The Scathing Atheist

by Noah Lugeons

I guess there are a few candidates for the anniversary date of the Scathing Atheist podcast.  While today marks one full year since the debut of episode one, in a sense I’ve already passed my one year anniversary, since I was already hard at work putting together the first episode weeks before it came out.

So for over a year, Heath, Lucinda and I have been living the podcasting dream; making fart jokes, recording and editing those fart jokes and sending them out into the world to act as an enduring testament to our time on this planet.

It’s been one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life.  The steady stream of emotional, intellectual and financial support has acted as an almost daily reminder that what we’re doing has value to someone out there and that we’re making the modest difference we set out to make (ensuring the Friday commute would suck less).

This year ended rough for me in a lot of ways.  As 2013 drew to a close I found myself quite unexpectedly unemployed and homeless.  And while the transition was tough, my wife and I are fortunate enough to have friends and family that helped us get back on our feet and by and large we’ve made it through the transition without too much stress or heartache.  And honestly, had it not been for this show, I don’t know how I’d have done it.

The other day we got a very generous donation from a listener in the Netherlands that sent along the following note:

I found that going through such upheaval in your personal life but that you still managed to entertain us quite amazing and very touching. I hope this helps you out.

We’ve received a number of similar messages through email, Facebook, Twitter and the like and every one of them has eased the burden of my midlife crisis.  I chose this one specifically because it illustrated the irony of all of these messages.

I suppose that our listeners would have largely forgiven us if we’d taken a couple weeks off from producing new episodes while we were moving, but the thought of doing so never occurred to me.  Why would I want to do that?  Producing the show every week was sometimes the only thing keeping me sane.

The hardest thing for me to cope with when I found out I was being let go was the psychological sting of realizing that I was expendable.  After a decade of telling myself “this company couldn’t survive without me” I was told in no uncertain terms that it could.  And it planned to.  It’s an emotional punch I haven’t dealt with since the last time I was dumped.

But when I felt my least valuable, our listeners were my solace.  Knowing that somewhere out there a perfect stranger was looking forward to the next episode; appreciating the fruits of our labor; that offered the solid bridge I needed to make it through.

So as much as I appreciate all the thanks, it really should be me thanking you.  So to everyone who supported the show over the past year, whether by donating, rating, promoting or just listening; thank you.  Sincerely and from the deepest corner of my godless heart, thank you for letting us be a part of your life.