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State Of The Podcast · The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois

0:03
Delicious grab a plate and feast on this very.
0:09
I'm going to say vulnerable episode of the delicious
0:12
culture. I am your host, John Francois, and it
0:16
is just me here. And I will get into that in
0:20
just a second. So I have been. doing this podcast
0:27
with you all for, I'm going to say five and a
0:31
half years. I believe it was June of 2020 when
0:34
you first started seeing this podcast feed active.
0:38
Let's just sort of reflect for a moment, because
0:39
if we go back to. June of 2020, this podcast
0:44
started as the anything show with John Francois.
0:46
I'm John Francois. At the time I was working
0:50
in commercial radio here in Vermont, and I was
0:54
hosting shows where it was more music heavy than
0:57
talk personality heavy. And I've always envied
1:00
morning radio shows for being very talk conversation
1:04
personality heavy. So I thought to myself, all
1:06
right, I don't have a morning radio show of my
1:08
own. So let me create a podcast. that reflects
1:12
that, you know what I mean? Just that fun banter
1:14
between me and someone that I have really good
1:17
chemistry with. So we had started recording episodes
1:22
of this anything show in I think February of
1:25
2020. This might've been Superbowl weekend of
1:27
that year. And this was like a month before the
1:30
world went crazy during the pandemic. And we
1:34
were doing this show at a community radio station
1:36
in Burlington, Vermont to start off with before
1:39
it became a podcast later that June. I decided
1:42
to do this then radio show with a good friend
1:46
of mine, Mary Vanderhoop. on the air was known
1:49
as Main Squeeze Mary. We just kind of ran through
1:51
some headlines that amused us enough to talk
1:55
about it. We ran through some entertainment news
1:58
that Mary mostly did not care about because she's
2:01
definitely not tuned to pop culture like I am.
2:04
Occasionally you might have heard from a special
2:06
guest or two. If you wondered why the likes of
2:10
big celebrities like, I don't know, Lance Bass.
2:13
Why was Lance Bass from NSYNC on your podcast,
2:17
John? Well, it's because my radio station that
2:19
I used to work for at the time, they were connected
2:22
with something called premier radio networks,
2:24
this big, large syndicate responsible for things
2:27
like Elvis Turan and the morning show. They would
2:29
send out emails to radio stations like the one
2:31
I was working at saying, Hey, like here are these
2:34
big actors and politicians and authors and musicians
2:39
and whatnot that would love 10 minutes of your
2:42
time to promote your stuff or their stuff. And
2:47
I was like, all right, sure. I'm going to respond
2:49
to this email and give them, and they give me
2:53
10 minutes of their time. So that's why you would
2:55
hear randomly people like Lance Bass on my podcast
2:58
for 10 minutes. It's not because they knew who
2:59
I was and I was a big name or anything like that.
3:01
It's because I'm one of a billion broadcasting
3:04
people throughout the country that would give
3:07
them 10 minutes to promote whatever project that
3:09
they want to promote. So that's why that was.
3:12
Mary and I, we carried on for I think about a
3:15
year and a half doing the anything show with
3:16
John Francois again, first as a community radio
3:18
show, and then it became a podcast starting in
3:23
June of 2020. It was, I think in spring of 2021
3:26
that I decided that it was best for Mary and
3:32
I to go our separate ways because while Mary
3:34
and I did have a lot of fun, engaging moments
3:37
on the podcast, there were moments where we didn't.
3:41
And what I did know was that Mary and I's energy
3:46
and determination toward pushing this podcast
3:49
forward were different. Uh, hers wasn't as consistent
3:53
as mine's. And I thought, all right, this is
3:56
not sustainable. So for the sake of the podcast,
3:59
and especially for the sake of me and Mary's
4:00
friendship outside of the podcast, I decided,
4:03
all right, we've got to go our separate ways.
