Podcasting and lessons of humility

Epicenter is turning 11 this year, and what a journey it has been. What started as an exploratory project to learn about Bitcoin has positively influenced the lives of tens of thousands of people, including my own.

I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve interviewed over the years. Including The Interop, my guess is that it’s somewhere between 300 and 400. That’s a lot of conversations.

The way I approach interviews has changed a lot over the years. I struggled with intense impostor syndrome for a long time. Surrounded by people I perceived as more experienced, successful, and wealthy than me, I often felt out of place and inferior during those early years in the industry.

I remember spending hours preparing for episodes, overwhelmed with anxiety at the thought of looking stupid or uninformed. I would obsess over asking only ‘smart’ questions (whatever that means) instead of genuine ones. Looking back, it’s hard to recognize that self-conscious version of myself in my late twenties and early thirties.

All this self-obsessing often prevented me from paying attention to the guest and what they were saying. Unless I went back and listened to the episode, very little stuck. I regret not spending more time writing about Epicenter content, forming opinions, and creating new knowledge.

My preparation and interview process changed dramatically around the time of launching The Interop. Limiting preparation time to 60 to 90 minutes imposed a more genuine and conversational style that I’m much more comfortable with. On occasion, I’ll even spend less than 30 minutes preparing!

As a result, interviews are more relaxed, and questions come naturally—like any normal conversation. My goal is to learn, and hopefully help others learn too, instead of trying to appear smart. I wish someone had drilled this into my head a decade ago.

I’m proud of what Epicenter has achieved since 2014 and always humbled by how many people see the show as a source of quality information. I’m also grateful for the lessons in humility that hosting the podcast has taught me.