After around two months with no updates not counting a delay announcement, Have a Listen to This uploaded a short 2 minute message that they would stop the podcast, as they cannot get back into the rhythm.
HALTT was a lighthearted podcast that emerged from a fun Magic: The Gathering themed podcasts started in 2019 that was then succeeded by the general themed one, when one of the two hosts moved back to Australia with the other sitting in Ireland. It was basically just two friends talking about all kind of things, giving life updates and self-indulging in inside jokes, sometimes from all the way back in the magic days.
For somebody just listening to some episode, it probably wasn't very good. Random, disconnected, sometimes funny, sometimes less so, sometimes serious. But they always had great chemistry, as the podcast was always intended as two friends at different ends of the world catching up.
But for me, it was weekly soul food. I started listening during the pandemic when I was part of the MTG community and then stuck with it and got to know snippets of the life of the hosts. I also listen to the (actually very good and much more successful) history podcast of Riley Knight.
When I listened to the quick announcement, I felt really empty. It is silly really, just 45 min stories a week of people I don't even know. I thought I was never somebody for parasocial relationships. But it was the only podcasts where I regularly grinned like an idiot when commuting and something light-hearted that distracted me from all the bleak stuff going on right now.
What's the point of this post? I don't really know. I guess I just wanted to get this out of my system. Did any of you ever get hit in a similar way, by a podcast ending suddenly?