Season One Review: Patrick Huey
Hello, World!
We recorded the first episode of “At the Podium with Patrick Huey” in February 2021. Regina Bain was our first guest. At that moment in time, the world was hunkered down because of another spike in Covid 19 thanks to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah and New Year’s Eve collapsing into one another. The country was still reeling from and digesting the act of revolution carried out at the Capitol on January 6 that almost cost the nation our democracy. I had only one thought in mind – I had to do something to offer a different narrative to the cynical, divisive story that had gripped the country for the last four years. I believed that if we could create a platform to convene a diverse group of people committed to sharing their individual stories, that we could tap into the spirit of humanity that binds us all and become a beacon of light in an ever-darkening world. I had few requirements. The platform would be judgment free, ideologically agnostic and a place where big thoughts were not only welcomed but encouraged. And so “At the Podium” was born.
Corinne Bowen and Mary Ann Kane were two brand experts introduced to me by Tembi Locke at the end of 2020. She thought that a collaboration with them could yield extraordinary results. And she was right. From February to October 2021, we shot 10 episodes of “At the Podium,” refining the process and learning what this show was. I was green and unskilled in the beginning. They actually had to push me to start releasing the episodes. I was nervous. It was the first time that I put my name on something that was this critical. There could be no hiding with an eponymously titled show, and your name credited with “Creator and Host.” They finally Zoomed me at the end of September and said, “Patrick, you have to release these. We are scheduling to release the first one in October.” And so I said yes, and stepped into what I know to be my higher calling while I am here on this planet; to bear witness to the lives of others who walk this journey and in doing so acknowledge their worth and value.
34 episodes later, 34 people who cosigned an idea that our stories and life journeys matter, thousands of downloads and listens by people who are unknown to me, we finish Season One. I am still digesting all that has happened within me as a result of “At the Podium.” I am still learning what it all means and hopeful of how the next chapters will unfold, but for now I look back and reflect, and offer supreme thanks and gratitude to the people who have supported this act of intentional good and embraced the transformational power of saying “yes” to life.
