The Journey of the Podcast
We always had fun conversations offline. One day in 2020, we were playing Minecraft and having a particularly funny conversation, and I asked if we should start a podcast. Everyone seemed to want to. So we hopped into a Discord voice channel, I got a recording bot, edited in Logic Pro, and posted the very next day. That's where it started.
The name came naturally. We used to record all our episodes on Saturday nights on Discord. We realized the Saturday Night Live pun later, which was a happy accident. The format was simple: four friends talking about whatever came to mind. No script, no agenda, just genuine conversation. Over time, we did experiment with agendas, but it didn't really work for us, somehow.
In 2022, during our last year of high school, we transitioned to in-person recording. I invested in good microphones for everyone and an audio interface with four inputs, dramatically improving our production quality. Recording together in the same room changed the dynamic; the energy was different, the timing was tighter, and the conversations felt more natural. This laid the groundwork for what came next.
The podcast grew organically through word of mouth with friends and classmates. Looking back, I think I could have expanded it a lot more if I had leveraged TikTok and Instagram Reels at the time, but lessons learned! The growth we did see came from genuine recommendations. People would tell their friends to check it out because they enjoyed the conversations.
My workflow centered around Logic Pro for audio editing and Final Cut Pro for video editing. Each episode took about 3-4 hours total to edit. I added a bit of music at the beginning to set the tone, but otherwise kept the editing fairly minimal to preserve the natural flow of conversation. When we transitioned to video, I added that video layer, which brought some complexity, but I already had video editing experience so it wasn't too bad. I do wish we had more camera angles, but we had limited resources at the time.
Come the video era, we essentially thought of it as a rebranding. We built a set in my basement using whatever we could find. We used random tube lights, colored folders to color the lights, some color-changing LEDs we discovered, blacked-out windows, installed curtains, and brought in old couches. We released 12 video episodes on YouTube, and while the set was evolving throughout, it really came together in episode 8. Many of the audio episodes went private except for select ones and the entire video era. Most Discord-recorded episodes are no longer up. While I disagree with this decision I made in the past, it is what it is, and I do still at least have access to all those episodes.
We built a small but loyal fan following over the two years. We did live streams with a lot of engagement, and we got decent views on our episodes, especially during the video era. What made our audience special wasn't the size, but the connection. People came back week after week because the conversations felt real, and we weren't trying to be something we weren't. It was just four friends talking, and somehow that resonated.
Saturday Night Discord ended halfway through our senior year. It reached a logical close as we were all applying to college, and we knew the podcast couldn't continue once we all went our separate ways. We found a natural break around Christmas and ended it there. It wasn't a failure or a forced ending; it was the right time. The podcast had run its course, and we all knew it. Sometimes the best projects are the ones that know when to end.
I think Saturday Night Discord was a massive success because it was my first major long-term project. Over two years and 62+ episodes, my production quality skills improved massively. I learned about audio editing, cameras, set design, audio quality, video editing, management, budgeting, and general podcasting. We upgraded audio equipment, invested in video equipment, and improved our overall production management. I learned a lot about leadership, too, as a lot of this was coordinating four people's schedules, managing expectation. Keeping a creative project alive for two years in high school is no small feat.
I'm proud we sustained it at a high quality for so long, and even today, listening back, I laugh at some of these episodes. I'm happy about creating it, and it was one of my best past experiences. Saturday Night Discord taught me that success isn't always about scale or longevity; it's about creating something genuine, learning from the process, and knowing when to walk away with your head held high. This project laid the foundation for everything I've done in content creation since.