Don't "Curt Schilling" Your Podcast

I don't care who you are, what your podcast is about, and how many listeners you do or don't have. Do not do what Curt Schilling did in his podcast last month.

So, quick background for those of you who aren't baseball or Red Sox fans, the Red Sox went 86 years without winning a World Series. They had a number of heartbreaks over the years, including Bucky Dent's home run in 1978, the ball going through Bill Buckner's legs in 1986, and then most recently, the Aaron Boone home run in game seven of the 2003 American League Championship Series off Tim Wakefield.

So to set the stage, Tim Wakefield was terrified at the end of 2003 that he'd be the next Bill Buckner. Flash forward to 2004. The Red Sox bring in star pitcher Curt Schilling. He embraces the whole break the curse thing. He even does a Dunkin Donuts commercial where he says, "I'm here to break an 86 year old curse." And then in the playoffs has a tendon in his ankle, surgically sewed on so that he's able to pitch in heroic fashion. And you would think at that point, as the Red Sox go on in the World Series, that Curt Schilling is never going to pay for dinner in Boston ever again.

Well, as the years go on, first Curt Schilling becomes a political troll. Now, whatever your political beliefs are, don't be a troll. Although being a right wing troll in Massachusetts is probably not a good idea. He then decides to invest in a video game company and somehow gets Rhode Island taxpayers to front millions of dollars before he bankrupts it and costs the taxpayers a whole bunch of money, and he's just generally a bad person.

Contrast that with Tim Wakefield, who spent years and years and years doing charity work and working with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Boston Red Sox Charitable Foundation and just did amazing things and was beloved. Well, flash forward to September 2023. Curt Schilling has a baseball podcast. He reveals on the podcast that Tim Wakefield has terminal brain cancer. And, oh, by the way, his wife also has pancreatic cancer. Not a very high survival rate.

Now, nobody that wasn't close to the Wakefield family knew any of this. Curt Schilling decided that he had the right to go on his podcast and tell the world this very personal nugget about a terminal cancer diagnosis for Tim Wakefield. Naturally, Curt had a ton of blowback on this, and sadly, within about a week of this story coming out, Tim Wakefield passed away at 57 years old.

Now, what does all this mean to you? You may be privy to information in a podcast that's not public. You may know things. People may tell you things in confidence. It is your responsibility to maintain that confidence. It is not your right to tell somebody else's story that they don't want shared publicly. And this goes for, of course, social media, texting telephone, you name it. But it's true in podcasts especially.

They say the Internet lives forever. Well, podcasting is part of that. Anything you put in a podcast can be picked up by anyone, anywhere, and amplified. Do not talk about something in your podcast that is not your place to talk about. You may think it's just an aside or a brief comment, but there are ramifications.

How does all this turn out? Well, Tim Wakefield is recognized as a hero on and off the diamond all over Boston, and tributes have been pouring in for the last week.

Curt Schilling, after thinking he'd never pay for a meal in Boston ever again, and the World Series win, would probably come out from dinner in the North End and have his tires slashed for the terrible person he's become. Don't be Curt Schilling. And be careful what you say on your podcast.

And a tip of the cap. Rest in peace, Tim Wakefield.

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