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Dec. 24, 2022 - The Unexplained - Howard Hughes
10:57
Howard's Christmas Message 2022

Howard's message for the holidays and 2023

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Well, across the UK and around the world, my name is Howard Hughes at the very back end of this year, 2022 and the unexplained.
The show is in a very different condition at the end of 2022 from when we started 2022, don't you think?
And if we think back 12 months now, I was sitting here a year ago and I was coming to the end of two years doing my radio show from my apartment, from this flat.
And it had become a very intense period where I didn't really see very many people and didn't do very many things.
And I realized towards the end of it all, through the lockdowns and everything else, and the working from home, that it's not entirely a good thing for you.
I think I was becoming a little dislocated from the world, I suppose is the way to put it.
And I think you do need human contact.
Even though I was getting that from people I talk with, people that I interview, colleagues that I would hear down the line, I think the whole process of actually meeting people is pretty important to us as human beings.
Somebody once wrote, I know that you'll be the first to tell me who that was, was it John Donne?
That no man is an island.
And I think in terms of my radio work and broadcasting work, I'd started to feel that I could be, that I could do everything by myself, for myself.
And I think I was probably wrong about that.
I think we do need to have connections in this world.
So during 2022, I started, maybe you did too, to put some balance back into my life.
So we did the radio show up until April.
And before that, I'd been having conversations with the radio station, which is now a TV station, about the possibility of moving to television because they were.
And my view on that all the way through was, I'm sorry, I can't do that.
So I think when the radio station ends and it becomes TV, it's going to have to be goodbye because I don't want to be seen and I don't want to do television.
It's not my thing.
I'm a radio guy.
And that was my line through all the conversations that we had from February all the way through until the end of March, really.
And something happened, something changed.
They said to me, okay, there is an opportunity here.
Would you like to present one edition of a standard news and current affairs type show?
Come in and see how that feels.
It's going to be visual and then see how you feel about taking the unexplained to TV.
And because, you know, there's a sense of goodwill there, and I've enjoyed working for Talk Radio, of course I have, I said, okay, I'll do it.
So I went in and appeared before the camera, a very different experience, and I found that, you know, I quite liked it.
It was okay.
And I stopped looking at the monitor about how I look and started concentrating on the material in the show and found that that was fine.
So I agreed to take the unexplained to television.
Now, it's a very different show on the TV, of course.
Everything has to be live.
I can't do any pre-recorded segments.
So it means all the guests have to be booked and willing to appear live.
That's a lot of work.
And I've learned.
I have to say I have learned.
I've learned the techniques of television, or I'm starting to.
You know, I don't know everything about it, as you will see every week.
And I've just started to ignore what people might think about how I look and concentrate again on the show.
It's very different from the podcast.
And I think, in a way, it's good to have those two products out there.
Now, as to The Unexplained podcast, I was going to do a very final edition of The Unexplained with a new guest, and for one reason or another, that didn't work out.
Plus, I've been suffering with this.
A lot of people have had this, maybe you have to, this bug that seems to still have me in its grip.
I've got a cough that I'm trying to suppress now, and I just feel completely run down and wiped out.
And so I think what I'm going to do is this message at the end of the year, you know, I do one of these every year, is going to be the last thing that I do for 2022.
And then the unexplained, as planned, will return both on the podcast and on the radio at the beginning of 2023.
And I will start to do some planning, start to get on some good guests, get them booked up, get that ready.
And your suggestions about guests, always gratefully received.
You know, sometimes people suggest themselves as guests, and sometimes they can be remarkably good, and sometimes they're not quite what they might have thought they are.
And, you know, that's an interesting situation to be in.
But I'd rather get the maximum number of guest suggestions in.
And if you know how to contact those people, that's great.
Now, one of the good things that may well be happening in 2023 is that I am likely to get some help booking the guests again.
I've been doing it through 2022 and much of 2021, I've been doing it all by myself.
But it's not my strong thing.
It's not the thing that I enjoy or do best.
Admin was never, never really me.
I like making programs, doing things.
So I'm going to get some help with that.
And I'm sure that will impact upon the podcast.
So the podcast hits the ground running in early January 2023.
And in the meantime, I've been counting the hours of material online and on the website, theunexplained.tv.
And thank you to Adam behind the website for his hard work over all of this time on the website and getting the shows to you.
There is nearly 700 hours of material there.
700 listening hours.
When I started it all, and 2023 will be the 17th anniversary of the podcast.
When I started it, I had no idea that I would be looking one day at 700 hours of material.
