Detoxicity: By Men, About Men, For Everyone

DetoxPod 82 : Mitchell Leonard (Producer, Composer)

My guest for this episode of  is Mitchell Leonard, a composer and producer originally from Arizona now making his home in Brooklyn. We actually started our conversation before he got the chance to properly introduce himself, which hopefully you consider a good sign for your listening experience. From an artistic perspective, Mitch and I talk about the fallacy of it being too late to start over and what events transpired to move him East to the Big Apple. Mitchell also explores his addictive personality and the unusual methods he undertook to mitigate his substance use. We also talk about developing a look for yourself, why it's important to be your truest self, and we get a vibe for why Mitchell created his latest project, Mainframe. 

DetoxPod 81 : Marcus Mims (Producer/Songwriter)

Marcus Mims is a songwriter, producer and vocal coach originally from the Detroit suburbs, now based in the...New York City suburbs? What are we calling North Jersey now? He's also known as Journal. Anyway, there's a big difference between the Big D and the Big Apple, and Marcus learned a lot about that difference when he made his move to the NY area. That adjustment isn't the only challenge that Marcus has experienced. We also talk about how to deal with loss at a very young age, we talk about how Marcus recovered from a major medical scare, and we discuss self-care methods and why Marcus doesn't shy away from treating himself well.

DetoxPod 80 : Luke Nielsen (Educator, Coach)

This episode is going to deviate a bit from Detoxicity's normal format. Most episodes so far have featured me interviewing someone (or, on rare occasion, someone interviewing me). When I started talking to Luke Nielsen, who makes his living as an art teacher and football coach in Iowa, we ended up structuring this episode more as a mutual interview. So I quiz Luke about what it's like to grow up in small-town Midwest with over a hundred family members, and he grills me about the music I grew up listening to. We share stories about personal evolution, social and emotional learning, authenticity and the lessons we've learned over the course of our lives. 

DetoxPod 79 : Jason Hare

Some of you might now that Detoxicity is not the only podcast I host and produce. Along with my music loving friends Jeff Giles and Jason Hare, I host a podcast called FM to MTV, which focuses on the pop music that the three of us grew up with, albeit in very different environments. In addition to being music nerds and great comic foils, I have been friends with Jeff and Jason now for over a decade. Jeff and I collaborated for a Detox episode a few weeks ago, and now it's Jason's turn. Our conversation takes quite a few turns as it covers Jason's career as a child actor in commercials, his relationships with his parents, his children and his partner, his activism on behalf of the trans community, and the ups and downs of our own relationship, which has weathered some turbulence over the years. I hope you appreciate listening to this conversation as much as I enjoyed having it. 

DetoxPod78 : Mike Rublin

Mike Rublin is a "recovering" musician, a social worker and a mental health advocate. He is also a proud Jersey native. Our interview covers a lot of ground; with special attention given to various forms of self-care and mental health. We talk about the pressure of having your actions live up to your words, why he finds fulfillment working with other men, what it's like to be bullied in school and to ultimately forgive those who did wrong against you, Mike explains the concept of "taking space" and "making space", and we'll see if I can convince him to get that piano stitched together to play music again. 
You can find Mike on IG at "avictoryrose".

DetoxPod 77: Bryan Mack

My love of music tends to direct me towards quite a few potential podcast guests, and the seeds for this week's episode were sown earlier this year when I joined a bracket style music tournament held by my buddy Crispin Kott, who you might remember from episode 36.
 
That group introduced me to Bryan Mack, this episode's subject. Bryan is a music geek through and through. You'll find out just how much of a music geek he is during our conversation. In addition to collecting records and going to tons of shows, Bryan is also (I think) Detoxicity's first lawyer. He's a practicing attorney in the small town of Bishop, California, where he was born and raised. Bryan talks about the unscrupulous reputation a lot of lawyers have and what drew him to practice in the first place. We also talk about how small town life suits him, why live music is good for his body image, and we find out what lines he draws to achieve a better work-life balance.
 

DetoxPod 76 : Ethan Freckleton

Since I started doing this show, I've developed a bit of a thing about people who call themselves life coaches. There's a level of, dare I say, bullshit that I've detected with some of the people I've interviewed thus far that have felt the calling to coach others through life. So I approached my interview with Ethan Freckleton cautiously.
 
Thankfully, Ethan allayed my fears by being vulnerable, being honest and acknowledging that he doesn't come from a place of presumed superiority or enlightenment. He's fighting the good fight just like the rest of us and trying to help those through a combination of his own experience and the knowledge that there's still quite a journey ahead. I should add that Ethan, like many of my guests, is many things in addition to being a life coach. He's a musician, an author, and the host of the podcast The Fearless Storyteller. He lives up to the fearless and storyteller parts of this title during our conversation.

DetoxPod 75 : Evan Thomas

Earlier this year, Detoxicity's host, Mike Joseph, was located on the genealogy site 23 and Me by someone named Evan Thomas, who was indicated to be Mike's brother. After several months of communication, the two met in person and recorded this special episode of the podcast. Evan and Mike discuss the circumstances that led them to one another and how their lives and personalities came close to intersecting over the years. They also discuss living in the South, hanging up the "player card", interracial relationships and much more.