The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current, July 01, 2021, Page 9, Image 9

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    Continued from Page 8
Caitlin Seyfried
Nesbitt sits inside his studio. He painted the walls.
and you can’t really do that there.
I just had to sit in it and be present
and uncomfortable,” Nesbitt said.
In another episode, “Hold-
ing on to Hope with Mario Rodri-
guez,” Nesbitt spoke with guest
Mario Rodriguez about his com-
munity involvement on the penin-
sula and his residency status, which
is in limbo as he seeks asylum in
the U.S. Rodriguez shared that he
came to the U.S. from Mexico 18
years ago because he is gay and
would not have been treated well in
Mexico.
“I came here in a self-imposed
asylum,” Rodriguez said. “I have
found good people, great people,
and it’s a small community, every-
one is together.”
Nesbitt didn’t set out to create a
podcast with serious themes.
“I had just planned on making
it a strictly light-hearted and funny
podcast so that I could do that and
cover serious topics if I wanted to,”
he said.
However, the opportunity to
talk with Rodriguez fell in his lap.
In the episode’s introduction, Nes-
bitt shared some of his opinions on
immigration and research he did to
prepare for the conversation.
“I’m not an immigration expert.
I’m just a guy. And I’m just sitting
down here today to talk to another
guy who really needs our help and
who’s being treated unfairly and
who has so much to offer society,
but he’s being thrown away,” Nes-
bitt said.
Listeners can expect most epi-
sodes to be generally light-hearted
and funny conversations with guests
who end up feeling like friends.
Nesbitt has steadily posted new epi-
sodes weekly, plus bonus episodes.
He said he is proud of the listener-
ship and reach of the podcast.
“We’ve been downloaded in 37
countries … and as of today we
have 2,234 unique listeners,” Nes-
bitt reported in early June.
Making the podcast has brought
more connection to Nesbitt’s life.
“I’ve been connecting with peo-
ple from high school and people
from college and people who I’ve
known my whole life, but I didn’t
actually talk to … it’s wonderful,
I really enjoy that part of it and it
makes me feel like what I’m doing
is actually community-building,”
he said.
THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2021 // 9