2025 year in review
Reflecting on an entire year's worth of events can feel daunting!
But for every year since 2013, I've completed this post. And every year, I've found this kind of reflection valuable.
(You can read 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013 here).
What makes something significant?
After reviewing all the events from this year, this thought jumped out at me:
What makes an event feel special is when you make it significant. It's intentionality that makes the difference.
What makes a trip feel significant? You've already decided to make it special before you leave home. You're carving out space for something out of the ordinary to happen.
Simply choosing to do something beyond the everyday routine creates a special memory.
This is hard for me to do! I love routine. But the high notes of life really do make it worth living.
I want to get more intentional about making sure those highlights happen.
Personal update
What's missing from these year-in-review posts are the incredibly significant events, feelings, and relationships from my personal life.
The truth is, I can only share 5% of my life here that I feel comfortable talking about publicly. That generally means business updates, what I'm working on creatively, and what I'm thinking about.
But there's a whole chunk of me I can't share here (and that's the way it's always been).
One thing I will share is that this was a challenging year emotionally. There were some difficult events to face and complex emotions to confront.
I often felt weary and strained. There were moments when I felt so drained that I just wanted to escape.
And yet, when I reflect on that past year, there were also many beautiful moments: many good moments with family and friends, filled with discovery and growth.
Personal wins
I finally figured out my allergy issues. I was able to get referred to a specialist, who tested me and prescribed a nasal spray that's eliminated all my sleep issues (stuffy nose, itchy palate, sneezing). It's been a huge win.
We had friends over at our house more this year than any other year I can think of. A lot of this was centered around watching hockey, sharing meals, and hanging out on our deck. Our society is spending less and less time with friends (link); it feels good to buck the trend.
I reconnected with old friends. I think there was part of me that felt like I needed to "close some loops," reconnect some old threads, tie up some emotional loose ends. It ended up being cathartic and restorative, helping me discover/rediscover parts of myself. It felt like I was returning to old parts of myself, but with a new perspective.
I didn't post on X/Twitter the whole year. Not engaging on that platform has brought me a lot of peace.
Jazz. I saw more live jazz shows this year than any other.
Transistor update
I'm going to start with a brief celebratory note: as of this month, Jon Buda and I have been working together for 8 years.
In January 2018, we decided to build Transistor, a podcast hosting and distribution service, together. It took a ton of work, and lots of stress and unknowns, but two years later, we had replaced our old salaries. That was always the dream: "We're going to take this risk, and work really hard for a few years, in the hopes that we can build something that will give us a better life."
This past September, our whole team (Jon, me, Helen, Jason, Josh, and Michael) traveled to Canmore, Alberta, for our annual retreat. We also had Chris Enns, our long-standing contract podcast editor, join us. The whole week was fantastic (aside from Jason getting sick!).
While the rest of the tech industry was tumultuous (another year of layoffs, anxiety about AI), Transistor's revenue remained stable.
I am so grateful for this small, solid company that we've built. Even when the rest of the world is stormy, so far it's been a calm, reliable base.
I think our whole team is motivated by the same things: to do work that feels meaningful to us, to earn enough money to live well, and to do high-quality work that makes an impact.
We have some cool stuff planned for 2026:
A really cool integration with the Ghost CMS
Some improvements to our ad campaigns feature
Exploring the possibility of adding video podcasts
The podcast industry
The podcast industry is a bittersweet place. There were moments where I felt very down about the podcast ecosystem, and then I'd attend an event and have my spirits lifted by all the wonderful people here.
Behemoths like Apple, Google, and Spotify dominate the consumer side of the business. So much of what we do in podcasting is determined by the beautiful phrase, "wherever you get your podcasts." But this is a double-edged sword. That decentralization means consumers have more choice, and there's more room for small independent companies. But it can also feel like we're at the whims of these companies and the consumer culture they're creating.
On the other hand, I've met some of my favorite people on the planet at podcast conferences. When I'm at a podcast event, I feel like I'm with my people: creatives, product people, old nerds, folks in entertainment.
Podcast Standards Project
This past year, I took a much more active role with the Podcast Standards Project. This is a grassroots group of podcast hosting companies and podcast listening apps. We're coming together to ensure that the open podcasting ecosystem (and especially RSS) continues to innovate for both listeners and creators.
It felt like the group could use some energy and leadership, so I dedicated a lot of time in 2025 to inviting new members, organizing meetings, and building consensus on which features to adopt.
