It started with bullying. 

It wasn’t obvious, or violent, or so blatantly antagonistic that everyone around stopped to watch. It wasn’t like what they show you in the movies. 

Instead, it was whispered insults while passing in the hallway. Hushed threats which repeat in your mind night after night. Sneering faces that haunt your dreams but elude unknowing eyes. 

When a student poured these experiences into her journal, Spring Lake teacher David Theune’s podcast was born. 

He never expected a student he perceived to be well accepted in the school to be going through something so cruel. Theune realized that bullying had taken a new form and he needed to do something about it. 

While researching the problem, he was led to the book “Sticks and Stones”, by Emily Bazelon, and everything took off from there. 

“I loved it so much I wanted as many people to read it as possible,” Theune said. “I started a huge book club with our community and we got about 250 people which was really cool.”

Eventually, club participants decided to do more. After collecting personal struggles from close to 20 community members, they took action by compiling everything into one piece of published work. Their goal? To share the stories that are uncomfortable, but necessary to hear. They titled their book “Elevate Empathy.”

“The more we know about each other, the less likely it is for there to be aggression,” Theune said. “This seems kind of weird, but the truth of it is, the more I own who I am, the less people feel that I’m a target.”

Although he’d successfully help publish a book, Theune didn’t stop there. His journey was only beginning. 

He wanted to keep shedding light on the silent struggles of life, to keep giving a voice to those that often don’t get to use theirs and to keep making an impact in his community. 

With the groundwork laid out, “The Share Chair Podcast” was created. 

The podcast is built on the ideas explored in the book club and published work of Theune’s group. The goal is to share student stories that spread hope, inspiration and awareness. 

“I sit down and interview people,” Theune said. “I get to know what makes them excited or sad or angry. And then, hopefully, people listen to it and find themselves inside of the story.” 

Since launching the show, Theune has expanded its reach across the globe. Not only does he interview students, but he’s recruited other teachers to do the same at Grand Haven, Fruitport and a school in the Netherlands. In the coming years, he hopes to stretch even further. 

At Grand Haven, teacher Angel Dean has answered Theune’s call. She began interviewing students with stories to share last year and continued this year.

She creates a safe atmosphere and simply listens as kids open up and share their experiences. Dean has found that sometimes, even the most normal-looking person has an incredible story that others can relate to. 

“Our stories follow the same path,” Dean said. “We deal with difficulties and we celebrate the joys and you can find an underlying, shaping lesson in just about anything.”

Through her experience with the podcast, Dean has learned tons of life lessons. 

I’ve learned from every kid I talked to,” Dean said. “Kids are articulate and they’re smart and they’re hopeful and they’re resilient. It reinforces to me over and over and over again, every single time, how magical kids are.”

Just like Dean, students that have been guests on the show leave the interviews with a renewed sense of understanding. 

“The feedback has been that kids really gained from it,” Dean said. “They enjoyed having the attention on them a little bit, they enjoyed being validated in their stories and their experiences. I mean, doesn’t every human being want to be seen?”

Looking back, Theune finds it’s crazy to think that such a huge project could spawn from a single student’s journal entry, but he couldn’t be happier with the work he’s helped accomplish. 

As time passed, a book club turned into a group of book publishers turned into a podcast. Many people, ideas and things may have come and gone in those years, but one main theme stayed true throughout. 

“The way to defeat cruelty is by elevating empathy,” Theune said. “And in order to elevate empathy, we have to listen to each other’s stories.”