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The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 7, Episode 50: Best of Season 7
00:33:48
On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are finishing up season seven with a look back and a look forward! Season Seven In Review: interesting stats, regrets, and exciting upcoming content! Show notes are time-stamped below for...
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- [00:00]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Foreign. Hey readers, welcome to the Currently Reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready.
- [00:24]
Katie Kub
We are light on the chit chat, how heavy on the book talk, and our conversations will always be spoiler free. Today we have a very special episode for you.
- [00:32]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I'm Meredith Mundy Schwartz, a mom of four and full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And even when my reading is mid doing this podcast with you, Katie, it never is.
- [00:43]
Katie Kub
And I'm Katie Kub, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona. And currently Reading has been there for me through thick and thin. This is episode number 50 of season season seven. Holy crap. Ola, we are so glad you're here.
- [00:57]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yes. And we are glad to be here. It's a love fest today as we wrap up the season.
- [01:02]
Katie Kub
Yes. And who can believe, I mean, seven years. There are many marriages that don't last seven years. Like there's a seven year itch for a reason, right?
- [01:11]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
My own first marriage didn't last even half that long.
- [01:14]
Katie Kub
Look at this. And analy is seven. Like what? How?
- [01:19]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I know, I know. Big podcast girl.
- [01:23]
Katie Kub
Oh, podcast baby. All right. Well, y', all, this is it. This is the final episode of season seven. We always save our final episode of the season to recap the best of the season. So we're going to talk about some highs, some lows, some statistics, some of our favorite things, just all the good stuff from the year. And we hope that you want to travel down memory lane with us as we discuss this past year. In the life of Currently reading, we usually get started with a little statistic which is about our most popular episodes of the season. So our most downloaded episodes of this season were our top books of the year for 2024.
- [02:04]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
As always, yes.
- [02:06]
Katie Kub
Episode 22 was yours and mine, Meredith. And then episode 24, we had Mary and Roxanna, what did they like, play while the grownups were away. They took over the mic, they drove their own show, and they shared their top books of the year and it was really right behind ours. Everybody loved hearing directly from Mary on Roxana about their top books of 2024 as well. Right.
- [02:27]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
We definitely will continue having that happen. So, Katie, this was actually only the second time in the now seven seasons, seven full seasons of Currently reading, that one of the two of us wasn't on the big show. I was so happy to see how much people were Excited, like best of episodes for us are always going to be the top downloaded one.
- [02:49]
Katie Kub
Yes.
- [02:50]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
But to have theirs come in right there at the top two and have so many people say, please make sure that every single year they do that again. We've already told them the people want to hear all the top books for all four hosts.
- [03:05]
Katie Kub
Yes. Put it on your calendars. Make sure that you two can coordinate with each other because it's delightful on a totally different level and people want to hear it for sure.
- [03:15]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah. I love that so, so much. And then the listener press episode was right up there though, numbers wise. Right.
- [03:22]
Katie Kub
It is close. The third most listened episode this year was actually our 300th episode.
- [03:30]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Okay.
- [03:30]
Katie Kub
Which was right toward the beginning of the season. But we talked about kind of the podcast journey as a whole. Over six full seasons, 300 episodes, which is a pretty big milestone in podcast country. A lot of podcasts don't make it past four, five episodes.
- [03:44]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right, Exactly. And over five million downloads coming up on. Six million now.
- [03:50]
Katie Kub
Yeah. More than five and a half million downloads, which is just astonishing to me still.
- [03:56]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah. That's a number I really try not to get in my head about as we just continue to operate the show as if it's just 10 people listening.
- [04:03]
Katie Kub
Yes. I actually, right now, I mean, this is just a random little aside. I'm reading Annie B. Jones, Ordinary Time and she has talked a little bit about the podcast for her as well, and how it's been to have this public facing side of her and use her voice when people have opinions about how often you laugh or whether or not you should have a man on the podcast with you or whose reading taste is the best of all the people that she talks to and they will publicly share those opinions with her. And the way that she's kind of dealt with that people pleasing tendency that a of lot, lot of us have and wanting perfection that a lot of us have, but also recognizing that she is exactly who she is. And so she talks about it like Sally Field, like you like me. And that's enough. You really like me.
