What’s in a name?
I’ve asked this question before and the answer remains important as ever.
When I launched this podcast in March of 2018, it was due in major part to my first guest, Yvonne McDonnell. With no name, no overarching theme, and a ton of excitement, we pressed record and the first episode of Hostel Conversations was under way.
It was in the recording of that first episode that certain themes revealed themselves, like enticing paths in an unexplored park, as infinitely fascinating to me and as directions for me to take the podcast. These themes included personal growth/triumph stories, the benefits of travelling, personal weaknesses/challenges, general philosophy, and modern dilemmas. In contemplating these themes and my personal living situation at the time (I was living out of a hostel in Quito, Ecuador) I landed on the name Hostel Conversations for the podcast.
The goal of the podcast was to conduct interviews with fellow travelers, in hostels, and challenge myself and the guests to confront difficult conversations. Through these conversations, my intention was to explore our personal stories so that listeners might here about a situations similar to theirs and see how people figured their way forward through them. That someone might be inspired by what the hear and overcome their own struggles.
Through the first four episodes, I held true to my original concept. Each episode was recorded in a hostel, and we discussed a wide range of topics that presented the audience with the guests stories of success, failure, strength, and weakness.
It was after recording episode 4 that my life changed significantly. I was finally able to move to the Galapagos Islands to be with my amazing fiance and begin our lives together. I continued to record and release another 5 episodes, each staying the course thematically, yet something wasn’t quite right.
I wasn’t recording the episodes in a hostel.
In hindsight, I chose a motif that wasn’t exactly sustainable as I lived in a cute little house on an island. We continued to explore the topics that interested me originally, however, I consistently had to explain why the conversation wasn’t taking place in a hostel.
In closing, as is apparent with the website name change, my podcast is taking on a new title that will be sustainable going into the future.
The podcast will now be called the Bad Brownies podcast, in which, we will continue to explore similar conversations with a slight change to the overall theme.
Please keep an eye out for another post this week explaining the meaning behind the new name and how the podcast will continue going forward. Leave a comment below with your guesses on what the new name means :).
Thank you for reading.
Light and Love,
Drew
Bad Brownies 