🌊 “I Was Dead for Seven Minutes”

You’re receiving this edition of our new premium newsletter — We the 66 — because you’re a RocaNews subscriber. 66 stands for the 66% of Americans who do not trust the news media. Our goal with this newsletter is to understand why that figure is so large. We’ll feature articles, interviews, podcasts, and more that try to do so.

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“I Was Dead for Seven Minutes”

April 25, 2018, should have been a great day for Michael Colgan.

It was the last week of senior year for the 21-year-old Ohio State student. Within a month, he’d graduate and start a prestigious job at JP Morgan in his native Columbus, Ohio. The weather was warming up and Lebron James was leading his Cleveland Cavaliers into the NBA playoffs. Life was good. 

Around 6 PM that Wednesday night, Colgan went to the gym, as he did five or six times a week. He had been studying for finals all day and decided to run on the treadmill. Minutes before finishing, he breathed in. 

“I was like, ‘Oh man, something felt wrong,’” Colgan told us. 

At first, Colgan thought he stepped wrong and knocked the wind out of himself. But then he tried again. 

“It was like I was underwater,” he recalled. “Nothing would come in.”

Colgan had no idea then, but he was suffering a cardiac arrest. He started to get tunnel vision and felt like he was “getting crushed.” He then lost all feeling in his body, realized he was dying – and collapsed. 

Colgan’s heart had stopped and he had lost all brain function. At age 21, he was legally dead. 

On our new We the 66 podcast, Colgan details the miraculous chain of events that brought him back to life. He talks to us about what it feels like to die and come back to life; the words that helped him get back on his feet; and how the experience changed him.

The interview is on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. We promise you it’s worth a listen.

You may be wondering how Colgan fits on a podcast named for the 66% of people who don’t trust the news media. 

Many news companies have a wall between themselves and their readers. This separation between journalist and audience is one thing that has driven media distrust: When a group of people can no longer connect with journalists – or politicians or anyone else – they stop trusting them. This is what has happened as journalism has become dominated by Ivy League graduates while outlets simultaneously take their readers’ trust for granted. 

We at Roca know we have to earn our readers’ trust. One way we do so is by literally getting to know them, which includes sourcing stories from them. In one such effort, we asked on our Instagram for podcast guest recommendations. Colgan reached out and said that he would be happy to share his story. It turned out we were all in New York, so he came by our studio. 

We’ve found repeatedly that some of the best stories exist within our audience. Colgan’s is no exception. We hope you enjoy.

We’ll be back soon with our next report. Thank you for reading Roca. If you support our mission and want to continue receiving these articles, you can become a paid subscriber here.

Sincerely,

Max F and Max T

RocaNews co-founders