- [04:49]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And that was one of the things. And I'm always glad that we do these end of season episodes because they do give. I mean, I think listeners like hearing about it, but also for you and for me, it's really useful to take a beat. It's part of the reason that we have seasons. I mean, obviously a lot of podcasts don't do seasons. They just do kind of numbers, you know, one and then ongoing. We have seasons for this exact Reason so that we can take a beat, we can think about, where have we come from? Where are we going? What was great about the season? What do we want to change, adjust, morph, tweak? You know, I find it really, really useful to have that as the open overall structure. So it's really nice to be able to say, okay. At the end of season seven, I can firmly say that I have grown a lot when it has to do with those kinds of things, like what people think about the books that I read or don't read or the books that I bring or who I read with or who is on the show, all of those kinds of things. It's not to say that I don't care about it at all, because that would be a completely false statement. But I've gotten a much thicker skin, and that's been useful in a lot of areas of my life, and it's also given me a lot of courage to start new public facing things.
- [06:08]
Katie Kub
I agree. The podcast has grown me in ways that I never would have expected. When we first sat down seven years ago and said, do you want to try this thing? Let's see what happens. I never would have said, oh, yeah, it will make me bigger in this way. It will make my life bigger in this way. Another random aside. I was doing some training on sales for a different thing that I was working on, and the trainer was like, oh, one of the ways that you can get people to respond to you is to add some confusion into your voice, add some ums, likes, some stutters, retake it. And I said, listen, I have spent seven years getting rid of ums in my vocabulary. I do not say anymore. I refuse. And I will not be adding that into any type of, like, sales presentation. Oh, my God. Because that would be undoing so much work that I've done on myself over the past seven years. I would never intentionally put crutch words in. Absolutely not, sir.
- [07:01]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Oh, my gosh. I mean, so. I mean, just from a pure sales training perspective, I think there's a lot better way to communicate what I think that person was trying to communicate. But we will leave it and just say yes. I would have just thrown my head back and cackled with glee if someone tried to tell me to do that.
- [07:17]
Katie Kub
To say more ums. Absolutely not.
- [07:19]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right?
- [07:19]
Katie Kub
No, no.
- [07:21]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Be less perfect.
- [07:22]
Katie Kub
Yes. Get over that idea that nobody says no. Okay, let's talk about some of our favorite episodes of the season and kind of how we enjoyed it. Because, of course, we love our top books of the year, and we loved recapping 300 episodes worth of content, but there are some that kind of hit a little closer to the heart, right?
- [07:44]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
For sure. I really like what we do with the April Fools episode, which isn't really an April Fool's. It's now just become our traditional. It's our no Prep episode. I find that to be a really useful kind of heat check for how we are becoming more and more able to do that with more and more skill over time. Because I like the idea of being able to talk about books without being able to prep the setup really carefully and prep our thoughts and go back and kind of craft all that like we normally do. It's a heat check, and I like heat checks in my life. I like to keep myself really, really sharp. Also, in the no Prep episode, you with your eagle eye found a book on my list because we give each other a list of books that we haven't talked about yet on the show. One of those books you saw was the book Burn After Reading, which was the new book by Katherine Wright and Howard. Absolute auto by author for me and an author that I have become friends with outside of just the podcast.
- [08:45]
Katie Kub
And.
- [08:46]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And you realized, oh, you know, there's got to be a reason that she hasn't talked about it yet. So what happened was I ended up needing to talk about a book that I'd been really nervous to talk about on the fly because I didn't love this latest book. And it turned out that, you know, as I mentioned on the show afterwards, that Catherine reached out to me immediately afterwards saying, like, we are so good, Meredith, I love your honest opinion, and you spoke about it with grace and professionalism, but also with honesty. And that's exactly what people like about your show. I was really, really nervous about that. But it turned out that she gave me the grace to be able to kind of lean into my ability to talk about a book even when I didn't love it. It's much easier to talk about a book you loved with no prep than one that you didn't, by the way.
