Party Line Show debuted this Sunday — fittingly, on All Saints’ Day — as a new weekly show from John C. Dvorak’s family (widow Mimi Smith-Dvorak, son-in-law Brennan Lawton) and his longtime friend and producing partner Dana Brunetti, broadcasting live at 11:00 AM PT on Void Zero Community Radio, the same decentralized stream that’s carried several No Agenda-adjacent shows for years.
The concept goes back further than you’d guess. Mimi explained on air that the “party line” idea came from two places: John’s fascination with old call-in radio formats — Joe Pyne (the first true call-in radio show, before a change in FCC rules even allowed broadcasting phone calls live) and Art Bell — plus actual childhood party lines, the shared phone lines where multiple houses split one line and neighbors could (and did) listen in on each other’s calls. Dana added his own piece of the origin story: a running joke with John about a podcast called “The Wine Idiot” that never got made, years of recorded phone conversations the two of them had just talking, and John’s conviction — stated outright, more than once — that the best podcasts work exactly like eavesdropping on an interesting conversation at the next table.
The show leans hard into that legacy without pretending to be a replacement for it. Brennan and Mimi walked through the Ship of Theseus thought experiment on air to explain why: No Agenda, piece by piece, became a different ship once John was no longer on it — so rather than try to keep calling it the same ship, the family built a new one. “I don’t think there can be a No Agenda without Adam and John,” Mimi said. Dana closed the thought with his own version of the same idea (George Washington’s axe — replace the handle, replace the head, it’s still the same axe), making clear this is still very much John’s family carrying his work forward, not a tribute act.
There were real tears mixed into the laughs. The hosts spent a chunk of the first hour on “dad stories” (Brennan is a brand-new father), told a story about how every post office clerk and bank teller JCD ever dealt with adored him, and read listener voicemails that were openly, plainly grieving — alongside a long stretch of people calling in just to wish the new show well. One listener asked the hosts the kind of question that could only exist in this community: name one thing John said that you thought was ridiculous at the time and later realized he was right about. Nobody had a clean answer before the show cut to a joke and moved on, which felt true to the format in its own way.
Party Line Show airs live Sundays at 11:00 AM PT on Void Zero Community Radio, and episodes/voicemail call-in details are at partylineshow.com. Meetup announcements are migrating to a shared site for the broader former No Agenda community at noagendameetups.com. NoAgendaFun.com will be posting tips and mentions, just like we did for No Agenda. We wish the Dvoraks Good Luck for this new show!
