Nobody Special

I shoot photos I'll never sell, at 4 a.m., for no money and no reason — and it might be the most valuable thing I do all week.

I make my living behind a camera — and then, on my own time, I drive out before sunrise to make photographs I'll never sell. No clients, no prints, no following. This one's a defense of the hobby you'll never monetize, against the relentless pressure to turn everything you love into a side hustle. Because a thing you're allowed to be mediocre at, that doesn't have to produce anything for anyone, might be one of the last truly free things you've got.

In this episode:

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open: the thing I do for free

00:38 When every hobby became a side hustle

01:26 What photography actually gives me

02:41 The case for the useless thing

03:18 Your assignment: go do the pointless thing you love

Enjoying the show? Follow Nobody Special wherever you're listening, so the next one turns up on its own.

Links:

Connect on Instagram @thenobodyspecialshow

That popular line about being the average of your five closest people? It's wrong — and a little cruel. Here's a better test.

"You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." It's everywhere, it sounds wise, and it's quietly telling you to treat the people you love like a stock portfolio — assets and liabilities, trade up, cut the dead weight. This episode takes it apart, because you are not an average of people, and the ones who actually make your life good are almost never the most impressive in the room. Instead of auditing your friends, try a better question: who would show up?

In this episode:

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open: the quote you've seen a thousand times

00:33 Where "the average of five people" comes from

01:23 Why it isn't true

02:33 The better test: who would actually show up

03:12 Your assignment: text the least impressive person you love

Enjoying the show? Follow Nobody Special wherever you're listening, so the next one turns up on its own.

Links:

[ Connect line — add once decided: email / Instagram / voicemail ]

A cheerful, honest inventory of everything I'm deliberately terrible at — and why that might be the smartest thing I do.

Golf. A clean house. Singing. I'm genuinely, measurably bad at all of them — and I've stopped trying to fix it, on purpose. This is the case for being cheerfully, deliberately mediocre at the things that don't matter, so you've got everything left for the things that do. Plus the one "flaw" the world keeps telling you to fix that might just be the truest part of you.

In this episode:

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open: a confession — the things I'm bad at

00:36 The pressure to be excellent at everything

01:18 The list: golf, a messy house, singing

02:24 The one I won't apologize for

03:13 Your assignment: pick something and just stop

Enjoying the show? Follow Nobody Special wherever you're listening, so the next one turns up on its own.

Links:

Connect on Instagram @thenobodyspecialshow

My dad reached everything the world calls exceptional — then spent months of weekends building a go-kart with me.

My dad played football at NC State, then in the NFL — by every measure the world cares about, he was exceptional. But the most important thing we ever did together happened in a garage, building a go-kart from raw steel that never quite got finished. This one's about ordinary time with the people we love, the patience it takes, and how we so often don't recognize the important stuff until much later. He's gone now — but I didn't tell this story to make you sad. I told it because I think you've got a garage full of afternoons like it too.

In this episode:

Chapters: 00:00 Cold open: a Saturday in the garage, building a go-kart 00:43 Who my dad was — and the part you'd never guess 01:34 The build: raw steel, a welder, months of weekends 02:52 What he was actually building 04:07 He's gone now — and why this isn't a sad story

Enjoying the show? Follow Nobody Special wherever you're listening, so the next one turns up on its own.

Links:

Connect on Instagram at @thenobodyspecialshow

The case for being nobody special — and why that might be the best news you get all week.

Somewhere along the way, "average" stopped being a description and became a verdict. In this first episode, I'm making the case for the opposite — that a good, ordinary, well-lived life isn't a failure state, it's where almost all of us actually live, and always did. It starts on a quiet trail in Isle Royale, staring down my 50th birthday and bracing for a gut punch that never came. No gurus, no morning routines, no "crush it." Just the argument for being nobody special, on purpose.

In this episode:

Chapters: 00:00 Cold open: staring down 50 on a trail in Isle Royale 00:56 How "average" became a verdict 02:00 The math: why chasing "exceptional" is a treadmill 03:25 You're not broken — what this show actually is 04:37 One ask, and a go-kart: next episode

Enjoying the show? Follow Nobody Special wherever you're listening, so the next one turns up on its own.

Links:

Connect on Instagram: @thenobodyspecialshow

Is this it? The job, the house, the ordinary week that looks a lot like last week.

You're supposed to hear that question and panic. This show is the opposite.

Nobody Special is the case for a good, ordinary life — the kind most of us are actually living, out in the wide middle of the bell curve. Not famous. Not falling apart. Just here, and doing okay. Host Chris takes the pressure to be exceptional and lets a little air out of it, about five minutes at a time. No gurus. No morning routines. No "crush it." And to be clear: ordinary isn't lazy — it's about pointing your effort at what actually matters, instead of at a scoreboard that never stops moving.

This is the 90-second version of the whole idea. If it sounds like your life, start here — then follow along.

Follow Nobody Special wherever you're listening, so the first real episode turns up on its own.

Connect on Instagram @thenobodyspecialshow