We’ll just have to… carry on… “I am the EggPod” is over.

Well, we had the sad news yesterday. The best, the very best, podcast is concluded. It was the best podcast as far as I was concerned because it’s the only podcast I have ever followed, religiously.

I listened to them all.

Nearly all of them were brilliant. There were only two or three that perhaps didn’t quite work… out of 131. And they worked because they were about love and affection and because, above all, podcaster Chris Shaw inspired the very best from his “pot pourri delicious guests”. I’m sure they’re all nice people to begin with (in fact I know for a fact that some of them are), but there’s something about talking to Chris Shaw that brings the niceness bubbling up happily to the surface. As Paul McCartney sang recently – “it’s alright to be nice”.

This niceness has nothing to do with naivety. Indeed it is impossible to know as much about The Beatles as Chris Shaw and his guests while retaining too much naivety. In the long Beatles story (1957-1980) there were nasty times. However, in the long run, and over the long haul, the Beatles were all about Peace, Love and Understanding. John and Paul had some nasty years (less than three out of twenty-three) but love won. George managed to be the most spiritual Beatle and the most materialistic Beatle at one and the same time and built a strange career out of being fully aware of this. Ringo was Ringo – someone all about friendship – whose very percussive creed was based on empathy and locking in with the emotional needs of a lead singer.

There is, or should be, some quality control when it comes to being a Beatles fan. Are you a horrible racist? Do you think you like the Beatles? No. Go away and stop being a horrible racist and then you can listen afresh. Chris Shaw’s guests affirmed a version of common decency – decency with implications that spiral far from the stated context of listening to 1960s music. And cementing these decent guests was the audible, palpable decency of Chris Shaw himself – who devoted himself to the legacy of John, Paul, George, and Ringo because by so doing he was making the world a better place.

We don’t want things to end. We don’t want the Eggpod to end in the same way nobody wanted The Beatles to end. The Eggpod was a labour of love – but loving labour is still labour and labour demands eventual rest. Labour has to be finite.

And the Eggpods themselves have not been destroyed – anymore than Derek Taylor destroyed every Beatles record when confirming the demise of the band in 1970. We can continue to revisit these interviews and we can argue about them if we like.

Indeed, if I had time and generosity enough to start a new podcast, I might go for “Eggpodpod” – exploring the legacy of the Eggpods with a pot pourri of delicious guests.

But in the meantime, there is Chris Shaw to be thanked yet again. It’s a magnificent achievement he’s bequeathed us. He has shown us the right way to talk about The Beatles – the most generous and joyous way of talking about The Beatles.

It’s up to us now.