Confessions of a Gen-X Mind

George Ten Eyck
  • 5.0 (1)
  • MENTAL HEALTH

A podcast about life, love, work, and the strange trip of growing up in the weirdest generation alive. Gen-X kids were raised on contradictions. And some of us lived to tell the tales. Confessions of a Gen-X Mind is my attempt to make sense of the stories, traumas, cultural whiplash, and dark comedy that shaped my life. I grew up rich-adjacent in Texas, transplanted from Detroit, surrounded by pious fraudsters, land-flipping schemes, bankruptcies, private planes, jet skis, and family drama that could’ve made an entire season of Dallas look understated. We were latchkey philosophers who worshipped Ferris Bueller, Marty McFly, Run-DMC, Metallica, and MTV as our holy texts. We grew up in the shadow of Reaganomics, the War on Drugs, “Just Say No,” moral panics, and ozone holes.  We were told to follow the rules by adults who were breaking every single one behind the scenes. Some of us had BMX bikes. Some of us had skateboards.Some of us had uncles who preached Jesus on Sunday and ripped off the federal government on Monday.   I had… all three. Now I’m a grown man, a voice actor, a creative, and an ADHD Gen-X survivor with a front-row seat to the collapse of institutions, families, and the myth of the “Good Christian Businessman.” If you were shaped by skate videos, mixtapes, Sunday school guilt, and the sound of a modem connecting…  If you ever felt like the adults were making things up as they went along…  If you’ve lived enough life to finally tell the truth about it… Welcome home. Pull up a chair.  Grab your Walkman.  And let’s dive into the confessions.

  1. The Holidays After You See the Masks: Family, Mental Health, and the Labels We Inherit

    1D AGO

    The Holidays After You See the Masks: Family, Mental Health, and the Labels We Inherit

    Send us a text *updated 12/24*  What happens when you finally see the emotional patterns you grew up inside? In this episode, I reflect on family, holidays, and the quiet shift that happens once you gain the language to understand your own history. Through personal observation and late-life clarity, I explore how my parents’ generation understood mental health, how stigma shaped family narratives, and how certain diagnoses became convenient explanations rather than curious questions. I talk about sibling dynamics, inherited assumptions, and what it felt like to be labeled instead of understood. This is not an accusation or a diagnosis of anyone else. It’s one person’s account of growing up, unlearning old stories, and finding peace without pretending everything was fine. *This episode includes discussion of mental health stigma, misdiagnosis, involuntary psychiatric custody, substance use, overdose, and family conflict. Listener discretion is advised, especially for those with lived experience around mental health crises or family trauma.

    14 min
  2. Energy Independence Is a Myth: Fracking, Landmen, and the Global Price of Oil

    2D AGO

    Energy Independence Is a Myth: Fracking, Landmen, and the Global Price of Oil

    Send us a text For more than fifty years, Americans have been told that energy independence is just around the corner. Drill more. Import less. Problem solved. But the truth is more complicated. In this episode of Confessions of a Gen-X Mind, I take a clear-eyed look at where the idea of “energy independence” came from, why it keeps getting recycled, and why it has never fully matched reality. We start in the 1970s with the OPEC oil embargo and the gas lines that reshaped American life. We move through Nixon’s promises, Carter’s solar panels, Reagan’s reversals, and into the fracking boom that turned places like North Texas into ground zero for America’s latest energy gamble. Along the way, we unpack what shows like Landman get right and what they conveniently gloss over. Yes, wind turbines require petroleum to build. Yes, fossil fuels still underpin modern life. But finite resources are still finite, no matter how you vote or what cable channel you watch. We also talk about geopolitics. Why oil prices are global, no matter how much we drill at home. Why the United States still imports heavy crude while exporting the lighter crude we produce. And why recent U.S. actions toward Venezuela have far more to do with oil than with the long-failed war on drugs. This isn’t an episode about ideology. It’s about logistics, history, and math. Sources and influences referenced in this episode include: NPR reporting and historical coverage of the 1973–74 OPEC oil embargoCommentary and analysis from energy expert Amy Myers Jaffe of NYUSaudi America by journalist Bethany McLeanMarketplace Morning Report interviews on fracking, shale economics, and energy marketsLong-term environmental and economic discussions from college-level environmental science courseworkFirsthand experience living in North Texas during the Barnett Shale fracking boomEnergy independence makes for a great slogan. But slogans don’t power cars, stabilize prices, or plan for the future. Context does.

