Still Here, Still Trying

Episode 37: The Difference Between Peace and Avoidance A lot of us have learned how to get quiet. We’ve pulled back, muted the noise, stepped away from things that felt too loud or too heavy. Some of that has been necessary. Some of it has been healing. But not all quiet means the same thing. In this episode, Mike talks about the difference between real peace and quiet avoidance. How the two can f...

Episode 36: What Nobody Mentions About Stability We spend a lot of time learning how to survive chaos. We don’t spend nearly enough time learning how to live once things finally calm down. In this episode, Mike talks about stability—why it can feel uncomfortable, why calm can feel unfamiliar, and why some people end up sabotaging good situations without realizing what they’re doing. This conversat...

Episode 35: Things I’d Stop Teaching If I Was Being Honest There’s a lot of advice we keep repeating because it sounds wise, responsible, or motivating. Some of it worked once. Some of it helped at a different time in life. And some of it quietly stops serving us long before we admit it. In this episode, Mike takes a closer look at a few ideas he’d stop teaching if he was being honest. Not to tear...

Episode 34: The Freedom of Caring Less About the Wrong Things In this episode, Mike talks about the quiet shift that happens when you stop caring so much about things that never actually made life better. Approval. Being right. Keeping up. Explaining yourself to people who were never going to understand you anyway. This conversation isn’t about checking out or lowering the bar. It’s about growing...

A year into this chapter, the tone feels louder, sharper, and more centered on ego than responsibility. This episode isn’t about politics as a debate. It’s about what this style of leadership does to us over time. I talk honestly about exhaustion, disappointment, and the quiet ways trust erodes when chaos and self-interest become normalized. I wrestle with optimism, not as denial, but as a discipl...

Episode 32: Who You Become in the Middle This episode was recorded after a full week of perspective. Turning fifty. Time away with Kellie. Music that demanded presence. A surprise that reminded me how much quiet work love actually takes. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I saw a simple image about goals. It wasn’t clever. It wasn’t new. It was true. We spend so much time chasing outcomes. Promo...

Stop Making Yourself Small; Finding Oxygen After You Leave Broken Systems In this episode of Still Here, Still Trying , Mike sits down with longtime friend Chad Anderson for a wide-ranging conversation about identity, trauma, creativity, and what it takes to live fully after leaving systems that no longer fit. Chad shares what it cost him to choose honesty, what it gave back over time, and why cre...

Beautifully Unfocused This episode moves differently. Mike Baker walks through his new album Beautifully Unfocused one song at a time, using music to explain what living with ADHD actually feels like from the inside. Not a release announcement. Not a lesson. Context. You’ll hear where each song came from. The overload. The hyperfocus. The crashes. The caffeine. The guilt of disappearing. The pride...

Episode 29: Christmas, Still Here (A Short Reset for the Week Before Christmas) The week before Christmas hits hard for a lot of people. The calendar fills up, patience gets thin, and emotions show up in ways that don’t always make sense until you’re in it. In this short episode of Still Here, Still Trying , Mike Baker slows things down and gives you a grounded reset for the days leading into Chri...

Episode Title: A Goalie’s Letter to Santa Beer league goalies live in a different headspace. Warmups start and you’re already in your head. One screen you can’t see through, one weird bounce, one soft goal, and you’re doing therapy in real time behind a mask. In this holiday episode, Mike sits down with Tom Buck for a goalie-to-goalie conversation that turns into something bigger. Tom is a longtim...

Let Something Be Easy Today This episode lands right before Christmas, right in the middle of a packed calendar, a messy sleep schedule, and two big nights at The Art Spirit Gallery for No Permission Needed . Mike talks about: Heading into Friday night ArtWalk and a community night with friends, endo warriors, coworkers, and neighbors What “rest” has actually looked like lately: couch crashes, mid...

Joy Looks Good on You – Holiday Special This episode sits inside real December, not the postcard version. I walk through the stories behind my Christmas albums, from Starlight and Silent Nights to the new projects Still Snowing Somewhere , That Christmas Feeling Again , and Lights in the Window . We talk about: Writing “letters to the North Pole” as a kid and what that looks like now as an adult S...

