I’m going to start a podcast. This blog post will explain why, and why I hope you’ll attend and engage with me on the new show. (On-air interaction will be a huge factor as to whether or not it will succeed long term! I will need to be able to count on you!)

 

My new podcast will be called (I hope) either LIVING OUT LOUD or EVER NEW, if I can lock in these titles without confusing my show with anyone else’s. (I haven’t researched these show titles yet.) Even if I can’t, I’ll explain here why both show titles resonate with me.

 

MY BACKGROUND STORY

 

I don’t know if I’ve shared my genesis story on this blog. I know I have on my other blog. But here it is, in a nutshell.

 

I was born with a higher energy vibration than most, I think. Although I was a preemie and had a rough, rocky start, there has always been a spark in me that is effervescent and in your face. In fact, I was Mom and Dad’s “sparkler,” their “Krispy”. I was told I was their little firecracker, entering a room ready to sing, dance, and entertain, usually at the top of my considerable lungs. (Think Shirley Temple in her adorable movies but, in my case, Shirley would be me in drag.)

 

But Mom and Dad considered me “over the top,” and tried to correct me. Unfortunately, whatever they did must have been pretty ham-handed, because I quickly discerned that “children should be seen and not heard.” I was constantly hushed or moderated. And putting a cap on my enthusiasm (lowering my vibration) caused me to become depressed. Squelching my natural tendencies to be effervescent was disastrous to my self-esteem. I thought there was something seriously wrong with me.

 

Nothing was farther from the truth. I came here to live out loud, to become a contagion of joy, possibility and positivity.  I know that now.

 

In fact, I’ve always known that. But because I wasn’t allowed to be heard in my own energetic voice, I became a writer, because being seen (on paper) but not heard was more acceptable.  (I didn’t realize this until just recently. Insights into myself are ever new. Same with you? I hope so!)

 

ADDITIONAL POTENTIAL TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

 

LGBTQIA+

 

Another fact about me is that I am transgender. Even before there was a word for what I was, I knew I was a boy in a girl’s body.  There was never any doubt.  Over the past several years I’ve come out about that, written a book, and had chest masculinization surgery to align my body with my essence.  Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by, and invested in, other people’s transition stories, starting with Jan Morris’s CONUNDRUM.  Although most of the true stories up until recently have been MtF (Male to Female) accounts, I still resonated with them, cried over them, and felt a kinship to them.

 

I’m feeling extremely blessed that I am FtM because MtF individuals are treated much, much worse (sometimes killed, especially when they’re people of color). I think this is so because society “gets” why a biological woman might want to be a man  (We don’t want to be men, we ARE men, but that’s a discussion for another day) but it seems almost a sacrilege for a biological man to want to become a woman with less privilege than males have in this society. It seems perverse to many, in fact. But trans women are women. They don’t WANT to be women; they ARE women in the wrong vehicles for full essence expression. I’m keenly committed to making sure LGBTQIA+ individuals get a fair shake as American citizens. They deserve the same rights and privileges as white males, as do people of color. So do women. I’m an enthusiastic feminist.

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE

 

I’m a social justice advocate of the  first stripe. I grew up in the 1950’s and 1960’s. When I saw Black people being set upon by police using dogs, batons and firehoses, I was utterly appalled. When I asked my mother what country it was that was treating people so badly, she told me it was OURS, and I just about vomited.  Surely not OURS, the land of the free and the home of the brave… this beautiful nation whose European immigrants had been warmly welcomed by Native eastern tribes?!

 

Alas! I hadn’t yet learned the true history of America, only the WHITE-washed version that was force fed to gullible children. I didn’t know about slavery, or the wholesale genocide of indigenous people, or the way we treated the Chinese during westward expansion, or the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  The more I did learn, the more upset I became.  I will never stop pushing for equity for all Americans. Never.

 

LAW OF ATTRACTION

 

Another aspect of me is that I’m a firm believer in something akin to the Law of Attraction. I have called into my life the experiences and people I wanted and needed to  grow and mature. I didn’t know, necessarily, that I was doing that, but I know it now. Each and every experience I’ve had, good and bad, was the result of the magnetic pull of my immense desire to live out loud — to pursue the many things that float my boat.