- [09:33]
Katie Kub
BTS, yes, that is absolutely true, for sure. Cosine, 100%. I loved that April Fool's no Prep episode for a different reason. We had a deep dive on a reading life temp check, which we just did again at the end of season seven, our last regular episode. But I blasted out this big revelation to the listeners, and then I was just met with so much grace and support and people saying, me too. Or people saying, I'm just about to start that journey for myself. And I'm so glad to know there's somebody else just a little further ahead of me on this journey. It was overwhelming in a big way, but it was also really beautiful and. And a reminder that we're not doing this in a vacuum. It feels like, well, you're reading for yourself. You pick up that book by yourself. You're doing this thing alone. And then I get to talk to Meredith or Mary or Roxanna about it every week. But there's also this huge community of tens of thousands of other people who really care about things outside of our reading lives in a way that continues to surprise me even seven years in.
- [10:37]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And also, it's a really great reminder of the fact that our reading not only is not in a vacuum like ours, like literally yours and mine, Katie, because of the fact that we share these things on such a public forum, but also your reading is never in a vacuum and is always affected by the things that are going on in your life. When we have these big things that are happening in our lives, I think it would be so weird if we didn't. I mean, again, not that it was ever incumbent upon you to share anything like that on the show, but if you are comfortable with it, it gives such a context to your overall reading life that I think is helpful for people to hear about. So I was really glad that you were able to speak so authentically and so vulnerably and then got such a massive amount of support afterwards.
- [11:23]
Katie Kub
Deluge.
- [11:24]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
It was great.
- [11:24]
Katie Kub
It was a lot. It was a lot on the silly side of things. The episode that we did about non tragic bookish tragedies was one of my favorites. It was, I was calling it in my head when the book fairy shits in your bed and she just shows up and like ruins your reading life for no apparent reason. And. And then exploring Canadian reads through stereotypes. When I did the Elbows up episode with Roxanna, we just were delighted by it. It was so fun.
- [11:50]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
That was a really, really good one. I loved our six star books episode. Books on which we won't accept any criticism.
- [11:57]
Katie Kub
Yes, right.
- [11:58]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So like, not just five stars, but six. I loved the conversation that we had about it. And then I also loved the larger conversation that was started in the social media realm with a lot of people talking about on social media, but then a few people actually writing longer form pieces around this concept. So I love that we kind of started that part of the conversation in.
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Katie Kub
Both agreement and disagreement with the idea of six stars.
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Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I was gonna Say, not everyone agreed.
- [12:22]
Katie Kub
Yes. We don't shy away from strong opinions. We say that every week. We also have a rule in the Facebook group that you don't yuck other people's. Yum. Yup. But it was like the confluence of those two things coming together really got some people up in arms about some things.
- [12:37]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah, it's a very interesting topic, but that's why so many people were talking about it. So I was glad about that. And, Katie, I still really like our boss. My TBR segments, I think they're so fun. Yeah, I'm glad that we do that regularly. And I want to figure out a way for us to have other kind of recurring segments like that, because it gives a nice flow to the deep dives. But then this year also, we kind of threw the door open for deep dives. So this year, one of the things that happened is we came to a place. Let me just speak for myself. I came to a place where I'm like, I am really struggling with deep dive ideas. I am really, like, what have we not talked about? It turns out a hell of a lot. And thank heaven for our listeners because we threw the door open for that. And we to this day continue to get emails from people who are giving us ideas. And there have been some fantastic ones. So our cup runneth over. Our Google sheet runneth over. So thank you for that. I really, honestly thank you for that because it breathed a new life for me into that part of our show, which I really appreciated.
- [13:45]
Katie Kub
Definitely. I don't exactly remember how this happened. I think I was looking for a different title way back in our archives, but I found a transcript where we both asked for deep dive ideas. I believe at the end of season three, it was like episode 47 of season three, we said, hey, if you have deep dive ideas, feel free to send them to us. So it took us almost four years to kind of scrape to the bottom of that barrel again and say, okay, listen, we need some new ideas, which I think is a pretty good run, you know?
