Winning International Award Marks End Of An Era
Exciting news to share: First, 2 Lives won an International Women’s Podcast Award. We've been a runner up in the past but this year we rose to the top. There were 700 entries from 35 different countries. I now have a new list of podcasts to binge.
It feels really good to go out on a high note. That’s right, my second bit of news… we are wrapping the show. Every end is a beginning. And this is ours – our next episode – our 100th show dropping July 1 – will be our last.
I came up with the idea for 2 Lives five years ago. I was reporting on the pandemic for NPR and the Fronteras Desk. It wasn’t my first challenging assignment. Over 25 years I’ve covered wildfires and the destruction of indigenous people, languages and cultures. I’d sat with families days after hearing their son was killed in Iraq. But Covid was the first time I noticed the impacts of what I later learned was secondary PTSD mostly in the form of debilitating migraines.
Around that time I came across a quote: “We all have two lives. The second begins the moment we realize we have only one.”
That was where the idea for the podcast was born. In my reporting I’d come across so many people who’s stories only scratched the surface in the 4 minutes I was given. And many had this one thing in common – they were about people who had faced some kind of darkness and transformed as a result.
So with the support of my family, I left my job to become an independent podcaster. It was difficult at first. Public radio reporter was so much a part of my identity. But like Rachel Stone and Laura Lyons say on 2 Lives, when you’re off course your body lets you know with pain. And my body was trying to tell me to align with my purpose. This is what I would later identify as a small 2 Lives moment for me.
I created 2 Lives and quickly discovered it’s a lot of work to put out a crafted, sound designed, scripted episode every other week.
So I hired someone to help. Valerie Shively is the current assistant producer. Camila Kerwin, Halle Hewitt, Ruxandra Guidi and Lauren Vespoli also worked with me over the years.
I’ve learned so much about how to grow the show. At last count we had almost 400,000 downloads. We’ve won several awards and been featured on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
So you may be asking, why are you ending the show?
A few reasons: These stories, even though they are a testament to the strength of human spirit and often contain humor and light as well as dark, have taken a toll. To research, interview and listen repeatedly to an individual’s trauma is hard. Once again I’m trying to listen to my body.
The 2 Lives pitches we’ve received over recent months contain many repeated themes or issues we’ve already covered.
It’s a lot of work for very little financial reward. I’ve tried to shift my definition of success. You have to keep coming back to your why, beyond ad dollars and download numbers. And mine is making meaningful stories that help me and others to heal.
But it’s time for me to realign once more to a different kind of storytelling. I’ll be continuing a monthly newsletter or substack, revising my second fiction manuscript and figuring out a path to publishing.
I’m so grateful for the 2 Lives storytellers for their courage, vulnerability and incredible knowledge. Anna Runkle gave me tools to cope with PTSD. Death doula Sairey Luterman taught me how to cope with the pain of loss. Wenche Fredriksen helped me shed old stories and give myself more compassion.
Listeners have told me the show helps their anxiety, teaches them how they want to show up in the world and makes them feel less alone. I feel the same way.
And now we have 100 episodes to go back and listen to when we need reminding.
Thank you so much for listening.
