Welcome to the Epics Podcast
What’s up guys, welcome to the Epics Podcast and thank you for hitting play today. My name is Alex Wait and I am a light skinned man with curly dark hair, typically wearing a flat-billed hat and a t-shirt with a smile between my black headphones. I’m recording in my home office, which is the fancy way of describing the desk in my bedroom, with pictures of my family on the wall behind me and possibly two small children on the other side of the door.
I am so excited to launch the Epics Podcast where our goal is to tell epic stories from epic people. The vision for this podcast has been years in the making. I feel that stories (or epics) are so powerful and when someone tells you their story it has such great potential to influence us. We may not always realize this but our lives are deeply influenced every day by storytelling. For example the epic story of the Star Wars universe greatly influences me, as well as Harry Potter and so many other stories that creatively explore the struggle between good and evil as well as all of the unique facets of humanity.
But I came to a realization one day that we have not been told all of the stories that are worth telling. Or maybe better said, worth hearing.
The problem that I see most in our world today is that we quickly, easily and carelessly can discriminate and dismiss others and the foundation of this is a lack of understanding of those who are different from us.
It is so easy for us to stay in our little bubbles and only be told the things that we want to hear to feel better about ourselves. Social media of course greatly intensifies this and really can work to dehumanize others as well. Spending a year quarantined on our phones couldn’t have helped this either. I believe hearing someone’s story has a profound ability to humanize them. Their hardships and experiences may be very different from our own but their unique story has the ability to show us their humanity, which is now so easily lost or hidden behind a username.
I believe that everyone has a story worth telling. Through interviews and reflection I will have conversations with some of the ignored, the broken and the silenced of our communities.
With this podcast, my goal is to honor their stories, lean into uncomfortable conversations and work to gain a better understanding of hardships that are unfamiliar to me. I hope that we can all see (and spread) the humanity in everyone to better understand each other, honor and elevate everyone’s stories, and then be a part of (sparking) real positive change.
This podcast has been a dream of mine for over a year now, and due to many battles with fear, mental health, and a global pandemic I have struggled to get started. Now, after being laid off for the second time during COVID, I have found the motivation to finally chase my dream. If you believe in the (mission) of this podcast as well please consider supporting my patreon campaign and checking out my website, epicspodcast.com, for more ways to support Epics (like book lists and merch!!!).
Following us on social media @epicspod and using #epicspod is also a great way to support!
And before we go, don’t forget to subscribe so that you don’t miss the next epic story.
