Pork Pond Gazette

Mike Rathbun

Let’s talk. Let’s talk about hope. Let’s talk about inspiration. Let’s talk about being happy, even if it’s only for 30 minutes. My goal for this show is for it to be a place to get away from the division and the anger in the world for a while. Relax, grab a coffee or a wine or your beverage of choice and just relax for a while. Welcome. I’m glad you’re here.

Play

Open in

30 episodes
weekly
Avg 31 min
English

Episodes 30

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

Thursday · 33 min
Can We See Beyond The Labels?
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/new“Those people” is a tiny phrase with a huge blast radius. Once I start talking that way, I’m not describing real human beings anymore, I’m describing a category I can judge, mock, or hate from a safe...
- Transcript
October 15 · 23 min
The Courage To Be Wrong
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newBeing wrong hits a nerve for most of us, and it’s rarely about the small stuff. It’s about what it feels like to be corrected when a belief is tied to our pride, our relationships, or our sense of...
- Transcript
October 8 · 30 min
Kindness Without Agreement
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newWe’re surrounded by disagreement, but what’s unsettling is how quickly it turns personal. A different opinion used to be just that, a different opinion. Now it often becomes a verdict: stupid, ignorant,...
- Transcript
October 1 · 25 min
AI And Kindness;
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newAI can write a beautiful apology, a perfect condolence message, and a calm response when you’re furious. The real question is not whether artificial intelligence is “good” or “bad” it’s whether we’ll use...
- Transcript
September 24 · 29 min
When Community Cares
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newSomeone walks out of a federal detention facility into a Minnesota winter with no phone, no coat, and no clear idea what comes next. Then a small crowd of strangers is waiting with hot chocolate, spare...
- Transcript
September 17 · 22 min
The Ones Who Do
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newSomebody should do something. We all say it, we all mean it, and then life moves on. But there’s a moment when that sentence turns into a mirror, when a problem keeps tugging at you and the next thought...
- Transcript
September 10 · 20 min
Capitalism, But Make It Human
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newCapitalism gets talked about like a cage match: winners on one side, everyone else on the other. I’m not an economist, but a single line stopped me cold: capitalism actually works better when it’s built...
- Transcript
September 3 · 23 min
The Bravest Seat In The School
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newThe loudest room in a school can be the most honest one. We’re talking about the cafeteria, that daily moment when kids carry a tray into a crowded space and have to answer a deceptively hard question:...
- Transcript
August 27 · 34 min
Bridging The Divide
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newThis is the Number One downloaded episode of the Kindness Matters Podcast.You can feel the country pulling apart in tiny, personal ways: the friend you stop texting, the family group chat you mute, the...
- Transcript
August 20 · 29 min
Coffee That Fights Homelessness
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newThis is the second most listened to episode of The Kindness Matters Podcast. A tent city on the news can be easy to scroll past. For Rob Bergfalk, it became the moment he could not ignore, and it grew...
- Transcript
August 13 · 48 min
A Small Idea Turns Into One Good Deed
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newThis is the third-most-listened-to episode of The Kindness Matters Podcast. A craft night with a few moms, a pile of extra gloves, and a simple desire to stay connected somehow turns into two coach buses...
- Transcript
August 6 · 17 min
Kindness For The Man In The Mirror
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newThe hardest kind of kindness is often the kind we refuse to give ourselves. I’m Mike Rathbun, and this is one of the most personal conversations I’ve ever shared, because it’s about men’s mental health,...
- Transcript
July 30 · 34 min
Words That Restore Dignity
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newOne careless sentence can make someone shut down for years. One kind sentence can pull them back from the edge. That’s the tension we live in every day, and it’s why I wanted to bring on Shannon Roy, a...
- Transcript
July 23 · 24 min
The Lesson of Gander.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newI can't believe it's been nearly 25 years. 7,000 people step off diverted planes into a town they’ve never heard of, carrying fear, exhaustion, and the sickening uncertainty of 9/11. Gander, Newfoundland...
- Transcript
July 16 · 33 min
How Kind Speech Builds Emotional Intelligence In Children
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newA kid isn’t “being difficult” in a vacuum. Most of the time, they’re broadcasting a need they don’t have words for, and the adults around them are deciding what that behavior means. I sit down with Bobbi...
- Transcript
July 9 · 18 min
Civic Exclusion And The Kind Communities Build
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newYou can feel it before you can explain it: you show up, you speak, and it’s like the decision was made before you walked in. Now zoom that feeling out from a meeting to an entire neighborhood and you...
- Transcript
July 2 · 41 min
Bootleg Barbecue And Big-Heart Mentorship
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newA lot of people say they want to support veterans. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-n-king78/ is building systems that actually do it, one mentor match and one shared meal at a time. John spent over 20...
- Transcript
June 25 · 33 min
What If Small Kindness Is Anti Trafficking Work
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newHuman trafficking can feel like a distant headline until someone explains what it really is and how it actually works. We talk with https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniempage/, co-founder and executive...
- Transcript
June 18 · 32 min
Kindness And Recovery
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/newA sober living home can be more than a roof. It can be a turning point. We sit down with https://angelshouseofhealing.com/about-us, the founder of https://angelshouseofhealing.com/home, to hear how she...
- Transcript
June 11 · 38 min
Breaking The Silence On Suicide
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542607/fan_mail/new *This episode includes open and honest discussion about suicide, suicide loss, and mental health struggles. We talk about lived experiences, prevention myths, language that reduces stigma, and ways to...
- Transcript

Showing 1–20 of 30 episodes