Podcasts about Amish

We welcome you back to a very special episode of Upstairs Neighbors with Towa Bird! Tune in as Towa comes out as both Amish and an Apple Watch wearer. Plus, she reveals the secret to having inner joy and hope. Enjoy! Offers: Talkiatry: Head to Talkiatry.com/UPSTAIRS to complete the short assessment and get matched with an in‑network psychiatrist in just a few minutes. Seat Geek: Use our code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/UPSTAIRSNEIGHBORS10 *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Brooklyn Bedding: Go to BrooklynBedding.com and use our promo code UPSTAIRS at checkout to get 30% off sitewide. Rocket Money: Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at RocketMoney.com/UPSTAIRSNEIGHBORS. Smirnoff Ice: Available at local retailers near you. Please drink responsibly, 21+ Podcast Socials: IG: https://www.instagram.com/upstairsneighborspod/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@upstairsneighborspod Follow our Hosts: Maya IG: https://www.instagram.com/mayamoto_/ Maya TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mayahasatiktok Dom IG: https://www.instagram.com/domrobxrts/ Dom TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@domnotateenmom Follow Towa Bird: IG: https://www.instagram.com/towabird/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@towabird YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Towabird Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shaun broadcasts LIVE from AM560's Annual Golf Outing at Makray Memorial Golf Club in Barrington, IL! PLUS, Donald Kendal, Director of Heartland Institute's Emerging Issues Centers, joins Shaun at the Golf Outing to talk about optimism for America's next 250 years. Anthony Udchik, President of ImagePots, shows Shaun all of the ways you can customize their handcrafted flower pots (made by the Amish - so built to last!) with your own rotating images or advertisements! Gary Carr, Owner and Chief Firearms Instructor and Illinois Concealed Carry Training LLC, emphasizes the importance of staying on top of your FOID and CCL cards and also gives Shaun some non-lethal options for self defense. Christopher Avitabile, senior director of the National Golf series for Tunnel to Towers, talks to Shaun about the special place the golf outing holds, the number of programs they provide to veterans and first responders, and tells him about the Steel Across America coming to Chicago on August 12th to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of 9/11. Donate to Tunnel to Towers today! www.560theanswer.com/T2TSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing up Amish, Ben struggled with isolation, which eventually led him into addiction. But after a near-fatal accident, everything changed. Discover what the Lord revealed to him, today on The 700 Club Interactive.

Growing up Amish, Ben struggled with isolation, which eventually led him into addiction. But after a near-fatal accident, everything changed. Discover what the Lord revealed to him, today on The 700 Club Interactive.

The dogs, The Amish, and Weird Al Yankovic. Nuff said.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

3 AT 3 - Amish PA Dutch and Mennonite Folklore Customs Legends Secrets StreamBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/missing-persons-mysteries--5624803/support.

Growing up Amish, Ben struggled with isolation, which eventually led him into addiction. But after a near-fatal accident, everything changed. Discover what the Lord revealed to him, today on The 700 Club Interactive.

Growing up Amish, Ben struggled with isolation, which eventually led him into addiction. But after a near-fatal accident, everything changed. Discover what the Lord revealed to him, today on The 700 Club Interactive.

Today we're looking into the Amish religion. We'll explore the foundation of the Anabaptist movement, Amish beliefs, versions of the Amish lifestyle, and other interesting stories... WELCOME TO RELIGION CAMP!

Tom: The topic for today's and next week's program is the Amish and their religious beliefs. Our guest for this two-part series is Joe Keim, who grew up Amish and now is a leader in MAP, which is Mission to Amish People. Joe, welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7.Joe: Thank you, Tom. Thank you for the opportunity to join you.Tom: Joe, I'm guessing – and I think I'm pretty much right here – that most of our listeners are aware of the Amish, but very few know much about them and their beliefs. So I have little doubt that they'll find our interview quite interesting as well as an encouragement to pray for the salvation of the Amish and for the missionaries who minister to them.

If you're running a cabinet shop and feel like you're working harder every year but not seeing better results, this episode will hit home. In this conversation, James and Sally Edrington share how buying an Amish cabinet shop without previous ownership experience led them into years of grinding without understanding the numbers behind the business. Through the Checkpoint 90 financial review, they discovered hidden problems with cost of goods sold, inventory, pricing, gross profit margin, and rework that were quietly limiting growth. You'll hear how understanding cabinet shop financial benchmarks helped them regain confidence, improve inventory management, tighten their sales process, and start making decisions based on facts instead of guesswork. Coach Pete Ficco also shares lessons from scaling an Amish cabinet operation from $3.5 million to $10 million and explains why tracking conversion rates, gross profit, and end-of-job reports are essential for profitable growth. If you're a cabinet maker, millwork company owner, closet shop, or woodworking entrepreneur looking to grow your business, this episode offers practical advice and real-world examples from owners who are in the trenches every day. In this video, you'll learn: • Why most cabinet shops struggle with profitability • How to benchmark your numbers against the industry • The dangers of excessive inventory and hidden rework • How pricing confidence affects growth • Why SOPs and lead tracking improve sales • How to work on your business instead of staying stuck in the tools Our mission is to help cabinet shop owners build profitable businesses that support their families, create freedom, and provide lasting impact for future generations. More about James and Sally: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-edrington-331a37b4 Website: https://www.schrockscountrykitchens.com/ Also check out: Cabinet Maker Profit System: https://www.cabinetmakerprofitsystem.com Profit Toolbelt: https://www.profittoolbelt.com/ Contractor Wealth System: https://www.contractorwealthsystem.com/ What's the biggest challenge in your cabinet shop right now: pricing, inventory, rework, hiring, or getting off the tools? Let us know in the comments below! DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE: ⁨@Cabinetmakerprofitsystemcom⁩ ⁨@profittoolbelt4527⁩ #cabinetshop #woodworkingbusiness #cabinetmakers #customcabinets #smallbusinessgrowth #businesscoaching #profitability #woodworkingentrepreneur #contractorbusiness

Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:09 Hi there, how are you? Bob Miller 00:00:10 Excellent! Pedaling as fast as humanly possible, but doing okay. Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:14 Good, good. Well, I’m looking forward to our conversation today. This should be amazing. Bob Miller 00:00:20 Yeah, it should be a lot of fun. Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:22 Yeah, anything that’s off-limits for you in, our conversation? Bob Miller 00:00:28 No. Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:29 Okay, anything you want me to make sure we cover for you? Bob Miller 00:00:33 Well, I mean, is it okay if we put a little plug-in for our software? Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:35 Absolutely. Bob Miller 00:00:36 Yeah. Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:37 Absolutely. Bob Miller 00:00:36 Yeah. Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:37 Absolutely. Bob Miller 00:00:38 Hey, can we… can we do a screen share? Yes, we can. Yeah, because I want to show you some maps, and… Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:43 Okay. Things like that, yeah, so… Perfect. So just let me know when you want to do screen share. Bob Miller 00:00:48 Okay. Dr. Deb Muth 00:00:49 And yeah, feel free to plug your software wherever you want to. Bob Miller 00:00:53 Okay, well, good. Let me pull up a, a slide for that, and give me one second, I just want to shut the door to my office to get the noise down. Dr. Deb Muth 00:01:01 No worries. Bob Miller 00:01:16 And, how should I refer to you? Dr. Debb? Dr. Muth, what do you like? Dr. Deb Muth 00:01:18 Dr. Deb is great, or Deb, either way, I’m pretty informal, so… Bob Miller 00:01:22 Yeah, and… Bob is fine for me. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. Why people feel like they need this, son. Special name, it’s like, seriously. Dr. Deb Muth 00:01:33 Right? I agree. Bob Miller 00:01:35 When I work with my clients, it’s like, Dr. Millison, just, just bop, just, just bop. Dr. Deb Muth 00:01:41 Yep, that’s how I am, too. Just call me Deb, it’s good. Dr. Deb Muth 00:01:44 They feel a little awkward with that, you know? They’re not used to that, but… Bob Miller 00:01:48 Alright. And you’re a naturopath, medical doctor. Dr. Deb Muth 00:01:52 A nastropathic doctor and a nurse practitioner. Oh, nice. Yeah, so I got the best of both worlds, right? Bob Miller 00:01:58 Yeah, damn. Okay. Alright, so here we go… There we go. Alright, so I got that ready, and then I will do a, I will do a screen share. I think you’re gonna really, appreciate what we’ve come up with. We’ve come up with the concept of, Cellular CPR. Dr. Deb Muth 00:02:23 Oh, nice! Bob Miller 00:02:24 And that is, construct the cell membrane, Protect the cell membrane. And restore it if it’s damaged. Dr. Deb Muth 00:02:32 Love that. Bob Miller 00:02:34 I love that. Yeah, so that’s what we’re focusing on, and then how, You know, we want to get to the point that, you know, most people think of genetics, they think of, like, 23andMe or Ancestry. Dr. Deb Muth 00:02:44 Yeah. Bob Miller 00:02:45 And then you have the professional geneticists who are looking at, you know, odd things that could create a disease. We’re looking at functional genomics. Dr. Deb Muth 00:02:54 Which is so much better. Bob Miller 00:02:56 Yeah. Are you familiar with what we do here, or… Dr. Deb Muth 00:02:58 A little bit, a little bit. So, it’ll be new to me, too, so I’m excited. Bob Miller 00:03:03 And how much time do we have? Dr. Deb Muth 00:03:04 We have an hour, give or take a little bit on either side. Do you have a hard stop anywhere? Bob Miller 00:03:10 No, no, I put a, I moved my clients around, and I don’t have anybody till, 3.30, so we’re good. Okay. Dr. Deb Muth 00:03:16 Perfect. Alright. Bob Miller 00:03:18 It’s like we’re getting started early as well, so… Dr. Deb Muth 00:03:19 Yeah, we’re getting started a little bit early, so that’s good. Bob Miller 00:03:22 Yeah, I just got my office cleaned up, so… Dr. Deb Muth 00:03:23 Okay, good. All right, are you all set to get started? Bob Miller 00:03:28 I’m good to go, my friend. Dr. Deb Muth 00:03:29 I’m gonna just record a little intro and a little bit of a, hook for people, and then we’ll get started. I’ll ask you to kind of tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we’ll just take this conversation wherever it’s supposed to go. Bob Miller 00:03:39 Okay, you got it. Dr. Deb Muth 00:03:40 Alright, sounds good. So what if the reason you’re not healing isn’t your diet, your supplements, or your labs, but it’s actually your genes? Dr. Bob Miller is uncovering how genetic variants, when combined with modern toxins, explain why some of us stay sick no matter what we try. Today, we’re talking genetic pathways, detox blocks, and the new science every wellness warrior needs to know. Welcome back to Let’s Talk Wellness Now, the show where we uncover the root causes of chronic illness, exploring cutting-edge regenerative medicine, and empower you to heal from the inside out. I’m Dr. Deb, your medical detective, and today, our guest, Dr. Bob Miller, is a true pioneer in functional genomics. He’s a board-certified traditional naturopath and the founder of Neutrogenetic Research Institute. And he’s the leading groundbreaking research on how genetic variants influence chronic illness, inflammation, and detoxification. His work has been recognized on international stages, uncovering links between genetic expression and conditions like Lyme disease, mast cell activation, or MCAS, and mitochondrial dysfunction. I’m so excited to talk to Dr. Bob today. He is gonna reveal some things that even I don’t know about, so I’m excited to learn alongside of you guys. So… Dr. Bob, let’s get started. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and kind of how you got on this journey. Bob Miller 00:05:04 Well, that’s, that’s interesting. I was sort of like a mid-career coming to the natural health field, because in my early 30s, I found myself with a severe case of ulcerative colitis. Bob Miller 00:05:15 And I was in the hospital for 21 days. probably within hours of death, pleading to death. And they told me I’ve got one option, and that is cut out the colon and wear a bag. Didn’t sound like a lot of fun. Dr. Deb Muth 00:05:27 Not an option I would want. Bob Miller 00:05:29 So, you know, the medical folks wasn’t real happy with me, but I said, yeah, I’d like to explore some alternative things.Never thinking that I’d get into this field, and then I just, you know, worked with some herbalists and things that I found absolutely fascinating. So, that’s how I got into this around 30 years ago. And, haven’t looked back since, and just having a… having a blast as we now move into how our genetics impacts things. So, that’s what we’re gonna… that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. Dr. Deb Muth 00:05:58 I’m excited to talk about this genetic thing. When you started over 30 years ago, what kind of patience and problems first inspired you to dig deeper into that root cause healing and kind of get into the genetic piece of it? Bob Miller 00:06:10 Sure. Well, you know, as a… now, I’m in a part of the country called Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where there’s a lot of Amish and Mennonite, and they gravitate towards these things.So, this is their first thing to do, and that doesn’t work, then they’ll go other routes. So, you know, back then, we just saw typical, you know, a little tired, constipation. You know, a little bit of fatigue, arthritis, those kind of things. But things have changed dramatically over the years, as people are now getting more chronically sick. You know, it’s worse than it’s ever been. And what we’re finding is the, the culprits Primarily is mold exposure and Lyme disease. When people get those two together, they’re just… it’s an inflammatory cascade that nobody can seem to unravel. So that’s where we spend a lot of our time. And we’re also spending a lot of time looking at mental health, like ADD, ADHD. And, we give… this year I’ll be speaking at three autism conferences. And we can dig into that a little bit as to why we think we’re seeing such a dramatic increase. And aside from autism, that used to be 1 out of 1,000, now it’s 1 out of 33, or 23. You know, we’re also seeing dramatic increases in ADD, ADHD. People are stressed out. And today, I think we’ll have the time to actually go through and show how environmental factors combine with genetics to cause that to happen. So we’ll… we should have a fun visit here today. And today, I think we’ll have the time to actually go through and show how environmental factors combine with genetics to cause that to happen. So we’ll… we should have a fun visit here today. Dr. Deb Muth 00:07:37 This should be a fun visit. We can cover lots of topics. I am so excited. So, you founded Nutri Genetic Research Institute in 2015. What did you hope to accomplish, and what kind of surprised you in your findings so far about that? Bob Miller 00:07:51 Well, you know, let’s back up at what, you know, genetics is used for. Everybody’s familiar with 23andMe and Ancestry that, you know, tells you where your ancestors came from. Then you have your professional geneticists. I mean, these are people with a degree in genetics. And they’ll look for, you know, very odd sort of things that are prone to relate to a disease. So there are disease-related genetics. Well, in functional, we don’t look at either of those. We look at For example, how you’re breaking down your fats and utilizing them. How you’re recycling your glutathione. How you might be handling your iron. And none of those are disease-causing on their own.And none of those are disease-causing on their own. But when they pile up on you, and then combine that with environmental factors, that’s when things start to go south on us. So, that’s what we’re doing, we’re looking at patterns. And our first foray into this was, we did studies on Lyme disease. And our first foray into this was, we did studies on Lyme disease. So, we looked at, like, I think 50 people with Lyme disease. We looked at their genome. So, we looked at, like, I think 50 people with Lyme disease. We looked at their genome. And we found patterns that were more evident in those with Lyme. Now, this doesn’t… these genetics don’t mean you get Lyme, it just means if you get Lyme, you react worse to it. And we found patterns that were more evident in those with Lyme. Now, this doesn’t… these genetics don’t mean you get Lyme, it just means if you get Lyme, you react worse to it. So, as you know, some people get Lyme, they go on a round of antibiotics, and they’re done. So, as you know, some people get Lyme, they go on a round of antibiotics, and they’re done. Others have a little more struggle, and then others are struggling terribly for years. So there’s an old adage of genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger. Dr. Deb Muth 00:09:14 Yeah, that is so true, and I think when we’re talking about Lyme and mold and things like that, we forget sometimes that our genetics can predispose us to be more sensitive to those things, and if we have genetic pathways where we don’t clear things properly, it’s harder for us to get them out of the body. And then you add on that whole rain barrel effect that we’ve always used as a functional medicine term, right? If the barrel’s half full, you’re okay. If it’s full, and now it’s spilling over, it’s a bigger problem. Have you guys found, too, that some of these environmental things actually are changing the genetics of people, or how they’re processing their own genetics? Bob Miller 00:09:53 Well, let’s go back to, Genetics 101. But we’ll go back a little bit further. So, what an interesting mechanism, what a miracle the body is. Bob Miller 00:10:03 Fats, carbohydrates, proteins, drink water, breathe air, expose the sunlight, and somehow everything gets made. I mean, when you just step back and think about that, it’s like, It’s pretty darn amazing. Dr. Deb Muth 00:10:15 I always tell women, you know, the fact that we get pregnant and we have healthy pregnancies and births is a miracle, because if we had to try to control that, that wouldn’t work so well. Bob Miller 00:10:25 Right. Well, that’s another miracle. These microscopic sperm and egg, human being, 9 months later, it’s like. But even inside of us. We are making our hair, our skin, our nails, our blood vessels, our ATP, our energy, it’s all being created. Well, that gets created by enzymes. So, enzymes take one substance, combine it with something else, and make something new. Then another enzyme comes along and does the same thing. Your DNA is the instructions on how to make the enzymes. So, when we are conceived. If it’s a, if it’s a female, of course, it’s the XX, the two chromosomes. You know, we’ve… everybody’s seen those… the genetics that… Listed pair. So, if it’s a female, the father donated the X enzyme. And the mother has no choice but to give the eggs, so that’s female. If the father donates the Y, you have a male that’s in chromosome number 1. Then 2 through 23 is the rest of the instructions on how to make enzymes. So, what can happen? We can get what are called SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms. And SNPs just mean that the instructions to make the enzyme’s not quite as good. So, if one parent gives a SNP on the making of an enzyme, The enzyme’s fine. It works. But, general rule of thumb, It may only work at 70-80% of efficiency. Now, a good analogy is think of an 8-cylinder and a 6-cylinder car. If parents give you good information, that’s like having an 8-cylinder car. If one parent gives you that snip, it’s like having a 6-cylinder car. Now, is a 6-cylinder car a fine car? Sure. It’ll get you from point A to point B, but it’s just going to have the power of an 8-cylinder. Then if both parents give you a SNP on the same enzyme, it may be 30-40%, and that’s like having a 4-cylinder car. Sits in the driveway, looks the same, puts gas in it, everything. But if you’ve got a 4-cylinder car. Probably not a good idea to go cross-country pulling a trailer behind you up and down mountains. Dr. Deb Muth 00:12:29 This is true. Bob Miller 00:12:32 So… We can get an 8-cylinder, 6-cylinder, or 4-cylinder enzyme. Now, if it’s not under a lot of stress, if that 4-cylinder car is just taking you to the bank and the grocery store. It’s just as good as an 8-cylinder car. But if you gotta pull that trailer, and there’s a lot of stress on it, being mountains, it’s gonna struggle. Now, there’s one other little caveat to this, and that is some genetic mutations are gain-of-function. They actually work faster. Now, we have enzymes that do all kinds of things. We have enzymes that make and recycle our antioxidants, but we also have enzymes that make inflammation. No, that’s a good thing, because if we get a virus or bacteria, if you didn’t make inflammation to kill it, well, we’d all die of infection. So, you know, we tend to think of free radicals as bad, antioxidants as good. They both play an important role. But interestingly, some of the major enzymes that make inflammation, they can be overactive. They can be turbocharged. And when they’re stimulated by environmental toxins, they overreact. Bob Miller 00:13:40 And therein lies the problem. When they overreact, we have a problem. Bob Miller 00:13:46 So, if we have genes that overreact when stimulated. And then the enzymes that take care of inflammation are underactive. Then you’re gonna be more inflamed. You know, the majority of people that, you know, come for functional medicine Or naturopathic help, or… Inflammation that they can’t seem to get under control. Dr. Deb Muth 00:14:06 Right. Bob Miller 00:14:07 And we will be, you know, during this hour, we’re going to look at some of the pathways that make that happen. So, what we can do then, we can’t change our genetics. When you’re conceived, that’s the hand you’re dealt. When your life would be over, if someone would take some tissue and measure, it’d be exactly the same as conception. Does it change. Bob Miller 00:14:28 The enzyme’s ability to do its job may be compromised. Because remember I said there’s a, the enzyme takes a cofactor. So an enzyme takes substance A, cofactor, make substance B. Well, if that cofactor’s not there, the enzyme’s not going to work either. So, you could have an 8-cylinder car, and if there’s no gas in it, it’s not going anywhere. So… It’s the strength of the enzyme, it’s the cofactor to do the A to B conversion. And that’s what we’re going to get into. So, many people say, well, where did these SNPs come from? Nobody knows for sure. Sometimes they’re what’s just called de novo, when the sperm and egg go together, the instructions get mixed up a little bit. We do believe a lot of it came from a long time ago, when we were almost wiped out by sexually transmitted diseases. And those STDs were altering the genes when the conception, in other words, when the sperm went into the egg, the STDs were interfering. And causing the problem, so… I often joke, if you want to blame somebody. Blame your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents for, being a bit promiscuous, so… Dr. Deb Muth 00:15:31 Yeah, for being… having a little too much fun, right? Bob Miller 00:15:35 So, we don’t know for sure, but, you know, there are some that, But most of the SNPs that we get inherit from our parents. So, if you look at a child. And you look at the SNPs. 99.9% of the time, it came from one of the parents. Dr. Deb Muth 00:15:50 In identical twins, do they have the exact same identical makeup? Bob Miller 00:15:54 Yep, Dr. Deb Muth 00:15:56 But not in fraternal twins, correct? Bob Miller 00:15:59 No, no, those could be different, Jeff. Dr. Deb Muth 00:16:00 It could be different because they have different sacs, they’re not sharing that same genetic makeup. Bob Miller 00:16:04 Yeah, so keep in mind, both your mother and your father have, you know, the two And so you get one from one parent, one from another. Dr. Deb Muth 00:16:13 So… Bob Miller 00:16:14 Interesting situation. I had, 3, 3 boys. And, we were looking at an enzyme related to breaking down oxalates. Now, the mother and father each had one SNP, and that’s called heterozygous. Three boys, and they all come together, they’re Amish boys, they’re a lot of fun. And I looked at their genomes, and the one boy didn’t have any SNPs at all. And one had won. And the other one had two. Dr. Deb Muth 00:16:41 Interesting. Bob Miller 00:16:42 So, we don’t quite know how these things get handed off, but with the parents each having one, you could have a child with none, one, or two. So, the one, his ability to break down oxalates, which is fine. The other one was slightly impaired, and the other one was dramatically impaired. So, you can have 3 children, and it all depends what the parents have. Now, if a parent has a homozygous, or 2 copies. And the other parent has nothing. Every child will have one. Okay. If both parents are homozygous, that they both have two, Every child will have two. Dr. Deb Muth 00:17:19 too. Bob Miller 00:17:20 Yes, so that’s the way it works, but, you know, but it’s somewhat rare that both parents are homozygous on an enzyme, but it can happen. Dr. Deb Muth 00:17:27 Do we think that infections today, like Lyme disease or mold exposure, things like that, if the parent, the woman, primarily, I’m thinking, is pregnant, and she actively has these infections. Can those infections affect the genetics, kind of like a past sexual transmission did where we thought back in the day? Bob Miller 00:17:47 Yeah, I… I mean, I’m not that much of a geneticist to answer that for sure, but my thought would be no, that at conception, the pattern’s made. Dr. Deb Muth 00:17:55 Okay. And then that’s… that’s the hand you’re dealt. Bob Miller 00:17:58 Yeah. So, I tell people we have good news and bad news. The good news is we can compensate for the weakness. The bad news is we can compensate for the weakness. Dr. Deb Muth 00:18:09 That is so very true. Bob Miller 00:18:11 Yeah, we can’t, because I often get asked, so we’ll do some things now, and we’ll check my genes again, and they’ll be better. It’s like, nope. Dr. Deb Muth 00:18:18 Oh, – – Bob Miller 00:18:19 You gotta play the hands you’re dealt, so… Dr. Deb Muth 00:18:21 That’s right. Bob Miller 00:18:22 You can test your genetics… if you’re looking at the same enzyme, you can test it every year. It’s not gonna change. It’s like the blueprint. Dr. Deb Muth 00:18:30 It’s good and bad, right? It’s the one test you only have to do once in your lifetime. Bob Miller 00:18:34 No, unless, you know, like, our. Dr. Deb Muth 00:18:36 All the time. Bob Miller 00:18:37 Yeah, now our test looks at, called the Functional Genomic Analysis Test of your genomic Resource. We look at 220,000 steps. Dr. Deb Muth 00:18:46 Wow, that’s a lot. Bob Miller 00:18:47 That’s not all of them. Dr. Deb Muth 00:18:49 Right. Bob Miller 00:18:50 So, maybe in the next year, we’re gonna come out with our third version of the chip. And then, if someone wants to get those new things that weren’t on it, they’d have to repeat. But whatever we measured is gonna stay the same. Dr. Deb Muth 00:19:03 That’s a lot of SNPs to look at. Bob Miller 00:19:05 Keeps us busy. Dr. Deb Muth 00:19:06 But there’s still, but there’s still SNPs that we. Bob Miller 00:19:09 That we’d like to have that we don’t have, so… Bob Miller 00:19:11 We started out with version 1 on our genetic test, then we worked with version 2, and we’re already compiling a list of what version 3 would look like. So if somebody has our version 2, And we’re saying, you know what, it’d be nice if we could see these, well, then you’d repeat, but it won’t change what you already know, so… Dr. Deb Muth 00:19:29 Got it, got it. So, when you started out, and you started looking at the research of Lyme disease and chronic infections, which detox pathways are most important for people who struggle with those conditions? Bob Miller 00:19:43 Okay. You know what might make sense as we do a screen share, and I’ll actually show you the pathway. Does that make sense? Bob Miller 00:19:48 Alright, so… let’s see if I… let me just press the share… Dr. Deb Muth 00:19:52 Yep, you should just be able to press share. Bob Miller 00:19:54 And… number 2. Okay. Are we seeing the screen there? Bob Miller 00:20:01 Okay. Dr. Deb Muth 00:20:02 So, this is a map that we made. Bob Miller 00:20:05 And by the way, this is not… All-inclusive of all the things we look at, but we believe this is a core issue. So, where we’re going to start here, there’s something called the microglia. And the microglia are glial cells. They’re in the brain and the central nervous system. And they’re very interesting little creatures, because most of the time, and this is just a drawing of what they sort of look like. Most of the time, they’re in what’s called the M2 anti-inflammatory mood. What that means, these little guys pick up dirt, debris, Recycle them. Turns on an enzyme called interleukin-10 that’s anti-inflammatory. And just kind of does general housekeeping. And just kind of does general housekeeping. However, when a trigger comes along. However, when a trigger comes along. They… it’s the same glial cell, but it moves over to a very pro-inflammatory enzyme. A pro-inflammatory glial cell. And it triggers these 3 enzymes, Actually, these four. That are pro-inflammatory. Tumor necrosis vector alpha, Interleukin-6. NF Kappa B, Inos. Now, these create inflammation. So you might think, well, why is that good? Well, if you have some foreign invader, virus, bacteria coming in, parasite. If you didn’t have these guys coming to the rescue, you would just die of infection. So, these guys are your friend unless they’re your worst enemy. Because TNFA, and we’ll show you when we actually do a demo account, TNFA can be overactive. So, in other words, it over-responds. Interleukin-6 can be overactive. And if Kappa-B can be overactive. The INOS, and I’ll explain each of these as we go through a demo, can be overactive. Now, what that means is, you’re very good at killing virus and bacteria. But this is where autoimmune disease comes in, and just inflammatory conditions. Now, this is just speculation, but we think what happened is, as you know. Thousands of years ago, we didn’t have refrigeration, we didn’t have sewer, we didn’t have pure water, and we didn’t have antibiotics. So, if you made it to 40, you were an old-timer, because everybody was dying of infection. So, what we believe happened is, by what’s called natural selection, Having these overactive. A thousand years ago was to your advantage. Dr. Deb Muth 00:22:31 Hmm. Bob Miller 00:22:32 But now… We have pure water, we have refrigeration, we have sewers, we have antibiotics. But now we have environmental factors that are stimulating them. Now it’s to our disadvantage. And we’ll talk about that a little bit as it relates to the hemochromatosis genes and maybe the G6PD. Dr. Deb Muth 00:22:48 Yep. Bob Miller 00:22:49 Now, why are we becoming so inflamed? Let’s look at the triggers. Now, one of my, favorite expressions is. I was born all the way back in 1954. Dr. Deb Muth 00:23:01 And it was a different world back then. Bob Miller 00:23:05 These are some of the triggers. And we’ll get into these, but right now, high fructose corn syrup, And the high-fat diet. High fructose corn syrup only came about in 1968. So now we’re being exposed to high fructose corn syrup. Then… we didn’t have these, these viruses like COVID. Dr. Deb Muth 00:23:26 Yeah. Bob Miller 00:23:27 Now, there’s now pretty strong evidence that COVID Was actually, you know, made as a gain of function. It’s debated, and I’m not taking an opinion on it, but there’s some people who believe Lyme disease was also a part of experimentation. Dr. Deb Muth 00:23:40 Go. Bob Miller 00:23:41 Then we have molds, and it appears as though mold is getting stronger. you know, 20 years ago, when I was seeing folks, mold wasn’t on the radar. I would say 7 out of the 10 folks we speak to today have mold problems. Yeah, 20 years ago, we talked more about mold allergy being an issue versus mold toxicity being an issue. Right. So… I know some folks are, you know, speculating what’s happening, but one of the theories out there is that EMF is strengthening mold. I don’t know if you ever heard that theory, and I don’t… Dr. Deb Muth 00:24:13 I have. Bob Miller 00:24:14 I’m not claiming it’s true, but it’s an interesting theory. Then even, you know, your black mold from water-damaged buildings. Then our air pollution is getting worse. We’re getting more toxic metals. Dr. Deb Muth 00:24:26 You know, if we have a… Bob Miller 00:24:27 You know, we’re gonna look back someday and say, what were we thinking, smearing aluminum into our armpits? The, what were we doing putting mercury in our teeth? Then, you know, glyphosate. When I was a kid, there was no glyphosate. So, all of these herbicides and pesticides. Polychlorinated biphenols, And then EMF. So, we love our cell phones, you know, and I think unless you, or in the middle of the desert, or down in a cave, you’re being exposed to EMF somewhere. So, you know, we have our cell phones with us, we have, We have Wi-Fi, the towers are everywhere. And we don’t know long-term, but we may find that this can… this creates some inflammation. And I don’t know if you get any folks, but do you have any folks that have… are they EMF sensitive? Dr. Deb Muth 00:25:16 Oh yeah, we have a whole bunch of them. Bob Miller 00:25:18 Yeah, and then if you have any TBIs, So, plenty of things here. that will stimulate into the microglia, M1. Now, you could say, well. We’re all pretty much exposed to the same thing. Why do some people get hit harder than others? So here’s where we’re gonna start. There’s an enzyme called Nrf2 and RF2. And Nrf2 is the enzyme that senses when there’s inflammation. And turns on hundreds of anti-inflammatory enzymes. We’ll show when we do the demo, you can have genetic weakness on NERF2. And NERF2 inhibits and slows down microglia M1. supports M2. Now, if it’s not complicated enough, there’s an enzyme called KEEP1. And KEEP1 inhibits NRF2. And you can actually have gain of function on keep 1, that makes Keap 1 stronger. So… A lot of the people who land on my doorstep So… A lot of the people who land on my doorstep Both parents gave a mutation on KEEP1, making it overactive. Both parents gave a mutation on KEEP1, making it overactive. Dr. Deb Muth 00:26:31 Hmm. Dr. Deb Muth 00:26:31 Hmm. Bob Miller 00:26:32 Suppressing Nrf2, nerve 2 might be weak. So, nobody’s putting the brakes on, M1. And by the same token, Nerve 2 supports M2. Then there’s a process called mTOR and autophagy. mTOR stands for mammalian tard of rapamycin, the growth of new cells. And then autophagy, taking our dead cells and recycling them. We need a balance between the two of them. If we didn’t have mTOR, the sperm and the egg would never become the baby, the baby would never become the adult, we wouldn’t make new cells. But our cells are constantly, you know, the old cells dying off. Autophagy is where we take that debris from the cell and recycle it, just like a farmer Plows the crop under at the end of the year. The dead plant then becomes the fuel for the spring, your dead cell becomes the fuel for the spring, and that’s autophagy. So we’re gonna look back someday and say, what were we thinking? We give our animals growth hormones so they get fatter faster. Oh my. So, we consume those animals, and inventory runs faster. Now, for anybody who’s, You know, maybe above 40, 45 years old. Think back when you were 12, and what did girls look like? They were primarily flat-chested little girls. Now they look like 16-year-olds. Because environmentally, we’re jacking up mTOR. So, mTOR stimulates microglia M1, suppresses microglia M2. Probably 80% of the folks we visit with. This is the part of the problem. NRF2 is weak. mTOR is strong. Environmental factors come along. And this guy gets carried away. He doesn’t do that burst and move back. Stays here. We’re calling that How environmental factors create a locked-in, pro-inflammatory. and neurotoxic phenotype. In other words, once it starts, it just keeps… Feeding upon itself. Alright, so what happens now when microglia is overactive. it triggers these 3 enzymes, TNFA, N of kappa B, And interleukin-6. Each one of these can have genetics that make them run stronger. Then it stimulates an enzyme called NLRP3, Which makes what are called inflammasomes. Now, guess what inflammasomes can be? Your best friend or your worst enemy? Because they will, if you’ve got, again, a virus or bacteria, or possibly even some bad cells in the body. They will zap them. Well, that’s good. Unless it’s overactive. Unless it’s overactive. And then what it does, through interleukin-1 beta, makes excess glutamate. And then what it does, through interleukin-1 beta, makes excess glutamate. Anxiety, gut inflammation, OCD, ADD, autism. And, you know, glutamate, we’ll talk about that a little bit, but glutamate makes you intelligent, highly motivated go-getter. but can also be excitatory. And then, look what it does. Let’s see, do I have the drawing tool here? Yes, I do. Okay. So, it comes down through here, Makes the glutamate. Comes back up through here. through the ADORA 2A enzyme, Then we’ve got a feedback loop that feeds upon itself. Then, through interleukin-18, we make histamine. and mast cells. And then through histamine receptor site number 1, we come back and spin it. And now you’ve just got this spinning feedback loop. So, the glutamate will make you anxious, the histamine will give you allergies and make you anxious. And you’re allergic to everything, and you’re feeling horrible. Now, it doesn’t end there, Dr. Dad. It then goes on to make something called gast dermins that creates pyroptosis, where it actually starts punching a hole in the cell membrane. And you’re only going to be as healthy as your cells are. Just a little background. You know, we’re made up of trillions of cells, and each one of them has what’s called a lipid bilayer, made from lipids, which comes from fats. And you’re only going to be as healthy as those membranes are. So that’s why we coined an interesting phrase. Cellular CPR. Construct the cell. Protect the cell. And restore the cell membrane. And we believe that’s going to be revolutionary in the functional medicine world. So… It’s not hard to figure out that if you start punching holes in the cell membrane, that’s not a good thing, okay? Bob Miller 00:31:22 Now… There’s an interesting molecule called NAD. Thicotide adenoside dinucleotide. And anybody who’s in the, you know, listening to the health podcasts and things, they’re… They’re, they’re learning about NAD. And I’m going to show you a chart later, all the good things that NAD does, but For the most part, it helps what’s called sirtuins. And sirtuins are quite interesting. If anybody’s looking at longevity. The sirtuins is where they’re looking at.Because sirtuins turn on good things. Turn off bad things. And I’ll show some charts on that later. So for right here, this sirtuin uses NAD, to slow down NF-kappa-B. CERT 2 uses NAD to slow down an ORP3. So, if we’ve got genetic weakness on these, or we don’t have enough NAD, We don’t hold this pathway back. Make sense? Dr. Deb Muth 00:32:24 Yeah, makes perfect sense. Bob Miller 00:32:25 Now, I’ll show this a little bit later. So, people are like, oh, well, I’m gonna start taking some NAD. Dr. Deb Muth 00:32:31 Right. Bob Miller 00:32:32 And there’s functional doctors who give NAD intravenous. It was just this morning, I was talking to a woman who said, Oh my gosh. I went and got intravenous NAD, and it took me a month to recover from that. Dr. Deb Muth 00:32:45 Hmm. Bob Miller 00:32:46 what happens is, and I’ll show this in a little more detail, there’s an enzyme called CD38, that’s stimulated by NF-kappa-B. And it takes NAD, To make intracellular calcium. that stimulates NLRP3 and actually makes things worse. So, if we have this guy upregulated, and I’ll show a chart what does that. taking NAD will make you worse. Again, when I go into the software, I’ll show you that whole pathway, so… I would encourage people, you know, just don’t go out and start taking massive amounts of NAD, you know, stick your toe in the water, see how you do. Because everything you’ve heard about, how good it is, is true, unless this guy says, oh, thank you very much, let me make more inflammation. Now, this might be part of our innate immune system, that if we have some pathogen that’s gonna kill us. By golly, we want that to happen. But if this is happening by environmental factors, Then it’s detrimental. So the immune system that protected us a thousand years ago now might be turning on us because of the environmental factors that we showed earlier. All right. Then there’s an enzyme called PARP that’s NAD-dependent, and that actually repairs strain breaks in your DNA. Now, the next thing that happens… is there’s an enzyme called NADPH oxidase that gets stimulated. and something called INOS. Now, I’m sure most people know about nitric oxide. It’s a gas that dilates your blood vessels. That’s why sometimes they’ll even give people drugs, nitroglycerin, to boost their nitric oxide. That’s why people are doing beetroots and other things to boost their nitric oxide. But there’s an OS3 enzyme that makes the nitric oxide that’s good for blood flow. But there’s an INOS That makes nitric oxide to kill pathogens. probably might be the third or fourth time I’ve said this. That’s a good thing, unless it isn’t. So, if it’s killing some pathogen, great. It was just misfiring. it combines… With superoxide that’s made by this enzyme, and makes something called peroxynitrite, which is one nasty free radical that chews you up and spits you out. So, the NOx enzyme, NADPH oxidase, uses NADPH, To make this free radical called superoxide. If we have time, we’ll get into it. NADPH is what your body needs to recycle your antioxidants.So, I coined the phrase, the NADPH steel. Where the NOX enzyme takes this very important NADPH, And rather than being useful, makes superoxide. Now, again, is that fine if you’ve got some bacteria to kill? Of course. But if it’s just chronically running, it’s just making all this chronic inflammation. Then it makes something called hydrogen peroxide. And we need to clear hydrogen peroxide by 3 enzymes, catalase, thyroid reduction. And glutathione peroxidase. If we have genetic issues on here, or we don’t have the cofactors. There’s something called the Fenton reaction, discovered in 1895 by Dr. Fenton. Where hydrogen peroxide combines with iron to make what are called hydroxyl radicals. And guess what they do? They create lipid peroxides, That damages your cell membranes. Now, again, the body’s pretty darn amazing. We have glutathione, And here’s where your body’s taking glutathione and recycling it. But look who’s needed to recycle it. NADPH. So, if this guy up here is chewing it up, We don’t recycle our glutathione. And then an enzyme called glufon peroxidase 4, Takes this damaged lipid and repairs it. So, here we’ve got this protecting, we want to protect it by not having this happen. But then we also need this guy to do the restoration. So, there’s a lot that can go wrong in here, Dr. Deb. Dr. Deb Muth 00:37:07 There’s a lot that could go wrong. And I can imagine some of my listeners are thinking that lipid peroxidase, is that the same thing as what they’re thinking of when we talk about lipids and cholesterol? Is that the same process that’s happening there? Bob Miller 00:37:22 Well, no, no, the lipids can be used to make cholesterol, but here we’re talking about where they’re going to build the cell membrane. And they’re being… and they’re being, destroyed. If anybody would like to see a visual representation of this, just go on YouTube. And type in, ferrooptosis Animation. cool little video, it’s about 3 minutes long, and it shows the lipids coming over, being oxidized, and now GPX4 fixes them, so… YouTube, Pharaoptosis Animation, cute little video. It’s just that really… Shows vividly what we’re… what we’re talking about here. Now, this is… Dr. Deb Muth 00:37:59 And so this is very common, too. Like, a lot of people do hydrogen peroxide IVs. Dr. Deb Muth 00:38:04 And so, if somebody doesn’t know their genetics, they could have a problem with doing those, just like they could doing the NADHIVs, correct? Bob Miller 00:38:13 Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I’ve talked to so many, you know, of course, the hydrogen peroxide kills pathogens. I mean, that’s what it does. So… but I’ve spoken to so many people that said. I had one client that said they’ve never been the same after having one hydrogen peroxide infusion. Dr. Deb Muth 00:38:30 Interesting. Bob Miller 00:38:31 Yeah. So… it can be… I see why people use it, because it. Bob Miller 00:38:36 pathogens, But on the other hand. And now’s a good time to speak about… I don’t have it on here, but there’s a, there’s an enzyme called the HFE gene. And that is what causes you to absorb iron. And there’s mutations in it that cause something called hemochromatosis. Were you overabsorb iron? Now, true hemochromatosis is when both parents give you a mutation. But there’s now growing evidence even a heterozygous can cause a little bit more iron absorption, not to the human chromatosis point, but overabsorption. So, if you overabsorb iron, And you have too much hydrogen peroxide that’s not cleared, All kinds of inflammation. Now, what’s happened is sometimes this inflammation Will damage the red blood cells. And some well-meaning doctor says, oh, you need some iron. And they take iron and it makes it worse. So, can’t tell you how many people I’ve said, you’ve got the overabsorption of iron, and they say, well, that can’t be right, because I’m low in iron. Well, that could be because it’s being chewed up here. Dr. Deb Muth 00:39:40 Sure. GPX1 and TXN turn it into, to water. The, catalase turns it into water and oxygen. Dr. Deb Muth 00:39:58 Now, I see a lot of my clients who have mutations or SNPs on that GPX gene, on that glutathione gene. And they really struggle to clear a lot of their toxins. Bob Miller 00:40:12 Sure. Dr. Deb Muth 00:40:14 Yeah, absolutely. Well, GPX4. Bob Miller 00:40:18 is what, repairs, but you can see GPX1 Is what uses glutathione. To turn hydrogen peroxide. So, but it all depends upon having enough glutathione. Dr. Deb Muth 00:40:30 Yeah. Bob Miller 00:40:31 Well, guess who controls making a glutathione? Dr. Deb Muth 00:40:34 Nerf 2. Bob Miller 00:40:37 So, if you have a keep one weakness, or strength to two… I’m sorry, keep one is too strong. Nrf2 is too weak. You don’t make glutathione. So, when a lot of people do that, it’s like, well, I’m gonna take glutathione. Dr. Deb Muth 00:40:51 Right. Bob Miller 00:40:52 And some do great, and some do poorly. You know, because… and I’ll show this on one of the other charts. You can see here that the, The glutathione has to be recycled. And if we don’t recycle it, it actually turns into superoxide free radical. So… NADPH are the cofactors, For taking the oxidi… here’s oxidized glutathione, here’s reduced. So, this is a good glutathione. After it does its job, you can see it becomes oxidized.We need to recycle it. Well, if we have weakness on the enzyme that does that, or a weakness in Nrf2, or not enough NADPH. The oxidized glutathione never gets recycled. So, I’ve talked to a lot of people who said, oh, glutathione made me so sick, and say, well. Dr. Deb Muth 00:41:43 Yeah. Bob Miller 00:41:44 You need it, but you need to recycle it. Dr. Deb Muth 00:41:46 Can you speak for just a brief moment, too, about MTHFR? That is a very popular gene, it’s all over social media as the major gene, but can you speak to a little bit about that, and how that fits into this whole process of things? Because it is just such a small piece. Dr. Deb Muth 00:42:04 understanding genetics. Bob Miller 00:42:06 Yeah, to be honest, it drives me nuts. Dr. Deb Muth 00:42:08 Me too. Bob Miller 00:42:11 Alright, so… You know, there are people on social media I won’t say what I think, I’ll be kind. But… But the, And, you know, they might mean well. But they talk about, if you have MTHFR and COMT and PEMT, that’s… oh my goodness, that’s horrible, and we’ll fix that for you, and you’ll be fine. Bob Miller 00:42:36 it just irritates me to no end. And it really could get anybody who’s doing this legitimately in trouble. I mean, I’m afraid someday, you know, there might be some cracking down on this kind of nonsense. Now, to answer your question about MTHFR. Dr. Deb Muth 00:42:51 I mean, it really is, but I’ll tell you what, why don’t we hold that thought until I go to another map and I can actually… Okay. Bob Miller 00:42:56 But the real… the cliff notes is the MTHFR puts a methyl group on your folate, which is needed, but it has gotten way, way, way too much attention. And people learn they have MTHFR, and they start taking a multivitamin with methylfolate, then they take a B vitamin with methylfolate. Dr. Deb Muth 00:43:13 And they’re pushing it too hard. Bob Miller 00:43:15 Yeah. So I can’t tell you how many people I’ve helped by saying, stop it. Dr. Deb Muth 00:43:20 Yeah, take less of it. Bob Miller 00:43:21 Take less of it, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, there’s a… If somebody, say, ranked the enzymes at their level of importance, MTHFR might be 40 or 50 on a scale of 100, you know. Keep one Nerf two. big deals. Dr. Deb Muth 00:43:40 deals. Bob Miller 00:43:41 NQO1 that I didn’t even talk about yet, NQO1, takes your, NA… your NAD goes into NADH, To make electrons for the electron transport chain. you need NQ01 to bring that back. If that’s not working, and I’ll show you on the NAD map how disastrous that can be. Now, the next piece is here, and I think You know, if you talk to any school teachers and say, if you’ve taught for more than 10 years, how are the kids today? Every one of them says, more ADD, ADHD, more autism. Just look at human beings, we’ve never been so agitated. You know, everybody, and it might be a social media thing, but people take a position on something, and if anybody doesn’t share that position, they view them as the enemy. Dr. Deb Muth 00:44:29 And it’s kind of scary what’s happening to us. Bob Miller 00:44:33 So, we can’t agree to disagree anymore. We see anybody who has a differing opinion as the enemy. And, you know, there was… there’s people that didn’t have Christmas dinners together, because they had political differences, like… Dr. Deb Muth 00:44:44 Excuse me. Bob Miller 00:44:45 can’t you put your political differences aside to have Christmas together, you know? Dr. Deb Muth 00:44:49 Right? Bob Miller 00:44:50 become that, you know, no matter what your position is, and I’m not saying anyone’s right or wrong, I’m just saying. You know, in the old days, they used to say that the Republicans and Democrats in Congress would argue policy and then go have dinner together. And now everybody’s all up in arms, angry. Dr. Deb Muth 00:45:05 Yeah. Bob Miller 00:45:06 So… There’s likely multiple reasons for that. But let me show you one of them. That, you know, to what degree this is… very important, we don’t know, but I think We’re beginning to believe this is very important. So, there’s something… there’s a neurotransmitter called GABA. And God buys the don’t worry, relax, be happy. Chill. Okay. Dr. Deb Muth 00:45:31 Nobody has enough of that anymore. Bob Miller 00:45:33 Well, yeah, you’ll be surprised what I’m gonna show you. So, let me see if I can find a, Let me see if I can find the right slide here. Let me look for it here. So, there’s something called a GABA receptor site. And here you can see… This is a neuron, and this is where you, The neuron normally is excitatory. However, there’s normally low chloride in the neuron. Dr. Deb Muth 00:46:09 Hmm. Bob Miller 00:46:10 So, GABA itself is neither relaxing. For excitatory, all GABA does, it opens up what’s called a chloride channel. And then chloride, which has a negative charge, will flow into the neuron. Follow me there? Dr. Deb Muth 00:46:26 Yep. Bob Miller 00:46:27 And as it does, it changes this from a positive charge to a negative charge, And it’s relaxing. and inhibitory. Dr. Deb Muth 00:46:34 Hmm. Bob Miller 00:46:36 Now, on the other hand, there’s enzymes called NKCC1, That will push chloride in. and KCC2 that will bring chlor… oops and bring chloride out. And then there’s a sodium channel. And, sodium has a positive charge. And glutamate will push that in. So, as long as this is happening. And GABA says, receptor sites, open, chloride goes in, Chill. However, If NKCC1 Pushes extra chloride in. KCC2 doesn’t pull it out. and GABA hits the receptor site, the GABA comes flowing out, Sodium comes in, And now it’s excitatory. So Gabba didn’t change. GABA just opened the receptor site, that’s all it does. Dr. Deb Muth 00:47:33 Yeah. Bob Miller 00:47:34 But it’s the chloride balance that’s going to determine whether this is relaxing or not. Now, these are the things that go along with when they lose that KCC2 or gain NKCC1. Pain and sensitivity, burning electrical, neuropathic pain. Normal touch hurts. Sound and light sensitivity. Tinnitus can flare. Headaches and migraines. Seizure tendency. Body jolts. Spasticity, cramps, stiffness, startle reflex. Trouble falling asleep, non-restorative sleep. Anxiety, stress, reactivity, that’s what we have now. Hyperarousal, panic-like surges, irritability, racing thoughts. Brain fog, slowed processing, working memory slip-ups. Mental fatigue. Episodes of racing hearts, sweaty palms, guts on edge. Those are all the things that happen when this GABA switch occurs. Now, here’s what happens, and this is what I’m going to be presenting at an autism conference. When you have a newborn, they need that NKCC dominant to develop. By early childhood, it should… or, sorry, early adulthood. we should move over to the KCC dominant, that’s the taking the chloride out. Nice-looking 25-year-old boys, functioning very well. However, when we get microglia M1 upregulated. Because of environmental toxins, processed foods, Tylenol, aluminum. they stay in NKCC1 dominant, and there’s ADD, ADHD, Autism, the whole spectrum. because… They’ve not moved over to the… They’ve not moved over to the KCC2. And again, this is caused by… Environmental factors. Stimulating the microglia. And then, interleukin-1, interleukin-18 weakens KCC2, interleukin-1 beta, Strengthens NKCC1. high chloride. We open up the chloride channel, In Rebell Excitatory. So, I think when, When the pediatricians get ahold of this, they’re going to be very excited to know that This could be why we’re seeing such a rise, and not just autism, but ADD, ADHD, anxiety, the whole shit mess. Dr. Deb Muth 00:49:58 thing. Bob Miller 00:49:59 Yeah, so… and you can see NF-kappa-B stimulates that. These stimulate it, and I think that’s why everyone’s getting so anxious. Now, there’s a little bit more to it, and we’ll get into this when we look at some of the maps, but… The, the glutamate, Which is excitatory. will stimulate the NMDA receptor, make more glutamate, And glutamate will inhibit KCC2. And then we also need an astrocyte To, take both ammonia And glutamate, and… Turn them back into glutamine. And I’m going to talk to you a little bit about arachidenic acid, and if we have too much arachidenic acid. or TNFA is upregulated, that doesn’t happen. Ammonia goes up, and there may be multiple reasons for this, but this is a reason why some of the autistic kids do flapping. Dr. Deb Muth 00:50:49 Hmm. Bob Miller 00:50:50 Because they’re not clearing their ammonia. And you can tell if somebody has high ammonia by… they get that old person smell, you know. Dr. Deb Muth 00:51:00 Yup. Bob Miller 00:51:01 your vehicle cycle’s not taking out the, the ammonia. Now, last pathway here. There’s growing interest in mast cell activation. So, back here, we talked about peroxynitride. And that will stimulate mast cells, and those are white blood cells that are your best friend, unless they’re your worst enemy. Then it’ll make histamine. And there’s enzymes called histidine decarboxylase that’ll make more. Dr. Deb Muth 00:51:28 I’m sure everybody’s heard of DAO, the enzyme that degrades histamine. Yep. Bob Miller 00:51:31 We can have genetic weakness, we don’t make that. There’s an enzyme called histamine and methyltransferase, That, That breaks down the histamine. Then if we don’t do that, it’ll get stuck in the histamine receptor site. And then it’ll make something called, renin. Which will cause angiotensinogen to turn into angiotensin. One, that turns into angiotensin II,And that’s where people make aldosterone, where they’ll get the, The swollen ankles and high blood pressure. But interestingly, there’s an enzyme called ACE2, that takes this guy and turns it into angiotensin 1-7, Which is anti-inflammatory and also inhibits… TNFA. Now, you can have weakness on ACE2, But… and anybody’s saying, that sounds familiar? Dr. Deb Muth 00:52:25 That’s where COVID comes in, using ACE2. Bob Miller 00:52:28 And now we just found there’s literature that if you get COVID long enough, it can actually make ACE2 not be able to work as well. So look what it does. It comes down here, stimulates the NADPH oxidase, More superoxide. More peroxynitrite. And we’re on a cycle here. We’ve actually named this the Home Cycle Hypothesis, the proposed feed-forward loop. That just keeps feeding on itself. All being caused by… Primarily, The environmental factors. But hitting those who have genetic weakness the hardest. That’s why. Dr. Deb Muth 00:53:08 To the people. Bob Miller 00:53:09 Don’t live in a moldy house. One person is sick as can be, and the other person says, well, you must be imagining things, because I don’t feel anything. Dr. Deb Muth Yeah. Same thing with long haul, right? Two people can both get sick, one gets sick and never seems to recover, and somebody else gets sick, and they have absolutely no problems with it at all. Bob Miller 00:53:30 Sure. Well, think about it, if you get COVID, and ACE2 is weak, and some of this other stuff is going on. This thing just starts feeding upon itself. Dr. Deb Muth 00:53:38 Keep creating more inflammation, more complications, nothing’s calming down. Bob Miller 00:53:43 Yeah. Now, you, you ask about, MTHFR. So, this is the, this is the, the software called Functional Genomic Analysis. There’s a demo report we have. So, let’s talk a little bit about, MTHFR. So, we actually have a map called a methylation map. Now, what happens is, when you do your saliva test, you, you know, you spit, you put some saliva. in a collection kit, goes to a lab, takes out the DNA data, sends it to the computer, and now you can actually see it visually. Okay. So, it’s gonna take a second for this, data to load up, it’s, and each of these Circles, each of these ovals, is an enzyme. And the data gets loaded up to see where it is. So, until it gets loaded up here, I didn’t preload this. There it goes. So… The primary thing about methylation is There’s a nasty substance called homocysteine that, if it’s too high, can really be detrimental. The body takes methylfolate, and combines with methyl B12, To bring this back up to methionine. And then through the MAT genes, we make SAMI, S-adml methionine. Which is involved in so many processes. Then after it does its thing, it turns back into homocysteine. And this thing needs to keep spinning around. That’s why, you know, it’s a good idea to keep homocysteine at, do you have a number that you’d like? 7, 8? What do you like for a number? Dr. Deb Muth 00:55:24 Yeah, I like mine below 7. Bob Miller 00:55:26 Yeah. So if the homocysteine goes too high. It, caused all kinds of problems. So, here’s where you ask about the MTHFR. So, here you can see on this individual. I click on MTHFR, and you can see it comes up here, here’s the C677. And you can see here where it says, variants. I’ll… I’ll draw in case somebody’s having a hard time seeing that. So, you can see there’s nothing in there. That means there’s no genetic mutations. If one parent would have given a mutation, there’d be a 1. If both parents did, there’d be a 2. Now, here’s why Yes, methylation is important, I’m not saying it isn’t important, but look at this MTHFRC677. In my software. Only 42.5% of the population does not have a mutation. 44.7% have won. 12.9 have 2. So, this isn’t some rare, oh my god, I’m gonna die… Kind of thing, yeah. Dr. Deb Muth 00:56:27 Right. Bob Miller 00:56:28 So, And then what happens is that, and again, I’m not dismissing methylation, I… we could do a whole show on methylation. Bob Miller 00:56:36 get it. But I think that what people are doing is they’re, they’re learning about MTHFR, they get it measured, they panic. They start taking massive amounts of methylfolate, which many times is to their detriment. Dr. Deb Muth 00:56:50 Well, it’s… and isn’t it true, too, with MTHFR, like, you have to also look at MTR, MTRR, and the more we stack up of those, the more complicated than MTHFR can be. It’s not… it’s not as simple as just saying MTHFR 677 versus 1298. It’s more complex than that, kind of like what you’ve already shown with some of the other things. There’s more to it than just that one little sliver. Bob Miller 00:57:17 Oh, sure, well, let’s take a look. So, remember I said there’s a cofactor? One of the cofactors is called FAD. Just a Bob Miller observation, that’s all. But when people have trouble with their riboflavin and they don’t have enough FAD, They’re doing much worse than people who have just a C677. So, right here, you could have perfect C677th. And if you don’t have the cofactor, it’s not gonna work, okay? Dr. Deb Muth 00:57:48 And as you said, there’s an MTR enzyme. Bob Miller 00:57:51 that takes methylfolate and methyl B12, to spin it around. So, here on this individual. here’s your… here’s your B vitamins, or I’m sorry, your B12s. There’s an enzyme called TCN1 that takes it from the stomach into the blood. Then there’s other enzymes that take it from the blood into the tissue. And if you’re having trouble here. Well, then you’re not going to have this working, so… Even if you don’t have MTHFR, And you have MTR, like this, no, I’m sorry, this person doesn’t. But they have the MTRR, and then they don’t have enough B12, this isn’t gonna work, aside from that. And then there’s a middle pathway. And then there’s enzymes called the MAT1. they take the methionine to the salmon. If that’s not working, we stick… we get stuck in methionine. So, it’s, it’s not just an MTHFR. And then, one of the things that people forget about. is through these CBS enzymes and CTH, We make cysteine, which is needed to make glutathione. The master antioxidant. So, it really is that… I call it the, The 3D chess game played underwater. Dr. Deb Muth 00:59:07 It really is. I mean, I see people who have CVS, COMT, glutathione, MGHFR genes. And some of them function just fine. Like, they have Like, I look at this person and I’m like, oh my gosh, I don’t know how they’re functioning because they’re double mutated on so many pathways, but yet they don’t have a lot of symptoms, they don’t have a lot of complications. Somehow their body has figured out a way to adapt to what it has so it can stay alive and it can function at a high functioning level. Bob Miller 00:59:36 Yeah, and they may be, you know, eating right? Yeah. Staying out of a moldy house. reducing stress. So, it’s diet, it’s stress, it’s genetics, environmental factors. So, yeah, we can’t just say somebody’s gonna be good or somebody’s gonna be bad. You know, some people get scared, oh, I got all these, it’s like, well… Bob Miller 00:59:56 Are you living in a moldy house? You know, and if you live in a moldy house and your glucuronidation pathway doesn’t do well, or if you’re, you know, a smoker, or you’re constantly eating junk food, I mean, all. Bob Miller 01:00:07 things come together. Although, you know, when we focus on genetics, we’re well aware that this is just a piece of it. You know, you could have identical twins, Genetically, and if one… Is exposed to mold and smokes and drinks and stressed out. They’re gonna be a whole lot sicker than their sibling. Bob Miller 01:00:28 Yep. Dr. Deb Muth 01:00:29 Yeah, it’s that concept of taking twins, and one gets raced with one family, and one gets raced with another family, and they don’t have the same… problems that… that each other have, you know? It’s a very unique situation, we don’t think about that enough. Bob Miller 01:00:44 Alright, so again, genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger. So, if you’ve got a loaded gun, but you don’t have the triggers, you’re okay. Dr. Deb Muth 01:00:53 Yeah. Bob Miller 01:00:54 Yeah. So, remember I said I was going to talk about NAD? So, here’s NAD, and what it does, it turns into NADH. And what NADH does, it, Comes down this pathway, what’s called the electron transport chain. And that makes your ATP, that’s your energy. So, if this wasn’t working, we wouldn’t be alive, because we wouldn’t have energy. So it donates an electron, that’s why it’s called electron transport chain. So, we need NAD, To make this, to make the energy. But remember I said that NQ01, this would probably be, like, on my top 10 list of… Bob Miller 01:01:36 Much more important than MTHFR. This one takes NADH back to NAD. If we’re stuck over here, We’re low in this NAD+, But what happens is, NQO1 also provides CoQ10. And CoQ10 Is what’s needed for the electron transport chain to flow. So if we get too many electrons up here. And they don’t turn them into energy. They make a nasty free radical called superoxide. Okay. Now, NAD plus also makes NADPH, And that is needed. Remember I said we need to recycle our antioxidants. So, if we have a problem with FAD from riboflavin. Yeah, we don’t have enough NADPH, Glutathione’s not getting recycled, and you’re gonna be inflamed. And you take glutathione, you’ll feel worse. There’s another enzyme called thimoredoxin. Same thing, needs NADPH and FAD. And same way with your nitric oxide, there’s an enzyme called NOS3, That makes the nitric oxide that dilates your blood vessels. And if we don’t have enough NADPH or fat, You’re gonna make superoxide. Rather than nitric oxide. Now, remember

