Why I Put My Career on the Line and Started a Podcast

Discover how finding courage and purpose through the Covid years led to a podcast journey. Align with what matters most during uncertain times.

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."

Lao Tzu

There are approximately 3.2 million podcasts in the world and most make no money and have little influence.

So why did I bother starting one?

To be honest, I didn’t know there were 3.2 million podcasts until writing this article.

I might have been taken aback had I known, but I wouldn’t have been daunted.

Though I only launched TruedUp one year ago today, my podcast is an inquiry I began a few years ago when I started observing people putting their values and principles before their personal comfort.

While the media continued (and continues) to present a one-sided and brazenly inaccurate narrative of the Covid story, hundreds and then thousands of doctors, scientists, and others were putting their careers and reputations on the line to tell the truth.

How do I know?

I was one of them.

I never set out to do anything controversial and have no interest in political “sides.”

I had been doing daily health research for years, healing myself from over a decade of chronic fatigue.

I wrote mostly about healing from the inside through journaling and other introspective practices, but I also had access to information about natural immunity and how you build it, and I thought it was my duty during a reported health crisis to share what I was learning.

I had no idea that anything I was finding and sharing would become so contentious.

But of course, like many people around the world, I eventually had to admit that there was something decidedly and intentionally divisive afoot.

Science and health were being weaponized and those who defied the official narrative were attacked — by the government who were supposed to represent us and by the media who were supposed to inform us.

When the Freedom Convoy started rolling across the country, those of us who were standing up for health freedoms were elated.

And then I heard the media reports of right-wing extremists, and naturally found that alarming.

None of the scientists and doctors I followed had ever expressed any indication of being extremist anything.

None of my unvaccinated friends were anti-science, uninformed, racist or extreme by any definition.

Like me, they had done a lot of research and were uncomfortable with the idea of participating in the trial stage of an unproven medical treatment, had natural immunity, or both.

Like me, many were former lefties, abandoned by their “side” and politically adrift.

So I went to Ottawa to be with my fellow fringe Canadians, speaking up for our right to bodily autonomy, our right to work, our right to travel, and our right to protest policies we did not agree with.

Growing up the daughter of an activist, I’d been to many protests in my life.

There was often an element of danger in even the most peaceful protests, a sense that those who enjoy angry displays might start trouble that the majority of attendees did not support.

But the Freedom Convoy wasn’t just peaceful, it was a love-in.

People from across the country and across the political, cultural and religious spectra were joyful, celebrating their first taste of freedom since mandates made the most rudimentary and needed human interactions verboten.

Strangers hugged, exchanged stories, and fell in love.

But this is not what the media reported.

To this day, half the country thinks the Freedom Convoy was a dangerous attempt at insurrection.

What happened on this day in 2022, when the greatest peaceful protest in Canadian history was officially and tragically ended, was a travesty of justice.

But perhaps more concerning is the fact that many Canadians still don’t know what really happened.

And what’s worse, most don’t know the stories of the good men and women who risked everything to stand up for all of us.

This is why I started a podcast.

To bridge the gap created by those who would pit us against each other for their own gain.

To turn our focus from differences to commonality.

And to explore what moves people to tell the truth even when it's unpopular.

Along with what people do, who are they being that has them find the courage of their convictions?

What makes a man put principles before a paycheque?

What has a woman risk relationships in favour of values?

This was the inquiry that started TruedUp.

The people I’ve met who have put themselves on the front lines of the “truth and freedom movement,” as many have come to call it, defying the “acceptable views” of the government and subjecting themselves to public attack and great personal cost, do so because something greater than themselves matters to them.

They are trued up to a purpose.

In these challenging times, we are being given the opportunity to find courage in the face of fear, tell the truth in the face of lies, and to be our greatest selves in the face of a system, a culture, that would rather we just politely comply.

I no longer have my career, but I have built my character.

I have had the privilege of meeting and knowing and learning from people of honour and dignity and purpose.

It is from their willingness to true up to what matters that I find inspiration, as I hope you do.

You can find TruedUp on my Podcast page. on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and Rumble.

Today's season 2 premiere starts with Ray McGinnis, the author of the highly recommended Unjustified: The Freedom Convoy, The Emergencies Act, And The Inquiry That Got It Wrong.

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If you'd like to explore your courage, your values and principles, and tap into your unique inner wisdom, join me for The Power of Journaling.

Starting Saturday, March 1,2025

powerofjournaling.com

Rewrite your story.

Reprogram your mind.

Spaces are limited.

Questions are welcome.

michelle@gatheryourwits.com