Episode 17: TMI

This is gonna sound so 1990’s but in a way with so much change we can kinda still get away with it. How ya diggin the internet and all things connected? In so many ways it’s still making life easier while turning a lot of worlds upside down. Like the way we love, trust, shop and plan for an extremely unpredictable future with AI’s on the horizon.
Speaking from the heart, the digital information age has had a hell of a good time pulling in volumes of information on all of us. Who, what, where, why and how we are and will become.
The Russian’s and Chinese aren’t stealing our background and lifestyle. Aimlessly we’re giving it away on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Podcasting.
In her book The Artist Way Julia Cameron clearly lays out the path that so many walk on. One of our cheap hidden away joys in life is standing in line at the grocery story comparing our experiences with those featured on magazine covers. Your day felt like crap while it was happening but it’s nowhere as bad as Brad Pitt and countless others in Hollywood.
Don’t look now but I’m getting a vibe as to why the popularity of podcast listening is on a swing upward. It’s due to our need to compare stories. Interestingly enough there’s a lot of us tossing our lives out there in ways that haven’t been truly tapped into until now.
With texting, emailing and blogging you truly couldn’t grasp the inflection and energy in our voice unless you were featured in a Vlog. Video Blogging. With podcasting the storytelling is wide open and wow there are some well-respected hosts and guests putting their private parts online so others can relate with or laugh about it.
Howard Stern continues to set the pace when it comes to digging up hardcore nearly next to porn stories. His guests to this day find no reason to hold back. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being a huge fan due to how low he can go. But but but… You have to fork out the bucks to get him on Sirus XM. Because of podcasting Stern’s no longer the only one going there. Dax Sheppard, Conan O’Brien, Chelsea Lately and hordes of others are deeply blessed with settling into a brilliant conversation then slowly opening the heart of the guest and then let them confess.
I laugh like a child when I hear Mila Kunis drop a sailor sized F bomb while talking about what it’s like to be a mom. Comedian Nicole Byer discussing the placement and meaning of every tattoo on her body. Alec Baldwin unveiling why politics is extremely taboo with his brother to faking an Italian accent at dinner physically changes the flavor of your spaghetti.
Because I listen so intently to podcasts the best part of the story is no longer in the tabloids. But how much information is too much? I host a show called The Choice. Its wide open on what it’s like to be creative and having to live with a world that fails to get what you’re going through. I have to be extremely honest in my episodes! Creativity and the act of allowing yourself to be a peace filled artist is hardcore and I’ve got the razor blade cuts on my arms to prove it. And I’m not alone.
I’ve been a daily writer for twenty five years. When blogging was hot and moving forward I took the handwritten chicken scratch and set it free. Putting on the digital platform where you can physically hear my emotions wasn’t an easy journey. The early episodes from 2015 sound like I filled in a bunch of blank boxes.
It took a few years to stop being a radio disc jockey doing a podcast to finally being real about having to deal with and come face to face with being creative. I don’t cuss but I do throw myself under the bus. Being truthful about the mental conditions a creative person deals with daily helps me with my other podcasts where I’m blessed to talk with the famous. I love listening to their stories unfold and with it a nugget of gold that didn’t make it to the grocery store checkout line.
But are we sharing too much information. As a martial artist we were endlessly scolded if the Master found our notes in someone else’s hands. Too much information becomes another person’s weapon against you. What you pour into your extremely public podcast can be heard by potential employers. How you present your political or religious views are ways for outsiders to get inside.
Podcasting presents one golden opportunity of strength. The power of one on one. I’m not seeing groups of people listening to the same podcast in the same room. I do though hear from a lot of single listeners taking in each and every word one at a time. I’m honestly shocked that Twitter lover President Donald Trump hasn’t gotten into podcasting. Not weekly addresses but podcasting like he Tweets. The man loves to use his voice on the smart phone app but hasn’t graduated to the podcast where we can hear every musical note used to make his point.
This is another one of those situations of how much information is too much? Could he keep it together without loosely tossing out a few things that should’ve remains private?
So what’s the moral of the story? There’s a lot of talking going on. A ton of subjects and confessions that leave the mind body and soul dangling on a string. As host and or producer of the podcast you’ve always got the power to cut up the conversation or simply let your guest know where you shouldn’t grow. I’ve had people tell me things about their television show that couldn’t hit the air. The event taking place was still a month out. That’s why I’m a true believer in recording everything then editing.
I was with Phil Collen of Def Leppard yesterday discussing the bands events but the embargo to place it on the digital stage won’t be lifted until the end of the month.
How much is too much information might actually reach a point where each podcast has to come with a permission to broadcast contract. The guest must lay down their signature as a way of giving clearance to the host and producer to post the conversation. Remember one valuable rule about podcasting. Just because you take down an episode doesn’t mean it’s gone from the world. Listeners have downloaded hundreds of thousands of my episodes. I don’t have Disney pockets to erase what once existed. Always keep your head on straight and play the game knowing it can always come back and bite you very very hard.