started the show because I was being so heavily influenced by me listening to the same medium. You know Jordan Peterson, Alain de Botton Sam Harris Rogan. I thought well [ __ ] like if I if I do this myself I can speak to whoever I want about the specific niche that I'm interested in on my own timeline. Wouldn't that be cool? Starting to talk to people on the internet and accidentally turning it into a career was not what I intended. It was a vehicle for personal growth. And I think when the show is at its best when I'm at my best is when I'm tapping into that instinct. Like what am I what are the challenges I'm facing in life right now? What am I interested in? What am I like what are the whispers that I'm hearing from friends from culture? What's pulling me forward toward this project? And when I get further away from that uh sometimes the numbers go up but reliably I feel worse about them. I enjoy the conversations that I have. I really do. And the more that I enjoy the conversations that I have invariably the better the show grows. And that's not the faster it grows that's the better it grows. It's more people who are here for the sort of things that I am into. And that's changed over time too. You know in the very beginning I was interested in productivity. I was like a hardcore productivity bro. It was me like learning cognitive biases and kind of the raw nuts and bolts of how productivity comes into land. And then it transitioned it changed it continually changed. You know it's it's a really special kind of project that allows itself to mold with your interests. And nobody You know I'm I'm largely just fellating myself here saying how great my job is. There's lots of things about it that suck but the best things about it are that I have been able to create a career out of following my curiosity learning out loud and practicing in public and understanding myself and the world around me. All right, let's let's change locations. So we've paid for this [ __ ] Airstream. I might as well use it for something. Welcome to my humble abode. Three standout moments from the last thousand episodes. It is strange cuz everybody wants to ask you know what's your favorite episode? And it is like trying to choose between a thousand children. Which is very difficult. Certainly the weekend when I did Rogan and Naval this year that was super special and to sit down and listen to Naval say he basically had daytime fantasies about doing this episode with me when he was one of the biggest influences. >> Now, do you know the reason I'm on this podcast? No. You know, I haven't done a proper formal interviews podcast in a long time. >> And I reached out to you for this one. Mhm. Right? >> I have lots of people reaching out to me for podcasts. I do not answer them. I reached out to you. And the reason is a really funny one. It's because when I'm playing podcasting the ball in my head, for some reason you're on the other side. And I don't know why. For some reason, you were the guy in the podcast in podcasting the ball. I think it's episode 45 or 55 or something. It was with Rory Sutherland. It was the first time I brought Rory on. It was before we even did video, and a British gas technician came round to fix his house's boiler partway through. And it's him talking to this British gas technician. Uh hello. I'm so sorry. Uh this is this is going to make this I suppose it's very authentic podcast. >> Absolutely authentic podcast. I was outside. I'm going to go down, weren't I? No worries. We can pause if you like. >> Yeah, we've paused. Right. What what what what what was the What was the problem? I don't know, mate. I think uh I think it was just uh he had a little pressure problem down at the bottom. Oh oh oh. They were They said They said that it was coming out of the bottom, but it was coming out of the top. Okay, wait wait wait wait there wait there. I had him go over and he started wrestling. And he says, "Uh there's there's 20 pounds." >> And the guy's like, "No, mate. It's uh it's already it's covered in here." "No, no, no. I must pay. I must pay uh Uh what day what day uh Friday? Have a Friday. Have a Have a good weekend." Sat back down and went, "Right. Russia." I was like, "This guy is another [ __ ] level." I think another one that's really special is Peterson 2, which was recorded in the Alamo in San Antonio, and that was the day that I moved to America. So, I flew out the night before, moved to America the day before, landed, did the first cinema shoot, first official sort of cinema episode with Jordan, then jumped on his jet and flew to New York, got into New York and then arrived at Douglas Murray's apartment at about 1:00 in the morning, and went in, had a sat down with a Manhattan cocktail, and uh listened to him play piano. I was like, "If this is what the rest of my time in America's going to be like, this is [ __ ] insane." Always good to talk to you, brother. Really appreciate your insight. You're a very brilliant guy, and you're always >> Same thing here. You're fun. Fun to talk to. >> I appreciate you, too, man. Thanks for having um the courage to put all your thoughts out there, and I love what you do. [Music] I've met a lot of the audience since doing the live shows. They're introspective. They are unreasonably reasonable. They tend to ask questions. They probably struggle with self-doubt. They're looking for answers to deep questions that they ask themselves. They're driven, but they're also trying to prioritize their moment-to-moment happiness and peace. I think it's the sort of person I want to be friends with, and I know for a fact that some significant number of other podcasters can't say the same thing. Would you go for a coffee with the people that listen to your show? And I would. [Music] McConaughey's about to come, which is good. And we're going to sit down and we're going to have a chat. It's a nice way to celebrate. Everyone's here, everyone's in town. It'll be good. All right, check the sound. Weren't we in a bar in last time? Yeah. Trying to make you feel at home. Jeez. How are you? I'm good, man. Good to see. Good to see you again. Do you do this production value for all your It is. Unfortunately, just for you. I got a couple of them. >> that Was that here? No. We brought that for you, too. Oh, damn, man. Check out the DJ. Hey, everybody. All right. Hi. I'm pretty good, man. All right. That's not too lightweight. Yeah, yeah. That'll That'll wake you up. Uh so, I mentioned to you that this is episode 1,000. Yeah. Uh it's been 7 and 1/2 years. Uh we just crossed a billion views the other day as well. Congrats, man. And as a little surprise to you, we wanted to take you back to an environment that you probably know at least a little bit well. Ah. Cooper's place, Alberta, Canada, where we shot it. We planted production planted all those cornfields, too. They were as far as the eye could see. And this is the road Cooper drives up on the way out, and that's that Hans Zimmer countdown. 10 9 8 leaving children to follow dream. It's lift off. Not having any hope or faith in anything is a certain way to remain where you are. But if you can find something that you can keep going, something that no matter how small to look forward to and continually have faith in and chase, well, then your life here is going to be better now. Make a sacrifice today. Sacrifice a plastic ring today for a gold crown tomorrow. Sacrifice something today for more freedom tomorrow. Sacrifice something today for possible healthier future for your kid. Make a wish. No. No. It's crazy. Here's to the next thousand. [Music] Uh that's all. All right, thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you. So, we did it, baby. Congratulations, Yianni. I was older than I should have been, and more immature than I should have been, and I needed a vehicle to help me understand myself and the world around me. So, I started talking to people on the internet, and turned it into a job. And 1,000 episodes later and nearly 8 years, it's become the most important thing that I've ever done. We've reached over a billion views. It's taken me across the planet. I've changed careers, relationships, friendships, tax residences. Every person that's listened to the show has changed my life with the device that's in the pocket. So, thank you. [Music]