This many thousand subscribers. That many thousand clicks. However many episodes. It’s all marvellous.

But what about the humanity of it all? The connection. Actually knowing someone heard and was inspired.

That’s what interests me.

In the audio world, that kind of data can be harder to quantify. At least, it was — until the first time someone sidled up to me in an airport queue on the way to CPhI to say they loved the Maggie Philbin episode. Or when, seated beside an eminent researcher who — over dinner at the Francis Crick Institute for Sarah Sands’ Braemar Summit (in Exile),  — suddenly placed my voice and brandished her phone to show me Lab Matters sitting in her downloads list.

Those are my data points.

Real scientists, out in the wild, listening week after week to honest conversations with their peers.

At 69 episodes, Lab Matters has become a platform for exploring the people behind the science — not just the research, but the judgement, resilience, performance and leadership that allow it to thrive. We take things apart to understand them, as scientists do, and then put them back together in a way that strengthens the ecosystem.

We recently bade farewell to my “office under the stairs” when I moved house. Episodes are now recorded in person where possible — taking advantage of proximity, transport links and, occasionally, a proper studio.

But one thing won’t change.

My data point will always be the humanity of it all.

Are you listening?