Like any open-source standards group, creating broad consensus and turning that into action is challenging!
One of the things I'm most proud of was spearheading the discussion around HLS video in podcasting.
Side projects
The Panel podcast. My main side project this past year was a (mostly) weekly podcast with fellow bootstrapper Brian Casel. We experimented quite a bit with the show, which culminated in us recording it live and interacting with a regular group showing up to chat on the livestream.
I've been helping a filmmaker, Shaun Michael Colón, with marketing and funding for his film about the podcast industry: Age of Audio (he also made another documentary I like, A Fat Wreck). I've learned a lot about how the indie film industry works, how films get funded, distributed, etc.
I volunteered to help a local candidate in the last Canadian federal election. Eye-opening to see how local politics works in a federal election.
Thoughts I'm contemplating
AI. LLMs. Yup, 2025 was the year. I feel a bit split by AI. I started the year being quite apprehensive about it. As I continued to use it, I became less skeptical about its utility (especially when it comes to software development). In fact, there's a big part of me that's excited about building with AI. But I'm still conflicted about it. I don't trust the leadership at most AI companies. I worry about its effect on young people's learning and career prospects. (Link)
AI has the potential to dramatically increase the number of "v0.9" features you have, but somebody still needs to review all those pull requests, look them over, make sure they're tested and performant. That's going to be a bottleneck.
Product people will become more valuable in 2026. If you're someone who understands how customer demand is created, how it grows, and can translate a customer’s desire into an experience that satisfies that demand...
With AI, we'll likely become more like film directors and producers. “Alright, move this camera over here. This actor is going to say this in this way, and the other person, I want you to respond like this.”
Marketers and salespeople will become more valuable in 2026. With AI, everyone's building software, but the most challenging part was never the building; it was finding ways to build things people were looking for and connecting with that demand.
I have an old mentor who used to say: “Every business is a people business, every problem is a people problem, and every solution is a people solution.” This is more true today than it's ever been.
When everyone's optimizing for the algorithm, originality gives way to mimicry, and what's left is mediocrity.
"Social media promised connection, but it has delivered exhaustion." (Link)
Something my therapist taught me: stress is a real or perceived demand that exceeds available resources. The breakthrough was realizing there are really only two ways to reduce stress: lower demands or increase resources. (Link)
This sentiment from James Clear feels true: "Bad things happen loudly: the injury, the flat tire, the mistake that gets you criticized. Good things happen quietly: the completed workout, the healthy meal, the ten minutes of writing. Nobody talks about the little moments that add up."
I'm worried about the economy, especially how folks are increasingly feeling squeezed. (Link)
After nearly 14 years in a small city, I've been itching to move to a bigger one (1m+?). Maybe that's something we'll do once the kids have moved out?
Favorite podcasts from 2026
I’m really enjoying this podcast by Stripe co-founder John Collison: A Cheeky Pint. It feels like Tyler Cowen-type questions, but focused on tech and startups.
Adam Wathan's new "Morning Walk" podcast is so vulnerable and raw – so refreshing to hear someone working through real problems out loud.
"Mostly Technical" by Aaron Francis and Ian Landsman is so good.
Jordan Gal's new podcast, Offsite, is excellent as well.
Jon Buda and I recorded one episode!
Ideas, goals, and plans for 2026
Transistor. We've just started doing weekly product planning meetings, which have been really helpful for exploring and planning future features. With such a small team, we'll always be limited by what we can ship, but I'm excited to see what we do this year.
Business travel. Currently, I'm considering these big trips for 2026:
Founder retreat with Jon in February?
Podcast Show in London in May
Transistor team retreat
Plan another meetup in Toronto? (I'd actually love to plan a whole tour of meetups like this one around the world)
Sabbatical? Jon and I have been talking about us doing a sabbatical after 5-7 years of working on Transistor. Well, now it's been 8! 😅 I'd love to plan a 3-month break from work. (Link)
Personal travel.
I'd love to do more one-on-one trips with each of my kids
2-3 trips, just me and my wife.
Plan a big family trip that gets everyone together (I keep hoping we'll get the whole family to Japan, but I'm not sure we'll be able to swing that this year).
Write the next version of Marketing for Developers. I've thought about rewriting and relaunching my book multiple times. This is the first time I felt like I've got a new angle: in the age of AI, more developers are building products. But the hard part isn't the building, it's finding customers! Big opportunity. Update: the new site is up!
Here's to an incredible 2026!
Cheers,
Justin Jackson
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