A series of songs and conversations about every marriage in one man’s family that ended in divorce

When I decided to get married, every living member of my family who had ever been married had also been divorced: my parents, my grandparents, and all my aunts and uncles on both sides — some of them twice. Obviously I thought my marriage would end differently, and yet I still wonder if we are all bound to replay the lives of our ancestors in ways we don’t even realize. So I started interviewing every one of those family members, in hopes that I can better understand their marriages, and also my own. This five episode series is the result: it's a series of stories, songs and conversations called "Forever is a Long Time."
 

This podcast actually started as a batch of songs. Without meaning to, I had essentially written a break-up album even though I wasn't breaking up. That made me realize I had a weird fascination with the idea divorce -- something that runs very strong in my family -- and that perhaps I could explore this fascination with both stories and songs. From there, it took about two years to really come around to actually doing these interviews with family members, editing them in a way that felt honest and respectful, and finally sharing them with the world.
 

Even though most of my work has been with podcast networks and public radio stations, I decided early on that I wanted to do this project as an independent -- on my own pace and on my own terms. So the whole project is self-funded and self-released. That said, I got a tremendous amount of support for the project from friends and colleagues who also work in podcasting, especially my editor Lacy Roberts.
 

This show has no ads, sponsors or other revenue. I think of it both as a personal project that I wanted to make as a way to think through these questions for myself, and also as an investment in myself -- building experience and hopefully an audience I can carry forward to other projects.
 

For this show, the process was very simple. I conducted seven interviews over roughly a year, beginning shortly after the COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020. All the interviews were done by phone, partly for public health reasons of course, but partly because it felt intimate and natural to talk with family members this way. Taking the microphone out of the picture made the results more honest I think. From there, I edited those interviews down to five episodes, and created a custom score for the whole show.
 

I don't have a huge social media following, so for this show I'm focused on getting press reviews and cross-promos on other podcasts.
 

Doing this show has affirmed for me the fact that you don't need anyone's permission to put out your own show. And with a small investment in gear and a little practice, your show can sound just as polished as something made by Spotify, ESPN or NPR. That's pretty cool, and not true of many media.
 

Follow me on Twitter @ian_coss and read about all my work on iancoss.com