Podcasts about AW

Southern Charm finishes its season at a big cast party where Craig gets dumped and Charley gets Leva'd. Salley's pestering finally works as she wears Austen down to a situationship where he can make out with her whenever he wants and promise nothing. Aw, romance! Sorry to whatever chickens were harmed in the paving of Salley's road to fboi paradise. To watch this recap on video, listen to our bonus episodes, and get ad free listening,, go to Patreon.com/watchwhatcrappens. Find bonus episodes at patreon.com/watchwhatcrappens and follow us on Instagram @watchwhatcrappens @ronniekaram @benmandelker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this awesome talk with my dad in Part Three, we are going back in time, into the past when I was poisoned by food at nine years of age and suffered horribly until Spirit Of Compassion spoke to me about something critical that turned it all around—that's when my great grandfather's garden became the medicinal paradise miraculously needed. Dad and I talk about his past, when he was a child and he got injured with his friend while climbing a large, special fruit tree in somebody's yard. We also discuss his favorite guacamole recipe using his heirloom hot peppers he grows in the garden. My dad is a hot pepper expert, with generations of family seeds going back to our roots from Italy. There is much wisdom and knowledge to take in and learn in this profound interview. Fasten your seat belts and take a ride with me and my dad… In this episode… Discover AW's dad's special hot pepper that he grows and named himself, and why it's so good. Learn what Spirit of Compassion told AW to do when he was nine years old after he was food poisoned. Learn about AW's great grandfather's garden and all the different fruits, herbs and vegetables that grew there. Find out what AW's great grandfather called him and what he would say to little AW because of his gift in talking to Spirit. Discover the way AW's father makes his favorite guacamole and what ingredients he uses. Find out why the tree AW's dad climbed as a child was very dangerous and how he got injured. Learn about the time that AW should not have picked green tomatoes. Discover what happened to AW and his father when they both ate their first real hot pepper out of the garden at 6 years old. All this and more, tune in and don't miss out on this important episode. You can revisit this episode anytime you need it. For more information visit www.medicalmedium.com

On this episode of National Disability Radio, we sit down with award-winning recording artist, advocate, and author Lachi for a powerful conversation about disability pride, music, and unmasking. Lachi shares her journey, from navigating the music industry as a blind artist, to founding RAMPD, a coalition amplifying disability culture across the industry. We talk about what it means to say “I identify as blind,” move beyond the medical and social models of disability into a cultural model rooted in identity and joy, and remind listeners that no one can defeat someone who hasn't given up. From glam canes to Grammy stages, this episode is about claiming space, rejecting internalized ableism, and turning perceived flaws into flexes. Transcript: Alden Blevins: It’s Lachi? I feel very- Lachi: Lachi like Versace. Alden Blevins: Lachi like… Oh, I love that. Michelle Bishop: That is the best way to explain it. Lachi: I mean, but you know what I’m saying? Come on. Alden Blevins: Well, we’re really excited about having you today because we’re all music lovers in this group here. Michelle Bishop: Yes. Alden Blevins: We talk about music all the time. Michelle Bishop: So much. Lachi: Good, good, good, good, good, good, good. I’m in the right place. Michelle Bishop: Hi everyone. Welcome back to National Disability Radio, the official podcast of the National Disability Rights Network. I am Michelle Bishop, 1/3 of your podcast hosting team. Stephanie Flynt McEben: And I’m Stephanie Flynt McEben, public policy analyst here at NDRN. Alden Blevins: I am Alden. I am a communication specialist at NDRN and I am so excited today, like I mentioned, we’re all lovers of music, so we got a guest that I’m really excited about. Lachi is an award-winning recording artist and a recording Academy Grammy’s national trustee. She’s also a disability advocate who’s been breaking barriers in the music industry and beyond. She’s the founder of RAMPD, which by the way, is such a fun play name. I really love that. And the author of the upcoming book, I Identify as Blind. So without further ado, Michelle, you’ve got some questions to kick us off, I think. Michelle Bishop: Yes. We’re so excited to have you with us. As Alden said, we are. We’re huge music lovers. I’m pretty sure we spend most of our meetings where we allegedly plan this podcast just talking about music. So you’re absolutely in the right place today, but to get us started, I mean, you’ve been open about the fact, and I’m just really interested in this as a disability rights podcast. You’ve been really open about the fact that it took you some time to really embrace your identity as a blind and disabled woman, especially in the industry that you’re in that often really rewards conformity. Can you tell us a little bit more about that journey for you, both as an artist and as someone navigating just the world with a disability? Lachi: Okay. Yeah, for sure. Hey, everybody. Lachi here, Lachi like Versace. I am a Black woman with cornrows, chilling here in New York in my studio. I also identify as blind, I identify as neurodivergent, and I identify as an Aries. So do with that what you will. Michelle Bishop: All the important points right there. Lachi: All the important points like name, age, sign. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, but I’m really glad to be here. And thank you for that question, and thank you for having me. So music has always been a very integral part of my life of growing up. Where other babies would kick in the womb, when she was pregnant with me, I was playing the piano in the womb. I don’t know how she got a piano in there, but she’s not a liar, so I’m going to take her word for it. When I was super-duper young, I didn’t really have a lot of friends, especially because of the fact that I had differences and this and that. And so I would take to music to, I guess, understand the world better and have the world understand me better. I just knew how to express myself through song and it just said the things I needed to say. It was the prayer I needed. And because of music, I started to find confidence in how to speak and how to behave and how to act. And as I got older, when I was growing up, disability was not necessarily a thing people talked about a lot in schools and teachers didn’t know what to do. My parents didn’t really know what to do. And so I would always just turn to music. It’s actually right now I’m working on a children’s album because I think that kids need to hear music that has to do with disability and neurodivergence, as well as their parents as they grow up. When I got into college, I started wanting to do music, but I studied business and finance because when I told my parents I wanted to do music, they were like, “That’s not how you spell doctor.” because they are Nigerian immigrants and everybody else in my family went to either med school and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, “No, I want to do music.” But I did get a day job after school, after college, and didn’t love it because this girl is not going to exist behind a desk. So I ended up going to South by Southwest and I got signed actually from playing the guitar at a hole in the wall spot that nobody was at, except for this A&R apparently. So we got signed to an imprint under EMI, which was a major label back then, and we started touring and music then became my life. Now today, why wouldn’t I pay my respects back to music? I mean, it’s because of music that I was able to really lean into who I am, my disability, my confidence, et cetera. So because of that, because of how much music has given to me in my life, I’m here using music to give back to other people with disabilities. Now, your question was essentially, how do you sit here and try to bring about change for disability in an industry that is not only about conformity, but also about like, “Hey, pick me to exploit.” is essentially what the music industry is. You’re raising your hand to be exploited and that’s what kind of authenticity is that? But at the end of the day, music is some of the truest forms of storytelling. And I think to myself, just the way that hip hop has amplified Black culture and the way that country music has amplified rural culture and the way that different global musics have represented different global cultures. I want to use music to amplify disability culture. I want to use music to amplify disability stories and feelings that are difficult to put words to, that are words of the soul, which is essentially what music is. And so I started going to studios and realizing things weren’t as accessible as they should be. I started speaking with organizations and realizing things weren’t as inclusive as they should be. And the response I kept getting was like, “Oh, well, there’s nobody with a disability in the music industry, so why would we make these measures?” And so I have made it my life’s goal through RAMPD, which by the way, the best thing we ever accomplished was our acronym, not us working with the Grammys to get sign language on the red carpet, not us getting these partnerships with title, Live Nation, Spotify. I mean, we’ve done so much, not just for artists, but also for professionals. And we’ve started to realize something really interesting with the work we’ve done with RAMPD. We are getting people joining our membership who are director level folks, who are label owners, who are like the big wigs that write the checks, and they’re like, “I’m neurodivergent. I’m actually hard of hearing. I have a TBI.” And so when I originally set out, they said, “We don’t do disability inclusion because nobody’s disabled.” That was three years ago. Now I’m like, not only are there neurodivergent and disabled music professionals out here, but we all are. So really to conclude, it’s just that everyone is navigating trying to make it out in this world, but everyone’s masking. Everyone feels that they have to change some part of themselves to be as close as they can to what success looks like, be as close as they can to what “beauty” looks like, what winning looks like. But really all it is internalized ableism. And I say, as soon as we drop that internalized ableism and we really start to sit in who we truly are and we start to recognize our perceived flaws as flexes, that’s when we truly start to win. And so that’s what we’re finding out with RAMPD, that people are like, “You know what? I’m tired of navigating this difficult industry with the added layer of having to mask.” And so that’s why I do what I do. Michelle Bishop: Yes. And honestly, as ridiculous as it sounds that they say to you, “Oh, there aren’t any people with disabilities.” When I tell you, we see that in everything that we do. I do voting work at NDRN and we’ll have elections officials tell us, “This polling place isn’t accessible, but there aren’t any people with disabilities that vote here.” And it’s like, “What? You realize we’re everywhere and we do all sorts of things.” Maybe the reason they think there’s no people with disabilities here is because they’re stuck outside and they can’t get in because you didn’t make it accessible, just a thought. But I mean, it sounds like coming up against all that is really, correct me if I’m wrong, helped you to develop that identity and that disability pride in the industry. When did you first say, “I identify as blind.” and what did that mean for you? Lachi: Well, so when I first came into really doing the disability thing, really leaning in, I wanted to find out more influencers or thought leaders and such with disabilities. I didn’t really know that many people. This is pre COVID, 2018, 2019, that kind of thing. And so I came across an influencer, her name is Molly Burke, and we’re great friends now, but I didn’t know her back then. I had just seen her tagline and it had said, “I’m Molly Burke and I’m a YouTuber who happens to be blind.” And for some reason I was like, “I don’t know if I love the happens to be blind thing.” I was like, “Well, I’m proud of being blind. Blindness is part of my identity. I don’t just happen to be a woman. I don’t just happen to be a Nigerian. I don’t just happen to be all of the things I am.” And so I would go to… I was touring… We’re always touring and every time I tour and do a show, I do a comedic open where I just introduce myself, I do a quick self-description, et cetera. And in my self-description, I would say, and I don’t just happen to be blind. My blindness is part of my identity, has given me all of the opportunities I have, and it’s really made me a deeper blah, blah, blah. It was just too long. So I had punched it up to be, “My name is Lachi like Versace. She, her, I’m a Black woman with cornrows and I identify as blind.” And the interesting thing about that is people took onto it. They were like, “Oh, that’s cool, nice and punchy.” But whenever I would say it in front of a large crowd or like I’ve said it on interviews or during commercials, I would get this weird, I don’t know, pushback of like, you can’t identify as blind. Blindness is an identity. It’s a medical condition. Or they’ll be like, “Do you read braille or not?” Or they’ll be like, “We don’t want people to think trans blindness is a thing where you just have a blind identity.” And then you can be like, “Well, I’m blind today, so that’s my identity.” And I thought that was really fun. I was like, “Look, everybody’s upset. They’re talking about blindness though.” So I really leaned all the way into it. And I have to say, I am super proud of my disability identity. Was it music that brought me there? I think in a sense and in a way, like today I have a few songs, you guys are music lovers, I have a few songs out that really talk about my disability pride. I think that a lot of the times as we navigate the world, masking our disability, masking our chronic condition, our difference or whatever, we end up overcompensating. We end up building up this really, really thick problem solving muscle or this really, really thick how to get around things muscle and we overcompensate. When we’re finally accommodated, when we finally get to a place where we’re accommodated or we have the tools we need, we’re coming in like bulk as hell. We’re coming in with problem solving muscles. We’re coming in with all of these things that we had to build up because of navigating the world differently, because of every day working through this very difficult maze that is living a life unaccommodated, then when we finally are accommodated, then we are killing it and crushing it. And how could you not be proud of that? How can that not give you a sense of pride? So the songs that I would love for you guys to check out that are mine is I have a song called Life on Hard, which has gone viral several times on Instagram. I’m known as an Instagram rapper, which is like, what? Hello, I do disability advocacy. Look at that stuff. But anyway, so I have a song called Life on Hard, which is essentially about just winning the game of life, playing it on the hardest setting out here while people are still trying to consult the manual. I have another song called Professional, which is oftentimes when I walk on the stage, people see the cane and they’re like, “Aw, she’s going to do a song for us. Is this from Make a Wish Foundation?” And then I bust out these raps or I hop on the piano and I go ape on this piano and then they’re like, “Oh, snap. What? Okay.” And I’m like, “Bro, I’m a professional artist. I’m not object for pity to make you feel good because you felt weird on a Monday and you didn’t feel like getting up for work, but it’s like, she could do it. So can I.” I’m like, “No, I can do it. You most likely probably just can’t.” So that’s what that song’s about. And then there’s The Bag, and The Bag is just essentially like, I’ve been told no so much like, “No, you can’t. No, you’re not good enough. No, we don’t want you.” And I’m like, “You know what? Yes, I am good enough and I deserve everything. So I’m going to throw everything I deserve in the bag, which is everything.” I don’t know. I would not be the person I am if I didn’t love all parts of myself. And that includes my disabilities, that includes my neurodivergences and all of the other wacky, weird body jazz that I bring with me everywhere I go. Michelle Bishop: Lachi, can we maybe, do you and I just FaceTime each other every morning and hype each other up? Stephanie Flynt McEben: I was literally about to say the same thing. I would like in on a true call. Michelle Bishop: I don’t know if you know. Actually, I want to say quickly, I know some of those songs actually from social media, but they’re real. They’re so real. So people haven’t heard music, go check it out. I don’t know if you know one of our co-hosts, Stephanie is blind. You’re speaking directly to her soul right now. Stephanie Flynt McEben: I literally just texted them in our podcast group text and I was like, she’s totally speaking to my soul RN, but of course I don’t want to interrupt anything. Michelle Bishop: No, I know you’re dying to talk to her about the book, Stephanie, and take it away. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yeah, no, absolutely, for sure. And as somebody who is blind and who also identifies as a blind person and definitely does not identify with the medical model of disability, clearly gotten to more of a social model. But yeah, in terms of going through that journey of accepting all of who you are and everything about yourself, for me, I mean, it took a minute, especially when you’re talking about your experiences as a child and I totally feel that. I was that girl playing the harmonica on the jungle gym by herself. Anyway, this is about you. This is not about me, but I’m just saying that I totally relate to you on a spiritual level. And given that, I would love to know, were there any particular moments when it came to writing the book that were particularly hard or healing? Because I mean, I think that we all know that it’s not always a linear journey. Some days are going to be harder than others. And so would love to get your perspective on that. And I think that our listeners would be interested. Lachi: Yeah, absolutely. The journey for me has been one of constantly unwrapping this amazing gift. I always try to use that as the visual, if you will, of you have this big present and you get to unwrap it and then you just keep getting something cooler inside and then you get to unwrap that and you get something cooler inside and you just keep unwrapping this beautiful gift that is yourself. But you don’t realize that when you first get the box, the amazing stuff that’s going on inside, and it takes time to get to it. So a lot of times growing up, I would kick myself in the butt of, I wish I had come to this when I was so much younger. I wish there were people out there when I was younger, role models that I could look up to when I was eight years old and pointing on the TV and saying like, “Okay, well, I mean, I understand that Ray Charles existed, but that’s not going to…” Stephanie Flynt McEben: Stevie Wonder is here, Ray Charles is here, but we need more of us. Hello. Lachi: We need more of us. Hello. Exactly. And so this time and place where I am right now is where I needed to be for this to work. So I can’t really kick myself in the butt of like, “I wish I had this. I wish I knew this so much earlier. I would’ve been so much further.” That kind of thing. You have to be where you got to be where you need to be. Even right now, this conversation we’re having right now is going to have been necessary for the next thing that is happening in our lives. And just the other day, I was hanging out with Queen Herby, who’s been one of my favorite more modern rappers. I just did a thing with Apl.de.ap. I have done some stuff with Black Caviar. Folks that I’ve looked up to, I’m having the opportunity to Snoop Dogg. I’m having the opportunity to work with these days because of the fact that I am here at the right time now. So when I was writing my book, we were peeling back all the layers. I’m a generally very positive and energetic, social butterfly type of person today. But it’s interesting, I wasn’t always this person and I had to unpack all the layers to get there. One of the biggest things that happens to me, so I’ve always been low vision. So I was born with relatively low vision and it stayed the same throughout my teens and early 20s. But one day I woke up and my sight was just gone. Boom. So the interesting thing is anybody listening would be like, “Oh my God, if I woke up and my sight was gone, I would just die or I would not know what to do. My life would be over.” Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yep. Heard that a million times. Yes. Lachi: But for me, it was weird because I was already low vision, so I was going from level one to the underwater level or whatever. So it wasn’t like that life changing of a thing. I was already using screen readers or Zoom text. I was already doing stuff of that nature. So I wake up blind and I’m just like, “Okay, I guess this is it. This is the day that they told me was coming.” What had ended up happening was my corneas had erupted. And so I went to the doctor and he was like, “You’re going to become completely blind. You’re going to go from this much worse vision than you’ve had to complete blindness over the course of time.” So here you go, here’s a coupon. Bye.” or whatever. So I’m like, all right. So I had decided at that moment that I wanted to start a bucket list. So I was like, okay, what are all the things I’ve always wanted to do before completely going completely blind? So I was like, let me go skydiving, let me go spolunking, let me go meet with people, meet with celebrities and just do all of the things I’ve always wanted to do before I lose my vision. So I went out and I did it. This is still me doing it. This is still me doing it. And so I say that because to people who say if I ever went blind, I would just die. Well, when I went blind, it made me want to live. And that’s what opened me up into being this person that I am today. Stephanie Flynt McEben: That is amazing. I genuinely love that. Lachi: We talk about charity model and propping disabled folks up as tools of pity. We talk about medical model, which is really just waiting around for cure, making the cure the hero. We talk about social model, which is a really good place to live in the sense of things are impairing if they’re not accessible. Society is impairing if it’s not inclusive. But honestly, if I have all of the things, like if I have all my tools, if I have all that I need and if folks are inclusive, then I’m still blind, but I’m not impaired. But I like to go a little step further into what is the cultural model. And so the cultural model is it’s not just a discussion of what society should and shouldn’t do. It’s actually a celebration of what you gain as a person who identifies with their disability or their neurodivergence, the things they need to overcompensate because they’re navigating the world a little differently, leaning into that. So let’s say for instance, deaf culture, sign language, and the fact that folks can have complete discussions outside of what we’re talking about, there is so much deaf pride out in these streets, that is a celebration of culture that comes out of disability. And for me, let’s say for instance, I have ADHD and it powers my one million and counting ideas. I have diagnosed OCD, which helps me carry out all those one million and counting ideas. I have diagnosed general anxiety disorder, which gives me my empathy and my excitement. And then I am blind, which when I have the tools I need, it gives me drive. It keeps me determined, it keeps me focused, and it gives me my dope ass glam canes. There was a girl and her mom, and she came up to me after a show and she was like, “Oh my God, your music was great.” I was like, thank you. She’s like, “Mommy, can I get one of those canes?” And then her mom was like, “Ugh, well, you have to be blind.” And I’m like, “Yeah, girl, you better want to be me.” Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yeah. We drive sticks. Anyway, sorry. Lachi: Yes. You know what? I speak softly and I carry a big old stick. Thank you. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yes. Amen to that. Exactly. As somebody who considers themself a lifelong disability advocate, I never really thought about it in the sense of going beyond the social into the cultural. So thank you so, so much. We all learn something new every single day on this podcast, but I’d love to know a little bit more about, obviously you were very, very, very good at talking through these experiences in such a way that they are very relatable and easy to understand and that thing. So I’d love to pick your brain about the intended audience of your book. Who did you write it for? Other blind folks? Did you write it for, was it written for multiple audiences? Lachi: Yeah, honestly, I wrote it for the person who is masking. I wrote it for anyone who is tired of… Listen, let me put it like this. Let’s face it, disability is boring, a lot of the time it’s sad and it’s compliancy. We have to go the extra mile to make it fun because the actual truth of it is that the only reason it’s boring, sad, and compliancy is because society has kept it that way through its collective internalized ableism. And so my book is actually a humor book. It’s a pop culture book. It’s a comedy book. In fact, when we were talking to the publisher, it’s like, we should be putting this up against other comedic books, not necessarily disability books because it’s a book. I got so many jokes. I have dad jokes, they’re corny jokes, I have rap bars. I rap in a lot of the book just because I was like, “Hey, this rhymes.” I’m going to say it like a rap. We’re doing the audiobook right now, so I actually get to wrap it, which is really fun. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Oh, that is so cool. Oh my gosh. Lachi: Which is really, really fun. But really, honestly, what the book is what everything I do is it is using joy, soul, pop culture, jokes, humor, fashion, and just a really good time to celebrate disability, as well as community. So what you’ll find in this book is my story through my story, through historical deep dives, through interviews with some really, really cool popular figures and a really big deep dose of disability joy. And so a lot of folks who have disabilities, they will read this book and they’ll be energized. It’ll be like, “This is really great. I’m glad that I finally get to read a book that talks about disability in a positive way.” For blind specific folks, they might relate to a few of my stories because I talk about the day I woke up blind, I talk about when I went skydiving blind, I talk about just some of my interesting blind moments. But then I also talk about how I would go to red carpets and not know how to talk to anybody. So I’m in this amazing room with all these celebrities I can’t see and I’m just sitting on the wall. So I talk about some of the hard times too as well. But at the end of the day, really what the book is is an invitation in for somebody who feels a little different, a little awkward, has to mask, and just needed that invite in to talk about disability in a fun, joyful, celebratory way, to recognize that yes, that thing in you that’s different, that thing in you that society has told you you should view as a weakness and hide, you should be proud of. And I say this to people all the time. I say it in the industry, I say it to all my friends, I say it to anyone who will listen. I say it to my local barista and they come back and they say things like, “Oh my God, I’m so glad you said it that way. It turns out I have a titanium hip and I’ve never told anybody about that.” And that’s the vibe. The vibe is someone who was like, “I really needed this to be said to me this way, and now I am able to step all the way into my disability identity.” Alden Blevins: I love, especially what you said about joy. I feel like for me as an autistic person, my experience in the arts is that it is really a space where people who maybe don’t belong in other spaces or don’t feel like they belong in other spaces or are made to feel like they don’t belong in other spaces. I think that a lot of them really do find a safe space in music, in the arts, in theater. And I just wanted to ask, why do you think the music space is such a special one for you and why do you think it’s a place where other people with disabilities seem to flock together as well? Lachi: I mean, you hit the nail on the head. Counterculture, I mean, music often rewards counterculture. And then it eventually becomes mainstream and then we got to rebel against that. So music is a place where your soul can speak. And I think a lot of the times with disabilities, especially autism for me, I’m ADHD, OCD, a different neurodivergence situation, but a lot of the issue is communication. We don’t know how to say exactly what we need or whoever we’re talking to just doesn’t know how to hear what we’re saying. And so I think that what music does is it allows a soul to speak to a soul. A lot of the times music does this thing where you’ll be listening to a song and you’ll just be like, “That, that right there. That’s what I it me. That’s the thing I’m feeling.” type deal. Music has the ability to do that. And so for me, right now, this children’s album that I’m working on, the kids’ album, which is an album that is essentially R&B, pop, electronic, sort of the genres that I dance in for kids centered on disability and neurodivergence. Because what I want to do is be able to say, “Hey, I want you to point at that and say, that’s me.” And I think the easiest and quickest way to point at something and say, “That’s me also.” has been music. And so it’s why it’s been my strongest medium. Again, it’s not my only medium. I’m talking to folks through the book, I’m talking to folks through fashion, et cetera, et cetera. But again, music has been just the quickest, easiest point A to point B conversation easer, if you will, about disability. Another thing I also love to use is humor and comedy. So I make jokes all the time. They’re all bad. They’re all very not good jokes. I need to probably get a joke writer, but the fact that I’m having such a good time telling the jokes, I think I think is all that really matters. So I think both music and humor are just really, really great spaces for two people to get to relate to something that may be difficult to talk about. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yo, if you need a joke writer, I’m your girl. I actually do a joke every single episode of this podcast. Michelle Bishop: Her jokes are not better than yours, Lachi. Don’t hire her. Stephanie Flynt McEben: My jokes are pretty bad. They’re worse than dad’s jokes. They’re like granddad jokes. Alden Blevins: Yeah. Stephanie is the queen of the jokes on our podcast. She always brings one through. Didn’t know that you were working on a children’s music album, and I think that’s really interesting. I actually used to be a teacher, so children’s music is something that’s near and dear to my heart. So I just wanted to ask, what would you want to tell to younger people with disabilities, younger disabled creatives about claiming space and being able to tell their own stories? Lachi: Well, one thing that I heard from someone else, I don’t remember who it was. I think it was- Michelle Bishop: Jordan? Lachi: Yes, Jordan. He’s the one that said this. Michelle Bishop: I love him. Lachi: Yeah, he’s so funny. I met him at a… What did I meet him at? The Webby Awards or something. But anyway, no one can ever defeat someone who hasn’t given up. And for some reason that hit me, and I don’t even think he was trying to say it that deep. He was just saying a joke or something. But I took that and it was like, no one can ever defeat someone who hasn’t given up. So at the end of the day, you are really the only one who can end whatever you’re trying to get. Because as long as you are still going for it, it is still still there. It’s like a Schrodinger’s cat. It’s like as long as you’re still running for it, that opportunity is still there for you to have. The opportunity is never lost as long as you’re still going for it. And people can tell you, people can take your shoulders and tell you to go right. People can take your shoulders and tell you to go left. But until you take your own shoulders and go in the direction that your heart, your soul, your passion, your fire, desires, that is when you truly begin to live. And so I say personally, lean into that. I hear from a lot of younger, especially creators with disabilities. I mentor a lot of folks, tons and tons of folks. It’s one of the things I love to do the most. But what I love to tell folks is you are going to be the best you. And that you is going to include all of the different parts of who you are, but it is especially going to include you leaning in to the things that make you different and unique as unique selling points. Earlier I talked about how people try so hard to be the “definition of beauty”, definition of success, definition of whatever. Everyone’s trying to be this reference man. Everyone’s trying to be as close as they can to the reference man. And if I’m as close as I can to the reference man, then I’ll be successful or then I’ll get this job or then I’ll get this gig. But the truth of the matter is when we look at all of the people that are doing all of the big things, they’re “eccentric”. They’re “weird”. They did some big different idea that no one was thinking about and everybody fell into their trend. The further away you are from the reference man, that is when you start to win. That is when you’ll start to see success. That is when you’ll start to feel much better about yourself. That is when you can wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, “I am fine.” When you are able to accept all of those different freckles of yourself that are as far away from the reference man as possible, because guess what? There is room outside of the barrel for everyone to win if they are all being their unique self and running their unique purpose. That’s what I would tell to young disabled creators. Michelle Bishop: That’s amazing. Almost feel like we should stop there, but I have so many follow-up questions. Lachi: Listen, I’m here to drop as many mics as they will let me keep breaking. Michelle Bishop: I was wondering how you see the conversation around disability and inclusion and evolving these days. And a lot of our listeners are people with disabilities or people who have other even multiple intersecting identities in which they experience barriers as well. What does allyship look like to you? Lachi: This is one of my favorite questions. So yes, we have folks with disabilities and we have folks who want to work with people with disabilities, want to help a friend with a disability, want to make sure they don’t say the wrong thing to a person with a disability, neurodivergence, chronic condition, mental health condition. That’s not an ally. Wanting to help a person with a disability is not an ally. To me, wanting to support someone with a disability, that’s an ally in the very basic definition of allyship. Here’s what I think an ally is. To answer the question, I got to do two things. One, talk about the disability umbrella. So the disability umbrella encompasses so many forms of disability. It is neurodivergence, which is ADHD, dyslexia, OCD. It is mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, bipolar. It is someone who learns a little differently. It is someone who has explosive situations like anger management. It is someone who has substance abuse disorder, maybe somebody who drinks too much or uses different substances. It is chronic back pain. You know what I’m saying? It is asthma. It is EDS. It’s POTS. It is long COVID. It is different complications that you gain after pregnancy. It is different complications that you gain as you age. It is different complications you gain through menopause. It is temporary. It is breaking your arm and wearing a cast. It is seasonal depression. There is nobody on this earth that is not within the disability umbrella. And I don’t mean that you’re going to grow into it. I don’t mean in the future. I mean right now. Whether you identify as a person with a disability or not, you have disability identity because you have experience in your body disability. And when you figure that out, then you’re an ally. Allyship is seeing yourself through the other person because you can’t look through someone else’s eyes unless you can see yourself in them. And you can’t see yourself in disability until you recognize the disability identity within yourself. All of a sudden, and I say this and people are like, “What? I say this, but I’ve seen this. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen people who did not associate themselves with any form of disability or anything and they’re just like, Oh, them. Oh, I’ll help them. We have a conversation and then we have a follow-up conversation and then we’re drinking and then all of a sudden they’re telling me all their disabilities and then they’re walking a little different when they encounter disability. It’s no longer a them thing. And so that’s what an ally is. People with disabilities are also allies. I am an ally to the deaf community because I recognize though I’m not deaf, I see the having to navigate the world differently in you of myself. So that’s how I define an ally. An ally is someone who understands their own disability identity and can see it in others. Michelle Bishop: Don’t mind me over here just taking notes. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Literally. Oh my gosh. Lachi, thank you so, so, so much for being with us and taking time. I know that your website, lachimusic.com is one of the places where folks can stay up to date on all of the latest and greatest things that you’re up to. Is there anything else in particular you would like to plug for our listeners? Lachi: Like you said, LACHI, L-A-C-H-I M-U-S-I-C. I’m on the internets everywhere. Instagram, Spotify, check out the old music. If you’re a creator, a music creator or professional with a disability, check us out at RAMPD, R-A-M-P-D.org. Or if you want to donate or if you want to partner with us over at RAMPD, please do. If you are a cane user, whether you’re a blind cane user or you use Mobility Cane, check out glamcanes.com, get your canes bejeweled. I Identify as Blind, our book is out on Penguin Random House, imprint called Tiny Reparations by Phoebe Robinson, who is also a comedian. So we’re out here all writing very funny books. So please check it out. And lastly, listen, try to find moments in your day of disability joy. And when you find that moment, take a picture of it or write it down so that you can go back to it and live for those moments. So thank you guys so much for having me on this podcast. It’s really been a blast getting to talk at you about all things I identify as blind. Alden Blevins: I love it. I was over here taking notes too because I just found so much of myself in what you were saying and so many things were poignant and empowering. I, as an autistic person, try to be an ally to other parts of the disability community myself. And that’s something where I’m always trying to put myself in the shoes of another person and what they might experience. So I think that’s really powerful. We were so grateful to be able to connect and learn more about you, Lachi. Lachi: Yes, yes, yes. So honored to be here, guys. Michelle Bishop: Before you head out, Lachi, do you want to hear one of Stephanie’s grandpa jokes? Lachi: I was going to say, I was like, “Let’s hear one of these granddad jokes.” Let me see. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Okay. This might be- Michelle Bishop: Okay, do it. Stephanie Flynt McEben: … a granddad joke. Okay. Where do spiders like to get their information? Lachi: The web? Michelle Bishop: That would be something to do with web. Stephanie Flynt McEben: But what kind of web? Lachi: Wow. Really? You are fired from being my comedy writer. You are fired to be my comedy writer. I was rooting for you too. I was like, let’s just… Please. Stephanie Flynt McEben: I wouldn’t even get to the punchline yet. Michelle Bishop: Worldwide web? Stephanie Flynt McEben: It is the worldwide web. Michelle Bishop: Oh. Stephanie Flynt McEben: It’s fine. It’s fine. My wife warned me not to tell that joke this month and I didn’t lose it. Michelle Bishop: Oh my gosh. I’m so glad you stuck around for that part. Lachi: As I live and breathe. Thank you guys so, so much. This has been so much fun and I will see who else I can tell that joke to. And go ahead and just to help you out, Stephanie, I’ll go ahead and embarrass myself by telling that joke to others. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Not my best work, but that is allyship. Yes. Michelle Bishop: Oh my gosh, Lachi, thank you so much. And everyone, please lachimusic.com. Check it out. Listen to the music, read the book. Alden Blevins: Speaking of the worldwide web, this has been National Disability Radio. We celebrate stories, leadership, and talent of people with disabilities. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation with us on that worldwide web at ndrn.org or anywhere you get your favorite podcasts. Thanks for listening and until next time. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Bye.