4:05
And Mary and I respected that. And, uh, we are
4:09
still friends to this day. So I definitely wish
4:12
her well with, with whatever she's up to these
4:14
days. So, uh, Main Squeeze Mary is done around
4:18
the spring of 2021. I think. Um, but I will say
4:23
that early in 2021, January, February, roughly
4:26
is when a little someone called Andrew AJ Vander
4:30
Tunt. I will call him AJ Vander Tunt because
4:32
AJ is how he likes to go by on the podcast. His
4:34
actual name is Andrew, but It came into my life
4:38
early 2021 because I was promoting the podcast
4:42
with me and Mary on Facebook and going through
4:45
all these podcasts, Facebook groups. And AJ responded
4:48
to one of the promotional posts about this podcast.
4:51
And he had very complimentary kind things to
4:54
say about an episode that he heard with me and
4:55
Mary. And because I'm always getting to know
4:58
more people, always getting the opportunity,
5:01
like I always want the opportunity to network
5:02
with as many people as possible for this podcast.
5:06
I looked into AJ found that at the time he was
5:09
hosting the lifestyle of a gay black boy podcast.
5:12
And I just found him to be an interesting enough
5:14
personality where I thought, all right, come
5:16
on as a guest cohost sometime, because periodically
5:18
Mary would not be able to do the podcast for
5:21
personal reasons. And AJ came on that first time
5:24
as a guest cohost back in January, February of
5:27
2021. You'll see it on the podcast feed. Our
5:31
audio quality is absolutely horrible. As I listened
5:34
to that episode. not too long ago, a few weeks
5:36
ago for the first time in quite a while. I mean,
5:38
I believe at the time in A .J. we're connecting
5:40
by Skype to really show you the time we were
5:43
living in because Zoom was just hitting during
5:47
the pandemic and... I mean, maybe this was me
5:50
just being a little slow of things, but even
5:51
like a half a year or so into the pandemic, almost
5:55
a year into the pandemic, I still wasn't hip
5:57
to zoom yet. Like there would be guests where
6:00
I'd be like, Hey, like you want to connect via
6:02
Skype and then we'll record it. So that shows
6:05
you how long it's been since AJ and I first did
6:09
a podcast together. So AJ, when he and I did
6:12
that podcast together, that first episode back
6:14
in 2021, he was very engaging, very fun. We traded
6:18
a lot of. jokes, a lot of witty banter. I came
6:20
away thinking, wow, this was a fun guy to work
6:23
with on the air. And I would love to have him
6:25
again on as a guest. And I believe he made some
6:28
return appearances here and there, like when
6:30
Mary wasn't available. And eventually when Mary
6:33
officially was no longer my regular cohost, I
6:37
know along the way around the 2021, 2022 ish
6:40
period is when Maciel Hernandez, Maciel Hernandez,
6:44
this wonderful actress from New York city. I
6:47
think some how we got connected through podcasts
6:49
or Facebook groups of sorts. She also hosts the
6:52
podcast and it's called the black hole sun podcast.
6:55
So go check it out. And she was actually recently
6:57
on with me and AJ to talk about the Charlie Kirk
6:59
stuff. So definitely listen to that episode if
7:01
you can, but Masiel was a wonderful personality,
7:06
just like AJ. I felt like we clicked and she
7:09
started as just a guest and then sort of became
7:13
my official cohost replacement after. married
7:17
departed. And we went on that way for, I mean,
7:21
a good amount of time, not too long though, probably
7:24
a few months in, or maybe about a year in. Maciel
7:26
understandably decided that she had a lot going
7:28
on in her world and she wasn't able to do the
7:33
regular co -host thing with me anymore. So she
7:36
had that Honest conversation with me and I respected
7:39
it and we went our separate ways and Marciel
7:41
and I, as you can tell from the recent episode
7:43
that she appeared on, we're still on good terms.
7:46
So I wish her well in everything that she does
7:49
and is continuing to do. And when Marciel left,
7:53
I, you know, I gravitated toward AJ. being the
7:55
regular co -host. I don't know if we ever had
7:57
a official episode where it was like AJ, you've
8:01
been crowned the regular co -host of the anything
8:03
show. I don't remember. They might've been later
8:05
in 2021. It might've been some point in 2022.
8:09
So we kept that going with the anything show
8:10
for quite some time. I do remember along the
8:12
way thinking that I maybe should rebrand it as
8:15
like the anything show with John and Andrew,
8:16
because, you know, Andrew was clearly becoming
8:19
a focal part of the podcast. Um, and then in
8:22
fall, 2023. we decided to make a big revamp of
8:27
the podcast. AJ and I had a off air discussion
8:30
about sort of the fascination that I had with
8:34
rewatch podcasting, because at the time it was
8:37
becoming really big with the Boy Meets World
8:39
rewatch podcast, Pod Meets World, for example.
