G’day!
I’m back in Australia, complaining about the weather and being generally insufferable about having been away for six weeks. (Did I mention I’ve been overseasssss?)
[If you have your own trip coming up and want some tech, tools, and other top travel product tips, including some discounts, check out last month’s travel-special bookmark].
As I’ve been catching up with friends since being back, it’s been quite clear that a theme of my trip was changing things I wasn’t happy with, including.
leaving an Airbnb I wasn’t super happy with and booking into a hotel I loved.
leaving Lisbon a couple of days early and headed back to the UK for an unexpected extra couple of days with one of my friends (this was one of the best decisions I made on this trip).
changing my London hotel when I realised that my original option didn’t have luggage storage and wasn’t in the right part of London for the rest of my plans.
This continued when I arrived home last Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning I woke up at 5am with complete clarity and decided…
That I’m ending the podcast.
That’s right, after 4.5 years and over 200 episodes, I’m retiring Steph’s Business Bookshelf.
Neil Young (and then, darkly, Kurt Cobain) said it was better to burn out than to fade away, and as someone who’s a big believer of ending things on a high, this feels like the right time to wrap that project up.
Like most projects, the podcast started to scratch my own itch; providing momentum and accountability for reading business books that I wanted and needed to read for the type of work I was focusing on. And it achieved that.
Now, as I focus on a different type of work, I want to improve my imagination. Reading is still part of my development, but the subject matter will include a lot more fiction and different types of non-fiction.
In case you’re wondering, this newsletter will still continue, I really enjoy writing it. I’ll eventually look for another audio project too because I love the audio format. But in the meantime, I’ll be popping up as a guest on other podcasts.
So there we go, you’re the first to know!
Keep reading for a very long it-list from the last month, I’ve clearly had a lot of time on my hands for enjoying content! As usual, let me know what you’ve been up to / reading / listening to. Hit reply or add a comment to this post and let me know.
Waving with lighter shoulders,
Steph
PS. Because I didn’t ever have a podcast launch party, and the podcast birthday/milestones all coincided with lockdowns or summer holidays, I’m going to send her off with a bit of a party in the next couple of months. Watch this space for details 👀
PPS. To borrow from Austin Kleon, this newsletter and the podcast are 'free but not cheap'. You can support their ongoing creation and keep me in books by buying me a coffee as a 'thank you', recommending it to a friend, using one of the affiliate links in the email, or leaving a podcast rating on Apple or Spotify. Thanks!
The it list
Here’s a few other things I’ve been obsessing over, enjoying, or doing recently…
Podcast - Louis Theroux with Nick Cave: I find a lot of interviews with my favourite artists can be quite repetitive or bland, but (as you’d hope) Louis does a great job of putting a different angle on questions and going deeper and much more sideways into the regular topics of creativity, grief, religion, art, work, and life. It’s also novel to have an interviewer admit that they’re not super familiar with their subject’s work. Plus, the way he describes Nick’s aesthetic near the start of the episode made me laugh. Spotify only
Podcast - Smartless with Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood: Speaking of questionable interviewers, I find the Smartless trio (Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett) really quite annoying together, and the first ~15 minutes of this interview is no exception. However, it’s worth getting through that because Thom and Jonny are a delight as they talk about how they make music as Radiohead (and now, The Smile), how they got into film scoring, and the fear of stopping creating. Spotify | Apple
Podcast - Possible ft Bryan Stevenson on the future of criminal justice: This is a fantastic piece of thought provocation and a serious call to action about how we think about the role of prisons in a modern society. This is one I want to save the transcript of as Bryan makes so many powerful points that are worth revisiting and thinking more deeply about. (PS. Bryan was the subject of the brilliant 2014 film Just Mercy). Spotify | Apple
Album - My Soft Machine by Arlo Parks: This album was the soundtrack of my trip and was on heavy rotation on planes, trains, at friend’s houses, and whilst I was working. Impurities, Weightless, and Devotion are my standout tracks. Listen
Album - Átta by Sigur Rós: A surprise new release last month from Sigur Rós, it’s their eighth album (Átta means eight in Icelandic). I think it lacks some of the obvious big tracks from previous albums, but I really like Klettur, Gold, and Fall. This also got a lot of listens on the latter half of my trip, especially during the evenings. I listened to it on repeat on a flight between London and Lisbon. Listen
Video - Gorilla by Little Simz: I am ob-sessed with this video. The music, the lyrics, the visuals, the production, the samples, the hip-hop references, the outfits, the moves, the off-beat… 🥵 Outrageously good. Watch
Netflix - Black Mirror: The new series launched last month, but as I can’t watch Black Mirror on my own, I had to wait until I got home. I really enjoyed the idea behind the Joan is Awful episode, and the ethics of Loch Henry. As usual, lots more darkness and brain-addling from Charlie Brooker, but I’m not enjoying the extra violence and horror feel of this series.
Netflix - Wham!: I really enjoyed this fun and sentimental look into the pop phenomenon that was Wham! I hadn’t actually realised they were *so* huge as a duo, and that Andrew Ridgeley was such a nice guy. The format is quite cute (Andrew’s mum kept dozens of scrapbooks of Wham! mementos and cuttings, which form the structure of the documentary). I do agree with this Guardian review that it could have gone deeper in some areas, but it’s a fun watch if you’re into your music and pop history, like a great friendship story, and want a reminder at how incredibly talented George Michael was.
ICYMI, recently on the podcast…
How to Work With (Almost) Anyone by Michael Bungay Stanier
What I read in April 2023; pre-releases, comedy, and books I didn't finish
Congratulations on the 4.5 years of the podcast — and recognising when the ending felt right! It's an art x