Rounding the Earth: My Final Episode
The end of an era and the beginning of the next
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to share with you that after careful thought, I have decided to bring my time with Rounding the Earth to a close.
Back in June 2022,
approached me to ask if I would be interested in helping him start a podcast under the Rounding the Earth banner. I was honoured that he asked; Mathew and I had slowly but surely grown closer through our work collaborating on the Campfire Wiki and related projects with .He suggested that in addition to producing the podcast, we would co-host the flagship Round Table series, and furthermore, I would deliver a weekly news roundup on my own.
After returning from A Citizens’ Hearing later that month, we announced our very first episode. It was a Round Table discussion with my (new) friends
and titled “Science is Antiauthoritarian”.
It was a resounding success, and the show has continued to be ever since. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to and learn from dozens of people I now call friends, and have gotten to act as a conduit for the layperson seeking to understand the complexities of the post-2020 world.
Why am I leaving RTE?
The reasons behind my choice to move on from the RTE podcast are several, and are largely positive ones. Mathew and I had spoken in recent weeks about possible changes to reflect where we had come in terms of audience size and time management, so this was certainly not a decision made out of the blue.
Furthermore, Mathew was explicit from the get-go that Rounding the Earth was a platform for education, and that included for me. While my background is in audio engineering and media production, I am a layperson when it comes to science, mathematics and politics, and did not have any credentials or publications under my belt. Instead, running the RTE podcast has itself been an excellent term at the School of Hard Knocks.
More than anything, Mathew made sure I had space to express my own voice in my journey of learning and trial and error. Rounding the News was the core of this. Every week, I chose the pieces of news that felt were the most interesting and relevant, and sought to present the news in a fair, balanced light. What started as an improvised ramble evolved into a refined presentation, complete with show notes that satisfied my insatiable attention to detail (for better or for worse).
This process has helped me find my voice and sharpen my skills of discernment and presentation. I live my life as a more conscious, open-minded and well-read person thanks to the challenge that Mathew gave me.
It’s also taken a lot of work to get here, and that workload has grown alongside the show. I’ve loved the vast majority of it, but I admit, I now find myself eternally lacking for time and energy to focus on my number one passion: music.
I decided in 2013 that I was going to be a musician, and that was a recognition of both my strengths and limitations. In the end, music will always reassert itself as the dominant force in my life, and I can only stay detached from it for so long before I will quite literally shrivel up and die.
And so, back to music I go. Or, more precisely, back to me music comes. I intend to have these separated branches of my life meet once again, no longer divided into the “COVID world” and the “real world.” What I do moving forward will be as my whole self.
What’s next?
Let’s be real: there remains much work to do. March 2020 saw the beginning of the COVID-19 “pandemic”, and May 2023 saw its end. But we all know the true fallout from the last few years is still ongoing, and the crisis we face is far larger than just one of healthcare, or “biodefense”, or any variation of the coronavirus story.
But the reality we’re fighting for will take all of us. All kinds of people. Not just the doctors, or the politicians, or the lawyers, or the truckers, or the philosophers. Not just the police, or the military, or the next U.S. President, or Canadian Prime Minister, or that business magnate, or celebrities in general.
It’s gonna take you and I.
…and all of those other fine folks, too.
This is all to say that my work will continue unabated. Some of that will be on my own, and other parts will continue within the greater Rounding the Earth community, and my family within the Canadian Covid Care Alliance. I’m about to hop on a call with my
crew, where we’ll be discussing what comes next for us as a community.Battles remain in the court of law, and even bigger ones to go in the court of public opinion. I intend to help in both. In fact, I’ve got some rather exciting ideas, which I will share with you very shortly. Needless to say, my passion for “deep dives” like the ones you’ve seen in Rounding the News will continue, likely without interruption. That will continue to be done here on Substack, and likely also on my own platforms on Rumble, Locals, Odysee, and Sovren.
For that reason, if you’ve enjoyed my work so far, then remaining a subscriber to this Substack is a great idea. If you want to, you could even upgrade to a paid subscription to help me weather the short period in which I will be without the income I earned from RTE.
Final thoughts and gratitude
In the meantime, however, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Mathew Crawford for believing in me, and taking me under his wing. It’s been a truly wild 10 months developing the Rounding the Earth podcast with you, and I know you will continue to bring it to even greater heights. And of course, none of that would have been possible without the people who make up the Rounding the Earth community. Whether you tune in to our livestreams to engage in discussions with us, or participated in our Locals community, or caught the shows after the fact, you’re the reason it all worked.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Love and optimism,
Liam
Music is a powerful calling.
I'm glad you'll still be around the RTE community though, not 'disappearing' entirely, phew...
You've done exceptional work. Your Friday news deep dives (as they became) improved rapidly and became one of the best (and real and accurate) programs on the internet.
I'm glad for you that you will be able to spend more time with your music. The future worth saving is a future where we have time for our arts.