I was thirty three, going on thirty four, the first time I podcasted about the film “Stand By Me”. It happened in the summer of 2020. My co-host Justin and new friend Corey Collins invited me to my own kitchen table to remotely discuss the movie, into a microphone, alone in my apartment. The takes were hot and the seltzer was cold. After the talk petered out and we wrapped up the pod, I clicked the big red button to end the Zoom meeting. We’d only been podcasting for one hour and 27 minutes, but somehow my town seemed different. Smaller. Probably all those deaths, we were, after all, in the midst of a poorly-handled pandemic. Wear a mask and vote, people. As time went on, I saw less and less of Corey and Justin, until eventually they became just two more avatars in my social media feeds that after enough sharing of memes and cat photos, I muted them. That happens sometimes. I heard Corey had a good life, built some tunnels and burned some bridges. Sometime in August, Justin let his guard down and got devoured by a giant spider. He died almost instantly. I never had any podcasting friends later on like the ones I had when I was thirty three. Jesus, does anybody?