A Lighthouse in the Dark

A Lighthouse in the Dark is a heartfelt podcast about resilience, healing, grief, mental wellness, purpose, and human connection. Hosted by Michael Fishman, each episode shares honest conversations and personal reflections to help listeners feel seen, supported, and reminded that even in life’s darkest moments, light can still be found.

A Lighthouse in the Dark is a society podcast hosted by Fish, with 14 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Fish hosts A Lighthouse in the Dark, a society show with 14 episodes published.

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  Episode #14

  Susan Bratton: Reclaiming Intimacy, Pleasure & the Courage to Love Fully

  Aug 13, 202653 minS1

  In this illuminating episode of A Lighthouse in the Dark , Michael Fishman sits down with Susan Bratton intimacy educator, author, speaker, and self-described “intimacy coach to millions” for an honest, hopeful, and heart-centered conversation about love, passion, shame, communication, and the healing power of true connection. Susan shares why she sees intimacy education not simply as a career, but as a devotion to helping people heal the wounds of shame, fear, silence, and misinformation. She opens up about her own relationship journey, the challenges that nearly pulled her marriage apart, and the education, communication, and practices that helped rebuild a stronger, more passionate, more connected partnership. Together, Michael and Susan explore how intimacy can become part of a fuller, healthier life not just physically, but emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. They discuss the importance of honest communication, creating safety with a partner, asking for what you need, staying curious, and moving beyond outdated ideas that leave people disconnected from their bodies, their partners, and their joy. Susan frames this as a move from shame and silence into what she calls “regenerative intimacy,” where love, pleasure, trust, and emotional openness can keep growing over time. This conversation is tender, bold, playful, and deeply human. It is for couples, singles, seekers, healers, and anyone who wants to feel more alive, more connected, more honest, and more at home in their own heart. Because love is not meant to fade into routine. With courage, communication, and care, intimacy can become a lighthouse guiding us back to connection, healing, and the joy of being fully seen. Susan Bratton's links: Website - https://susanbratton.com/ Socials - @susanbratton Books - https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B086SWBXNG/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=73fcf4c7-8622-4776-9e15-17d27a5dc406 www.orgasmicintercourse.com www.sexualsoulmatepact.com www.soulmateembrace.com Full episodes can be watched as well on YouTube @alighthouseinthedark channel. For more connection and exclusive content please subscribe to the official @alighgthouseinthedark Substack. Additional content is available across social media @alighthouseinthedark

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  Episode #13

  Deeyah Khan: Walking Into Darkness to Find the Light

  Aug 6, 20261h 51mS1

  In this powerful episode of A Lighthouse in the Dark , Michael Fishman sits down with Emmy and Peabody-winning documentarian, artist, and human rights advocate Deeyah Khan for a courageous conversation about hope, humanity, extremism, dialogue, dignity, and the light that can still be found in the darkest places. Deeyah has spent her career walking directly into the spaces most people avoid — sitting across from neo-Nazis, jihadis, misogynists, violent extremists, veterans, and people shaped by hatred, shame, fear, and isolation. But her work is not about amplifying darkness. It is about searching for the spark of humanity beneath it. Together, Michael and Deeyah explore what it means to be othered, to grow up between cultures, to carry pain without passing it forward, and to choose curiosity instead of contempt. They discuss how humiliation can become a seedbed for violence, why dignity and empathy are essential human superpowers, and how real dialogue can create a third place — a place beyond winning, losing, and dehumanizing each other. Deeyah shares the deeper mission behind her films: not simply to document hate, but to understand where society is breaking, where people are being lost, and how we might interrupt cycles of violence before they consume the next generation. She speaks with profound compassion about the need to truly see young people, support emotional intelligence, rebuild connection, and teach the skills of humanizing one another before fear turns into destruction. This conversation is brave, tender, challenging, and deeply hopeful. It reminds us that holding on to our humanity is not passive. It is a practice. It is a choice. It is a form of resistance. Because sometimes being a lighthouse means walking toward the darkness — not to become it, but to help someone remember there is another way. Links for Deeyah Khan: Website — https://deeyah.com/ Socials — @DeeyahKhan IMDB — https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1821069/ TED Talk — https://www.ted.com/speakers/deeyah_khan Full episodes can be watched as well on YouTube @alighthouseinthedark channel. For more connection and exclusive content please subscribe to the official @alighgthouseinthedark Substack. Additional content is available across social media @alighthouseinthedark

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  Episode #12

  A Place Called Home by David Ambroz: Survival, Resilience, and the Power to Change

