Today
and I got to welcome someone who has been a pillar of our little Whatever community from the very beginning: .We started in the usual chaos — still riding the high of going quad-platform (Substack! YouTube! Facebook! Instagram… kind of!) — and me recovering from hosting a full-scale teenage soup party in my tiny house. Then Polly joined us and opened up about her mental health challenges, and her rewarding life of volunteerism.
Polly’s the kind of person who brings a grounded, lived sincerity that you can feel even through a laptop. She’s a writer, a former lawyer, a mom, a survivor, and a person who has rebuilt her life not through grand reinventions, but through quiet acts of connection: volunteering, storytelling, and showing up for people most of society looks past.
She told us about her work at St. John’s Center for Homeless Men, where she spends her days checking mail, handing out toiletries, helping men get IDs and essential documents, and — maybe most importantly — remembering their names. “The best thing I get to say is: I know who you are,” she told us. That hit me. The dignity of being seen.
Her volunteering history spans hospice homes, kitchens feeding the food insecure, senior centers, and more — but the thread running through all of it is her belief in agency. Even choosing between red, blue, or green aftershave becomes a tiny moment of control for someone who has none. In her words: “They don’t get many choices. So when they do, it matters.”
Polly also opened up — bravely and generously — about surviving a medically induced suicidal episode, and how volunteering became part of stitching herself back together. Her stories were raw and unvarnished, but threaded with humor (only Polly could make a post-psych-ward Dairy Queen ritual sound like a holy pilgrimage).
We talked about SNAP cuts, the cruelty built into social services, the absurdity of dropping unhoused men in wheelchairs on shelter steps, and the heroes in the trenches trying to help. But Polly kept bringing us back to the same truth: you can always offer something — your time, your presence, your humanity.
At a moment in the world that feels bleak and cynical, Polly reminded us that compassion is not a feeling. It’s a practice. And showing up — imperfectly, tired, with whatever we’ve got — is what keeps the moral arc bending, however slowly.
Thank you
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This Week on The Daily Whatever Show
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