Anne Beiler want to support her husband’s business by selling some homemade goods at the local food market. I guess it worked. Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients so here’s one of those. [Seaside Plumbing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with Stephen Semple and he whispered the topic in my ear and I don’t really have a clue. Auntie Anne’s- Stephen Semple: Pennsylvania Really? Dave Young: Yeah, I know. Stephen Semple: Pretzels. Dave Young: Remember, I don’t get around much. Auntie Anne’s pretzels. Yeah. And so I have an Auntie Anne. Stephen Semple: Oh, There you go. Dave Young: She’s my oldest living relative right now, and I like pretzels. So take it away. Stephen Semple: Anti-Anne’s is pretty big. They have like 2000 locations, 40 states, 26 countries. They do like 800 million in sales. It’s a bit of a deal. And it’s very homespun in terms of the branding, the showmanship, even the products. And some people consider the founder, Anne Beiler, to be kind of like the first lady of the American food court. Although I don’t know whether that’s really accurate, because we’ve had some other women entrepreneurs who are pretty early on in it. Dave Young: But this is primarily like mall food, food court kind of fare. Stephen Semple: Yes. Yes. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And in 1992 and in 1994, she was named Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Dave Young: All right. Stephen Semple: So pretty big deal. And the interesting thing is she was a stay-at-home mom with Amish roots from rural Pennsylvania. Dave Young: Oh, really? Okay. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And what she wanted to do was support her husband’s counseling service. And so, she borrowed $6,000, and she took an empty stall at a local food market, and she was selling drinks and pizzas and these soft pretzels. And really these soft pretzels came from, it was a regional taste that came basically from Pennsylvania’s German heritage. The big soft pretzel is kind of a German, is a German thing. Dave Young: Sure Stephen Semple: because it goes great with beer. Dave Young: Yeah. I concur. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And these soft pretzels, basically you can date them back to the sixth or seventh century in Central Europe, but they remain mostly regional until kind of like the late ’80s, here in North America. Here’s the thing. That was really great about the pretzels that she was selling. She can make them for about seven cents, in terms of the ingredients, and she was selling them for 55 cents. Dave Young: Nice. Stephen Semple: Right. But standing out and figuring out how to display them and whatnot really became the challenge. And she sought to upgrade them, and what she wanted to do was do something beyond kind of that German heritage. And she started doing things like adding sugar and baking powder and more butter. And ultimately she found this way to make them these really buttery, fluffy, decadent, slightly salty, slightly sweet pretzel. So it suddenly evolved away from that German heritage. When she got that recipe right, sales surged. She had a weekend where she sold like $2,000 out of this little stall at a farmer’s market of just the pretzels. Dave Young: That’s amazing. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So then she decided, okay, I’m going to lean into the pretzels. Let’s just do the pretzels. Let’s get rid of everything else, do the pretzels. But what I want to do is kind of create this warm, familiar identity. Dave, you often talk about naming things, right? And that’s when she decided, I’m going to call it Auntie Anne’s, because you know what everybody has? Dave Young: An Auntie Anne. Stephen Semple: An Auntie Anne. Dave Young: Yeah, we do. Stephen Semple: Yeah. It also echoed how her 30 nieces and nephews addressed her. They all addressed her as Auntie Anne. Dave Young: I love that. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So initially she was just doing things in farmer’s markets and then she decided to move into a mall. She thought, okay. She moved into the mall. This was suggested to her by a church friend and it was met with skepticism. She actually had a really hard time getting into a mall. Mall manager really doubted that this single item pretzel stand could cover the rent, and he dismissed the concept. He said, “No way.” But she was pretty determined. She proposed an upfront short term agreement, where she would basically do a three-month lease. “I’ll pay the money upfront. You can kick me out at the end of three months.” So it’s November 1989 and Auntie Anne’s opened some Park City Center in Lancaster. And basically,, they showcase live pretzel twisting and there’s the aroma. So people are seeing people twist the pretzels and they have this really great way that they displayed them and whatnot. Dave Young: Kind of flip them up in the air and let them land, and you do the little knot thing. Stephen Semple: And it was a hit within two years, like so much of a hit, within two years there were a hundred Auntie Anne locations and malls across America. Dave Young: No, that’s fantastic. Stephen Semple: Now here’s the part that I loved. This on skeptical mall manager, his name’s Monte Zanko, eventually became a franchisee. Dave Young: I don’t think this will work. Now I’m interested. Yeah. Stephen Semple: That was probably my favorite part of the whole story. But what I found that was cool about this is, she’s got her farmer’s market thing and she’s selling all sorts of stuff. And what she noticed was, the thing that really made money and sold really well was the pretzels. And then went back and said, “Okay, how do I improve on the pretzels?” Kept working on improving on pretzels and then they really sold like crazy. And if you think about it, this was around the same time that Cinnabon was coming out. So this idea of being able to survive in a mall with a single product was a pretty innovative idea. Dave Young: That’s really cool because that’s not easy. Mall stores, man, unless you have something that’s proven, and you’re going to have to prove it somewhere, she did it there. Stephen Semple: She did it there. And also there’s the whole, showing it being made like it’s that- Dave Young: You’re making an experience, right? It’s not like somebody just reaches under the counter and pulls out a pretzel. Stephen Semple: And again- Dave Young: There’s a show going on. Stephen Semple: Yes. And today that’s a little bit more common, because we’ve got restaurants where there’s seating in the kitchen and things along that line. But in the late ’80s, that wasn’t. And it’s interesting. I attend a course called the Strategic Coach. It’s a quarterly coaching program. It’s created by Dan Sullivan. And one of the things Dan talks about is businesses have a front stage and they have a backstage. So the front stage is the customer experience. What’s the customer see? The backstage, all the support things. And he’s often talking about one of the clever things you can do is, how do you bring elements of your backstage into your front stage so it becomes part of the customer experience. Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story, and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories To Sell] Dave Young: Let’s pick up our story where we left off and trust me you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: So the front stage is the customer experience. What’s the customer seeing backstage to all the support things? And he’s often talking about one of the clever things you can do is, how do you bring elements of your backstage into your front stage so it becomes part of the customer experience. Now when you do it, you’ve got to add the showmanship. If you’re a pizza place, the person’s got to throw the dough in the air, even if that’s not really the way you do it anymore. If it’s food being chopped, like I love watching these YouTube videos today of these Japanese bartenders who are doing the stuff with the knife and things like that [inaudible 00:10:23]. Dave Young: Oh, yeah. You could have Benihanas or something. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Oh, it’s incredible to watch. So she was, from what I can tell from research, she was like one of the very first because Benihana was just coming on this scene. She was one of the first to embrace this idea of let’s show people how this is being done, which then draws a crowd and also makes people more interested in the product. Dave Young: Well, here’s the thing. It gives us a little story to tell. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Right? I watched them do… You’re going to go tell people that you watched them make these pretzels. Stephen Semple: Oh, next time we’re in the mall, Dave, let’s go by and check it out, right? Dave Young: I’m thinking to myself, okay, you said this is going to be kind of a short episode, but I think we can go someplace with this. Okay? Stephen Semple: Yep. Dave Young: What’s the best pretzel you ever had? Tell me about the best pretzel you ever had. Stephen Semple: Christmas, 1999, Germany. Dave Young: Okay. See, so here’s the thing. That’s the perfect answer. Stephen Semple: Literally at a Christmas thing in Germany, drinking. Dave Young: Here’s why that’s the perfect answer. It’s because there’s a context to it, that it wasn’t at a mall. Stephen Semple: No. Dave Young: Right. It wasn’t one of those. But you can go to the mall and get a pretzel, and relive that Christmas. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: In your mind, you can go, oh, this tastes almost like the one… It’s not quite as good. It’s almost like one. Stephen Semple: Actually not 1999, 2001. Sorry. But, yeah. Dave Young: I equate that to, in the Whiskey Vault at the Whiskey Marketing School at Wizard Academy, you and I wrote songs. And some of you like to talk about all the tastes and weird tasting notes and smelling notes that you get in the whiskey. And for me, it’s always about the story. This is the whiskey that my dad drank, or this is the whiskey that Steve and I shared in Florence, except he’s not taking me to Florence. But I’m saying we could have that memory, but it comes back to the context around the product, or the drink, or the pretzel. And if you can do something that makes somebody remember it. And if you can’t, then you give them the little story, the front of the room, the front stage, the main stage. Is that what did you call it? Stephen Semple: Well, it’s front stage and backstage. You don’t think about it. Dave Young: The front stage and backstage. Stephen Semple: And where this came from, Dan is Dan had a theater background, right? Dave Young: Oh yeah. Stephen Semple: As a producer, you’re sort of familiar with front stage, backstage, but it’s this whole idea of sometimes consciously, consciously bring that backstage into the front stage. And look, we can do it easier than ever before, because I talked to a lot of my clients about social media postings. You’re repairing the roof to the RV, show it being torn apart and rebuilt, and what you’re doing. That’s bringing your backstage into your front stage and people find that stuff interesting. Dave Young: May I share another one? Stephen Semple: Sure. Dave Young: This is something we’re actually doing at Wizard Academy. Stephen Semple: Because these are great ideas for people to think about. Dan believes every business has this opportunity to do this. It’s one of the things that they teach. So anyway, please, please. Yes. Dave Young: So when’s the first time you went to Wizard Academy? Your very first trip. Stephen Semple: I can’t remember the year. It’s funny. I always forget what… I’m terrible at remembering years, but I remember the first time stepping on campus. Absolutely. Dave Young: Yeah. And so we have that in our records. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: All right. And can you name all the times in between? Stephen Semple: No. Dave Young: And, we have that in our records. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: Our front stage experience that brings the backstage in, and this is something we just started doing. In fact, I haven’t even worked out really the… It could be time-consuming with the middle to large group is we’ve actually created Wizard Academy Passports. And you get to stamp your passport with all the times you’ve been for each different class, and then we’ll date them and sign them in front of you like you’re at, not the TSA, but the customs office or something. And we make a little ceremony out of it, and celebrate all the times you’ve been. And if it’s your first time, you get your passport, and you get to stamp it and now you take it with you and you’re looking forward to the next one. Stephen Semple: Well, and the thing that’s interesting about that is it makes it also a tactile experience. Dave Young: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I’ve got a little Kodak printer. So we take a picture of you. It doesn’t have to be a serious picture like a regular passport. Stephen Semple: So one of the things that they don’t do this any longer at the Strategic Coach, what they used to do. So again, talking about tactile experiences and things along that lines, is they had a visioning exercise that they would do and what they would actually do in that moment that they would start the visioning exercise, they would start popping popcorn. Because the whole exercise, like you’re supposed to envision being in a movie theater, watching a movie of your life and things along that lines. Well, nothing brings somebody back to a movie theater than- Dave Young: The smell. Stephen Semple: The smell of Popping popcorn. Dave Young: Yeah, exactly. Stephen Semple: Right? But again, it was like… Now that’s not backstage/ front stage. That’s more like sent recalls and things along that lines. But I just want to add this. This is probably the most important message from all of this. Way too many businesses think what they should do is extend the number of products that they sell. It’s actually easier to become famous for one thing. It’s harder to become famous for many things. And the number of businesses out there, like big businesses, that have tried to extend their brand and have it fail is incredible. So this narrow focus, while initially everybody thought, “That’s crazy,” actually was their success because she could become famous for one thing, the best pretzels. Dave Young: Right. Yeah. I love it. I love it. I’m glad Auntie Anne has seen such wild success. Is it a franchise or is it- Stephen Semple: It is a franchise. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Yep. It’s a franchise. And as I said, they’ve now got like 2000 of them. Dave Young: So you, too, can be Auntie Anne. Stephen Semple: That’s true. You can. You can. Dave Young: Okay. All right. Well, thanks for the Auntie Anne pretzel story. I’m getting kind of hungry sitting here. Stephen Semple: Yeah. There you go. Dave Young: We’ll see you next time. Stephen Semple: All right. And pretzels go great with beer. They go great with beer. Dave Young: Sure. Sure they do. Why wouldn’t we? It’s almost 8:30 in the morning. Stephen Semple: There you are. Dave Young: That sounds like a great breakfast. Stephen Semple: Breakfast of champions. Dave Young: Pretzels and beer. Thanks, Stephen. Stephen Semple: Great. Thanks, David. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a big fat, juicy five star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute Empire Building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

