In August 2015 Michael Penney sat in as a guest on Funniest Thing! with Darrell & Ed, a weekly show on Unity Online Radio hosted by Darrell Fusaro and Ed Biagiotti. The episode was titled “Let Go, and Let God Do It.” The hosts’ show script was posted on August 23, 2015. The episode listing runs just over an hour.
What the episode covered
Funniest Thing! mixes humor with spiritual readings. This episode was built around one idea: trusting that God is working on your behalf, and the relief that comes from putting down worry. The hosts called that “the greatest freedom.”
The show script introduces Michael this way:
Michael Penney, United States Marine Corps combat veteran and a creator of the Cigars and Sea Stories podcast
Funniest Thing! show script, August 2015
His part of the hour was the Daily Word segment. He read and discussed that day’s Daily Word entry, “Let Go, Let God,” dated Wednesday, August 19, 2015. The reading’s affirmation was “I let go of expectations and trust God.”
The rest of the episode followed the show’s usual format. That included:
- Opening quotes from Florence Scovel Shinn
- A “God Box” segment on writing down a worry and handing it over
- Readings from Doreen Virtue, Ernest Holmes and Abraham
- Listener mail
- A joke of the day
The script page does not tie Michael to any segment other than the Daily Word reading.
Why it mattered then
This was not a veterans show or a business show. It was a faith-and-humor program with a general audience. A Marine combat veteran reading a passage about letting go of expectations was a different kind of appearance for him. It also put Cigars and Sea Stories in front of listeners who would likely never have found a Marine podcast on their own. The show script linked to the Cigars and Sea Stories website.
For a veteran a few years out of the Corps, the message of the reading also fit the season of life many were in: plans changing, and learning to trust the process instead of forcing it.
Looking back
Fusaro and Biagiotti brought Michael back that November for the Veterans Day reading, “Honor.” Both appearances came before his TEDxRaleigh talk in March 2016, back when Cigars and Sea Stories was still the main thing people knew him for.
This post is part of the From the Archive series, which collects Michael’s past media appearances in one place. See the full media archive.
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Marine veteran, TEDx speaker and author of the 5 Paragraph Business Plan. Bring him to your stage, wear the gear, or catch him live.