II am blessed to have a really tight group of friends. We spend a lot of time together—whether it's an informal hang at one of our homes or traveling, both inside and outside of the U.S. These people keep me sane—and I truly mean that. Over the years, the group has naturally filtered down and, for whatever reason, has become as close as any family I’ve ever had. We truly enjoy each other’s company. And we laugh. We laugh a lot.
There were many nights when we’d be sitting around a backyard fire pit or lounging on a deck, sipping cocktails and telling stories late into the evening. Somewhere along the way, somebody—I can’t remember who—said that we should start a podcast. “We” being the boys, that is, the husbands. At first, it was just a funny thing to say. A podcast? Yeah, right. For one thing, could we actually do that? And for another, why would we?
Many nights went by where someone would remark, “See? This could’ve been the podcast!” It was always funny to hear, especially since it had no grounding in reality.
That is—until it did.
There were five main culprits: myself, Mark Robbins, Elliot Lent, Bill Walsh, and Rich Silverman. Along with our wives, this group settled in as the “core” group of friends. There are certainly others we consider part of our social environment, and there was never any plan or procedure for how this group of ten came together. It was just one of those things. And at almost every gathering, someone would bring up “the podcast.” But it didn’t seem like something that would actually happen. In fact, I’m pretty sure a few of us—especially when it started seeming like it might actually happen—thought, What? Why?
In full disclosure, I didn’t see it really happening. Funny idea, sure. But to actually do it? So I was surprised when it began to look like we really would be doing it. First, there were the questions: What would we need to make it happen? Microphones. Some sort of recording device. A place to do it. A concept. A plan.
And then, all of a sudden—there it was.
We got the equipment. We came up with an outline for the format. We came up with a name: The Disciples of Experience. We set up the gear. We hit record and we talked—pretty much the same way we had on all those nights when we’d say, “This could’ve been the podcast.” Only this time, it was the podcast. We did a test run, I took it home and did the editing. We made fake commercials. We listened and laughed. We had our wives listen—and they laughed, too.
We had a podcast.
The concept and the format came together amazingly fast. And it feels pretty solid. I did some logo art. We signed up with a podcast distribution platform. After recording three shows, we launched. We’re on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRadio—you know, wherever you listen to podcasts.
It’s a lot of fun. We have no agenda, no goals, no expectations. Just a lot of laughs.
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