Some Other Beginning’s End

NinaIllingworth December 6, 2021December 6, 2021 Announcement, anticapitalism, antifascism, capitalism sucks, Charles Minnich, Chris Walker, class war, content update notices, end of No Fugazi, fascist creep, FotB, Friends of the Blog, KBS, Kropotkin's Barbershop, New Podcast, NFP, Nick Galea, NIDC, Nina Illingworth, ninaillingworth.com, No Fugazi, No Fugazi Podcast, personal, pig empire, Pork Reich, Scurvy, Site Updates, the end of an era, to whom it may concern, two week warning

Author’s note: I try not to clutter up ninaillingworth.com with too many personal messages, site updates, and programming change notices; given the importance of the subject matter however, I hope you’ll forgive me for breaking my own arbitrary rule this one time.

Everything Ends Eventually

I must confess that after wracking my brain for weeks, I haven’t come up with an entertaining or inspiring way to say what I have to say here, so I’ll just get right to the point. After two wonderful years of on and off publication, the No Fugazi Podcast is now unfortunately coming to an end.

Oddly enough, this post would be a lot easier to write if the reason for No Fugazi’s demise involved a falling out between my co-host Nick Galea and I, but the truth is the culprit is boring old capitalism and the respectability politics of professional life. Nick is leaving the show for career reasons; namely that it’s hard to work in civil service if you’re rocking the mic on a revolutionary podcast actively calling for the abolition of capitalism. This in turn means that I can’t even leave the archive of No Fugazi episodes we’ve already recorded up online; it took twenty years, but employers have finally figured out how to use a search engine.

To say that all of this is a major bummer would be putting it mildly; I can’t calculate how many hours Nick and I poured into No Fugazi but I would not be shocked if that number was well over a thousand. The truth here however is that it’s not Nick’s fault professional class employers are afraid of a socialist uprising, and when you work with overqualified people taking a break from the rat race, you’re not allowed to get angry when they decide to go back. There are no hard feelings between Nick and I to sort out here, and I genuinely regard him as one of the most cherished friends I have in my life.

Two Week Warning

In the near term then, this means I will be taking down the No Fugazi Podcast Page, and closing down both our Soundcloud account, and the now largely defunct No Fugazi Patreon Page; with a target removal date of on, or about, Christmas 2021.

The purpose of this cooling down period is to allow fans of the show to download their own copies of the old episodes if they so desire, because again, and I cannot stress this enough, I have to remove the entire archive of NFP episodes from the internet by January 1st, 2022. Nick has informed me that he’s not at all worried about private individuals having copies of the episodes, so if that’s your jam, please take advantage of this window; I currently have no plans to make the archive available otherwise.

It Can’t Rain All the Time

Of course, and as I alluded to the in the title of this post, the end of every project also represents an opportunity for a new beginning. While it was originally Nick who talked me into hosting a podcast, I have to confess that I enjoy the experience and I have no desire to stop. As such, I’ve decided to join three of my friends and colleagues to create a new multi-host show called Kropotkin’s Barbershop; in fact, I just went radio dark this past weekend to finish recording our pilot episode, Bulls on Parade.

So who are these people, and what is Kropotkin’s Barbershop about? The first question is pretty easy to answer: our four person team consists of myself, our co-host Charles Minnich, writer Chris Walker, as well as KBS producer Adam Scriven; all of whom rock the mic each episode. As for the second question, the truth is I don’t quite know yet and nobody who starts a brand new, collaborative podcast with three intelligent, opinionated adults can pretend they ever do know either. Our format is a current affairs, roundtable discussion podcast from a left wing perspective, but aside from that I’m just as eager to see what this show grows into as anyone else reading this might be.

What I can say is that Kropotkin’s Barbershop is not a replacement for No Fugazi, or my former partner in podcasting crime, Nick Galea. While I certainly hope that this new show appeals to No Fugazi listeners, I’ve learned that starting a new podcast is rather a lot like getting a new pet after the passing of a longtime furry companion; you can’t go back in time, but you can start new memories if you just let the moment be its own experience.

Final Salutations

Before I wrap this up, I’d just like to offer a couple of thank you notes and salutations.

First, I’d like to thank my former co-host Nick Galea for his herculean efforts on behalf of my podcast “career.” Nick not only talked me into joining a podcast, but he also taught me the basic process of creating a show people would want to listen to, and for that I’m eternally grateful. While this is by no means the end of our relationship, and Nick has been actively helping us make KBS the best show it can be right out of the gate for weeks now, I’d just like him to know that I cherished the twenty-two episodes of content we cut together and I’m rooting for him in all his endeavors going forward. Knock em dead, homie.

Finally I’d like to thank the listeners of the No Fugazi Podcast itself. Through sound quality issues, sporadic productions schedules, and my constant anti-capitalist ravings, you guys hung with us on this roller coaster ride of a show and I can’t tell you how much that always meant to Nick and I. There were days when we didn’t want to record, and didn’t think anyone out there online even cared what we had to say, and every time it was the show’s listeners who talked us down off the ledge and back onto the mic. Again, I cannot express my gratitude for all of this properly, so please just allow me to say thank you to all of our supporters.

No buddy, you’re tearing up a little bit. This might be goodbye for No Fugazi, but it’s also hello for Kropotkin’s Barbershop and while the drummers may change, the beat marches on.