Beave and Midge get down and dirty about how Israel is about to be a new state. We don't want more wars unless we're told we want more war and the Amish get their own road lane??? Enjoy the show!!!Discord link: https://discord.gg/UZfnemNzN8If you're enjoying the show and want to let us know how much you adore us, hate us, have an idea for a topic or think yourself or someone you know would make a great guest then contact us at thembmachinepodcast.com or email us at mbmachinepod@protonmail.com. You can also, subscribe to make sure you never miss a new episode, leave a comment on Spotify or just "like it" on whatever platform you're listening on! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

"Someone said to me recently, 'You're so lucky that you get to work at home and do this stuff.' And I said, 'Luck has nothing to do with it. I consciously created my life. I love it because it's mine. I made it.'" In this episode, podcast host Sarah Elkins and ghostwriter and publisher Lana McAra discuss Lana's unique approach to publishing and her deep understanding of what it takes to be an effective ghost writer for fiction and nonfiction books. Lana grew up in an Amish community in Pennsylvania, but wasn't raised in an Amish household. Growing up on the edge of that tightknit community fostered her ability to provide a detached, professional listening style, allowing Lana to draw out client vulnerability without personal entanglement. Her approach to ghost writing and guiding authors in her publishing business is "co-creation". She's a guide, someone who listens to ideas and gently engages the writer or co-creator with questions that shift the conversation, pulling a thread that the co-creator might not have even noticed was unraveling - in a beautiful, thoughtful way. Highlights: "Slow Down and Listen" is her Guiding Principle: A personal realization that "life is lived in between" the big events drives Lana's practice of slowing down to be fully present, which she sees as the key to connection. Lana's active listening—reflecting back her nearly 80 year old client's ideas simplified his complex philosophical ideas into simpler terms—and made him feel truly understood. The client's demeanor transformed into a "sweet collaboration." Client Quote: "There aren't many people that I can talk to about this... except for you." Lana homeschooled seven children for 25 years. Method: Used hands-on projects (e.g., decoupage placemats from Christmas cards) to create a relaxed environment. Result: These activities fostered natural conversation and connection, replacing bickering with "magical" moments. Quotes: "Life is lived in between. Life is lived in the moments in between the big events. It's those moments when life is really, really happening." "If I sit quietly with them [ghostwriting clients] for a few minutes, I can ... tune in to where they're coming from through this active listening that I've learned to do over the years. Then I can hear them at that deeper level, [I hear] what's going on behind the words." "I have a publishing company that is a traditional publisher but we do it a different way, ... the author keeps all their rights. They keep creative control and still get the wide distribution and support that you would expect from a traditional publisher." --- Listeners, now it's your turn: What did you get from this conversation? Maybe you're going to go look for the Object Diaries podcast hosted byLisa Weiss. Maybe you're going to pick out your object that becomes the focal point of a story. Will you realize that you have a great story in you and you just need a little help to craft it? I'd love to hear your thoughts after you listen to this episode send me a message go to elkinsconsulting.com or send me a message on LinkedIn or Instagram. About Lana: Lana McAra is an award-winning, international bestselling author and ghostwriter of more than 50 books with over one million copies sold. Founder of Vendela Publishing, she works with writers who want to build long-term careers and reach readers beyond the algorithm. Lana has spent more than two decades teaching fiction writing and speaking to writers about the business of publishing. Learn more by visiting her links - https://www.lanamcara.com/ https://vendelapublishing.com/ https://substack.com/@inthewriterschair About Sarah: Sarah is a Montana based workplace communication trainer, TEDx speaker, DisruptHR speaker, public speaking coach, professional storyteller, musician, and podcast host. Her workshops and coaching packages with teams and their leaders are known to address and reduce miscommunication – the most common cause of tension and stress in the workplace. Using the team's results from the StrengthsFinder assessment, she guides teams in learning to speak each other's "language", learning to value each other's strengths and connecting with each other through enhanced self-reflection and effective listening.  Sarah's nearly 20 years working in government agencies inspired her to complete her MBA and to achieve her StrengthsFinder certification to improve work environments for others, guiding teams toward increased satisfaction, productivity, and happiness. Visit her website to purchase her book, Your Stories Don't Define You in paperback or audiobook.

TEATIME WITH MISS LIZ SERVES: Haley StrawTitleAmish Stories & Hidden Journeys: Finding Courage on the Backroads of Life TaglineSometimes the roads we never planned to travel become the ones that transform us most. DescriptionOn June 9th at 3 PM EST, Teatime with Miss Liz welcomes Haley Straw — author, homeschooling mother of six, and former Amish taxi driver whose unexpected journey opened the door to a world few people ever truly see. What began as a fearful decision to drive Amish families to weddings, funerals, hospitals, and emergencies became a life-changing experience rooted in faith, resilience, simplicity, and human connection. Through years spent travelling, laughter, courage, and the beauty found in ordinary moments. Her storytelling reflects the deeper truths that emerge when life pushes us beyond our comfort zones and into unexpected growth. This Teatime explores transformation, authenticity, faith, courage, community, and the unseen ways life reshapes us through everyday experiences. Opening:Welcome, remind us how deeply connected humanity truly is. Today's guest brings us into a world many people are curious about, but few truly experience firsthand. Haley Straw's journey began with uncertainty and fear, but one unexpected opportunity completely changed the direction of her life. Driving Amish families through moments of celebration, hardship, loss, and everyday life became more than a job — it became a journey of understanding, growth, and discovery of the beauty hidden in ordinary moments. Her story reminds us that courage is not always loud. Sometimes courage quietly shows up on one road, one conversation, and one choice at a time. Haley, welcome to Teatime with Miss Liz. Closing: Tonight's conversation reminds us that transformation often happens slowly and quietly. Haley Straw's journey through Amish country shows us the beauty of simplicity, the power of human connection, and the courage it takes to cross unseen boundaries in life. Sometimes we believe growth comes through grand moments, but often it's found on ordinary roads, in unexpected conversations, and in the willingness to keep moving forward even when we are afraid. As we leave today's Teatime, may we all reflect on this: What unseen journey in your own life may actually be shaping you into who you are meant to become? Haley Straw is an author, former Amish taxi driver, and homeschooling mother of six whose life was transformed through years spent driving Amish families throughout rural Missouri. Through storytelling rooted in faith, resilience, and authenticity, she shares powerful reflections on courage, community, simplicity, and the quiet transformation found in everyday life. Favourite ColourPeacock Blue: One Word That Describes HerAuthentic Her T-E-ETransformationAuthenticityFaith Three Phrases That Share Her StoryCrossing unseen boundariesCourage was learned the hard wayFinding common ground in Social MediaFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/HaleyStraw6 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/amishtaxiauthor/ TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@amishtaxiauthor YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@amishtaxidriver Website:https://www.haleystraw.com/#TeatimeWithMissLiz#AmishStories#AuthenticJourneys#RealLifeTEA#MakingADifferenceOneCupAtATime

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Lance and Lea Lance and Lea are Nashville's definition of “two worlds collide”—and somehow it works so well it feels inevitable. Their story starts on opposite sides of the tracks: Lea grew up Amish, singing country and gospel hymns in church, while Lance came up as a rock musician in the gritty Texas club scene. They met in Nashville, booked a single songwriting session, and by the end of that first write the duo Lance and Lea was born. That contrast is the engine of their sound. Their music lives where old-school country meets rock, powered by Lance's Texas blues guitar riffs and Lea's pure, soothing lead voice and harmony instincts. Together they've built a creative partnership that's relentlessly productive—writing over 1,000 songs—and the result is a catalog that feels both rooted and fresh. http://www.makingascene.org

Amish life in the Depression? Don't know why, but it never occurred to me that they would've felt the effects. And a fictionalized version of Sarah Heatwole's family's story?  Listen in and see why I bought my copy right away! note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.  I'm always looking for great depression stories, but I have to admit that I didn't expect to find on about the Amish. I also loved hearing about them choosing Jesus above all.  Yep. Time to read! Into the Promised Land by Sarah Heatwole  As a child Andy Troyer longs for a brighter future, one free from the desperate shadow of hunger and loss. When his father becomes a minister, it lifts the family out of poverty, but the newfound improvement in circumstances does nothing to quell the desires in Andy's heart. Can the peaceful life his Amish community offers provide the answers he seeks, or will his heart carve its own path? In the neighboring district, Sylvia grows up in a world painted with love and privilege. An unexpected tragedy throws her life into turmoil, plunging her into a world of darkness. One night, a dream ignites a profound transformation within her, unfolding a journey infused with faith, redemption, and changing the trajectory of those around her forever. When Andy and Sylvia's paths converge, they find in each other a shared spirit and an undeniable connection. Their lives become intertwined as they fall in love with each other and Jesus. As they reckon with the repercussions of embracing their new beliefs, they must find the courage to follow their hearts. Inspired by a true story, Into the Promised Land is an old-fashioned tale of love and loss, courage and forgiveness, and the reminder that the irresistible call of God isn't always easy but following Him changes lives for eternity. Learn more on Sarah's WEBSITE and follow on GoodReads and BookBub. Like to listen on the go? You can find Because Fiction Podcast at: Apple Castbox Google Play Libsyn RSS Spotify Amazon YouTube and more!

