Breaking
Myke Hurley - photo by Gilbert Tang at Relay FM 10th anniversary, London 2024
Profile
Podcaster · Founder · Enthusiast

Myke
Hurley

The man who built an empire by caring out loud - and never stopped.

Co-founder of Relay FM. Host of Cortex and Upgrade. Co-creator of the Theme System Journal. A Londoner who decided the best job in the world was getting paid to be enthusiastic about things - and then built the infrastructure to prove it.

Relay FM Cortex Podcasting Apple London Stationery
30+
Shows on Relay FM
$4.8M
Raised for St. Jude
10+
Years Podcasting
Who He Is

Not a Broadcaster.
A Builder.

There is a particular kind of person who becomes very good at podcasting. They love talking. They love listening. They love the strange intimacy of a voice in your ear during a commute, a run, a grocery run. Myke Hurley is that person - except he didn't stop at hosting a show. He built a network, a brand, a product line, and a community, all from a spare room in London, all because he genuinely couldn't stop being excited about Apple products and the people who make interesting things.

The word "enthusiast" is sometimes used as a mild insult - the implication being that enthusiasm is the province of amateurs. Myke has spent his career making that argument look stupid. His show Cortex, co-hosted with the reclusive internet essayist CGP Grey, became required listening for anyone who thinks seriously about how they work. His show Upgrade, with veteran tech journalist Jason Snell, is appointment listening for the Apple faithful every Monday. Connected, the weekly roundtable with Federico Viticci and Stephen Hackett, has the feel of three old friends who also happen to know more about Apple than most Apple employees.

He was a banker before he was a podcaster. Not in a hedge-fund-eating-the-world sense - he worked in financial services in London, rising into management, developing the organizational mind that would later help him run a media company. The pivot from finance to podcasting is the kind of story that sounds reckless in retrospect but was probably just a very deliberate bet on himself. He started his first podcast in 2009. By 2014, he had co-founded Relay FM. By 2018, Business Insider called him the "Podcasting Don" of UK tech. The bet paid off.

"It's core to how I have built my career online - I am an enthusiast in many things, and I share my opinions enthusiastically."

- Myke Hurley, theenthusiast.net/about
Fast Facts
  • 01 Born January 31, 1988 in London, England
  • 02 Former banker turned full-time podcaster
  • 03 Co-founded Relay FM on August 18, 2014
  • 04 Hosts multiple shows including Cortex, Upgrade, and Connected
  • 05 Username "imyke" is a nod to Apple's iconic "i" naming era
  • 06 Passionate stationery collector and co-host of The Pen Addict
The Network

Relay FM: How You Build
a Media Empire One Podcast at a Time

August 18, 2014. Stephen Hackett and Myke Hurley hit publish on Relay FM's first batch of shows. Five podcasts. No investors. No office. Just two people who had figured out that the independent podcast space had room for a network that genuinely cared about quality and creator wellbeing.

Within one year: 16 shows, 1.5 million downloads per month. By 2026: over 30 shows, an annual fundraiser that has raised nearly $5 million for children's cancer research, and a reputation as one of the most respected independent podcast networks covering Apple and technology. Relay FM is not a fluke. It is the result of taste, patience, and an obsessive commitment to the listener experience.

The philosophy behind Relay is worth understanding. Hackett and Hurley did not build a factory. They built a home for podcasters who cared about their craft. Hosts own their shows. The vibe is personal, specific, and never corporate. The audience can tell the difference, and they keep coming back.

30+
Active Shows
Across tech, creativity & culture
2014
Founded
Aug 18 - Relay FM launches
$4.8M+
Raised for St. Jude
Via Relay for St. Jude annual campaign since 2019

"Everything is a trade-off... you are making compromises constantly, but those compromises have ended up with better products than I expected."

- Myke Hurley, Creative Effort interview, 2026
The Shows

Six Podcasts.
One Voice.

Cortex
With CGP Grey

How creative, independent professionals work. Workflows, habits, themes, tools, and the psychology of getting things done without a boss. Required listening for serious creative workers.

Flagship
Upgrade
With Jason Snell

Apple and technology's impact on how we live and work. Weekly analysis, WWDC coverage, and the deeply nerdy joy of caring about which laptop Apple will announce next.

Weekly
Connected
With Federico Viticci & Stephen Hackett

Three distinct Apple perspectives in one room. The Ricki Award. Predictable and beloved structure. The Apple community's favorite weekly roundtable since 2014.

Community Favorite
Analog(ue)
With Casey Liss

The feelings behind the devices. A rare space in tech media for honest conversation about what it means to be a human being who also uses computers.

