What began as an impulsive purchase quickly became a private coping mechanism during one of the most difficult periods of my life. While arranging a funeral, supporting family members, and trying to hold everything together, Richard became a quiet source of comfort that nobody else fully understood.

In this deeply personal episode, I reflect on the loss of my father, the pressure of being strong for others, the childhood lesson to "grow your own muscles," and the unexpected ways people sometimes find their footing when life changes forever.

This is a story about grief, responsibility, love, memory, and a small giraffe finger puppet that helped carry the weight of a difficult season of life.

Connect with the show:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/7hNQ5lXLH_0

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fischer.acb

Website: https://acfischerpod.neocities.org/

When life gets heavy, our minds often fall into familiar patterns. We ask ourselves why we're suffering, what we did to deserve it, why nobody understands, and whether things will ever get better.

In this episode, I walk through twelve common thoughts that tend to appear during periods of depression, anxiety, grief, burnout, and emotional overwhelm. Rather than accepting these thoughts as facts, I examine the assumptions hiding beneath them and explore whether they deserve the authority we often give them.

This isn't a clinical discussion or professional advice. It's a human conversation about the stories we tell ourselves when we're hurting and the questions we can ask that might help us see things differently.

Sometimes the most important thing we can do is stop treating our thoughts like verdicts and start treating them like questions.

In this episode, I reflect on the end of a 24-year friendship and the realization that history alone is not a good reason to remain invested in someone. What began as loyalty gradually became enabling. What looked like patience became a habit of overlooking reality.

The breaking point wasn't dramatic. It was a routine conversation that forced me to recognize a truth I'd been avoiding for years: the relationship existed largely because I kept making excuses for it.

I discuss the sunk cost fallacy in relationships, the challenge of navigating mutual friends after a separation, and why walking away from a long-term unhealthy dynamic can feel less like a loss and more like relief.

Having history with someone may be meaningful, but history is not a contract. Sometimes the healthiest decision is to stop investing in a relationship that no longer serves either person.

This week, consider where you're investing your time and ask yourself a simple question:

Is that investment actually paying off?

What happens when a song you have never heard feels instantly, deeply familiar? At fifty-three, a chance encounter with a Willie Nelson classic sparks a raw reflection on aging, memory, and how music hits differently over time. Moving from the rebellion of youth to the quiet endurance of adulthood, this episode explores the heavy reality of carrying vanished worlds inside our heads and why life gets emotionally messier, not simpler, the longer we live it.

Key Takeaways:

• The Evolution of Listening: Youth listens for rebellion; age listens for endurance, compromise, and the wear and tear of real life.
• True Nostalgia: It is not a greeting card cliché; it is the sudden, heavy awareness that entire everyday human environments have completely disappeared.
• The Myth of Arrival: Adulthood is not a stable destination where we finally know what we are doing, it is learning how to carry heavy things without collapsing.
• Intensity versus Resonance: Youth excels at emotional intensity, but aging grants us resonance and a broader capacity for compassion.

This episode focuses on my experience caring for Fred Tober, a 76-year-old local musician who was going through a lonely period...

It led me to rethink community and support. I saw that strong community doesn’t depend on religious institutions, and that non-religious people often stepped up more consistently when help was needed...

If you’ve ever caught yourself missing the world before everything was “smart,” this one’s for you.

acfischerpod.neocities.org

acfischerpod@protonmail.com

So I pulled the plug. Before a hater could cancel me, I did it myself. This episode kicks off a new season where I talk about how the internet went from thrilling to trash, why I ditched social media, and how I’m clawing back focus and meaning without pretending likes equal connection.

If you think the web feels more like a trap than a tool these days, welcome!

https://acfischerpod.neocities.org

This episode explores the strange kind of mourning that comes when there's no clarity. It's about estranged siblings, unresolved childhoods, and the kind of silence that never really lifts.

I had a brother. Maybe I still do. Maybe I don’t.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The emotional cost of family estrangement
• The unreliability of closure
• How grief takes shape without confirmation

Contact and More:

📨 Email: callmetonypod@yahoo.com

🌐 Website: www.acfischer.com

In this episode of Call Me Tony, I talk about how getting sober without a program didn’t make me a danger to myself or anyone else—but it sure made me a problem in the eyes of recovery culture. I unpack how many popular treatment models quietly discourage real healing, push fear over freedom, and end up poisoning the very relationships they’re supposed to protect.

We’ve built a culture where constant struggle is celebrated, while actual wellness is treated with suspicion. I’m not interested in protecting dogma. I’m interested in telling the truth.

I don’t miss her. I don’t long for the relationship we had. But I do keep running into the version of myself I had to become when I was with her. The one who knew how to stay quiet. The one who filtered every emotion. The one who thought being easy to love meant making himself smaller.

Now that I’m in something different — something safe, honest, and mutual — I’m realising how many corners of myself I tucked away without even noticing. And just as I’m starting to feel whole again, life throws a little test: she’s coming back into my orbit for a moment. Not emotionally, just physically. But it’s enough to stir something I thought I’d outgrown.

