A year in podcasting
A few favorite episodes from my podcast, The Simmer.
I am a reluctant podcaster.
That’s why I’m always floored to hear and read nice things about The Simmer, a restaurant technology podcast I co-host with my friend Brandon, who’s worked in this business longer than I have.
Brandon is also the CEO of Bite,1 a restaurant tech company that sells “intelligent kiosk technology” to quickservice restaurants and convenience stores. I appreciate his opinionated and well-informed takes on the business, even if my role as a journalist requires me to, uh, clarify the facts sometimes.
We recorded 24 episodes of The Simmer this year, releasing one episode every two weeks or so. We’ve interviewed CEOs and founders and restaurant operators and tech execs and entrepreneurs, asking questions about the future of hospitality. That’s a lot for a self-professed reluctant podcaster, and I’m proud of all we’ve done.
In the spirit of year-end celebration, I asked Brandon to choose his three favorite episodes of the year. You’ll find my top three below his. The images link to Apple Podcasts, but you can also listen on Spotify.
To our listeners who are also Expedite readers: Thank you for letting us talk and laugh and try to prognosticate in your ear. Cheers to another year of celebrating the future.
Brandon’s favorites:
1. Emergency pod: DoorDash buys SevenRooms
Though we’d heard plenty of whispers that this deal was going to go down, it was still big news worth discussing. This most famous of 2025 acquisitions (in our world, at least) upped the stakes in what Brandon dubbed “reservation wars 3.0.” Of course we all know what happened next: DoorDash moved fast to integrate SevenRooms tech, launching reservations in early fall.
2. The Simmer summer wrap-up
What does it say that Brandon’s top two episodes are just the two of us? (It probably says he’s less of a reluctant podcaster than I am.) This episode is all about the reservations business (it’s our favorite!), recorded post-SevenRooms acquisition but pre-reservations on DoorDash.
3. Eli Feldman, co-founder and partner, Shy Bird
Eli is a spectacularly tech-savvy entrepreneur with big ideas about the future of restaurants. He tests plenty of these theories on the ground inside his Boston restaurants, but we were most excited to talk about the restaurant AI hackathon he hosted, empowering operators to reimagine what’s possible inside their restaurants.
Kristen’s favorites:
1. Elizabeth Tilton, founder and CEO, Oyster Sunday and OS Benefits
Elizabeth and I are friends, having shared a panel stage (and plenty of champagne) many times. She’s also the founder of a uniquely remarkable duo of companies: Oyster Sunday, which acts as a back office for independent restaurants, offering consulting services like marketing and finance help; and OS Benefits, which provides health and wellness benefits to independent restaurants. We love a strong female lead. We also love a hospitality tech company that practices what it preaches.
2. Lindsey Irvine, chief marketing officer, Square
Brandon got stuck on an airplane, so I flew solo for this interview about the point of sale and payments company’s latest moves in local business. Over the last year, Square has revamped its tech and debuted a series of local activations (unsure how I feel about this word, but here we are) to highlight the sellers on its platform.
3. Pablo Rivero, CEO, Resy
It took us a minute to land an interview with Pablo after a few explosive episodes in 2024 with the leader of reservations rivals Tock and OpenTable. There’s no breaking news in this episode, which we recorded nearly a year ago in January. But it’s a good listen to understand Resy’s priorities amid increasing competition. (Also, I just love the reservations business, okay?)
Thank you to all our industry guests for joining the pod this year; we quite literally could not do this without you.
And thank you, as always, for reading and supporting this indie newsletter and its associated podcast. We have big ideas for next year; at the top of my list are some listening and branding improvements. (Brandon, if you’re reading, don’t worry, I got this.) A reluctant podcaster no more? Maybe!
The Simmer comes back in early January. We’re recording another Kristen-and-Brandon episode, and while The Simmer is never scripted, you can probably guess what’s on our minds.
If you’re worried about potential conflicts of interest, I promise I worry more. I take this stuff seriously; you can find Expedite’s ethics policy here.