The Long Cut
About the show

A show about the middle.

Beginnings get the attention, endings get the applause. We're here for the long, unglamorous middle where the work actually happens.

Nadia Reyes
The host

I'm Nadia. I make a show about the middle.

Beginnings get all the attention and endings get all the applause. The middle — where most of the actual work happens — gets nothing. The Long Cut is my attempt to fix that.

Each week I sit down with a maker — a director, a founder, a luthier, a novelist — and we skip the origin story and the victory lap. We talk about the eighteen months in between, when it wasn't working and they kept going anyway.

Before this I produced radio for a decade. Now I do this, from a small studio in Lisbon, with too much coffee and a microphone I'm sentimental about.

Since
2022
Episodes
120+
Cadence
Weekly
Based
Lisbon
The story so far

Four years in the middle.

  1. 2022

    A microphone and a hunch

    Recorded the first ten episodes in a closet in Lisbon. Nobody listened. Kept going anyway.

  2. 2023

    The letter begins

    Started the Sunday Letter as an afterthought. It quietly became half the reason people stay.

  3. 2024

    One hundred episodes

    Hit triple digits, quit the day job, and learned the boring middle is the whole job.

  4. 2026

    Season four

    Now 8,400 readers and a back-catalogue I'm finally proud of. Still recording every Thursday.

Support the show

Made independently. Kept that way by listeners.

No network, no ad-read gymnastics. The Long Cut is funded by members who want it to stay honest. Members get the full back-catalogue, bonus tape, and the occasional voicemail.

Become a member · $6/mo
Before you ask

The usual questions.

How often do new episodes come out?

Every Thursday without fail, plus a letter every Sunday. If a week ever slips, you'll find out why in the show notes.

Can I suggest a guest?

Always. Reply to any letter or use the contact form — I read everything, even when I can't reply to all of it.

Is there a transcript?

Yes. Every episode page has full show notes, and complete transcripts are rolling out across the back-catalogue.

How is the show funded?

Entirely by members — no ad networks, no sponsored reads to skip. Memberships start at $6/month and keep the show independent.

The Sunday Letter

The letter that thinks the episode wasn't enough.

Every Sunday: one idea from the week's conversation, expanded — plus what I'm reading, making, and second-guessing.

Join 8,400 readers. One letter a week. No filler, ever.

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