What does it look like to trade the spotlight for a calling?

In Episode 7, Gary Barss and Todd Sherman welcome Doug Early — Presbyterian minister, author, and poet — to the Reverb Podcast. Doug was headed for an acting career before a single audition weekend changed everything. What followed was a year in China, two years in a small California town called Weed, and nearly three decades leading a tight-knit congregation on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle.

In this conversation, Doug opens up about:

• Leaving behind dreams of acting to pursue a life of faith and service
• How loneliness has become a modern epidemic — and what the church is doing about it
• The surprising ways pastors are just as human as everyone else
• What 30 years of walking alongside people through births, deaths, and everything
• in between teaches you about what truly matters
• His definition of success — and why it has nothing to do with money
• Why he'd choose Vincent Van Gogh as his dream dinner companion

This is a conversation about reinvention, resilience, community, and living with intention.

If you've ever wrestled with purpose, belonging, or what it means to lead a life well-lived — this episode is for you.

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