Bornfamous

Sorry to say that The Health Show didn’t work out. I’ve been stressing out about the prospect of producing a weekly podcast on a subject I know very little about, and finally realized that it’s more than I can handle. That’s why I get disability, after all. So I emailed my regrets and apologies to Cameron Reilly and Mick Stanic [two great guys, btw]. I feel a huge sense of relief.

…and another door opens.

I’m not ready to give up podcasting altogether, however. The deadline pressure and the broad topic of health were overwhelming, but by podcasting on my own site, at my own pace, about my own choice of subject matter, the problem is solved. Wahla!

But what subject, I wondered?

Then, this morning during yoga [all my best epiphanies occur during yoga, another incentive to daily practice], I got The Idea. I remembered that what I really want to do is oral histories, something I’ve loved for twenty years, since I first read Studs Terkel, and later when I had the privilege of interviewing him. But there always seemed to be too many obstacles, like having to make a living, not knowing what these interviews should be about–and the biggest obstacle, not being able to go to the interview subjects because of my own disability. I can’t exactly go to people’s homes to interview them, not with all the toxic cleaning products and fragrances I’d likely encounter. Nor can I travel around the country visiting the folks I most want to interview: people with chemical injury.

But–I can interview them by phone. And there I had both my topic/project and my solution: Voices of Chemical Injury. I will use the phone and my newly-acquired tech skills to podcast the stories of the growing legion of people whose lives have been turned upside down by the poisons in our air and water.

Sounds like a plan.