In this episode, recorded at Smoke and Blaze in Parktown North, the crew officially begins the final stretch of The Dojo and answers the question everyone has been asking: why end the podcast after ten years? They unpack how life, work, family responsibilities and changing priorities have made it increasingly difficult to get four adults into the same room every week. They also reflect on feeling as though they have said almost everything there is to say, and why it matters to leave voluntarily, on their own terms, rather than waiting for the show to slowly die or be forced out. The crew launches a WhatsApp hotline for listeners to share voice notes, videos, favourite moments, worst takes and personal stories about what The Dojo has meant to them, while teasing an upcoming audience-participation episode. From there, the episode becomes a full trip through The Dojo’s history. The crew remembers the wild night that inspired the podcast, finding their first recording studio online, paying for time in a bedroom setup and releasing the earliest episodes with questionable GoPro footage. They revisit the barbershop and salon concepts, early guests, the PMI and Yamaha eras, pop-up recordings, house parties, festival appearances, failed attempts to build a podcast network and the many venues, sponsors, collaborators and friends who became part of the journey. They also look back at the technical disasters, financial risks, marathon episodes, memorable interviews, legendary parties and unexpected opportunities that came from building one of South Africa’s earliest long-form conversational podcasts. The reflections become more personal as they discuss how the podcast changed their friendships, careers, confidence and social lives, while also remembering former guests and members of the community who have since passed away. They unpack disagreements behind the scenes, the pressure of carrying the show through difficult periods, the people who joined and left along the way, and the strange feeling of finally recognising the impact of something while preparing to let it go. The final stretch shifts into a heated conversation about modern dating, men approaching women, rejection, workplace boundaries and the difference between behaviour that is socially inappropriate and behaviour that is morally wrong. The crew debates sexual harassment, unsolicited explicit pictures, why women sometimes respond politely when they feel threatened, why victims may remain silent and how people instinctively defend members of their own “tribe.” That opens an even messier discussion about power, promotions and transactional sex: whether sleeping with someone to advance your career makes both parties complicit, whether meaningful consent can exist when one person controls the opportunity, and whether someone who willingly tries to bypass the system can later claim exploitation when the deal goes wrong. It is a nostalgic, funny and deeply contentious episode that celebrates ten years of The Dojo while proving that, even this close to the end, the crew can still find something new to argue about.
