If you get the urge to start a podcast...don’t.

I'm a Senior Staff Writer based in New York City, where I've been covering classic BuzzFeed-style content since 2020.

NOTE: There are mentions of grooming and suicide.

"I knew a 36-year-old with two daughters in high school who left an engineering job to work as a janitor to have time to get a podcast going.

Ever heard of the NGBN network? It was a whole group of middle-aged men doing podcasts with 12 viewers. They all got sucked in by a lifestyle coach who convinced them all to pay into this network or podcasts they’d be a part of. They all interviewed each other and called themselves ‘community leaders.’

It was all that 'believe, conceive, achieve' bullshit where they just need the right mindset, a growth mindset, and everything would just fall into place.

"And he wonders why his daughters didn't invite him to their weddings..."

"So they get zero inheritance. It's been almost 20 years since then, and the kids are all in their 30s and 40s now, and they all have grandchildren, and he hasn't met any of them and apparently doesn't care to."

"He alienated everyone who cared about him and doubled down. When his girlfriend eventually gets tired of his old butt, he'll have nothing."

"He kept turning his back on who he was fighting, and the ref called it off after a minute. My 7-year-old niece would have done better. I never saw him in the club again afterward. He still has the profile picture of the square off of the fight seconds before he got an absolute kicking in front of everyone he knows, though."

"I had a business partner do this. The idiot fell in love with a 20-year-old Brazilian girl and was constantly asking for disbursements from our operating account. We put an end to it when we learned he was building her a restaurant. We ended up buying him out (for pennies on the dollar, but still a substantial sum) because it got so contentious.

Less than a year later, his cleaning lady found him dead on his sofa. The autopsy revealed a **.8** blood alcohol level. That is *not* a typo.

Turns out he'd spent every dime he had, including bankrupting his own, separate, formerly successful business.

His wife was very upset when she found out. Even more so when she learned the restaurant was in the girlfriend's name."

"Now he's broke, living in a crappy apartment he can afford, and they only dated a few weeks because she is young and not interested in settling down.

That was about 10 years ago. He says it was the biggest mistake of his life, and he has begged his ex-wife to get back together many times. She is honestly still heartbroken and does all kinds of stuff to support their kids and even him, but she absolutely refuses to get back together. The only bullet he dodged was the addict ex-girlfriend had a baby with the next guy she dated.

Now he's nearly 50 and looks 60. Meanwhile, his ex-wife is nearly 50 and looks 35."

"He's now living single and makes money, but he's lonely, and his gorgeous ex-wife is happy with a new man who probably can't believe his luck at finding a beautiful, rich, independent woman in her mid-40s."

"It happened to my dad, too, and I blame the onset of the Facebook algorithm. He was completely unable to process the algorithm that was feeding him this stuff. He used to be a normal person with a mix of opinions across the spectrum that could be changed and updated with new information.

Now he just sits with his iPad and falls deeper into the rabbit hole. When I talk to him about anything, he can't handle it unless the conversation centers around something terrible he saw on Facebook. Shit needs to be illegal, yesterday."

"He was a scumbag tbh. He was a solicitor, and the guy he defrauded was heavily disabled, and he had power of attorney over him. So he got what was coming to him."

"He was such a 'respectable' young man when I first met him, too. Good student; graduated with a high GPA in a lucrative field; got a great job straight outta grad. He even went to church regularly and was active in his local community. I felt plumb awful for his ex-wife. He really blew both their lives right apart. Now she's rebuilding, and he's just a deadbeat, broke-ass dad and general laughingstock."

"I'm not saying her husband was a great, blameless guy, but damn, she blew up her whole life for that one."

"I imagine his ex-wife has different sentiments about it, but from my vantage point, he truly found his bliss. I stayed connected with him and continued to see him at festivals for a long time; he always struck me as extremely happy and humble."

"His ‘furtype’ is a badger. He also has his own band with fellow furries. Just to clarify, I love my dad, my mum loves him, and everyone in my family does. Life would be boring without him."

Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.