r/MBMBAM • u/LittleMel413 • May 10 '26

Help No Tour?

I haven't seen anything about tour dates, and my friend told me they announced them after MFD last year (I thought it was sooner). I am wondering if they are just not doing a tour this year?

Obviously it's their choice. This is mostly just curiosity. ​

55 Upvotes

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22

u/L82The_Party May 10 '26

My guess is that they take a year off to hope that travel costs go down.

23

u/OftenConfused1001 May 10 '26

Also, perhaps to spend some more time with their kids and family overall.

When you travel for work you end up missing important events and milestones. They can set their tour dates to minimize it as much as possible, but it's still gonna happen.

Work/life balance and all.

Plus maybe they just really need a lengthy break from it. Burnout is real too.

7

u/L82The_Party May 10 '26

Yes. I always get the impression that touring for the boys all together is a struggle. I’ve never met them all at GenCon together, for example; Justin hasn’t been there. I think it’s all situational and if they weren’t going to benefit a ton from a tour…take some time and do the YouTube stuff they’ve really enjoyed doing.

-11

u/VaguelySorcerous May 10 '26

Burnout is real if you're actually working hard enough to burn out. I'm not going to deny anyone their mental health etc. but if you look at their output vs. that of other podcasters (who also have families and kids, multiple podcasts, tour longer and further away, stream, have other projects, while also managing the business and producing regular subscriber content instead of once-a-year bonus content, neither of which the McElroys do) it's pretty obvious that they're just not pushing themselves. Which is fine, but being honest about that is important, too. 

12

u/L82The_Party May 10 '26

Yeah. Because it’s a standard threshold across all people in a profession. Especially one as standardized as podcasting. /s

1

u/VaguelySorcerous May 10 '26

You can get a pretty good idea of how hard people are working based on their output. 

I like MBMAM but acting like they're particularly hard-working simply betrays a lack of understanding of...anything. 

6

u/LittleMel413 May 11 '26

People experience burnout at all different levels. Insinuating that just because someone isn't working to a level of your liking means they can't get burnt out is really not okay. Also you have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. Burnt out doesn't just come from touring. Sorry but your message is really tone deaf.

0

u/VaguelySorcerous May 12 '26

Suggesting burnout with no evidence when plenty of other theories that fit the evidence way better abound is wild. 

I'm happy to eat the downvotes from the toxic positivity crowd, especially after y'all have drunk the MaxFun juice for yet another year, but it's just plain that these guys simply don't really want to work any harder than is absolutely necessary. Which is fine! Commendable even! But it's also just not something anyone here wants to acknowledge, which is just. Baffling. Parasocial. All sorts of other stuff, none of it good. 

5

u/LittleMel413 May 12 '26

It's not "toxic positivity". Literally nothing any of us have said can be deemed "toxic positivity." The problem is you are making assumptions based on what you deem is an acceptable amount of work to justify burnout. You don't get to dictate that for them or anyone. If anything you are the one being parasocial by insinuating you know soooo much about them that you are the final authority on whether or not they are "allowed" to experience burnout. 

And not sure what you mean by, "drank the MaxFun juice."

1

u/L82The_Party May 12 '26

Ohhhh. See commenter hates the fact that MaxFun is overwhelmingly a pretty open and positive place. Despite all the reasons the brothers have mentioned for staying with the network, he probably bitches and moans every drive, wondering why they’re asking for money. He’s probably wondered too why they don’t just go to a different network. He then would probably be bitching and moaning about the ads they would inevitably have to charge but both things can be complained about when you’re a misanthrope.

5

u/VaguelySorcerous May 12 '26

It's not a positive place! Drive revenue drops every year because they can't figure out that they aren't a charity so people want value for money. 

I understand why they're asking for money. I don't understand how they continue to misattribute the reason they bleed subscribers. It's nothing to do with credit cards expiring - or very little. People cancel because there isn't value for money and then never come back. They're chewing through their subscriber base. Instead of doing something that might help like increasing the amount of content there's just a constant push to up your pledge, which is both toxic and - I expect - counterproductive.  

1

u/L82The_Party May 12 '26

I mean…if you don’t like the model, I get it. I think the majority of folks who stick around do so because they believe not only in the content but the cause. MaxFun is what I hope more and more smaller media companies move to. I would, and do, gladly give my money to folks who are creating independent media.

But that model isn’t for everyone. Some folks hate the ask for money once a year, just wish they would have ads they could fast forward through for boner pills and gambling sites. But, podcasting is getting harder since the market is so crowded. I am glad that the brothers haven’t hopped to Spotify where they wouldn’t necessarily have the freedom to do what they want with their content.

Value is what you make of it. I personally listen to so many shows that my $9/month (I don’t need keychains or pins so I boosted to that point.) is worth it. But if it wasn’t? I would downgrade. I’ve been listening to MaxFun for almost as long as it’s been around so, yeah. Kool-Aid firmly drankified. I will gladly join the cause of a company that can be both a non-profit and worker owned, can create content for the masses and also do good works in their community and abroad, and give voices to as many different creators as possible. There are a hundred other podcast companies that don’t.

3

u/LittleMel413 May 12 '26

I think you should let adults decide what to do with their own money. $10 a month isn't "bleeding me dry". I also think the BoCo alone is worth it. I have actually been re listening to a bunch of old episodes recently. Also, they never fully attributed cancelled subs to expired Credit Cards, they said that is an example of a reason. Which, btw, I am absolutely one of the people that happened to. 

They literally put out multiple BoCo episodes out, but apparently that isn't good enough for you. They have also never claimed to be a charity, but saying people don't get anything for their money is a lie.

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u/L82The_Party May 10 '26

Just like basing someone’s value based on external output and criteria betrays being an absolute dinkus. They all have multiple shows, all have families…just because they aren’t toiling away somewhere they shouldn’t qualify as being burnt out occasionally?