Personal
The Pen Addict
With Brad Dowdy

Pens, pencils, notebooks, ink. Myke's stationery obsession in podcast form. Proof that enthusiastic niche content finds its audience when you're genuinely into it.

Niche + Proud
Myke at the Movies
With Jason Snell & guests

Myke watches famous films he has never seen - for the first time, on mic. Comedy in unfamiliarity, and a surprisingly honest way to talk about cinema.

First-Timer
Beyond Podcasting

The Theme System:
When a Podcast Concept Becomes a Product

It started as a conversation between Myke and CGP Grey on Cortex. What if, instead of New Year's resolutions - specific goals that are easy to fail and easy to forget - you chose a single guiding word or phrase for the year? A "theme" that shapes decisions rather than dictating outcomes. Something like "Year of Health" or "Year of Focus" - broad enough to survive January, specific enough to actually change behavior.

The idea resonated. Listeners started adopting it. A small corner of the internet started calling it "the yearly theme." And then, in 2019, Myke and Grey co-founded Cortex Brand to turn that concept into a physical product: The Theme System Journal. A beautifully designed, thoughtfully structured notebook built specifically around the yearly theme workflow.

The journal sold out repeatedly. It became a cult object in productivity circles. It's the kind of thing that happens when a good idea meets good product design and a community that already trusts you. Myke serves as Creative Director of Cortex Brand - a title that suits someone who thinks carefully about the gap between concept and execution.

The Sidekick Notepad followed - a companion product for structured daily thought capture. Together, they represent something rare: a podcast that spawned a product line that people actually use, and actually love.

📓

The Theme System Journal

Co-created with CGP Grey. A notebook for recording and tracking your yearly theme - a guiding word or phrase instead of specific resolutions. Sold out repeatedly after launch in 2019.

📝

The Sidekick Notepad

Companion product for flexible daily thought capture. Designed for structured reflection without the rigidity of a traditional planner.

🎯

The Yearly Theme Concept

Born on Cortex. Spread virally. Now practiced by thousands. A guiding word or phrase as an alternative to New Year's resolutions - broad enough to survive the year, specific enough to actually guide decisions.

The Journey

From Banking
to Broadcasting

The career arc that got Myke Hurley to where he is now involves a banker who started talking into a microphone in 2009, a podcast network that didn't exist yet in 2011, a media company that he founded in 2014, and a journal that he designed in 2019. None of it was inevitable. All of it makes sense in retrospect.

The key move was probably 70Decibels - his first network, founded in 2011. When it was acquired by 5by5 in 2013, he got a look inside how a podcast network operates at scale. When he left to co-found Relay FM in 2014 with Stephen Hackett, he did it with a clear-eyed understanding of what he wanted to build differently.

The 2025 launch of The Enthusiast - his own independent newsletter, wholly his own - represents the next step: full creative independence alongside the network. The man who built infrastructure for others is now also investing in his own byline.

2009
Starts first podcast - interviewing people in the tech industry. A hobby that refuses to stay a hobby.
2011
Founds 70Decibels - his first independent podcast network. Proof of concept for what comes next.
2013
70Decibels acquired by 5by5. Myke sees the inside of a bigger operation.
2014
Co-founds Relay FM with Stephen Hackett. Five shows. No investors. August 18, 2014.
2015
Cortex launches with CGP Grey. A new conversation about how creative people work.
2016–18
Listed in Business Insider UK Tech 100 twice. Dubbed "Podcasting Don" of British tech.
2019
Co-founds Cortex Brand with CGP Grey. The Theme System Journal launches. Sells out.
2025
Launches The Enthusiast, his independent publication. Takes Head of Partnerships role at Cross Forward.
The Person

What Makes Myke Myke

The name "imyke" - his handle across every platform - is a small tell. It's a nod to Apple's "i" naming era: iPod, iPhone, iMac. Choosing that handle wasn't accidental. It was a declaration of identity. He is, and has always been, an Apple person. Not in the defensive tribal sense, but in the sense that Apple's products spark in him the kind of genuine enthusiasm that is contagious to everyone around him.

What is unusual about Myke is the combination of genuine enthusiasm and genuine organizational competence. Most enthusiasts can't run companies. Most company-builders lack genuine enthusiasm. He has both, and the network he's built reflects it.

He is also transparently human in a way that tech media often isn't. He has spoken on Analog(ue) and elsewhere about the emotional weight of running a business, about personal milestones, about what he wants his life to actually feel like. The Yearly Theme practice he popularized isn't just a productivity hack - it's a philosophy of intentional living, and he applies it to himself first.

