Still Here, Still Trying: Real Stories About Keeping Going

Mike Baker (MikeBakerHQ) — Human First
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Mental Health

Real life stories about keeping going when life gets heavy. Still Here, Still Trying is hosted by Mike Baker — husband, dad, healthcare CEO, musician, and author of the Human First series — and built on honest conversations about mental health, grief, family, faith, and leadership, plus original music and the things people don't usually say out loud. No news, no politics. If you're trying to make sense of life while still moving forward, you're in the right place. 🎙️ New episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere you listen.🎵 Music, writing, art, and more at mikebakerhq.com Still here. Still trying.

  1. 6d ago ·  Video

    S2 E21 | Behind the Mask: The Things We Don't Say

    Send us Fan Mail S2 E21 | Behind the Mask: The Things We Don't Say Still Here, Still Trying with Mike Baker | 26:14 "I'm fine." Two words men say every day. Sometimes they're true. Sometimes they're hiding a whole lot of pain. November is Movember, a month dedicated to men's health, and this week we're having a conversation that matters. I spend a lot of time advocating for women's health, but men's health deserves that same attention, especially when it comes to mental health, depression, and suicide. As a hockey goalie, I've spent years wearing a mask. I've also learned that the masks we wear in everyday life are sometimes a lot harder to take off. In this episode, I share personal stories, including an experience at one of my art shows where men opened up about struggles they'd been carrying quietly. We talk about the pressure to appear strong, why asking for help is difficult, and the importance of looking out for each other. I also share the story behind my EP, *A Song Nobody Hears*, a deeply personal collection born during a time when I was struggling with the feeling that nobody was listening. Music helped me express things I struggled to say out loud. There's humor, a little hockey, and plenty of honesty. We also talk openly about suicide and why reaching out matters. If you're carrying something alone, I hope you'll listen. And if you love someone who always says they're fine, perhaps this episode will help you start a conversation. You deserve to be heard. You deserve support. You don't have to figure everything out alone. ## MOVEMBER Learn about men's mental health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer through the global Movember movement. https://movember.com ## LISTEN TO THE MUSIC *A Song Nobody Hears | Mike Baker Music* Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6iwaZMQN0EAmp5ombu2q95?si=yuQEf3DlRKWIAq49bsHemQ Read the story behind the EP: https://www.mikebakerhq.com/a-song-nobody-hears/ ## MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline If you're struggling, experiencing thoughts of suicide, or worried about someone you love, call or text 988 in the United States. Free, confidential support is available 24/7. You do not have to be suicidal to reach out. https://988lifeline.org For immediate life-threatening emergencies, call 911. OUR SPONSORS Shaka Electric Owned by my son Jacob, serving North Idaho with residential and commercial electrical services, repairs, lighting, and remodeling. https://shakaelectricco.com Renewed Strength Pilates My wife Kellie's Pilates studio in Post Falls, Idaho, offering private sessions, personalized instruction, and small-group classes to help you build strength and improve mobility. https://renewedstrengthpilates.com Helping Hands by Sam My daughter Sammie helps with errands, grocery shopping, returns, dog sitting, and everyday tasks that make life easier. https://www.instagram.com/helpinghandsbysam/ STAY CONNECTED Explore my books, music, art, and advocacy: https://mikebakerhq.com Thanks for listening. Please check in on the people you care about. Sometimes the people who seem fine need that conversation the most. Mike Support the show Thanks for listening to Still Here, Still Trying. If this episode gave you something to think about, please like, follow, subscribe, and share it with three people who could use it in their lives. You can find more of my work — music, writing, art, and reflections — at: 🌐 mikebakerhq.com Grab a copy of my book, The Optimist’s Way: 📚 https://a.co/d/4RqPS6g Thanks for being here. Still here. Still trying. Support the Podcast Here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2516381/support

