Podcasts. I have listened to my fair share of them. Before this little virus breakout, I spent a great deal more time in my car. I would listen to audiobooks and podcasts. I had a never-ending supply of information between the two, as I may just be an information junkie. Several people have recommended Dax Shephard’s podcast, Armchair Expert, over the last several months. Each time, I would think this is a great idea. Each time, I would not follow through.

This past week, a client recommended his podcast again. She said that he recently had an episode where he talked about relapsing after 16 years of sobriety, titled “Day 7.” I listened to this podcast and loved his vulnerability and brutal honesty, which I am sure is super hard to do, especially publicly. If you look up his podcast, he has a blurb written about how he finds people who are vulnerable and honest about their struggles and shortcomings to be sexy.

I know Brené Brown talks about how we love seeing others’ vulnerability, but we hate to be vulnerable ourselves. The premise for his show plays right into that, seeing the beauty in others being vulnerable. (Quick disclaimer—I haven’t yet listened to any of his episodes other than Day 7—but I intend to, and If I decide it’s no good, I may come back and edit this blog post). Dax took it up a notch and was vulnerable himself about his relapse and journey back into recovery. It was such an honest account of addiction and how recovery can be messy and sloppy and awkward and uncomfortable.

He mentions in the podcast how it is hard to share his struggle in real-time. It is so much easier to talk about our struggles after we overcome them. I can so relate! Can you? At least we share that we had struggles, but what if we start a revolution and share our real-time struggles? What if we said, “Hey, I am having kind of a hard time right now?” I don’t think it will be easy, but we just might find some relief when someone else shares some empathy, compassion, and kindness.