- [14:15]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah, no, I mean, because there's always new things happening in the reading world at large that cue deep dives. But it's just really, really nice, you know, I think more than anything, I really felt like it's not easy for me to ask for help because I think it makes me look weak or bad. I mean, not like that's special to me. Most of us probably feel that way, but to ask for it on such a large platform was a little bit difficult for me. And I Just felt really supported. I felt like we're not doing the podcast alone.
- [14:45]
Katie Kub
Yes.
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Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Like, there's a lot of people that have great thoughts that want to add to this conversation. And so it just felt really like it takes a village to do a podcast for seven years.
- [14:56]
Katie Kub
That's like a theme of this episode now. Who knew? Yeah, who knew? All right, let's talk about some favorite books that we talked about this season.
- [15:07]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
All right. This was very interesting, Katie. And this actually helped me so much to look at my reading life and give it a really helpful context. Because what I found is because our seasons spanned like, school years, Right. Loosely school years. They're August through June. We take off July. So because of that, I wasn't just looking at calendar year, which is how we always look at our top tens and all of that. I was looking at a different period of time. So when I looked back at the roughly last two quarters of 2024, there are so many five star books there for me. Like, I'm thinking of ending things. Lifetime favorite book, The Discovery of Witches, a brand new series that I am so, so into. 17 years later. Five star thriller, which doesn't come along very often. And the Spell Shop Cozy fantasy that rivaled Legends and Lattes, which is very, very hard to do. So those are just a sampling of some of the books from that August through December period of time, which is this season that I had kind of forgotten about because I tend to shelve my reading life in calendar years. So this made me feel really energized because I was like, you know what? It was only a few months ago that I was really hitting these, like, five star. Five star. Five star. Five star. So you just never know when you're gonna turn a corner and that's gonna start happening again. So I'm feeling like it might happen. Yes, things have been a little bit mid. They have. But that doesn't mean it's always going to be that way. I could be right around the corner from another great run.
- [16:53]
Katie Kub
Right. They do exist. They do exist. Also. The Spell Shop.
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Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah.
- [16:58]
Katie Kub
It just is always going to be this very special book for me in my heart. The way that it met me where I needed to be and the way that you, like, so gently gave it to me and said, katie, right now, I think right now is the time. And I bought it before the end of that episode and sat down with it immediately and just cried my way through it. Not because it's sad, but because I felt so loved by you and by this author and by the characters. Like, it just. It was like a love fest. Yeah.
- [17:28]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I just recommended it to a really good friend of mine who was kind of going through a little bit of a difficult emotional time. And he just came back to me and he's like, I just could not love you anymore for recommending this book. And it just made me so happy because he's a little bit hard to recommend books to.
- [17:43]
Katie Kub
Yeah, that's difficult, I think for me. I don't think I've ever had a reread on this favorite books of the season list. But in the same way, what Alice Forgot by Leon Moriarty was a book that I reread during season seven. And especially now that everybody knows kind of what was happening in my life during season seven. The way that that book had me thinking about 10 years ago, me, and would I have made different choices and how would my life be different if I could wake up with no memory of these past 10 years? And what would that actually look like? It was so much more impactful than the first time that I read it, which I loved it at that time, but it didn't know me in the way that it did the second time. Even knowing going into it, like, this book is probably going to break your heart. There's a lot of stuff about marriage and long term relationships and what that actually looks like moving forward that is going to hurt to read. And it's still just. Just really powerful reading experience for me.
- [18:44]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah. And you, you know, I was really nervous about you reading it when you wanted to read it. I was like, do you think that's a good idea?
- [18:51]
Katie Kub
Yeah. You were? Are you sure?
- [18:54]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
But you were right. Your intuition was right. It was a good context giver for you.
- [18:58]
Katie Kub
It really was exceptional for me. And then there's other ones that most of these are not new books, but the Odyssey. I reread the Odyssey this year, translated by Emily Wilson.
- [19:08]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
That is not book.