    S2 E21 | Behind the Mask: The Things We Don't Say

  2. Oct 21 ·  Video

    Fifty Thousand People in My Head

    Send us Fan Mail Season 2 Episode 20: Fifty Thousand People in My Head I’ve now made two live albums for concerts that never actually happened. Somehow, fifty thousand people still showed up in my head. People ask about my creative process and the why behind the things I make. In this episode, I talk about Live From My Head and my new imaginary concert album, the family stories that become songs, the nonsense I make just because it makes me laugh, and the distance between the music I can imagine and what I can play on a guitar. Mira has a few observations about my imaginary touring career. I talk about the production tools that help me build the music—and why making finished songs has made me want to practice more. It’s a conversation about loving your people, trying things before you’re good at them, and letting yourself have some fun along the way. Show notesIn this episode: ·       Two live albums and no actual concerts ·       How stories about Kellie, the kids, and the dogs become songs ·       Making room for ridiculous ideas ·       The gap between imagining a song and playing it ·       What production tools contribute and where the story begins ·       Why finished music made me want to learn guitar more Sponsors and family business links Shaka Electric — Jacob’s electrical company serving Coeur d’Alene and surrounding North Idaho. https://shakaelectricco.com/ Renewed Strength Pilates — Kellie’s Pilates studio in Post Falls, Idaho. https://renewedstrengthpilates.com/ Helping Hands by Sam — Sammie’s personalized errand help, including grocery shopping and returns. Message @helpinghandsbysam about needs and availability. https://www.instagram.com/helpinghandsbysam/ Shaka Electric and Renewed Strength Pilates support the show. Helping Hands by Sam receives a family business shout-out. These are businesses run by Mike’s son Jacob, wife Kellie, and daughter Sammie, respectively. Explore more Mike Baker and creative projects Still Here, Still Trying Related essay — The Song in My Head Is Better Than the One in My Hands Support the show Thanks for listening to Still Here, Still Trying. If this episode gave you something to think about, please like, follow, subscribe, and share it with three people who could use it in their lives. You can find more of my work — music, writing, art, and reflections — at: 🌐 mikebakerhq.com Grab a copy of my book, The Optimist’s Way: 📚 https://a.co/d/4RqPS6g Thanks for being here. Still here. Still trying. Support the Podcast Here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2516381/support

    Fifty Thousand People in My Head

  3. Oct 14 ·  Video

    My ADHD Rabbit Hole Built an Apocalypse Club

    Send us Fan Mail My ADHD Rabbit Hole Built an Apocalypse Club Still Here, Still Trying | Season 2, Episode 19 I’m about ten movies into a project that started with a conversation about AI. Now there’s a website that sorts you into your apocalypse house. This is what happens when my ADHD gets access to building tools. It began with Jake and his friend Max, both in their mid-twenties, trying to figure out their path in a changing world. We talked about the futures movies had imagined and whether we’d want to live in any of them. That conversation became Apocalypse Optional, a science-fiction film and book club where you watch something together and keep talking after the credits. In this episode, I revisit Star Trek IV, A New Hope, and the Matrix series, and explore what this particular rabbit hole gave me. There’s some fun with the movies, a few uncomfortable questions about power and choice, and a personal look at how AI helped me turn a passing idea into something worth sharing. If you’ve ever gotten absorbed in an interest and wondered whether anything useful would come of it, come spend an evening with me. Find your house and join the conversation: Apocalypse Optional With thanks to our episode sponsors: Renewed Strength Pilates, my wife Kellie’s business. Shaka Electric, my son Jacob’s company. Includes movie plot spoilers. Support the show Thanks for listening to Still Here, Still Trying. If this episode gave you something to think about, please like, follow, subscribe, and share it with three people who could use it in their lives. You can find more of my work — music, writing, art, and reflections — at: 🌐 mikebakerhq.com Grab a copy of my book, The Optimist’s Way: 📚 https://a.co/d/4RqPS6g Thanks for being here. Still here. Still trying. Support the Podcast Here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2516381/support

    My ADHD Rabbit Hole Built an Apocalypse Club

  4. Oct 5 ·  Video

    After 27 Years, What Makes Someone Your Person?

    Send us Fan Mail Season 2, Episode 18: After 27 Years, What Makes Someone Your Person? Today is our 27th wedding anniversary. Yesterday, Kellie and I attended a celebration of life for a couple who had been married for 66 years. During the service, someone shared a J.R.R. Tolkien quote about marriage that followed both of us home: “Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes… But the ‘real soul-mate’ is the one you are actually married to.” That is a hell of a thing to hear together the day before your own anniversary. In this episode, I think about what actually makes someone your person after decades together. We talk about soulmates, compatibility, the people Kellie and I were when we married at 23, the people we have become since, and why a long marriage still requires curiosity about the person beside you. I also discovered that I’ve apparently been doing anniversary math wrong all year. Today marks 27 completed years and the beginning of year 28. I fully intend to start saying 28 sometime this week anyway. And stick around until the end. I wrote Kellie a surprise anniversary song that she has not heard yet. I hope she likes it. Otherwise, I might not make it to 28 after all. Sponsors This episode of Still Here, Still Trying is sponsored by Shaka Electric, serving North Idaho. Learn more at www.shakaelectricco.com. The show is also sponsored by Renewed Strength Pilates, Kellie Baker’s Pilates studio in Post Falls, Idaho. Learn more, check out classes, and connect with Kellie at www.renewedstrengthpilates.com. Sign up for my newsletter, find my books, and follow everything else I’m working on at www.mikebakerhq.com. My audiobooks are almost finished too. If you’re enjoying the podcast or have read one of my books, an honest rating or review helps other people find the work. Thanks for listening. Still Here, Still Trying. Support the show Thanks for listening to Still Here, Still Trying. If this episode gave you something to think about, please like, follow, subscribe, and share it with three people who could use it in their lives. You can find more of my work — music, writing, art, and reflections — at: 🌐 mikebakerhq.com Grab a copy of my book, The Optimist’s Way: 📚 https://a.co/d/4RqPS6g Thanks for being here. Still here. Still trying. Support the Podcast Here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2516381/support

    After 27 Years, What Makes Someone Your Person?

