Hi! My name is Mike and I am one of the approximately 4.5 million registered podcasters worldwide. The name of my podcast is ‘Memphis Mike and Friends’ and I started the podcast in February 2024. I was unable to work any longer due to health issues, so I was really bored. My four closest friends all have ‘real jobs’ and are very busy. I would blow their phones up all day long with useless texts about sports and other news and tidbits. After literally years of this new found addiction of mine, my friends invoked an intervention. Their solution: start a podcast.
I had to admit I really needed something to do to help boost and maintain my mental health. I did not know anything about podcasting but I’m kind of a technical geek and I love talking to people. So now that I was going to do a podcast I had to come up with a title, a logo and a theme. After much thought, the title ‘Memphis Mike and Friends’ was born! Next I had to come up with a logo and I looked all over the internet to see if something caught my eye. Nothing really did so I started playing with meta.ai and I came up with a logo that I liked.
Now for determining a theme, which is the most important part. A man from my church recently died at the age of 90. We were more acquaintances than friends, but I was reading his obituary and his life was astonishing. He started climbing mountains at the age of 54. Not just some wimpy mountains but REAL mountains. His first mountain was Mt. Kilimanjaro. Afterwards he climbed many more mountains including Mt. Shasta and Mt. Whitney. I would have loved to have the opportunity to talk to this gentleman. Imagine all the stories he could tell. The theme became clear to me: talk to people, both known and unknown, about their lives, passions and vocations.
My guest list is made up of people who live or have lived in Memphis. My guests include a retired Air Force B-52 and B-1 navigator, a global ministry CEO, missionaries, a PGA golfer, a Super Bowl champion, a nationally known angler, a pastor, NBA players, a former mayor, and local news personalities and many more. I really hope that these little nuggets of good news will help overshadow the bad news which is so prevalent in our city. Everyone you meet and everyone you see has a story. Take the time to get to know someone and find out what makes them tick. You just may find out that they started climbing mountains at the age of 54.
This blog was written by Mike Hobday
Lifelong Memphian Mike Hobday hosts and produces the ‘Memphis Mike and Friends’ podcast. Family is central to Mike’s life; he cherishes time spent with his two children and four grandchildren. He and his wife, Susan, have been married for 40 years. A dedicated fan, Mike is a proud member of the ‘Tigermaniacs’ and enthusiastically supports all Memphis Tiger football and basketball games.
