The Unobstructed Podcast

This episode of The Unobstructed Podcast is about “leveling up” in life by collecting skills and experiences. In this conversation, Caleb framed skill-building like role-playing. Once upon a time, he was a football player. Then he found theater. He still carries lessons he learned from both, but says he’s come to look at the chapters of his life as time invested in playing a role. That’s also the...

This episode of The Unobstructed Podcast is about rediscovering joy. It's a topic that friend of the pod, Caleb Walker, brought up recently. Specifically, he’s seeing an uptick in a trend called “kidulting,” where people are returning to hobbies they loved and found joy in as kids, but that they’ve left behind in adulthood. We both come from a background in marketing where, by day, we’re forced to...

This episode of The Unobstructed Podcast is about getting out of your own way—about being caught between shame, fear, and the path to finally feeling clear. The same week I got sober I also started a new job, went through a breakup, and moved across the country. That was almost four and a half years ago. All of that kinda, sorta, really, definitely sucked… but it was also one of the biggest (and m...

This episode of The Unobstructed Podcast is about trade-offs. Caleb Walker and I recently chatted about the pitfalls of polished social media profiles (he's the Managing Director of Digital Strategy for an agency). Part of that conversation touched on how our digital presence can impact job opportunities. We felt there was more to talk about, so we got together to keep digging. This time, we wante...

This episode of The Unobstructed Podcast is a personal reflection from Derek MacDonald on self-discovery, communication, and personal growth. I get into my self-inflicted social isolation as well as my changed relationship with the outdoors. I used to be very active… and I’m not anymore. Before my traumatic brain injury, I worked, lived, and socialized in the world of outdoor sports. Then, after t...

In this episode of The Unobstructed Podcast, Caleb Walker and I chat about the crotchety complexities of social media. Specifically, with regard to personal identity. His perspective was especially interesting, given his close-knit relationship with social media as the Managing Director of Digital Strategy at his agency. This conversation hit home for me, as I’ve often found myself wrestling with...

Listen in on conversations about navigating daily life with more agency and clarity. Sometimes, a new way of seeing things is all it takes to get unstuck. New episodes every month. About the hosts: Derek MacDonald — writer and systems consultant who likes building websites, running, and getting lost in a good book with a strong cup of coffee. You can learn more about Derek, his writing, and his li...

In this episode of The Unobstructed Podcast , Derek and Rachael have an important conversation about mental health and substance abuse. More specifically, we talk openly about the stigma surrounding suicide and addiction. This episode is about creating empathy, understanding, and support for those struggling, with ways of recognizing and responding to mental health crises. If you or someone you kn...

In this episode of The Unobstructed Podcast , Rachael and Derek talk about how words like "whatever" and "sorry" impact relationships. The conversation looks closely at the role of gender and societal expectations on our communication styles. But the biggest thing that comes up is the discussion about taking up space and setting personal boundaries. *** The Unobstructed Podcast: Listen in on big t...

In this episode of The Unobstructed Podcast , Rachael and Derek chit chat about the cultural imbalance of personal and professional lives. The big question: can we cool it with the rush to add more just because we can? We do this thing where we feel the need to pretend we’re keeping up—even on normal days, where things go somewhat according to plan. Why do we do that, anyway? And wasn’t AI suppose...

This episode dives deep into emotional vulnerability, the societal expectations of masculinity, and how suppressing ourselves impacts our personal and professional lives. The conversation explores the challenges of expressing emotions, particularly for men, and the cultural norms that discourage vulnerability. It also touches on the importance of emotional intelligence, the need for authenticity i...

In our latest episode of the Unobstructed Podcast, we dive into the relationship between time management, productivity, and personal identity. If you only ever try to fix what you’re bad at, you might get better over time… but when you focus on what you’re already good at, you’ll make a lot more progress now. Understanding your character leads to better time management—and a more fulfilling life....

Instead of living the lives we want, we end up doing what we think we should. In this episode of the Unobstructed Podcast , Derek and Rachael dive into the power of overcoming the limits you give yourself. And then break down the idea of embracing the “why not?” mindset. Most of the limits we run into in life are ones that we place on ourselves. We become so sure about how the world works that we...