  5. Sep 23 ·  Video

    Wherever You Go, There You Are

    Send us Fan Mail Season 2, Episode 17: Wherever You Go, There You Are How much of what you call “who I am” is still open to change? A good friend used to say, “Wherever you go, there you are,” when we were in high school. Back then, it was something funny we said. Thirty-plus years later, I’m fifty, raising a family, leading an organization, and wondering how many decisions I’m still making based on an old idea of myself. “That’s how I am” often sounds like an honest explanation. Sometimes it also ends a conversation we need to keep having. In this episode of Still Here, Still Trying, I look at the habits we’ve come to accept as permanent. Agreeing to something we already resent. Reaching for the phone when there’s finally nothing urgent to do. Explaining why we interrupted while the other person is still waiting to finish. I’m in this conversation too. The people closest to me deserve room to tell me what they experience, even when it challenges how I see myself. If you’ve ever heard yourself give the same explanation and wished the next conversation would go differently, this episode gives you somewhere to begin: one familiar response to practice changing. There’s plenty about you worth keeping. You still get a say in what happens next. Support the show Thanks for listening to Still Here, Still Trying. If this episode gave you something to think about, please like, follow, subscribe, and share it with three people who could use it in their lives. You can find more of my work — music, writing, art, and reflections — at: 🌐 mikebakerhq.com Grab a copy of my book, The Optimist’s Way: 📚 https://a.co/d/4RqPS6g Thanks for being here. Still here. Still trying. Support the Podcast Here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2516381/support

    Wherever You Go, There You Are

  6. Sep 16 ·  Video

    The Team in Front of You: What Hockey Taught Me About Trust, Leadership, and Performance

    Send us Fan Mail The Team in Front of You: What Hockey Taught Me About Trust, Leadership, and Performance Four beer-league hockey games. One very average goalie. Four completely different results. In one game, I only let in two goals. In the others… several more. My skill did not suddenly change, and neither did my effort. What changed was the team in front of me. When teammates communicated, covered the extra player, cleared rebounds, and trusted one another to do their jobs, I could finally focus on mine. The game felt slower. My decisions became clearer. And a thoroughly mediocre beer-league goalie played one of the best games of his life. This is not an episode about good teams and bad teams—or good players and bad players. Everyone was trying. The teams simply had different levels of experience, chemistry, and shared habits. This episode is about what those differences can teach us about leadership: Why effort and outcome are not the same thingHow unclear responsibilities drain people’s attentionWhy trust changes the speed of the gameHow great teammates make the next person’s job easierWhy leaders must examine the environment before judging an individualWhat becomes possible when people can focus on the work only they can doThe effort may belong to the individual, but the result often belongs to the team. This episode is supported by Shaka Electric Co., a licensed and insured North Idaho electrical company built around character, competence, and communication. Learn more or plan your next residential or commercial project at ShakaElectricCo.com. Explore Mike’s books, music, podcast, art, advocacy work, and writing at MikeBakerHQ.com. Subscribe to Just an Ordinary Tuesday while you are there and let the next letter find you. What version of you does the team around you bring out? Still here. Still trying. Support the show Thanks for listening to Still Here, Still Trying. If this episode gave you something to think about, please like, follow, subscribe, and share it with three people who could use it in their lives. You can find more of my work — music, writing, art, and reflections — at: 🌐 mikebakerhq.com Grab a copy of my book, The Optimist’s Way: 📚 https://a.co/d/4RqPS6g Thanks for being here. Still here. Still trying. Support the Podcast Here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2516381/support

    The Team in Front of You: What Hockey Taught Me About Trust, Leadership, and Performance

