Maybe your company launched a branded company podcast but haven’t released any new episodes in months or years. It could be that the original host left the company, or that priorities changed and there wasn’t ongoing resourcing for the show. Don’t let nervousness about returning to podcasting keep your company from releasing new content. For encouragement that you can come back from a long hiatus, look no further than:

Distributed, with Matt Mullenweg from Automattic

Automattic is the parent company of WordPress and other brands (including my podcast app of choice, Pocket Casts). And their CEO Matt Mullenweg started the show on his own back in 2019. It’s gone through some different phases of consistent releases, intermittent, and cross-posting when Matt has been the host on other podcasts. It’s always had a through-line covering topics about how companies can improve the way they work remotely and distributed, since Automattic has followed this model from the very beginning of the company.

With the relaunch of the show, which Matt acknowledges comes after an "embarrassing" 500 day hiatus, he brought in another Automattic employee, Chenda Ngak, to lead the episode. That’s likely a smart call, as CEO-helmed shows are always at risk of being derailed by other commitments. I’m glad the show is back, especially since so many companies have now established their distributed work model, but haven’t truly embraced and adapted how to handle day-to-day work and how to bring employees physically together.

(Hat tip to former Automattic employee Jeff Rozic for turning me back onto the show.)