Midwest Conversation is back
A new look for the show in the new year.
Where did the show go?
The last time we spoke was via video/podcast on October 17, 2021. At the time, I was getting ready to move, again, for the fourth time in four years. The holidays were also right around the corner, so I told myself and my audience that I would be taking a break. During this break, I would be celebrating the holidays, moving, and getting set up in a new spot in time to hit the ground running in 2022. Well...life happens, and this is the first time I am doing anything content-related since October.
There were two main reasons for the content delay, one being in early December and into January, I had a guest staying with me. My girlfriend, who I live with, her grandfather was going through a rough time with some health issues and needed to stay with us until we could find him a place to stay with round-the-clock nursing care. I am not sure if you have ever dealt with senior care facilities, Medicare, Medicaid, or anything in that category. If you have, you will know there is a lot of BS, red tape, impossible bureaucracy issues, and frankly, trying to please an 81-year-old who cannot move around very well is no walk in the park.
I do not want to place all of the blame on the grandpa situation. There were plenty of days where nothing was going on. I realize now I was telling myself that in the current case, I, for whatever reason, can't work on anything productive. Looking back on the show over the past year, I realized that I was not putting out content that I enjoyed. Yes, the subject matter, but the way the show played was not me. I was, let's face it, fucking boring. That, I think, was the real reason for the delay. I had this idea that since the subject matter was serious, I could not have a personality. I also noticed that the show contextually was all over the place. There was no theme or specific area of focus. That I felt contributed to the snooze fest.
Moving forward, I will be trying new things during the show and rethinking how the show is distributed. Everything I produce will hit substack first for paying subscribers. The video version of the show will also be exclusively available for paying subs. The audio-only version of the show will come out at the same time for free. I will be posting video highlights of the show the following week on the Midwest Conversation Youtube channel. I want to focus more on "on the ground journalism," meaning the show might be a little shorter. Instead of sitting on my computer all day watching congressional hearings and yelling on Twitter, I will be out in the real world experiencing real things talking to real people. The majority of that content will live on Substack and Instagram, free for everyone.
The show’s subject matter
I have become fascinated with the healthcare system in this country. As a healthy 24 year old I never put much thought into it. Still, after my short, confusing experiences with the American health care system over the past few months, it has caused me to want to dig deeper.
Big money in politics. Watching government members at both the state and federal level make huge decisions based on, in my view, financial interest, not the interest of the people, is appalling. Watching both parties in Congress nuke a significant improvement to the pathetic social safety net we have in America was heartbreaking. Seeing that it was more campaign contributions than anything else for a lot of them makes me really want to start following the money.
Being an avid wildlife photographer, climate issues have always been something I like to track. There have been some climate segments in previous shows, but I would like to focus on the planet being on fire a bit more.
Don't worry. I will still try and keep up on whatever hilarious shenanigans the zombie of a President and his administration gets up to as well.
Thank you to all who have expressed interest in the show coming back and to the few paying subscribers left on substack!
Heres to 2022
Best
-Grant