We'd just won an award. The studio closed a month later.

I worked in one of Spotify's podcast studios. We made something we were genuinely proud of — it won an industry award in the autumn. Our team was called together for a celebration. Leadership sent congratulations. A month later the studio was closed. Not restructured, not merged into something else. Closed. I keep coming back to the award. Not because the recognition mattered commercially, but because it shows they knew what we were capable of, and they ended it anyway. And they celebrated with us the month before. The work doesn't exist anymore. The relationships do. But I'd rather have the work too.