That's just amazing.
And to produce that all yourself, I think that's not bad.
I'm not a big one for giving myself a slap on the back, because most of the time I don't deserve it, but maybe, maybe just this once, I do.
So 700 hours of material, plenty of back catalogue to go through all the way back to edition one at the website theunexplained.tv, where I'm feeling my way in the unexplained.
And I was a very different person back in 2006, which was for a whole variety of reasons a very cathartic year.
That's the year that I lost my mother and a few other awful things happened in that year.
So I don't look back with untrammeled glee at 2006.
And I think, you know, when I look back that far, and it's a long way now, I think the podcast was one of the things that kept me going through a really rough year.
Ever had years like that?
So that's where I'm at.
17 years of the unexplained.
The highlight, I think, for me of the year, well, apart from going onto TV and experiencing that for the first time in my life, the Unexplained Cruise, the Unexplained Live 2022.
There's a possibility we might do it again in 2023.
I'll find out early in the new year whether that's going to be so.
I certainly was hugely surprised by it.
I wasn't surprised by the fact that all of the guest speakers who I arranged more than delivered and were incredibly well received by people on board.
I was hugely surprised and really gratified by how excellent the whole experience was and how well organized Tui Morello were in organizing the cruise and the way that the ship ran like clockwork was just staggering.
You know, and I'm not a salesman for them at all.
I'm just telling it like it is.
It was just amazing.
And, you know, I was talking to people about their experience of the cruise and people were absolutely loving it.
It was a wonderful thing to do.
And it was a huge surprise to me.
It was a big stressor to set up.
But it was a big surprise to me.
So, you know, if we are going to do it again in 2023, then I'll be up for that.
And, you know, we'll get some good speakers on and we'll go through the experience.
But I won't know anything about that until into the new year.
So every new year brings different challenges, things that you have to do, things that you have to meet.
But, you know, I'm quite excited by it all, really.
You know, the vicissitudes of everything, that'll be fine.
You know, I don't go into a new year with any preconceptions, and I don't say it's going to be great, or I don't say it's going to be this, that, or the other.
You know me well enough.
I just don't do that.
So that's one of the things that might happen in 2023.
So as I say, for all of these reasons, I've decided the best thing for me, partly to get better from the bug and partly just to have time to think and plan, is to say, okay, the edition that you heard with the highlights of one of my TV shows is going to be the last one of 2022.
And then we start again, hit the ground running in 2023 with The Unexplained.
I couldn't do any of it without you, without the support that you give me, the suggestions that you give me.
So thank you very much.
And all I can say at the back end of this, when I'm just sort of freeforming my thoughts here in front of a microphone, as you can probably tell, I just want to wish you all the very best through the holiday period and into 2023, wherever in the world that you are, in places that I may never visit, and places that I've been to many times, maybe even my home city.
I wish you all the very best to you and yours.
And there were a couple of things that I didn't and wasn't able to do on the last TV show.
And I'll just quickly say this.
Jane and Phil, I didn't see your email about giving you a shout out on the TV show.
So it was your 22nd anniversary recently.
So Jane and Phil, thank you for being supporters of the show.
Greatly encouraging always to me.
I wish you a very happy anniversary.
And Manny in Wolverhampton, I've no idea whether you'll hear this, Manny, but I wish you all the best.
That was another message that I just didn't see on that last night on TV.
So that's it, really.
We're staring down the barrel of a whole new year and the holidays.
And thankfully, the awful cold period in the United Kingdom seems to have ended.
And we're now into a kind of faux or fake spring, aren't we?
Very odd.
The whole thing.
It suits me much better than having ice on the inside of my windows, which I had during all of that, and condensation running down them like Niagara Falls.
It was grim for a while.
So I'm so pleased all of that's over.
And from what I can see from long-term forecasts, but don't quote me on this, it's not going to be like that, certainly in January, from what the long-term forecasts say.
I mean, they might turn out to be wrong.
Who knows?
So that's it, really?
Wishing you well, wherever you are.
Your thoughts always gratefully received, even through the holidays.
I'll be checking on my email.
Go to the website, theunexplained.tv, follow the email link, and you can send me an email from there, letting me know your thoughts or guests, suggestions, or anything you like, really.
And when you get in touch, please tell me who you are, where you are, and how you use this show.
So until we meet again, then, across in 2023, my name is Howard Hughes.
This has been The Unexplained Online.
Please, whatever you do, stay safe.
Stay calm.
Please stay in touch.
Thank you very much.
Take care.
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