✍🏼 The message is the medium
The medium isn't the message. It's time to reframe storytelling to be in service of connection, not content
Welcome back to The Comma Project, a place for leaders and seekers.
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Comma is a window into the story of one human’s pursuit of more aliveness and crafting a life of significance. It’s an offering of perspective, connection, and perhaps even some wisdom sprinkled in.
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Cheers,
Devin
The message is the medium
In my essay and video the other week where I talked about the launch of The Comma Project podcast, I mentioned that I’m obsessed with podcasts.
Then, during our call last week, my therapist asked me, once again, what has been perhaps the most important question in my life recently:
Is is true?
Is it true that I’m obsessed with podcasts?
It’s not that she doubted that I love listening to them. Rather, she was asking whether podcasts are the thing that I’m truly obsessed with.
As soon as she asked the question, I realized what she was getting at. I realized what was even more true about my love for podcasts.
Podcasts aren’t what I’m obsessed with. I’m obsessed with what podcasts facilitate.
What I truly love is connection. Story. Humanity.
It’s proximity, vulnerability, intimacy, beauty.
I realized I was confusing the map for the territory, as they say.
Podcasts aren’t what I’m obsessed with. Podcasts aren’t the point.
The story, humanity, connection, and sense of aliveness that live underneath - that’s the point.
This feels like a really important insight, both concerning my work with The Comma Project, as well as for any creator, artist, entrepreneur - any leader, really - who seeks to make a meaningful impact.
The medium isn’t the message
Podcasts are a medium.
Medium (noun):
an agency or means of doing something
the intervening substance through which impressions are conveyed to the senses or a force acts on objects at a distance
a particular form of storage for digitized information, such as magnetic tape or discs
In my opinion, the saying “the medium is the message” is wrong.
Yes, the medium matters.
But the medium is simply in the middle.1
Podcasts are a technology and a tool, just like any other medium - film, documentary, theater, music, painting, writing, even language itself.
The medium carries the message - but it isn’t the message.
The message is the message.
In fact, I would go a step further and say that the message isn’t even truly the message. In a sense, the message is also the medium.
The message is in service of the humans sharing and receiving it.
The message is also a bridge between our unique experiences. Our stories are what connect us. We can’t live the life of another, but we can hear their story, and feel for when we can relate.2
Storytelling in service of connection
The more I think about this, the more I believe that what truly matters isn’t the medium, or even the message, but the connection that they facilitate.
Think of a medium or a message that you don’t particularly care about. A movie that you didn’t enjoy, perhaps, or a worldview that you disagree with.
What do we say when that happens?
Sometimes, I find myself saying something along the lines of “it just didn’t connect with me.”
I’m fascinated by this, because I rarely, if ever, find myself saying “I just didn’t connect with it.”
But why? What does this illuminate?
For one, it’s transformed my understanding of storytelling.
I've come to realize that storytelling is far more than a mere string of words; it's a deep and nuanced art, capable of profound connection and impact.
I now visualize storytelling as a sort of physical, energetic interaction between the storyteller, their message, the medium, and the world.
I see the storyteller, spurred by some emergent burst of inspiration3 from within, shaping a message of meaning and significance to them in a chosen medium, and sending it off into the world.
I think of storytelling it as a generous act - an invitation to connection, extended to whomsoever.
Sometimes, this invitation lands with us, and we find something awakened inside - an energy stirring within us, from the inside out. Sometimes, parts of us that we weren’t even aware of, or that have been in a deep slumber, are awoken.
This is connection. At least, this is what connection feels like to me.
It’s an enriching kind, one that heightens my sense of aliveness. One that I seek more and more.
An invitation to The Comma Project
I listen to hours of podcasts each day because I’m obsessed with connection, and the humanity, depth, authenticity, and aliveness that come with it.
I crave more connection, not more podcasts. And by looking at the world around me, I don’t think I’m alone.
This is why I think about The Comma Project as an invitation. I’ve used this word for a while, but I now understand with greater clarity why I intuitively chose that word, even from early on.
When I share my story, what I’m doing is extending an invitation to others who care about what I care about. Sometimes, the invitation is declined; sometimes, it’s accepted.
Actually, I believe it’s less conscious than that. That it’s less of an intentional action, like returning an RSVP to a dinner party.
I believe that it’s more of an emergent, embodied phenomenon where something in our bodies lights up like a Christmas tree, even if we don’t know why.
In fact, the feeling of “that is so cool/true/fascinating, but I don’t know why” is one of my favorite feelings. It means that I feel connected to something, and now have a map that points me in the direction of where to go to uncover more about the most alive parts of myself. It points me in the direction of a life more aligned with who I am most authentically.
I try to pay attention to these energetic maps as I walk through the world in search of more aliveness. They increasingly seem to be embodied, intuitive signals - not intellectual ones.
This is why I’m here
This is why I write. And now, it’s why I podcast.
Not because I’m obsessed with podcasting - but because I’m obsessed with story, humanity, connection, and aliveness.
I seek to invite more of it into the world - mine, and yours as well.
The Comma Project exists to share stories - mine, as well as others - that guide me along in my life, in hopes that they might matter to you, too.
It exists to offer perspective, connection, and perhaps even some wisdom sprinkled in.
I’m grateful that you’re here.
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It’s fascinating to me that we call an entire industry the media industry when all media really means is that it’s the plural of the word medium. It’s not wrong, but in my eyes, it’s not exactly right either.
The significance of a message and its medium could be thought of as the extent to which we can transfer the felt, embodied sense of our experience to another person. The more effectively we can do that - the more of that energetic experience that we can transfer - the deeper, more authentic, meaningful, and rewarding the connection. It’s life-giving.
David Whyte and Boyd Varty, to name just two, are examples of storytellers I’ve come across in my recent explorations who do this incredibly powerfully.
Word nerd moment: I looked up the etymology of the word “inspire” and saw that it comes from “breathe into,” in the sense of “imparting a truth or idea to someone,” and I’m absolutely loving the imagery of it.