On this episode of National Disability Radio, we sit down with award-winning recording artist, advocate, and author Lachi for a powerful conversation about disability pride, music, and unmasking. Lachi shares her journey, from navigating the music industry as a blind artist, to founding RAMPD, a coalition amplifying disability culture across the industry. We talk about what it means to say “I identify as blind,” move beyond the medical and social models of disability into a cultural model rooted in identity and joy, and remind listeners that no one can defeat someone who hasn't given up. From glam canes to Grammy stages, this episode is about claiming space, rejecting internalized ableism, and turning perceived flaws into flexes. Transcript: Alden Blevins: It’s Lachi? I feel very- Lachi: Lachi like Versace. Alden Blevins: Lachi like… Oh, I love that. Michelle Bishop: That is the best way to explain it. Lachi: I mean, but you know what I’m saying? Come on. Alden Blevins: Well, we’re really excited about having you today because we’re all music lovers in this group here. Michelle Bishop: Yes. Alden Blevins: We talk about music all the time. Michelle Bishop: So much. Lachi: Good, good, good, good, good, good, good. I’m in the right place. Michelle Bishop: Hi everyone. Welcome back to National Disability Radio, the official podcast of the National Disability Rights Network. I am Michelle Bishop, 1/3 of your podcast hosting team. Stephanie Flynt McEben: And I’m Stephanie Flynt McEben, public policy analyst here at NDRN. Alden Blevins: I am Alden. I am a communication specialist at NDRN and I am so excited today, like I mentioned, we’re all lovers of music, so we got a guest that I’m really excited about. Lachi is an award-winning recording artist and a recording Academy Grammy’s national trustee. She’s also a disability advocate who’s been breaking barriers in the music industry and beyond. She’s the founder of RAMPD, which by the way, is such a fun play name. I really love that. And the author of the upcoming book, I Identify as Blind. So without further ado, Michelle, you’ve got some questions to kick us off, I think. Michelle Bishop: Yes. We’re so excited to have you with us. As Alden said, we are. We’re huge music lovers. I’m pretty sure we spend most of our meetings where we allegedly plan this podcast just talking about music. So you’re absolutely in the right place today, but to get us started, I mean, you’ve been open about the fact, and I’m just really interested in this as a disability rights podcast. You’ve been really open about the fact that it took you some time to really embrace your identity as a blind and disabled woman, especially in the industry that you’re in that often really rewards conformity. Can you tell us a little bit more about that journey for you, both as an artist and as someone navigating just the world with a disability? Lachi: Okay. Yeah, for sure. Hey, everybody. Lachi here, Lachi like Versace. I am a Black woman with cornrows, chilling here in New York in my studio. I also identify as blind, I identify as neurodivergent, and I identify as an Aries. So do with that what you will. Michelle Bishop: All the important points right there. Lachi: All the important points like name, age, sign. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, but I’m really glad to be here. And thank you for that question, and thank you for having me. So music has always been a very integral part of my life of growing up. Where other babies would kick in the womb, when she was pregnant with me, I was playing the piano in the womb. I don’t know how she got a piano in there, but she’s not a liar, so I’m going to take her word for it. When I was super-duper young, I didn’t really have a lot of friends, especially because of the fact that I had differences and this and that. And so I would take to music to, I guess, understand the world better and have the world understand me better. I just knew how to express myself through song and it just said the things I needed to say. It was the prayer I needed. And because of music, I started to find confidence in how to speak and how to behave and how to act. And as I got older, when I was growing up, disability was not necessarily a thing people talked about a lot in schools and teachers didn’t know what to do. My parents didn’t really know what to do. And so I would always just turn to music. It’s actually right now I’m working on a children’s album because I think that kids need to hear music that has to do with disability and neurodivergence, as well as their parents as they grow up. When I got into college, I started wanting to do music, but I studied business and finance because when I told my parents I wanted to do music, they were like, “That’s not how you spell doctor.” because they are Nigerian immigrants and everybody else in my family went to either med school and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, “No, I want to do music.” But I did get a day job after school, after college, and didn’t love it because this girl is not going to exist behind a desk. So I ended up going to South by Southwest and I got signed actually from playing the guitar at a hole in the wall spot that nobody was at, except for this A&R apparently. So we got signed to an imprint under EMI, which was a major label back then, and we started touring and music then became my life. Now today, why wouldn’t I pay my respects back to music? I mean, it’s because of music that I was able to really lean into who I am, my disability, my confidence, et cetera. So because of that, because of how much music has given to me in my life, I’m here using music to give back to other people with disabilities. Now, your question was essentially, how do you sit here and try to bring about change for disability in an industry that is not only about conformity, but also about like, “Hey, pick me to exploit.” is essentially what the music industry is. You’re raising your hand to be exploited and that’s what kind of authenticity is that? But at the end of the day, music is some of the truest forms of storytelling. And I think to myself, just the way that hip hop has amplified Black culture and the way that country music has amplified rural culture and the way that different global musics have represented different global cultures. I want to use music to amplify disability culture. I want to use music to amplify disability stories and feelings that are difficult to put words to, that are words of the soul, which is essentially what music is. And so I started going to studios and realizing things weren’t as accessible as they should be. I started speaking with organizations and realizing things weren’t as inclusive as they should be. And the response I kept getting was like, “Oh, well, there’s nobody with a disability in the music industry, so why would we make these measures?” And so I have made it my life’s goal through RAMPD, which by the way, the best thing we ever accomplished was our acronym, not us working with the Grammys to get sign language on the red carpet, not us getting these partnerships with title, Live Nation, Spotify. I mean, we’ve done so much, not just for artists, but also for professionals. And we’ve started to realize something really interesting with the work we’ve done with RAMPD. We are getting people joining our membership who are director level folks, who are label owners, who are like the big wigs that write the checks, and they’re like, “I’m neurodivergent. I’m actually hard of hearing. I have a TBI.” And so when I originally set out, they said, “We don’t do disability inclusion because nobody’s disabled.” That was three years ago. Now I’m like, not only are there neurodivergent and disabled music professionals out here, but we all are. So really to conclude, it’s just that everyone is navigating trying to make it out in this world, but everyone’s masking. Everyone feels that they have to change some part of themselves to be as close as they can to what success looks like, be as close as they can to what “beauty” looks like, what winning looks like. But really all it is internalized ableism. And I say, as soon as we drop that internalized ableism and we really start to sit in who we truly are and we start to recognize our perceived flaws as flexes, that’s when we truly start to win. And so that’s what we’re finding out with RAMPD, that people are like, “You know what? I’m tired of navigating this difficult industry with the added layer of having to mask.” And so that’s why I do what I do. Michelle Bishop: Yes. And honestly, as ridiculous as it sounds that they say to you, “Oh, there aren’t any people with disabilities.” When I tell you, we see that in everything that we do. I do voting work at NDRN and we’ll have elections officials tell us, “This polling place isn’t accessible, but there aren’t any people with disabilities that vote here.” And it’s like, “What? You realize we’re everywhere and we do all sorts of things.” Maybe the reason they think there’s no people with disabilities here is because they’re stuck outside and they can’t get in because you didn’t make it accessible, just a thought. But I mean, it sounds like coming up against all that is really, correct me if I’m wrong, helped you to develop that identity and that disability pride in the industry. When did you first say, “I identify as blind.” and what did that mean for you? Lachi: Well, so when I first came into really doing the disability thing, really leaning in, I wanted to find out more influencers or thought leaders and such with disabilities. I didn’t really know that many people. This is pre COVID, 2018, 2019, that kind of thing. And so I came across an influencer, her name is Molly Burke, and we’re great friends now, but I didn’t know her back then. I had just seen her tagline and it had said, “I’m Molly Burke and I’m a YouTuber who happens to be blind.” And for some reason I was like, “I don’t know if I love the happens to be blind thing.” I was like, “Well, I’m proud of being blind. Blindness is part of my identity. I don’t just happen to be a woman. I don’t just happen to be a Nigerian. I don’t just happen to be all of the things I am.” And so I would go to… I was touring… We’re always touring and every time I tour and do a show, I do a comedic open where I just introduce myself, I do a quick self-description, et cetera. And in my self-description, I would say, and I don’t just happen to be blind. My blindness is part of my identity, has given me all of the opportunities I have, and it’s really made me a deeper blah, blah, blah. It was just too long. So I had punched it up to be, “My name is Lachi like Versace. She, her, I’m a Black woman with cornrows and I identify as blind.” And the interesting thing about that is people took onto it. They were like, “Oh, that’s cool, nice and punchy.” But whenever I would say it in front of a large crowd or like I’ve said it on interviews or during commercials, I would get this weird, I don’t know, pushback of like, you can’t identify as blind. Blindness is an identity. It’s a medical condition. Or they’ll be like, “Do you read braille or not?” Or they’ll be like, “We don’t want people to think trans blindness is a thing where you just have a blind identity.” And then you can be like, “Well, I’m blind today, so that’s my identity.” And I thought that was really fun. I was like, “Look, everybody’s upset. They’re talking about blindness though.” So I really leaned all the way into it. And I have to say, I am super proud of my disability identity. Was it music that brought me there? I think in a sense and in a way, like today I have a few songs, you guys are music lovers, I have a few songs out that really talk about my disability pride. I think that a lot of the times as we navigate the world, masking our disability, masking our chronic condition, our difference or whatever, we end up overcompensating. We end up building up this really, really thick problem solving muscle or this really, really thick how to get around things muscle and we overcompensate. When we’re finally accommodated, when we finally get to a place where we’re accommodated or we have the tools we need, we’re coming in like bulk as hell. We’re coming in with problem solving muscles. We’re coming in with all of these things that we had to build up because of navigating the world differently, because of every day working through this very difficult maze that is living a life unaccommodated, then when we finally are accommodated, then we are killing it and crushing it. And how could you not be proud of that? How can that not give you a sense of pride? So the songs that I would love for you guys to check out that are mine is I have a song called Life on Hard, which has gone viral several times on Instagram. I’m known as an Instagram rapper, which is like, what? Hello, I do disability advocacy. Look at that stuff. But anyway, so I have a song called Life on Hard, which is essentially about just winning the game of life, playing it on the hardest setting out here while people are still trying to consult the manual. I have another song called Professional, which is oftentimes when I walk on the stage, people see the cane and they’re like, “Aw, she’s going to do a song for us. Is this from Make a Wish Foundation?” And then I bust out these raps or I hop on the piano and I go ape on this piano and then they’re like, “Oh, snap. What? Okay.” And I’m like, “Bro, I’m a professional artist. I’m not object for pity to make you feel good because you felt weird on a Monday and you didn’t feel like getting up for work, but it’s like, she could do it. So can I.” I’m like, “No, I can do it. You most likely probably just can’t.” So that’s what that song’s about. And then there’s The Bag, and The Bag is just essentially like, I’ve been told no so much like, “No, you can’t. No, you’re not good enough. No, we don’t want you.” And I’m like, “You know what? Yes, I am good enough and I deserve everything. So I’m going to throw everything I deserve in the bag, which is everything.” I don’t know. I would not be the person I am if I didn’t love all parts of myself. And that includes my disabilities, that includes my neurodivergences and all of the other wacky, weird body jazz that I bring with me everywhere I go. Michelle Bishop: Lachi, can we maybe, do you and I just FaceTime each other every morning and hype each other up? Stephanie Flynt McEben: I was literally about to say the same thing. I would like in on a true call. Michelle Bishop: I don’t know if you know. Actually, I want to say quickly, I know some of those songs actually from social media, but they’re real. They’re so real. So people haven’t heard music, go check it out. I don’t know if you know one of our co-hosts, Stephanie is blind. You’re speaking directly to her soul right now. Stephanie Flynt McEben: I literally just texted them in our podcast group text and I was like, she’s totally speaking to my soul RN, but of course I don’t want to interrupt anything. Michelle Bishop: No, I know you’re dying to talk to her about the book, Stephanie, and take it away. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yeah, no, absolutely, for sure. And as somebody who is blind and who also identifies as a blind person and definitely does not identify with the medical model of disability, clearly gotten to more of a social model. But yeah, in terms of going through that journey of accepting all of who you are and everything about yourself, for me, I mean, it took a minute, especially when you’re talking about your experiences as a child and I totally feel that. I was that girl playing the harmonica on the jungle gym by herself. Anyway, this is about you. This is not about me, but I’m just saying that I totally relate to you on a spiritual level. And given that, I would love to know, were there any particular moments when it came to writing the book that were particularly hard or healing? Because I mean, I think that we all know that it’s not always a linear journey. Some days are going to be harder than others. And so would love to get your perspective on that. And I think that our listeners would be interested. Lachi: Yeah, absolutely. The journey for me has been one of constantly unwrapping this amazing gift. I always try to use that as the visual, if you will, of you have this big present and you get to unwrap it and then you just keep getting something cooler inside and then you get to unwrap that and you get something cooler inside and you just keep unwrapping this beautiful gift that is yourself. But you don’t realize that when you first get the box, the amazing stuff that’s going on inside, and it takes time to get to it. So a lot of times growing up, I would kick myself in the butt of, I wish I had come to this when I was so much younger. I wish there were people out there when I was younger, role models that I could look up to when I was eight years old and pointing on the TV and saying like, “Okay, well, I mean, I understand that Ray Charles existed, but that’s not going to…” Stephanie Flynt McEben: Stevie Wonder is here, Ray Charles is here, but we need more of us. Hello. Lachi: We need more of us. Hello. Exactly. And so this time and place where I am right now is where I needed to be for this to work. So I can’t really kick myself in the butt of like, “I wish I had this. I wish I knew this so much earlier. I would’ve been so much further.” That kind of thing. You have to be where you got to be where you need to be. Even right now, this conversation we’re having right now is going to have been necessary for the next thing that is happening in our lives. And just the other day, I was hanging out with Queen Herby, who’s been one of my favorite more modern rappers. I just did a thing with Apl.de.ap. I have done some stuff with Black Caviar. Folks that I’ve looked up to, I’m having the opportunity to Snoop Dogg. I’m having the opportunity to work with these days because of the fact that I am here at the right time now. So when I was writing my book, we were peeling back all the layers. I’m a generally very positive and energetic, social butterfly type of person today. But it’s interesting, I wasn’t always this person and I had to unpack all the layers to get there. One of the biggest things that happens to me, so I’ve always been low vision. So I was born with relatively low vision and it stayed the same throughout my teens and early 20s. But one day I woke up and my sight was just gone. Boom. So the interesting thing is anybody listening would be like, “Oh my God, if I woke up and my sight was gone, I would just die or I would not know what to do. My life would be over.” Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yep. Heard that a million times. Yes. Lachi: But for me, it was weird because I was already low vision, so I was going from level one to the underwater level or whatever. So it wasn’t like that life changing of a thing. I was already using screen readers or Zoom text. I was already doing stuff of that nature. So I wake up blind and I’m just like, “Okay, I guess this is it. This is the day that they told me was coming.” What had ended up happening was my corneas had erupted. And so I went to the doctor and he was like, “You’re going to become completely blind. You’re going to go from this much worse vision than you’ve had to complete blindness over the course of time.” So here you go, here’s a coupon. Bye.” or whatever. So I’m like, all right. So I had decided at that moment that I wanted to start a bucket list. So I was like, okay, what are all the things I’ve always wanted to do before completely going completely blind? So I was like, let me go skydiving, let me go spolunking, let me go meet with people, meet with celebrities and just do all of the things I’ve always wanted to do before I lose my vision. So I went out and I did it. This is still me doing it. This is still me doing it. And so I say that because to people who say if I ever went blind, I would just die. Well, when I went blind, it made me want to live. And that’s what opened me up into being this person that I am today. Stephanie Flynt McEben: That is amazing. I genuinely love that. Lachi: We talk about charity model and propping disabled folks up as tools of pity. We talk about medical model, which is really just waiting around for cure, making the cure the hero. We talk about social model, which is a really good place to live in the sense of things are impairing if they’re not accessible. Society is impairing if it’s not inclusive. But honestly, if I have all of the things, like if I have all my tools, if I have all that I need and if folks are inclusive, then I’m still blind, but I’m not impaired. But I like to go a little step further into what is the cultural model. And so the cultural model is it’s not just a discussion of what society should and shouldn’t do. It’s actually a celebration of what you gain as a person who identifies with their disability or their neurodivergence, the things they need to overcompensate because they’re navigating the world a little differently, leaning into that. So let’s say for instance, deaf culture, sign language, and the fact that folks can have complete discussions outside of what we’re talking about, there is so much deaf pride out in these streets, that is a celebration of culture that comes out of disability. And for me, let’s say for instance, I have ADHD and it powers my one million and counting ideas. I have diagnosed OCD, which helps me carry out all those one million and counting ideas. I have diagnosed general anxiety disorder, which gives me my empathy and my excitement. And then I am blind, which when I have the tools I need, it gives me drive. It keeps me determined, it keeps me focused, and it gives me my dope ass glam canes. There was a girl and her mom, and she came up to me after a show and she was like, “Oh my God, your music was great.” I was like, thank you. She’s like, “Mommy, can I get one of those canes?” And then her mom was like, “Ugh, well, you have to be blind.” And I’m like, “Yeah, girl, you better want to be me.” Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yeah. We drive sticks. Anyway, sorry. Lachi: Yes. You know what? I speak softly and I carry a big old stick. Thank you. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yes. Amen to that. Exactly. As somebody who considers themself a lifelong disability advocate, I never really thought about it in the sense of going beyond the social into the cultural. So thank you so, so much. We all learn something new every single day on this podcast, but I’d love to know a little bit more about, obviously you were very, very, very good at talking through these experiences in such a way that they are very relatable and easy to understand and that thing. So I’d love to pick your brain about the intended audience of your book. Who did you write it for? Other blind folks? Did you write it for, was it written for multiple audiences? Lachi: Yeah, honestly, I wrote it for the person who is masking. I wrote it for anyone who is tired of… Listen, let me put it like this. Let’s face it, disability is boring, a lot of the time it’s sad and it’s compliancy. We have to go the extra mile to make it fun because the actual truth of it is that the only reason it’s boring, sad, and compliancy is because society has kept it that way through its collective internalized ableism. And so my book is actually a humor book. It’s a pop culture book. It’s a comedy book. In fact, when we were talking to the publisher, it’s like, we should be putting this up against other comedic books, not necessarily disability books because it’s a book. I got so many jokes. I have dad jokes, they’re corny jokes, I have rap bars. I rap in a lot of the book just because I was like, “Hey, this rhymes.” I’m going to say it like a rap. We’re doing the audiobook right now, so I actually get to wrap it, which is really fun. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Oh, that is so cool. Oh my gosh. Lachi: Which is really, really fun. But really, honestly, what the book is what everything I do is it is using joy, soul, pop culture, jokes, humor, fashion, and just a really good time to celebrate disability, as well as community. So what you’ll find in this book is my story through my story, through historical deep dives, through interviews with some really, really cool popular figures and a really big deep dose of disability joy. And so a lot of folks who have disabilities, they will read this book and they’ll be energized. It’ll be like, “This is really great. I’m glad that I finally get to read a book that talks about disability in a positive way.” For blind specific folks, they might relate to a few of my stories because I talk about the day I woke up blind, I talk about when I went skydiving blind, I talk about just some of my interesting blind moments. But then I also talk about how I would go to red carpets and not know how to talk to anybody. So I’m in this amazing room with all these celebrities I can’t see and I’m just sitting on the wall. So I talk about some of the hard times too as well. But at the end of the day, really what the book is is an invitation in for somebody who feels a little different, a little awkward, has to mask, and just needed that invite in to talk about disability in a fun, joyful, celebratory way, to recognize that yes, that thing in you that’s different, that thing in you that society has told you you should view as a weakness and hide, you should be proud of. And I say this to people all the time. I say it in the industry, I say it to all my friends, I say it to anyone who will listen. I say it to my local barista and they come back and they say things like, “Oh my God, I’m so glad you said it that way. It turns out I have a titanium hip and I’ve never told anybody about that.” And that’s the vibe. The vibe is someone who was like, “I really needed this to be said to me this way, and now I am able to step all the way into my disability identity.” Alden Blevins: I love, especially what you said about joy. I feel like for me as an autistic person, my experience in the arts is that it is really a space where people who maybe don’t belong in other spaces or don’t feel like they belong in other spaces or are made to feel like they don’t belong in other spaces. I think that a lot of them really do find a safe space in music, in the arts, in theater. And I just wanted to ask, why do you think the music space is such a special one for you and why do you think it’s a place where other people with disabilities seem to flock together as well? Lachi: I mean, you hit the nail on the head. Counterculture, I mean, music often rewards counterculture. And then it eventually becomes mainstream and then we got to rebel against that. So music is a place where your soul can speak. And I think a lot of the times with disabilities, especially autism for me, I’m ADHD, OCD, a different neurodivergence situation, but a lot of the issue is communication. We don’t know how to say exactly what we need or whoever we’re talking to just doesn’t know how to hear what we’re saying. And so I think that what music does is it allows a soul to speak to a soul. A lot of the times music does this thing where you’ll be listening to a song and you’ll just be like, “That, that right there. That’s what I it me. That’s the thing I’m feeling.” type deal. Music has the ability to do that. And so for me, right now, this children’s album that I’m working on, the kids’ album, which is an album that is essentially R&B, pop, electronic, sort of the genres that I dance in for kids centered on disability and neurodivergence. Because what I want to do is be able to say, “Hey, I want you to point at that and say, that’s me.” And I think the easiest and quickest way to point at something and say, “That’s me also.” has been music. And so it’s why it’s been my strongest medium. Again, it’s not my only medium. I’m talking to folks through the book, I’m talking to folks through fashion, et cetera, et cetera. But again, music has been just the quickest, easiest point A to point B conversation easer, if you will, about disability. Another thing I also love to use is humor and comedy. So I make jokes all the time. They’re all bad. They’re all very not good jokes. I need to probably get a joke writer, but the fact that I’m having such a good time telling the jokes, I think I think is all that really matters. So I think both music and humor are just really, really great spaces for two people to get to relate to something that may be difficult to talk about. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Yo, if you need a joke writer, I’m your girl. I actually do a joke every single episode of this podcast. Michelle Bishop: Her jokes are not better than yours, Lachi. Don’t hire her. Stephanie Flynt McEben: My jokes are pretty bad. They’re worse than dad’s jokes. They’re like granddad jokes. Alden Blevins: Yeah. Stephanie is the queen of the jokes on our podcast. She always brings one through. Didn’t know that you were working on a children’s music album, and I think that’s really interesting. I actually used to be a teacher, so children’s music is something that’s near and dear to my heart. So I just wanted to ask, what would you want to tell to younger people with disabilities, younger disabled creatives about claiming space and being able to tell their own stories? Lachi: Well, one thing that I heard from someone else, I don’t remember who it was. I think it was- Michelle Bishop: Jordan? Lachi: Yes, Jordan. He’s the one that said this. Michelle Bishop: I love him. Lachi: Yeah, he’s so funny. I met him at a… What did I meet him at? The Webby Awards or something. But anyway, no one can ever defeat someone who hasn’t given up. And for some reason that hit me, and I don’t even think he was trying to say it that deep. He was just saying a joke or something. But I took that and it was like, no one can ever defeat someone who hasn’t given up. So at the end of the day, you are really the only one who can end whatever you’re trying to get. Because as long as you are still going for it, it is still still there. It’s like a Schrodinger’s cat. It’s like as long as you’re still running for it, that opportunity is still there for you to have. The opportunity is never lost as long as you’re still going for it. And people can tell you, people can take your shoulders and tell you to go right. People can take your shoulders and tell you to go left. But until you take your own shoulders and go in the direction that your heart, your soul, your passion, your fire, desires, that is when you truly begin to live. And so I say personally, lean into that. I hear from a lot of younger, especially creators with disabilities. I mentor a lot of folks, tons and tons of folks. It’s one of the things I love to do the most. But what I love to tell folks is you are going to be the best you. And that you is going to include all of the different parts of who you are, but it is especially going to include you leaning in to the things that make you different and unique as unique selling points. Earlier I talked about how people try so hard to be the “definition of beauty”, definition of success, definition of whatever. Everyone’s trying to be this reference man. Everyone’s trying to be as close as they can to the reference man. And if I’m as close as I can to the reference man, then I’ll be successful or then I’ll get this job or then I’ll get this gig. But the truth of the matter is when we look at all of the people that are doing all of the big things, they’re “eccentric”. They’re “weird”. They did some big different idea that no one was thinking about and everybody fell into their trend. The further away you are from the reference man, that is when you start to win. That is when you’ll start to see success. That is when you’ll start to feel much better about yourself. That is when you can wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, “I am fine.” When you are able to accept all of those different freckles of yourself that are as far away from the reference man as possible, because guess what? There is room outside of the barrel for everyone to win if they are all being their unique self and running their unique purpose. That’s what I would tell to young disabled creators. Michelle Bishop: That’s amazing. Almost feel like we should stop there, but I have so many follow-up questions. Lachi: Listen, I’m here to drop as many mics as they will let me keep breaking. Michelle Bishop: I was wondering how you see the conversation around disability and inclusion and evolving these days. And a lot of our listeners are people with disabilities or people who have other even multiple intersecting identities in which they experience barriers as well. What does allyship look like to you? Lachi: This is one of my favorite questions. So yes, we have folks with disabilities and we have folks who want to work with people with disabilities, want to help a friend with a disability, want to make sure they don’t say the wrong thing to a person with a disability, neurodivergence, chronic condition, mental health condition. That’s not an ally. Wanting to help a person with a disability is not an ally. To me, wanting to support someone with a disability, that’s an ally in the very basic definition of allyship. Here’s what I think an ally is. To answer the question, I got to do two things. One, talk about the disability umbrella. So the disability umbrella encompasses so many forms of disability. It is neurodivergence, which is ADHD, dyslexia, OCD. It is mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, bipolar. It is someone who learns a little differently. It is someone who has explosive situations like anger management. It is someone who has substance abuse disorder, maybe somebody who drinks too much or uses different substances. It is chronic back pain. You know what I’m saying? It is asthma. It is EDS. It’s POTS. It is long COVID. It is different complications that you gain after pregnancy. It is different complications that you gain as you age. It is different complications you gain through menopause. It is temporary. It is breaking your arm and wearing a cast. It is seasonal depression. There is nobody on this earth that is not within the disability umbrella. And I don’t mean that you’re going to grow into it. I don’t mean in the future. I mean right now. Whether you identify as a person with a disability or not, you have disability identity because you have experience in your body disability. And when you figure that out, then you’re an ally. Allyship is seeing yourself through the other person because you can’t look through someone else’s eyes unless you can see yourself in them. And you can’t see yourself in disability until you recognize the disability identity within yourself. All of a sudden, and I say this and people are like, “What? I say this, but I’ve seen this. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen people who did not associate themselves with any form of disability or anything and they’re just like, Oh, them. Oh, I’ll help them. We have a conversation and then we have a follow-up conversation and then we’re drinking and then all of a sudden they’re telling me all their disabilities and then they’re walking a little different when they encounter disability. It’s no longer a them thing. And so that’s what an ally is. People with disabilities are also allies. I am an ally to the deaf community because I recognize though I’m not deaf, I see the having to navigate the world differently in you of myself. So that’s how I define an ally. An ally is someone who understands their own disability identity and can see it in others. Michelle Bishop: Don’t mind me over here just taking notes. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Literally. Oh my gosh. Lachi, thank you so, so, so much for being with us and taking time. I know that your website, lachimusic.com is one of the places where folks can stay up to date on all of the latest and greatest things that you’re up to. Is there anything else in particular you would like to plug for our listeners? Lachi: Like you said, LACHI, L-A-C-H-I M-U-S-I-C. I’m on the internets everywhere. Instagram, Spotify, check out the old music. If you’re a creator, a music creator or professional with a disability, check us out at RAMPD, R-A-M-P-D.org. Or if you want to donate or if you want to partner with us over at RAMPD, please do. If you are a cane user, whether you’re a blind cane user or you use Mobility Cane, check out glamcanes.com, get your canes bejeweled. I Identify as Blind, our book is out on Penguin Random House, imprint called Tiny Reparations by Phoebe Robinson, who is also a comedian. So we’re out here all writing very funny books. So please check it out. And lastly, listen, try to find moments in your day of disability joy. And when you find that moment, take a picture of it or write it down so that you can go back to it and live for those moments. So thank you guys so much for having me on this podcast. It’s really been a blast getting to talk at you about all things I identify as blind. Alden Blevins: I love it. I was over here taking notes too because I just found so much of myself in what you were saying and so many things were poignant and empowering. I, as an autistic person, try to be an ally to other parts of the disability community myself. And that’s something where I’m always trying to put myself in the shoes of another person and what they might experience. So I think that’s really powerful. We were so grateful to be able to connect and learn more about you, Lachi. Lachi: Yes, yes, yes. So honored to be here, guys. Michelle Bishop: Before you head out, Lachi, do you want to hear one of Stephanie’s grandpa jokes? Lachi: I was going to say, I was like, “Let’s hear one of these granddad jokes.” Let me see. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Okay. This might be- Michelle Bishop: Okay, do it. Stephanie Flynt McEben: … a granddad joke. Okay. Where do spiders like to get their information? Lachi: The web? Michelle Bishop: That would be something to do with web. Stephanie Flynt McEben: But what kind of web? Lachi: Wow. Really? You are fired from being my comedy writer. You are fired to be my comedy writer. I was rooting for you too. I was like, let’s just… Please. Stephanie Flynt McEben: I wouldn’t even get to the punchline yet. Michelle Bishop: Worldwide web? Stephanie Flynt McEben: It is the worldwide web. Michelle Bishop: Oh. Stephanie Flynt McEben: It’s fine. It’s fine. My wife warned me not to tell that joke this month and I didn’t lose it. Michelle Bishop: Oh my gosh. I’m so glad you stuck around for that part. Lachi: As I live and breathe. Thank you guys so, so much. This has been so much fun and I will see who else I can tell that joke to. And go ahead and just to help you out, Stephanie, I’ll go ahead and embarrass myself by telling that joke to others. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Not my best work, but that is allyship. Yes. Michelle Bishop: Oh my gosh, Lachi, thank you so much. And everyone, please lachimusic.com. Check it out. Listen to the music, read the book. Alden Blevins: Speaking of the worldwide web, this has been National Disability Radio. We celebrate stories, leadership, and talent of people with disabilities. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation with us on that worldwide web at ndrn.org or anywhere you get your favorite podcasts. Thanks for listening and until next time. Stephanie Flynt McEben: Bye.