  Jul 30, 20261h 45mS1

  What happens when a child the world treats as invisible decides he will not be erased? In this deeply moving and urgently necessary episode of A Lighthouse in the Dark , Michael Fishman sits down with author, activist, foster-care advocate, and former foster youth David Ambroz for an unflinching conversation about homelessness, hunger, childhood trauma, mental health, resilience, forgiveness, parenthood, service, and our collective responsibility to protect children. David is the author of A Place Called Home , a powerful memoir chronicling his journey from being born into homelessness to becoming an attorney, advocate, foster parent, father, and nationally recognized voice for children and families experiencing poverty. Some of David’s earliest memories are of living in Grand Central Terminal, begging strangers for enough money to help his family eat. He remembers crowds silently separating to avoid him and the devastating realization that, at only four years old, the world could look directly at a suffering child and still choose not to see him. Not simply a story about survival but what it taught him, how hope sustained him, and why he believes every person has the capacity to become an agent of change. Michael and David explore the reality of childhood hunger and why poverty cannot be understood only as a lack of money. David explains why “poverty is never about the future.” It forces children and parents to live in survival, making long-term planning impossible. Hunger affects concentration, education, health, emotional regulation, and a child’s ability to believe that a different life is possible. Together they confront the shame society attaches to asking for help. David challenges the idea that feeding children, supporting struggling families, or providing stability should ever be reduced to partisan debate. The conversation becomes even more personal as David discusses growing up with a mother experiencing profound mental-health challenges. He shares what it was like to be a child trying to anticipate her emotional storms, protect his siblings, manage danger, and understand the difference between who his mother was and what her illness caused her to do. He reflects on his mother as both his harshest and most important teacher—and explains how becoming a parent himself deepened his understanding of her struggles. Leading to honest talk about trauma, accountability, compassion, and forgiveness Michael and David then turn toward the foster-care system—not to condemn it, but to highlight the societal role within it. David honors the social workers, foster families, advocates, relatives, mentors, and community members doing difficult work with inadequate resources. He argues, "we are the system." David offers a compelling alternative: what if young adults leaving foster care were provided housing at community colleges, along with education, vocational training, support, and time to build an independent future? Instead of creating a pipeline from foster care to homelessness, communities could create a pathway toward stability, purpose, and opportunity. This conversation is heartbreaking, unexpectedly funny, deeply human, and ultimately filled with hope. It is about surviving without allowing survival to become your only identity. It is about breaking generational cycles without denying the complexity of those who came before us. It is about turning pain into service, becoming the parent you needed, and choosing to leave the world better than you found it. Most importantly, it is a reminder that you do not have to save everyone to change a life. Sometimes you only need to become someone’s occasional angel. Sometimes you only need to help them take one more breath. Sometimes you only need to raise your hand and say, “I’ll do something.” Content note: This episode includes candid discussions of childhood homelessness, hunger, physical and sexual abuse, mental illness, discrimination, and violence within foster and juvenile-care settings. David Ambroz Links: Website — https://www.davidambroz.com/ Socials — @hjdambroz Book: A Place Called Home — https://www.amazon.com/Place-Called-Home-Memoir/dp/0306903547 Full episodes can be watched as well on YouTube @alighthouseinthedark channel. For more connection and exclusive content please subscribe to the official @alighgthouseinthedark Substack. Additional content is available across social media @alighthouseinthedark

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  Episode #11

  Are We Trading Our Humanity for Technology? Your Data, Your Dignity & the Future of Freedom with Martin Adamian

  Jul 23, 20261h 34mS1

  Technology connects us, informs us, and makes life more convenient—but what are we giving up in return? Michael Fishman sits down with professor, author, and former civil rights attorney Martin Adamian for a powerful conversation about privacy, artificial intelligence, human dignity, attention, creativity, democracy, and the future of human connection. Martin, author of Privacy and Property: Rethinking Rights and Dignity in an Age of Technology , explains why privacy is about far more than hiding information. It shapes our autonomy, relationships, safety, identity, and ability to decide how we are known. Together, Michael and Martin explore how smartphones, social media, algorithms, AI, wearable technology, and data brokers are changing the way we think, learn, communicate, and understand one another. They discuss why boredom may be essential to creativity, how technology can weaken attention and problem-solving, and what happens when the world can research, rate, and define us before ever meeting us. Michael also shares his personal experiences with online misinformation, identity theft, public scrutiny, threats, and fighting to protect his children’s private information. The conversation expands into political polarization, digital surveillance, biometric data, freedom of speech, civil rights, qualified immunity, governmental accountability, and the growing power of corporations to profit from our personal information. This is not an anti-technology conversation. It is a call to use technology intentionally, protect human dignity, reclaim our attention, and preserve the relationships and critical thinking that keep communities strong. Because before we give away another part of ourselves, we should ask whether we can ever get it back. Links for Martin Adamian: LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-adamian-5434495 Book — https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/privacy-and-property-9781666981117/ Full episodes can be watched as well on YouTube @alighthouseinthedark channel. For more connection and exclusive content please subscribe to the official @alighgthouseinthedark Substack. Additional content is available across social media @alighthouseinthedark

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  Episode #10

  James Pickens Jr.: A Cowboy’s Heart, an Actor’s Soul, A Doctor's Mind & an Advocate for Life

  Jul 16, 202655 minS1

  In this captivating episode of A Lighthouse in the Dark , Michael Fishman sits down with his longtime friend and mentor James Pickens Jr. for a powerful conversation about craft, courage, legacy, friendship, and what it means to keep showing up with heart. From his early days in theater, commercials, and small roles including Chuck on Roseanne, to becoming beloved around the world as Dr. Richard Webber on Grey’s Anatomy , James reflects on an extraordinary acting career built through patience, preparation, humility, and deep respect for the work. Pickens shares the lessons that shaped him, the advice he gives to young actors, and the grounded wisdom that has helped him sustain a career across decades in an ever-changing industry. But this conversation goes far beyond Hollywood. James opens up about his life as a cowboy, the discipline and freedom he finds outside the spotlight, his focus on faith, his dedication to family and his public battle with prostate cancer — including the importance of early detection, listening to your body, and using your platform to help others take their health seriously. His advocacy is especially meaningful given his family history and his own experience catching the disease through consistent screening. Warm, honest, inspiring, and deeply human, this episode is about mentorship, resilience, legacy, health, and the quiet strength of a man who has spent a lifetime doing the work — on stage, on screen, in the saddle, and in life. Because sometimes the people who help us heal are not only the doctors we watch on television, but the truth-tellers willing to share their own story. Jim Pickens Jr. Links: Socials — @ therealjamespickens IMDB — https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0681782/ Full episodes can be watched as well on YouTube @alighthouseinthedark channel. For more connection and exclusive content please subscribe to the official @alighgthouseinthedark Substack. Additional content is available across social media @alighthouseinthedark

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