In this episode of the Unobstructed Podcast, hosts Derek and Rachael take a nostalgic journey back to their childhood dreams and explore how those early aspirations have influenced their career paths. Rachael shares her story of wanting to become a lawyer, shaped by her role as the eldest sibling and her natural talent for debate. Meanwhile, Derek reflects on his love for acting and performance, i...

I knew unsubscribes and lost clients would come with sharing more of my true self online. But it was a necessary step toward removing the many masks I’d picked up and glued onto myself over the years. Like many kids trying to blend in who grow into adults that feel left out. And let’s be clear… I’m not talking about fraud, here. I’m talking about diverting attention from things like: my sobriety,...

The difference between trying to be funny and opting to be vulnerable is a super fine line. And humor is a defense mechanism at its core. In this episode, Rachael and I talk about the improv rule of “yes, and.” In improv, “yes, and” is a way to expand a scene and make things more fun for the audience. In the workplace, it’s a tool for listening, growing, and co-creating without getting defensive....

Friction is the best teacher we’ll ever have, but the hardest to accept. It acts like a mirror. And our level of growth depends on our willingness to look at our own reflection. The Let Them Theory certainly helps to reframe how you can approach the unknown—specifically with empowered decision-making. Where it falls short is in accountability. This is the “Let Me” part of the theory, where you can...

It’s not your responsibility to manage how others perceive you. Most people won’t realize how much you filter yourself. At least, I’d hoped they wouldn’t. And it worked for a while. They might not always notice when you swap out your words mid sentence. Or when you redirect conversations away from personal details. But they will when you do it all the time. Even if it comes from a good place, like...

There’s a kind of exhaustion that comes from pretending to show up. You post because you’re “supposed to.” You rearrange your words to be seen a certain way. You aim for engagement, but not connection. But if you stop, your career suffers. People want a stamp of approval before they make a decision about you. And we’ve all collectively, stupidly, agreed to hawk our ideas to the highest bidder in e...

Before I ever made a dollar as a solopreneur, I’d spent hundreds and hundreds of hours breaking things in tech tool settings. No, not on purpose? Ok, that’s not entirely true… I definitely do like to take stuff apart to see how it works. And to test something I know won’t work, just to verify exactly what’ll happen when it fails. But this time was an accident, I pinky promise!! In this episode, Ra...

It started with building a simple spreadsheet. It wasn’t fancy or complicated (ok, that’s not entirely true. But it doesn’t need to be… I just had fun building it that way). Truly I just wanted a way to gamify my way out of depression. What I discovered was that I almost always reported feeling great on the days I’d expect to feel terrible—huh? And the thing that surprised me most? I actually beca...

This is Part 3 of our conversation on sobriety in the workplace. Sober-curious conversations don’t always take place with bold bravado. Actually, I can say with a lot of confidence that they don’t. Often, they start quietly… through a throwaway comment. Or a casual text. Maybe an unassuming DM. Because I don’t know that I’d have gotten and stayed sober if I hadn’t read these two pieces of writing...

This is Part 2 of our conversation on sobriety in the workplace. Sometimes staying sober means saying no to the invite. This one’s not about quitting so much as it’s about the stuff that happens once you do. Like, after you’ve made a decision to stop drinking… but people keep asking why. We talk about the new realities of sobriety and work life: from happy hour and ordering dinner to wondering if...

You might not recognize your rock bottom until later. Sometimes you know quick. But other times, it’s a quiet realization. One that unfolds slower, like pulling the bandaid instead of ripping it off. And we wanted to talk about that. The parts of getting sober that don’t have a manual. No, this isn’t an AA meeting. We’re not sharing inventories or waxing poetic about the ways we’ve done wrong. We’...

You don’t need to be more intuitive, you need to stop ignoring the intuition you already have. At least, that’s what Rachael and I uncovered in this episode. We talked about the very real gap that appears between when your gut speaks up and when you actually listen to it. When someone’s tone doesn’t match their words, your nervous system knows before your brain does. *** The Unobstructed Podcast:...