Here’s what you missed on the most recent Style & Direction bi-weekly stream: a fun candid discussion on our journey and podacasting. As of October 27th, the podcast enjoyed three years on the air (even if it wasn’t exactly consistent at the beginning).

It was quite a special week for us, being our Three Year Anniversary of the podcast! We were lucky to feature Ethan, Spencer, MJ, Kiyoshi and an active chat with us for a fun reflection about this little hobby of ours.

Yes, I realize that this is already a full week into November- we actually tried to a Three Year Anniversary during the correct date, but due to some egregious technical difficulties, the episode remains lost. So we just did it again the following week!

The History of the Pod, Reflections, and a SaD Future

During the stream, Spencer and I basically discuss how we created the Style & Direction podcast. It was always meant to be a fun, personal project that was free from overt monetization, which really just follows the mantra of the blog. If you can’t already tell, I pretty much made it a menswear version of Comedy Bang Bang (at least with all the jokes we make).

We started out interviewing stylish people around LA (like Cody Wellema or the Gooch Bros) and within our online friend group (as we don’t have the pull that Blamo! or Handcut Radio has), but it eventually just became a mouthpiece for Spencer and me to talk about important menswear topics we seldom see. Personally, I can get tired of entrepreneur stories and would rather listen to some of the nuanced personal style stories- like what designs Mark Cho considers for glasses or how Michael Hill decides on his fun abstract foulards.

The interviews were also put on the backburner because it was tough organizing everyone’s schedules- at the beginning (and still a bit now), Spencer and I worked retail hours, with the former being a college student with regular tests and homework to do! Additionally, not every guest had the best internet or the equipment necessary to make a great sounding product- I even mention in the beginning that creating a high quality episode is extremely important to me, as it echoes to how I utilize photography on this blog. We were quite lucky that Yung Chomsky was a podcaster with his own set up!

Overall, Spencer and I are dedicated to our weird brand of comedy and our signature deep dives into menswear details and topics that we think are missing from the conversation. When compared to the talk-show circuit with big players in the menswear industry and culture (which we still love to listen to), the Style and Direction podcast is always going to be a niche thing that was going to struggle to find difficult to attract large swaths of listeners. So we cut that out that goal entirely. We weren’t going to hustle like crazy (Spencer is still pursuing his undergrad!) or worm our way for those listens- we just wanted to be ourselves and talk about what we like, whether it was the two of us or with our friends like Aldous, whose episode on the “uniform concept” remains one of the most listened to pods of our history.

We’re more than happy to spend $15~ a month on the Soundcloud hosting in pursuit of this little content hobby. The Patreon, as you know, came later, but it’s more about having an avenue for listeners to voluntarily contribute instead of for us to become be full-time podcasters! With that said, everyone’s donations really go a long way to support our consistent podcast episodes and bi-weekly streams! It would be great to crowd source a trip for us to NYC and meet some of our friends, or even take the show on the road (when COVID isn’t a thing)!

If you want a more detailed history (and a few funny anecdotes) about the podcast and stream, be sure to watch the video above! It’s been a fun three years and I hope it continues for as long as it can. The podcast has definitely seen a lot, from my beginning of Ascot Chang to now, a tough quarantine limbo and finding a new career path. Thanks for joining us on this journey and we hope you’ll be with us (or at least watch and listen) in the years to come.

Don’t forget to support us on Patreon to get some extra content and access to our exclusive Discord. Catch us streaming on Twitch every Wednesday and Saturday or watch the clips on Youtube.

Oh and if you didn’t forget, we do a podcast every two weeks!

Buh-bye!

StyleandDirection | EthanMWong | SpencerDSO

The Podcast is produced by MJ and Matthew.

Big thank you to our top tier Patrons (the SaDCast Fanatics): Seth Peterson, Eric Hall, Philip Gregard, Shane Curry, and Audrey Jessica