Two years of Prophecy Girls!

My podcast Prophecy Girls turns two years old today, and I couldn’t be more proud.

When my friend Stephanie approached me about making a Buffy rewatch podcast, I knew I had to say yes. I also suspected we would get a big audience given the size of the Buffy fandom.

What I didn’t anticipate was how it would make me feel.

Over the past two years, we haven’t just found an audience. We’ve built a community of listeners across multiple social media platforms, from the comments on Instagram and TikTok to our own Discord server. We’ve launched memes and in-jokes (praise Moloch!). We’ve run giveaways, interviewed authors, and I even streamed myself playing Buffy video games on Twitch.

Yes, we get some nasty comments directed our way from time to time. Some members of the fandom take our criticisms of certain elements, like Spuffy, a little too personally. Some people think we “shouldn’t take the show so seriously” or that we shouldn’t criticize it because “it’s of its time, and things were different back then.” Or they’re just upset because we’re two women on the internet with opinions.

Haters gonna hate.

The truth is, many people start podcasts, but they don’t always stick with it for two years (and going). Similarly, many podcasts start with a built-in audience, but that audience keeps coming back to us, week after week, because they value what we have to say.

That feeling of waking up on a Thursday morning, having dropped a new episode at midnight my time, to see the early birds already commenting on our takes? Nothing like it.

We built this. Two years of rewatching Buffy, recording weekly, nurturing our presence online, collaborating with other podcasters and content creators … it’s a whole thing, one that I never anticipated I would be doing before I did it.

As I recently said on here, the podcast has also been a gender-affirming experience. The affirmation from our listeners has helped me accept the incongruence between my voice and my gender. There are thousands of people out there who have never met me yet know me as the woman I am, no matter what I sound like, and that’s pretty cool.

Finally, a shout-out to my co-host, Stephanie. She’s the one who came up with the idea and invited me on board. She does so much of the behind-the-scenes work, editing the episodes and managing most of our social media, while I just kind of show up and say stuff. Recording with you every week is the best thing about Prophecy Girls, Steph.

We are nearly finished recording our recaps for season 5. Then we’re taking a break because Steph is about to become a mom! I couldn’t be happier for her or more proud. Everything is about to change—for the better. We will be back soon enough. Two more seasons of Buffy await us. And oh, do we have opinions.

To end with a salutation arisen from an in-joke from season 1: Praise Moloch!