Still Here, Still Trying

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...

Episode 16 – You’ve Been Becoming This Whole Time In this episode of Still Here, Still Trying, Mike Baker leans into one of the quiet truths from his book The Optimist’s Way™ : that we’ve been becoming all along, even when it feels like we’re stuck or falling behind. Mike begins by reading the full passage from the book, then opens it up into reflections on work, art, and life. He shares the unsee...

Episode 15 – The Quiet Victories When you’re not thriving, but you’re still showing up. In this episode, I talk about optimism — not the shiny kind, but the kind that survives. The kind that limps forward when you’re full, tired, and no one’s clapping. I tell the story of a meeting in D.C. that left me gutted — not because of what was said loudly, but because of what was named quietly. I talk abou...

Podcast: Still Here, Still Trying Host: Mike Baker Closing song: “Apologies to the Future” From the book: The Optimist’s Way™ This episode lands a little late. And maybe that’s exactly right. Mike returns from a heavy trip to D.C. with a full heart, a tired mind, and a deep ache for something we’re all losing: our connection to each other. In a time when tension is rising, conversations are hard,...

Episode 13 – Say Yes: The Wild, Risky, Beautiful Things Lucky number 13. Most podcasts don’t even make it this far, but here we are — still here, still trying. This week, I’m talking about the power of saying yes when everything in you wants to say no. I read a passage from my book The Optimist’s Way™ that reminds us life doesn’t wait — we only get one chance to step outside our comfort zones and...

In this episode, Mike reflects on anxiety, the start of school, the Ted Lasso panic attack scene, and a brand-new piece of AI art he created called Even Heroes Feel It. This image is part of a larger series he’s building for a women’s health project later this fall — a collection of powerful visual stories about strength, survival, and connection. 👉 Check out the image here on ⁠Pictorem⁠ A messag...

Episode 11 – The Beer League Goalie Manifesto Fall hockey is back, and so is the chaos of beer league. The sticks are taped, the skates are sharp (for about ten minutes), and the cooler in the locker room is waiting like it’s the Stanley Cup. This episode is a survival guide from the crease — straight from your goalie. The weird one. The one who talks to his posts and willingly straps on fifty pou...