God Complex: Narcissism in Life and Leadership This episode kicks off a new five-part series on personality patterns we face at home, at work, and inside every messy human system. We start with one of the most confusing and emotionally draining patterns out there: narcissistic behavior. I walk through what this pattern looks like, why it forms, how it shows up in leadership, and how it impacts per...

In this episode, Mike slows everything down and talks about what it means to actually show up in the moment you’re living. It starts with a hand-painted mirror he found in Palm Springs. Three simple lines hit him harder than expected: Look back. Look ahead. Live now. From there, he walks through the pull of the past, the pressure of the future, and the work it takes to stay grounded in the present...

This week’s episode is a steady, honest look back at everything that happened around the art show opening. Mike walks through the reactions, the confusion, the support, and the noise that hit before anyone even saw the work. He talks about what he learned, why stories matter, how the women in his life shaped the project, and why he’s still growing as a creator. He also addresses the apology conver...

In Episode 23, Mike Baker reminds us that our stories matter more than we realize. This episode dives into the quiet impact of truth — how the things we survive, share, and speak out loud can become lifelines for someone else. Mike also opens up about the success of his new art show No Permission Needed at The Art Spirit Gallery in downtown Coeur d’Alene, a powerful project about women’s voices, a...

My art show went live and the reaction blew up fast. The gallery posted the announcement and the comment sections turned into a storm. People questioned my intentions, my process, my place in the gallery, and my right to create work connected to women’s health. A lot of people judged the work without knowing anything about the story behind it. This episode is my version of what happened. I walk th...

Description: This episode opens the door to my new art show,  No Permission Needed , running at  The Art Spirit Gallery  in downtown Coeur d’Alene. These portraits grew out of real stories — women who’ve carried pain, power, and resilience in silence for far too long. The show is built from everything I’ve learned watching the women in my life fight for care, dignity, and the right to be heard. In...

Episode Title: Veterans Day – Scars in the Light In this special Veterans Day mini episode, Mike reflects on the people who’ve shaped his understanding of service and strength — his dad, both grandfathers, his father-in-law, cousin Bubba, teammates from hockey, and the veterans who serve today at Heritage Health. He speaks openly about the quiet courage he’s witnessed, the weight many still carry,...

🎙️  Still Here, Still Trying – Episode 21: “The Things That Keep Me Sane” What keeps you grounded when the world won’t slow down? For me — it’s motion, creation, rhythm, and the people who still give a damn. In this episode, I open up about the small, real things that keep me from burning out — the late-night drives along Lake Coeur d’Alene, the ten-hour runs to Utah where my brain finally breathe...

Episode Title:   Life Across the Sea (with Cameron Baker) Description: In the first-ever interview on  Still Here, Still Trying , Mike sits down with his middle son,  Cameron Baker , who’s been living and working in New Zealand. Together they talk about what it means to start over in a new country — the pull of independence, the loneliness that comes with it, and the strength it takes to build a l...

Episode 20: The Art of Staying Human The noise is everywhere — headlines, outrage, algorithms feeding the chaos. But underneath all that, there’s still something worth protecting. In Episode 20 of Still Here, Still Trying , Mike Baker shares The Art of Staying Human — a grounded, honest guide to holding on to empathy, truth, and decency in a world built for division. He lays out a five-part playbo...

🎙️ Episode 19 — The Middle Still Matters Somewhere along the way, noise replaced nuance. Everything became a side to choose, a take to post, a reaction to perform. We started scrolling through outrage like it was oxygen, and somehow forgot how to just… listen. In this episode, Mike Baker steps back from the static to search for the signal underneath it — the quiet frequency that still connects us....

What if art wasn’t about what we see—but what we help others see? In this episode, Mike reflects on how empathy opened the door to his creative life. From the EndoWarrior portraits inspired by his daughter’s journey with invisible pain, to discovering how AI could help capture ideas that move faster than his hands, this conversation is about creation rooted in love, not ambition. Mike talks about...

After a week on the islands celebrating 26 years of marriage, Mike Baker returns home sunburned, grateful, and changed. In this deeply personal episode, he reflects on the quiet moments that inspired his new album Human First — a project born out of compassion, faith, and the belief that kindness still matters in a divided world. From floating off St. John with Kellie and writing Stop Making Amy C...