Happy 1st Birthday, The Joy Of Cruising Podcast: Most Memorable, Funniest, Embarrassing Moments Paul C. Thornton 1:35:56

This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am thankful. Thankful that you have allowed me into your personal space for 80 times over this past year. I am thankful to the listeners that have made this podcast global in 100 countries. Cruising is loved throughout the world! And I am so appreciative of our guests, who make it possible for me to attract you. I only wish I could have included all 80 guests in this show.

We premiered a year ago, with Sheri of Cruise Tips TV, followed up by Ilana of Life Well Cruised. I knew early on who I wanted to start the podcast with. Both are friends; Sheri and Cruise Tips TV was in both The Joy of Cruising and Cruising Interrupted and did my first video ad for The Joy of Cruising. So in the first clip I wanted to honor her and say thank you by playing the first words of the first guest on the show. Ilana and Life Well Cruised was in Cruising Interrupted. She is also in the 1st clip and I wanted to honor her and say thank you by sharing the 1st of many of the most memorable, funniest, and most embarrassing moments in this one year old celebration. Finally in this 1st clip I share my most embarrassing moment. I am sure I butcher the Queens English from time-to-time; and in my very 1st show—that’s right with Sheri—my phone rings and I discovered it well after the episode was released! My most embarrassing moment was when I was a guest on a podcast which shall remain nameless. I made a boo boo, apologized to the host and completed an otherwise very nice conversation. Of course my expectation was that the host would edit out my boo boo and apology. Uh, nope.

Thank you listeners, thank youThe Joy of Cruising Podcast .guests. Here’s to a great second year.

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Paul Thornton Author, Podcaster

Paul C. Thornton started writing at 58 years old incited by the task of delivering a father-of-the-bride speech at his daughter’s wedding. Told to talk about memories of Kina growing up; among Disney trips, high school sports, proms, and first boyfriends, Paul divulged the most powerful memory of all, when Kina was six and his life changed forever. At the end of the talk—as they say—"there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.” It was both liberating and cathartic to release secrets that had tortured Paul for 30 years. Needing to hold on to that feeling of release and empowerment, when he returned to his hotel Paul started his memoir, provocatively titled White Man’s Disease.

Paul’s just completed book, The Joy of Cruising Again, is his fourth; the third in The Joy of Cruising trilogy, and follow-up to the fun, upbeat, award-winning The Joy of Cruising, and Cruising Interrupted. The Joy of Cruising Again is the finale of the series but Paul won’t give up his passion. Besides continuing to cruise as much as possible, Paul hosts The Joy of Cruising Podcast, a weekly conversation with one of the dozens of passionate cruisers featured in the books and other global cruise personalities.

The cruise-themed books are a stark departure from Paul’s debut: White Man’s Disease, a memoir described as “gripping and inspiring” in the press release announcing it as the winner of the North Street Book Prize for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction about Paul’s harrowing brush with death, the journey of recovery from trauma, resilience and ultimately transformation. White Man’s Disease is at once poignant, sad, tragic, funny, and compelling. (And, if I could get a dollar for everyone who asks what White Man’s Disease means, I would be a wealthy man!) Despite their very different subjects, at the heart of White Man’s Disease and The Joy of Cruising Trilogy is passion and how passionate people do wondrous things. Paul just started a sequel to White Man’s Disease; a fun, and hopefully inspirational tale called Gracefully. In addition, he is planning a podcast series that deconstructs White Man’s Disease.

Paul is originally from Brooklyn and Long Island, New York. After serving in the US Army and simultaneously earning a bachelor's degree in business, he attained his MBA and then spent concurrently, 17 years in corporate management, and 23 years in small business ownership. After leaving corporate, he started a career in higher ed. He earned a doctorate, attained tenure as a business professor, and subsequently moved into administration in Dean or Executive Director positions before retiring in 2021.

Paul lives in Mooresville, North Carolina with his wife Cheryl and considers cruising with their children and grandchildren life’s ultimate escape. Paul longs to cruise as much as the people he writes about in The Joy of Cruising Trilogy.