- [19:10]
Katie Kub
Okay, that one's not remotely new. But the translation is only a few years old. And getting that new context through like a feminist lens on ancient Greek is so interesting. I loved also a reread technically. And then my lady Jane really stands out to me as something fresh and feisty that I read this year. That made me so happy to read it, even though it's what, five, seven years old at this point. It's. You had talked about it numerous times on the show. Mary had talked about it with me numerous times on the show. But it had to hit at exactly the right moment. And it did. And I Love it when that happens. I mean, honestly, I hope that that's what happens this summer with 4th Wing, where I'm like, oh, my gosh, it turns out waiting exactly two years was exactly right.
- [19:56]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right. And speaking of right, books at the right time for me, this year has had a lot more of a focus on nonfiction. I feel like my brain has clicked back after several years of that being a really low percentage of what I was reading this year with my morning reads. And even outside of my morning reads, a lot of nonfiction has been hitting for me. The most impactful book that I read all year long is the Courage to be Disliked, which is nonfiction. Just a complete game changer for me. And that paired with the Four Agreements, is like a one, two punch of books that I would recommend to any anyone who is really struggling to find their own path, like, make their life the way that they want it to be without being so worried about what everyone else thinks or feels about your choices or who you are or what you like and don't like, who you want to be, who you want to be married to, who you want to spend time with. All of those things. I just feel like the Courage to be Disliked and the Four Agreements put those two things together, and that has just, like, put some major steel in my spine.
- [21:06]
Katie Kub
Yes, I love that. Excellent.
- [21:10]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
The other thing that happened is I started reading through 101 books to read before you're murdered by Sadie Hartman. Such a great list. And I've been buddy reading with Betsy and Kiara, and we've read some really good backlist horror because of that list. We've also read some that didn't hit for us, but like the Ruins, the Grip of it, and True Crime, which is a book by Samantha Kolesnik. Those are three backlist, very hardcore works of horror that are just absolutely memorable. Page turning. I really like reading through that. We're continuing to do it this year. And also I really like reading through a list of books that makes me direct it. It's like the only place where my kind of planned side comes into my reading, where it gives me enough choice that I can lean into my mood but still kind of keeps me within a structure. So I want to do some more reading through of lists.
- [22:08]
Katie Kub
So the two lists that you're working on is the 101 books and the Agatha Christie catalog, right?
- [22:14]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah, exactly.
- [22:15]
Katie Kub
Okay, perfect.
- [22:16]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
But I'm open to more.
- [22:18]
Katie Kub
Okay. It's available for discussion. Right. The only other book that I really wanted to highlight in this favorite books of the season section is Most ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa, which is a trans Pride and Prejudice retelling. I mean, this is not news, but it was exactly what I didn't know I needed. It is a little backlist at this point. I think it came out in 2023 and just beautifully written. So much cheeky tribute to the original while also giving it this fresh faced transness to it that was surprising and exciting and made me cry a little bit, which I loved.
- [22:54]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
That's your sweet spot.
- [22:56]
Katie Kub
It really is. Okay, this is. This is always a little bit controversial maybe, but we always save a little space for the biggest regret of the season for each of us. What is yours, Meredith?
- [23:08]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
You know, this was not a year that I had a ton of regrets. I feel like we've gotten into a really good flow flow as far as how the show fits into our lives and being able to keep it moving forward. And of course, Megan, our producer and editor, is a huge, huge, huge part of that. So I feel like I don't have a lot of regrets. I do feel like, and I've mentioned this before, that I've been a little bit distracted, which has affected my reading. I've been distracted, like by work projects, including currently reading work projects. So I've had like a lot of mental energy, but I just haven't been able to direct it as much toward my reading, even when I want to. So I guess I feel a little bit regretful about that. But I also feel like that's not something I have a ton of control over. So I'm kind of just trying to roll with it. I feel like I'm also kind of getting to this place where I'm wanting us to roll a few new things into the big show. Like just kind of zhuzh a little bit.
- [24:09]
Katie Kub
Yeah.
