TRAILER — Absolutely Sure, No Idea

If you've ever made a life path decision you couldn't fully explain — changed careers, bet on yourself, walked away from something that looked great on paper — you already know what this show is about.

Absolutely Sure, No Idea is for the person who's already made some version of the leap. Not the wide-eyed beginner. The one who's been in it, had some wins, taken some hits, and is still figuring out what's next.

Hosted by Piper and David, this is a show about creative careers, unconventional paths, and the honest, sometimes uncomfortable reality of building a life that looks a lot different than everyone else around you. Every episode features artists, entrepreneurs, and builders who've done something without a roadmap — and lived to talk about what that actually looked like.

Sometimes funny, sometimes heart-breaking, but always thought-provoking real conversations with people who chose the harder, messier, more alive version of things.

Season 1 is out now. Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode.

Connect with Absolutely Sure, No Idea:

Podcast Instagram: http://instagram.com/absolutelysurenoidea

Co-Host David Richardson: https://www.davomakes.com/

Co-Host Piper Watson: https://www.piperwatson.com/

New episodes drop every Wednesday — subscribe wherever you listen

Some people take the conventional path and spend years wondering what the other one looked like. Some people take the unconventional one and spend years wondering if they made a mistake. This show is for the second group.

Absolutely Sure, No Idea is a podcast about creative people, creative career changers, and unconventional entrepreneurs who chose a path without a roadmap — and are still figuring it out.

Hosted by Piper Watson and David Richardson, two people who've known each other since the nineties, grown up on opposite coasts, and each built incredible creative pathways without knowing exactly what it was going to look like.

In this intro episode, they get into who they are and why this show exists — David's journey from fronting a band on the Warped Tour circuit to building a cornerstone of San Francisco's queer club scene, getting sober, and eventually becoming a substance abuse counselor.

Piper's path from art school to a 3,000-mile bicycle trip through Eastern Europe to National Geographic photo camps to LGBTQ wedding photography to running a nonprofit and becoming a coach. And the moment on a mountain road in the Czech Republic where her life changed forever.

• What it actually feels like to not know what's next — and do it anyway
• The difference between being known for something and building something that means something
• Why the conventional path felt like it was never quite built for either of them
• What "absolutely sure, no idea" means to each of them personally

Connect with Absolutely Sure, No Idea:

Podcast Instagram: http://instagram.com/absolutelysurenoidea

Co-Host David Richardson: https://www.davomakes.com/

Co-Host Piper Watson: https://www.piperwatson.com/

New episodes drop every Wednesday — subscribe wherever you listen

Making a living as a documentary photographer has never been easy — but right now, it's a different kind of hard. National Geographic contributor Amy Toensing has spent over two decades doing the work anyway, and this conversation is about what that actually costs, and why she keeps doing it.

Today, Piper and David sit down with Amy Toensing — award-winning documentary photographer, visual journalist, and longtime National Geographic contributor whose work has taken her from Indigenous communities in Australia to opioid-ravaged towns in rural Ohio. Amy co-directed INHERITANCE (2024), a vérité documentary 11 years in the making that premiered at Slamdance and toured communities across the country.

Amy didn't pick up a camera because she wanted a career — she picked it up because it made the world feel more legible. What followed was two decades of fieldwork, a creative partnership with her filmmaker husband Matt, a production company, a kid, and an 11-year film nobody was really paying them to make. The industry she built that life inside of has been quietly contracting ever since. This is a conversation about what staying in it actually looks like.

Piper and David are surprised to hear why Amy's most meaningful image isn't from Papua New Guinea or Uganda — it's from a quiet lakeside campsite in the Adirondacks

• Hear what happens when an industry that trained you to hide behind the camera suddenly tells you to put yourself in front of it
• Sit with the question Amy and her husband revisit almost every week — and why there's no clean answer
• Unpack what it actually takes to follow one family for 11 years when documentary funding only goes to celebrity stories and true crime
• Hear about the easier path that would have required her to stop creating entirely — and what she did with it

Send this one to the creative person in your life who's been quietly wondering if staying scrappy is still a valid plan.

LINKS:

INHERITANCE (2024): https://www.inheritancethemovie.com

Amy Toensing: https://www.amytoensing.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amytoensing

If this one resonated, our conversation with Keenan Newman— a documentary filmmaker who made peace with using commercial work to fund the stories that actually matter — covers similar territory from a different angle. And our episode with Kim Manfredi, painter and yoga studio founder, gets into what creative reinvention actually looks like when you're doing it midlife without a roadmap.

Connect with Absolutely Sure, No Idea:

Podcast Instagram: http://instagram.com/absolutelysurenoidea

Co-Host David Richardson: https://www.davomakes.com/

Co-Host Piper Watson: https://www.piperwatson.com/

New episodes drop every Wednesday — subscribe wherever you listen