Today we’d like to introduce you to Grace Marino.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I haven’t always loved listening to podcasts, but I’ve always known I wanted to start one. That may seem contradictory– and it is– but even at a young age, I knew I wanted to speak in front of others. What I thought that would look like is a public speaking career. That is until I realized that a podcast is like public speaking to EVERYONE. Or, at least, everyone has the potential to listen to me speak. My only problem was that I didn’t have a story to tell.
Sometime last year, I got into the rabbit hole of Anti-MLM videos on YouTube. One of my favorite YouTubers, CCSaurez, had started a podcast discussing cults. Around the same time, I had also discovered the “Sounds Like a Cult” podcast. Chelsea (CCSuarez) put out a few episodes on Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the women at the “Sounds Like a Cult” podcast had done episodes on youth groups, Hell Houses, and church camps to name a few. Hearing those episodes, it clicked for me. Some religions are very cult-like, and I had been in one.
I finally had my story to tell. But I knew I didn’t want to be like some of my favorite YouTubers of the past and simply call out the harmful rhetoric of Christian content creators. I still, through all the trauma I’ve faced at the hands of the church, label myself a Christian and wanted an outlet to express the pain I’d been caused. Now I’m sharing stories of not just my pain but the experiences of hurt in the Christian Church nationwide.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been easy.
Of course, there are the struggles that come with starting up any endeavor; finding equipment, figuring out how to use it, learning to use social media to gain a following, and (my biggest struggle) fitting it into my current hectic schedule. As a wife and mom to a 12-month-old, who has a full-time day job and owns her own interior design business on the side, that’s all definitely had its unique challenges, but my biggest burden has been mental.
Reliving my own story, or learning the similarities in the stories of others, has triggered some of my trauma responses. Since 2018 I have been in therapy for by bipolar disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, but I received a diagnosis I didn’t expect: Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD). It stems from multiple ‘little t’ traumas and not one ‘big T’ catastrophic event.
Unraveling the traumas of my past, both personally and within the church, has presented the need for more trauma work in therapy and learning to be kinder to myself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I think what is unique about my podcast is that it is giving normal, regular people their voice. We aren’t just interviewing celebrities, leaders in their field, or notable people. I know firsthand what it’s like to wish desperately that your voice would be heard. Since no one was giving me a microphone before, I decided to be that person.
There is beauty in sharing personal stories with others, a humanity in laughing with someone’s triumphs, and crying with them over their tribulations. While there is nothing inherently unique about a podcast, the stories (and the people who tell them) always will be.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
We didn’t operate during Covid-19, and our interviews are done through Zoom based on the distance of our guests.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drinkanddeconstructpod/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/35dl4F54kTzheIGjAG4O2v?si=40d4133c4ecd4cc0
Image Credits
April Graber Photography
