This is not an exact response to his podcast. But it’s something that made me conscious of this question: “How long do people want to listen?” Forty-five minutes seems reasonable. It could be your commute, it could your exercise period, it’s the amount of time it that it takes to watch an hour-long television program (if you skip through the commercials). A professor of mine, in psychology, said to our class, 45 minutes is sort of the maximum human attention span for one thing. And this class was an hour and a half long (he said it in the first half, so we got it). I took note of that quirk of the human character. 

CS: Is there a reason you avoid the topical in your podcasts?

MK: Practically speaking, I don’t know when the episode we’re recording will be airing, so to talk about timely things doesn’t make as much sense. But also, there are certainly plenty of podcasts out there covering current events, covering politics and pop culture. And I’m happy to touch on those things, but I do like the idea that this could be listened to in the future. I can watch an old Daily Show and enjoy it, but you’re not getting everything from it that you would if you were watching while those things were happening. Hopefully, with this podcast, more and more people will keep discovering it, listening to the new episodes, and then going back to listen to the older ones. 

My podcast is like Twinkies! My podcast will survive a nuclear apocalypse.

[Editor's Note: This interview occurred prior to Hostess filing for backruptcy.]

JCS: As long as “the cloud” isn’t knocked out?

MK: [Laughs] Yeah. I like to imagine the only things that will survive are the Internet and cockroaches. I’m going to start doing some more cockroach-friendly material. They’re going to evolve. They’ll get through the whole Internet. They’ll start with Maron, Pete Holmes, Never Not Funny, but by the time they get to me they’ll be like, “Oh my god, he’s speaking our language!”  Because by then they’ll speak cockroach and English.