The Common Ground Podcast (TCGP) originated when founder John “PhillyGoLive” Fletcher was active on the app BIGO. As a content creator, I developed the podcast with the intention of fostering meaningful conversations. Observing the prevalent trend—still evident today—where individuals often prefer to assert their viewpoints without engaging in genuine dialogue, I recognized a need for change. Many resort to bullying, disassociation, or name-calling when faced with differing opinions. This led me to ponder: How can we encourage respectful discussions? I concluded that fostering understanding and respect is key to open dialogue.

To address this, I created a podcast that offers individuals a safe space to share their stories. After sharing, we delve into discussions rooted in their narratives. Initially, with a couple of co-hosts, we produced around 20 episodes. However, since the content was hosted on a specific platform, I didn’t own the rights and couldn’t distribute it elsewhere.

In 2025, my passion reignited—not just for the podcast but for an entire project with the podcast at its core. I will be hosting along side Sydney Curtin. You can find more about her here. Instead of having someone just tell their story, we will have a topical discussion that will allow some of their story to come out and to allow for them to share their perspective on said topic. We are introducing two new segments that I did not have in my initial podcast. The two segments are “Key Takeaways” and “The Final Five”. Key takeaways gives us the opportunity to showcase that we can take something away from a discussion whether or not we totally agree with the guest. Both Sydney and I will give our takeaways from the episode and the guest will give their mic drop moment. We also encourage our listeners on whatever platform they are listening to, please comment your takeaway from the episode! In the Final Five, we ask each guest 5 questions. 3 of them are the same for each guest: 1) Who is your Hero and why? 2) What is one book, quote, saying or verse that either has meant the most to you or that you live by and why? 3) If you could have a beer/coffee and discussion with one person (dead or alive) who would it be and why? The other two questions will be light but based on that episode.

The podcast will commence remotely, allowing recordings without being in the same location. As it grows and resources permit, I aim to conduct in-person sessions, either in a studio or event center.

Importantly, this podcast isn’t about promoting any specific agenda, nor do I expect guests to do so. It’s about storytelling and posing questions—not solving all the world’s problems. The goal is to inspire the audience to continue these conversations within their own circles. By encouraging open dialogue and resisting the urge to enforce uniform thinking, we can foster a more understanding and united community, city, state, and nation.

Update 9/25/25

Two weeks ago, the death of Charlie Kirk had a great impact on Sydney and myself. We sat down and took a look at what we are doing here and whether or not we are achieving the goals that we set out when starting this podcast. We came to some conclusions:

1. We are happy with the growth of this podcast. Growing both as host and how this podcast has evolved and we know we are producing better and better content each episode.
2. We feel that most of the episode but not all, is us agreeing with the guest that we have had on. Is that bad in itself – No, but is it accomplishing the goal of finding common ground? What the death of Charlie Kirk showed us is a lack in this country of finding value in the people we disagree with. So we want to start to take a look from the opposite side or find more guest that disagree with us. Now we don’t want to do this for click bait or for ratings. We want to show people how to find the common ground or to find value in people we disagree with. We will make sure that respect is always the number one goal.
3. Both Sydney and I are believers and we have purposely not been bold in our faith because we wanted to provide a safe place for people to share their stories. We still want to provide that safe place for anyone to share their story. Again, what Charlie Kirk stood for was his faith and he was bold about it. The world needs us to be bold in our faith and we both agree that we are going to be bold as we go forth. Again respect is important and we want everyone to feel the love of Christ. I believe that God was already leading us in this direction before the death of Charlie Kirk because we had already started talking more about our faith. This was just confirmation that we needed to go further.

Our Vision beyond this podcast has also grown and you will here more about that soon and on a different post. We thank you for listening to our show. We thank those who have engaged, and we would love more to engage, We value you and your opinions. Thank you and God Bless.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.