The Best and Worst Reward Ever In our very best year of the new decade, we got a bunch of good news. But not all of our wishes came true. To be specific: You, dear reader, asked for a lot of stuff and we’re going to show you what you got. Let’s face it, this last year didn’t bring a whole lot of good news, but then again, it had a lot of bad news. People were still getting sick, still losing loved ones, still dealing with racism and violence and poverty and environmental disaster. At the same time, we got big wins in terms of love and humanity. We’re living in the best time we’ve seen in this decade. That sucks when you realize it could all fall apart tomorrow, but it’s also what makes this year so special. People gave stuff up and fought for what they believe in, which is pretty amazing in a year that saw a lot of anger and frustration. We got the most important news story of the year, and then some. The biggest news story of the year was of course the 2020 election. The result was amazing in a lot of ways, but also left a lot of people disappointed. The good news, though, is that we’ve got another election coming up and you can bet we’ll be reporting on that as well. We also learned who’s leading the world, and it’s definitely not America. China’s president is one of the worst people alive. I know it was just an election, but you can count on Americans not being thrilled about this. Hopefully he doesn’t get re-elected next time around. What do you get the person who has everything? How do you say thank you to someone who has everything? And in this year when everything is possible, where can you go to get just exactly what you want? Those are the questions we’ll explore on this very special year-end episode. So in this episode, we take a look back at the biggest news stories of the year, we talk about bad news and good news, and how this might change what happens next. This is the most awesome year we’ve ever seen, and we want to spend the rest of it focusing on the good. But we can’t just ignore all the other stuff. This episode is our very best and worst. You asked for it. You deserve it. One of the best episodes of the year The first thing we want to do is talk about our best episode ever, with a guest list that would make any host jealous. This is our annual 10K Club reunion! Yes, we made a deal with Matt about recording our top 10 episodes of 2019, so this year’s topic was going to be our best episode. And you know what? It didn’t disappoint. There were so many great moments. It was a fun episode to do. And this is the episode you’ll want to put in your memory bank for future reference. It’s going to be a long, LONG time before we do something this fun on this podcast. The Best of The Decade Next up, we’re going to talk about a bunch of stuff, starting with the best shows from the entire decade. The year kicked off with something that actually began in a previous decade, though: A TV reboot of a 90s game show. We’re going to talk about it and give you the inside scoop on what makes a good game show. There are tons of shows on TV today, and we’ll discuss the ones we think are the best. We’re going to look back at how things got to this point and then move on to the good news and bad news from this year, and we’re going to find out just what you want the most from the decade that was. New York City is the center of the universe We’re going to discuss how things ended in New York City. We’re doing it, or rather not doing it, starting with a real-estate project in the city that some people thought might do some good, but others thought was all wrong. That one got us excited about a series of other events that culminated in the world’s biggest party on the most expensive block in the city. We’ll see how that all happened. This was a huge week in the history of New York City, and there’s no way we can say that without giving you at least a little recap. The year started with the worst mass shooting in American history We’re talking about New York City’s biggest night this year. We’ll talk about that and how it related to a shocking number of other stories that made this year. Some things you just can’t plan for. But we’ll talk about how and why things like that happen, and what we can learn from them. We’ll see what that means for the future of America. We’ll talk about how other events played into this as well, from the worst election in American history to the best one. And that’s just two weeks in December. It’s been a crazy year. And we’re going to try to wrap up this episode with a bunch of fun stuff to make sure it’s not a waste of time to listen to this. But there’s a lot to be done This is the final episode of the decade. We’re excited to do it, and it’s exciting to do it. There’s a lot to get out of this year, and even more to get out of the past decade. We’ll be discussing most of it. And you can bet that we’ll be having more than one conversation about how these events happened. As we wrap up this decade, it feels like time for us to look ahead to the next one. This is the world we want to see in the years to come, and we can’t wait to see what 2019 has in store for us. Don’t forget the rest of the stuff you asked for We know, we know. This is a podcast for people who love The Simpsons and Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, and so on. You didn’t just get us to talk about a bunch of stuff. You also got us to talk about music from the 60s and the 80s and the 90s and some more modern stuff. We’ve got songs from the biggest albums from the decade along with some songs that just belong to a certain era in history. And there are loads of books from around the world that you’ll be happy to hear about. So there are plenty of other reasons you should listen to this episode, even if you aren’t interested in any of the stuff we mentioned above. And that’s the end of this episode. You’ll be able to download it and listen to it whenever you’re ready. But make sure you listen to this episode if you’re into TV, music, books, and history. We’ll see you again next year when we get to do our Best And Worst of the Year.