    8 min
  3. A Chevy Citation, a Cow, and the Texas Rangers

    3D AGO

    A Chevy Citation, a Cow, and the Texas Rangers

    Send us a text Confessions of a Gen-X Mind switches gears a little in this episode. No corporate collapses. No white-collar fraud. No deep dives into childhood trauma. Just a summer night in 1985, a Texas Rangers game at old Arlington Stadium, and a ten-year-old kid who needed the world to slow down for nine innings.   After a long week that included late-night construction cleanup with my mom, a battered Chevy Citation, and a close call on a dark country road, a night at the ballpark became something more than entertainment. It became relief. Order. Calm.  With Charlie Hough on the mound, legends like Buddy Bell and Oddibe McDowell on the field, and an unforgettable moment involving two Major League game balls, this episode is about the small, human moments that stick with us. It’s a story about work ethic, quiet resilience, and how sometimes the most meaningful memories aren’t dramatic at all. Just a good night for baseball.

    7 min
  4. From NWA to CNN: When Justice, Fear, and Identity Went Live

    DEC 17

    From NWA to CNN: When Justice, Fear, and Identity Went Live

    Send us a text I’m Gen X. Which means I didn’t grow up reading about history. I watched it happen live. On CNN. On Channel One. In classrooms where world events interrupted algebra, and cable news ran nonstop in the background of our lives. At the same time, I was learning journalism. The difference between fact and opinion. Why sources matter. Why a free press, trusted expertise, and respect for evidence are essential to a healthy democracy. Growing up in suburban Texas while listening to NWA and watching CNN, I learned early that power doesn’t treat everyone the same, that justice is often negotiable, and that identity and fear can override facts if you know how to activate them. This episode traces a Gen X media memory arc through Rodney King, Waco, Ruby Ridge, the Oklahoma City bombing, the OJ trial, 9 11, and the collapse of information gatekeepers that once separated reporting from rumor. It’s a radio essay about watching history unfold in real time, the fine line between healthy skepticism and conspiracy thinking, and what happens when shared truth disappears. This is not a hot take.  It’s a witness statement.

    13 min
  5. The Ticket, Why Radio Guys Still Do It, and That Time Psycho Dave Got Stabbed in the Back (metaphorically)

    DEC 16 · BONUS

    The Ticket, Why Radio Guys Still Do It, and That Time Psycho Dave Got Stabbed in the Back (metaphorically)

    Send us a text If you’ve ever worked in media, broadcast, production, or any industry that quietly automated itself out from under its own workforce, this one will feel very familiar. This episode is a re-visit of a long, candid conversation I recorded years ago with my old radio pal, Psycho Dave Martin. It’s an unfiltered look at what it was really like working behind the scenes in radio as the industry shrank, automated, and quietly pushed people out. We talk about remote gigs, bruised egos, thin skins, and the strange hierarchy of personalities that defined local radio in the early 2000s. We swap stories about hosts, engineers, board ops, promotions, and the moments that stuck with us long after the microphones were turned off. But this isn’t just nostalgia. It’s about survival. Dave talks openly about getting laid off, starting over, clinging to stability in a collapsing industry, and learning automation systems just to stay employable. We dig into the reality of radio becoming less of a career and more of a calling, something closer to community theater than a sustainable profession for most people. We also talk about why people stay anyway. The validation. The love of operations. The satisfaction of making the signal go out clean. The strange joy of being close to broadcasters you respect, even when the money, security, and future prospects aren’t great. This episode pairs naturally with The Death of Gatekeepers and serves as a ground-level companion piece. Not from executives or on-air stars, but from the people who actually made radio work.

