What a Life
The crossroads of Robert Frost, Eckhart Tolle, and Emily Dickinson — with a splash of J.D. Salinger. A series of "podbites" (5-10 minutes) with stories from my daily life, a touch of poetry, and reflections on the state of life as a spiritual gay man in Denver.
Episodes
29 episodes
Episode 1: Trying Times, Thought(ful) Leadership
2024 was a doozy. In fact, I heard a lot of griping last year about the dire state of things. Yes, we're facing a lot of challenges. So what are we going to do about it in 2025? Where do we start? With good, old-fashioned conversat...
Episode 29: Heralding Joy
This time of year, we spend a lot of off-key caroling on songs about joy. The savior is here, we sing! Let's celebrate! But do we know what that joy really means? I'm not sure I do. Which is why I took a trip to the Bethlehem of Je...
Episode 28: The Labyrinth
For C.S. Lewis, life looked a lot like a wandering path — one with twists, turns, and obstacles, but always open to the sun. I think, rather, that a labyrinth is a better metaphor. Visibility is poor, we're frequently lost, and there's little s...
Episode 27: There's No Such Thing As a Free Lunch
I saw the word "free" bandied about often in my food writing days — free meals, free booze, free trips. Inevitably, restaurants took advantage of the old aphorism, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." They claimed that yes, in fact, free lu...
Episode 26: Let Us Not Please, Please
Every so often, I think back to my days in the church. I examine the rituals and symbolism, and I consider them alongside the sometimes painful happenings in the world. There's so much juxtaposition it's — alarming. In this episode...
Episode 25: I'm Sorry, What's Happening?
One of my faves, Robert Frost, once wrote, "A poem is when emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." You could say that was the genesis of this episode: A processing of election angst, global turmoil, and lack of purpose.&...
Episode 24: Stage Lights & Yesterday's Frights
A young man make his way onto a stage. He tells a story, a gut-wrenching story of a best friend who suffered — because of him. And at the end... well, I'll let you decide how it ends.
Episode 22: The Oldest Rubber Band In Existence
As we age, we lose our "elasticity." Sure, we lose the ability to stretch ourselves physically and bounce back after a strenuous experience, but our mental and emotional selves become less elastic, too. I don't know about you, but ...
Episode 21: Keep Stepping
Everyone approaches midlife reflections differently: indulgent purchases to distract, brooding and isolation, caring less, seizing the day, upending insidious habits. As I reflect on the past four decades, I wonder: How is my pench...
Episode 20: The Realist Poet Searches for a Marriage Metaphor
Poetry is hard. But so is marriage. What happens when you put the two together? Not good things, I'm afraid...
Episode 19: Plot Twisters
Oh how we love the unexpected! The hero fallen, the downtrodden made king, the right-side-up turned upside-down. What is this obsession with surprise? I have a theory, and it has a lot to do with how we're processing our current re...
Episode 18: Are We (Ever) Ready for Children?
Dr. Benjamin Spock was a parenting staple for my parents' generation. His advice to would-be parents is both terrifying and encouraging. But even with his guidance, I have to wonder: Is parenting for me? Or perhaps better put: Am I for parentin...
Episode 17: The Coronation of Nero
As the election creeps ever closer, I start to think of historical analogs to our own Donald Trump. One particular Roman emperor comes to mind...
Episode 16: Trial By Poetry
I've long been a poet. Or, perhaps more accurately, I've long tried to be a poet. But little meaningful seems to come from my words. Even when I lean on the greats for inspiration, words fall flat. What am I doing wrong? Am I using the wrong wo...
Episode 15: The Unstateliness of the World
Life is hard these days — harder that it was just a few years ago. Part of that is the normal role of professional life as one climbs the ladder. Part of it is an uptick in responsibility and the ache of economic and financial pressures. But wh...
Episode 14: Pride Peekaboo
It's Pride weekend — and that's something to celebrate. Or is it? It's been hard for me to take pride in anything as an adult. Is that a byproduct of life's pressures, my survivalist mentality, my self-flagellation — or a combination of all thr...
Episode 13: Into the Fold
A reflection-turned-short story, this view of a quiet suburban neighborhood wades into the notion of ultimate sacrifice — and how we honor those who have come before us.
Episode 12: Premium Life, $299/Month
Subscriptions run the market: from dating to cars, our consumer lives are ruled by incremental buy-in to goods, services, and experiences. But it doesn't end there. The subscription mindset is taking over our relationships, too. It's redefining...
Episode 11: Quiet Desperation
Life has been challenging lately. It's hewing a little too close to Thoreau's "quiet desperation." I've been thinking about that a lot lately: grinding through daily life, searching for purpose, questioning who I am. It's a lot, I know, but it'...
Episode 10: Please Say "No"
People-pleasers everywhere understand the terror in having to say "no." But as we grow older, we understand how critical it is to boundary-setting and grace-giving. Where it's too often absent: Work. Corporate America loves the "yes-sayers," es...
Episode 9: AI, AI Everywhere and Not a Thought to Think
AI is exciting, isn't it? It can write emails for us, draft outlines, do research, create images from whole cloth. But what about this pesky background debate on AI ethics and the downsides to too-speedy, unregulated development? Are we really ...
Episode 8: If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Something Else
Many of us have absorbed a notion of success that has little to do with what we value or want. It's easy to bake traditional success measures into our daily life without thinking about it. But maybe it's time we rethink this "success" business ...
Episode 7: I Am Mouse. Hear Me Roar?
In sixth grade, I was given the opportunity to lead my class through a mammoth science project. Instead, I fell on my face. That memory haunts me, particularly as I consider the opportunities to lead new ever-growing teams in my career. How do ...
Episode 6: Failure to Signal
There's an epidemic that's taking hold in urban areas: a failure to signal. As dangerous as that is for pedestrians, there's actually an analog happening in society at large that's much worse. People just can't seem to communicate — or process ...
Episode 5: Lego Castle of Anxiety
As a kid, I spent hours building Lego castles grounded in many-layered stories. Around that time, I began to suffer from "creative" anxiety attacks. It was only recently that I discovered these two very different experiences had a lot in common...