  7. Aug 20 ·  Video

    We Got Lucky. That Is the Problem: Endometriosis, Diagnosis Delays, and Advocacy

    Send us Fan Mail Two years. That was the “good” outcome. People with endometriosis commonly wait four to twelve years for a diagnosis. Our family received an answer in two—and somehow that made us lucky. That is completely unacceptable. This episode is not a takedown of doctors. Most healthcare providers I know have enormous hearts and entered this work for the right reasons. But good people still need better training, clearer information, and systems that make it easier to remain curious when the first answer does not fit. We have to stop treating the exam room like a courtroom. Patients should not have to prosecute their own pain. Families should not have to arrive ready for battle. Clinicians should not be expected to produce an immediate perfect answer. We need patients, families, clinicians, educators, and advocates working as a team. In this episode, I talk about the friends we have made through endometriosis advocacy, why diagnostic delay is bigger than one bad appointment, and what it means to believe someone without pretending we already know the answer. I am also introducing Period Pain, Explained. It is a free, private tool that helps young people organize their symptoms, describe how pain is affecting their lives, and begin a conversation with a parent, trusted adult, or healthcare professional. It does not diagnose anyone. It helps people find the words to ask for appropriate care. Use the free tool: https://www.mikebakerhq.com/ibelieveyou/ Read “The Decade Women Lose Before Anyone Believes Them”: https://www.mikebakerhq.com/writing/the-decade-women-lose-before-anyone-believes-them/ Explore the rest of my work: https://www.mikebakerhq.com/ This episode is sponsored by Shaka Electric, serving Coeur d’Alene and the surrounding North Idaho community with clean craftsmanship and clear communication. https://shakaelectricco.com/ Two years should not qualify as lucky. The next girl should not need luck at all. Support the show Thanks for listening to Still Here, Still Trying. If this episode gave you something to think about, please like, follow, subscribe, and share it with three people who could use it in their lives. You can find more of my work — music, writing, art, and reflections — at: 🌐 mikebakerhq.com Grab a copy of my book, The Optimist’s Way: 📚 https://a.co/d/4RqPS6g Thanks for being here. Still here. Still trying. Support the Podcast Here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2516381/support

    We Got Lucky. That Is the Problem: Endometriosis, Diagnosis Delays, and Advocacy

  8. Aug 5 ·  Video

    The Work Should Lead Back to People

    Send us Fan Mail The Work Should Lead Back to People MikeBakerHQ has changed, and this episode marks where the work is headed next. For the last few years, Mike Baker has explored artificial intelligence through art, music, writing, and a long list of creative experiments. Those tools helped him bring ideas to life that once would have stayed inside a notebook or in his head. They remain part of his creative process, while the website now places more of his real life, family, voice, and Human First purpose at the center. In this episode of Still Here, Still Trying, Mike talks about rebuilding his website to feel more personal, honest, and recognizably his. He shares what he has learned about using technology in service of human connection and why the work we create should give another person something meaningful to carry with them. Mike also introduces Just an Ordinary Tuesday: Notes from a life I’m still trying to pay attention to, the new home for his writing. It is where he shares stories about family, grief, healthcare, leadership, creativity, women’s health, and the moments we often understand only after they are gone. Visit mikebakerhq.com/writing to read the latest pieces and subscribe so the next one arrives directly in your inbox. The episode also highlights the growing advocacy section at MikeBakerHQ.com, including practical resources for people living with endometriosis and for the partners, parents, employers, and healthcare leaders trying to support them. The goal is to help people move from awareness toward a useful next step. Mira opens the episode with news of her own upgrade and a reminder that Mike still has a questionable understanding of when one workday ends and the next one begins. The episode closes with “Ordinary Tuesday,” a new song from an album Mike is still building. The song reflects on Kellie laughing from another room, one of the kids calling because nothing is wrong, and Mike’s mom saying his name before Alzheimer’s slowly took that away. It is a quiet reminder that the moments we will miss most rarely announce themselves while they are happening. The song has not received its official release yet, but the full lyric video is now available on YouTube: Watch “Ordinary Tuesday”. Listen, leave a comment, and share the episode or song with someone who needs the reminder. Then visit mikebakerhq.com/writing and subscribe to Just an Ordinary Tuesday. The work should lead back to people. That is the direction from here. Support the show Thanks for listening to Still Here, Still Trying. If this episode gave you something to think about, please like, follow, subscribe, and share it with three people who could use it in their lives. You can find more of my work — music, writing, art, and reflections — at: 🌐 mikebakerhq.com Grab a copy of my book, The Optimist’s Way: 📚 https://a.co/d/4RqPS6g Thanks for being here. Still here. Still trying. Support the Podcast Here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2516381/support

    The Work Should Lead Back to People
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Real life stories about keeping going when life gets heavy. Still Here, Still Trying is hosted by Mike Baker — husband, dad, healthcare CEO, musician, and author of the Human First series — and built on honest conversations about mental health, grief, family, faith, and leadership, plus original music and the things people don't usually say out loud. No news, no politics. If you're trying to make sense of life while still moving forward, you're in the right place. 🎙️ New episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere you listen.🎵 Music, writing, art, and more at mikebakerhq.com Still here. Still trying.

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