Millionaire

At the start of last year, Adam and I took the show independent. We had been with a couple of big news publications, but they had conventions that were limiting. So we joined the small podcast label Bad Producer, among a handful of other shows, and now our episodes could be whatever we wanted: longer or shorter as desired, shifting structure by the week, going to daily shows when that idea came up, featuring whoever we wanted, adding saltier forms of expression when called for. The worry was whether The Final Word would sink on its own.

Today, since the switch, we clocked a million downloads of the show.

That feels extraordinary. This was a show we started in 2015 purely for fun, because the two of us already had so many long conversations about Ben Hilfenhaus' wicket tally and Mark Waugh's trousers and whether Vinoo Mankad was done wrong. We also wanted to make a different sort of sport show from the blokey chuckling-mixed-with-occasional-yelling type. We wanted something that made people feel welcome who often might not, and something that let us get into subjects more deeply. We found that we loved doing it, so we kept doing it, squeezed into the gaps where time and necessity allowed.

After those first four years of slow build, with Adam trying to snag the perfect interview in line with our travel plans, and me sitting up all night editing episodes, we started the World Cup Daily that got so many people along for the ride. And we started this page, which has changed everything. Suddenly we could afford to put days into episodes and travel for interviews and get proper equipment. Suddenly we could record every week, and know that we could plan for that. By now the show is better, rounder, more confident, more detailed.

Over everything else, these changes have given us the strange and lovely and often humbling experience of genuinely connecting with people. To think that our conversation could turn a stranger's ear one million times. The messages on this page remind us, from people who had drifted away from cricket or lost the love but have rebuilt it after joining in. The people who have told us about keeping them company on long drives or through sad times, the people who have bonded with others in their lives by bringing us along.

We feel incredibly lucky right now. We get to do something that we love, and something that in its small way feels meaningful. We get to see the years of work bear fruit. We get companionship and goodwill from around the world. We have no idea how long it will last, but we'll appreciate it while it does. 

In some ways, numbers are just numbers. But as Nerd Pledge has taught us, there can always be a story to a number, something far less obvious but built of human warmth. A million downloads might not mean anything but a boast, but it also tells of the human beings behind it, and the good fortune we've found. Thanks to all who've helped it find us.