Welcome to Narcissist Apocalypse, everyone. I am Brandon Chadwick, and this episode was created to make things less confusing as the show has evolved from what it was initially.

So before you start delving in, I just wanted to give you a bit of a roadmap to help

orient your experience. So when I started podcasting, there was this kind person who taught me how to

use my equipment named Jamie Dew, and he has created a number of wonderful podcasts, and I'm going to leave a link to

his website so you can see all this podcasts in the show notes. And Jamie said to me, never be married

to what your show is about. It can always evolve and change and never erase any of your old episodes because those are the

proof of how far you've come. And I've taken all of Jamie's words to heart. So now for a bit of

history. This show started as a humor show. I was writing a humor book called How to

Survive the Narcissist Apocalypse and thought to start a show as the character from the book

and the character's self-appointed nickname was Chad the Impalers. So yes, for the first half a year

while making a show that interviewed survivors of domestic

violence, I use the name Chad the Impaler. For some reason, I never thought about changing it,

and it is what it is. It is the history of the show. And this is why there is a lot of confusion when it comes to people who are listening to the first part of the show, and this is why there is a lot of confusion when it comes to people who are listening

to the first part of the show and wondering what is going on. So the first episode was recorded

with my old pal Melissa, and it was a humor episode. It was a poor attempt at humor, and my old pal Melissa came to help me. And during the

recording, I noticed something was wrong. And I broke my character and I started asking probing questions.

And for some reason, I put the episode out in an unedited format. And then four weeks later,

I got an email from a stranger and that person told me to

just do the interviews and that that episode helped them. So I thought to myself, okay, I can do that.

So I found a stranger on Reddit, recorded an episode. I felt that I connected with that person and we had the same personality.

I put that episode out and three to four weeks later, a new listener emailed me and said the same

thing as the other one. That episode helped me and they thanked me. So at that point, I changed the

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