- [24:10]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Not changing anything substantially at all, basically adding, not taking away. But we haven't done that in a little bit and I think I feel like maybe I've let that go too long, that the format's been really similar. Just some things that I'm thinking about mulling on. Not anything that is big and regretful. It was a much bigger year for you, Katie.
- [24:29]
Katie Kub
It really was. I like it's also a theme of this episode, but we've built this big community of readers who listen to us every week, who know us. Like that age old podcast meme where the guy is sitting next to all the girls eating ice cream together and it's like, this is how I feel when I listen to podcasts, because he's all involved in Their conversation, and he feels like they're eating ice cream together, but really they're an ad and they don't know he exists. Right. Yeah. Gosh. Describing memes on mic is kind of weird, but my regret for this season is that I closed a part of myself off for nine of the 12 months of the season in that it was right when we started season seven that I knew that my marriage was ending. But I didn't share about it for many months because it was personal and it was my own thing. However, by the end of that nine months, it really started to feel like it was a burden that I was carrying alone. You knew, of course, the people that I talked to in real life regularly were absolutely in my corner and supporting me, but I tried to pretend that everything was okay, and I tried to keep myself light and breezy in a way that was inauthentic for a long period of time. And even after that March episode, when I let people know what was going on, I got so many messages where people said, I had no idea that there was anything going on with you because I had tried so hard to build up a wall that said, look it, everything's perfectly fine. See this beautiful facade that I've built, which is literally a fake front.
- [26:02]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right.
- [26:03]
Katie Kub
And that is a regret in that these are people that are important to me, that care about me, that I do have personal relationships with. But since it was through what I consider work, what we both consider work, this is a job. Right. I kept it separate in a way that was hard to bear. It was burden to carry, and that was difficult.
- [26:25]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And when it got to be the right time, and I think a lot of things needed to come together for it to be the right time, I think you shared about it.
- [26:31]
Katie Kub
Yes.
- [26:32]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Really, really beautifully. And then you did get that feeling of, like, okay, there is this larger community that's there for me.
- [26:38]
Katie Kub
Yeah, definitely. I'll never regret that part, you know? Yeah. I have also felt some things like, okay, well, maybe this could use a little refresher as far as the big show or some of the Patreon content or what we want to do behind the scenes with some of our other levels of support and the ways that we interact at certain spaces. So I'm excited to do a little freshening up around here, a little spring cleaning. Summer cleaning, I guess, is what we would call it.
- [27:03]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Exactly. Right. And also, you know, just as far as things that we kind of have coming up that are new, and, again, you don't need to expect or be worried about Any gigantic changes happening to the big show. We know that we've locked onto the format that works really well. That's not we're looking to do. We just always want to keep it a little bit fresh and a little bit interesting, especially for some of you who've been with us since episode one. We don't want you to get bored and leave very frankly. So we'll continue to do that for you. We also, we're continuing to work on our social media, so you'll see us doing experimenting there. Betsy Eikenberry has been doing social media and is doing such a good job and she continues to experiment with things. And that means you're going to see us trying new things and, you know, zigging when you think we're going to zag. The more you can let us know what you like, what you want to see more of, the better because that really, really is helpful to us. So the more you can interact with our social media, kind of point us in the right direction. We would absolutely love it. And we're so grateful again for Megan doing everything that she does and for our co hosts doing what they do and for Betsy joining us this year and doing such a fantastic job with social media that I think is why Katie, we were talking about like, oh, you know, did the end of the season come up really fast for you? Yeah, because I just have been feeling like we've been having a lot of fun. I haven't been white knuckling it. And that's in large part because all of you do so much to support the show and keep it going that it feels easier to me than it ever has.
- [28:37]
Katie Kub
Yes, definitely. I feel the same. And it is this whole team of people. Of course, Betsy, of course Megan, who is the actual lifesaver of the podcast every single day. She is right around the time this episode airs, probably having a baby. So we will have Chrissy from Sarah's bookshelves pinch hitting for her as she takes some maternity leave. We are also grateful to Chrissy for being willing to step into that space and make it so that we can continue to roll with what we know works in podcast world.
- [29:09]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Well, and to Sarah for being totally supportive of us to borrow her editor and producer. Yeah, it takes Village People. It takes the Village People.
