The time has arrived at long last for the final episode of 2023. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting as the year has wound to a close, especially about this Substack. I’ve been talking for years about how I wanted to start a podcast, but it’s one of those things that a lot of people talk about without ever managing to actually do. I don’t want to be a person who yaps about their dreams without taking steps to achieve them, and this year was defined by that.
I’ve also been reflecting a lot about what TikTok has been calling the “invisible string” theory, which borrows its name from a Taylor Swift song. The “theory” is essentially just the collective marveling at the ways in which we unknowingly overlap with each other before officially meeting. Many of the people who I love and have loved in my life were just a few blocks, doors, clicks away for years before we ever formally crossed paths. I bring it up now because I was obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” when it dropped in January 2021—BTW, expect a thinkpiece in a couple weeks for its third anniversary—and nine months later I found myself in the studio for the first time with Ryan Linvill, who played a critical role in the production of both Sour and Guts.
I think 2023 was, for a lot of us, a challenging and transitional year. And so maybe it was a year of planting seeds and unwittingly threading the strings that we’ll look back on next year or the year after as these inevitable connections to our respective destinies. Anyway. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ryan. And please leave suggestions for future guests in the comments—musicians welcome, but also actors, activists, authors, educators, anyone you want to hear me gab with!
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