A parking-lot pop-up two years ago is now a full storefront with a now-famous 11-foot Amish blow-up greeting visitors at the door. On this Valley Business Today edition of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael sits down at the Front Royal-Warren County Chamber with Chamber Director Niki Foster and Zach Burke, owner of Lancaster County Connection, to talk about how the business grew from a single TLC parking-lot weekend into a home base inside the Loose Cow Mercantile — and what it really takes to run a quality-first, hand-picked retail business as a side hustle. Zach walks through what makes his lineup different: Amish-made wood crafts hand-selected monthly from two friends' farms in Lancaster County, paint that holds up for seven years, clean-burning Crossroads candles he discovered after his own pets got sick from chemical scents, and Lancaster County Coffee Roasters beans that don't get roasted until you order them. The conversation also gets into the realities of small-business retail — pricing your work without apologizing for it, ordering Christmas inventory in July, and competing on a timeline the big-box stores set. Plus: Niki previews Coffee & Conversation with the new Warren County Schools superintendent, and a Chamber rebrand and new website on the horizon. VISIT INFO — LANCASTER COUNTY CONNECTION (inside the Loose Cow Mercantile) 18 High Street, Front Royal (the old Happy Creek Coffee Company, behind Bungalow, across from the gazebo — look for the building with the butterflies painted on the wall) Hours: 12–6 daily (closed Tuesdays) • Saturday 10–6 • Sunday 10–6 (aligned with the Main Street farmers market) What you'll find: hand-selected Amish wood crafts, Crossroads candles, Primitives by Kathy, custom-order Amish furniture (~4–6 week lead time), customized mailboxes, freshly roasted Lancaster County Coffee Roasters coffee (taste a sample on the weekends), and a seasonal rotation that goes hard on every holiday. Custom pieces and pre-orders welcome — ask in the shop or via social media LINKS & RESOURCES • Lancaster County Connection on Facebook and Instagram (and soon TikTok)  Front Royal-Warren County Chamber of Commerce: frontroyalchamber.com (a rebrand and new site coming soon)  ALSO MENTIONED • Coffee & Conversation — Friday, June 5 • 9 AM at On Cue • Free, open to anyone (not just Chamber members) • Featuring Dr. Troy Wright, Superintendent of Warren County Public Schools  THE VALLEY TODAY with Janet Michael — A decade of conversations. New podcast episodes drop weekdays at 11 AM. Catch the show on The River 95.3 and Fox Sports 1450 AM weekdays just after noon. Subscribe and listen at thevalleytodaypodcast.com — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy the show, please take a moment to leave a rating or review — it helps more listeners find us. Connect with us: Facebook — facebook.com/ValleyTodayFanPage Instagram — instagram.com/thevalleytoday

CHECK OUT - www.catalyzecapemay.com

We catch up with former Hawkeyes Landan and Levi Paulsen in Kalona, Iowa, joking about local businesses, Amish country, and sponsorship dreams (including Kalona Supernatural Dairy). The conversation turns to post-football health, major weight loss, and a rundown of numerous surgeries—highlighted by Levi's gruesome big-toe capsule tear story. Landan shares how jiu-jitsu (training at Citadel in Iowa City) became his new competitive outlet and Kevin joins to add his own Citadel injury story, while Levi explains his shift into endurance sports and training for a three-day gravel/swim/run event. They discuss fueling, the psychology of pursuing hard challenges after Iowa football, anxiety around fall camp, fatherhood updates, and how Landan and Levi helped grow an F3 men's fitness/community group built on Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith. If you love the show and want to show support, tell your friends! And, check out our exclusive content at Patreon.com/washedupwalkons where you can find extra podcast episodes, exclusive merchandise, Merch discounts with every tier, private Walkon discord channel access, and more! Find us on social media @washedupwalkons Visit TheWashedUpWalkons.com for all of our episodes, merchandise, and more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

 In this episode, I share our nine‑day trip that became far more than a vacation—it became a reset button for our marriage and a living lesson in what firm commitment really looks like.The journey begins in Maryland, serving alongside our sons and a group of young adults in a community project called “Shop the Block.” , “There's a different kind of closeness that comes from serving together,” a line that captures the spirit of the trip's beginning.From there, we wander through Amish country, where the simplicity and intentionality of the Amish way of life sparks reflection on how easily modern life pulls us away from what matters most. Their route continues through early church history sites in Palmyra and Kirtland, where the sacrifices and steadfastness of early Saints deepen our appreciation for conviction and devotion.The trip also brings moments of awe—like braving the icy winds on the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls—and moments of tenderness, like watching Dave stand proudly in front of the Progressive Insurance headquarters where he spent 37 years building a career and supporting their family. “He was committed. Deeply. Quietly. Consistently.”These experiences lead me into a heartfelt exploration of the difference between being committed and being firmly committed—especially in marriage. I reflect on the cultural shift toward self‑focused relationships, the challenges we have faced (including the grief of losing Jessica), and the daily choice to turn toward each other rather than away.I also share insights gathered from couples we've  worked with:Holding an eternal, long‑term perspectiveLetting nothing stand in the way of prioritizing the marriageOffering grace through life's phasesKeeping excitement alive through intentional datingDedicatedBeing “all in”Communicating honestly, even when it's uncomfortableUltimately,  firm commitment isn't flashy—it's steady, daily, and sacred. It anchors us. It shapes how we love. And it carries us through.I invite you, my listeners,  to reflect on their own lives:Where are you firmly committed—and how does that commitment shape who you are becoming? To connect with Angela AdamsShoot me an email:  adamsangela707@gmail.com 

Lancaster County, PA has a new cultural center, the nation's premier rock & roll tour hub, compelling historic sites, intriguing 2026 events, and yes, Amish culture, making it a top summer vacation destination. We discussed what's new, and what's often overlooked, with Jeff Vasser of Discover Lancaster.Mentioned in this episode:Check out all of our other travel podcasts from around the worldThis podcast is part of the Voyascape Travel Network, that brings together the world's best travel podcasts. You can find all of our podcasts from around the world at Voyascape.com. If you are interested in advertising or sponsored content on any of our shows you can find out more at the link below.Voyascape Podcast Network

STORMY Saturday Evening AMISH  Stream - Folklore, Witchcraft, Secrets, and MOREBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/missing-persons-mysteries--5624803/support.

Send us Fan MailToo many big moments to do justice to a single conversational thread on this episode. Dr Dave's eldest grandson is graduating 8th grade today, which is a huge deal for some of his buddies who are Amish. They're done with formal education. Meanwhile, an update on David's Pappy and his ascendancy to nursing home royalty challenges any assumption that we might ever, truly, be done. Respect to all since, as David closed with, "I can work a crowd but I can't milk a cow."

In today's episode we are joined by a young amish male. He is on Rumspringa and has had a wild run from being on Theo Von, Skydiving out of the very first airplane he was in, traveling the country and creating his own YouTube channel. Collaborating with creators such as Danny Duncan, Westin Champlin, CboysTV and MORE.  We dive into what his colony thinks of his YouTube journey, trying milk not from a cow for the first time, Drag racing buggies to school, paying taxes, meeting girls, Rolling his buggy as a kid, how the Amish punish their youth, being judged for social media, and his FYP exposed. Get your tickets in ADVANCE for our event, Octane Fest: https://www.birmn.com/octane-autofest Check out Timmys Channels https://www.instagram.com/amishdude_/ https://www.youtube.com/@ThatAmishDude   To watch the podcast on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenYT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, or send this link to a friend: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can also check out our main YouTube channel CboysTV: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/CboysTV⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  

Late Show - Legends, Tales, and Folklore of the Amish Mennonite and Pennsylvania DutchBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/missing-persons-mysteries--5624803/support.

In this episode, Rivers and Sam are hangin' at Disgraceland Studios with our best good pal, comedian Joe Kaye! We start this one off by opening a care package from Tennessee , courtesy of our buddy Nashville Will. Will generously sent over some Amish sweet treats along with a rather unsettling jar of pickled bologna. He was also nice enough to send along a regional ungodly concoction called "Tennergy," produced by an eccentric cast of local charaters from the Volunteer State. Rivers takes a moment to share fond memories and pays tribute to a beloved Yukon Territory landmark known as "The Pit," which was recently lost to a fire. We also discus Mr. Wonderful's new data center that's threatening to swallow Utah whole. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's "Still D.R.E." is our Jam of the Week! Tune in now, y'all.  Follow Joe on social media @JoeCharlesKaye  Follow the show on social media @TheGoodsPod  Rivers is @RiversLangley  Sam is @SamHarter666 Carter is @Carter_Glascock  Subscribe on Patreon for the UNCUT video version of this episode as well as TONS of bonus content!  http://patreon.com/TheGoodsPod   Pick up a Goods from the Woods t-shirt here:  http://prowrestlingtees.com/TheGoodsPod 

