#023 Why I Had to Change the Name Of My Podcast (and the name that really matters when you get right down to it)

This past January, I began a podcast venture I had wanted to do for a very long time.

Previously, I had focused primarily on music, interviewing musicians, talking music business, things of that nature. But I always knew I was capable of more than this. There’s more to James Newcomb than trumpet and music, both professionally and personally.

This isn’t to say I dislike trumpet. I like it quite a bit, but it has its place. These days, I don’t play trumpet that often, and I am just fine with it. Sometimes I wish I played more often, but unlike say ten years ago, I can miss a day of playing and not be the least bit disappointed. I can miss ten days of playing and not feel like I’m missing out on anything. I probably regret not playing for ten days when I do have a gig and need to get in shape; but even that is manageable given how long I’ve played, how my chops are developed, etc.

I’m getting off track here – or I’m staying on the track I’m providentially predestined to be on. I guess it depends on one’s theology.

But there you go, something other than music about which I love to think on, debate (respectfully), discuss on a podcast. Let others be a fly on the wall with discussions of more importance than trumpet pedagogy.

I decided I would name my new show Gone Newclear. In many ways it makes sense. It’s a catchphrase pretty well-known in our culture, and is a clever play on words with my last name. All in all a winner looking at it on a superficial level.

But the word “nuclear” does have a certain stigma around it, doesn’t it? As one who actively petitioned for discharge from the army as a conscientious objector, the cognitive dissonance was not lost on me to associate myself with the word. I rationalized it by saying, “There are positive and negative uses of any part of creation. I’m focusing on the positive uses of the natural elements which make up nuclear energy.”

That does make sense on an intellectual level, but it does require a great deal of mental gymnastics to overcome that huge hurdle with the stigma of the word “nuclear”. And the hurdle recently became insurmountable, to the point I felt compelled to immediately disassociate myself from the word “nuclear”, change the name of my podcast and basically clean up the mess later.

This past week, I was given the honor of touring and sailing on a tiny boat called Golden Rule. Fascinating story about this little boat. It was commissioned in 1958 and set sail for the Marshall Islands with the intent of protesting the nuclear bomb tests that were going on there, and causing not a small amount of controversy all over the world. You may have heard the phrase, “Don’t eat yellow snow.” It has nothing to do with urine. It means if there’s yellow snow, there is nuclear fallout in the area and you need to decontaminate yourself immediately.

It was a global atmosphere of absolute terror that we fortunately don’t endure in this era of our history. I personally have never experienced the culture of fear that was a way of life in those days.

If you’ve ever seen the “tank man” photo of the lone man standing in the way of hundreds of tanks advancing in Tianenman Square during the uprising in 1989, you can visualize what Golden Rule was doing in ’58. The Chinese tank commander was “following orders” but he also had a conscience he couldn’t ignore. He could not bring himself to run over a man simply standing in the way of his tank, causing or threatening no harm to anyone. That’s what Golden Rule set out to do. This tiny 35′ boat sailing into the middle of the nuclear bomb tests, no military commander would continue the tests – so we optimistically believe.

It’s a very complex and rich story, and I’m preparing an epic podcast about the boat, speaking to crew members, project managers, etc. so you’ll hear more about it soon.

But when I was made aware of the absolute threat to humanity caused by the threat of nuclear weapons, I simply couldn’t rationalize in any way the use of it in my podcast, even as a clever play on words with my name. For the record, I’m still on the fence regarding nuclear energy. I think it has a lot of good potential, but there are obvious drawbacks. I’m weighing the pros and cons and am still making up my mind on where to stand on the issue.

So I change the name of my podcast to This Is What We C.R.A.V.E. If you’ve followed me and my wife Sana for awhile, you might remember a podcast series we did on this. The CRAVE acronym stands for Community, Respect, Artistry, Vojdaan, Energy. These are the essential elements of what we crave as human beings – beyond the bare necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter. It’s what we crave to live purpose-filled, fulfilling lives.

Now I was going to make this a core theme of my show called Gone Newclear, but in light of the epiphany I had last week, I just decided to change the entire name of my show to This Is What We C.R.A.V.E. And it’s opening up a number of options regarding the directions I can take, products to offer, bonus material to provide and we’ll see what comes of that. I’ll have more to say about the five “values” for lack of a better term in the near future. For now I want to focus on the importance of the name of a podcast, but the name that really matters when you get right down to it.

When it comes down to it, it really doesn’t matter what the actual name of the podcast is, as much as the person’s name that is attached to the podcast. This goes for any creative endeavor be it hosted by an individual, a corporation, or any combination of the two. If you see the two logos of the two names of my show, one thing in common is my name is prominently displayed. This is a personality brand I’m building, and whether the show is called Gone Newclear, or This Is What We C.R.A.V.E., or I Love Rocky Road, what is truly important is that the actual personality’s name is on the banner.

Now I’ve pointed out there was a dilemma with using the name Gone Newclear for my show, and it was dealt with. Thankfully it was in the very early stages of the show, so I’m not dealing with a massive amount of rebranding. It’s part of my story, and years from now if anyone asks why a different name is on the really early graphics of an episode for example, I’ll point them to this post as to why.

I say all this because for the longest time I made the mistake that I see a lot of content creators make which is to put the focus on the name of the show, versus the name of the person or people hosting the show. This is done I believe out of a spirit of fear. Fear of exposure perhaps, fear of feeling vulnerable. What happens is rather than the personality really shining, the host or hosts kind of hide behind the name or theme of their show, even trying to ride on the coattails of the success of their guests to win approval from their audience. They unintentionally paint themselves into a corner where they’re forced to focus on one certain theme or topic versus having the freedom to explore what their personalities really want to explore with their show.

I just had a sales call with a prospective client the other day where he was sharing some of his vision for his podcasting journey. He was debating have two separate podcasts, each focused on two different things on which he’s passionate. I encouraged him to stick to one show and make those two elements the core elements of his show. At the end of the day, a show is about the host, not necessarily about the topic the host is harping on. The host or personality is the guiding light, the explorer in search of truth, the person holding the torch for others to find enlightenment.