The Blue Collar Buddha Podcast
The Blue Collar Buddha Podcast
Podcast Description
This podcast wasn’t created to inspire, not in the ways that you’re accustomed to. It was created to stay sane. There’s no fake “rah-rah”, “the world is all rainbows and unicorns” or “affirm your way to happiness” chit-chat; this is real talk for the real world.
I’m Chase Murphy. I didn’t launch this to coach, teach, or trend or tell you what you want to hear—I turned on the mic because, what I saw around me, was a bunch of people talking a lot and yet, not talking about the world that I and so many others contend with on a day-to-day basis. And that noise is what inspired me to speak up and out.
I am, in no way, for everyone. I don’t do “soft touch” or ”oh gee, I burned the muffins”. This is adult-talk, about adult life and all the stuff that goes with it.
You’ll hear about death. About life. About identity, marriage, cancer, doubt, rage, hope, shame, grief, lust, aging, and the everyday battles that people try to spiritualize, monetize, or just flat-out lie about. I don’t do that.
I don’t have all the answers and I don’t act like I do.
This isn’t therapy. It’s not coaching. And it sure as hell isn’t “personal development.”
It’s all about the raw self-concept, survival storytelling, and full-spectrum expression—with nothing held back.
Expect strong language. Unapologetic opinions. Moments of brutal honesty.
If you’re looking for a safe space, a morning mantra, or a 10-step feels-good-in-tummy plan, keep walking. This ain’t that place.
But if you’re tired of being lied to, and many even a tad tired of lying to yourself…
If you’re trying to find your voice under the crap that everyone else says is “truth”…
If you want something that’s grounded, grown, and brutally present…
You’re in the right place.
This is The Blue Collar Buddha.
And it’s the conversation you didn’t know you needed—but were already having anyway.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast discusses heavy topics related to real life, including death, identity, marriage, shame, grief, and the struggles that come with everyday existence. Episodes like The Moments After delve into post-intimacy emotions, and Off-Script addresses toxic self-talk, offering listeners a space where truth prevails over typical coaching rhetoric.
I didn’t turn on the mic to coach you, teach you, or tell you what you want to hear.
I turned it on because everybody was talking and nobody was saying anything real that spoke to me and the shit that I had been through.
Death. Marriage. Cancer. Identity. Rage. Grief. Shame. Hope. Lust. Aging.
The quiet shit people feel but don’t say out loud in a way that resonates with those of us that have had our asses kicked by life.
That’s what this is.
This is me saying the shit I had to suppress lest I get my ass kicked for speaking out of turn — or saying the shit that people wanted to hear but pretended was offensive, out of line, and just downright too true for the moment.
Fuck it.
No rah-rah. No “everything happens for a reason.” No affirm-your-way-out-of-reality bullshit. Just adult talk about adult life from someone who’s actually lived it — four marriages, four divorces, a suicide attempt, a dead infant son, and somehow I’m still fucking here. Doing all of this living with a lot less guilt and shame than I ever thought possible.
I never thought that shit would happen.
But it did.
You’ll hear two names for this podcast. The Real Empowered Self came first. The Blue Collar Buddha came later — born in the middle of my wife Sharon’s cancer treatments, when I needed somewhere to put what I couldn’t say out loud to her.
Both are me. If you listen long enough, it makes sense.
Expect profanity. Unfiltered opinions. Moments that land harder than you expected.
If you want mantras and a 10-step plan — keep walking.
If you’re tired of being lied to, and maybe a little tired of lying to yourself — you’re in the right place.
And when Sharon joined the mic, something shifted. We Say The Shit Out Loud is what happens when two people who have actually done the interior work — separately, painfully, over years — sit down together and say the things most couples perform around, avoid entirely, or dress up so nobody gets uncomfortable. Her cancers. His losses. The relationship patterns that nearly broke both of them before they found each other. The life they’re building now, on their own terms, without apology. If Blue Collar Buddha is one man’s honest account of getting here, We Say The Shit Out Loud is what it looks like once you arrive — and discover there’s still more to say.
For most of my life, I believed I was broken. Not temporarily broken. Fundamentally broken. I collected the evidence: childhood abuse, four divorces, four DUIs, and the day my infant son Malachi died in 1999. I turned everything that happened into proof that I was the kind of person who deserved to suffer.
But the question that finally changed things wasn’t:
“How do I get someone to love me?”
It was:
“Can I stop hating myself long enough to consider that I might actually be worth liking?”
I spent my life directing my energy outward—toward employers, partners, family, everyone around me—because giving that same attention to myself felt selfish. I never consistently considered myself someone worthy of the same effort I gave everyone else.
Then I started recording conversations with myself. No script. No performance. Just honesty.
And somewhere in that process, I started to like the person I was talking to.
Not love. Not some perfect version of myself.
Just like.
That became the doorway.
What this episode IS:
- A raw confession about shame, self-punishment, and learning to stop abandoning yourself
- An honest look at why liking yourself may need to come before loving yourself
- A conversation about what happens when you finally give yourself the attention you have always given everyone else
What this episode is NOT:
- A self-help formula
- A clinical explanation of trauma
- A motivational speech about becoming a better version of yourself
This is about one question:
What if the person you have been running from is the person who has been waiting for you all along?
Disclaimer
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