Today on teh show I'm lucky enough to be joined by Sid and Maddy (Sid Wilder and Friends and Tahini Bikini) to talk about their upcoming national tour, we also have AW perform for Friday Live ahead of their tour. Plus heaps of music! Thanks to The Beer Spot

Wow! This was an incredible interview with my father. A lot more was covered in this talk: we took a dive into the old days when we had a coconut farm and drank a never-ending amount of fresh coconut water from the best tasting coconuts around, and how we sweated up a storm in 100-degree heat while harvesting thousands of coconuts. This is just a fraction of what we covered in this powerful, inspiring conversation. Dad and I talked about his animal friends and one in particular that he protected and saved so that it could survive. We even delved into his home life and his critters that mean the world to him. Get ready for this episode—an inspiring window into my personal life and, of course, my dad's… In this episode… Hear about some of AW's past with his family and his history, and how he would receive information from Spirit for animals that were in need of help. Learn about all the different animals that surround AW's father and why it all happened to be. Find out about the bird that was suffering and had no support, until he crossed paths with AW's mom and dad. Discover a majestic world that surrounded the coconut trees and how the coconut farm was teaming with wildlife. Learn what happened to the wild bird that AW's dad had named ‘Broken Wing' and how Broken Wing disappeared and why. See how AW's dad's cats got along with the squirrels and the crows, and how they all became friends. Learn what kind of coconuts were on their coconut farm and how to open a coconut a special way. Find out about how people did not like coconut water back then and they only used coconut milk in the culinary world. Discover how these specific young coconuts on the coconut farm are filled with an abundance of water and have a jelly inside that is delicious. See how many different fruit trees are growing around AW's father's house and how it's a magical, sacred place for animal life. All this and more, tune in and don't miss out on this important episode. You can revisit this episode anytime you need it. For more information visit www.medicalmedium.com

Aw heck yeah, nerds! Welcome to episode 219 of Up Yours with More, the official podcast of Up Up and Away Comics in Cincinnati, OH!This episode, MODOK and BC preview what comics, graphic novels, manga, and collectibles will be on sale in the month of May (and beyond)!Find Us Online at the Following Outlets Website :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠upupandawaycomics.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@upupawaycomics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook ::  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/upupawa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠y and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/uuablueash⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/upupawaycomics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/upupawaycomics⁠⁠

Imorse i Rockklassiker fick vi fastställt att Hasse har en märklig kvinnosyn och ett varningens finger till er som har en robotdammsugare med kamera, skulle kunna vara en man som råkat se era fossingar genom den. Lönehelg innebär kalasfylla för samtliga, eller iallafall för Producent-Niclas... resterande i gänget är inte inbjudna till kvällens AW. Missa inte detta och massa annat i dagens avsnitt av Morronrock daily.

