HAMILTON, Ohio — When David Stark got a podcast for his birthday, the room erupted in cheers of joy.
“What did you get me?” Stark asked.
“A podcast,” Riley Pennington replied.
“A what?” asked Stark.
“A podcast!” Pennington exclaimed.
The moment, captured at the launch of Stark's new Lodge Positivity Podcast!, pretty much sums up what makes the show different.
WATCH: A new Hamilton podcast is giving the developmentally challenged members of The Lodge Activity Center a chance to get behind the microphone and share what positivity means to them.
Stark, the 2024 Hamilton Citizen of the Year, wanted to create a show focused on the people who make his city special: local legends, familiar faces and community figures.
But some of the most important people involved aren't the ones Stark is interviewing. They're the people helping make the show.
The podcast is a partnership with The Lodge Activity Center, a Hamilton program serving adults with developmental disabilities. Lodge members help with production, appear on the podcast and get a chance to learn what goes into creating a show.
Pennington is one of them.
“The way you should do it is to be positive and keep rocking it up just the way you do it,” she said when asked how best to produce a podcast.
For Stark, positivity is the entire point.
“In a world where all our news seems negative, and our feeds are filling us with bad news, the Lodge Positivity Podcast is gonna be a reliable place to find the good stuff,” Stark said.
That “good stuff” includes conversations with people who have deep ties to Hamilton, including local figures like Phil Nuxhall, son of left-handed pitcher and Reds legend Joe Nuxhall.
Stark says the Lodge members themselves have also become some of the show's best guests.
The Lodge's mission goes beyond simply giving members a place to spend the day. CEO Celena Parker said the program is focused on creating opportunities to help Lodge members discover what they're capable of.
“We try to get them out into the community to have new experiences in life,” Parker said.
For the staff who work with Lodge members every day, those experiences can carry even more meaning.
“This might be the only hug they get for the day. This might be the only opportunity to, you know, laugh or play a game,” Lodge direct support professional Toshia Lipps said.
Stark says spending time with the Lodge members has also changed the way he thinks about positivity.
“Some of them have an ability to live in the moment,” he said. “If they feel something good, they express the joy. If somebody does something wrong, they're quick to forgive.”
Pennington has her own simple philosophy.
“It's nice to stay positive because it's better than being negative and being sad all day,” she said.
That's the message Stark hopes the podcast can bring to Hamilton one conversation, one guest and one positive moment at a time.
The Positivity Podcast! is available for viewing on YouTube.