In this profound exploration of Matthew 22:1-14, we examine Jesus's parable of the wedding feast—one of the most theologically dense teachings in Scripture. This parable reveals the magnificent scope of God's gospel invitation extended to all humanity, the tragic reality of human rejection, and the sovereign grace that ensures God's purposes will not be thwarted. Through the imagery of a royal wedding banquet, Jesus addresses the religious leaders who challenged His authority while simultaneously unveiling timeless truths about salvation, election, and the nature of the Church. This episode unpacks the parable's layers of meaning, from the universal call of the gospel to the particular grace of election, equipping believers to understand both the urgency and the sovereignty of God's redemptive work. Key Takeaways The Universal Gospel Call Is Genuine and Urgent: God's invitation to salvation goes out indiscriminately to all people, regardless of ethnicity, social status, or moral condition. This external call is sincere, well-meant, and accompanied by genuine offers of grace. Human Rejection Is Willful and Culpable: The parable demonstrates that humanity's refusal of God's invitation is not due to insufficient information but to volitional rebellion. This rejection often progresses from indifference to active hostility against God and His messengers. God's Sovereign Purposes Cannot Be Frustrated: Despite widespread rejection, the wedding hall will be filled. God's redemptive plan includes the expansion of His covenant community beyond ethnic Israel to include Gentiles from every nation. The Wedding Garment Represents Imputed Righteousness: The garment required for the feast symbolizes the righteousness of Christ, received by faith alone, not earned through human effort. This illustrates the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. The Visible Church Contains Both Genuine and False Believers: The parable warns that not all who hear the gospel and enter the visible church possess true saving faith, distinguishing between the external call and the internal, effectual work of the Spirit. Eternal Punishment Is Real and Conscious: The parable's conclusion soberly affirms the doctrine of eternal, conscious punishment for those who reject Christ, depicted as "outer darkness" with "weeping and gnashing of teeth." "Many Are Called, But Few Are Chosen": This foundational statement maintains the biblical tension between the universal external call of the gospel and the particular, effectual call of God that sovereignly draws the elect to salvation. Key Concepts The Nature of the Gospel Call: External and Effectual Reformed theology has carefully distinguished between two aspects of God's call. The external or general call is the sincere proclamation of the gospel to all without distinction, inviting everyone to faith and repentance. This call is genuine on God's part—He truly offers salvation to all who hear. However, due to total depravity, the natural person will not respond to this call on their own. The internal or effectual call is the sovereign, irresistible work of the Holy Spirit by which the elect are regenerated, have their wills renewed, and are infallibly brought to saving faith. This distinction preserves both human responsibility (we are culpable for rejecting a genuine offer) and divine sovereignty (God alone saves by His grace). The parable beautifully illustrates both realities: servants genuinely invite all they find on the highways, yet the King ultimately determines who is properly clothed for the feast. The Wedding Garment and Justification by Faith Alone The wedding garment represents one of the parable's most critical theological elements. In ancient Near Eastern culture, hosts often provided garments for wedding guests, making the lack of proper attire inexcusable. Theologically, this garment symbolizes the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers—a righteousness not produced by human effort but received through faith alone. This directly confronts any notion of works-righteousness or the idea that we can stand before God based on our own moral achievements, religious observances, or church membership. The man without the garment represents those who presume to approach God on the basis of their own righteousness rather than Christ's alien righteousness. His speechlessness before judgment illustrates that on the last day, no one will successfully argue their case on grounds of personal merit. This underscores the Reformation principle of sola gratia and sola fide—salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, clothing us in a righteousness that is entirely Christ's. The Tension Between Universal Call and Particular Election The parable's conclusion—"many are called, but few are chosen"—encapsulates one of theology's profound mysteries. This statement places two realities side by side without resolving the tension philosophically. The invitation truly goes to all (universal call), yet only some respond savingly (particular election). Reformed theology maintains this biblical tension rather than collapsing it in either direction. We don't limit the external call only to the elect (hyper-Calvinism), nor do we make the internal call dependent solely on human decision (Arminianism). Instead, we affirm that the gospel invitation is genuinely universal while the effectual drawing is sovereignly particular. This means Christians can proclaim unreservedly, "Christ has died for you" to any person, knowing the offer is sincere, while simultaneously trusting that God will infallibly save all His elect through that proclamation. Memorable Quotes "The most scandalous and tragic thing that could happen at a wedding or a wedding banquet is that nobody shows up. The guests don't come. Or in fact, not only do they not come, they don't want to come—they burn the invitations." "You don't bring anything to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary." "Many a man in this world will silence his own conscience with many a fair excuse. But in that day, there will be no excuse, no plea, no delay." - William Perkins Full Episode Transcript [00:00:58] Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 493 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse, and this is the podcast where we will talk about every single parable. Hey, brothers and sisters. So when was the last time that you were at a wedding? I think weddings are one of the most glorious of all kinds of human events and celebrations, and I think the solemness of the vows and the promises that are exchanged between a man and a woman in marriage in that ceremony, or maybe only equaled by the joy of those same vows and promises. And of course, the whole point of coming together to celebrate a, a wedding. Is to make that joy consummate and complete by having others participate in it. The seeing the union of a man and a woman become one, the excitement of that love expressed in promise and commitment. It's an incredible thing. And I was thinking about this recently because our wedding invitation is actually framed in, in our living room because one of the guests that we invited gave that to us as a really thoughtful gift. And so our wedding ceremony and the party that followed, and it was a. Amazing and awesome party, especially thanks to my in-laws and my parents who generously made sure that that was possible was an exceptional event that we still talk about all the time. Actually, you know, in my wedding when we had this grand kind of wedding banquet afterwards, we had a friend of ours who actually performed the song that we danced to on grand piano and sang for us, which is amazing. We had a DJ in one room and we had a live jazz band in another, and I specifically recall. That when we left late in the evening, my new wife and I, that there were still people on the dance floor having a good time. And I thought, this is the way it's supposed to be. I mean, this is a wedding. This is a wedding banquet. [00:02:58] Why No One Comes [00:02:58] Jesse Schwamb: And so it also made me think recently, especially as we find ourselves in Matthew chapter 22, continuing to look at all these incredible parables that Jesus gives to us, that perhaps the most scandalous and tragic thing that could happen at a wedding or a wedding banquet is that nobody shows up. The guests don't come. Or in fact, like not only do they not come, they don't want to come, they burn the invitations. They wanna have nothing to do with the celebration or the ceremony itself. And so Jesus has been doing all of this teaching that we've been tracking, and he's been responding to these leaders in the Jewish community, the people we call the Pharisees and the scribes who have challenged his authority. And he's been progressing in the way that he's almost ratcheting up the language that he's using, the indictments that he's bringing to them. And now he's about to bring in weddings and specifically the wedding banquet. And that is where we're gonna find ourselves in a Matthew Chapter 22. Now, by the way, I should also mention that because my wife is super popular lady and super lovable. We had a pretty large wedding. I think we had over 200 guests, and so. Because my father-in-law is retired military, we were actually able to have our whole wedding banquet, our whole celebration and party on a local army base. But because of that, it meant that before you could actually get onto the base, all of our guests. Had to be searched. So it's nothing like, you know, basically just shaken down your wedding guests before they show up. So that also was super fun.  [00:04:32] Reading Matthew 22 [00:04:32] Jesse Schwamb: But let's go to the scriptures, everybody. So here's Matthew chapter 22. Uh, listen to this as we take a look at what Jesus has to say and why he brings in weddings. Actually, it might be helpful to say or to give you something, rather to listen to or listen for before you even hear me read the scriptures because. This parable of this wedding banquet, it is definitely one of the most theologically dense parables in the entire synaptic tradition. It is set like we've been saying within the final week of Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem, and it's embedded in the sequence of confrontational exchanges that he's having with the Jewish leadership because they have challenged his authority. And so as you listen to this being read, I want you to clue in, key in as they say to a couple of things. See if you can find the, like the Christological proclamation in this. There's a, a covenantal poll. I think there's some sociological instruction and there's an eschatological warning. All of this happens as is Jesus's jam in the short span of several verses where he illuminates all of these principles of the sovereign grace of God and the summons of the gospel. Total depravity and culpability of this, these rebellious people who refuse the call, the historical judgment of God upon the covenant breaking Israel. And then of course, the subsequent expansion of that covenant into the community include to include the Gentiles. All of this is happening. In this parable, and so I want you just to listen for that as we together read. Or in my case, I guess I just read, especially if you're driving, do not read the parable that begins in the first part of Matthew chapter 22. Here's the word of God. And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables saying The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and he sent out his slaves to call those who had been called to the wedding feast and they were unwilling to come again. He sent out other slaves saying, tell those who have been called. Behold. I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fon livestock are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized the slaves and mistreated them and killed them. But the king was enraged and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, the wedding is ready, but those who were called were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the main highways and as many as you find there, call to the wedding feast. And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who is not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes? And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called, but few are chosen.  [00:07:50] Parable Context [00:07:50] Jesse Schwamb: Wow. So what an incredible. Story, what an incredible foundation or rubric or context in which so many rich theological concepts and pastoral concepts, doctrinal concepts are given to us from Jesus. And you'll notice that of course, chronologically here, this parable is following the parable of the two sons and the parable of the wicked tenants. Those are the vine growers that we were talking about over the last several episodes. And this one rounds everything out. It forms like a triptych of rejection parables directed against these chief priests and the Pharisees who keep coming after Jesus and his authority. And Matthew signals this kind of escalating tension. The Jewish leaders are now explicitly seeking to arrest Jesus. And Jesus responds not by treating their, not by retreating, of course, but by intensifying his indictment in this parabolic form. And here's where we arrive in Matthew 22. It's interesting to me, of course, that this is the approach that Jesus takes. He has already conveyed these two great stories, and at the end of the last one, Tony and I spoke about how this was where at least Matthew explains to us very directly that the, the Pharisees and the scribes, they understood, they discerned that Jesus was speaking about them, and yet Jesus says, I'm not done yet. I've got one more. And this is the culmination of all the things that he's been saying. And it starts again in verse one with Jesus saying, and again, he spoke to them in a parable. You know, it signals that the parable itself is still a reply. Not to a verbal question at this immediate moment, but to this ongoing posture of rejection exhibited by the religious leaders. You notice that what Matthew says here is very, I think, theologically significant in light of where Jesus explains that the parables both reveal and they conceal their instruments of divine judgment upon heart and hearts, even as they illuminate those with ears to hear. This is why I think it's just so important that as Christians. Even as we study God's word, as we participate in it, so to speak, as we let it read us, that we come with this posture of prayer, that we desperately need God's Holy, holy, holy Spirit to illuminate for us what the scriptures say, to lead us into the paths of righteousness and judgment, which are present in the scriptures, so that we may understand them with these spirit-filled eyes, with a spirit enabled brain with ears that have been unstopped by the spirit. So these parables are the mode by which Christ simultaneously honors and judges his audience. He shows indirectly what it would've been of no use to state plainly. And so the parable form itself is really part of the message here. I think that's something hopefully you picked up as we've been processing them all together, that Jesus opponents cannot arrest what they cannot fully comprehend, yet their incomprehension is itself their condemnation, right? This is, this is the mystery. Of the gospel of what God does, where there is this outward and full unbiased external call, and yet there is something that is efficacious by the power of the Holy Spirit for those whom God has chosen and called to himself so reformed to eus. Are attentive to the authorial intent in historical situatedness of each thing that Jesus says. That's one of the things I think is great about the way in which we kind of have organized our theological perspective and these parables function as a prophetic oracle of judgment. And certainly that's like in an Old Testament accent. I mean, that's the Old Testament jam. It's an Old Testament lawsuit kind of John. It's like law and order. If law and order were Moses, were doing it right. So notice that again, as Tony and I've said so many times before, what I kind of always find so phenomenal about these parables is that often we think of parables as having the main object of being a noun of some kind. It's a person, it's a place. It's a thing that is sometimes the case, but more often than not, it's one of those nouns associated with a verb.  [00:11:59] Kingdom And The King [00:11:59] Jesse Schwamb: And so we get that in verse two. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to what? To a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. And so it implies that the kingdom is being revealed and likened in a definitive act. We got verbs, loved ones. This is the classic. The ultimate, God does all the verbs because you're gonna hear her over and over again. God is going out. God is giving. God is seeking. God is going after, and these verbs are really the center of the parable itself. It's not just that it's the wedding banquet as maybe the title in your scripture gives you, but it's more about this giving of this event and it's preparing of this grand feast. And so the recurrence of this allegory seemed, I think, pretty straightforward to us. The the king is God, the Father, the Son is Christ, and the wedding banquet, which by the way in the Greek here is plural, is really emphasizing that it's a totality of an occasion. This is the Messianic feast. This is the eschatological consummation of the Covenant of Grace. And that image imagery draws like so deep from this Old Testament well and background of God as the husband and the bridegroom of Israel. Again, how lovely and amazing for Jesus and his thorough knowledge of the scriptures to draw in something that the audience would've been like, yes, I know what you're talking about. I'm totally down with that. And so the son's wedding is therefore not some kind of like incidental entertainment. It is the central event of all history, the installation of the Messianic king and the gathering of his bride. And of course, the people hearing this would've immediately gravitated toward that. I think they would've leaned in maybe even like smiled or smirked at one another, knowing that this was now all that veiled. What Christ was drawing on here was the classic presentation. Of the family of God represented in the children of Israel itself, being drawn back into consummate harmony with God the Father, where there was peace and unitedness, and a celebration of this fact that all things were now made and brought together, that God was restoring and bringing all those back to himself in his true and true kingdom that could not be thwarted. So the fact that the king gives the banquet, prepares it, sends servants, selects the guests, underscores this incredible modernistic character of salvation. I think it's impossible to miss here that God is literally doing all the verbs. The initiative at every point is divine. There's no hint here of synergism. The guests do not arrange their own invitations, literally. And so that's why in verse three, we see God, he sending out his servants. And of course that's a familiar theme. It should be to us. If you've been tracking with us the last several parables we've been speaking of because the servants represent the prophets of the Old Testament and subsequently the apostles and the ministers of the word. The invitation had already gone out to quote those who were invited. So it's this perfect passive parable in the Greek, it's, it's indicating a prior and standing invitation. This is the external or general call of the gospel going out through the preaching of the word. And notice that there is always a response. Even here, Jesus moves directly and quickly to here's what the response was. In other words, as the scripture has told us that God's word never goes out in returns void, there's always, as it were, a response here, that's illustrated for us very directly because the response is not so good.  [00:15:32] Invitation Refused [00:15:32] Jesse Schwamb: I mean, this is what would, this is horrible like wedding etiquette. They were not willing to come. And this verb I think is critical because it's volitional refusal. It's not mere ignorance. And reformed theology is insistent here against any kind of constellation that makes man's rejection of the gospel. A matter of insufficient information or circumstances we know better, right? We as people should know that we as Christians who have been changed, know that the natural man here is not natural, merely because he lacks the certain kind of information as if he could be restored or regenerated or reformed if we just knew more things. The will is in bondage to sin. And so as the Westminster Confession, faith says, man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. This is classic Jonathan Edwards, like, you don't bring anything to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. For some reason in my head, I said that with kind of a, a weird, almost like southern attitude, which I did not mean to convey. But the point is that this refusal is total, it's willing, it's culpable, it's damnable, it's precisely that, which makes it all the more grievous. The invitation is genuine, the refusal is genuine, and the guilt here is entirely real. So the invited in verse three, represent all of Israel. I, I would say like particularly the leaders here, Tony and I have been talking about the responsibility of these, these leaders in particular to, of course, lead Shepherd, grow these people in faith and a love toward God in a way that is toward freedom and now toward more conviction around extraneous rules or heavy burdens that they set up for them that they cannot perform. And so we have these leaders who had received the covenantal promises and the prophetic witness. I mean, that's like classic Romans nine. The rejection of the servants echoes the pattern of prophetic persecution throughout all of Israel's history. So this is sad stuff. It's a sad beginning to have this grand wedding feast prepared by this king for his son set in motion with the invitations already gone out. And essentially all of those who have been invited have Ally refused.  [00:17:49] Feast Is Ready [00:17:49] Jesse Schwamb: But what's so incredible about God and his loving kindness is still represented here in verse four. The king does not relent after the first refusal, which is remarkable. I mean, this is, again, going back to our proper understanding that we love because God first loved us. That love always leads to giving. And so therefore, God so loved the world that he gave his only son. And when did he give his son? At the fullness of time when we were still at enmity, when we were enemies with him still, he sent his son for us and he sends, therefore a second embassy with an even more urgent and elaborate message that he gives them. He puts into their mouth. And the feast, again, is not merely planned. It's prepared. It's ready. The oxen and fat and calves are images of this lavish like sacrificial celebration. Everything's all slaughtered. Everything is ready to go. Now, I don't know the last time you've been to like an epic feast. I do mean like epic over the top feast. I want you to look up something for me. When you have a chance, look up, just go to your browser of choice and type in shady maples smorgasbord. Now, I don't know if you know what a smorgasbord is, but it's like a, I guess it's like a buffet, but like if you took a buffet and multiply it by a million and then only serve like rich, decadent food and more food than you could possibly really imagine and close to where I live, there's a very famous Amish style. Buffet called Shady Maple Smoker Sport. Just go look it up. 'cause it's gonna be possible for you to describe, but all I can say to you is this isn't just like your standard buffet, it's not just like a potluck where it's like, Hey, we got ham. And, um, we've got some salads and, uh, we've got that, uh, what's that? That weird stuff. You can I, the ambrosia, like we, we've got your hydrox cookies for dessert. This is the last time I was there and uh, actually I was there with my parents and my wife and they treated us. And because this was at a part of my life where my gallbladder was trying to attack me and kill me, I remember just being so ill while I was there feeling so ill, and yet just being so disappointed and bummed out that I couldn't eat all this glorious food because there was filet mignon and lobsters. And shrimp and fish and ham like glazed ham and like carving stations. And then for desserts there was like custards and pies and ice cream and cookies and whoopee pies. And it was this over the top celebration of food. And you couldn't help but just feel like, wow, this thing that we're doing right now is like incredible. I've also, I don't think ever seen my father sample so many different desserts because it was special. This was a, a lavish and incredible celebration for us, and it was prepared, it was ready to go. And we find the same thing here. And so the second sending corresponds to this ministry of the Apostles and the early churches proclamation to Israel. The urgency of the messages come now. It reflects this eschatological pressure of the gospel. A good kind of pressure as if like there's a tea kettle on the stove and it's heating up, and now it's starting to whistle and then to boil over. The kingdom has arrived. Loved ones, the feast is set, delay is inexcusable, and, and so the language of readiness, I think is this glorious language of the gospel. The atonement has accomplished. Christ has been crucified, risen, and exalted, and the feast of salvation is prepared. And what I love is that the reformed tradition consistently insists on the sufficiency of Christ's work for all and the genuine freeness of that gospel offer. I like this is what I usually go back to, is that the cannons of dort affirm this in this way. This is the quote. The promise of the gospel is that whosoever believes in Christ, crucified shall not perish, but of everlasting life. This promise together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and proclaimed to all the nations. The invitation is genuine and urgent. The feast is truly ready. [00:22:01] Mission To All [00:22:01] Jesse Schwamb: The church that I attend is part of the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination, and one of the many things I love about my church is that outward and continual focus on this very thing. That the invitation is genuine. It is urgent, and the feast is truly ready, and it is for all peoples. This freeness to, as we talked about before, scatter the seed of the gospel message unreservedly and without bias to all, all in your sphere of influence. All nations, all people, all tongues, all tribe. And my church is very serious about this. In fact, one of the things our pastor loves to do is oftentimes when he's giving it this kind of proclamation, in fact, just this Lord's day, he was speaking from Matthew 28 and about the Great Commission and the essential nature of that great commission is every Christian's promise to participate in that. It is something you and I are commissioned for and we ought to regularly evaluate our, what our prayers look like. What our finances look like and what our time looks like with respect to whether we are taking seriously that commission, which God has given to us. And so in reminding us of that very fact, one of the things he'll often say from the pulpit is he'll ask out to the congregation, he'll say, what is our middle name? And everybody will respond, missionary. And, and while it's a little bit trite, it reminds us that as part of like the essential ethos in DNA of who we are as Christians, and in fact in this particular year. One of the themes that the whole Christian Missionary Alliance nomination has been focusing on is all of Jesus for All the World takes all of us. I love that all of Jesus for all the world takes all of us. And so we have embedded in this parable here, so much of this intentionality of the gospel, of going out for all people, making this, this message and this mission available. Going out and speaking and preaching and witnessing and testifying of how great God is and what he has done in setting and preparing this gospel message for all people. But in verse five, we find out that even still with all of this, they paid no attention. They went off one to his farm and another to his business. In other words, the word here suggests this kind of contemptuous indifference rather than this active hatred that that actually comes a little bit later. But worldly affairs, a farm, some converse. All this displaces the invitation. And these are not wicked activities, of course, in themselves. Their wickedness consists in their displacement of what is the ultimate. And that I think is actually like very penetrating diagnosis of the human condition. The great enemy of the gospel, at least it seems to me, is not always, as you talk to people, like some kind of dramatic philosophical rejection, some well articulated hatred toward God. It's instead like a quiet absorption in the ordinary pursuits of life. It's like what I think Augustine called being curved inward upon oneself. The world is a great enchant. It be witches our souls, it distracts us. There are so many things that can pull us away from not only meditating on this gospel message, but coming alongside and appreciating. In participating in that great commission. There's so many things to distract us. It's, it's not as if we need a list. I think if I asked each one of you or you asked me, what are some things that you find distracting that pull you away from time and prayer time, studying God's word, time spent with my wife, time spent serving in my local church. I'm not gonna be hard pressed to find those things to say to you. So this idea that we have, whether it's the farm or this business pursuit here, I suppose it could be representative to at least great earthly loves. You have the land, kind of a agrarian rooted life, and then there's trade mercantile and acquisitive life. I mean, maybe these just suggests that the rejection spans all of our social and economic classes, both within Israel at the time and for us today. And so we move both from like this kind of cold indifference, this we'll have other things to do. I'm, I'm just too busy. And, uh, how many times do we really convince ourselves that we can justify our busyness when we feel the pull of the spirit that there is a need? We feel the pull of the gospel message because there's the gospel pressure to ensure that we are speaking truth and love to those around us. That we ourselves are responding to this invitation with our wholeheartedness, our mind, soul, and spirit, everything that we are, and we convince ourselves. Well, I just, you know, I have a lot going on right now. God, there's just so much that I need to do.  [00:26:34] Indifference Turns Violent [00:26:34] Jesse Schwamb: Now we get to verse six and things shift a little bit. Verse six reads, while the rest sees the servants and treated them shamefully and killed them. Now, what's interesting to me is the indifference, kinda just that cold lackadaisical ness of verse five escalates somehow into violence. In verse six, some of them invited not only ignore the servants, but actively persecute them. And so here we have them, basically are being told they treated them outrageously, shamelessly, they killed them, and, and that's really the language of the entire prophetic tradition, the killing of the prophets. In fact, this Greek word here is ris. It's a word for arrogance. Honor, violating, assault, a sin against the honor of both the messenger and the one who sent him both. Like the one who is the emissary and the one who grants power or vouch saves authority to that emissary. And so to assault the king's servant is of course, to come against the king, and this is an act of high treason. It's against the sovereign God of the entire universe. I, I like here something that Calvin notes about this kind of inexcusable aggregation of aggravation of Israel's sin. He writes, they not only rejected the grace, which was offered to them, but added cruelty to their contempt. That's incredible. Right? That's exactly what we do. We reject God. It's, it's of course like not only just taking all the gifts he gives us and pretending as if they're under our own authority or. Have been the result of our own talents or abilities. But instead, when we do this, we add cruelty to all of our contempt. And the reformed doctrine, of course, of total depravity is not merely the claim that humans are bad. It's the claim that following humanity left to itself moves progressively from the indifference. That we saw in the previous verse, verse five, two, hostility toward the living God in his gospel messengers, which we see in verse six. In other words, unless God constrain us, loved ones, that is the natural end of man to move from this place where I do not care about God till I hate him, and then I hate all those who represent him, all those who speak on his behalf. [00:28:46] Judgment On The City [00:28:46] Jesse Schwamb: And so the king's response here, as you might imagine, is one of anger. He's angry. He sends his troops and he destroys the scriptures, say those are murderers, and he burns their city. I mean, the verse is almost certainly this kind of pro prophecy filled in its intent and its content. It's I think, probably a transparent reference to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman armies in 80, 70. And Matthew, even if we say he's writing after that event, or in like a conservative dating with prophetic anticipation, presents Christ as foreseeing and pronouncing the divine judgment upon the city. And this King's anger, of course, is not just, it's not anger that's looking for reciprocity. It's not just anger that's saying, this has made me upset and I'm responding viscerally and emotionally. It's not petulant rage. It is holy and righteous wrath of the sovereign whose grace has been despised and whose servants have been murdered. The destruction is complete. The murderers are destroyed, the city is burned to the ground, and there are foreign tradition kind of following. A covenantal hermeneutic, I think reads 80, 70 as this terminus of the old Covenant administration in many ways, and the judgment upon Nashville Israel for his rejection, for her rejection, rather of the Messiah, you know? While all of that is true, I think what this presents for us is a reminder of how serious our God's Holiness is. And that again, every time we sin, every time that we come against God and someone would challenge his authority as it were, either directly or indirectly, we put ourselves in the place of those who reject the gospel message. And in so doing, we ought to fall on our knees and ask for the kind of repentance that is necessary because we ourselves are putting our place, we're extending among. The murderers, and in this case, the, the message that Jesus has for those is only anger and again, is a righteous kind of anger. So one might imagine as we read in like the previous parables, that Jesus could have just entirely ended there. It almost sounds like we've drawn to a close.  [00:31:04] Invitation Rejected [00:31:04] Jesse Schwamb: Listen, there's a king. He has a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out last invitations. Nobody came. He goes to confronts the guests and not only do they say we're not interested, some of them are like, yeah, we burned all the invitations. And then the people that you sent to remind us, we killed those people. And it'll be right for the king to say. That's it. Everybody's done here. I'm shutting the whole thing down. And honestly, that could have happened in the garden. That could happen at the cross. Instead, we find something totally different. The parable goes on.  [00:31:33] Feast Still Happens [00:31:33] Jesse Schwamb: In fact, verse eight reads, then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Notice loved ones that the feast does not get canceled. I mean, Christmas doesn't get canceled. It's just redirected. The king's purposes will not, cannot be frustrated, and this is a critical sociological and eschatological claim to me, at least. What we're seeing here is the refusal of the invited guests does not leave the wedding hall empty. Praise the Lord. It occasions the wider extension of the invitation.  [00:32:07] Gospel Offer Explained [00:32:07] Jesse Schwamb: And this idea of not worthy does not introduce a prior standard of merit by which the guests were found deficient. But instead, as you know, their unworthiness consists in their refusal To refuse the gospel is to demonstrate one's unworthiness of it. And so worthiness in this context is not some kinda like moral achievement, but it's a covenantal responsiveness. It's the openness of the creature to receive what the king graciously provides. It's why when we stand before God in the kind of judgment that we rightfully deserve, and he says something to the extent of, why should I let you into my heaven? Why should I let you enjoy eternal life with me? We should rightly say, because you promised. And because by the power of your Holy Spirit, through the faith you have given and instilled in me by this imputed righteousness, I can trust you at your promise. And so I think this verse is like so critical for understanding the well meant offer of the gospel. Again, we should together affirm that the gospel is offered to all without distinction, and that those who do not come are inexcusable. God does not will. The damnation of those who reject the gospel as a bare first intention, their damnation follows from their own culpable refusal.  [00:33:31] Mission To All Roads [00:33:31] Jesse Schwamb: And so the king says, listen guys, go out everywhere. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding piece. As many as you find. I don't know how you're envisioning. If you were listening to this story and you were like setting the actual scene, but I don't know, to me, I just find them, the, the servants or the slaves that they look at it one another and they're just like s go time and they just turn around and start going everywhere to all the places, uh, to anyone who will listen to all the like, stops that there were on the byways. All the highways, all the roads. They're just going through all the places. Wherever the road takes 'em, that's where they're going. And all along the way they're spreading this mission, this invitation, and the mission now. Is universal in scope. The main roads, literally the, the exits, the outlets of all these places. The thoroughfares, where the roads branch out of the city and the highways diverge in the countryside. This is representing, of course, like the ends of the earth, the places where any and all may be found. And the command here to as many as you find to go to those is of course, like a command of universal scope. It's for you and me, loved ones there. There's no prior qualification, rich or poor, Jewish, gentile, moral or immoral. This is the missio day, breaking through all ethnic and social boundaries, and in this loving way, in this pastoral way, it underpins the free and indiscriminate offer of the gospel. Again, like going back to the Westminster Confession and the shorter catechism, affirming this covenant of grace that is administered by the preaching of the word. And no matter where you work, like reform theology from like William Cur, David Bernard, like to the modern missionary movement, we're drawing from this mandate of precisely this kind of universal commission. You know, it's like Spurgeon, I think once said something effect of like, Christ has done more than give a general invitation. He has given an urgent, pressing, commanding invitation to all something like that. And I always remember that because when I think about what it means to step into this role of fulfilling the great commission of understanding what Jesus is saying here, it's not just as if we're saying, listen, the world is in a dire place. This is an emergency situation. And so for all of us in our sphere of influence. To bring forward this message of the indiscriminate offer of the gospel is to take God at his word and then to deliver that word to all of those, all the highways, all the byways, all the outplace, every tribe, Tong, nation. What a glorious thing that our God has given us and put us on mission in this way so that no matter who we meet, we know we might say Jesus loves you, that Jesus has died for you. This is, I think, one of the things that those who maybe are new to the reformed tradition and the theological perspective. Find a little bit interesting to parse out, or maybe sometimes if you've had conversations like I have people think that we're parsing the words too much, but there's something to be said for the death of Jesus being sufficient for all and efficacious for the elect, that we're not simply splitting words. There we're describing very discreetly, very cogently, very crisply. This indiscriminate gospel message while at the same time recognizing that it's God's sovereign choice and will to draw those whom he will to himself. And so in verse 10.  [00:36:54] Good And Bad Gathered [00:36:54] Jesse Schwamb: These servants go out to the roads and they gather all whom they found both good and bad. And so the wedding hall, guess what was filled with guests, because this is God's sovereign prerogative because he can do all these things because even those who have denied him does not remove him from power. That he does all the verbs and so the servants obey and the results are comprehensive. They gather in all of these, and Matthew's quick to say both the good and the bad, and I think like the good and the bad pairing is significant. I don't think this is necessarily meaning that there's the morally virtuous and the morally depraved, though that probably is included somewhere. But I think this, this more, this reflection that, once again, it's all kinds of people. For God's to love the world that whomsoever, all of those who believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life. The wedding hall is filled, it was filled, and it's filled by God's sovereign action through human instrumentality.  [00:37:53] Visible And Invisible Church [00:37:53] Jesse Schwamb: And there is, like I'd say, if you're tracking with this, you should notice that there is a, a kinda a tension here. It sits between verses 10 and 11, and it's going to resolve the banquet hall is full. But you'll notice that it's not all within, well, not everybody who's within it are truly saved. And we'll get to why that isn't just a second. But the filling of the hall through the universal gospel summons does produce a mixed company. We've already talked about the parable of the terrors in the wheat before, so this, this should be news if you've been listening to us for a little while, but it's precisely the condition of the visible church in this age. Again, I just think it's fantastic that when we go to the scriptures, one of the reasons we know it's true is because God tells us the truth about the way things are. And we know that this is the way that the church is today. We would call this the visible versus the invisible church. And of course there's a distinguishing between the visible church, which consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion from the invisible church, which is the totality of the elect, those who God has actually called to himself. So the hole is full. But not all in the hall are clothed. And this is fascinating how Jesus brings in this idea of dressing of not, I mean, not what you put on your salad, a smorgasbord, but like what you're actually wearing.  [00:39:07] Wedding Garment Meaning [00:39:07] Jesse Schwamb: So in verse 11, but the king came in to look at the guests and he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. So notice that the parable scene here kind of shifts dramatically all of a sudden because the king arrives suddenly. He's present. He was speaking, he was giving instructions, he was preparing, he was a character, kind of chilling in the background. But now there's this eschatological moment the king's coming to inspect. The guests corresponds to this final judgment, and what he finds is there's a man without a wedding garment. He's at the center, I think of this parables, theological climax. So what, what is this wedding garment? I would put it to you like, as you're thinking through this and maybe interpreting listening for yourself, what do you think the wedding garment is? And I would say like what most reformed interpreters have been unified on is that this really represents that imputed righteousness, the the righteousness of Christ that's credited to the believer and received by faith alone. And so by a wedding garment, I would understand this to mean the purity and the holiness of that transforms and regenerated life, which is required of all those who are brought inside the true and invisible church. And though he immediately qualifies this as like righteousness, that is inseparable from justification. It is not earned, but it is received. In fact, I think, uh, I have my Logos Bible software up as I'm talking to you, and I see that Matthew Henry comments on this by saying, the righteousness of Christ is the robe of righteousness, the garment of salvation in which true believers are closed. I mean. That's a great turn of phrase, brothers and sisters. I love this idea of what the scriptures tell us elsewhere of putting on these garments of praise or worship, the garments of Christ, of being exchanged out as it were, for what is dirty and unsuitable for something that suits the occasion that is given to you to wear by faith alone. And of course, this wedding garment is not a work that the guest has produced, but it's a garment provided, uh, presumably like the king's servants actually supplied it. Uh, I, I think that's like a detail implied by the ancient custom and the severity of the guest condemnation for lacking it. It's almost as if the king is saying. Uh, like you were, should have been provided. Why did you not put this on? Why did by faith you not accept this? And this underscores the so gratia and so fide. The righteousness by which we stand before God on the last day is not our own, but Christ, it's received through faith. And the man without the garment represents those who presume to stand before God on the basis of their own righteousness. Whether that's religious profession. Moral achievement, charitable giving, mere church membership rather. And instead of. That alien and beautiful righteousness of Christ. So the fact that this man is inside the hall, you know, he's come in through the general call confirms that the parable addresses not only those outside the church, but those within it who lack genuine saving faith. It's almost, to me, kind of like an intra ecclesial warning. It's, it's not merely a missional observation. I think that is for all of us. It's why Paul elsewhere says. Check test, confirm to see whether you yourselves are in this faith because it is by faith that we put on these wedding garments which are appropriate and suitable for this great eschatological Messianic wedding feast with the lamb. [00:42:48] Speechless Before Judgment [00:42:48] Jesse Schwamb: So in verse 12, the king says to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And notice the man's response. I, I almost find this kind of funny because he just says, and he was speechless. Like there was, there was nothing for him, uh, to, to say it all. And of course, like this question that's posed here, this, how did you get in here without the winning government? It's not a real question, right? It's not a question of genuine puzzlement. It's the same way in which when we find God walking in the cool of the day, in the garden after the sin of Adam and E, where he says, Adam, where are you? It's not a genuine question of a quizzical nature. It's instead, this rhetorical structure is God questions through judgments. And when he says to Cain, where is Abel your brother, where is Abel, your brother? He's exposing and he's condemning. He's not merely inquiring. And so this man in response, sensing this condemnation, discerning this condemnation, this judgment that's been brought against him, I think this is why the Greek says he was muzzled. He was silenced, his mouth was shut up. He had no answer. Uh, it's not because the question was unfair. But because there was just no legitimate words that he could bring there, there was no argumentation. In other words, there's no poll mic. There was no great debate that he could have. In this moment. Every mouth will be stopped before God. I mean, that's like Romans three. The silence of the ungodly before the Divine Tribunal is a consistent biblical theme, and we find it here. Again, this is the eschatological end to those who are condemned. No one loved ones is gonna stand before God on the last day and successfully argue their case on the ground of personal merit. I love William Perkins on this topic. He was apparently really moved. I learned by this verse and by what he saw in the silence as a profound warning against false assurance. So he actually wrote many a man in this world. Silence is his own conscience. With many fair excuse. Do you hear that? I, I love that turn of phrase. So we're talking about silence. It's about being silence, but I love how he says it's very easy to, to silence, not yourself, not like somebody coming against you with debate, but your own conscience. So he writes, again, many a man in this world will silence his own conscience with many a fair excuse. But in that day, there will be no excuse, no plea, no delay. So that time of plea is now, it's in this life. It's by faith and repentance, which is why there's an urgency to this gospel message. And so the king.  [00:45:17] Outer Darkness Warning [00:45:17] Jesse Schwamb: In hearing this and knowing that this man has no excuse for his outer attire, he says to him, listen to the servants. Bind him hand and foot, cast him into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The sentence is severe. It's total. Of the command is given to the servants and attendance maybe in this parable and parabolic form, likely the angelic executors of divine judgment and it is binding. It renders the condemned utterly helpless. It's a picture of total divine control over the destiny of the ate. He has cast into this outer darkness, outside the light and warmth of the banquet hall entirely. And I think it's incumbent upon us to take a second and to grieve the repercussions of what is being said here. That the death and destruction of the ATE should make us grieve. It should compel us to go out into the highways, the byways, and to share this message. Unreservedly. One of the ways we know really the full anguish of what this entails is this phrase, weeping and gnashing of teeth, actually occurs seven times in Matthew, and it functions as this refrain, this chorus, this common language of this eschatological condemnation, it combines interestingly in this wordplay here, both the anguish of grief with the rage of frustrated pride. It's a portrait, not of this just like regret, but continuing imp penitent, hostility against God and eternal punishment. And I think if Tony were here, he would agree with me that we have consistently affirmed the doctrine of eternal conscience punishment. You know, the Westminster Confession says, the wicked who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be cast into eternal torments. In other words, this outer darkness is not annihilation. The weeping and the gnashing continues. It implies an ongoing conscious existence. It's the image of a binding stands against the notion of this kind of postmortem repentance or universalism. The severity of that verse, I think, really must be allowed to stand in its canonical context without mitigation. The, the severity of this judgment ought to fill us with fear, not theological domestication. We, we shouldn't set this aside and be saying, well, this implies that there is nothing after that time. No, there continues to be only time with God in his presence, in eternal, consummate joy and harmony and peacefulness and celebration. Or there is literally. A weeping and a gnashing of teeth, an unresolved rage and anger where that is punished by God because he's absent where there's unmitigated pain and suffering because it is absent the presence and the mediation of God himself, who even now in this world, holds us back so that while we are sinful and we are not as bad as we could or ought to be because of his great kindness, all of us, even those. Who are not believers.  [00:48:37] Called Yet Chosen [00:48:37] Jesse Schwamb: And so because of that, it ends with these very famous in stock words in in verse 14, for many are called, but few are chosen. And that concluding aphorism is, I think, the theological linchpin of this entire thing. The contrast between this idea of called and chosen, you know, this is the vocabulary that is deliberately covenantal and elective, and we shouldn't shy away from that. Of course, it's referring to this external call, the universal proclamation of the gospel to all the hearers. The call is genuine, it's earnest, it's gentile, it's sufficient as an offer. It is the call that goes to all the highways, all who hear the gospel are truly called to repentance and faith. And for me, in my own journey of understanding what this means as God has allowed me to, that has been critical. This idea that this universal call means that it is sufficient as a call to repentance and faith for all those who hear it. And then it does become the responsibility of all those who hear it to respond to it. And so this idea then of this pairing then with the chosen and the elect is referring of course to those whom God has chosen from before the foundation of the world. The elect are those who not only receive the external call, but are effectually drawn by the eternal efficacious call of the Holy Spirit. We can look to Romans eight 30, those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified. And I say, because this is a Reformed Theological podcast, and this is what you came here for, I presume, brothers and sisters. Then it behooves us to at least mention again that the reformed tradition has classically distinguished between that external or general call, the sincere well meant proclamation of the gospel to all without distinction, inviting everybody to faith and repentance. That call is genuine on God's part and God's doing the verbs in that as well. And then again, we, we set that over in next two, the internal, what we call like effectual efficacious call. It's sovereign. It's irresistible work of the Holy Spirit by which the elect regenerated, have their will renewed and are infallibly brought to saving faith. All those whom God has predestined unto life and those only he's pleased in his appointed and accepted time to affectionately call by His word and his spirit out of the state of sin and death to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. I was thinking recently of this idea of the narrow path and somewhere between like the scriptures there and pilgrim's progress, and paths and journeys. I had this image in my mind of the road on which we walk. And in this life, the natural man on that road encounters all these like intractable boulders, these things that cannot be traversed. These just great mountainous pieces of rock, which block the path. And so prevent us from at least accomplishing the thing that we would like. Like to live forever, to have peace with God, to be at peace with ourselves, to love our brothers and our sisters as much as we love ourselves to honor something that is greater than us. And those boulders are things like sin, death in the devil, which constantly invade us, which constantly thwart us, which constantly block us. And in Christ, what he has accomplished in salvation is not just, I think to remove those boulders, though that would've been good enough of course to just get them outta the way. Instead, it's as if he's taken them and he's crushed them, and now to the softest sand between our toes and we walk over them in victory by the power of his name through the Holy Spirit into eternal life. Into that grand wedding feast spoil, which we have been invited because he has done this because he loves us. And so verse 14 places these two realities side by side without resolving the tension. Philosophically, this is one of the great mysteries of theology. Uh, reformed theology does not collapse the distinction by limiting the external call to the elect alone as like maybe kind of a hyper Calvinist model, but it doesn't make the internal call dependent on a human decision. As like Armenian theology would instead, you know, the tension is, is biblical. This is here for us. It's here for us, because I believe that God wishes for us to submit our knowledge and our reasoning to him knowing that he is far and above us. And because this tension is biblical, it has to be maintained. The invitation is genuinely universal. The effectual drawing is sovereignly particular. How great is our God loved ones? There is no one like him. And so there's so much in this that I think we could spend all of the rest of our life thinking about, and that would be a noble, I was just thinking today that, um, you know, unless the Lord Terrys like, maybe this will be the last series me and Tony ever do, because there's so much that's rich and deep in these parables and there's so many of them, and the teaching of Christ is, is so complete of course, for us because it gives us everything that we need for life and salvation and godliness that. We find that the more that we look into them, the more that we ask the Holy Spirit to bathe us in a realization that comes from the spirit of God, the more that we will find. They challenge us. They encourage us. They equip us. So I'm thinking and praying for you all as I hope that you are for Tony and I as we continue to wrestle with these things as we continue to talk them out, because I'm asking God that he would equip us as we look at the teaching of his son in these parables with a firm understanding of the truth and equip us with his promises and with his encouragement so that. As he grows us in our faith, our faith for us would be like a thousand eyes and a thousand wings that we would find ourselves moving from glory to glory. Because we see in these parables the great work of God for us. What he has accomplished through his son and how he continues to be for us and the son who is given for us is with us. That we have his Holy Spirit within us and who discerns the mind of God, accept the spirits of God. So love us. Let's continue to get after what's being said in these parables here because there's so much for us here.  [00:55:14] Living The Commission [00:55:14] Jesse Schwamb: And might I add, just to tack onto the end, there's also so much for the world. I know that we're quick to say, or like colloquially Christians have said in the past like, Jesus is the answer, but you I think cannot necessarily fault the world for sometimes asking, well, what is the question? And unless we go forward with this proper understanding that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That all are in need of this savior and that this gospel message is for, in fact, for all people without reservation. Full stop. I guess I ask for you and I and Tony who's editing this episode, are we going out into the highways and byways? What is the proof of the pudding in the eating look like when we examine our lives, but with specifically our finances and our time and our prayer closet and our service? Aren't we in fact concerned with the great commission that is reflected here? Are we concerned with the emergence and urgent need of this gospel message, which is for all people because God so loved the world that he gave his only forgotten son. That whosoever shall believe in him will not per but have everlasting life.  [00:56:27] Community And Support [00:56:27] Jesse Schwamb: So come hang out with us. Come talk about this parable. You know where to go. But I'm gonna tell you anyway because that's what we do. If you go to your browser, type in T Me Back slash Reform Brotherhood, t Me Back slash Reform Brotherhood, that link will take you to an app called Telegram. Telegram is just a messaging app. It's like, I dunno, iMessages for Apple or whatever you Android people are using these days. And there's just a little community that we've sectioned off there. And it's a community of listeners to the Reform Brotherhood who are talking about all kinds of things. You, you wanna be in that group? It is. It is a great group. Don't, don't reject the invitation. Don't reject it. Just, just come. I know you're thinking, listen, I got land. I got commerce I gotta deal with. That's fine. Come, come and join us. So go to t.me/reform brotherhood. One last thing. I would be remiss if I didn't thank all of those who make sure that this podcast still goes out to all the highways and the byways of the internet. That there is no Jericho paywall around it because it does cost money to put out there all the subscriptions, all the distribution. It's surprising, but there are. Intense fees with a lot of that stuff, and so I wanna say thank you, thank you, thank you to those who have listened and said, you know what? I would like to make sure. That this continues to go on. I've been blessed just by the conversation. God has done something here because again, he does all the verbs. Tony and I do zero verbs, and so because of that, they've gone to patreon.com Reform Brotherhood, and they've just decided to give a little bit of the kindness of their heart and generosity to the Lord. So if you're thinking, you know what? I've been listening for a while, and I do appreciate that this just magically, as it were, pops up in my feed and I continue to listen to it. Would you please consider helping us? Uh, Tony and I and so many other listeners who give a little bit just to make sure that together we can keep this thing going strong. And again, you can just go to patreon.com/reform brotherhood. There's also a website, uh, reform brother.com and all kinds of other fun stuff. But I will leave that to you. I, I didn't even bring it up. See, I'm just so glad that you mentioned it yourself 'cause it would've been awkward otherwise.  [00:58:31] Final Blessing [00:58:31] Jesse Schwamb: So loved ones. There are still so many more parables to go. They're all so good. So I hope that you all come back and join us next time as we continue to move through these parables. But until then, there's something that you should definitely do honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. 

