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 me saying the shit that 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 truth” 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.
And doing all of this living with a lot less guilt and shame. And I never thought that shit would happen.
But it did.
You’ll hear two names for this podcast as you go. The Real Empowered Self came first. The Blue Collar Buddha came later, born during my wife Sharon’s cancer treatments.
Both are me.
The story explains itself if you listen long enough.
Expect profanity. Unfiltered opinions. Moments that hit 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.
This episode was recorded March 26th, 2023. Like so many of the of these earlier episodes while Sharon was dealing with her medical challenges, at this time, as yet unknown, I’m posting the episode out of order.
Sharon and I listened to it together tonight and decided it needed to go out now.
There’s no “rational” or “logical” reason. Not really.
It just felt like something that we needed to do.
Around the four-minute mark I talk about November 2nd, 1994. My suicide attempt. And what it means to have gone from that night to a Sunday morning in March 2023 where I can say — I didn’t know you could feel this light. This whole.
This free.
This “unencumbered.”
I genuinely didn’t know that such things existed for someone like me.
And then I cry.
On the recording.
I’m fucking leaving it in.
I’m leaving it in not because I want your sympathy.
Not because I’m “performing” some bullshit vulnerability schtick. But because the person who needed this episode is the one who has spent years telling himself that wanting to feel okay, and loved, and wanted, and cherished was some weak-ass, fucked-up shit that only “other” people did.
That needing something to change means something was wrong with me.
That feeling and believing myself to be broken was all that I was ever going to know.
Or be.
It wasn’t.
It isn’t.
I know that because I lived that life for a very long time.
And I know what it costs.
And I know what’s on the other side of it.
You’re not broken.
You may not believe that right now.
And that’s okay; you don’t have to believe it yet.
Just listen.
And decide for yourself.
Disclaimer
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