The Finale of Wild 'Til 9

Jeremy Lewis (0:30)

Go.

Lauren Riihimaki (0:31)

You go.

Jeremy Lewis (0:32)

No, you go. You go. I don't want to.

Shoshana Cooper (0:34)

You go.

Jeremy Lewis (0:35)

Welcome to the finale of Wild Til 9

Lauren Riihimaki (0:37)

I can't decide how I feel, but I do feel like last episode was the episode that I was so nervous for.

Jeremy Lewis (0:45)

Why?

Lauren Riihimaki (0:46)

I just feel like I wanted to make sure that we like conveyed what we wanted to say. I wanted to make sure that it was right. It felt right and it was us, and it was truthful and honest.

And I was nervous.

Jeremy Lewis (1:02)

I think I was, in the same way that I was nervous when we started the podcast about the unknown. It's like I knew what I knew. And it's like, you know what you want to say. And I'm glad we were able to be honest.

Lauren Riihimaki (1:15)

Absolutely.

Jeremy Lewis (1:16)

And I feel like looking back in the last week since we decided publicly, and people have been a week, it's been three days. I guess we did the episode last week. It came out today's Thursday.

Lauren Riihimaki (1:30)

This came out Tuesday morning.

Jeremy Lewis (1:30)

Tuesday, right.

Shoshana Cooper (1:31)

Yeah.

Jeremy Lewis (1:33)

The thing that I think I've realized in the last couple of days is that I have not had much of, if really any opportunity to almost end things on my own. Like, oh, you know what? This is a good time to end this. I could keep going. There is more good than I could do.

Lauren Riihimaki (1:50)

That could be had.

Jeremy Lewis (1:53)

This does not need to end today. But I think it should. And if I'd like to think that in the future, future me will thank past me for making the decision and not having the decision made for me.

Lauren Riihimaki (2:06)

We just want to say also too, from truly the bottom of our hearts, I think that I, not that I expected people to be angry or upset, but the emails and we received over a thousand comments, DMs, e-mails, voice messages, videos from people who have been a viewer or listener of the show or have been impacted in some way. And I just don't think that I was mentally prepared. I was not emotionally prepared for how genuine and wholesome and just wonderful the feedback was. I think one of the, I guess this was kind of the tone of a handful of comments that was truly so impactful to me was, we understand and you will be missed. Like those two simple sentiments, I could literally cry at any moment thinking about it because I just, I hope that I think in hearing and reading that response, I feel like we did, I think an okay job at giving our truth in this decision making process and hearing that was just so, I was just so relieved.

Jeremy Lewis (3:20)

I think if I'm proud of us for anything, I'm proud of us for however many years ago, having the tough conversation upfront to make it not tough. Like deciding now that it was not, it's not that it would be impossible to do it, just again, and probably it's because we've done enough stupid things that didn't work in the past to at least know enough to go like, we don't know what we don't know. We don't know how this is going to end, but we know that if it's continuing in a way that isn't good for us, it's not the priority. And to your point about people being kind and nice, the Internet is full of ways to entertain yourself. And podcasts have been and continue to be, I feel like, a medium where people don't actively choose it on a Friday night to like, this is what's going to entertain me. It's a choice that fits into your schedule.

Lauren Riihimaki (4:16)

Right.

Jeremy Lewis (4:16)

And so I do feel very, it's very special to me that people associate us with when they go to pick up their kids or the thing that they do every week. And that's really special. I don't know what other medium has that.

Lauren Riihimaki (4:32)

Yeah, I agree. It's like hearing us being part of someone's routine or being part of their hot girl dog walk, etc. I literally got a text from a friend being like, I better be getting voice notes that are at least 25 minutes from you every Tuesday morning because like this is part of my routine now is just so wholesome, I guess to hear. Also, if you are reading this title, Seeing Finale and are hearing all of this for the first time, I would love for you to go back one episode to the episode titled The End of Wild Til 9, where Jeremy and I went into full discussion about the decision making process of ending the podcast. If you're hearing this for the very first time, I think last episode will give you a ton more context and all the answers you're looking for.