8:42
I would, I was also listening to other podcasts
8:44
like the West Wing Weekly. And I know that Full
8:46
House, some of the cast members, they have a
8:48
podcast as well. Rewatch podcasting was something
8:50
that interested me. And I took note of that while
8:53
I was was kind of getting wary and tired of the
8:57
anything show content grinds, the kind of content
9:00
that we were doing. And so I'm used about it
9:02
with Andrew. I said, Hey, like, what do you think
9:04
about this as a concept? What do you think about
9:07
taking a show from our childhood, recapping episodes,
9:11
talking with people who've worked on the show.
9:13
And he was down for the idea and thus birthed
9:17
the delicious recap, which we launched in like
9:20
late fall of 2023. We both decided that family
9:23
matters was. a show in our childhood that we
9:27
loved and connected with so deeply. It has such
9:29
a full library of episodes. It has such an interesting
9:32
arc going from originally being about the Winslow's
9:34
to being about Steve Urkel. So we decided to
9:37
take a leap on that and we covered the first
9:40
two seasons. As you can tell, we have not. come
9:45
back publicly with a third season recap process.
9:48
The first two seasons we did, and we talked to
9:53
a variety of guest stars, crew members who've
9:55
worked on the show. So please check out our podcast
9:57
feed. Everything still exists up there. It was
10:00
a great two years. It was late in the summer
10:02
of this year, 2025, where I just had this feeling
10:06
of, I don't know if this family matters recap
10:10
thing is going to be sustainable because nine
10:13
seasons, all nine seasons of the show is what
10:15
we were striving to go through. And it's a show
10:20
that's definitely not consistent with quality.
10:22
It's definitely a show that has a lot of problematic
10:25
parts to it that doesn't hold up well. And I
10:28
was kind of wondering, Hmm. Would we just turn
10:31
into a podcast that just became a very like PC
10:34
so -called woke critical analysis of family matters
10:38
rather than sort of a balance of like, Hey, like
10:41
we have a lot of fun watching this show that
10:42
we love growing up. And then maybe every now
10:45
and then we'll get critical here and there. We
10:46
did record in private six, I believe season three
10:50
recaps five or six season three recaps, and just
10:53
started to get that feeling of like, Oh, wow.
10:55
This is very irritable. The character of Steve
10:58
Urkel while funny. can certainly have as many
11:01
problematic moments. I did find myself increasingly,
11:04
as episodes became more inconsistent with quality,
11:08
just this sort of dramatic thinking of like,
11:11
oh my God, season three, and then how many seasons
11:13
do we have left until we get to season nine?
11:16
So not really enjoying the present so much, but
11:19
really more so just like dreading like how long
11:23
it would take for us to complete this rewatch
11:25
of Family Matters. I mean, Andrew and I are both
11:28
in our... our thirties and to think that we would
11:31
be somewhere in our forties by the time we finished
11:34
this based on the time commitment we were able
11:36
to give to it. It was just like, what the, the,
11:39
the, the, the content of the show itself, the
11:43
longevity of the project. I mean, there was just
11:45
a lot of factors that allowed us to come to the
11:48
conclusion that maybe this is not going to be
11:51
long -term sustainable. So we decided late in
11:53
the summer of 2025 that we wanted to revamp the
11:56
podcasts by going back to our modern pop culture
11:59
roots. And this is where we come to our current
12:02
era, which is the delicious culture. And by pop
12:06
culture, it's a broad scope. I mean, we've talked
12:08
about TV, we've talked about movies, we've certainly
12:11
talked about politics. We will have plenty to
12:13
say to you about that. And it's up to you if
12:16
you're annoyed by that or not. But we kind of
12:22
looked at the spread of what is the national
12:24
conversation? What pop culture are people talking
12:27
about? And we decided that would be the focus
12:29
of our podcast. And from I think mid to late
12:33
August till about now, just before Thanksgiving
12:37
is when we produced our last episode, which you
12:40
can see right now wherever you get your podcasts,
12:42
the Thanksgiving episode. Content wise, chemistry
12:46
wise, everything was fine, but for quite some
12:49
time, going back to our delicious recap era,
12:52
sort of similar to why me and Mary had to go
12:54
our separate ways, AJ and I were just not aligned
12:58
in the networking and promoting of this podcast.