His stationery obsession is real. He co-hosts The Pen Addict, a podcast about pens, pencils, and paper, not as a content play but because he actually loves this stuff. The willingness to be publicly and specifically obsessed with niche interests - without apology, without irony - is core to who he is.

Character Traits
Genuine Enthusiast Intentional Community Builder Self-Aware British Dry Wit Stationery Nerd Creative Operator Transparent Deliberate

"There's not an objective way to do it and neither do I ever feel like something can be perfect."

- Myke Hurley on product development, Creative Effort 2026
Community

The Fundraiser That
Became a Movement

Every September since 2019, Relay FM runs what has become one of the most impressive community fundraising campaigns in podcasting: Relay for St. Jude. The campaign raises money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - the cause is personal to co-founder Stephen Hackett, whose son was treated there.

The numbers are remarkable. Over $4.8 million raised since launch. A podcasting audience - the notoriously fragmented, notoriously hard-to-mobilize podcasting audience - repeatedly proving that it is actually a community with genuine loyalty and genuine generosity.

This is what happens when media is built on trust rather than scale. Myke and Stephen didn't build Relay FM to harvest an audience. They built it to serve one. The audience noticed.

$4.8M+
Raised for St. Jude
2019 to present
6+
Annual Campaigns
1000s
Community Donors
Latest Chapter

The Enthusiast:
Going Independent

In June 2025, Myke launched The Enthusiast - a personal website and weekly newsletter wholly his own. Not a Relay FM show. Not a Cortex Brand product. His. A space to write about his projects, his interests, his observations about technology, creativity, and life.

The name explains everything. On the About page, he writes: "It's core to how I have built my career online - I am an enthusiast in many things, and I share my opinions enthusiastically." It is perhaps the most precise self-description a creator has ever offered.

The Enthusiast arrives at a moment when the newsletter format has matured. The audience for thoughtful, personal writing from voices they already trust is larger than it has ever been. Myke is not a newcomer to this space - he has been building audiences for fifteen years. He's just now bringing that audience directly to his own front door.

Est. June 2025
The Enthusiast Features
  • → Weekly newsletter on technology, creativity, and life
  • → Enthusiastic Recommendations - things he genuinely loves
  • → Annual Yearly Theme posts, including his 2026 theme
  • → Independent from Relay FM - wholly Myke's own voice

2026 Yearly Theme

His 2026 theme centers on intentionality - pausing before reacting, considering how to respond, and being more deliberate with how he spends his time. The practice he helped popularize, applied to himself.

The Details

Things You Might
Not Know

Fact 01

His username "imyke" is a deliberate play on Apple's iconic "i" naming convention from the iPod/iPhone era. A username as a declaration of identity.

Fact 02

He was a banker before he was a podcaster. The organizational skills from managing people in financial services still show up in how he runs a media company.

Fact 03

The Theme System Journal he co-created with CGP Grey sold out repeatedly after its 2019 launch and became a cult object in productivity and stationery circles worldwide.

Fact 04

Myke at the Movies is a show where he watches famous films he has never seen, for the first time, on a podcast. His willingness to be publicly unfamiliar with classics is a kind of performance of intellectual honesty.

Fact 05

Relay FM celebrated its 10th anniversary with a live show in London in July 2024. The editorial photo used here was taken at that event by photographer Gilbert Tang (@gtangjr).

Fact 06

Business Insider dubbed him "Podcasting Don" of UK tech after listing him in their UK Tech 100 in both 2016 and 2018. A title he seems to wear lightly, if he wears it at all.

The Network

Key Collaborators

Stephen Hackett

Co-founder of Relay FM. Based in Memphis. Brought the technical infrastructure and the personal mission (St. Jude) that gives Relay its soul.

Relay FM Co-founder

CGP Grey

Reclusive YouTube essayist and co-host of Cortex. Co-founder of Cortex Brand. The creative partnership that produced both a beloved podcast and a physical product line.

Cortex Co-founder

Jason Snell

Former Macworld editor-in-chief and co-host of Upgrade. Brings decades of Apple journalism alongside Myke's enthusiast energy for a precise weekly show.

Upgrade Co-host

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Social Profiles & Links

Every place Myke Hurley lives on the internet

🌐 Personal Site 📰 The Enthusiast 𝕏 Twitter / X 📷 Instagram 🧵 Threads 🦋 Bluesky 🐘 Mastodon 💼 LinkedIn 🎙️ Relay FM 📓 Cortex Brand 📚 Wikipedia 👤 Relay Profile