In this episode of The Future is Human, I'm joined by Conor McGlynn — a writer and PhD researcher at Harvard's Program on Science, Technology, and Society — to discuss his Compact essay "AI and the Myth of the Machine." Drawing on the 20th-century technology critic Lewis Mumford, we talk about techno-optimism as a kind of secular faith, what the Amish and Orthodox Jewish communities understand about adopting technology on their own terms, why the data-center boom feels so undemocratic, and why technological "doom" is not a future event but something already unfolding around us. Links and references: Conor McGlynn's Compact essay, "AI and the Myth of the Machine": https://www.compactmag.com/article/ai-and-the-myth-of-the-machine/ More of Conor's writing at Compact Magazine: https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-emerging-ai-policy-consensus/ https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-ai-backlash-turns-violent/ https://www.compactmag.com/article/big-techs-war-on-democracy/ The China Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcukTqc1cJJ4K3c4uzxTzjA Got feedback? Email Zac at zac@creedalpodcast.com

Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/vUl5DjWhCBkLovina's personal story: https://youtu.be/GHF0lQS2CHsFormer Swartzentruber Amish teacher Lovina Zook takes us inside the world of Amish education, sharing detailed insights into what a typical school day looks like in one of America's most closed communities. From the one-room schoolhouse structure to the daily routines, strict dress codes, and teaching methods, Lovina offers a rare glimpse into this traditional education system.Lovina speaks with genuine enthusiasm about her experiences as both a student and teacher in the Amish school system, which she describes as the highlight of her teenage years. She explains the challenges of 5 a.m. mornings, preparing breakfast and lunches for siblings, and the deep bonds formed in the close-knit classroom environment.This video is for anyone interested in closed subcultures, sociology, and understanding how traditional communities maintain their way of life through education. Lovina's firsthand account provides an authentic look at the simplicity, discipline, and community connection that define Amish schooling.Follow Lovina Zook:

Technology and Amish versus Plain Living (w/o religion)Until 13:33 disclaimer and intro13:33 alternative substances and plant medicines18:50 becoming Amish32:44 don't be Amish42:22 plain loving w/o religion attached

Get this whole, show FREE on Patreon! Click HERE for a 7-day free trialBen Glaze and EZ lean into fair-use laws to present a WEEKLY review of one of America's top radio shows. Heard all across the US on about 30 radio stations, The Free Beer and Hot Wings Show has grown steadily since it's inception in the late 1990's.In this FULL show on Patreon!*Ben Glaze features a fantastic example of "Steve's Echo."*The crew subjects a live audience to another pointless game.*Ben reviewed the gang reviewing a list of words they don't like. For 14 minutes, Free Beer would say a word and everyone would say they don't like it.*Numerous examples of Free Beer murdering words.*Free Beer blisters Today show host, Craig Melvin for asking a dumb question. Problem: Free Beer's set up for the clip makes HIM sound much worse.*The gang reviews some Amish reality show and the "bummer jokes" were flying.*Hot Wings knows what day it is, then immediately forgets.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

If you ever had a bad roommate situation...

