Mics To Millions: Podcast Growth & Monetization Strategies for Health & Wellness Podcasters
May 27, 2026 · 48 min · 11 segments
He turned down more than half his income on principle, and he'd do it again. Paul Gilmartin is the host and producer of the Mental Illness Happy Hour, one of the longest-running mental health…
Paul GilmartinGuest
Sam BreakgearHost
[gentle music] Imagine this: you've been podcasting for years, you've built an audience that trusts you, and advertising revenue is finally flowing enough to make this actually sustainable.
Then one day you find out your biggest sponsor has been doing something deeply unethical, and now you have a choice.
You can look the other way, tell yourself you didn't know, that it's not really your problem, that this is the money that keeps the show alive and it helps people, so does it really matter? Or you can walk away knowing that the income that you've come to rely on is gone.
He has been hosting one of the longest-running mental health podcasts in existence for the past 15 years, and when he discovered his biggest advertiser was carrying out questionable behavior that made him want to stop promoting them, he made the call that most podcasters might be too scared to make.
In this episode, he walks us through exactly what happened, what it cost him, and how he kept moving forward.
And honestly, I think it's a really important episode for anyone that wants to build a podcast based around integrity and trust to listen to.
Hi, I'm Sam Breakgear, and welcome to Mics to Millions, your ultimate resource for growing and monetizing your health and wellness podcast.
Today's guest is the host and producer of The Mental Illness Happy Hour, which has been running since 2011 and gets roughly 70,000 monthly downloads.
The show has been praised from a number of major outlets, including Psychology Today, which calls it remarkable.
Esquire says, "A vital, compassionate gem that fills a desperate and under-addressed need in our society." And The New York Times says, "A perversely safe place in which he and his guests talk about their fears, addictions, and traumatic childhoods." Outside of podcasting, he was the host of TBS's Dinner And A Movie from 1995 to 2011.
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[gentle music] Imagine this: you've been podcasting for years, you've built an audience that trusts you, and advertising revenue is finally flowing enough to make this actually sustainable.
Then one day you find out your biggest sponsor has been doing something deeply unethical, and now you have a choice.
You can look the other way, tell yourself you didn't know, that it's not really your problem, that this is the money that keeps the show alive and it helps people, so does it really matter? Or you can walk away knowing that the income that you've come to rely on is gone.
He has been hosting one of the longest-running mental health podcasts in existence for the past 15 years, and when he discovered his biggest advertiser was carrying out questionable behavior that made him want to stop promoting them, he made the call that most podcasters might be too scared to make.
In this episode, he walks us through exactly what happened, what it cost him, and how he kept moving forward.
And honestly, I think it's a really important episode for anyone that wants to build a podcast based around integrity and trust to listen to.
Hi, I'm Sam Breakgear, and welcome to Mics to Millions, your ultimate resource for growing and monetizing your health and wellness podcast.
Today's guest is the host and producer of The Mental Illness Happy Hour, which has been running since 2011 and gets roughly 70,000 monthly downloads.
The show has been praised from a number of major outlets, including Psychology Today, which calls it remarkable.
Esquire says, "A vital, compassionate gem that fills a desperate and under-addressed need in our society." And The New York Times says, "A perversely safe place in which he and his guests talk about their fears, addictions, and traumatic childhoods." Outside of podcasting, he was the host of TBS's Dinner And A Movie from 1995 to 2011.