- [29:18]
Katie Kub
Yes, indeed. And then the same on the Patreon side of things, like without Elizabeth, Rebecca, Bumi, we would not. The indie bookstores that we partner with.
- [29:30]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right.
- [29:31]
Katie Kub
Oh, my gosh.
- [29:32]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
No question.
- [29:33]
Katie Kub
The way that they either a keep us on schedule. Hey, what do you want to talk about for this next iteration of all things Murderful? Love and Chili Peppers or whatever. And honestly, that's another huge part of season seven for me is August of 2024 is when we introduced Love and Chili Peppers. We're now hitting our 12th episode of that content, and Rebecca is just glowing with love for it, and she was a little nervous to get into this space behind the mic, behind the Patreon paywall, and she's just excellent at it and really living her best romance life, which makes me so happy because that content brings me delight in a totally different way than a lot of things do. And because I've let her take the reins on a number of things, it also lets me play more than the more rigid structures that we have in some other places, which is a lot of fun for me.
- [30:26]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Absolutely. The whole reason that our Patreon is as robust as it is is because we've been able to make the big show as doable as it is.
- [30:34]
Katie Kub
Yes, most definitely. So there's cool stuff coming forward. We are working on some things for our bookish super friends because those people pay us $10 a month and get hardly anything. They are just actual saints and angels and they just like us, which is amazing. So we want to make sure that they are getting some cool bonus content over there as well. Some things are not fit for public consumption yet, whether it's big show stuff or super friends stuff. But we are working on some fun things behind the scenes.
- [31:04]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Always iterating, for sure.
- [31:06]
Katie Kub
Yes, definitely.
- [31:07]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Okay. So, Katie, this episode officially ends season seven. We will be back for season eight, though.
- [31:14]
Katie Kub
We will. We're not going anywhere. We are taking our month break because this is crush weekend, when we're doing all these episodes. But we're only taking one week off from your podcast feeds. So maybe you become a bookish super friend during that time or a bookish friend and you decide to pop over into Patreon and get some fun additional content. But we will have no episode next week on July 28th. We will be back for season eight on August 4th. So only one week off from your feeds. Five weeks off from our schedules. We're very excited about it, and we cannot wait to be back with you again.
- [31:48]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Absolutely. For season eight. I cannot believe it. What a privilege.
- [31:53]
Katie Kub
And is eight a lucky number for you, Meredith? Because you're like, eight. Eight.
- [31:56]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
My birthday is eight. Eight.
- [31:57]
Katie Kub
That's true.
- [31:58]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yes.
- [31:59]
Katie Kub
So I feel like we're coming into something special here.
- [32:01]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I love it.
- [32:02]
Katie Kub
I'm excited.
- [32:03]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
All right. That is it for this week. That is it for this season. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me, I'm Meredith, Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram and you can.
- [32:14]
Katie Kub
Find me Katie@notesonbookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Puttivong Evans. You can find her on Instagram at most of Megan's reads with some baby content too.
- [32:26]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And baby full show notes with the title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps so you can zoom right to where we talked about. It can be found in those fantastic show notes and also on our website@currentlyreading.
- [32:39]
Katie Kub
Podcast.Com go check out what Betsy is doing on Instagram. You can follow the show at currentlyreading podcast on Instagram or email us@currentlyreading podcast gmail.com. we still want your deep dive ideas. They're brilliant. We think you guys are brilliant.
- [32:53]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Absolutely. Keep those coming. All right. If you want to support us or if you just want buckets more content, join us on Patreon for $5 a month. Again, you get a ton of content, you get a ton of bookish community and you keep this show commercial free. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts and shout us out on social media. Every one of those things helps us to find our perfect audience.
- [33:19]
Katie Kub
Bookish friends are the best friends. Bookish super friends are the super best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and.
- [33:27]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Get closer to our goals until next season.
- [33:29]
Katie Kub
May your coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable.
- [33:33]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Happy reading, Katie.
- [33:34]
Katie Kub
Happy reading, Meredith.