BEACH WATER PERSON - 05.20.2026 - #942 BestPodcastintheMetaverse.com Canary Cry News Talk #942 - 05.20.2026 - Recorded Live to 1s and 0s Deconstructing World Events from a Biblical Worldview Declaring Jesus as Lord amidst the Fifth Generation War! CageRattlerCoffee.com SD/TC email Ike for discount https://CanaryCry.Support   Send address and shirt size updates to canarycrysupplydrop@gmail.com Join the Canary Cry Roundtable This Episode was Produced By:   Executive Producers Sir LX Protocol Baron of the Berrean Protocol***   Producers of TREASURE (CanaryCry.Support) Rebecca T, Cage Rattler Coffee, Dame Tinfoilhat, Sir Casey the Shield Knight   Producers of TIME Timestampers: Jade Bouncerson, Morgan E Clankoniphius Links: JAM   SIR IKE MEGA BOX GIVEAWAY - Rating/Review, screenshot, send to Sir Ike CanaryCrySupplyDrop@gmail.com   ZUCKERBERG 5:19 Mark Zuckerberg is hiring a "beach water person" (wired)   AI 29:45 amish love ai  ai mentions at graduation get boos again ai messes up roll call at graduation   CIA 1:10:55 Clip: Bryce Crawford on Shawn Ryan trailer (X)   TRANSHUMAN 1:20:26 Colossal Biosciences announced 26 chick from 3d printed eggs (Smithsonian) Clip: 26 chicks hatched from artificial 3D printed eggs (ABC)   UFO 1:26:51 Second UFO file drop soon (fox) Clip: Tim Burchett says there will be deliberate misinformation in the next group of files (X)   EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS 1:31:39 END 1:39:08

In this Podcast Extra, John Kempf joins the Soil Strategies podcast, hosted by Roy Thompson of the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, to break down a radically different operating system for agriculture that transitions away from traditional NPK mindsets toward biological agronomy . In this episode they discuss: How high-salt index, electrolyte-based fertilizers interrupt plant signaling and create a long-term dependency by sabotaging effective microbial colonization . The powerful role a healthy microbiome plays in supercharging a plant's native genetic expression for ultimate disease and insect resistance . Why conventional soil tests have historically been utilized primarily as fertilizer sales tools rather than agronomic guides . The incredible economic opportunity growers have to break away from being "farmed" by input companies by optimizing free resources like water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide . And how well-designed foliar applications can harness the plant's photosynthetic engine to dramatically increase sugar production and feed soil biology without causing a yield drag . Additional ResourcesTo listen to more episodes of the Soil Strategies Podcast, please visit: https://www.sdsoilhealthcoalition.org/podcast/ About John Kempf John Kempf is an agronomist, entrepreneur, sought-after speaker, and the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) . He is also the host of the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast . Growing up in the Amish community on a family fruit and vegetable farm, John experienced firsthand the financial pain and escalating pest pressures of traditional chemical-intensive models . This led him to study plant physiology and soil health deeply, helping him build a scientifically established, systems-based approach to plant nutrition that moves beyond electrolyte agronomy and leverages biological soil function . Support For This Show & Helping You GrowSince 2006, AEA has worked globally with professional growers to improve crop performance, build farm resiliency, and increase profitability through balanced nutrition and biological soil function . AEA believes in testing instead of guessing, relying on rigorous laboratory data to measure what the soil can actually deliver before making recommendations . Through a unique line of products—including biological seed treatments, well-designed foliar nutrition, and their highly effective broad-spectrum disease-resistance product, Pinion—AEA empowers farmers to reduce synthetic inputs, optimize photosynthesis, and transition smoothly into highly successful, resilient biological systems .

Amish intelligence?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of NOON we have Christopher.He started his fire service career on September 11th, 2001 and the lessons began immediately. Christopher shares how a quadruple fatality early in his career shaped the way he approaches hard calls, mental health, and longevity in EMS.We talk about cultural competence when serving Amish communities, the importance of family-centered care, and how maturity changes the way you practice medicine. Christopher opens up about overcoming fear in pediatric emergencies, how a neonatal resuscitation course shifted his confidence, and why he's now focused on helping other providers lower their “pucker factor.”From pediatric readiness and conference stages to building real community online, this conversation is about growth: clinically, emotionally, and professionally.Podcast: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1vAokfqG5aifoRBKk9MAUh?si=T8DipSBCQzWfOeiBW3h-Vw⁠FB Page: https://m.facebook.com/groups/nineoneonenonsense/?ref=shareInstagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/911nonsense/⁠X: ⁠https://twitter.com/911Nonsense⁠Bonfire Merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/nine-one-one-nonsense/?utm_source=copy_link&utm_medium=store_page_share&utm_campaign=nine-one-one-nonsense&utm_content=defaultContent Warning: This episode contains discussions about death, including graphic and potentially triggering details. Listener discretion is advised. The episode also covers sensitive topics and may not be suitable for all audiences. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health issues, please seek help immediately. You can contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 from anywhere in the U.S. #911nonsense #ParamedicLife #FirstResponderStories #EMSFamily #EmergencyCalls #SavingLives #BehindTheSiren #FirstResponderLife #911nonsense #ParamedicPodcast #PodcastLaunch #PodcastLife #PodcastCommunity #TrueStoryPodcast #NewPodcastAlert #PodcastAddict #PodcastEpisode #PodcastPromotion #PodcastHost #PodcastRecommendations #RealLifeHeroes #EmergencyServices #TrueStories #BehindTheScenes #LifeOnTheLine #AdrenalineRush #HumanStories #OnTheJob #EverydayHeroes #TrueLife

Joe Escalante's weekly plunge into the deep side of the business end of showbiz... This week: the latest from the case against Harvey Weinstein: the jury can't come to a decision about this specific rape (the past cases against him still stand)... Also, the Michael Jackson biopic regains the #1 spot in the box office. Was the entire thing a cash grab from the least talented members of his family, who had public beef with Michael? Why was Janet not in it? Producer Sam has some questions... Joe saw a bunch of Amish people at the Columbus Zoo, and marvels at the leash that they all keep their kids on... Speaking of kids on leashes, there are new rules at Disneyland regarding adult pin traders, and how much space they take up trying to distribute their wares among the patrons... Joe has mixed feelings...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Link to the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/GHF0lQS2CHsLovina Zook, a former Swartzentruber Amish woman who left her community at age 18 with only $24 to her name. Lovina shares her compelling story of growing up in one of the strictest Amish settlements, without electricity, running water, or any exposure to technology, where she raised her 12 younger siblings as the oldest girl.She opens up about the difficult decision to leave her family and community behind to pursue a different life, and the challenges of adapting to the modern world. Today, Lovina has built a following of millions, sharing authentic Amish cooking and baking recipes while educating people about her former way of life. Her story is one of courage, sacrifice, and resilience.Follow Lovina Zook: 

Spring is in full swing and Tahoe trails are opening for business quickly. In Episode 86, as the snow vaporizes, the boys chat about a bunch of trail tales, some funny, others concerning. After an extended Rumspringa on the ebike, Pow Bot returns to the traditional “Amish” mountain bike, but will he be Sin Bot for still occasionally riding his ebike? The boys share four-wheeling stories with their in-laws, talk about new trails being built, trails north of Truckee being closed for the season and some trails in burn zones being sprayed by the Tahoe and Lassen National Forest with glyphosate, aka Roundup, known to cause cancer. Trail Whisperer asks is it dope or derp to go on a road trip when gas is $6/gallon, jokes about Breckenridge opening local trails to ebikes (only with a medical condition) and a Core Lord calls in with a rant that South Lake Tahoe doesn't have any cool, progressive mountain bike trails. 2:40 – Everything in Tahoe is a month early – riding hero dirt and Pow Bot hanging up his snowboard.3:45 – A recap on Winter 2025-26 – Ended up at average snowfall for the season.6:15 – Pow Bot comes off the ebike Rumspringa and returns to the Amish bike community.11:20 – Early season Tahoe trail conditions – Riding the Tahoe Rim Trail and Flume Trail.12:40 – Trail Whisperer building new trail on Verdi Ridge.16:15 – Tahoe National Forest has closed trails in and around Emigrant Trail, Prosser, Boca.20:00 – Shout out to Tahoe Mountain Sports – helping TW out with a ski binding issue.20:50 – The Truckee Follies – Rated X fundraiser for Downtown Merchants Association.23:15 – Truckee Dirt Union Loam Masters Rally happening May 29-30.24:08 – Sugar Bowl is selling off all their vintage 1950s gondolas for $10k a piece.28:40 – Randy Robbins thinks snowboard beaver tail slapping is DOPE.29:45 – Parkhill has some thoughts about hallowed vs hollowed ground and gatekeeping.31:02 – Reno Tahoe tourism blowing up a sensitive hot spring on social media.33:00 – Gatekeeping – don't blow up the spot when its firing.34:10 – Chris has a rant about public versus private property.40:30 – Jacob really enjoyed VCGP episode – big divide between motorized and non-motorized communities.44:00 – Breckenridge is finally legalizing ebikes…but you have to have a doctor's note.45:40 – Moab allows ebikes on some trail but not all, but Jeeps and side-by-sides are all over.47:55 – Pow Bot's story of four wheeling in Telluride in a rental Chevy Blazer with his in-laws.50:40 – Trail Whisperer's 4x4 story of getting stuck in a Land Cruiser and spending the night in it with his ex father-in-law.58:15 – DOPE or DERP – going on a road trip when gas is $6/gallon.1:00:54 – Tahoe National Forest and Lassen National Forest spraying toxic Roundup weed killer on public lands.1:10:18 – Big Sally calls in with a trip report from Lost Cannon Loop MTB and Sonora Pass ski.1:13:20 – Chad wants to know why there aren't more progressive MTB trails in South Lake Tahoe.1:27:20 – If you get baptized for coming back to the Amish bike, then you ride the ebike, are you a sinner?

Is making a billion dollars really the highest achievement for men? Tai Lopez says no. In this vlog-style episode, Tai explains why money, fame, Lamborghinis, private jets, mansions, and social media status are not the real endgame. They are tools. The real goal is the good life: health, wealth, love, happiness, family, land, purpose, and peace. Standing on his farm, Tai breaks down why so many men chase success without knowing what they actually want, why cities are useful for making money but not always for living well, and why the original American dream was closer to land, family, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance. He also talks about raising kids closer to nature, building a family compound, learning from the Amish, buying land, homesteading, farming, and why entrepreneurs should start with the end in mind before chasing more money. If you’re ambitious, building a business, or chasing wealth, this episode is a reminder to ask the bigger question: what is all the money actually for? Amish Homestead Course Farm Buying Consulting Join Tai Lopez’s Email List Watch On YouTube See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes you record an episode and you land on an all time favorite character classic. Sometimes you record the Amish Venom ep. Starring:Adal RifaiJohn Patrick CoanErin KeifEditing by: Casey ToneyTheme by: Arne ParrottLogo by: Emily Kardamis & Emmaline MorrisWant more? Get Weekly Bonus Eps on Patreon!JPC's Guided Meditations Volume 1, available now at our Patreon digital store!Want merch? Visit our Dashery Store!Want to mail us something? Hey Riddle Riddle 6351 W Montrose Ave #267Chicago, IL, 60634Want to leave us a voicemail? Call (805) RIDDLE-1 or (805-743-3531)Want to advertise on the show? Check out Hey Riddle Riddle via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode 2795 - Vinnie Tortorich and Chris Shaffer welcome four callers to discuss eating while on chemo, weight-loss goals, how to keep on keeping on, and more. https://vinnietortorich.com/2026/05/keep-on-keeping-on-episode-2795 PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS Pure Vitamin Club Pure Coffee Club NSNG® Foods VILLA CAPPELLI EAT HAPPY KITCHEN YOU CAN WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE - @FitnessConfidential Podcast Vinnie's workout videos are available to purchase! Choose from a 2-day, 4-day, or 6-day workout–or buy all three at a discount! TO PURCHASE VINNIE'S WORKOUT VIDEOS, CLICK THIS LINK: https://vinnietortorich.com/workout Keep On Keeping On Dave is the first caller. (3:30) He was recently diagnosed with cancer and called ot give an update. He's managed to keep weight on despite having to eat liquid foods. Vinnie gives him some advice about eating while getting chemo. (8:30) John W is the second caller. (15:30) He's been NSNG for several years now and has noticed that his PSA levels go up if he has carbs. (17:30) PSA is a test to measure prostate antigens as a way of monitoring prostate health. He has a question about HIIT training. (24:00) HIIT training is not the same as strength training. They touch upon a spiritual mindset about life. (35:00) He has a question about how to share information about NSNG® with the Amish and Mennonite communities. (38:00) If you haven't already, you can purchase Vinnie's Intro to NSNG e-book. https://nsng.vinnietortorich.com/product/intro-to-nsng/ Brandon is next. (48:30) He grows his hair to donate to kids with medical issues who have lost their hair. He called Vinnie because he can't seem to get to the next step to reach a lower weight and has a hard time imagining himself at an optimal weight. (1:02:00) John D is the final caller. He's lost a lot of weight on NSNG® in a short time; however, he feels his weight loss is slowing. Where can he make changes to keep the loss going? Creatine can increase your energy. (1:27:00) The NSNG® VIP GROUP IS NOW CLOSED AGAIN AS OF SUNDAY, MARCH 15TH Anna's next cookbook, Eat Happy Cocktail Hour, is filled with cocktails, mocktails, and appetizers and is available for pre-order right now. If you pre-order, you'll get bonus goodies! You can preorder from a wide variety of booksellers at https://eathappycocktailhour.com/ Save your receipt from wherever you preorder, you'll need it for your bonuses! Physical Release Date is October 2026 A New Sponsor Jaspr Air Scrubbers has a discount code, VINNIE, that gets you $200 off for a limited time. Jaspr offers a lifetime warranty. Go to Jaspr.co for more information or to purchase. (1:05:00) You can book a consultation with Vinnie to get guidance on your goals. https://vinnietortorich.com/phone-consultation-2/ More News Serena has added some of her clothing suggestions and beauty product suggestions to Vinnie's Amazon Recommended Products link. Self Care, Beauty, and Grooming Products that Actually Work! https://www.amazon.com/shop/vinnietortorich/list/3GPVU29UHHPMY?ref_=aipsflist Don't forget to check out Serena Scott Thomas on Days of Our Lives on the Peacock channel. "Dirty Keto" is available on Amazon! You can purchase or rent it here.https://amzn.to/4d9agj1 Please make sure to watch, rate, and review it! Eat Happy Italian, Anna's second cookbook, is available! You can go to https://eathappyitalian.com You can order it from Vinnie's Book Club. https://amzn.to/3ucIXm Anna's recipes are in her cookbooks, on her website, and on Substack —they will spice up your day! https://annavocino.substack.com/ PURCHASE DIRTY KETO (2024) The documentary launched in August 2024! Order it TODAY! This is Vinnie's fourth documentary in just over five years. Visit my new Documentaries HQ to find my films everywhere: https://vinnietortorich.com/documentaries Then, please share my fact-based, health-focused documentary series with your friends and family. Additionally, the more views it receives, the better it ranks, so please watch it again with a new friend! REVIEWS: Please submit your REVIEW after you watch my films. Your positive REVIEW does matter! PURCHASE BEYOND IMPOSSIBLE (2022) Visit my new Documentaries HQ to find my films everywhere: https://vinnietortorich.com/documentaries FAT: A DOCUMENTARY 2 (2021) Visit my new Documentaries HQ to find my films everywhere: https://vinnietortorich.com/documentaries FAT: A DOCUMENTARY (2019) Visit my new Documentaries HQ to find my films everywhere: https://vinnietortorich.com/documentaries

We sit down to discuss Lizzie Hershberger's book, 'Behind Blue Curtains,' which sheds light on her personal stories and alleged childhood abuse within the Amish community. This discussion also touches on the broader issue of religious abuse and how certain groups, including potentially some Amish sects, exhibit cult psychology. Join us as we explore the experiences of an ex amish survivor. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In tonight's dead letter, a peaceful retreat at a friend's historic property in the country yields a brush with something that defies explanation. The old homes in these rural communities are steeped in generations of human memory, and sometimes, those overlaid paths from the past seem to bleed right through the present day. We unpack an incredibly vivid, solid sighting that leaves us questioning the true nature of time, space, and the boundaries of our own backyards.REFERENCE LINKSThe Finger Lakes RegionHistory of the Amish and Mennonite SchismSpolia in ArchitectureBelhurst Castle and the Lady in WhiteAl Jaffee and the Mad Magazine Fold-InWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!

SCHEDULE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW 4-24-20261740 BATAVIA Guest: Jeff Bliss. John Batchelor and Bliss discuss potential fuel shortages impacting Las Vegas tourism and airport traffic. They address rising gasoline prices in California, which exceed five dollars due to heavy refinery regulations and reduced domestic production. The conversation also covers the environmental and economic impacts of importing fuel into the region. Guest: Jeff Bliss. Bliss analyzes the first gubernatorial debate, where leading Democratic candidates gave Governor Newsom high grades for handling homelessness, while Republicans issued an "F". The discussion highlights the audience's negative reaction to these high marks and notes how the candidates focused heavily on criticizing Donald Trump throughout the evening. Guest: Josh Blackman. Blackman reviews the history of the 1974 Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, which prevented Richard Nixon from destroying White House records. He argues that the Watergate investigation created a political "fever," leading to legal maneuvers that potentially compromised constitutional principles regarding executive branch authority over internal disputes and documents. Guest: Josh Blackman. Blackman discusses a 2026 OLC opinion suggesting the 1978 Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. He draws parallels between Nixon's record disputes and the modern indictments of Donald Trump regarding documents at Mar-a-Lago. The conversation explores whether these legal challenges are attempts to restore traditional presidential powers after post-Watergate erosion. Guest: Jim McTague. McTague reports on the economic climate in Lancaster County, observing light city foot traffic and high commercial rents. He discusses how rising gasoline prices affect small businesses and seniors on fixed incomes. The segment concludes with a look at the local fishing season and McTague's interactions with the Amish community. Guest: Lorenzo Fiori. Fiori addresses the suspicious poisoning of wolves in Italy's Abruzzo National Park, noting conflicts with local farmers. He recommends travelers visit the historic "star city" of Palmanova and nearby Roman sites to escape over-tourism in major cities. The segment concludes with a culinary tip for preparing a traditional potato dish. Guest: Richard Epstein. Epstein critiques the California Supreme Court's disbarment of attorney John Eastman. He argues the decision is a politically motivated "hit job" that ignores First Amendment protections for legal advocacy. Epstein suggests such judicial interventions into political campaigns are dangerous and warns that the decision misshapes the entire American polity. Guest: Richard Epstein. Epstein examines the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, noting fuel emergencies in the Pacific. He advocates for opening alternative domestic energy supplies by bypassing regulatory hurdles. Epstein argues that military force may eventually be necessary to counter illegal Iranian blockades and protect national security interests against bad-faith negotiations. Guest: Andrew Graham Dixon. Art historian Dixon explores the background of Johannes Vermeer in 17th-century Delft. He details Vermeer's father's role as an innkeeper and the family's involvement with the Remonstrants, a liberal religious group. This group advocated for peace and tolerance during an era characterized by brutal and devastating religious wars. Guest: Andrew Graham Dixon. Dixon investigates Vermeer's artistic origins, proposing Gerard ter Borch as his teacher based on archival documents. He notes that Vermeer was fatherless at twenty and likely viewed his master as a father figure. The discussion emphasizes that Vermeer's training occurred outside of Delft, contributing to his sophisticated and subtly lit style. Guest: Andrew Graham Dixon. Dixon recounts Vermeer's marriage to Catharina Bolnes and his conversion to Catholicism to appease his mother-in-law, Maria Thins. He highlights the unique religious toleration in Dutch society, where diverse faiths worshiped in private. The narrative focuses on the domestic tensions Vermeer faced living in Thins' wealthy, strictly Catholic household. Guest: Andrew Graham Dixon. Dixon discusses Vermeer's primary patrons, Peter van Ruijven and Maria de Knuijt, identifying them as radical Remonstrants. He reveals a "smoking gun" discovery: their home was adjacent to a hidden Remonstrant church. Dixon argues Vermeer's paintings were deeply personal expressions of the fellowship and faith shared with these patrons. Guest: Henry Sokolski. Sokolski highlights the overlooked plutonium path to nuclear weapons in Iran, focusing on the Bushehr reactor's spent fuel rods. He explains that while uranium enrichment is publicly monitored, reprocessing these rods could yield hundreds of bombs. He argues that current inspections fail to provide a "timely warning" for such diversions. Guest: Henry Sokolski. Sokolski discusses modernizing civil defense to address non-nuclear threats like drone strikes on critical infrastructure. Following European models, he suggests Americans should prepare for 72-hour utility failures by securing water, cash, and physical protection for power transformers. He notes the administration is only beginning to articulate these essential requirements. Guest: Bob Zimmerman. Zimmerman reviews NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's testimony regarding budget cuts and the cancellation of the Lunar Gateway project. He compares slow European government space programs with agile commercial startups. Additionally, he notes technical failures with Northrup Grumman's rocket boosters that have delayed military launches and impacted ULA's finances. Guest: Bob Zimmerman. Zimmerman provides updates on the Curiosity rover's climb of Mount Sharp, noting unusual tile-like rock formations on Mars. He also explains the significance of the Artemis Accords, an alliance of sixty-three nations favoring private property and enterprise in space. This political alliance serves as a counter-strategy to Chinese and Russian lunar ambitions.