I had a 7 hour drive today, through the winter storms in the Eastern US. I'm shamelessly using my "it's Christmas so sentimentality is OK" card.

As is my wont when I do this drive, I listened to the podcast. Not the most recent one, but the historic ones. I'm working my way through all of them. Again. having heard them when they were first broadcast.
There was a comment in one of them from Summer 2008. From a listener who said that the podcast made him laugh when he was in dialysis.

And it struck me that I use the podcast in the same way. This drive is the one home from spending time with the (P)Ex-Wife and Son. I stay with them when I go to visit, and it's always a....tense weekend. Parting is also such sweet sorrow that I am an emotional wreck.

And yet 6 hours of podcast later, I'm a normal human again. So:
Thanks for the podcast. Mum and Dad hate it; I love it. I like thinking about them as the kind of conversation you have down 't pub on a good day.

I've never met Messrs Hepworth, Ellen, et al. And it seems strange to be grateful to people in those circumstances. But I am. And I shan't apologize for it. A beautiful drive (when it isn't blizzarding) through the mountains and the podcast makes for a great 6 hours.

Thanks guys.