chapotraphouse

I guess I am a little more positive on the current state of the show than most folks here. I've been listening since the fourth episode and was one of the first patreon backers and have been giving continuously. For me, they still give me $50 a year worth of content, so I'm happy to pay them for their labor, little as it may be. I guess in the interest of full disclosure, I almost know them. I've gone to parties they've been to and I used to play Overwatch with Virgil.

I think the pod was in a much worse place post Bernie crash out. The year or so after Biden locked up the nomination was the closest I got bailing, felt way worse than what they're doing now to me. I also think Felix's contributions have gotten substantially better since he left LA.

That said, I agree with everyone that has pointed out how much of a hole the absence of Matt has been. He was, like most people, my favorite member of the show. As someone else that also grew up in Wisconsin, I just felt a big time kinship with a lot of what he put down culturally as well as politically. I also agree that their film studio ambitions feel a little... off? Not enjoyable anyway. And also having a Democrat on to defend the Delaware Court of Chancery on the most recent episode felt really weird.

But, the back half of that episode where they just dunked on an incredibly stupid neoliberal project felt like the old days in a lot of ways. So, that episode felt like both a high and low point as far as recent episodes.

I agree it would be nice for them to add some more regular hosts and try to get some sort of a recipe going for shows a bit more. I know they've been burned by Virgil turning out to be an alleged creep and Amber just sort of disappearing for long stretches, but adding someone like David Roth, if he'd be up for it, would be really healthy for the show.

I recently cleaned out a lot of my podcasts out of my life. Decided my time would be better served listening to audiobooks. But Chapo still makes the cut even after I got myself down to basically only three podcasts still subscribed. I'm not quite as negative on them as a lot of other folks, but I don't blame anyone for checking out.

What are you talking about? This is a community named after TrueAnon

The core appeal of golden era Chapo was that it had all these different types of leftists playing off of each other. Matt as the angry ranting one, Amber as the blunt Midwest radical, Felix as the dumb-funny shitpost humor leftist, Virgil as the policy wonk leftist, and Will as sort of ringleader. But Virgil’s gone, Matt is understandably sparsely there, Amber is barely on. Having just Will and Felix doesn’t bring enough variety.

They've entered a new phase definitely. Without Bernie and unable to create any other movement to unify around they were already in trouble a bit. Losing first Virgil then lately Matt which was a much bigger hit hasn't done them any favors. They can definitely continue like this doing side show stuff, their movie reviewing stuff, interviews with random press personalities and such, video game stuff and a bit of politics but I don't see them ever becoming the face of anything ever again. They'll continue to make money, maybe even enough that they don't have to dip into savings and retirement funds and continue producing content for a while yet though I think.

Fact is two regular hosts (Will and Felix plus Chris the producer) are just not enough, they don't have the right dynamic between them. They need a Matt or at least a Virgil type in there to get a winning formula.

I suppose an issue to adding a new person in their minds might be they agreed that everyone got full shares for all time I believe. Meaning Virgil still gets checks for the patreon and Matt of course they're not cutting off but there's a good chance he won't be able to work in the same way with them again anytime this decade. So they have two former members to support from their current take, plus Amber who's only around sometimes. So that's 6 mouths right there, 6 ways the patreon is already being split and will be forever short of someone dying or refusing payment. Adding another person means either making a special exemption where they don't get the same rights as the others which would be weird or else risking that money pool being split 7 way, perhaps even 8 if that person doesn't work out, if the fans tire of them, if they dip for personal reasons after a year, etc. And with the way things are, the doldrums I guess I'd be hesitant too as well. Even with a great, incredible host I don't see them gaining that many more subs or gaining that many back to make up the difference in lost money for each member from doing so. They're just not likely to break out given the deliberate suppression of anyone left of the pod Jons by the Democratic party and mainstream media and tech companies. I'm not sure they resonate with younger generations the same way either compared to someone like Hasan so they may be a kind of relic of last gasp of the Millennial left compared to your newer streamer centered, video content producing personalities who have more cachet with gen-z and younger.

They're stuck in this place where they're further left than Bernie's pathetic pandering and sheep-dogging and are critical of him but they're not willing to get into Marxism or anything much stronger than some strain of reformism. And this is down to other than Matt none of them probably being there, certainly Amber gives off annoying Trot academic ivory tower elitism vibes at times which isn't really appealing to any significant group of people. So they're not really even useful anymore as part of a pipeline I think. I think they have some interesting and decent cultural commentary. I've said before I'd love to listen to more movie commentary tracks with them as they're not bad at it and no riffing group exists that's explicitly left in even the softest ways.

Yeah, they captured a moment and movement with their podcast, but the moment has changed. One can view them as the spirit of the radical, disenchanted millennial left - and this is where we're at now: deflated, defeated, and getting old. I appreciate them acting as a news source and they often platform people doing real work, so I think they're a force for good. What else is there for them to say, I guess?

All I know is I miss Matt, and having "leftist" Delaware state politicians bemoaning attacks on the court of chancery is not the kind of content I subscribed for.

I think it's hard to float the project without Matt tbh. Will provided the scaffolding and Felix provided the comedic foil, but Matt provided the insights.

I will say that the crossovers with pendejo time have been fantastic just different. I could see it maybe tacking in that direction.

The solo projects are boring imo. Matt and Chris had the best content

I've felt a similar vibe for a while, but I think I've interpreted it more as the pod becoming less important to its hosts than the other things they do. They'll probably keep doing it until it stops making money, since having the safety net of that income is a huge deal, but for a long time its been clear that it's not getting their full attention anymore.