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SOPHIA released our first episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread in our podcast series on January 19th of 2017. We had a handful of pilot episodes that now-co-host Eric Thomas Weber had made on his own. But in the third week of January, the show launched on the internet for the first time in its present form, with Anthony Cashio serving as our first guest. From then on, Cashio and Weber have to date released and aired 59 episodes on the radio, and 53 in the podcast. As we round the bend and think back on the year, we are also hopeful that this last month leading up to January 19th of 2018 will garner the 2,700 downloads remaining to mark 30,000 for our first year.
The hope is realistic. The month of November saw 3,500 downloads, and August saw more than 4,500. So, we’re excited. 30,000 seems like a nice round number that also has been mentioned in some of the podcasts that Weber and Cashio listen to regularly, and is considered an important milestone in bigger shows’ growth. Our 59th aired episode was actually our first one recorded entirely while live on the radio in Lexington, at WRFL, 88.1 FM. Anthony had to call in half way through the episode for family reasons. It worked and was a lot of fun. He says that he liked being able to pace as he spoke. That’s not usually an option when you’re in front of a condenser microphone.
In our most recent episode, we took a moment and [spoilers] talked about our most downloaded episodes, as well as which were the favorites for Anthony, Eric, and our returning guest, Dr. Annie Davis Weber. Annie has seen the mountains of work that have gone on behind the scenes to put the show together, edit it, and get it out to you all. Plus, the very first pilot episode of the show (not counting Weber’s roughly recorded speech), Ep0.1, had focused on how philosophy profoundly helped him to be happy despite challenges for the Webers’ daughter, Helen. Given that the episode was recorded so long ago, and was told from Eric’s perspective, Anthony and Eric decided to interview Annie about the matter. She was also helped by philosophical thinking. For Eric, it was stoicism that helped most. For Annie, Buddhist philosophy. We’ll have that episode out in the podcast in a few weeks, but as we round out the year, we thought we’d provide some spoilers about which were our favorite episodes, as well as which have been the most downloaded.
For anyone who hasn’t heard the following episodes, here’s your chance to catch up on them and to help us reach our target milestone of 30,000 downloads by January 19th, 2018. Let’s start with our most downloaded episodes and then we’ll share with you which ones we said were our favorites.
Our most downloaded episodes:
#5 of Our Most Downloaded Episodes
Our fifth most downloaded episode featured Drs. Seth Vannatta and Daniel Brunson! The episode was the first part of a two part series:
Episode 6: “Part I of II – Teaching Philosophy to First-Generation College Students”
As of December 20th, 2017, this episode has had 826 downloads. To listen alongside show notes and a transcript, you can click on the link here above, or just listen to it right here:
(1hr 5 mins)
#4 of Our Most Downloaded Episodes
Our fourth most downloaded episode featured Dr. John Lachs of Vanderbilt University! The episode was:
Episode 5: John Lachs on Stoic Pragmatism
As of December 20th, 2017, this episode has had 848 downloads. To listen alongside show notes and a transcript, you can click on the link here above, or just listen to it right here:
(1hr 4 mins)
#3 of Our Most Downloaded Episodes
Our third most downloaded episode featured Matthew Yglesias of Vox.com! The episode was:
Episode 49: “Public Philosophy and Polarization”
As of December 20th, 2017, this episode has had 1,046 downloads. To listen alongside show notes, you can click on the link here above, or just listen to it right here (if you’d like a transcript asap, email Weber: etweber@gmail.com, and we’ll expedite the transcription process):
(1hr 1 min)
#2 of Our Most Downloaded Episodes
Our second most downloaded episode featured Dr. Martha Nussbaum of the University of Chicago! The episode was:
Episode 19: “On Anger and Forgiveness”
As of December 20th, 2017, this episode has had 1,087 downloads. To listen alongside show notes and a transcript, you can click on the link here above, or just listen to it right here:
(1 hr 1 min)
#1 Most Downloaded Episode
As of December 20th, 2017, our most downloaded episode was the second time we had Dr. Tommy J. Curry on the show. The episode was:
Episode 32: “The Public Philosopher and the Gadfly”
As of today, this episode has had 1,233 downloads. To listen alongside show notes, you can click on the link here above, or just listen to it right here (if you’d like a transcript asap, email Weber: etweber@gmail.com, and we’ll expedite the transcription process):
(1 hr 6 mins)
Our Favorite Episodes
Naturally, it’s difficult to say that any given episode was the favorite for either Eric or Anthony. Were we to pick one each, we might choose from among these most downloaded episodes.
Anthony’s pick was indeed Episode 32 with Dr. Tommy Curry (listed hereabove as #1 among our most downloaded episodes). Eric concurred that it’s a favorite and perhaps the most important one we have recorded.
Dr. Annie Davis Weber, our guest for the recent live episode, said that her favorite was the episode in which Anthony interviewed Eric. She might have been a little biased in her choice, but Eric was ok with that. That was:
Episode 44: “On Philosophy, Leadership, and SOPHIA”
As of December 20th, 2017, this episode has had 373 downloads via the podcast server. That’s not a top episode in that regard, but it was sweet of Annie to think of it. If you’d like to hear it with the show notes, click on the link here above (if you want a transcript asap, email Eric Weber: etweber@gmail.com, and we’ll expedite the transcription process). Or, you can hear it right here:
(1 hr 8 mins)
Eric loves too many of them to pick a single favorite, but decided to anyway. There was one moment that made him laugh the hardest and overall might be his favorite episode tied with or beyond those most downloaded. It featured high school teacher Nick Caltagiarone and was:
Episode 37: “Philosophy in High School”
As of December 20th, 2017, this episode has had 501 downloads from the podcast server. It was enormously fun and focuses on a terrific path for people who want to teach philosophy, but not necessarily at the college level. The story about the kid in the bee costume is not to be missed. You can listen to the show with show notes at the link here above (if you want a transcript asap, email Weber: etweber@gmail.com, and we’ll expedite the transcription process for this episode). You can also just listen to it right here:
(1 hr)
We hope you’ve enjoyed looking over this list of most downloaded episodes and of some of our favorites. If you haven’t subscribed to the show or told your friends about it, get on that! Visit PhilosophyBakesBread.com and let us know which episodes have been your favorites. Do that and we’ll send you some stickers while supplies last.
Thanks so much for listening, and please rate and review the show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Last but not least, give us some more listens and help us to hit 30,000 downloads by the end of our first year, which is January 19th, 2018!!
Happy holidays to all and have a very happy new year!
Eric, Anthony, and all our members and friends in SOPHIA