In this edition of AW, GEIST… THIS TREND SMELLS LIKE ZEIT, Miles and special guest co-host Mort Burke discuss Florida trying to make George Floyd/Charlie Kirk Day & Snowflake Brigade happen, Alligator Alcatraz hitting a bit of a speed bump, the Clintons testifying about the Epstein Files, Metallica @ the Sphere, the release of 'Scream 7', Burger Kings new AI BS and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 347 - We go over the first half of the Hellboy short story collection THE CHAINED COFFIN AND OTHER STORIES.  Specifically we discuss: The Corpse The Iron Shoes Baby Yaga A Christmas Underground The Chained Coffin Joining us are the hosts of "Aw, Crap: A Hellboy Podcast" - Mark David Christenson and Kait Thompson! ------------------- Don't forget to participate in the Official Screwit Instapush #screwitinstapush! ENDS MARCH 1 Subscribe to support the show and for bonus episodes at screwitpodcasts.com Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com (REPOSTED - originally I posted this at double speed, pretty cool)

A wild week in news as Xbox honcho Phil Spencer retires and is set to be replaced by someone from one of Microsoft's AI divisions. What does this mean for the future of Xbox? Also: Sony shutters Bluepoint Games, Evo expands, and my son got way into Knack? Aw man. Use code 50jeff to get $50 off plus free shipping on your first order at goodchop.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

[AUTOPROMOCJA] Pełnej wersji podcastu posłuchasz w aplikacji Onet Audio.   Cztery lata po rozpoczęciu pełnoskalowej inwazji Rosji na Ukrainę świat znów stoi na krawędzi kolejnych kryzysów. Rosyjskie naloty są bardziej brutalne niż kiedykolwiek, Iran i USA balansują na granicy wojny, a Bliski Wschód płonie od sprzecznych interesów i religijnych obsesji, także tych, które wpływają na decyzje amerykańskich dyplomatów. W tle geopolitycznego chaosu wybrzmiewają pytania o bezpieczeństwo Polski: o rolę Białorusi w rosyjskich planach, o słabości Zachodu oraz o to, jak wygląda prawdziwa siła naszych sojuszy, gdy świat wraca do języka siły i zastraszania. W tym świecie podwyższonych napięć głos Tomasza Awłasewicza brzmi jak zimny prysznic. Autor „Łowców Szpiegów", znawca archiwów kontrwywiadu PRL, przypomina, że zagrożenie nie zawsze przychodzi z frontu, często wchodzi drzwiami bocznymi, podając się za dziennikarza, eksperta, znajomego znajomego. Awłasewicz opowiada, dlaczego ludzie zdradzają, jak służby werbują „od wdzięczności po ego", jak działają "nielegałowie", dlaczego część agentów można przeoczyć, a innych rozpoznać po drobnych sygnałach. I ostrzega: Polska już żyje w czasach „szpiegomanii", ale jednocześnie wciąż nie docenia najgroźniejszych metod rosyjskich, białoruskich i chińskich służb. To opowieść o świecie, w którym fronty wojny i fronty wywiadów splatają się bardziej niż kiedykolwiek, a o bezpieczeństwie państw często decydują nie czołgi, lecz ludzie, którzy potrafią udawać, że nie istnieją.

An April Fools Prank Goes Awry.By SilverFoxMullet.Listen to the ►Podcast at Steamy Stories.Spring break was just that, a break. My leg, actually.When I went home to Ottawa for spring break, I met up with a few of my old high school buds, and we took a day trip to the Quebec side for some skiing at one of the nearby hills, north of Ottawa. Mid-gafternoon, I hit a patch of ice and went down hard. It was quite a day for falls, as the hills were pretty icy this late in the season. I tried to get up, but my right ankle hurt like a bitch. None of my friends had stopped, as we were all falling a lot today, they just assumed I would get up and follow them.“Aw fuck!” I groaned. I lay there in the snow for a few minutes, until someone slid to a stop next to me.“Hey, are you all right?” the guy asks.“No, I hurt my ankle. Fuck.”“Don’t move it, I’ll find the ski patrol. Hang on.” He skied away to get help.30 seconds later another guy stopped. Same question. "Hey are you all right?“"I think I sprained my ankle. There was a guy here a minute ago, he said he’d send the ski patrol.”The guy turned and looked around, then waved and yelled “Ici! Over here! Vien! Here they are.”Two guys in red jackets stopped and asked what’s wrong. This other guy said “Good luck!” to me, and skied away, as I recounted the fall and my symptoms. The ski patrol guys were great, they radioed for a stretcher and 20 minutes later they’re loading me into an ambulance. The rest of the day was a lot of waiting, x-rays, and paperwork. The local hospital had a seasonal trauma unit for all the ski injuries, and they’re used to dealing with the inter-provincial healthcare.I called my Dad, who said he’d fetch me from the hospital, then called my buddies who were still in the chalet . He told them to go home without me. They commiserated and said they’d drop by my house tomorrow and see how I was doing.I eventually got a cast on my right leg. It spanned from my toes to my mid-thigh. I was issued a pair of crutches, and a whole ream of instructions (in both French and English of course) about what to do and what not to do. My Dad showed up somewhere during this tedious process and reassured me everything would be fine.We got home really late, after stopping at a pharmacy for pain meds, and stopping for takeout, damn I was hungry by then. I was asleep in minutes after I took one of those pills after getting home.Next morning, I had to take another pill, damn leg was throbbing like mad. I had to learn how to negotiate using the toilet with crutches, fuck, that’s pain in the arse. Then I had to figure out how to shower. They gave me a shower bag for the cast but I couldn’t get the damn thing on by myself. Mom was trying to be motherly (naturally) but I was way too embarrassed to be seen naked in front of her. My Dad was a trooper, he helped me with all the bathroom stuff, and I got my shower Okay.I wasn’t going to be able to drive for a while, so my folks said they’d drive me back to school in Toronto. I could come home by bus and get my car once I was able to drive. Great.“Actually, if I could have my car on campus, one of my buddies could drive me around. None of the other guys have a car.” Not that my rattly old car was much of a ride, but it got us from A to B.“Okay” my Dad says, “Your mother can drive you there, and I’ll follow in your car, then we’ll drive back together.”“Awesome, sounds like a plan!”The rest of the day my parents helped me work out how to deal with the cast and crutches and take care of personal stuff by myself, like getting dressed, showering, shaving (yeah, ever try to balance on one foot to shave? fuckin hell), and using the toilet. My mom went shopping and bought me a bunch of baggy sweat pants, something that would go over my cast.My old friends dropped by with some hard coolers the next day, thinking it would cheer me up; but I had to pass on those due to the meds I was on. They laughed at me and drank it all, themselves. We all had a good laugh about my predicament, and they wished me luck at college. Gonna need it, eh?Then it was time to head back to school. I’d been texting and calling my buddies at school, told them the whole idiot story of my misadventures. They laughed at me big time, and of course they worried about their ride, what was gonna happen to my car? I told them about the arrangements and they were happy that it would still be available.The drive to school was really tedious, seemed to last forever, because it was so fricking uncomfortable to sit there with that stiff cast on. They got me and my stuff into my room in the dorm, and said their good-byes. I was so happy that I was on the first floor! No stairs here but there were stairs all over campus. Sure, there’s elevators everywhere but I didn’t know where most of them were.First order of business, I gotta pee after that road trip. I used the big accessible stall in the bathroom, that was great. Grab bars, lots of room, it really was made for this kind of thing. Easier than the bathroom at home, that’s for sure.I was the butt of a lot of jokes and shit for the first few days, but otherwise it was fine. Down in the dining hall I spotted someone else who’d had a fun spring break. There was a girl with her whole arm in a cast, like from shoulder to wrist, with the elbow bent at 90 degrees. I wondered what happened to her. Skiing too I supposed. My buddies said we’d make a great couple and told me to go ask her out. No way, dudes, not gonna happen. I can’t talk to girls, I always get freaked out and clam up.The end of March rolled around, and I still had weeks to go before getting my cast off. There was a party on Saturday night, and I was weaning off the strong meds by now so I could have a few drinks. My floor mates were getting me drinks, too; so I ended up having a few more than I would normally have. I was feeling buzzed by the end of the night.One of the guys suddenly showed up with a wheelchair. "Robbo! we got you some wheels, man!“"Where’d you steal that from?” I asked, a little dubious about the idea of them scamming someone’s chair.“No-No, totally not stolen, we got it for you from the Red Cross. It’s legit, dude!”“All right! Let’s check out my new ride then!” I hopped over and settled into the chair. They adjusted the footrest out for me and one of them took my crutches, and they started wheeling me away. "Where we goin?“ I asked."It’s a surprise.” says one of them, and then pull a pillowcase down over my head so I can’t see where we’re going. When I try to pull the covering off, they stopped me, and then the started grabbing my arms & duct taping them to the chair’s armrests. We were outside by now, and I started yelling, until they taped the pillowcase tight against my mouth, to muff my yelling. Now I was getting pissed, but there’s not much I could do, except literally ride this out.They laughed and giggled and make goofy jokes as they wheeled me around campus. Eventually, I had no idea where I am, and it suddenly strikes me that it was now April 1st. The alcoholic buzz is wearing off fast under the rush of my adrenaline and anger, and I wondered what kind of demented nightmare game they’ve come up with.I heard more laughing, girls this time, and they make whispered comments back and forth with the guys. I m now in a building, but I had no clue where. My chair was pushed around some more, bumping into stuff, and then a body is dumped in my lap, then they yanked the duct tape off the pillowcase and I can again my mouth. The room is pitch black. The giggling and laughing is cut off by the slamming of a door, and everything goes quiet.I think there’s a girl in my lap, or a small, really nice smelling guy with long hair. She’s quiescent, asleep or passed out, pressed against my chest.“Hey. Hey, wake up.” I said.No response, she’s just sitting there, draped over my lap. She’s warm and breathing, so it’s not a manikin or something. I wondered if she’s okay.I started to shift a bit, can’t use my arms because they’re taped down, but I try to shake her awake with my rocking shoulders. It didn’t work, and now I’m afraid that if I move too much she’ll fall off onto the floor.“Hey, uh, miss, wake up.” louder. She’s out of it. I turn my head to the side so I’m not yelling in her ear and holler “Hey, enough crap, let me out of here!” Silence reigns. Well, fuck. Now what?‘Now what’. Then the fire alarm starts blaring. It startles the heck out of me, but still isn’t enough to wake the girl.  I heard loud commotion in the halls for about 30 seconds, but then suddenly there is silence. Fuck, this is getting serious. What if it’s a real fire? No, no way, it's April 1st now, gotta be a prank. I’ll just wait for her to wake up, and we’ll get out of here. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I began to see faint outlines of what is probably a maintenance closet or storage room.The alarm rings for an annoyingly long time. 15 minutes I guess, I dunno, but it seems interminable. And I need to pee now. When the alarm finally stops the need to pee gets more insistent. I shifted uncomfortably under the weight of my passenger. Her hip is pressed up against my groin, adding to the struggle of my urge to piss.More time passes, and damn, I gotta go bad, now. I’m gonna wet myself, and her too, if I don’t get out of here right now. I’ve tried speaking to her, yelling, shaking her, and then there was another alarm that went on and on. She just isn’t gonna wake up. Did those morons drug her or something?I’m desperate now. “Come on, sleeping beauty, wake up!” Sleeping beauty? Yeah, fine, I’ll try that before I piss all over her. I think a girl would be slightly less angry about a stolen kiss than wet pants. So I seek her mouth. There was a little light coming in under the door, but suddenly that light went out, and only a faint intermittent light glowed. Oh, crap! That would be the emergency exit lighting. I eventually bumped my faced against her nose, then lowered a bit and kissed her, probably a little too hard for a wakeup smooch, cause I'm dying’ here, gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee.She’s got nice soft lips, really quite kissable, and I kinda wished she was awake and under different circumstances. I kissed her again, even harder. No response. I try again, this time I let my tongue do the talking, and I push into her mouth. Helluva way to experience my own first tongue-kiss . Finally, she stirred & turned into the kiss.Surprised, I pull back, and say “Oh thank god you’re awake, help me up!”She startled, yelping at me, “Who are you?!”“Help me, please, I’m gonna piss my pants! Untie me!”In the dim red glow of an exit sign I finally saw her face. She’s kinda cute, not particularly pretty, and she has a cast on her right arm. It’s the girl I saw in the dining hall a few times.“Hurry!" I pleaded.She struggled off me, and stood. Where the hell did you take me! she demanded.I told her that we were both abducted by campus hooligans and locked in some storage room, but I didn t know which building. Then I said; But I gotta pee right now and my leg is in a cast, and I m bound to this wheelchair.She felt the tape on my wrists. It's slow going for her to undo the tape with her one weak hand, the way she’s pulling at it, she’s obviously not left handed.I’m not gonna make it, and I looked around. We’re in a janitor’s room or something. I spotted a stack of small waste baskets. "Quick, grab one of those buckets and put it between my legs.”She’s quick on the uptake, I’ll give her that, and she grabbed the bucket for me. “Pull my pants down, hurry.”“What? No!” she protested.“Argh. Please, I’m gonna wet myself.” I grind out through my clenched teeth.She reached out with that uncoordinated left hand of hers and fumbles with my sweat pants. I squirmed to lift my hips a bit to help, and the elastic waistband slipped down, exposing my tight briefs.“You gotta help. Pull me out, aim for the bucket. Please?”I can see she’s not happy with the situation, and she’s fighting with her distaste at touching a man, a total stranger at that, in such a bizarre circumstance. But she perseveres, and that delicate hand fishes in my shorts for my cock. She paused momentarily as she made contact, then pulled my cock free. She picked up the empty bucket and aimed my hose toward the container.I groaned as I let loose. Oh god, finally! The relief was incredible. The poor girl was acting shocked as she dutifully aimed me at the bucket, and she even nudged the bucket a bit closer. I pissed on and on, holy fuck there was so much, and eventually I ran dry.Her disposition is no longer shocked, but instead she appeared to be curious.“Oh thank you, you saved me so much embarrassment. You can put me back in there now. Thanks.”She hesitated, and timidly tried to one-handedly stuff my cock back through the fly, and after a couple of clumsy tries I’m all set. And of course now my cock was growing fast in her hand, as I no longer had to pee, but there’s a wonderful-smelling girl handling that most sensitive part of my anatomy. Something that’s never happened before.That last drop of pee evidently got on her hand, and she looked a bit frantic now, “Ew” she says.“Just wipe it on my sweats, it’s Okay.” I told her, and she rubbed her hand on my inner thigh. That doesn’t help with my ever increasing boner of course.She looked up at me, and her brow wrinkled. “Do you smell smoke?” she asked.It’s my turn to be startled, and I looked toward the door. Oh Fuck, there’s smoke coming in under the door! That alarm was real! Why wasn’t it still going off? “Quick, help me get this tape off!” She started trying to pull up my sweats, but I say “No, leave that, just get me undone!”She started working on the tape on my left arm, and it took a few minutes to get me free. Working together, my right arm is unstuck in less than a minute. “Check the door.” I told her as I looked around the room. No other doors, just shelves, a big sink, a floor pan for filling and emptying mop buckets, and stacks of boxes and stuff.She tried the light switch but it doesn’t work. Great, my idiot friends probably unscrewed the light bulb. Then she tried the door. “It’s locked!” she says.“From the outside? Why the fuck would it be set up to lock people in? Sorry. I swear when I get nervous.”“Is there really a fire, do you think?”“I guess so, there was an alarm that went off when you were out cold.”“What do we do?” She started frantically searching her pockets and said; “I can’t find my phone!”“I didn’t even bring mine to the party. No pockets.”The smell of smoke got stronger. I wheeled up next to the sink, and ran some water. Grabbing a package of paper towels, I ripped it open and dumped them in the sink. “Here, block up the crack under the door with these!”I handed her wads of soggy paper, and she knelt down to stuff them under the door. The smoke stoped coming in, thank goodness.  But now the room is black. “Now what?” she said.I shrugged, “I guess we wait and hope.”“I’m scared.” she said in a small voice.“Come here, sit on my lap here. Oh, uh, maybe pull up my pants first.” She helped me with that and sat on me. I think the gravity of the situation is now hitting her pretty hard, I know it’s got me freaked out. She burrowed into my neck and wraps her good arm wraps around me. “We’re Okay for now.” I tell her.I smelled her hair again, as she’s crushed against me. Damn that feels nice. Shit, I don’t even know her name. “I’m Robert by the way. Robert Green.”“Suzanne. Suzanne Shelton.”, she informed me.“I’d say pleased to meet you Suzanne, but under these circumstances, maybe the sentiment should be I’m ecstatic to meet you. If I was by myself I would have pissed my pants and suffocated.”She giggled, my goofy sense of humor somehow helped in this situation. “I’m glad to meet you too, Robert.”“So how did you get here?”“I don’t know, I was at the dorm party and felt dizzy, then you were kissing me.” She blushed again.“Sorry about that, I tried to wake you for like 20 minutes, but you were really out of it. I finally thought I would try the sleeping beauty trick, and it worked. Did you drink something someone else gave you?”“Oh. Shit. She seemed to recall. I think so. One of my floor mates gave me a coke. It must have been spiked?  I had to take some of my pain meds for my arm earlier tonight, it was bothering me. I keep trying to do too much with it all the time.”“Oh, yeah, you don’t want to mix booze or anything with that stuff, I know! Sorry about the pee episode. I really was going to wet my pants in another few seconds. Wet both our pants.”She blushed and giggled. “I never saw a guy like that, like your, thing, before.”“Wow. Okay, well, I never had a girl touch my co-, um, thing, before.”“It changed when I was putting it away. Was that, um, like…’"Yeah, well, when a pretty girl touches me like that, I’m bound to get aroused.”Her eyes went wide at that statement. “Oh” she said. She paused a few seconds, then put her head back on my shoulder. There was that scent again. "So. Um, you think I’m pretty?“"Well, yeah, of course. You’re what I think my grandpa would call 'fetching’”She giggled again. Damn, that sounds nice, and she smells really nice. Little Robert stirred down below. I heard a sharp intake of breath. Uh Oh. She felt that. I may have just ruined what might have been a moment.“Am I pretty enough to make you, uh, aroused, then?”“Oh, Suzanne, I am so embarrassed. Please, don’t be offended, it’s just circumstances, you know?”She pulled back again and looked at the door. Still no smoke. Then she looked at me with a sad smile, saying “I didn’t think so.” Suzanne started to get up, and I realized where our wires had crossed.I put my arms around her and said " Oh, no no. You’re very pretty, and definitely arousing.“She looked surprised, but settled back down on my lap. "Oh.” she said. “Thank you.”Just

