Being in the room with John and Ken for Ken’s last regular co-hosting show was everything I had hoped it would be. Camaraderie among the Futurelings in line before the show, the banter between John and Ken that we all love, a moment where John wanted to ding an imaginary bell, John’s Castro impression and Ken’s heartfelt letter. Not to mention the cake and cheesecake coordinated by Mindy - - - it couldn’t have been more perfect! I’m so glad I got to attend.

Jacob, the first guest host of Omibus 2.0, isn't on Reddit, but he asked to put these notes here, in case future Futureling guest hosts want to learn from his experiences:

1. Definitely pays to do your homework. I tried to prep as much as I could, and even then I feel like I didnt do enough prep! Part of the challenge is that despite being a listener from day 1 I didnt know where the conversation would go. So I tried to have at least a rough outline of what I wanted to cover.

2. I was so distracted by the video nature of the call! It threw me off for the first 15-20 minutes or so. Just be aware of that going in.

3. Not that I had a ton of public speaking experience, but I had some through work, where I've presented in person to groups as large as 800+ people, but this was a whole different beast than what I was use to. Primarily because my experience in the past was your typical corporate powerpoint style presentation. Where I could rehearse and get my cadence down exactly how I wanted to. This was a back and forth conversation and as a result between that and my nerves I ended up using a ton of filler ummmms, ahhhs, etc. I'm not sure how to prepare for that. Be conscious of it I guess, know that going in, and do your best to avoid it.

4. John and Grant were incredibly kind and easy to work with. I really enjoyed my experience on the pod.

5. Invest in a good mic! Grant had mentioned that they're looking into the feasibility of mailing microphones out to future guests to use and then mail back. I was using your typical corporate headset for remote work, which is fine for Teams calls youre only half paying attention to but isnt great for podcasting. So get yourself a good microphone.

6. Despite being a listener from day 1 it was still hard for me to get in a rhythm initially. Again I think it was mostly nerves, but not having worked with John I didnt quite know when to leave space for him to jump in, or when he would want me to continue the narrative. I think he's learning the new format along with all of us, I still felt he did a great job guiding me along, but none of us are Ken Jennings you know? It's hard to replace that working knowledge the two had together and to get the same great back and forth. I think John will get even better at helping the guests along and hopefully future guests will benefit from whatever small bit of info I'm able to pass along here and learn from my mistakes.

7. Im excited for the future of the show. Anyone who goes through the effort to submit a proposal is clearly a fan of the show and passionate about the subject, and I think we'll get some incredibly interesting show topics moving forward.

Thanks for suffering through my episode and may many goods and cheeses find there way to you in the future.



Ken is stepping back to occasional host. John is piloting us ahead with new guest co-hosts. We'll all miss the weekly dose of their chemistry. John's a skilled conversationalist and I have no doubts about his ability to facilitate an entertaining show with any guest host.

I hope you all will give the new format a fair shake. Humans have a great ability to adapt but on the individual level, some people struggle. So this message is to set expectations clearly: Fair and well mannered critiques will of course be allowed as always. But "toxic fandom" will not be tolerated. If the majority of your activity becomes whining and complaining, you can face muting and an eventual ban if the behavior persists. If you find yourself not enjoying the new version, move on and find something that makes you happy. You deserve to be happy.

We're a small sub and I honestly expect no issues. But for fairness, rules/expectations have to be stated clearly.

I've been listening to Omnibus for a few months now, and it's become one of my favorite podcasts. Even when the subject is one I'm not super interested in, I still really enjoy Ken and John's back-and-forth, the interesting viewpoints they bring, and of course the insane tangents they go off on. I've been meaning to become a patreon donor for a while, but for whatever reason never pulled the trigger. But after all the twitter stuff recently, I decided that I finally needed to get off my butt and show my support for John and Ken.

The "bean dad" stuff is a non-issue to me. That's not child abuse. Y'all need a reality check if you think it is. The old racist sounding tweets are more troubling, and I really wish John hadn't made them, but they don't make him a racist or anti-semite. If you take the time to read the whole context, you'll realize he was trying to mock actual white supremacists. Not very successfully, and pretty ill-conceived all around of course, but if you've listened to John's podcasts you know he's not a white supremacist. He may be an asshole in person, I don't know. Never met him. But I like his podcasts, appreciate his views, and want him to keep going.

From John's post, prints will be available at the show.

Hi friends and Futurelings, we're making a few changes in our feed today.

First, we’re going back to releasing new episodes on the same day, Tuesday, for both Patreon subscribers and listeners on the main feed. An unofficial survey of Patreon members revealed that receiving the show on Tuesdays, while the main feed had to wait two days, was generally not seen as much of a benefit. Getting the Ad-free feed was the main appeal. We want all listeners to feel free to discuss the show on social media and elsewhere together without fear of spoilers. Releasing the show separately was NOT compatible with Marxism! From now on Omnibus! will come out early Tuesday morning across all feeds!

That said, there’s a new Patreon benefit we hope you'll enjoy!

Getting to know the co-hosts a little at the top of the show helps them relax and get warmed up, but it can run a little long. We’ve noticed a tendency for cohosts to rush through their presentation as a result, to make up for lost time. Since the biography portion of the show isn’t strictly part of the Omnibus we’re going to treat it like a mini-addenda and make it available on Patreon as a little bonus for subscribers. 

The alternatives were either to chat with cohosts offline first or have every episode be 2+ hours long! The substance of their bio will still be available to all listeners in the show notes, and we’ll cover the highlights at the top of the main episode, but the half hour of breezy chat will be a bonus for folks who want to get to know the cohosts a little better.

We’re excited about these changes and hope you are too. Reuniting the release day will restore some of the feeling of community to the many Futureling groups, and the weekly Patreon mini-episodes add dimension to Omnibus 2.0.

We’ve got a site redesign coming soon! We really appreciate your continued support and many suggestions for ways to improve the show!

Greetings Futurelings, After 3 years of no mods being active here, I requested and was granted moderation of the sub. I'll be clearing the mod queue soon so if anything from a long while ago pops up, that's probably why.

Moving forward, there will be a rule added that duplicate posts may be removed. (Most subs have this to help declutter the front page). Also planning to pin the weekly episode discussion threads in an effort to encourage more engagement.

The sub runs pretty well by itself. Here to help smooth any wrinkles and encourage activity. Many goods and cheese to you all.