Speaker 0: You may be facing, coming out of, or someday face a tragedy.
So should you be podcasting during or after it?
Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
During or after a tragedy, podcasting may be the last thing on
your mind.
Or maybe it's actually something you want or need to get back
into, but you're not sure if it's appropriate.
Whatever the tragedy is to you, there is no single right answer
to this.
But I would like to share several points for you to consider so
that you can make the decision that's right for you.
Now in this episode, I am going to use a lot of personal pronouns
and refer to my own past divorce as an example because it's
something that I've experienced and I can speak from.
So I'm not trying to make this about me or woe is me or anything
like that. I'm healed. I moved on. It's okay.
But still, I think it provides some good examples that I can use
from this and better to use my own tragedy than someone else's.
Right?
If you want to follow along in the notes for this episode, they
are a simple tap or swipe away or go to the
audacitytopodcast.com/tragedy. Number 1.
First, a difficult truth.
Tragedies don't impact everyone equally.
I think we can categorize tragedies by 2 factors, impact and
weight. Here are some examples of that.
When I went through the wounds and betrayal of an unwanted
divorce, that greatly impacted and weighed on me.
It also weighed on many of my sympathetic listeners.
Maybe you're 1 of them.
But it didn't really impact you or the rest of my audience aside
from how it impacted my podcast and the absence of my podcast in
your podcast app during that time.
If you podcast about a local town and there's a catastrophe in
the town, that impacts and weighs on both you and your audience.
The same would probably be true for major national or worldwide
events, perhaps regardless of what your podcast is about.
You might also have a tragedy involving someone you know, and
that may weigh on you even if it doesn't directly impact you.
And it may not impact or weigh on your audience at all.
And a fourth example here is there might be a tragedy somewhere
else that neither impacts nor weighs on you nor your audience,
but you and your audience know about the tragedy even though
you're not directly impacted nor weighed down by that tragedy.
The personal impact and weight of these and other potential
categories of tragedies should not diminish the nature of the
tragedy.
But these can give you some things to think about regarding how
or even if you handle it in your podcast.
So please keep these different categories in mind as I progress
through this episode.
The weight of the tragedy and on whom it's weighing, as well as
the impact and on whom it's impacting and how much.
Number 2, people need positivity.
No matter what your podcast is about, it's probably some kind of
positivity to the majority of your audience, even if that
positivity is simply a healthy distraction.
When I was deep in the sorrows of my divorce, I found comfort
first in the book of Psalms in the Bible every day.
And I also found great positivity in multiple podcasts, such as
That Story Show and the Karen and Ellen letters and a few others.
Those are 2, though, I distinctly remember listening to.
Note that these podcasts had absolutely nothing to do with
healing or relationships advice or anything that I was going
through.
In fact, there were a couple of things in some of these episodes
that made me tear up a little, but they helped me to do something
I didn't feel like doing at that time, but that I desperately
needed to do. Smile.
And your podcast could be that for other people.
Your consistency might be just what someone needs when they or
you and they both are going through or recovering from a tragedy.
Sometimes, simply the routine is healing.
I remember looking forward to laundry day just because it was a
regular day that happened every week, and it was a routine.
And the same thing for podcast episodes.
I could look forward to certain episodes because sometimes it
simply meant the week was passing and it was another week.
Sometimes people need that. Number 3, people need community.
Because of the, quote, intimate, unquote, nature of personable
podcasting, it's easy for communities to form around podcasts.
So when something impacts someone in that community, it's felt by
the whole community, and it's often good for people to cry
together.
I think Pixar's movie Inside Out illustrated this beautifully
with the importance of the character named sadness and the
emotion of sadness and how it's actually necessary for healing
and growth.
I have a link to this that you can watch this clip on YouTube.
The link is in the notes for this episode.
It's simple tap or swipe away.
They're also in the chapter for this moment.
And you can also get that link over at the
audacitytopodcast.com/tragedy.
I really encourage you, pause the episode right now.
And if you can, if it's safe to do so, go watch this clip from
the movie Inside Out.
Now assuming that you've actually been able to watch that clip
and maybe had to dry a tear or 2, I also love this passage from
the Bible that reinforces this.
This is from the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verses 9 through
12.
It says, 2 are better than 1 because they have a good reward for
their toil. For if they fall, 1 will lift up his fellow.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to
lift him up. Again, if 2 lie together, they keep warm.
But how can 1 keep warm alone?
And though a man might prevail against 1 who is alone, 2 will
withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
That's from Ecclesiastes 4 9 through 12 in the English Standard
Version.
People need people, And your podcast could help provide just the
community that the people need. Here's another example of this.