An April Fools Prank Goes Awry.By SilverFoxMullet.Listen to the ►Podcast at Steamy Stories.Spring break was just that, a break. My leg, actually.When I went home to Ottawa for spring break, I met up with a few of my old high school buds, and we took a day trip to the Quebec side for some skiing at one of the nearby hills, north of Ottawa. Mid-gafternoon, I hit a patch of ice and went down hard. It was quite a day for falls, as the hills were pretty icy this late in the season. I tried to get up, but my right ankle hurt like a bitch. None of my friends had stopped, as we were all falling a lot today, they just assumed I would get up and follow them.“Aw fuck!” I groaned. I lay there in the snow for a few minutes, until someone slid to a stop next to me.“Hey, are you all right?” the guy asks.“No, I hurt my ankle. Fuck.”“Don’t move it, I’ll find the ski patrol. Hang on.” He skied away to get help.30 seconds later another guy stopped. Same question. "Hey are you all right?“"I think I sprained my ankle. There was a guy here a minute ago, he said he’d send the ski patrol.”The guy turned and looked around, then waved and yelled “Ici! Over here! Vien! Here they are.”Two guys in red jackets stopped and asked what’s wrong. This other guy said “Good luck!” to me, and skied away, as I recounted the fall and my symptoms. The ski patrol guys were great, they radioed for a stretcher and 20 minutes later they’re loading me into an ambulance. The rest of the day was a lot of waiting, x-rays, and paperwork. The local hospital had a seasonal trauma unit for all the ski injuries, and they’re used to dealing with the inter-provincial healthcare.I called my Dad, who said he’d fetch me from the hospital, then called my buddies who were still in the chalet . He told them to go home without me. They commiserated and said they’d drop by my house tomorrow and see how I was doing.I eventually got a cast on my right leg. It spanned from my toes to my mid-thigh. I was issued a pair of crutches, and a whole ream of instructions (in both French and English of course) about what to do and what not to do. My Dad showed up somewhere during this tedious process and reassured me everything would be fine.We got home really late, after stopping at a pharmacy for pain meds, and stopping for takeout, damn I was hungry by then. I was asleep in minutes after I took one of those pills after getting home.Next morning, I had to take another pill, damn leg was throbbing like mad. I had to learn how to negotiate using the toilet with crutches, fuck, that’s pain in the arse. Then I had to figure out how to shower. They gave me a shower bag for the cast but I couldn’t get the damn thing on by myself. Mom was trying to be motherly (naturally) but I was way too embarrassed to be seen naked in front of her. My Dad was a trooper, he helped me with all the bathroom stuff, and I got my shower Okay.I wasn’t going to be able to drive for a while, so my folks said they’d drive me back to school in Toronto. I could come home by bus and get my car once I was able to drive. Great.“Actually, if I could have my car on campus, one of my buddies could drive me around. None of the other guys have a car.” Not that my rattly old car was much of a ride, but it got us from A to B.“Okay” my Dad says, “Your mother can drive you there, and I’ll follow in your car, then we’ll drive back together.”“Awesome, sounds like a plan!”The rest of the day my parents helped me work out how to deal with the cast and crutches and take care of personal stuff by myself, like getting dressed, showering, shaving (yeah, ever try to balance on one foot to shave? fuckin hell), and using the toilet. My mom went shopping and bought me a bunch of baggy sweat pants, something that would go over my cast.My old friends dropped by with some hard coolers the next day, thinking it would cheer me up; but I had to pass on those due to the meds I was on. They laughed at me and drank it all, themselves. We all had a good laugh about my predicament, and they wished me luck at college. Gonna need it, eh?Then it was time to head back to school. I’d been texting and calling my buddies at school, told them the whole idiot story of my misadventures. They laughed at me big time, and of course they worried about their ride, what was gonna happen to my car? I told them about the arrangements and they were happy that it would still be available.The drive to school was really tedious, seemed to last forever, because it was so fricking uncomfortable to sit there with that stiff cast on. They got me and my stuff into my room in the dorm, and said their good-byes. I was so happy that I was on the first floor! No stairs here but there were stairs all over campus. Sure, there’s elevators everywhere but I didn’t know where most of them were.First order of business, I gotta pee after that road trip. I used the big accessible stall in the bathroom, that was great. Grab bars, lots of room, it really was made for this kind of thing. Easier than the bathroom at home, that’s for sure.I was the butt of a lot of jokes and shit for the first few days, but otherwise it was fine. Down in the dining hall I spotted someone else who’d had a fun spring break. There was a girl with her whole arm in a cast, like from shoulder to wrist, with the elbow bent at 90 degrees. I wondered what happened to her. Skiing too I supposed. My buddies said we’d make a great couple and told me to go ask her out. No way, dudes, not gonna happen. I can’t talk to girls, I always get freaked out and clam up.The end of March rolled around, and I still had weeks to go before getting my cast off. There was a party on Saturday night, and I was weaning off the strong meds by now so I could have a few drinks. My floor mates were getting me drinks, too; so I ended up having a few more than I would normally have. I was feeling buzzed by the end of the night.One of the guys suddenly showed up with a wheelchair. "Robbo! we got you some wheels, man!“"Where’d you steal that from?” I asked, a little dubious about the idea of them scamming someone’s chair.“No-No, totally not stolen, we got it for you from the Red Cross. It’s legit, dude!”“All right! Let’s check out my new ride then!” I hopped over and settled into the chair. They adjusted the footrest out for me and one of them took my crutches, and they started wheeling me away. "Where we goin?“ I asked."It’s a surprise.” says one of them, and then pull a pillowcase down over my head so I can’t see where we’re going. When I try to pull the covering off, they stopped me, and then the started grabbing my arms & duct taping them to the chair’s armrests. We were outside by now, and I started yelling, until they taped the pillowcase tight against my mouth, to muff my yelling. Now I was getting pissed, but there’s not much I could do, except literally ride this out.They laughed and giggled and make goofy jokes as they wheeled me around campus. Eventually, I had no idea where I am, and it suddenly strikes me that it was now April 1st. The alcoholic buzz is wearing off fast under the rush of my adrenaline and anger, and I wondered what kind of demented nightmare game they’ve come up with.I heard more laughing, girls this time, and they make whispered comments back and forth with the guys. I m now in a building, but I had no clue where. My chair was pushed around some more, bumping into stuff, and then a body is dumped in my lap, then they yanked the duct tape off the pillowcase and I can again my mouth. The room is pitch black. The giggling and laughing is cut off by the slamming of a door, and everything goes quiet.I think there’s a girl in my lap, or a small, really nice smelling guy with long hair. She’s quiescent, asleep or passed out, pressed against my chest.“Hey. Hey, wake up.” I said.No response, she’s just sitting there, draped over my lap. She’s warm and breathing, so it’s not a manikin or something. I wondered if she’s okay.I started to shift a bit, can’t use my arms because they’re taped down, but I try to shake her awake with my rocking shoulders. It didn’t work, and now I’m afraid that if I move too much she’ll fall off onto the floor.“Hey, uh, miss, wake up.” louder. She’s out of it. I turn my head to the side so I’m not yelling in her ear and holler “Hey, enough crap, let me out of here!” Silence reigns. Well, fuck. Now what?‘Now what’. Then the fire alarm starts blaring. It startles the heck out of me, but still isn’t enough to wake the girl.  I heard loud commotion in the halls for about 30 seconds, but then suddenly there is silence. Fuck, this is getting serious. What if it’s a real fire? No, no way, it's April 1st now, gotta be a prank. I’ll just wait for her to wake up, and we’ll get out of here. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I began to see faint outlines of what is probably a maintenance closet or storage room.The alarm rings for an annoyingly long time. 15 minutes I guess, I dunno, but it seems interminable. And I need to pee now. When the alarm finally stops the need to pee gets more insistent. I shifted uncomfortably under the weight of my passenger. Her hip is pressed up against my groin, adding to the struggle of my urge to piss.More time passes, and damn, I gotta go bad, now. I’m gonna wet myself, and her too, if I don’t get out of here right now. I’ve tried speaking to her, yelling, shaking her, and then there was another alarm that went on and on. She just isn’t gonna wake up. Did those morons drug her or something?I’m desperate now. “Come on, sleeping beauty, wake up!” Sleeping beauty? Yeah, fine, I’ll try that before I piss all over her. I think a girl would be slightly less angry about a stolen kiss than wet pants. So I seek her mouth. There was a little light coming in under the door, but suddenly that light went out, and only a faint intermittent light glowed. Oh, crap! That would be the emergency exit lighting. I eventually bumped my faced against her nose, then lowered a bit and kissed her, probably a little too hard for a wakeup smooch, cause I'm dying’ here, gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee.She’s got nice soft lips, really quite kissable, and I kinda wished she was awake and under different circumstances. I kissed her again, even harder. No response. I try again, this time I let my tongue do the talking, and I push into her mouth. Helluva way to experience my own first tongue-kiss . Finally, she stirred & turned into the kiss.Surprised, I pull back, and say “Oh thank god you’re awake, help me up!”She startled, yelping at me, “Who are you?!”“Help me, please, I’m gonna piss my pants! Untie me!”In the dim red glow of an exit sign I finally saw her face. She’s kinda cute, not particularly pretty, and she has a cast on her right arm. It’s the girl I saw in the dining hall a few times.“Hurry!" I pleaded.She struggled off me, and stood. Where the hell did you take me! she demanded.I told her that we were both abducted by campus hooligans and locked in some storage room, but I didn t know which building. Then I said; But I gotta pee right now and my leg is in a cast, and I m bound to this wheelchair.She felt the tape on my wrists. It's slow going for her to undo the tape with her one weak hand, the way she’s pulling at it, she’s obviously not left handed.I’m not gonna make it, and I looked around. We’re in a janitor’s room or something. I spotted a stack of small waste baskets. "Quick, grab one of those buckets and put it between my legs.”She’s quick on the uptake, I’ll give her that, and she grabbed the bucket for me. “Pull my pants down, hurry.”“What? No!” she protested.“Argh. Please, I’m gonna wet myself.” I grind out through my clenched teeth.She reached out with that uncoordinated left hand of hers and fumbles with my sweat pants. I squirmed to lift my hips a bit to help, and the elastic waistband slipped down, exposing my tight briefs.“You gotta help. Pull me out, aim for the bucket. Please?”I can see she’s not happy with the situation, and she’s fighting with her distaste at touching a man, a total stranger at that, in such a bizarre circumstance. But she perseveres, and that delicate hand fishes in my shorts for my cock. She paused momentarily as she made contact, then pulled my cock free. She picked up the empty bucket and aimed my hose toward the container.I groaned as I let loose. Oh god, finally! The relief was incredible. The poor girl was acting shocked as she dutifully aimed me at the bucket, and she even nudged the bucket a bit closer. I pissed on and on, holy fuck there was so much, and eventually I ran dry.Her disposition is no longer shocked, but instead she appeared to be curious.“Oh thank you, you saved me so much embarrassment. You can put me back in there now. Thanks.”She hesitated, and timidly tried to one-handedly stuff my cock back through the fly, and after a couple of clumsy tries I’m all set. And of course now my cock was growing fast in her hand, as I no longer had to pee, but there’s a wonderful-smelling girl handling that most sensitive part of my anatomy. Something that’s never happened before.That last drop of pee evidently got on her hand, and she looked a bit frantic now, “Ew” she says.“Just wipe it on my sweats, it’s Okay.” I told her, and she rubbed her hand on my inner thigh. That doesn’t help with my ever increasing boner of course.She looked up at me, and her brow wrinkled. “Do you smell smoke?” she asked.It’s my turn to be startled, and I looked toward the door. Oh Fuck, there’s smoke coming in under the door! That alarm was real! Why wasn’t it still going off? “Quick, help me get this tape off!” She started trying to pull up my sweats, but I say “No, leave that, just get me undone!”She started working on the tape on my left arm, and it took a few minutes to get me free. Working together, my right arm is unstuck in less than a minute. “Check the door.” I told her as I looked around the room. No other doors, just shelves, a big sink, a floor pan for filling and emptying mop buckets, and stacks of boxes and stuff.She tried the light switch but it doesn’t work. Great, my idiot friends probably unscrewed the light bulb. Then she tried the door. “It’s locked!” she says.“From the outside? Why the fuck would it be set up to lock people in? Sorry. I swear when I get nervous.”“Is there really a fire, do you think?”“I guess so, there was an alarm that went off when you were out cold.”“What do we do?” She started frantically searching her pockets and said; “I can’t find my phone!”“I didn’t even bring mine to the party. No pockets.”The smell of smoke got stronger. I wheeled up next to the sink, and ran some water. Grabbing a package of paper towels, I ripped it open and dumped them in the sink. “Here, block up the crack under the door with these!”I handed her wads of soggy paper, and she knelt down to stuff them under the door. The smoke stoped coming in, thank goodness.  But now the room is black. “Now what?” she said.I shrugged, “I guess we wait and hope.”“I’m scared.” she said in a small voice.“Come here, sit on my lap here. Oh, uh, maybe pull up my pants first.” She helped me with that and sat on me. I think the gravity of the situation is now hitting her pretty hard, I know it’s got me freaked out. She burrowed into my neck and wraps her good arm wraps around me. “We’re Okay for now.” I tell her.I smelled her hair again, as she’s crushed against me. Damn that feels nice. Shit, I don’t even know her name. “I’m Robert by the way. Robert Green.”“Suzanne. Suzanne Shelton.”, she informed me.“I’d say pleased to meet you Suzanne, but under these circumstances, maybe the sentiment should be I’m ecstatic to meet you. If I was by myself I would have pissed my pants and suffocated.”She giggled, my goofy sense of humor somehow helped in this situation. “I’m glad to meet you too, Robert.”“So how did you get here?”“I don’t know, I was at the dorm party and felt dizzy, then you were kissing me.” She blushed again.“Sorry about that, I tried to wake you for like 20 minutes, but you were really out of it. I finally thought I would try the sleeping beauty trick, and it worked. Did you drink something someone else gave you?”“Oh. Shit. She seemed to recall. I think so. One of my floor mates gave me a coke. It must have been spiked?  I had to take some of my pain meds for my arm earlier tonight, it was bothering me. I keep trying to do too much with it all the time.”“Oh, yeah, you don’t want to mix booze or anything with that stuff, I know! Sorry about the pee episode. I really was going to wet my pants in another few seconds. Wet both our pants.”She blushed and giggled. “I never saw a guy like that, like your, thing, before.”“Wow. Okay, well, I never had a girl touch my co-, um, thing, before.”“It changed when I was putting it away. Was that, um, like…’"Yeah, well, when a pretty girl touches me like that, I’m bound to get aroused.”Her eyes went wide at that statement. “Oh” she said. She paused a few seconds, then put her head back on my shoulder. There was that scent again. "So. Um, you think I’m pretty?“"Well, yeah, of course. You’re what I think my grandpa would call 'fetching’”She giggled again. Damn, that sounds nice, and she smells really nice. Little Robert stirred down below. I heard a sharp intake of breath. Uh Oh. She felt that. I may have just ruined what might have been a moment.“Am I pretty enough to make you, uh, aroused, then?”“Oh, Suzanne, I am so embarrassed. Please, don’t be offended, it’s just circumstances, you know?”She pulled back again and looked at the door. Still no smoke. Then she looked at me with a sad smile, saying “I didn’t think so.” Suzanne started to get up, and I realized where our wires had crossed.I put my arms around her and said " Oh, no no. You’re very pretty, and definitely arousing.“She looked surprised, but settled back down on my lap. "Oh.” she said. “Thank you.”Just

An April Fools Prank Goes Awry.By SilverFoxMullet.Listen to the ►Podcast at Steamy Stories.Spring break was just that, a break. My leg, actually.When I went home to Ottawa for spring break, I met up with a few of my old high school buds, and we took a day trip to the Quebec side for some skiing at one of the nearby hills, north of Ottawa. Mid-gafternoon, I hit a patch of ice and went down hard. It was quite a day for falls, as the hills were pretty icy this late in the season. I tried to get up, but my right ankle hurt like a bitch. None of my friends had stopped, as we were all falling a lot today, they just assumed I would get up and follow them.“Aw fuck!” I groaned. I lay there in the snow for a few minutes, until someone slid to a stop next to me.“Hey, are you all right?” the guy asks.“No, I hurt my ankle. Fuck.”“Don’t move it, I’ll find the ski patrol. Hang on.” He skied away to get help.30 seconds later another guy stopped. Same question. "Hey are you all right?“"I think I sprained my ankle. There was a guy here a minute ago, he said he’d send the ski patrol.”The guy turned and looked around, then waved and yelled “Ici! Over here! Vien! Here they are.”Two guys in red jackets stopped and asked what’s wrong. This other guy said “Good luck!” to me, and skied away, as I recounted the fall and my symptoms. The ski patrol guys were great, they radioed for a stretcher and 20 minutes later they’re loading me into an ambulance. The rest of the day was a lot of waiting, x-rays, and paperwork. The local hospital had a seasonal trauma unit for all the ski injuries, and they’re used to dealing with the inter-provincial healthcare.I called my Dad, who said he’d fetch me from the hospital, then called my buddies who were still in the chalet . He told them to go home without me. They commiserated and said they’d drop by my house tomorrow and see how I was doing.I eventually got a cast on my right leg. It spanned from my toes to my mid-thigh. I was issued a pair of crutches, and a whole ream of instructions (in both French and English of course) about what to do and what not to do. My Dad showed up somewhere during this tedious process and reassured me everything would be fine.We got home really late, after stopping at a pharmacy for pain meds, and stopping for takeout, damn I was hungry by then. I was asleep in minutes after I took one of those pills after getting home.Next morning, I had to take another pill, damn leg was throbbing like mad. I had to learn how to negotiate using the toilet with crutches, fuck, that’s pain in the arse. Then I had to figure out how to shower. They gave me a shower bag for the cast but I couldn’t get the damn thing on by myself. Mom was trying to be motherly (naturally) but I was way too embarrassed to be seen naked in front of her. My Dad was a trooper, he helped me with all the bathroom stuff, and I got my shower Okay.I wasn’t going to be able to drive for a while, so my folks said they’d drive me back to school in Toronto. I could come home by bus and get my car once I was able to drive. Great.“Actually, if I could have my car on campus, one of my buddies could drive me around. None of the other guys have a car.” Not that my rattly old car was much of a ride, but it got us from A to B.“Okay” my Dad says, “Your mother can drive you there, and I’ll follow in your car, then we’ll drive back together.”“Awesome, sounds like a plan!”The rest of the day my parents helped me work out how to deal with the cast and crutches and take care of personal stuff by myself, like getting dressed, showering, shaving (yeah, ever try to balance on one foot to shave? fuckin hell), and using the toilet. My mom went shopping and bought me a bunch of baggy sweat pants, something that would go over my cast.My old friends dropped by with some hard coolers the next day, thinking it would cheer me up; but I had to pass on those due to the meds I was on. They laughed at me and drank it all, themselves. We all had a good laugh about my predicament, and they wished me luck at college. Gonna need it, eh?Then it was time to head back to school. I’d been texting and calling my buddies at school, told them the whole idiot story of my misadventures. They laughed at me big time, and of course they worried about their ride, what was gonna happen to my car? I told them about the arrangements and they were happy that it would still be available.The drive to school was really tedious, seemed to last forever, because it was so fricking uncomfortable to sit there with that stiff cast on. They got me and my stuff into my room in the dorm, and said their good-byes. I was so happy that I was on the first floor! No stairs here but there were stairs all over campus. Sure, there’s elevators everywhere but I didn’t know where most of them were.First order of business, I gotta pee after that road trip. I used the big accessible stall in the bathroom, that was great. Grab bars, lots of room, it really was made for this kind of thing. Easier than the bathroom at home, that’s for sure.I was the butt of a lot of jokes and shit for the first few days, but otherwise it was fine. Down in the dining hall I spotted someone else who’d had a fun spring break. There was a girl with her whole arm in a cast, like from shoulder to wrist, with the elbow bent at 90 degrees. I wondered what happened to her. Skiing too I supposed. My buddies said we’d make a great couple and told me to go ask her out. No way, dudes, not gonna happen. I can’t talk to girls, I always get freaked out and clam up.The end of March rolled around, and I still had weeks to go before getting my cast off. There was a party on Saturday night, and I was weaning off the strong meds by now so I could have a few drinks. My floor mates were getting me drinks, too; so I ended up having a few more than I would normally have. I was feeling buzzed by the end of the night.One of the guys suddenly showed up with a wheelchair. "Robbo! we got you some wheels, man!“"Where’d you steal that from?” I asked, a little dubious about the idea of them scamming someone’s chair.“No-No, totally not stolen, we got it for you from the Red Cross. It’s legit, dude!”“All right! Let’s check out my new ride then!” I hopped over and settled into the chair. They adjusted the footrest out for me and one of them took my crutches, and they started wheeling me away. "Where we goin?“ I asked."It’s a surprise.” says one of them, and then pull a pillowcase down over my head so I can’t see where we’re going. When I try to pull the covering off, they stopped me, and then the started grabbing my arms & duct taping them to the chair’s armrests. We were outside by now, and I started yelling, until they taped the pillowcase tight against my mouth, to muff my yelling. Now I was getting pissed, but there’s not much I could do, except literally ride this out.They laughed and giggled and make goofy jokes as they wheeled me around campus. Eventually, I had no idea where I am, and it suddenly strikes me that it was now April 1st. The alcoholic buzz is wearing off fast under the rush of my adrenaline and anger, and I wondered what kind of demented nightmare game they’ve come up with.I heard more laughing, girls this time, and they make whispered comments back and forth with the guys. I m now in a building, but I had no clue where. My chair was pushed around some more, bumping into stuff, and then a body is dumped in my lap, then they yanked the duct tape off the pillowcase and I can again my mouth. The room is pitch black. The giggling and laughing is cut off by the slamming of a door, and everything goes quiet.I think there’s a girl in my lap, or a small, really nice smelling guy with long hair. She’s quiescent, asleep or passed out, pressed against my chest.“Hey. Hey, wake up.” I said.No response, she’s just sitting there, draped over my lap. She’s warm and breathing, so it’s not a manikin or something. I wondered if she’s okay.I started to shift a bit, can’t use my arms because they’re taped down, but I try to shake her awake with my rocking shoulders. It didn’t work, and now I’m afraid that if I move too much she’ll fall off onto the floor.“Hey, uh, miss, wake up.” louder. She’s out of it. I turn my head to the side so I’m not yelling in her ear and holler “Hey, enough crap, let me out of here!” Silence reigns. Well, fuck. Now what?‘Now what’. Then the fire alarm starts blaring. It startles the heck out of me, but still isn’t enough to wake the girl.  I heard loud commotion in the halls for about 30 seconds, but then suddenly there is silence. Fuck, this is getting serious. What if it’s a real fire? No, no way, it's April 1st now, gotta be a prank. I’ll just wait for her to wake up, and we’ll get out of here. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I began to see faint outlines of what is probably a maintenance closet or storage room.The alarm rings for an annoyingly long time. 15 minutes I guess, I dunno, but it seems interminable. And I need to pee now. When the alarm finally stops the need to pee gets more insistent. I shifted uncomfortably under the weight of my passenger. Her hip is pressed up against my groin, adding to the struggle of my urge to piss.More time passes, and damn, I gotta go bad, now. I’m gonna wet myself, and her too, if I don’t get out of here right now. I’ve tried speaking to her, yelling, shaking her, and then there was another alarm that went on and on. She just isn’t gonna wake up. Did those morons drug her or something?I’m desperate now. “Come on, sleeping beauty, wake up!” Sleeping beauty? Yeah, fine, I’ll try that before I piss all over her. I think a girl would be slightly less angry about a stolen kiss than wet pants. So I seek her mouth. There was a little light coming in under the door, but suddenly that light went out, and only a faint intermittent light glowed. Oh, crap! That would be the emergency exit lighting. I eventually bumped my faced against her nose, then lowered a bit and kissed her, probably a little too hard for a wakeup smooch, cause I'm dying’ here, gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee.She’s got nice soft lips, really quite kissable, and I kinda wished she was awake and under different circumstances. I kissed her again, even harder. No response. I try again, this time I let my tongue do the talking, and I push into her mouth. Helluva way to experience my own first tongue-kiss . Finally, she stirred & turned into the kiss.Surprised, I pull back, and say “Oh thank god you’re awake, help me up!”She startled, yelping at me, “Who are you?!”“Help me, please, I’m gonna piss my pants! Untie me!”In the dim red glow of an exit sign I finally saw her face. She’s kinda cute, not particularly pretty, and she has a cast on her right arm. It’s the girl I saw in the dining hall a few times.“Hurry!" I pleaded.She struggled off me, and stood. Where the hell did you take me! she demanded.I told her that we were both abducted by campus hooligans and locked in some storage room, but I didn t know which building. Then I said; But I gotta pee right now and my leg is in a cast, and I m bound to this wheelchair.She felt the tape on my wrists. It's slow going for her to undo the tape with her one weak hand, the way she’s pulling at it, she’s obviously not left handed.I’m not gonna make it, and I looked around. We’re in a janitor’s room or something. I spotted a stack of small waste baskets. "Quick, grab one of those buckets and put it between my legs.”She’s quick on the uptake, I’ll give her that, and she grabbed the bucket for me. “Pull my pants down, hurry.”“What? No!” she protested.“Argh. Please, I’m gonna wet myself.” I grind out through my clenched teeth.She reached out with that uncoordinated left hand of hers and fumbles with my sweat pants. I squirmed to lift my hips a bit to help, and the elastic waistband slipped down, exposing my tight briefs.“You gotta help. Pull me out, aim for the bucket. Please?”I can see she’s not happy with the situation, and she’s fighting with her distaste at touching a man, a total stranger at that, in such a bizarre circumstance. But she perseveres, and that delicate hand fishes in my shorts for my cock. She paused momentarily as she made contact, then pulled my cock free. She picked up the empty bucket and aimed my hose toward the container.I groaned as I let loose. Oh god, finally! The relief was incredible. The poor girl was acting shocked as she dutifully aimed me at the bucket, and she even nudged the bucket a bit closer. I pissed on and on, holy fuck there was so much, and eventually I ran dry.Her disposition is no longer shocked, but instead she appeared to be curious.“Oh thank you, you saved me so much embarrassment. You can put me back in there now. Thanks.”She hesitated, and timidly tried to one-handedly stuff my cock back through the fly, and after a couple of clumsy tries I’m all set. And of course now my cock was growing fast in her hand, as I no longer had to pee, but there’s a wonderful-smelling girl handling that most sensitive part of my anatomy. Something that’s never happened before.That last drop of pee evidently got on her hand, and she looked a bit frantic now, “Ew” she says.“Just wipe it on my sweats, it’s Okay.” I told her, and she rubbed her hand on my inner thigh. That doesn’t help with my ever increasing boner of course.She looked up at me, and her brow wrinkled. “Do you smell smoke?” she asked.It’s my turn to be startled, and I looked toward the door. Oh Fuck, there’s smoke coming in under the door! That alarm was real! Why wasn’t it still going off? “Quick, help me get this tape off!” She started trying to pull up my sweats, but I say “No, leave that, just get me undone!”She started working on the tape on my left arm, and it took a few minutes to get me free. Working together, my right arm is unstuck in less than a minute. “Check the door.” I told her as I looked around the room. No other doors, just shelves, a big sink, a floor pan for filling and emptying mop buckets, and stacks of boxes and stuff.She tried the light switch but it doesn’t work. Great, my idiot friends probably unscrewed the light bulb. Then she tried the door. “It’s locked!” she says.“From the outside? Why the fuck would it be set up to lock people in? Sorry. I swear when I get nervous.”“Is there really a fire, do you think?”“I guess so, there was an alarm that went off when you were out cold.”“What do we do?” She started frantically searching her pockets and said; “I can’t find my phone!”“I didn’t even bring mine to the party. No pockets.”The smell of smoke got stronger. I wheeled up next to the sink, and ran some water. Grabbing a package of paper towels, I ripped it open and dumped them in the sink. “Here, block up the crack under the door with these!”I handed her wads of soggy paper, and she knelt down to stuff them under the door. The smoke stoped coming in, thank goodness.  But now the room is black. “Now what?” she said.I shrugged, “I guess we wait and hope.”“I’m scared.” she said in a small voice.“Come here, sit on my lap here. Oh, uh, maybe pull up my pants first.” She helped me with that and sat on me. I think the gravity of the situation is now hitting her pretty hard, I know it’s got me freaked out. She burrowed into my neck and wraps her good arm wraps around me. “We’re Okay for now.” I tell her.I smelled her hair again, as she’s crushed against me. Damn that feels nice. Shit, I don’t even know her name. “I’m Robert by the way. Robert Green.”“Suzanne. Suzanne Shelton.”, she informed me.“I’d say pleased to meet you Suzanne, but under these circumstances, maybe the sentiment should be I’m ecstatic to meet you. If I was by myself I would have pissed my pants and suffocated.”She giggled, my goofy sense of humor somehow helped in this situation. “I’m glad to meet you too, Robert.”“So how did you get here?”“I don’t know, I was at the dorm party and felt dizzy, then you were kissing me.” She blushed again.“Sorry about that, I tried to wake you for like 20 minutes, but you were really out of it. I finally thought I would try the sleeping beauty trick, and it worked. Did you drink something someone else gave you?”“Oh. Shit. She seemed to recall. I think so. One of my floor mates gave me a coke. It must have been spiked?  I had to take some of my pain meds for my arm earlier tonight, it was bothering me. I keep trying to do too much with it all the time.”“Oh, yeah, you don’t want to mix booze or anything with that stuff, I know! Sorry about the pee episode. I really was going to wet my pants in another few seconds. Wet both our pants.”She blushed and giggled. “I never saw a guy like that, like your, thing, before.”“Wow. Okay, well, I never had a girl touch my co-, um, thing, before.”“It changed when I was putting it away. Was that, um, like…’"Yeah, well, when a pretty girl touches me like that, I’m bound to get aroused.”Her eyes went wide at that statement. “Oh” she said. She paused a few seconds, then put her head back on my shoulder. There was that scent again. "So. Um, you think I’m pretty?“"Well, yeah, of course. You’re what I think my grandpa would call 'fetching’”She giggled again. Damn, that sounds nice, and she smells really nice. Little Robert stirred down below. I heard a sharp intake of breath. Uh Oh. She felt that. I may have just ruined what might have been a moment.“Am I pretty enough to make you, uh, aroused, then?”“Oh, Suzanne, I am so embarrassed. Please, don’t be offended, it’s just circumstances, you know?”She pulled back again and looked at the door. Still no smoke. Then she looked at me with a sad smile, saying “I didn’t think so.” Suzanne started to get up, and I realized where our wires had crossed.I put my arms around her and said " Oh, no no. You’re very pretty, and definitely arousing.“She looked surprised, but settled back down on my lap. "Oh.” she said. “Thank you.”Just

