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"What am I going to do a podcast about? Welcome to Too Many Advanced Degrees with Mia Neal, the podcast where I tell you how to waste several years of your life earning diplomas that will not equip you to earn an adequate income."

Jasmine cast Mia a look that night that said she was being ridiculous. Which wasn't entirely inaccurate. "Do it about something you love."

"Oh, sure. A podcast about hunting for typos on Wikipedia."

"What about Formula One? You've been sulking for an entire week about the season ending."

Sulking had been an understatement. The end of the season was always such a letdown. Formula One had been Mia's sport of choice since she was a little girl and her aunt Judy introduced her to it. Of course Mia loved the speed and the elite nature of the competition—twenty drivers in the entire world. But she also loved the psychological gauntlet of having only two drivers on a team, automatically creating an intense rivalry since it was guaranteed that one driver would finish ahead of their teammate every single race.

She was equally in awe of the physical demands of the racing and in turn, she loved arguing with strangers on the internet about how the drivers were conditioned athletes who built up their bodies to withstand incredible G-forces, not simply guys who knew how to punch the throttle. And of course, who could ignore the clown car of impossibly sexy men behind the wheel? Frankly, it raised the question—what was in the water served at European go-kart tracks? Some magical beauty elixir?

Now that Formula One had exploded in the US, Mia no longer had to use a VPN to watch every race weekend, and there was an embarrassment of videos about the teams and drivers on YouTube, which only fueled her love for the sport.

"I don't know. Formula One is such a male-dominated space. The trolls will come out and I'll spend all my time arguing with them."

"And destroying them with your logic. When have you ever passed up a chance to obliterate someone with your brain?"

"Never. The answer to that question is never."

Jasmine had given Mia quite a bit to think about. And since thinking was Mia's not-so-hidden talent, as soon as Jasmine had gone home that night, Mia stayed up too late reading articles about podcasting. The next day, bleary-eyed but determined, she borrowed books about it from the library. Then she spent hours scouring the internet for the best deals on equipment. And thus began her journey with podcasting.

It was drudgery for the first year, trying to figure out what she was doing. But her love for F1 kept her going, and she'd always been energized by the challenge of learning a new skill. With each episode, she got a more solid footing, all while following one of her greatest passions. But the second year? Well, she was only a few weeks into the new F1 season, but she was already kicking ass. Turned out Not So Fast with Mia Neal was kind of blowing up.

Although she owed some success to the careful building of an audience, the thing that was really putting her over the top was her sometimes hilarious criticism of her favorite driver, Xander Bishop. Xander began his season with his new team, Mega Racing, by driving like an absolute dipshit. Putting the car in the wall at preseason testing. Out in Q1 of qualifying in Bahrain. Getting completely schooled by his teammate in Australia. And Mia had pulled exactly zero punches.

"Whoa, Xander. Not so fast. Dude, keep it in your pants," she'd said with the sarcasm it deserved.

The day after that episode came out, her numbers on social began ticking upward. Then her subscriber numbers and downloads started a similar climb. So she doubled down after Xander started in fifteenth and finished in nineteenth in Saudi Arabia.

"What is going on with Xander Bishop? He's so much better than this. He signed a gazillion-dollar contract, they put him in a rocket of a car, and he's puttering around Jeddah like he has his dick in his hand."

That was when her social media ex-plo-ded. She was over 200k followers on her two primary platforms overnight. And sponsors were contacting her now. 'Real' sponsors. With money.

"A number four and a number seven?" The waiter arrived with their entrées. "Careful. The plates are hot." He slid them onto the table while eyeing Jasmine and ignoring Mia, such a common occurrence Mia couldn't bring herself to be annoyed. Jasmine had always been an effortless beauty, with a flawless olive complexion and naturally long lashes. Mia was accustomed to feeling invisible. It was part of what made her appreciate podcasting so much. In that space, it was acceptable to remain in the background. She could hide behind a microphone and be perfectly happy, which was no small thing.