When I was going through my divorce, some friends invited me to
join their Friday night Xbox gaming squad.
That gave me something fun to do, a little camaraderie with other
men, and it was sometimes simply stress relief or another routine
that I could look forward to and helped pass the weeks.
A few years later, 1 of those men went through his own unwanted
divorce, and I was there for him every day.
1 day, in tears, he apologized to me, regretting that he couldn't
give me the support I needed when I went through my own divorce
before him. But I told him, oh, but you were there for me.
You were there every Friday night for me, giving me something to
look forward to, something to help me have fun again.
It might seem silly, but it was exactly what I needed.
My friend was there for me even though it was Xbox gaming, and
you could be there for other people even regardless of what your
podcast is about.
You could be there for them, and maybe your audience can be there
for you.
And that moves nicely into number 4, podcasting can be
therapeutic.
I'm no psychologist or counselor, and I don't play 1 on the
podcast.
But I've seen and experienced that letting it and eventually
moving on are very important parts of healing and growing.
Podcasting may give you an outlet for both of these things.
My friend and podcasting influencer, Todd Cochrane, was only 61
years old when he died a couple of weeks ago on 09/08/2025.
His dad also died young, an unrelated cause.
And a touching story I remember Todd telling multiple times was
when he and his mom did several podcast episodes together talking
through their grief, their healing, and more.
Todd frequently spoke of how therapeutic that was for them both
as well as how loving and supportive their community was.
I remember my own first personal tragedy in working to recover.
I was getting biblical counseling from someone in my church.
I'd been podcasting my now retired clean comedy podcast, The
Ramen Noodle, for barely a year at that point.
And I remember my counselor saying something wise and encouraging
despite how silly this sounds.
He said, Daniel, the world needs the ramen noodle. He was right.
I needed it too.
I can think of multiple other examples of this, but the point is
that returning to something you love will probably be difficult
and may even feel inappropriate at first.
But pressing through the mental and emotional resistance can make
you stronger and help you reignite your passions.
Number 5, it takes courage to not stay down.
Eventually returning to your passions after a tragedy takes
courage because you're proving, even if difficult, sometimes very
difficult, that the tragedy cannot defeat you.
I love the brief exchange from the movie Batman Begins where
Bruce Wayne's dad goes and rescues Bruce who had fallen down a
well and was scared by bats down there.
And as his father is carrying him back into their house, his dad
says, why do we fall, Bruce?
So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
I've got that clip in the notes for this episode and linked in
the chapters too if you wanna check that out.
Podcasting isn't just a pick me up.
Sometimes it is part of the process we can use to learn to pick
ourselves back up, often lifting others at the same time.
I'd love your thoughts on this.
You can comment on the notes at the
audacitytopodcast.com/tragedy, or maybe you have the ability to
leave a comment inside your podcast app.
And speaking of lifting others up, special thanks to Brian
Inspener, Dreb Scott, Dave Jackson, and Lyceum for streaming
payments for the past couple of episodes.
I really appreciate that support.
Also, in addition to that, Dreb Scott sent an extra 5,678
Satoshis saying, you are doing great work here. Keep it up.
And Pestmirk, a new listener or a new contributor, sent a 100
Satoshis saying, thanks, Daniel.
And thanks to Lyceum who sent the liberty boost 1,776 Satoshis
with a message that I'll save for a future episode about freedom
of speech in podcasting.
And, yes, I'm going to be touching on some serious somber, and
potentially controversial things in upcoming episodes of The
Audacity to Podcast.
Because this is motivated by some recent deaths that have
impacted and weighed heavily on me, and maybe on you and some
others in my audience.
So I want to address some of these issues, and I've had these on
my list to address for literally years, maybe even a decade or
more at this point.
Certain things like censorship, freedom of speech, death,
politics in your podcast, and more.
So please, I want your feedback and questions on these issues and
anything else that you feel is very somber and potentially
controversial about what you include in your podcast.
You can send that feedback through podcast feedback dot com slash
audacity.
And even if you don't have questions or thoughts to share, if you
love The Audacity to Podcast and value the podcasting inspiration
and education I provide, would you please consider giving back
what you feel it's worth to you?
That could be streaming Satoshis or sending a boostogram through
your podcasting 2 app.
You could go to theaudacitytopodcast.com slash give back and give
support, financial support of whatever amount you feel it's
worth, or simply sharing this episode and telling others about
The Audacity to Podcast is really valuable as well.
And now that I've given you some of the guts to podcast maybe
after tragedy and taught you some of the tools, it's time for you
to go start and grow your own podcast for passion and profit.
I'm Daniel J.
Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com, launching PodChapters very
soon.
Waiting list is still open over at podchapters.com, and thanks
for listening.