An April Fools Prank Goes Awry.By SilverFoxMullet.Listen to the ►Podcast at Steamy Stories.Spring break was just that, a break. My leg, actually.When I went home to Ottawa for spring break, I met up with a few of my old high school buds, and we took a day trip to the Quebec side for some skiing at one of the nearby hills, north of Ottawa. Mid-gafternoon, I hit a patch of ice and went down hard. It was quite a day for falls, as the hills were pretty icy this late in the season. I tried to get up, but my right ankle hurt like a bitch. None of my friends had stopped, as we were all falling a lot today, they just assumed I would get up and follow them.“Aw fuck!” I groaned. I lay there in the snow for a few minutes, until someone slid to a stop next to me.“Hey, are you all right?” the guy asks.“No, I hurt my ankle. Fuck.”“Don’t move it, I’ll find the ski patrol. Hang on.” He skied away to get help.30 seconds later another guy stopped. Same question. "Hey are you all right?“"I think I sprained my ankle. There was a guy here a minute ago, he said he’d send the ski patrol.”The guy turned and looked around, then waved and yelled “Ici! Over here! Vien! Here they are.”Two guys in red jackets stopped and asked what’s wrong. This other guy said “Good luck!” to me, and skied away, as I recounted the fall and my symptoms. The ski patrol guys were great, they radioed for a stretcher and 20 minutes later they’re loading me into an ambulance. The rest of the day was a lot of waiting, x-rays, and paperwork. The local hospital had a seasonal trauma unit for all the ski injuries, and they’re used to dealing with the inter-provincial healthcare.I called my Dad, who said he’d fetch me from the hospital, then called my buddies who were still in the chalet . He told them to go home without me. They commiserated and said they’d drop by my house tomorrow and see how I was doing.I eventually got a cast on my right leg. It spanned from my toes to my mid-thigh. I was issued a pair of crutches, and a whole ream of instructions (in both French and English of course) about what to do and what not to do. My Dad showed up somewhere during this tedious process and reassured me everything would be fine.We got home really late, after stopping at a pharmacy for pain meds, and stopping for takeout, damn I was hungry by then. I was asleep in minutes after I took one of those pills after getting home.Next morning, I had to take another pill, damn leg was throbbing like mad. I had to learn how to negotiate using the toilet with crutches, fuck, that’s pain in the arse. Then I had to figure out how to shower. They gave me a shower bag for the cast but I couldn’t get the damn thing on by myself. Mom was trying to be motherly (naturally) but I was way too embarrassed to be seen naked in front of her. My Dad was a trooper, he helped me with all the bathroom stuff, and I got my shower Okay.I wasn’t going to be able to drive for a while, so my folks said they’d drive me back to school in Toronto. I could come home by bus and get my car once I was able to drive. Great.“Actually, if I could have my car on campus, one of my buddies could drive me around. None of the other guys have a car.” Not that my rattly old car was much of a ride, but it got us from A to B.“Okay” my Dad says, “Your mother can drive you there, and I’ll follow in your car, then we’ll drive back together.”“Awesome, sounds like a plan!”The rest of the day my parents helped me work out how to deal with the cast and crutches and take care of personal stuff by myself, like getting dressed, showering, shaving (yeah, ever try to balance on one foot to shave? fuckin hell), and using the toilet. My mom went shopping and bought me a bunch of baggy sweat pants, something that would go over my cast.My old friends dropped by with some hard coolers the next day, thinking it would cheer me up; but I had to pass on those due to the meds I was on. They laughed at me and drank it all, themselves. We all had a good laugh about my predicament, and they wished me luck at college. Gonna need it, eh?Then it was time to head back to school. I’d been texting and calling my buddies at school, told them the whole idiot story of my misadventures. They laughed at me big time, and of course they worried about their ride, what was gonna happen to my car? I told them about the arrangements and they were happy that it would still be available.The drive to school was really tedious, seemed to last forever, because it was so fricking uncomfortable to sit there with that stiff cast on. They got me and my stuff into my room in the dorm, and said their good-byes. I was so happy that I was on the first floor! No stairs here but there were stairs all over campus. Sure, there’s elevators everywhere but I didn’t know where most of them were.First order of business, I gotta pee after that road trip. I used the big accessible stall in the bathroom, that was great. Grab bars, lots of room, it really was made for this kind of thing. Easier than the bathroom at home, that’s for sure.I was the butt of a lot of jokes and shit for the first few days, but otherwise it was fine. Down in the dining hall I spotted someone else who’d had a fun spring break. There was a girl with her whole arm in a cast, like from shoulder to wrist, with the elbow bent at 90 degrees. I wondered what happened to her. Skiing too I supposed. My buddies said we’d make a great couple and told me to go ask her out. No way, dudes, not gonna happen. I can’t talk to girls, I always get freaked out and clam up.The end of March rolled around, and I still had weeks to go before getting my cast off. There was a party on Saturday night, and I was weaning off the strong meds by now so I could have a few drinks. My floor mates were getting me drinks, too; so I ended up having a few more than I would normally have. I was feeling buzzed by the end of the night.One of the guys suddenly showed up with a wheelchair. "Robbo! we got you some wheels, man!“"Where’d you steal that from?” I asked, a little dubious about the idea of them scamming someone’s chair.“No-No, totally not stolen, we got it for you from the Red Cross. It’s legit, dude!”“All right! Let’s check out my new ride then!” I hopped over and settled into the chair. They adjusted the footrest out for me and one of them took my crutches, and they started wheeling me away. "Where we goin?“ I asked."It’s a surprise.” says one of them, and then pull a pillowcase down over my head so I can’t see where we’re going. When I try to pull the covering off, they stopped me, and then the started grabbing my arms & duct taping them to the chair’s armrests. We were outside by now, and I started yelling, until they taped the pillowcase tight against my mouth, to muff my yelling. Now I was getting pissed, but there’s not much I could do, except literally ride this out.They laughed and giggled and make goofy jokes as they wheeled me around campus. Eventually, I had no idea where I am, and it suddenly strikes me that it was now April 1st. The alcoholic buzz is wearing off fast under the rush of my adrenaline and anger, and I wondered what kind of demented nightmare game they’ve come up with.I heard more laughing, girls this time, and they make whispered comments back and forth with the guys. I m now in a building, but I had no clue where. My chair was pushed around some more, bumping into stuff, and then a body is dumped in my lap, then they yanked the duct tape off the pillowcase and I can again my mouth. The room is pitch black. The giggling and laughing is cut off by the slamming of a door, and everything goes quiet.I think there’s a girl in my lap, or a small, really nice smelling guy with long hair. She’s quiescent, asleep or passed out, pressed against my chest.“Hey. Hey, wake up.” I said.No response, she’s just sitting there, draped over my lap. She’s warm and breathing, so it’s not a manikin or something. I wondered if she’s okay.I started to shift a bit, can’t use my arms because they’re taped down, but I try to shake her awake with my rocking shoulders. It didn’t work, and now I’m afraid that if I move too much she’ll fall off onto the floor.“Hey, uh, miss, wake up.” louder. She’s out of it. I turn my head to the side so I’m not yelling in her ear and holler “Hey, enough crap, let me out of here!” Silence reigns. Well, fuck. Now what?‘Now what’. Then the fire alarm starts blaring. It startles the heck out of me, but still isn’t enough to wake the girl.  I heard loud commotion in the halls for about 30 seconds, but then suddenly there is silence. Fuck, this is getting serious. What if it’s a real fire? No, no way, it's April 1st now, gotta be a prank. I’ll just wait for her to wake up, and we’ll get out of here. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I began to see faint outlines of what is probably a maintenance closet or storage room.The alarm rings for an annoyingly long time. 15 minutes I guess, I dunno, but it seems interminable. And I need to pee now. When the alarm finally stops the need to pee gets more insistent. I shifted uncomfortably under the weight of my passenger. Her hip is pressed up against my groin, adding to the struggle of my urge to piss.More time passes, and damn, I gotta go bad, now. I’m gonna wet myself, and her too, if I don’t get out of here right now. I’ve tried speaking to her, yelling, shaking her, and then there was another alarm that went on and on. She just isn’t gonna wake up. Did those morons drug her or something?I’m desperate now. “Come on, sleeping beauty, wake up!” Sleeping beauty? Yeah, fine, I’ll try that before I piss all over her. I think a girl would be slightly less angry about a stolen kiss than wet pants. So I seek her mouth. There was a little light coming in under the door, but suddenly that light went out, and only a faint intermittent light glowed. Oh, crap! That would be the emergency exit lighting. I eventually bumped my faced against her nose, then lowered a bit and kissed her, probably a little too hard for a wakeup smooch, cause I'm dying’ here, gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee.She’s got nice soft lips, really quite kissable, and I kinda wished she was awake and under different circumstances. I kissed her again, even harder. No response. I try again, this time I let my tongue do the talking, and I push into her mouth. Helluva way to experience my own first tongue-kiss . Finally, she stirred & turned into the kiss.Surprised, I pull back, and say “Oh thank god you’re awake, help me up!”She startled, yelping at me, “Who are you?!”“Help me, please, I’m gonna piss my pants! Untie me!”In the dim red glow of an exit sign I finally saw her face. She’s kinda cute, not particularly pretty, and she has a cast on her right arm. It’s the girl I saw in the dining hall a few times.“Hurry!" I pleaded.She struggled off me, and stood. Where the hell did you take me! she demanded.I told her that we were both abducted by campus hooligans and locked in some storage room, but I didn t know which building. Then I said; But I gotta pee right now and my leg is in a cast, and I m bound to this wheelchair.She felt the tape on my wrists. It's slow going for her to undo the tape with her one weak hand, the way she’s pulling at it, she’s obviously not left handed.I’m not gonna make it, and I looked around. We’re in a janitor’s room or something. I spotted a stack of small waste baskets. "Quick, grab one of those buckets and put it between my legs.”She’s quick on the uptake, I’ll give her that, and she grabbed the bucket for me. “Pull my pants down, hurry.”“What? No!” she protested.“Argh. Please, I’m gonna wet myself.” I grind out through my clenched teeth.She reached out with that uncoordinated left hand of hers and fumbles with my sweat pants. I squirmed to lift my hips a bit to help, and the elastic waistband slipped down, exposing my tight briefs.“You gotta help. Pull me out, aim for the bucket. Please?”I can see she’s not happy with the situation, and she’s fighting with her distaste at touching a man, a total stranger at that, in such a bizarre circumstance. But she perseveres, and that delicate hand fishes in my shorts for my cock. She paused momentarily as she made contact, then pulled my cock free. She picked up the empty bucket and aimed my hose toward the container.I groaned as I let loose. Oh god, finally! The relief was incredible. The poor girl was acting shocked as she dutifully aimed me at the bucket, and she even nudged the bucket a bit closer. I pissed on and on, holy fuck there was so much, and eventually I ran dry.Her disposition is no longer shocked, but instead she appeared to be curious.“Oh thank you, you saved me so much embarrassment. You can put me back in there now. Thanks.”She hesitated, and timidly tried to one-handedly stuff my cock back through the fly, and after a couple of clumsy tries I’m all set. And of course now my cock was growing fast in her hand, as I no longer had to pee, but there’s a wonderful-smelling girl handling that most sensitive part of my anatomy. Something that’s never happened before.That last drop of pee evidently got on her hand, and she looked a bit frantic now, “Ew” she says.“Just wipe it on my sweats, it’s Okay.” I told her, and she rubbed her hand on my inner thigh. That doesn’t help with my ever increasing boner of course.She looked up at me, and her brow wrinkled. “Do you smell smoke?” she asked.It’s my turn to be startled, and I looked toward the door. Oh Fuck, there’s smoke coming in under the door! That alarm was real! Why wasn’t it still going off? “Quick, help me get this tape off!” She started trying to pull up my sweats, but I say “No, leave that, just get me undone!”She started working on the tape on my left arm, and it took a few minutes to get me free. Working together, my right arm is unstuck in less than a minute. “Check the door.” I told her as I looked around the room. No other doors, just shelves, a big sink, a floor pan for filling and emptying mop buckets, and stacks of boxes and stuff.She tried the light switch but it doesn’t work. Great, my idiot friends probably unscrewed the light bulb. Then she tried the door. “It’s locked!” she says.“From the outside? Why the fuck would it be set up to lock people in? Sorry. I swear when I get nervous.”“Is there really a fire, do you think?”“I guess so, there was an alarm that went off when you were out cold.”“What do we do?” She started frantically searching her pockets and said; “I can’t find my phone!”“I didn’t even bring mine to the party. No pockets.”The smell of smoke got stronger. I wheeled up next to the sink, and ran some water. Grabbing a package of paper towels, I ripped it open and dumped them in the sink. “Here, block up the crack under the door with these!”I handed her wads of soggy paper, and she knelt down to stuff them under the door. The smoke stoped coming in, thank goodness.  But now the room is black. “Now what?” she said.I shrugged, “I guess we wait and hope.”“I’m scared.” she said in a small voice.“Come here, sit on my lap here. Oh, uh, maybe pull up my pants first.” She helped me with that and sat on me. I think the gravity of the situation is now hitting her pretty hard, I know it’s got me freaked out. She burrowed into my neck and wraps her good arm wraps around me. “We’re Okay for now.” I tell her.I smelled her hair again, as she’s crushed against me. Damn that feels nice. Shit, I don’t even know her name. “I’m Robert by the way. Robert Green.”“Suzanne. Suzanne Shelton.”, she informed me.“I’d say pleased to meet you Suzanne, but under these circumstances, maybe the sentiment should be I’m ecstatic to meet you. If I was by myself I would have pissed my pants and suffocated.”She giggled, my goofy sense of humor somehow helped in this situation. “I’m glad to meet you too, Robert.”“So how did you get here?”“I don’t know, I was at the dorm party and felt dizzy, then you were kissing me.” She blushed again.“Sorry about that, I tried to wake you for like 20 minutes, but you were really out of it. I finally thought I would try the sleeping beauty trick, and it worked. Did you drink something someone else gave you?”“Oh. Shit. She seemed to recall. I think so. One of my floor mates gave me a coke. It must have been spiked?  I had to take some of my pain meds for my arm earlier tonight, it was bothering me. I keep trying to do too much with it all the time.”“Oh, yeah, you don’t want to mix booze or anything with that stuff, I know! Sorry about the pee episode. I really was going to wet my pants in another few seconds. Wet both our pants.”She blushed and giggled. “I never saw a guy like that, like your, thing, before.”“Wow. Okay, well, I never had a girl touch my co-, um, thing, before.”“It changed when I was putting it away. Was that, um, like…’"Yeah, well, when a pretty girl touches me like that, I’m bound to get aroused.”Her eyes went wide at that statement. “Oh” she said. She paused a few seconds, then put her head back on my shoulder. There was that scent again. "So. Um, you think I’m pretty?“"Well, yeah, of course. You’re what I think my grandpa would call 'fetching’”She giggled again. Damn, that sounds nice, and she smells really nice. Little Robert stirred down below. I heard a sharp intake of breath. Uh Oh. She felt that. I may have just ruined what might have been a moment.“Am I pretty enough to make you, uh, aroused, then?”“Oh, Suzanne, I am so embarrassed. Please, don’t be offended, it’s just circumstances, you know?”She pulled back again and looked at the door. Still no smoke. Then she looked at me with a sad smile, saying “I didn’t think so.” Suzanne started to get up, and I realized where our wires had crossed.I put my arms around her and said " Oh, no no. You’re very pretty, and definitely arousing.“She looked surprised, but settled back down on my lap. "Oh.” she said. “Thank you.”Just

I detta "AW med Ann och Dala" fortsätter Ann Sandin-Lindgren och Dala Dahlström att prata om de program de lyssnat på och även vilka program som är på gång på Tyresöradion i slutet av februari. De reflekterar också över AI-utvecklingen, att det är positivt att man pratar om Hans Rosling i flera program och varför Ann har problem med sina varma kängor.

There was so much covered in this interview with my father. We talked about saving baby turtles that were lost, a baby alligator that was in our pond, and more. Dad is a hard worker and it's the season he works on his mulberry trees. We covered that and some powerful, inspirational information about mulberry trees. We also took a dive into my childhood and talked about the gift I was given to help others heal. We discussed my old office from decades ago, and reminisced on when I was a child helping others in a grocery store while my parents were trying to shop for food. One of my favorite parts of this interview is us talking about when I would disappear into the woods for long durations, foraging for wild food that Spirit would direct me to. I do hope you enjoy this special talk we had the other day, and many blessings. In this episode… Learn what AW's dad drinks every day, all day long. Find out what happened to AW when he was in the woods foraging for wild foods as a child. Discover how AW's dad can grow mulberry trees by the hundreds. See how AW's father would save turtles when he was younger. Find out what AW's dad said about the Medical Medium's office from decades ago, and what was in his office. Learn about the Medical Medium's childhood and listen to his dad's experience when AW would walk up to adults while his mom and dad were shopping for food. Discover what happened when AW called his father about a surprise in their little pond. All this and more, tune in and don't miss out on this important episode. You can revisit this episode anytime you need it. For more information visit www.medicalmedium.com

Karolina har tagit en diskret ensam-AW på tåget och skådespelat inför personalen i bistron. Livepodden börjar närma sig!! Och tjejerna har lite olika sätt att förbereda sig på. Sofia har beställt cigaretter från England och Karolina blir orolig för PFAS. Och är det okej att dricka en liiten mun bubbel innan show? Sofia tipsar också om Gift vid första ögonkastet - Australien.KOM PÅ LIVEPODDEN OCH SE KAROLINA RÖKA EPUFFER:https://tickets.gso.se/sv/buyingflow/tickets/28133/115823/Tänk att ni finns!

