It’s that inevitable time of year when we both look back at what we’ve done, and look forward with ideals for the new year. I’ve long enjoyed this ritual, even when my goals are set laughably high. What can we say now that the 21st century is almost old enough to rent a car?
2023 marked the first year of The Messy City podcast, and the transition of this site from my own domain to Substack. How’s it gone? Let’s look at the numbers, first. Afterwards, I have some questions for you. Yeah, I’m talkin to you.
When I moved this site over from my mostly-dormant personal site (hey - it still exists, check it out!), I carried over 501 subscribers. Today, I’m up to 804. Not bad! Once I get to 1,000, I’ll feel like I’ve accomplished something. Although, based on my episode with Paul Knight, I really should be focused on 1,200.
According to Substack, the site has subscribers in 45 states and 18 countries. Here’s the states where I’m striking out: the Dakotas, Wyoming, West Virginia, and Delaware. My wife tells me Delaware doesn’t actually exist, so that gives me some comfort. But still, what’s up with those other four states? I’ve been to all of them, they’re all full of lovely people and beautiful scenery (well, North Dakota perhaps not so much), and each of them have some wonderful cities and towns. I’ve actually done work in Cheyenne, stayed in Sioux Falls while working on a project in Nebraska, and interviewed for a project in Bismarck. I liked all of those places. Hit me up, final five (or four) states!
Eighteen countries also isn’t bad, with good representation in the UK, Australia, and India. There’s even a few African countries represented - Kenya, Nigeria, and Morocco! That makes me very happy, and a little overwhelmed. When I get ready for a month-long trip to Africa, can I come stay with some of you all?
So all in all, the site has had nice, steady growth in all subscribers. Some of you have also ante’d up and chosen to pay, for which I’m deeply thankful. It makes spending time on this much more worthwhile, as I try to balance a more than full-time job, a family, and some sort of social life.
I had planned by now to make most of the content paid, but I’ve been reluctant to make that jump for a variety of reasons. I do foresee that at some point, but I’m not sure if that’ll happen this year or not. One issue I’ve had is that my time has allowed me to basically only do the podcast portion with any depth. My list of writing topics is never-ending, yet I just haven’t had the time to take some thoughts and flesh them out to the level of detail that I prefer to go to. More on that in a minute.
Speaking of the podcast, I’m still struggling with how to understand podcast analytics. Here’s an example. On Substack, the site tells me I’ve had about 18,400 total downloads of all podcast episodes, and my top-rated ones are:
1. The Next Urbanism (Howard Blackson)
2. Reforming our culture of building, one brick at a time (Clay Chapman)
3. Being the change in your community (Shomari Benton & Jason Carter-Solomon)
4. Dan Parolek: Finding the Missing Middle
5. Bernice Radle & Monte Anderson: Getting Started in Small-Scale Development
Other than the fact that Howard clearly used bots to pump the numbers, the popularity of those episodes don’t surprise me much.
But then, on Apple podcasts, which is the #1 platform, it tells me I’ve had 18,200 total plays, and the top episodes are:
1. Reforming our culture of building, one brick at a time (Clay Chapman)
2. Talking the Original Green and More with Steve Mouzon
3. Being the change in your community (Shomari Benton & Jason Carter-Solomon)
4. The Next Urbanism (Howard Blackson)
5. Bringing Some Tough Love to Rookie Developers (Aaron Lubeck)
Howard again, really?? Are there really that many Ron Burgundy fans out there?
Apple also tells me the top US cities for listeners are Seattle, New York, Kansas City, Atlanta and Dallas. I’m honestly surprised Seattle and New York are at the top, given my frequent subject matter and sometimes hostile attitude toward coastal markets. But hey, if you can handle it, I’ll keep dishing it out. Let’s call it a co-dependent relationship.
It’s been an incredible pleasure to interview the guests I’ve had on the show, and I’m really excited to grow this now that I feel like I’ve got my legs under me. There’s a few folks that have appeared that I’ll have on again in 2024, and I’ll continue to have regular roundtables with my KC brain trust. Tell me what you like, and what you don’t - critiques are welcome.
For 2024… I have some plans. I always have plans. Too many plans. There’s some features I’d like to add to the site, to help deal with the lack of time I have to do deep dives. I sure wish the battle between Substack and Twitter (X) would end, as they’re both platforms I enjoy and respect. Given what it is, I’ll look to add some little elements here that probably won’t be easy to see from Twitter. I’m considering these as shorter, quicker-hitting content possibilities:
Partially-baked ideas. Projects, policy ideas, plans that occur to me, but for which I don’t have time to deeply explore.
Helpful advice. Small, tangible takeaways to help individuals live better, especially those of us that enjoy walkable cities and towns.
Tidbits of wisdom I’ve heard. I take in a lot of content each week. These would be snippets that struck me as compelling.
That’s my summary, but what are your thoughts?
What is your feedback on the site, and the podcast? Is there a guest you’d like me to have on the show? Is there a topic you want me to explore?
For you regular ‘Stackers, should I use Substack Notes more often? I rarely use it now. But what’s your experience? Is it worth learning yet another social tool?
Thanks to all of you who subscribe, and to those of you new to the site in 2023. I expect 2024 to be the Year of Chaos. At least, that’s what my gut tells me. My gut has led me astray before (like every time I order pizza in the Ozarks - ugh), but I think in this instance my gut may be correct. I’ll do what I can to try to help you focus on a productive distraction, and what we can all do post-2024. I hope YOU have a Happy 2024.
Your short-content ideas all sound excellent to me, Kevin. I wish I was better at just writing up unfinished ideas, but that's something I've always struggled with, and I don't expect that to change at this late point; I just belabor and contextualize and make too-long almost everything I write. If you can find a way to be comfortable with shooting out quick comments via substack, I strongly encourage you to do it! (And do it here, rather than through Notes. I used it very minimally at the beginning, but haven't at all since, so obviously my take isn't an informed one; still, my impression is that it's a function which just never took off, so I wouldn't waste time trying to pump air into a dead beast.)
As for the site and the podcast in general, my interests run towards the theoretical and the academic, and I don't think that's your audience at all, so I wouldn't recommend you follow my inclinations when it comes to guests! (But if you must, think in terms of your wonderful discussion with Philip Bess, probably my favorite of all your podcast episodes. Maybe Ted Gioia?) But one thing that you might want to think about, if only serve the interests of the unfortunate pedants like myself, is regularly posting on The Messy City transcripts of your podcast episodes. I've downloaded transcriptions of a few of your conversations myself, when I wanted to quote from them, and if you did that as a usual feature it might be a real help with the Google algorithm (which I don't understand myself, but hey, it's apparently a real thing, so why not?) as well as directly to a small number of listeners, who are still basically text-bound.
Most of all, though, just keep up the great work; I very much appreciate your voice, even (maybe especially!) when you say something I want to argue with. And have a wonderful new year!
Hey Kevin - Just wanted to thank you for the information you've been putting out, as an amateur dabbler who is interested in Urban Design and knows how important it is to our well being, it's nice to hear from someone with a more professional background in the field.
I enjoy listening to the podcast and reading along here. I like your ideas for the shorter pieces of content. I also want to get better at the Twitter landscape but up until now i've focused most of my efforts here on Substack. My biggest feedback is to keep up the podcast and continue exploring the movement away from suburbs into more walkable places, specifically how it impacts our social life and relationships with the people around us instead of all being in our own little bubbles having to use cars for the simplest of tasks that should be done on foot.
Anyways, thank you again and look forward to following along!