Surviving-ISH Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Let’s be honest: life is rarely clean, perfect, or entirely figured out. Most of the time, we’re all just surviving the "ish"—the messy, chaotic, uncertain gray areas of being human. 🤷‍♂️ In this episode of Surviving Ish, host David is joined by author, teacher, and Air Force veteran Shawn Helgerson to talk about what happens when the rigid, black-and-white rules we&apo...

Send us Fan Mail When Andrea Leeb finally spoke the truth about her childhood, her mother’s physical reaction was so intense it defied medical explanation. What followed was decades of denial, a secret that nearly broke her, and a reckoning that changed everything. 👇 Subscribe to Surviving-ISH for more raw, unfiltered stories of survival: [Insert Link] ABOUT THIS EPISODE: In this gripping episode...

Send us Fan Mail Ever received a single “K” text and immediately felt the passive-aggressive wrath? Or had your spellcheck completely ruin your life by changing it to an “L”? In this wildly unfiltered episode of Surviving-ish , we are jumping from hilarious everyday frustrations straight into some of the heaviest realities facing our world today. Joining the conversation is Dee from the incredible...

Send us Fan Mail I used to have ABSOLUTELY ZERO empathy for the MAGA movement. As a gay man living in a deep-red Southern state and a survivor of a brutal hate crime, my anger wasn’t just justified—it was a survival mechanism. But recently, everything shifted. In this raw, unfiltered mini-episode of Surviving Politics-ish , I'm stepping back from the terrifying realities of #Project2025 to lo...

Send us Fan Mail Ever get that chilling feeling that you’ve already lived this exact day? This week, David talks with Jenny Smith, the host of Unholier Podcast, and drops a bombshell about a recurring vision of his own death that has us questioning reality. Are we trapped in a looping timeline, or did David just unlock a memory from a past life? 👁️👁️ We start off normal—laughing about aging, David...

Send us Fan Mail SHE ALMOST DIDN’T MAKE IT OUT… 💔 (Mariel's Story) In this episode of Surviving-ish , we are sitting down with the incredibly brave Mariel, who opens up about a journey that will leave you absolutely speechless. From surviving the dark reality of the troubled teen industry to escaping a highly abusive relationship ruled by coercive control, Mariel’s story is a masterclass in...

Send us Fan Mail The host frames the episode as a non-expert, trauma-informed attempt to understand politics and then argues that by May 2026 Project 2025 has become the governing blueprint, despite Donald Trump publicly claiming in 2024 he didn’t know its authors. They describe Project 2025 as a roughly 900-page Heritage Foundation “mandate for leadership” written by many Trump-aligned former off...

Send us Fan Mail Is the comedy industry FINALLY fixing its "bro" problem? 🚨 In this episode of Surviving Ish , David sits down with the legendary Lynn Harris—journalist, comedian, and founder of Gold Comedy—to expose the toxic "bro vibe" dominating stand-up and how she’s completely flipping the script for women and non-binary creators. But first... we're talking full-blow...

Send us Fan Mail Are you avoiding this one conversation that could completely shatter your family? 🛑 In this emotional and eye-opening episode of Surviving-ish , we sit down with Jermaine Ee, a tech founder who built a groundbreaking app after a devastating personal loss. Now, he’s calling us ALL out for our biggest, most dangerous habit: completely avoiding our wills. If you think you’re "t...

Send us Fan Mail Navigating Trauma, Dating, and the Gay Agenda 🤪 | Surviving-ISH Welcome back to Surviving-ISH ! In today’s episode, David sits down with the incredible A (you might recognize them from TikTok or their appearance on the Un Holier podcast) for a conversation that is as raw as it is necessary. We’re diving deep into the messy, beautiful, and often exhausting reality of navigating li...

Send us Fan Mail Is the 47th President acting a little... thirsty?" ☕️ In this episode of Surviving Politics-ISH , we’re diving into the "Alpha" closet to see why the door is hanging off the hinges. We’ve heard the GOP scream about "traditional values" for years, but the math is not mathing. From bizarre "performance art" with a microphone in Milwaukee to 12-min...

Send us Fan Mail Are you just "getting by" or are you actually living? 🌪️ In this episode of Surviving-ish , we sit down with TikTok’s favorite trauma-informed coach, Lauren Tobey , to pull back the curtain on why modern life feels so heavy. If you’ve ever felt guilty for being stressed when "nothing is wrong," or if you're a "high-functioning" pro at masking you...

