The people behind great podcasts
Welcome to fourth edition of our Creator Spotlight series, where we highlight the people behind the podcasts and the thoughtful work they’re bringing into the world.
Giving a Microphone to the People Behind the Statistics
In an early episode of Sheboygan Stories: Unhoused and Unheard, a man named Jimmy described sitting at a bus stop in November with no blankets and nowhere to go. “It was the most terrifying experience of my life,” he said. Several episodes later, Scott LaBonte circles back to check on him. Jimmy is settled into his own apartment, doing laundry, cooking meals, paying rent. “I do it all with a big old smile on my face,” he says.
That kind of follow-through defines the show. Scott and his wife Kathleen co-founded Sheboygan Area Pay It Forward, a day center for people experiencing homelessness in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Over the years they helped more than 85 people get into housing. But they kept noticing something missing from the public conversation: the actual voices of the people living it. “There were so many powerful stories that needed to be heard,” Scott says. The podcast became the place for those voices.
Since June 2025, Scott has published 22 episodes on a biweekly cadence. Tent to Tenancy follows Amanda from domestic violence and sleeping on the beach through treatment and eventually her own apartment. Couch Hopping Isn’t Home features Shanna talking about the kind of homelessness nobody sees, where you’re bouncing from couch to couch and don’t look like what people expect. Inside the System brings in a drug court coordinator and a licensed therapist to unpack how addiction, mental health, and housing collide within the justice system.
| Host Name: | Scott LaBonte |
| Go-to Tool: | Zoom Podtrak P4 recorder |
| Consistency philosophy: | If you believe in what you’re doing, the rest falls into place |
| Year goal for the podcast: | Amplify community voices and spark real impact: more awareness, more support, more action |
| Scott’s recording tip: | “Don’t worry about being perfect. Focus on being real. Some of my best episodes came from raw, honest conversations, not perfect sound quality.” |
Stories That Stay With You
What makes this show stand out is how Scott keeps returning to people. He revisits Jimmy. He checks in with Amanda. He treats his guests as ongoing lives, not single interviews. “People aren’t just moments,” he says. “We’re lives in motion.”
His solo episode The Quiet Work might be the most revealing. Scott wrestles with what progress looks like after someone gets housed and how invisible that work can be. “You can’t take a picture of ‘hey, I paid my rent again this month,'” he says. In Homelessness 101, Kathleen shares that only 25 to 35 percent of people experiencing homelessness have a substance use disorder, and that Sheboygan’s vacancy rate hovers around 1 to 2 percent. The show backs up big conversations with real numbers.
Scott’s day job as a special education teacher shapes his whole approach. In Meeting People Where They Are, he draws a direct line between the classroom and street outreach: “A child isn’t defined by what they can’t do.” Neither is anyone else.
Where Sheboygan Stories Is Headed
Pay It Forward recently closed its doors, but the stories haven’t stopped. Scott wants the podcast to carry that work forward and move people from awareness into action. More support, more tangible help, more neighbors looking out for each other. With a strong social media following built through the organization’s years of work, he already has an engaged audience. The podcast gives them a deeper way to understand what the people around them are going through.
Listen and Connect
Ready to hear the stories that don’t make headlines? Here’s where you can listen:
- Website: sheboygan-stories.castos.com
- Directories: Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Thank you, Scott, for being part of the Castos community and sharing your voice with the world. We can’t wait to see where Sheboygan Stories goes next.
