Ep. 50: It’s Ben a Year — The Season One Finale (ft. AJ)

This week on It’s Ben A Week, Ben wraps up his very first year of podcasting with a deeply personal and celebratory Season One Finale. After 50 straight weeks — zero missed Tuesdays — Ben sits down with the one person who started this journey with him: AJ. With thousands of listeners tuning in from across the world, Ben reflects on how the podcast began, how much it’s grown, and how much work went into creating something from scratch with no team, no production company, and no built-in audience.

Ben opens the episode with a candid look back at:

• How he went from “not a podcast person” to launching his own show
• Listening to podcasts during 4 a.m. drives
• Believing he could do it better than the people he was listening to
• Buying equipment, teaching himself editing, and learning everything the hard way
• All the technical chaos: broken cameras, audio drift, video not syncing
• Why seeing thousands of listeners globally still blows his mind
• How viewer DMs, comments, and Spotify Wrapped screenshots kept him going

AJ joins and the two dive into:

• AJ’s wild travel schedule and why he’s been MIA
• Their “helper” who worked one day and disappeared forever
• The holiday party of the year (Disney characters, uplighting, themed cocktails)
• Ben eating french fries in the bathtub the morning after
• How DoorDash has become Ben’s emotional support system
• Their year in concerts — Beyoncé, Missy Elliott, Janet Jackson, Rufus du Sol, Katy Perry, Brandy & Monica

Then the episode becomes a full-circle reflection on Season One:

• Ben revisits Episode 1 to hear how far he’s come
• Learning to talk less, listen more, and actually interview
• Why Caroline Rhea’s advice changed everything
• His biggest interviewing challenges — guests who won’t talk vs. guests who won’t stop
• His proudest guest moments: Margaret Josephs, Ursula Carlson, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Weston Brown, Blaine, Sherri, Victoria, Liam “Shoes”
• The episodes that unexpectedly became emotional pillars (Mother’s Day, Weston, Blaine)
• What this podcast has done for other people — not just Ben
• Why he’s grateful this show didn’t take off “too fast”

The finale ends with a heartfelt conversation about Season Two:

• Ben taking two weeks off to reset, reimagine, and rebuild the set
• Debating new formats, episode lengths, and weekly vs. biweekly releases
• AJ urging him to meditate, poll listeners, and get closer to who Ben really is
• The possibility of new structure: guests, cultural commentary, games, call-ins
• Ben stepping into next year with confidence, clarity, and momentum

It’s emotional, honest, funny, chaotic, nostalgic, and full-circle — the perfect ending to an unbelievable first season.

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