This episode is about that version of me. The ghost.

Not to judge him, but to finally acknowledge what he had to do — and why he doesn’t get to drive anymore.

I also talk about my father—the difference between his mistakes and how he chose to make amends, even apologizing until his final moments. As I reflect on the contrast between my parents, I explore the lingering struggle of letting go of hope for a relationship that never quite felt safe.

If Mother’s Day is a tough time for you, if it’s a reminder of something you never really had, I want you to know you’re not alone. Join me for an honest, vulnerable conversation about family, forgiveness, and the painful search for closure.

This episode is softer than the last few. It’s about reflection, memory, and the quiet power of knowing we don’t have forever. I talk about the kind of father my dad became near the end, how grief has shaped me, and what I’m choosing to change as I get closer to the age he was when he passed.

This isn’t about sadness—it’s about clarity, intention, and living the kind of life we won’t regret.

In this episode, Tony speaks to every Canadian who’s tempted to sit this election out, convinced that protest, resistance, or performative outrage will somehow be enough. Looking at what’s unfolded south of the border, this episode is a wake-up call. The rise of authoritarianism didn’t come from a coup—it came from ballots cast by people who showed up while others stayed home or “voted their conscience.”

This episode is not about partisanship. It’s about power. Real, consequential, everyday power—wielded by ordinary citizens through a vote. The resistance may have good intentions, but intention without action is hollow.

Tony doesn’t just reflect on the American experience—he warns Canadians not to fall into the same trap. We’re not immune to backsliding into systems that serve the few and silence the rest. Democracy doesn’t erode overnight. It erodes one apathetic vote at a time.

Key Topics:

-Why resistance without participation is performative

-How conscience voting can inadvertently empower harmful systems

-The consequences of voter apathy, seen clearly in global trends

-Why Canada must not waste its moment to shape the future

The vote is not just a right. It’s the fight.

In this episode, Tony unpacks the hidden danger in some of the most common advice we give each other. He explains how these well-meaning catchphrases can silence necessary resistance, minimize grief, or even prevent real healing. With honesty and clarity, he offers more thoughtful ways to respond to pain—ways that honor the struggle instead of rushing past it.

If you’ve ever felt like someone tried to fix you with a quote, this episode might be the one you’ve been waiting for.

When people suggest that fighting cancer is wrong, they’re not offering a helpful alternative. They’re blaming the sick for their suffering and encouraging others to abandon medical care. This episode is a call to stay grounded in truth, science, and compassion — not hashtags and magical thinking.

I talk about what it feels like to watch a movement built on cruelty gain momentum, and why I no longer want to seek connection with people who openly threaten the rights and dignity of those I care about.

This isn’t about giving up on people. It’s about standing up for what matters.

Many atheists focus on the rare cases where hostility led to deconversion, using them as proof that aggression works. But what about the larger audience? What about those who might be open to questioning their beliefs but are turned off by hostility?

This episode isn’t about discrediting Dillahunty’s work—it’s about challenging the idea that aggressive debate is the best strategy. If we want to reach more people, we need to rethink how we engage.

Tune in for a discussion on what atheism could be if we moved beyond the need for conflict.

I’ve avoided inserting my strongest opinions into this podcast—not because I don’t have them, but because I didn’t want to push people away. I wanted to keep things relatable. But the truth is, my thoughts, my beliefs, and the way I express them are just as much a part of me as my stories.

In this episode, I talk about why I’m done filtering myself, what this means for the future of the show, and why embracing the risk of honesty is the only way forward.

If you’re here for real conversations, I appreciate you. Let’s see where this goes.

Chronic fatigue syndrome has drained me physically, but the mental exhaustion of watching bad arguments win, seeing religious beliefs justify harm, and feeling obligated to fight for reason in a world that rejects it—that’s something else entirely. I don’t know how to stop caring, but I also don’t know how to keep going.

In this episode, I share my journey of redefining meaning as an atheist. I talk about my visit to an interfaith space, my thoughts on the language of "God," and how I’ve come to see spirituality—if we must use that word—as something deeply personal, shaped by philosophy, science, personal experience, and emotion.

If you've ever wrestled with the idea of spirituality as a nonbeliever, or if you're just curious about how atheists approach meaning, this conversation is for you.

Support the Podcast

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When I was six, my dad made me try eel before I could say I hated it. That lesson stuck with me—because too many people form opinions without doing the work to earn them.

In this episode, I break down why confidence without knowledge is dangerous, how social media fuels ignorance, and why being wrong isn’t a failure—it’s a chance to learn.

🎧 Listen now. You might rethink what you think you know.

In this episode, I talk about the freedom that comes with transparency. I’ve spent years putting my past in the open—not to prove anything, but because I have nothing to hide. Living in truth means I don’t waste energy managing perceptions or fearing exposure. I also explore why I’m cautious of those who discourage questioning and how true growth comes from being open to change. It’s not about being perfect—it’s about being honest, with others and with ourselves.

Dedicated to J