Welcome to this podcast about kicking off Season 3 and collecting all stats so far.

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Script

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Intro Hi guys, how’s it going?
[Did you know that different height weeds take turns to grow to make the most of sunlight?] Didn’t see that coming, did ya? ♪ tune

Segment 1
Welcome to the season 2 wrap-up announcement episode, full of fun facts and stats to guide us over into Season 3, and into 2022. It’s been another fun ride round the sun, and another fun ride round the podcasting carousel in 2021. It is so nice to share the wonderful people, places and ideas that have graced my experiences and education over the years, those wow and aha! Moments, those lovely little snippets of joy and insight that seem to otherwise pass us by and evaporate into the ether. This season we collected ratings and reviews such as this:

Thank you so much. This was the first review received back in August. Recently, Spotify announced the launch of their podcast ratings feature, so now the almost 450 followers on Spotify, hi you, you can now add your rating on Spotify! We’ve had some star reviews from podcast guests on Apple Podcasts, here are a few:

Arian is an amazing host and I could spend all day listening to his voice. Arian has a wonderful ability to engage on a topic and also the people and story underneath it. Highly, strongly recommended.

This comes from the season 2 finale guests, dr matthew crane and lauren lee, cofounders of semaine health, a herbal product to alleviate PMS symptoms, they’re currently overwhelmed by the holiday-linked product demand – good luck guys!
We’ve also had a lovely review from Lucie Guirkinger, the marine conservation policymaker:

Arian is really a great host, he makes you very comfortable and knows how to keep an interesting and fun conversation!
Thank you Lucie, it was a pleasure to have you on the show. You can find Lucie’s interview in Season 2 as well, episode 4, Lucie’s Reef Relief.
OK now let’s get onto the other fun stuff: the stats! Coming up next…

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Segment 2
As I record this, the podcast is a few downloads away from crossing its 4,000 downloads mark for which our great hosts Buzzsprout will give us another achievement badge – thank you! It’s a great way of keeping track of our growth. The first episode to cross the 400 download milestone as a single episode was back in season 1: the anatomy of getting into science. I didn’t expect this episode to get so many downloads, indeed, to be the top episode of all time so far, it was the personal story of me navigating education as a teenager and young adult, and the twists and turns along the way.

Spotify and apple podcasts are neck and neck in terms of downloads, they have almost identical audiences, but overall, the one that looks like it’s going to edge past the runner up is… Spotify!
And now its time for the ultimate segment, the overall top cities and countries for downloads, aggregated to date, coming up…

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Segment 3

I love this segment! I check my stats constantly, but you may have little idea about your fellow listeners! I want you to give yourself a round of applause if you represent these cities or countries…

Here goes: the top 10 cities overall starting at number 10 are… Boardman in Oregon, Norwich, Maidenhead, Walsall, Manchester, Milford in Massachusetts, Columbus in Ohio, and third place is… well, third place and second place are tied between a city in the US and a city in the UK… maybe they should be twinned… the cities we are talking about are… Mauldin, South Carolina and Cambridge, England! Congrats! And now, the #1 city listenership… you may be surprised, but you’re probably not… the crown is taken by… L to the O to the N to the D to the O to the N… London!

That’s not all, our countries hall of fame is ready with some cool percentages, with at least 1% of listenership globally, we have runners up Finland, Turkey, Austria, France and Portugal! Thank you for joining the TAB Podcasts family, in third place is Germany at 4%, and then our reigning champs with the lion’s share of downloads, at 31% is the United States with our number one spot taken by the UK with 42% of downloads. Con to the grats to the U to the K!

That means almost 60% of downloads have taken place in all the other countries, places such as South Africa, Romania, Libya, Belgium, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, New Zealand, Canada and about 70 other countries covering over 900 towns and cities around the world. Now that puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? In a digital world of millions, hundreds of millions and outright billions, to think that anything has in some way touched others around the world is exhilarating, rewarding and so intoxicatingly addictive and eye-opening.

Thank to the you, thank you. Season 3 is already underway, being planned, guests being interviewed, segments and sequences brewing in the background – and what a privilege to be able to choose from such outstanding people. You’ll see some subtle tweaks in the format of Season 3, we want it to keep improving and make the most of the expanding medium of podcasting, and that includes the new ratings in Spotify – make sure to check them out, nothing more satisfying that tapping a 5 star.

Outro Thank to the you for Season 2, and see to the thee in Season 3, and remember… a micro shot of dopamine awaits at your reviews section. byeeee ♪ tune