I think I'm qualified to speak on this.
I was basically the one person who would tell him he should have a podcast (years before he finally tried it, which was likely too late). He went to like Guitar Center or something and got equipment to do it. We would do the show remotely (obviously?) and I'd either do it from my home office, or my actual workplace office after hours. It was an unpaid gig for me, like nearly everything I did for him. The amount of time and work that went into it every week was getting on my nerves, and I think it somehow started showing and he would have other people help him if he could. These other people weren't as loyal as I had been (for many years) and they'd just do shit half-hearted. A podcast is a labor of love. He himself didn't have enough love for it to keep it up.
[I just remembered stuff... so I'm adding this here, not sure it makes sense elsewhere...
He created an actual business called the Timeless Podcast Company. I don't know where the funding was coming from (Sony?) and he'd get sponsors. He used to tell me how much the sponsor was paying and I'd get 50%. That lasted a few weeks at most, before he'd tell me that we had no sponsor, or he just wouldn't tell me what my cut was supposed to be, and the money dried up. When he pitched the idea for the Big Daddy Kane podcast, he wanted it to be "immersive audio" and he insisted that AirPods had multiple speakers and had surround sound and this was the future of podcasts, so the podcast was supposed to be 5.1 surround. His idea of immersive audio is so intrusive, it's unlistenable. I can understand having ambient sounds while someone tells a story. They talk about an ice cream truck, so you hear it off in the distance. In Serch's mind, you'd have the ice cream truck prominent, front and center at 100dB. Anyway. The Big Daddy Kane podcast had funding. It was done in a real studio. Someone got paid to do it. Serch got paid. Chantel was his assistant and would handle sending money out.
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His goal was to work deals with advertisers or getting on a paid podcast network, which he did via Sony / The Orchard. The show was moved from my hosting to Sony and I'm sure they saw the dismal download numbers and that relationship probably faded away. I think that probably smacked some sense into Serch and he realized it was basically a huge flop. The trolls didn't help, that's for sure. It's fun to have listeners comment and have some live interaction with the fans, and it's nearly impossible to filter the troll comments as they come in, so you have to read what's on the screen. He claimed he could do that and not be bothered. I'm sure you guys hit so many triggers that hit home for him and he probably had some self-reflection.
He used to go between having a huge ego and thinking he was hot shit, to telling me that he's a nobody in the grand scheme of things. Rather self-aware. But that doesn't change the fact that his ego doesn't like realizing he's not hot shit. Honestly, I can't imagine the mental anguish that would cause me. The double-edged sword of "fame," no matter how small or big it may be.