Brené Brown - Stories are just data with a soul

Welcome to The Daily Quote – a podcast designed to kickstart your day in a positive way. I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, for September 30th.Today is International Podcast Day, and I have to say, there's something wonderfully meta about celebrating this holiday on a podcast. International Podcast Day was created in 2014 by Steve Lee, who was inspired after hearing about National Senior Citizens' Day on the radio and wondered why there wasn't a day celebrating podcasts.

Unlike traditional radio, podcasts are on-demand, allowing us to learn, laugh, and connect with voices from around the world whenever and wherever we choose. From true crime to comedy, from science to storytelling, podcasts have democratized broadcasting and given voice to perspectives that might never have found their way onto traditional airwaves.Today's quote comes from author Brené Brown, who said:"Stories are just data with a soul."Brown's observation captures exactly what makes podcasts so powerful and why International Podcast Day is worth celebrating. In our data-saturated world, we're drowning in information but often starving for connection. Podcasts bridge that gap by wrapping information in story, context, and authentic human voice.Now I know there are AI podcast voices now but who wants to listen to that. I suppose there are some edge cases if someone loses the ability to speak and a cloned AI voice can allow them to keep going...But think about why you listen to podcasts – it's rarely just for the facts. You could read those faster in an article. What draws us to podcasts is the soul that comes through – the passion in someone's voice when they talk about their expertise, the vulnerability when they share a personal story, the laughter that makes information feel like conversation with a friend.Podcasts succeed where other media sometimes fails because they create intimate connections. When you regularly listen to a podcast, you feel like you know the host. Their voice becomes familiar, trusted, part of your routine. They're not just delivering data – they're sharing their humanity, their perspective, their soul.We lost one of the podcasting greats a couple weeks ago. Hall of Fame podcaster Todd Cochrane, founder of RAW Voice Blubrry (a podcast hosting company), host of Geek News Central and co-host of the New Media Show.I didn't know Todd personally. I interacted with him on social media and email a couple of times over the years. He didn't know me but I must have listened to his voice for hundreds of hours. I did feel like I knew Todd and I relied on his opinion and appreciated what he did for the podcast industry.RIP ToddBrown understood that information without emotion, facts without context, data without story – these things don't move us or change us. But when you add soul (something an AI voice can't have), when you connect information to human experience, that's when real understanding and transformation happen.I discovered podcasting in 2008 and immediately started one, then another and another. And when you start listening to podcasts suddenly that commute isn't wasted time – it becomes education, entertainment, connection to ideas and people who'd never encounter otherwise. Maybe it's finally starting that podcast you've been thinking about creating. Maybe it's supporting your favorite podcast by leaving a review or sharing it with someone. Reviews and comments really do matter, not for any magic algorithm thing, but it fills up the emotional gas tank of the podcaster. It reminds them why they are doing what they do.The podcasting revolution happened because people realized that everyone has a story worth telling, and everyone deserves access to stories worth hearing. That's something worth celebrating.That's going to do it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern, signing off for now. But I'll be back tomorrow - same pod time, same pod station with another Daily Quote.