Send us Fan Mail The episode argues that ICE’s rapid push to hire 10,000 agents is turning the agency into a “new normal” built on underqualified, poorly vetted recruits, while the advertised $50,000 sign-on bonus is largely illusory—partly limited to former employees, tied to narrow application windows, and paid out in small increments over years after taxes. It describes recruits in early 2026 w...

Send us Fan Mail Is the "strong leader" image we see actually a mask for a deeper struggle? After a brief hiatus to get his voice back, the host is back for a powerful new "Politics-ISH" mini-episode. He’s addressing the whispers—literally—and diving straight into a listener email that is currently blowing minds. In this episode, he reads a raw, anonymous letter from a granddau...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever wondered how seemingly normal people end up trapped in extreme religious groups or following a charismatic leader? It’s not about a lack of intelligence—it’s about a calculated psychological trap. In this powerful crossover episode of Surviving-ish , I’m joined by Jenny from Unholier and psychiatrist Dr. Sandra Cox to deconstruct the terrifying mechanics of religious...

Send us Fan Mail Is it courage or cruelty to let someone lead while they’re fading away?" In today’s episode, we aren’t just looking at the headlines; we’re looking at the biological baseline. I’m sharing a deeply personal story about a listener's  grandfather—a man she loved, whose mind eventually gave way to the "word salads" and unprovoked anger that many of us recognize all...

Send us Fan Mail "I’m just a guy with a microphone... and today, that microphone is picking up the sound of my soul leaving my body." Welcome back to Surviving Politics-ISH. In today’s episode, David Keck dives into the chaotic "musical chairs" happening within the administration. We’re breaking down the sudden exit of Kristi Noem from the DHS and her "exile" to the n...

Send us Fan Mail Surviving HOA Drama and Reinventing Lives in Florida | Featuring Schmitty and Jenny Join David, Jenny, and newcomer Ryan, aka Smitty, in this lively and unfiltered episode of Surviving Ish. They dive deep into HOA dramas, the struggles of relocating from Michigan to Florida, and the hilarious hiccups of everyday life. From debates about custom license plates to the uniqueness of c...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Surviving Politics-ISH , the host calls out the repeated hypocrisy of anti-LGBTQ+ “traditional values” politicians and attendees who publicly push laws to keep gay people in the shadows while privately flooding Grindr at major conservative events. He describes reports of Grindr outages and spikes in blank “discreet” profiles during the Republican National Conven...

Send us Fan Mail In the first solo politics episode of Surviving Ish, host David Keck shares how he once felt detached from elections but says Donald Trump and the MAGA movement changed that, which he frames as a moral crisis rather than normal politics. He compares MAGA to the biblical golden calf story, describing it as cult-like worship that has led to rights being threatened and changed. David...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Surviving ish (political edition), the host stresses that party loyalty doesn’t matter when it comes to sexual assault allegations, saying the platform believes and stands with victims regardless of whether the accused is Republican or Democrat. They review a rapid timeline of accusations against Eric Swalwell: a San Francisco Chronicle report on April 10, 2026...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Surviving-ish ! In this episode, we dive deep into the intersection of legal advocacy and mental health with the incredible Paula Yost Paula isn't just a high-level trademark attorney; she is also a licensed clinical mental health clinician, a foster/adoptive parent, and a powerful advocate for trauma-informed practices within the legal system. We start things off...

Send us Fan Mail How does a person vanish from a massive cruise ship in the middle of the ocean without a single witness? In this special crossover episode, we’re heading over to the Speculating Wildly About Crime (SWAC) studio. Join Jamie, Kristy, and David to dive deep into one of the most unsettling maritime mysteries in history: The disappearance of Merrian Carver. In 2004, Merrian booked a la...

Send us Fan Mail On Surviving Ish, host David talks with Julie Cruse, creator of AcademicAbuse.com and author of the memoir The Burn List, about how a hostile university workplace exit in 2023 and a long COVID recovery led her to write 180,000 words and uncover a through line of abuse from home to higher education. Julie explains building AcademicAbuse.com as a searchable dashboard aggregating glo...

Send us Fan Mail Chris Carazas shares how growing up across South America, Africa, and Europe as a “third culture kid” left him socially awkward until an autism diagnosis at 35 finally gave clarity—and then became a doorway to escalating psychological abuse from his mother-in-law and then-wife, including daily suicide encouragement that led to two attempts. After getting treatment with the support...