A New Beginning

I started podcasting back in the day before advertising and sponsorships. I started podcasting before apps and automatic downloads. I’ve watched the podcasting space change and evolve and change again. I’ve watched it become a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry. I’ve watched Joe Rogan rule over the industry, and I think I’ve argued with a few hundred of his podcast bros. Big podcasts have come and go. Small podcasts have grown into behemoths. I fucking love this space.

Podcasting is still a space that excites me. For me, it’s still a wide open space for me and my creativity. I’ve made a lot of podcast episodes. Some have been good, some have been shit. I’ve conducted a few hundred hours of interviews over the last 15 years. I’ve ranted. Pontificated. Cried. Laughed. There have been tours, comedy specials, and television adaptations. There have been awards. Best of lists. Criticisms.

I’ve been away from podcasting for a while. Red Man Laughing took a bit of a backseat to my work on Thunder Bay, both the podcast and the docuseries. I just didn’t have time to tour the show (I cancelled a dozen or so live recordings) and I didn’t have the spirit left in me after finishing the TV series to pick up creative work, I was spent. I needed rest.

But I’m back.

I’m excited to be launching this new podcast series, Joke Talk Yell Write. It’ll just be me and the microphone to start. I don’t have a plan for the show, really. I have a dozen or so episodes mapped out, it’ll be a bit of a summer series and in the fall I’ll launch a new season of the show once I’ve worked out the kinks of what this show is and is not.

Here’s what the show won’t be.

Reactive.

I’m done reacting. I’m done being outraged. I’m done shouting around about the same old shit I’ve been shouting around about since the first season of Red Man Laughing.

I’m here to be creative.

That’s what this will be.

Some of you will be bored by this assertion, some of you may even roll your eyes. I’ll be a bit more clear about what this means in future episodes. Suffice to say, that when you’re an independent Indigenous creative that depends on the market to like you in order to provide for yourself you end up making creative decisions, business decisions, and personal life decisions that don’t serve the work or the art.

I’m done with all that.

I hope you dig it.

Rate, comment, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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Joke Talk Yell Write brings you deep into the irreverent and inspiring creative life of award-winning Anishinaabe comedian, writer, and podcaster Ryan McMahon. One of North America's most essential Indigenous voices, Ryan has been on the cutting edge of Indigenous media, storytelling and comedy for over two decades. Known for his risk-taking, innovation, and bold approach to storytelling, Ryan continues to push boundaries and break new ground in this dynamic and thought-provoking series.