Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

The final question this month comes from Fat Yankee on the Discord server, who asks, Gary, after 5 years, I’m glad you had time to reflect on your impact on history education. Have you ever thought about your impact beyond education? I’ve been listening for over 4 years back when I started driving Uber and my wife gifted me a Spotify subscription. In that time, I’ve changed jobs, lost 100lbs, lost my dad, and learned how to become a dad. You were there every day. 5000 ride shares, 5000 deliveries. Good days, bad days, last job, this job, next job, the hard steps and the easy ones. Your show is a constant. As a traveler, I hope you take some time to reflect on all of life’s little voyages you’ve been on with all of us. Cheers ? to 5 years! And a Roar for five more!

Thank you for the kind words, Fat Yankee, or should I call you former Fat Yankee?

Intellectually, I understand and appreciate what you are saying. I’ve received similar messages from listeners such as yourself, and I have to say it always takes me aback because I never really thought about making that king of impact when I was launching the show.

That being said, every day I have tens of thousands of people who listen, and over the last five years, I’ve had hundreds of thousands of people who have listened to at least one episode.

Unless someone reaches out, it is impossible for me to know how people are listening or the impact that it has on them. Moreover, I don’t think I really can think about it too much, or else it might get overwhelming.

My priority every day is getting the next episode out the door. The moment I hit publish, I am immediately thinking about the next episode.

I think this is true of most people who create something. You have to focus on the creation. Even if you take time to occasionally acknowledge what is happening in the bigger scheme of things, you always need to come back to the work, because without the work, there isn’t anything.