On Episode 333 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and AW contributors Josh Parham and Dan Bayer out on the wily, windy moors to discuss Emerald Fennell's third feature, "Wuthering Heights," starring Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Alison Oliver, Shazad Latif, and Hong Chau. The adaptation of Emily Brontë's groundbreaking 1847 Gothic novel has already caused quite the stir, but is this an adaptation that they cannot live without or one that drives them mad? The team discusses Fennell's vision, their favorite performances, the changes made from book to screen, the movie's eroticism, and more. Then, the gang previews the 79th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) taking place next Saturday, February 22. Will it be one award after another for our nomination leader, One Battle After Another? How will the Brits respond to Chloé Zhao's spin on Shakespeare? We break it all down.     You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page. This podcast is 1h55m. We will be back next week with a recap of the BAFTA winners. Till then, let's get into it. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 332 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer, Jay Ledbetter, and Josh Parham to go back 25 years and take a look at the 74th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2001. On this retrospective, the AW team starts the year off with a look back at a solid year of film in 2001, that brought together some of the most memorable films of the last 25 years. But the winner for Best Picture is not one held in high regard, as A Beautiful Mind took home the top prize, a make-up win for director Ron Howard after losing for Apollo 13. While the film hasn't aged well as a winner, and even as a film, the year has with spectacular films that are mentioned throughout the show like In the Mood for Love, Mulholland Drive, Gosford Park, Memento, Ghost World, The Royal Tenenbaums, In the Bedroom, Hedwig and the Angry Itch, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and more.  In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 2001, briefly discuss talk about A Beautiful Mind as a Best Picture winner, and how that speaks to the legacy of their nominates and or wins, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren't normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy. You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page. This podcast runs 2h06m. We will be back in next week for a review of the latest film from director Emerald Fennell, Wuthering Heights. Till then, let's get into it. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

The Deep Theology of Sexual Unity (With Some Fun!): Interview with Randy and Rozanne Frazee You're not just trying to survive another week. You're not just trying to get the kids fed, keep the peace, and hold your marriage together with duct tape and prayers. You're living inside a bigger story—whether you realize it or not. When you start seeing your marriage through God's storyline instead of just your stress and circumstances, something shifts. Not overnight. Not magically. But deeply. Steadily. For real. And that's exactly what Randy and Rozanne Frazee unpacked in today's episode. In this episode, you're getting a conversation that is both wildly profound and surprisingly fun. Because yes—you can talk about theology, the Trinity, the image of God, and sexual unity… and still laugh. And that's exactly what happens when you sit down with Randy and Rozanne. They've spent decades helping believers understand the Bible not as scattered verses—but as one cohesive story of God's love and pursuit. Randy has been a pastor for 38 years and had a personal mentoring relationship with Dallas Willard—so much so that Dallas asked him to rewrite Renovation of the Heart for students. And Randy and Rozanne are not just brilliant—they're the real deal. High school sweethearts, married 44 years (going on 45), four kids, and now five grandbabies in the mix. What makes this episode so special is this: They don't just talk about the Bible. They talk about how the Bible transforms marriage, unity, and yes… even your sex life. You Keep Reading the Bible Like a Reference Book… But It's Actually a Love Story You've probably been taught to read the Bible in pieces: a Proverb for wisdom a Psalm for comfort a verse for anxiety a passage when your marriage is hard And those are good. But if you only ever grab the Bible for a quick fix, you can miss the whole point: it's one grand love story—from Genesis to Revelation—about the lengths God will go to get you back. When you start seeing Scripture as one unfolding narrative, you stop reading it like a scattered collection of morals… and you start hearing it like a steady message: God is pursuing you. God is restoring you. God is rewriting what sin tried to destroy. And yes—this includes your marriage. You're Not Just Living a Life… You're Living a Story You live in what Randy and Rozanne call the "lower story": Lunches. Laundry. Bills. Hormones. Conversations you're avoiding. Tension you can't name. The ache of feeling alone, even though you're married. And it's real. But there's also an "upper story" happening at the same time: God's bigger plan, God's spiritual reality, God's redemptive work that you can't always see while you're in the middle of the mess. You see it clearly in Scripture: Job experiences devastating loss in his lower story… while an unseen spiritual battle is happening in the upper story. Joseph is betrayed, enslaved, and forgotten in his lower story… but God is positioning him in the upper story to preserve His people. That's why Joseph can say, "What you meant for evil, God meant for good." It doesn't mean the lower story didn't hurt. It means the pain wasn't the point. So ask yourself: What if the hard thing you're living through right now isn't proof you're failing… but proof God is working? God Created Marriage to Reflect His Image—and Sin Has Been Trying to Ruin It Ever Since You've heard the phrase "two become one." But you might not realize how sacred that actually is. Marriage wasn't just meant to be companionship. It was meant to reflect something divine: unity, love, covenant, oneness. In the beginning, God says, "It is not good for man to be alone." And you can read that like, "Aw, God wanted Adam to have a friend." But it's deeper. God Himself is relationship—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not isolated. Not independent. Not self-focused. Unity. So when God creates marriage, He's not just giving Adam a partner. He's giving humanity a living picture of His image. And that's why the enemy attacks it so relentlessly. Because if your marriage reflects God's love, covenant, and unity… it becomes a threat to darkness. You Can Know Scripture… and Still Not Live It One of the most powerful themes Randy and Rozanne address is something you've probably seen too: You've met people who know the Bible. They can quote verses. They can correct theology. They can debate Greek words. And yet… They aren't gentle. They aren't kind. They aren't tender. And you're left thinking: How can someone love God's Word and still not look like Jesus? Randy explains this through something he learned from Dallas. He describes the difference between: believing something is the "right answer" versus believing it as a "way of life" And this matters for your marriage, because it's the difference between: knowing what love is supposed to look like and actually becoming the kind of person who naturally loves well The "12-Inch Journey" That Changes Everything Randy talks about the journey from: Head knowledge → Heart transformation And he explains it in a way that lands: When Jesus says, "Turn the other cheek," He isn't just commanding you to grit your teeth and try harder. He's describing what becomes natural when your heart has been reshaped. And that is what every marriage needs. Not just more information, but more transformation. Sexual Unity Isn't Just Physical… It's Theological If you've ever wondered why marriage feels so sacred—and so fiercely contested—this is why. Lean in, because this is where things get breathtaking. Randy explains the concept that: God is three Persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) who share one Being And marriage—two becoming one—is meant to reflect that kind of unity. Not perfectly. Not as God. But as an earthly image. And Rozanne brings it back to the practical: Sexual intimacy bonds you in a way nothing else does. It is not "just physical." It is a sacred expression of covenant oneness. And when you treat your spouse like an "other" instead of part of your own being… You start wounding your marriage from the inside. You Don't Need Your Husband to Be a Seminary Graduate to Be a Spiritual Leader If you're a wife reading this, you may be carrying a burden you were never meant to carry: "I'm the one who prays." "I'm the one who gets us to church." "I'm the one trying to get him to lead." "I'm exhausted." And if you're a husband reading this, you may feel stuck too: "She knows more than I do." "I don't even know where to start." "I work hard, but I still feel like I'm failing." Here's something freeing: Spiritual leadership isn't about being the most impressive. It's about being the one who initiates. The leader is the starter. The one who creates space where spiritual thriving can happen. That might look like: "Hey, let's read something together for 15 minutes." "Let's pray before dinner." "We're going to church as a family." "I want God in our home, and I want to learn." That's leadership. And yes—your wife might know more Scripture right now. But what she's been longing for isn't your performance. It's your presence. Your courage. Your initiation. If You Want Him to Rise, Stop Coaching His Weakness and Start Naming His Strength This is where it gets tender. Because if you're honest, you've probably tried to motivate him with disappointment. You've tried to push him into leadership by pointing out everything he's not doing. You want to feel safe. You want to feel supported. You want to be led. But here's something you need to understand about men: Men move toward competency, not incompetency. If you highlight his failure, he retreats. If you honor his effort, he leans in. So if he makes even a small move—don't critique it. Celebrate it. If he picks up a Bible, don't correct how he reads it. If he prays, don't edit his words afterward. If he initiates church, don't mention that it's "about time." Instead, try this: "Thank you. That meant a lot." "I feel cared for when you do that." "I'm grateful you're leading our family." This isn't fake flattery. It's faith. It's calling out the man you want him to become—while giving him a reason to keep going. Your Intimacy Will Not Heal If You Keep Avoiding the Scariest Conversations One of the enemy's favorite strategies is fear—specifically fear that keeps you from talking honestly about intimacy. You live with this person. You share a bed. You share a home. So why does it feel terrifying to say what you want? What you need? What hurts? What you're longing for? Because intimacy is powerful. And the enemy knows if he can keep you silent, he can keep you disconnected. But if you can learn to speak with tenderness, honesty, and safety… You can rebuild something beautiful. And here's the truth: Sex isn't dirty. It's sacred. It's a physical expression of covenant oneness. And when joy rises in your relationship, romance often rises too. Not because you force it. But because safety creates desire. And desire grows where connection is nurtured. You Don't Need Two Hours a Day. You Need One Small Step of Obedience. You might be thinking, "Okay… but I'm tired. Our life is chaotic. Where do we even begin?" Begin small. Set a timer. Fifteen minutes. That's it. Obedience comes before blessing. And when you take one small step toward God together, it does something inside you. It starts moving belief from your head to your heart—where real transformation happens. Little by little, fruit grows. And fruit isn't for the tree. Fruit is for the person who tastes it. Which means: your spiritual growth is meant to bless your spouse. Your Next Step: See the Bible as One Story (Not a Scavenger Hunt) Randy and Rozanne recently released a book called Encountering God's Love: From Genesis to Revelation. And their heart behind it is simple: Most believers don't struggle because they don't love God. They struggle because they don't understand the storyline. They know verses… but not the narrative. So this book is designed as 52 weeks of bite-sized pieces, walking you through Scripture chronologically, helping you see: God's story your story and how your marriage fits into redemption And yes—this is something you can do as a couple. Even if you're exhausted. Even if you're busy. Even if you feel behind. Final Encouragement Your marriage isn't just a relationship you manage. It's a covenant you steward. And if you've been living like the lower story is all there is—God is inviting you to look up. He's writing something. Even here. Even now. Even in your marriage. So take a breath. Ask Him what He's doing in the upper story. And take the next step. Because your story isn't over. And God is very, very good at bringing dead things back to life. Including you. Including your spouse. Including your intimacy. Including your marriage. Blessings, The Delight Your Marriage Team PS - Want to check out Encountering God's Love for yourself? Click here to visit Randy's website and learn more. PPS - Are you ready to take the next step in transforming your marriage? We would love to chat with you. Book a free Clarity Call to speak with one of our Clarity Advisors and see if we are the right fit for you. PPPS - Here is a quote from a recent graduate: "The atmosphere in our home was very toxic with lots of hollering and hurtful things said. There was no fun or joy. We were just existing.  This affected my thought life as I was very disappointed in myself and felt like I was a hypocrite as I am a leader in our local church and lots of people look up to me.  I felt like God was even disappointed in me.  I felt shame for not being a good wife...[Now,] I have become more aware of my actions and reactions to my husband, and realized I have the power, with God's help, to make our marriage good and to love my husband well.  The tools I have learned in DW will forever be in and on my mind as I focus on becoming the wife God desires me to be.  I have learned that sex is good and holy and also meant to be pleasurable for me!  The atmosphere in our home is changing and playfulness is back!"

Transkrypcja:Transkrypcję tego odcinka znajdziesz tutaj. Aktualizacja i uporządkowanie mojej kolekcji pasków do Apple Watch, przemyślenia z użytkowania modelu Ultra 3. generacji, nowy AirTag oraz wyniki finansowe Apple. #BoCzemuNie ? POBIERZ ODCINEK Partnerzy technologiczni: > iDream – Apple Premium Reseller, Apple Premium Service Provider > Pancernik – Akcesoria do telefonów i nie tylko Współprace płatne. Linki: Zadaj pytanie w odcinku lub zgłoś temat! Newsletter podcastu Myślisz o podcaście? Sprawdź warsztat „Poznaj podcasting” #317 – Daniel Olszewski, obniżki cen i moje paski do Apple Watch #414 – Wynajmij czy kup? #419 – Apple Watch Ultra, iPhone Air i Q&A Aplikacja Bandbreite – do spisywania kolekcji pasków Wydanie newslettera „Złota klatka usług Apple” Nowy pasek Unity Kolekcja moich pasków – galeria Pasek Spigen Athlex Air do Apple Watch Xcode 26.3 dodaje obsługę agentów AI Bądźmy w kontakcie: X | Facebook | Instagram | kontakt@boczemunie.pl > Prowadzący: Krzysztof Kołacz Mam prośbę: Oceń ten podcast w Apple Podcasts oraz na Spotify i YouTube. Zostaw tyle gwiazdek, ile uznasz. Twoja opinia ma znaczenie! Zainteresowany współpracą? Pogadajmy. > Liczby znajdziesz na boczemunie.pl/partner/ Słuchaj, gdzie chcesz: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast FM i przez RSS Dobrego odbioru! Bo czemu nie? Rozdziały: (00:00:00) PARTNERZY (00:00:33) INTRO (00:01:07) Wstępniak (00:02:58) AirTag 2 (00:05:07) Xcode 26.3 z AI (00:05:46) Moja kolekcja pasków do AW (00:22:06) Jeszcze o AW Ultra 3. generacji (00:30:00) AW Series 11. po kwartale (00:34:56) Wyniki finansowe Apple za Q1 2026 (00:50:27) Słowem końca

Aw heck yeah, nerds! Welcome to episode 215 of Up Yours with More, the official podcast of Up Up and Away Comics in Cincinnati, OH!This episode, MODOK and BC preview what comics, graphic novels, manga, and collectibles will be on sale in the month of April (and beyond)!Find Us Online at the Following Outlets Website :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠upupandawaycomics.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@upupawaycomics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook ::  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/upupawa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠y and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/uuablueash⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/upupawaycomics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/upupawaycomics⁠⁠

AW Cardinal and Jasmine Colette continue to create very new and very different music. The last album was recorded over several days in New Orleans. The new album,  Get Your Feathers Ready, was a meeting of Coast Salish and Treaty 6 in Maskwacis, Alberta. One day of rehearsal with AW, Jas, and the Northern Cree Drummers and Singers. Jas and AW had discovered that early 1920s blues from the deep south and Northern Cree traditional pow wow had a commonality. They each brought their songs and met in the middle. It feels like the start of a historic journey. Two legendary music communities, making new music in 2026. Steve Wood, the much-admired leader and drum keeper of Northern Cree and his son Joel complete the music circle.

durée : 00:58:54 - Le Cours de l'histoire - par : Xavier Mauduit - Par le récit et l'autofiction, l'écrivain Tash Aw raconte une histoire de l'Asie du Sud-Est traversée par les migrations, où la pluralité des langues et des dialectes côtoie les silences familiaux. Dans "Le Sud", il dresse une fresque sociale de la Malaisie à laquelle se mêle le roman d'initiation. - réalisation : Maïwenn Guiziou, Laurence Millet, Jeanne Delecroix, Jeanne Coppey, Raphaël Laloum, Chloé Rouillon, Solène Roy, Luce Mourand - invités : Tash Aw Auteur malaisien de langue anglaise Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France

durée : 00:58:54 - Le Cours de l'histoire - par : Xavier Mauduit, Maïwenn Guiziou - Par le récit et l'autofiction, l'écrivain Tash Aw raconte une histoire de l'Asie du Sud-Est traversée par les migrations, où la pluralité des langues et des dialectes côtoie les silences familiaux. Dans "Le Sud", il dresse une fresque sociale de la Malaisie à laquelle se mêle le roman d'initiation. - réalisation : Laurence Millet - invités : Tash Aw Auteur malaisien de langue anglaise

Standards affect all of us every day, everywhere. By defining good practice, they help people and organizations do things better. For all sorts of things, from nanotechnology to Net Zero guidance.And these standards are made by standards-makers – tens of thousands of people from around the world - who get together to agree good practice to the way things are made and done. All helping to make life easier, safer, and more enjoyable.In this episode, Matthew speaks with Richard Leathers, Global Quality Lead at Campden BRI, with more than 40 years' experience in food safety. Richard is an active standards-maker through AW/90, the BSI committee for food industry quality standards, contributing to key standards including ISO 22000 (food safety management systems) and ISO 22002 (prerequisite programmes).Richard describes his motivations for getting and staying involved in standards, the impact standards-making has had on his career, and his advice to anyone considering getting involved in standards.Series | Why I am a standards-makerFind out more about the issues raised in this episodeISO 22000 – food safety management systemsISO 22002 – food safety series – The Magnificent SevenGet involved with standardsGet in touch with The Standards Showeducation@bsigroup.comsend a voice messageFind and follow on social mediaX @StandardsShowInstagram @thestandardsshowLinkedIn | The Standards Show

India is entering an era where power no longer sits only in governments, elections, or visible institutions — it operates through deep systems, narratives, capital flows, intelligence networks, and corporate influence. In this wide-ranging and uncompromising conversation, former R&AW chief Vikram Sood ji explains how the deep state actually functions in the modern world — beyond conspiracy theories and political slogans. From intelligence agencies and NGOs to Big Tech, asset managers, media, and covert influence operations, Vikram Sood ji lays out how power sustains itself regardless of which government is in office. We discuss why wars no longer need victories, how narratives are manufactured to justify conflict, and why wealth — not ideology — has become the real source of global control. The conversation spans Pakistan, China, the United States, Europe, Ukraine, pandemics, Hollywood, and the growing merger between intelligence, capital, and technology — with a sharp focus on what all of this means for India's sovereignty and strategic future. This episode isn't about headlines. It's about the architecture beneath them. ⸻ ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 – 01:10 • Opening Hook: Power Beyond Governments 01:10 – 04:50 • Why Peace Is Often an Illusion in Geopolitics 04:50 – 09:10 • Sub-Nuclear Conflict & Why Wars Don't Need Victory 09:10 – 13:30 • Intelligence, Narratives & How Wars Are Justified 13:30 – 17:30 • Wealth Is Power: Who Really Controls the World 17:30 – 21:45 • The Military-Industrial Cycle & Perpetual Conflict 21:45 – 26:10 • NGOs, Aid Agencies & Influence Without Guns 26:10 – 31:20 • Big Tech, Think Tanks & the Revolving Door of Power 31:20 – 36:40 • Hollywood, Media & Manufacturing Consent 36:40 – 42:30 • Europe, Russia & the Politics of Fear 42:30 – 48:00 • Ukraine, Proxies & the Business of War 48:00 – 53:20 • Pandemics, Power & Too Many Coincidences 53:20 – 58:40 • Population Control, Capital & Global Elites 58:40 – 01:04:10 • What the “Deep State” Really Means 01:04:10 – 01:10:30 • How Nations Defend Themselves Today 01:10:30 – 01:22:18 • India's Choices in a World of Hidden Power ⸻

INTERVIEW: Andrew Wilson aka AW on new album 'THE NERVE' by Zac Hoffman on Radio One 91FM Dunedin

Before we bring in 2026, we want to remind you of how great 2025 was! Aw, remember when Poppy was just a twinkle in Dad's eye? 2025 Raunchy Ranch Calendar IS OUT NOW! https://budgysmuggler.com.au/products/two-doting-dads-raunchy-ranch Buy our book, which is now available in-store! https://www.penguin.com.au/books/two-doting-dads-9781761346552 If you need a shoulder to cry on: Two Doting Dads Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/639833491568735/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTwoDotingDads Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twodotingdads/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@twodotingdads See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

durée : 00:28:19 - Les Midis de Culture - par : Marie Labory - Avec son roman "Le Sud", Tash Aw nous plonge le temps d'un été dans la Malaisie de la fin des années 1990, où se mêlent les fractures sociales et géographiques, le désir et le poids de l'héritage familial. - réalisation : Laurence Malonda - invités : Tash Aw Auteur malaisien de langue anglaise