    10 min
  6. The Death of Gatekeepers: A Media Origin Story from MTV to Algorithms

    DEC 16

    The Death of Gatekeepers: A Media Origin Story from MTV to Algorithms

    Send us a text This episode is my media origin story. I grew up in an analog world where music and media still had gatekeepers. MTV broke artists. Radio decided what you heard. Recording studios were expensive, and working in media was a profession you trained for, studied, and slowly earned your way into. Then everything changed. In this episode of Confessions of a Gen-X Mind, I trace my path from high school journalism and tech theater, to radio, to early streaming at Yahoo, and into today’s algorithm-driven creator economy. Along the way, I unpack how payola, label influence, and MTV placements shaped the music business long before Napster blew the doors off. I talk about being an early Napster adopter, watching Lars Ulrich testify before Congress, and realizing that the old business models were never coming back. I also get personal about why I was drawn to media in the first place. ADHD, external validation, the pull of the spotlight, and the slow realization that fame is a terrible life goal. Democratized tools made it possible for anyone to create, which was both a gift and a curse. The barrier to entry vanished, but the noise exploded. This episode is about adaptation. About growing up analog, surviving the collapse of traditional media, and learning how to create with intention in a world where everyone has a camera, a platform, and an opinion. Not to romanticize the past.  To understand it.

    11 min
  7. So What’s It All About? Introducing Confessions of a Gen-X Mind

    SEASON 1, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

    So What’s It All About? Introducing Confessions of a Gen-X Mind

    Send us a text Confessions of a Gen-X Mind is a podcast about childhood, culture, media, music, and technology and how all of it shaped the people we became. In this trailer, host George Ten Eyck introduces the perspective behind the show. He looks back at growing up Gen X, learning to adapt without instructions, and spending decades working inside media systems during massive cultural and technological change. From early exposure to computers and the internet to a career in radio, live broadcasting, and streaming media, George traces how curiosity, creativity, and late-in-life diagnoses of autism and ADHD helped reframe his personal and professional story. This podcast is not about romanticizing the past. It’s about understanding it. About finding language for experiences many Gen Xers learned to carry quietly. And about making sense of how media, music, technology, and identity intersect over time. If you’ve ever felt like you were expected to figure things out on your own, this podcast is for you.

    3 min
  8. ER and The Sound You Never Want to Hear Twice, A Real-Life Pitt Episode

    DEC 11 · BONUS

    ER and The Sound You Never Want to Hear Twice, A Real-Life Pitt Episode

    Send us a text At five o’clock on a Sunday morning, I woke up to a sound I never wanted to hear again. A wet, rattling breath that signaled real trouble and sent us rushing to the ER. What followed felt like living inside a real life episode of The Pitt. This episode tells the story of that morning, the chaos of the emergency room, and the calm that took over when panic would have made things worse. It is also about advocacy and how sharing the full story can change a diagnosis. A lifelong heart condition finally came into focus, and everything made sense. A Gen X reflection on fear, clarity, and the sound you never want to hear twice.

    6 min
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About

A podcast about life, love, work, and the strange trip of growing up in the weirdest generation alive. Gen-X kids were raised on contradictions. And some of us lived to tell the tales. Confessions of a Gen-X Mind is my attempt to make sense of the stories, traumas, cultural whiplash, and dark comedy that shaped my life. I grew up rich-adjacent in Texas, transplanted from Detroit, surrounded by pious fraudsters, land-flipping schemes, bankruptcies, private planes, jet skis, and family drama that could’ve made an entire season of Dallas look understated. We were latchkey philosophers who worshipped Ferris Bueller, Marty McFly, Run-DMC, Metallica, and MTV as our holy texts. We grew up in the shadow of Reaganomics, the War on Drugs, “Just Say No,” moral panics, and ozone holes.  We were told to follow the rules by adults who were breaking every single one behind the scenes. Some of us had BMX bikes. Some of us had skateboards.Some of us had uncles who preached Jesus on Sunday and ripped off the federal government on Monday.   I had… all three. Now I’m a grown man, a voice actor, a creative, and an ADHD Gen-X survivor with a front-row seat to the collapse of institutions, families, and the myth of the “Good Christian Businessman.” If you were shaped by skate videos, mixtapes, Sunday school guilt, and the sound of a modem connecting…  If you ever felt like the adults were making things up as they went along…  If you’ve lived enough life to finally tell the truth about it… Welcome home. Pull up a chair.  Grab your Walkman.  And let’s dive into the confessions.

Information

  • Creator
    George Ten Eyck
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Confessions of a Gen-X Mind
  • Show Website
    Confessions of a Gen-X Mind