 

Even as insecure as I was as a trans child and squelched communicator, I knew what I wanted to manifest, and I did:

 

I became a writer.

 

I became a friend of my favorite actor, DeForest Kelley.

 

I attracted into my orbit the people most likely to help me grow and mature into the person I’ve become.

 

I never stayed long at a job I didn’t enjoy.

 

I pursued jobs, volunteer gigs, and pastimes that I loved (horse ranch work, animal care, wild cat sanctuary work, affection training courses, and more) even when they paid  little or nothing, or cost me something .

 

I turned down enthusiastically offered careers where professional brokers (real estate, insurance, securities, etc.) told me I could make a million dollars in just a few years on the force of my personality  alone. Why? Because I knew I’d be miserable, as valuable as those services are to multiple millions of people. I was always going for another kind of gold: to live authentically and joyfully doing what I love doing most: communicating!

 

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR YOUNG CREATIVES

 

I’m an encourager of potential in young people. I think they need enthusiastic yay-sayers in their lives, especially if they want to go into creative fields because parents are frequently reticent to encourage their passion,  being afraid they’ll end up starving to death. (My parents were afraid for me in that way.)

 

Unlike a lot of wounded healers, I don’t recall enormous damage or scars from my childhood. I wasn’t molested. I was moderated, but not destroyed. (Destruction wasn’t the plan, and I knew that.) I was verbally abused by my dad, who knew no other way to communicate his displeasure (his role model, his father, was a cruel, alcoholic tyrant), but I never doubted his or Mom’s love for me.  I was very fortunate in that way.

 

ANIMAL WELFARE & TRUE ANIMAL/PET STORIES

 

I’ve always been an animal nut. Most of my closest confidants have been critters.  They love unconditionally and they let me know when they need me to focus exclusively on them. They are never shy about asking for what they want. Charli (cat) watches for me to free up my time so she can jump onto my chest and settle in for face rubs with me. My goats call out their joy at seeing me every time I step out the back door. Patches and Bobby (cats) share my bed at night. I’m surrounded by critter love 24/7/365.

 

ENVIRONMENT/ECOSYSTEM

 

I’m an environmentalist, a tree hugger. Our big blue marble needs immediate and sustained help. We need to rescue it from us. There are other critters who live here, too. We can’t be annihilating their habitats without grievous harm to ourselves (as if that were the only concern we should have about saving them!).  COVID-19, SARS, EBOLA and other diseases came as a result of destroying animals’ habitats to such a degree that wild ones (disease-carrying vectors) came closer and/or foreign markets started to capitalize on capturing them to sell as pets or as meat, at which time their diseases (zoonotic) morphed into risks to human lives.

 

I’ve written eleven books (sixteen if you count the KELLEY PHONE TAG series as individual books; that series alone is nearly 500K words in length), nearly all of them memoirs. Two are self-help books; one is the saga of my transgender journey (not including the recent chest masculinization surgery. I should probably update it to include that.)

 

So…. about the podcast!

 

Because I’m interested in and intrigued by so many different topics, and invested in so many outcomes, my podcast is going to be eclectic. The agenda, if there is one, will be dictated by what my listeners/fellow participants most want to discuss, learn about, or explore.

 

That’s why LIVING OUT LOUD and EVER NEW appeal to me as podcast titles. My target audience is always growing, always curious, always reading, always acting in ways that promote goodwill, positive action, and healthy outcomes for all concerned. We should all be living out loud, “going for the gold”/brass ring in whatever way that is to each of us.  I want to be one of the on-air voices and faces that encourages and applauds them.

 

I’m not an expert or authority on anything in particular (except maybe DeForest Kelley). I’m just insanely optimistic, hopeful and proactive.

 

So… who’s in?   If I do this thing once a week or once a month, will you buy in?  (It’s a free podcast. There’s no charge for it, except for your precious, precious time.) How often would you be eager to tune in? Once a week? Once a month? Every three months? I know the answer to this will depend on how entertaining or topical each show is, but imagine every topic as being fascinating and  watch/listen worthy. How often would you commit to tuning in? And what would be the best day and time for you?  (I’m on the west coast of the US in Pacific Time.)

 

I want to hear from you. I’m serious as a heart attack about doing this. So talk to me.  I’m all ears!