13:03
Now, for those of you who either know a lot about
13:06
podcasts or have a podcast yourself, you know
13:08
that More than half the battle is getting people
13:11
to know your podcast, subscribe to it, listen
13:14
to it, yada, yada, yada. And along the way, as
13:17
we were continuing our podcasting, AJ was really
13:20
finding his own way with his own, with his own
13:23
content on TikTok and YouTube. And I'm sure you
13:26
know of it, if you've obviously been listening
13:28
to our episodes, cause he does promote it at
13:29
the end of each episode. And I'm happy for him.
13:31
I really am. I've always been happy that he's
13:34
thriving, that he's found not only personal fulfillment,
13:37
but also financial success with his own content.
13:42
And I'm happy for him, but I also realized that
13:48
that content, in addition to whatever personal
13:52
things could be going on in his world, were taking
13:54
up a lot of space. And the podcast that we do
13:57
together was not taking up as much space in terms
14:01
of getting it out there, finding guests. consistently
14:05
promoting on social media, things like that.
14:07
And that was very important to me. When we began
14:09
our partnership, it was very clear that I was
14:13
the one handling all the production promotion
14:15
aspect of things. And he was just a co -host
14:18
that was here to give me some entertaining conversation
14:20
once I press record. And then along the way,
14:23
I decided to give up control of some of the production
14:27
and promotion elements to him. And, you know,
14:32
it worked out. fine at first, and then suddenly
14:35
it just didn't work out so much. We just weren't
14:38
on the same level into, we weren't on the same
14:41
level in terms of how each of us was devoting
14:44
time, effort, and energy into the production.
14:47
promotional parts of making this podcast. So
14:51
after a while of dealing with the inconsistency
14:53
of how we deal with that aspect, I had to have
14:57
a conversation with him and I said, okay, I think
15:00
it's time that we go our separate ways. I'm happy
15:03
for the success that you found with your content.
15:05
I wish you all the best. And he wished me the
15:08
best as well. And what I will say is that when
15:11
you have a partnership with somebody. for almost
15:16
five years and then suddenly it ends. It's a
15:21
lot. It's going to take some time to grieve.
15:24
It's going to take some time to process that
15:26
long running partnership ending. So bear with
15:29
me. It is going to feel weird being a solo act
15:32
with guests coming in here and there, because
15:34
that's essentially what it is. Having gone through
15:37
three co -hosts. Um, I'm in a space right now
15:40
where I'm like, all right, maybe I should just
15:43
try doing this as a soul act, me as the focal
15:47
point, and, uh, we'll see how that works. So
15:50
you may be asking yourself like John, or you
15:54
may be asking me, you know, through your podcast
15:56
speakers, John, what is this podcast going to
15:59
be now? Like you're revamping it for like, what
16:01
seems like the million time, what is it going
16:03
to be? And that's a good question. That is something
16:05
that I am finding out as I go along. figuring
16:08
out as I go along. That's certainly something
16:10
that I've been figuring out these past five years,
16:12
as you can tell from the various revamps that
16:14
we've already had. So bear with me, bear with
16:18
me. I mean, I have ideas. For example, you may
16:21
have a balance of lifestyle and pop culture topics.
16:25
Uh, you will probably have, if it's just me on
16:27
episodes lengthwise, it'll probably be a lot
16:30
shorter than you're used to. You're, you're used
16:32
to one, two hour episodes. Well, if it's just
16:34
me talking about a lifestyle topic or a pop culture
16:37
topic, I probably won't go for no more than 10,
16:40
15, 20 minutes. Maybe five minutes if I really
16:43
don't have much to say about it. So there's ideas.
16:47
I certainly want to have guests on the podcast.
16:48
Like I said, every now and then maybe a guest
16:50
co -host as we're interviewing somebody else.
