The Business of Being Me

I went into this expecting a breezy listen—maybe a few laughs, some inspirational nuggets, and a pat on the back for my own unfinished dreams. What I got was a swift kick in the pants disguised as a monologue. Rae’s narration is *chef’s kiss*: her delivery is so effortlessly conversational that I forgot I was listening to an audiobook instead of a podcast episode where my favorite podcast host is ranting about the absurdity of chasing validation. She nails the balance between vulnerability and sharp humor; her admission about the loneliness of early internet fame hit harder than any TED Talk I’ve endured. The pacing is snappy, but there’s a moment in the middle where she lingers on the grind of early rejection—it’s the only part where the brevity starts to feel like a missed beat. I wanted her to unpack that frustration further, to sit with it a little longer. Still, by the time she circles back to her current success, I was left with that familiar Issa Rae feeling: equal parts inspired, embarrassed by my own procrastination, and weirdly optimistic. The production is clean, with no over-the-top sound design—just Rae’s voice, crisp and unfiltered. If you’ve ever felt like an outsider (and let’s be real, who hasn’t?), her rags-to-relevance story will resonate. Just don’t expect to listen to this once and walk away unchanged; Rae’s too good at making you confront your own half-baked ambitions.