16:53
I don't know. So bear with me as we close out
16:55
2025 and going to 2026, because I did not expect
16:59
that this big change to the podcast would be
17:01
coming, but it's here. And I will, I would like
17:05
to make myself open to whatever change development
17:09
could happen. Does that make sense? Maybe, maybe
17:12
not. If you have any questions, you can always
17:13
just email me at thedeliciousculture .gmail .com
17:16
and I will try to make more sense of it for you.
17:18
In the meantime, what I will say, the name of
17:21
the podcast will still be The Delicious Culture.
17:23
If you notice, the title does reflect my name,
17:26
The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois. We do
17:28
have other sorts of content out there not related
17:30
to this podcast, also called The Delicious Culture.
17:33
So I think it's good to have my name on there
17:34
to establish that this is a specific different
17:38
kind. of delicious culture. You may see a new
17:41
logo. The logo that we previously had was a beautiful
17:43
one made by AJ. And I decided because I wanted
17:46
to protect his creativity and not benefit off
17:49
of that when he's not here. Like I'm going to
17:52
not use that anymore. Just please thank you.
17:55
I want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank
17:58
you so much for your patience. Anybody who's
18:00
been listening from day one, who's been watching
18:02
from day one and who is still here. Thank you.
18:05
I appreciate you. This podcast. Clearly has been
18:08
a five year work in progress and I promise you
18:11
it will eventually if as long as I'm persistent
18:14
with it and keep giving you content, it will
18:15
get to a point where it will seem like I have
18:18
my shit together and we'll have a clear, sustainable
18:23
long -term vision for it. So, uh, that's it.
18:26
That's it. I just want to get on here and just
18:27
kind of give you a heads up that from here on
18:30
out. The podcast will not be going forward with
18:35
AJ Vander Taunt. I thank him for his time. My
18:39
God, we had a lot of fun memories together, creating
18:41
great conversation, especially on the political
18:43
spectrum. So I will miss that. I will miss him.
18:46
I will wish him the best. And I hope that those
18:50
of you that may have liked AJ more than me, or
18:55
just a really, really big fan of him, understandable.
18:57
He's such a great guy, great personality. I miss
19:00
him. This podcast was all the better for him
19:02
being on it. I hope that, um, good enough for
19:05
you to stick around. That's what I can say. Please,
19:09
please let me be good enough for you to stick
19:12
around. Uh, as always, the delicious culture
19:14
on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon, SiriusXM,
19:17
wherever you get your podcasts. Search the delicious
19:20
culture with John Francois, uh, and you will
19:23
find me. Hey, look, I mean, there's five years
19:26
of podcast content there. So if you have loved
19:28
what you have heard, even if it's one episode,
19:31
10 episodes, whatever. Give me a five star rating
19:35
on that Spotify. That helps a lot. I believe
19:38
that helps the algorithm with helping people
19:41
find the podcasts more. Does that make sense?
19:42
It probably doesn't. So if I start rating on
19:45
Spotify, if you love it, uh, if you want to live
19:46
or leave a review on Apple podcasts, I think
19:48
you can still do that. Please go ahead and do
19:51
that. That would mean the world to me. Again,
19:54
things that, uh, will maybe help people find
19:57
the podcast. Like I said, the delicious culture
20:00
at gmail .com. Any questions, comments, concerns,
20:02
feedback. I'm open to all of that. At the delicious
20:06
culture. It's still at the delicious culture
20:08
on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. follow, subscribe,
20:12
comment, like, share. All of it really, really
20:15
helps. I've been trying things out with my personal
20:18
TikTok. If you want to see me post clips about
20:20
anything from not buying gifts for anybody on
20:23
Christmas to pumpkin and sweet potato pie being
20:25
the same thing. at John François presents. Once
20:29
again, following me, you can follow me on TikTok
20:31
at John François presents at John François presents
20:35
on TikTok. All right. This is usually AJ's sign
20:38
off. I would like to continue it because I think
20:42
consistency in any form with this podcast is
20:45
much needed as we're going through another revamp.
20:47
And AJ's ending was great. I'm not going to give
20:50
the specific improv creativity that he gave to
20:52
it, but I will give the slogan. that he ended
20:57
off things with, which is let deliciousness ring.