If ever any one ever had an unfair life – it was Joseph back there in the old testament. One step forward, two steps back seems to be the story of so much of what he went through … sound familiar? Yet in the end, he came out in front. At the end of the day, what others meant for harm in his life, God meant for good in the lives of so many others. Hmm.   It's Not Fair One of my favourite sayings when I was a young lad growing up, was "It's not fair!" I just hated things that weren't fair. When my parents made a decision between my sister and me – whether I had to clean up or she had to clean up and the lot fell to me, I'd say, "It's not fair!" I remember a soccer game in the park – with one of my teachers, Mr Moore, who I really liked and he made a bad decision against my team – "It's not fair!" Sometimes I was right, it wasn't fair and other times it was just the way I saw things – my perception, maybe from my selfish position but one of the things I really, really hate in life is when it's not fair. Although, well, I'd have to qualify that – I'm a human being after all – I hate "not fair" when I am on the losing end of an unfair transaction. You know, funny, but I don't mind so much when I am on the winning side. That's pretty natural. "Not fair" only really upsets us when we lose. We are continuing our series today called "Defining Moments" Things that we do or things that happen to us in life that seem to change the course of our lives and last week we looked at Abraham – the defining moment for him was when he responded to God's love and just believed the unbelievable promises of God. He just stepped out into the impossible promises of God and because of his simple child-like faith, imperfect as it was. I mean God overlooked, indeed, God compensated for all of Abraham's blunders. Today we are going to take a look at the life of a man called Joseph because if anyone ever lived a life where he was unfairly treated, it was definitely Joseph. So many things that happened to him were just so incredibly unfair. Really – we will look at that in a moment – and yet there was some real defining moments along the way for Joseph. It's really important to look at this story! We are going to discover something about ourselves and about God. It is so easy to look at defining moments from a human perspective but we need to look at them "top down"; from God's perspective as well. I know we are going to be blessed as we go in search of some of the defining moments in Joseph's life. Now who was Joseph? Last week we talked about Abraham who was the father of the whole nation of Israel and he had this son he called Isaac. Isaac had a son called Jacob and Jacob was actually renamed by God and called Israel. And Jacob or Israel had twelve sons, one of whom was Joseph. Now he was the youngest at the time this story begins and he was pretty much dad's favourite. If you have got a Bible, grab it – open it up with me at Genesis chapter 37, verse 2: Joseph being seventeen years old was shepherding the flock with his brothers. He was a helper to the son's of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives and Joseph brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel who was Jacob, loved Joseph more than any of his other children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than all of the other brothers, they hated him and they couldn't speak peaceably to him. Once, Joseph had this dream and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said, "Listen to this dream that I just dreamed: there we were binding sheaves in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves, they gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf." His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed going to reign over us? Are you indeed going to have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words. And he had another dream and he told this to his brothers as well saying, "Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me." Well, you can question Joseph's maturity at sharing those dreams with his brothers. As we can imagine, they were none too impressed – I wouldn't be, you wouldn't be. "Little brat – dad's favourite – this kid needs to be taught a lesson." So the brothers plotted against him – first they wanted to kill him – "Well", they thought, "that's a bit over the top", so instead they threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery. Have a look – Genesis chapter 37, beginning at verse 23: So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe; the long robe with the sleeves that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it, then they sat down to eat and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels, carrying gum, balm and resin and they were on their way, carrying it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for his is our brother; our own flesh. So the other brothers agreed. When some of the Medianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him up out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver and they took Joseph to Egypt." And these other brothers went back and told their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. How do you think Joseph felt? It's not fair! I mean, his own brothers! Okay, maybe he did rub them the wrong way. Okay maybe he was dad's favourite but his own brothers? I mean that is so unfair. Isn't that so often the way – our own brothers and sisters; those who are closest to us; those who should love us the most; those whom we trusted – they are the ones who treat us unfairly? It's one thing to be treated unfairly by an associate or even an enemy; you almost expect that but by his own brothers – sold into slavery; into a completely uncertain future; completely lost his freedom – come on, let's walk a mile in Joseph's shoes right now. He is a slave in that caravan, being taken down into a foreign land; into Egypt to be sold into goodness knows what; no future….. I don't know about you, but I would have been tempted to react pretty badly to that. I would have been tempted to be bitter and to swear an oath that I would never, ever forgive my brothers. It would have been so easy for young Joseph to have bitterness and un-forgiveness in his heart – don't you think? Let's bring this right close to home. People who have treated us badly and us unfairly, how have you and I responded? We seem to take their failure, their bad behaviour as our license to behave badly, don't we? How many of us have got un-forgiveness in our hearts? How many of us are carrying a knot of anger in our hearts that's robbing us of life? We will look at Joseph's life in a moment and we are going to look at the defining moment in his life, when life was just so unfair.   From Bad to Worse Sometimes it seems that life is one step forward and two steps back. I mean, young Joseph was dad's favourite; he had great dreams of success for the future, then he is sold into slavery and he is down in a slave market in Egypt, purchased by a man called Potiphar. Have a look at it: Genesis chapter 39, beginning at verse 1: Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man. He was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So Joseph found favour in his sight and attended him. Potiphar made Joseph the overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he had made him overseer in his house and all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge and with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate. Now Joseph was handsome and good looking. WOW, things are on the up and up again. What could have been terrible instead ... God puts Joseph in a place where He can use his gifts and his abilities and God blesses Joseph. The word "Joseph" means to be "a multiplier" and that is literally what Joseph's gift was. We see that throughout the story of his life – it is one of the things that Joseph was really good at – being a multiplier. Now you might be thinking, "Well, Berni, now things are going well for young Joe. All that temptation to behave badly, that's all gone away", but you would be wrong! Because one of the things that we love to do is to get some recompense out of life. When we have gone through bad times we can still have bitterness in our hearts. It would have been easy for Joseph to have bitterness in his heart and then the good times start to flow and we decide "Well, it's time to make hay while the sun shines. I am going to get something out of life; I'm going to get some recompense. I'll show those rotten brothers – I'll take whatever I can and have whatever I can have. I'll show them!" Ever experienced that in your heart? Sure you have, so have I and that can be the time of such a great fall. Sure enough, Joseph had exactly that opportunity now that he was on easy street. We are going to have a look at this because I think this is the defining moment of Joseph's walk. Genesis chapter 39, beginning at verse 7: And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Sleep with me", but he refused and he said to his master's wife, "Look, with me here my master has no concern about anything in his house. He has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in his house that I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to sleep with her or to be with her. One day however, when he went into the house to do his work and while no one else was in the house, she caught hold of his garment saying, "Sleep with me," but he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside. And when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to the members of her household and said to them, "See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us. He came in to sleep with me and I cried out with a loud voice and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside." Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home and she told him the same story, saying, "That Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us, came in to insult me but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside." When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, "This was the way your servant treated me," he was enraged. And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the King's prisoners were confined and there he remained in prison. Do you see what happened here? See, I think that this is one of the defining moments in Joseph's life. Bad things happen and he had a chance to make amends; he had a chance to take whatever he wanted, in particular, to taste this forbidden fruit. Potiphar's wife kept tempting him and he could easily have said, "Yea, go on, Joseph. Come on, you deserve this! After all, look at what you have been through. Come on!" You know what I am saying! And in the defining moment Joseph said "No!' He refused and said to his master's wife, "Look, with me here my master has no concern about anything in the house. He has put everything in my hand. How then could I do this great wickedness?" Joseph said, "No" over and over again. It's a powerful thing to say, "No" to temptation when life has been unfair - to say, "No" to temptation when we can come up with every reason and every excuse to say, "Yes, come on!" And to make matters worse, Joseph's right doing is rewarded by jail – that is sooo unfair! Do you get it? Right, must be time to behave badly again! But no matter how badly people treated him or life treated him, Joseph remained true to himself. And here is the "top down" view; here is God's view of this defining moment – God saw that and honoured it. Let's pick it right up in Genesis 39, beginning at verse 21: But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love. He gave him favour in the sight of the chief jailer. And the chief jailer committed to Joseph's care all the prisoners who were in his prison and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was is Joseph's care because the Lord was with him and whatever he did, the Lord made it to prosper." Do you get it? Why do you think that these defining moments are hidden? We think that these temptation decisions are hidden from the world and when we have had a tough day or when people have been horrible to us, we are just so tempted to make amends by doing something wrong. The defining moment in Joseph's walk is that Joseph said, "No" to that temptation. Now I want you to hold that thought because we are going to have a look at what all this means to you and me, next.   Do Not Grow Weary There is quite a bit more to Joseph's story. He spent another two years in jail…..two years! I can't begin to imagine that – it was so unfair. And finally, because he had a gift of interpreting dreams, he found favour with Pharaoh. And one thing led to another and Pharaoh made Joseph Prime Minister over all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself; over the whole nation. And then famine hits the land and because of Joseph's wisdom and insight from God, he, as the leader, caused Egypt to store up enough grain for the coming famine and so people from all around Egypt came for food – in fact, all round the known world. And all of a sudden Joseph's brothers came down from the land of Canaan, down to find some food in Egypt as well and Joseph recognised them, although they didn't recognise him. Aw, he struggled with that! What a temptation! Finally, there was Joseph, just like in those dreams he had when he was a young man. There was his brothers bowing down to him; now he had them; now he could take revenge. You can read the whole story in Genesis chapters 40 to 44. It is really worth a read. What would Joseph do? Well, let's take a look – Genesis chapter 45, beginning at verse 1: Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him and he cried out, "Send everyone away from me!" So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?" But his brothers couldn't answer him and they were so dismayed that they were in his presence. (Wouldn't you be?) Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come closer to me," and they came closer and he said, "I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt and now don't be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in this land for two years and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors, so it was not you who sent me here, but God; He has made me a father to Pharaoh and the lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt." What an amazing response? Grace, forgiveness and the knowledge that all along, through all the unfair things that happened to him; through all the bad things that happened to him, that what had happened to Joseph was part of God's plan. Talk about defining moment! That defining moment happened for Joseph when he was sold as a slave, wrongly accused, thrown into jail, left there to rot and the temptation in all of that was for Joseph to shout, "It's not fair!" That's the temptation; to turn to sin; to wallow in filth that we have been thrown in and I have no doubt that Joseph struggled with that. He was human after all but what defined him was not the unfairness that the world threw at him, but the decision just to get up every morning, to be Joseph, to honour God. The Apostle Paul, centuries on, said it this way: Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for you will reap whatever you sow - if you sow to your flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh, but if you sow to the spirit you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right for we will reap at harvest time if we do not give up. Unfair things happen to us every day and sometimes what we want is, "God, just give me an easy ride." In fact there is a great poem here that I want to share with you. It's a poem by Adrian Plass – have a listen – it goes like this: When I became a Christian I said, "Lord now fill me in. Tell me what I will suffer in this world of shame and sin." Then God said, "Your body may be killed and left to rot and stink, do you still want to follow Me?"I said, "Amen, I think! I think, amen! Amen, I think, I think I say "amen"! Look, I am not completely sure. Can we run through that again? You said my body could be killed and left to rot and stink, that sounds terrific, Lord. I'll say "amen" I think!" "But Lord, look there must be other ways to follow You," I said, "I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed." "Well, yes", He said, "You could put up with sneers and scorn and spit, do you still want to follow Me?" I said, "Amen, a bit." "A bit "amen" – "amen", a bit. A bit, I say 'amen'. Look, I'm not entirely sure. Can we just run through that again?" You said I could put up with sneers and scorn and spit – oh, yea, I've made up my mind – I say "amen" a bit." Well, I sat back and thought a while. I tried a different ploy – I said, "Now Lord, the Good Book says that Christians live in joy." "That's true," He said, "You are going to need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow, so do you still want to follow Me?" I said, "Amen – tomorrow!" "Tomorrow, Lord, I say it – that's when I'll say "amen". You see, I've got to get it clear. Let's just run through that again." You said, I'll need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow – well, yea, I think I've got it straight. I'll say "amen" tomorrow. He said, "Look, I'm not asking you to spend an hour with Me, a quick salvation sandwich or a cup of sanctity. The cost is "you" not half of you but every single bit. Now tell Me, will you follow Me? I said, "Amen! No, I quit! "I'm sorry Lord, I'd like to follow You but I don't think religion is a very manly thing to do." So He said, "Forget about religion then and you think about My Son and you tell me if you are man enough to do what He has done. Are you man enough to see the need? Are you man enough to go? Are you man enough to care for those who no one wants to know? Are you man enough to say the things that people hate to hear and battle through Gethsemane and loneliness and fear? And listen, are you man enough to stand it at the end, the moment of betrayal by the kisses of your friend? Are you man enough to hold your tongue? Are you man enough to cry? And when the nails break your body, are you man enough to die? Are you man enough to take the pain and wear it like a crown? Are you man enough to love this world and turn it upside down? Are you man enough to follow Me – I'll ask you once again?" I said, "Oh Lord, I am so frightened but I also said, "amen". Amen, amen, amen! I said, "Lord, I am so frightened but I also said, 'amen'." You know, as I look back on the story of the life of Joseph, my heart breaks for that man. He went through so much – the betrayal of his brothers; sold into slavery; thrown into jail for doing the right thing – left there to rot; he went through so much. And it would have been so easy and tempting just to act badly; just to respond; just to have anger; just to lash out. Come on, that's what we want to do! But do not be deceived. Because God is not mocked for whatever we reap, we sow! If we sow in the flesh, we will reap corruption in the flesh, but if we sow in the Spirit we will reap eternal life from the Spirit." Here's the punch line. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right for we will reap at harvest time if we do not give up. So whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all and especially for the family of faith.

Häng med oss på en späckad och galen midsommar där Frändfors är påväg med full fart in i väggen och klämmer in solarium, barnlämning, manikyr OCH pedikyr, hårfix, storstädning, TV-inspelning, AW och Swedish House Mafia-konsert på en och samma dag. Samtidigt trycker Lyskova en planka på Blecktornskällaren och känner sig som en viking. * Det här är ett gammalt avsnitt från Podme. För att få tillgång till Podmes alla premiumpoddar samt fler avsnitt från den här podden, helt utan reklam, prova Podme Premium kostnadsfritt. *

...in which we embark on a memorial walk to Innominate Tarn on Haystacks to ask the question: How did fell-walker Alfred Wainwright impact on so many lives? Closing a year of AW anniversaries – including the 70th anniversary of the publication of his first Pictorial Guide – we set out from Honister in the company of a string of guests whose lives have been touched or changed by the Blackburn-born rambler, artist and guidebook writer. Chatting as we wander – through dense clag and worsening rain – we meet walker Richard Jennings, who completed his 214 at 2:14 on the 21st of the fourth, 2014 (definitely not an obsessive!), and who credits AW with his move to the Lakes. We catch up with geographer-legend Chris Jesty – the only person authorised by AW to update his Guides – who chats about camping on Scafell Pike for six months "waiting for clear weather", about the 10-year three-month update odyssey, and why the Howgills and Outlying Fells are his backwater favourites. Arriving at Dubs Hut, we are joined by brothers Mike and Paul Duff from Kendal. who accompanied dad Percy and Betty Wainwright onto Haystacks in March '91 to scatter AW's ashes, and who recall their old family friend – the "foreigner from Blackburn" who sunk roots deep in Westmorland. Anna Nolan from Keswick is our next guest – a bagging record-breaker currently on her 11th round of the Wainwrights by bus, with a cumulative tally of 6,000+ fells and counting. Sculptor Clive Barnard recounts his experience of working with AW on the bronze bust now resident in Kendal Museum, remembering the 'big, amiable bear' with a commercially savvy mind who made "awful" cups of tea. In thickening clag, we meet Chris and Lorena Linke from Florida, who fell in love with long distance walking, after completing AW's Coast to Coast Walk, and discuss the under-acknowledged community created by the C2C, life lessons taught by through-walks, and the unique storytelling artistry of the Guides. Arriving at our pilgrimage end-point of Innominate Tarn, we pay our respects to former Westmorland Gazette print manager Andrew Nicholl – one of the unsung heroes of the AW story, who did so much for the ex-fellwanderer, his book sales and his profile. Beside the hallowed 'gravely shore' of the misty tarn, Chris and his wife Priscilla reflect on Andrew's legacy, and the poignant 'guard of honour' final trip he made onto Haystacks to say farewell to his old friend. Happy New Year to all, from Mark and Dave! Chris's extensive archive of articles about AW's books and memorabilia can be found at alfredwainwright.co.uk/ Anna Nolan's books about fell-bagging and walking in the Lakes can be found at bookguild.co.uk/our-authors/anna-nolan Richard Jennings has created The Lakeland Way – a 144 mile walk through the valleys and mountain passes of the Lake District. See here for more. Inspired by the Coast to Coast Walk, Chris and Lorena Linke made a film about the Herriot Way. The story behind it can be found at alfredwainwright.co.uk/the-herriot-way/ The film of Andrew Nichol's journey to Innominate Tarn can be found at youtube.com/watch?v=UpLVp20qIJE&t=330s Chris Jesty's beautiful summit panoramas can be enjoyed here: viewfinderpanoramas.org/panoramas/ChrisJestyPanoramas.html With many thanks to Chris for making the day and recording happen. And with thanks to the team at Honister for driving some of our guests to Dubs Hut, and for Tom McNally for arranging the transport.

On episode 323 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, TV Editor Tyler Doster, Associate TV Editor Karen Peterson, as well as AwardsWatch contributors Mark Johnson and Dan Bayer to discuss their favorite films of 2025 in part one of the AW end of the year show. As we are about to begin an exciting new year of cinema in 2026, we say goodbye to 2025 with our AW team's favorite films of the year. Instead of having everyone on one call together, the show is split up into two episodes this year, each covering a selection of the nine films the team loved the most. On this first installment of the end of the year show, the movies discussed were Sinners (Mark), Sorry, Baby (Tyler), The Secret Agent (Karen), Resurrection (Dan), and Hamnet (Erik). In each segment, each person talks about why they selected the film as their favorite of the year, as well as an in-depth discussion over the film. At the end, the team gave honorable mentions for other films that they loved that included One Battle After Another, Weapons, Sentimental Value, Train Dreams, Pillion, The Naked Gun, The History of Sound, F1, and many more. Please enjoy this wonderful part one episode to wrap up 2025. Thank you all for reading everything on the website as well as listening to the show this past year. You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page. This podcast runs 2h53m. We will be back soon with part two of the best films of 2025, end of the year show. Till then, let's get into it. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), 'I Lied to You' from Sinners, 'Sorry, Baby (Piano)' from Sorry, Baby, 'Transfusão de Sangue' from The Secret Agent, 'Clamor of Time' from Resurrection, 'On the Nature of Daylight' by Max Richter, 'Silver Dagger' by Paul Mescal from The History of Sound (outro).

On episode 324 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, AwardsWatch contributors Jay Ledbetter, Josh Parham, Griffin Schiller, Cody Dericks, and Trace Sauveur to discuss their favorite films of 2025 in part two of the AW end of the year show. As we are about to begin an exciting new year of cinema in 2026, we say goodbye to 2025 with our AW team's favorite films of the year. Instead of having everyone on one call together, the show is split up into two episodes this year, each covering a selection of the nine films the team loved the most. On this second installment of the end of the year show, the movies discussed were The Mastermind (Trace), Weapons (Cody, Griffin), Marty Supreme (Jay), and One Battle After Another (Ryan, Sophia, Josh). In each segment, each person talks about why they selected the film as their favorite of the year, as well as an in-depth discussion over the film. At the end, the team gave honorable mentions for other films that they loved that included Sentimental Value, Train Dreams, It Was Just an Accident, The Testament of Ann Lee, If I Had Legs Id Kick You, Twinless, Black Bag, Die My Love, No Other Choice, Sound of Falling, Hedda, and many more. Please enjoy this wonderful part two episode to wrap up 2025. Thank you all for reading everything on the website as well as listening to the show this past year. Have a Happy New Year and see you in 2026. You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page. This podcast runs 3h34m. We will be back next week to breakdown the winners of the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, and preview the 2026 Golden Globes. Till then, let's get into it. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), 'Leonardo' by Chicago Underground Trio, 'Beware of Darkness' by George Harrison, 'Everyone Wants To Rule The World' by Tears for Fears, 'Dirty Work' by Steely Dan, "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

In this podcast, Kushal talks with Abhijit Iyer-Mitra about a very basic questioni.e should intelligence aencies influence cinema? It is a known fact that has been reported in many books of the role of the American intelligence agency CIA indirectly investing and influencing multiple movies for propaganda and other covert motives. The Pakistani ISI is also known to do that. Should India's R&AW also do that more often? Follow Abhijit: X: @Iyervval #cia #raw #ISI #dhurandhar #movies #dhurandharmoviereview #dhurandharmovie ------------------------------------------------------------ Listen to the podcasts on: SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kushal-mehra-99891819 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1rVcDV3upgVurMVW1wwoBp Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-c%C4%81rv%C4%81ka-podcast/id1445348369 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-carvaka-podcast ------------------------------------------------------------ Support The Cārvāka Podcast: Buy Kushal's Book: https://amzn.in/d/58cY4dU Become a Member on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKPx... Become a Member on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/carvaka UPI: kushalmehra@icici Interac Canada: kushalmehra81@gmail.com To buy The Carvaka Podcast Exclusive Merch please visit: http://kushalmehra.com/shop ------------------------------------------------------------ Follow Kushal: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kushal_mehra?ref_... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KushalMehraO... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecarvakap... Koo: https://www.kooapp.com/profile/kushal... Inquiries: https://kushalmehra.com/ Feedback: kushalmehra81@gmail.com

We're back with a one-off episode to share several exciting pieces of news! First, Lorenzo Semple's Batnotes memo (also known as "Bat Poop"), sent to prospective Batman writers, outlines Semple's concept of the show. It was thought by many to be lost, but now it has resurfaced! This time we share the seven most surprising things we found in this 14-page memo. It also inspires Paul to take a long-awaited Camping Trip! Second, our book is coming along. The plan is for it to cover Batman season one, with future books to cover the other two seasons. It's not finished, and now that we've belatedly hit on a good angle on the show, some parts that were thought to be finished may need a lot more work. We'll fill you in. Finally, we got some lavish praise from podcaster Frank Santopadre on his Fun For All Ages podcast!  Aw, shucks… Plus the Smooth4Lyfe EDM version of the Batman theme! Semple's TV Academy interview Follow us on Bluesky Batgirl's arrival

On episode 319 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer, Mark Johnson, and Josh Parham to go back five years and take a look at the 93rd Academy Awards, covering the films of 2020. On this retrospective, the AW team take one last trip to the past for the year to talk about the pandemic year of cinema that saw one of the worst Oscar telecasts of all time. Baffling decision after another, the night ended on a sour note instead of one of celebration for Nomadland winning the top prize and Chloé Zhao becoming the second female director to win Best Director. Still, even with the ceremony being so divisive, the year presented plenty of films the team wanted to highlight and discuss over the course of changing the Academy's nominations, with films such as The Nest, Tenet, Miss Juneteenth, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Clemency, Dick Johnson is Dead, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, The Father, Sound of Metal, Minari, Judas and the Black Messiah, and more. In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 2020, briefly discuss talk about Nomadland as a Best Picture winner, how this year is full of celebrities that are problematic or "cancelled" and how that speaks to the legacy of their nominates and or wins, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to four films to make up the final set of eight nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren't normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy. You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more. This podcast runs 2h41m. We will be back in next week for a review of the last big film of the year, Avatar: Fire and Ash. Till then, let's get into it. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

Aw, crap. - Hellboy

Where are your competitors spending their marketing money? Gyi and Conrad's insights into this valuable data can help you stay ahead of the rivals in your market. ----- Competitive research is an oft overlooked marketing activity, but you should definitely be focusing on this valuable information to make smarter decisions for your law firm's marketing efforts. However, getting your hands on this research might not be as easy and obvious as you'd like it to be. So, how do you find out what you need to know? The guys talk through what to keep in mind as you pursue your research.   The News: This is looking like a smart new venture: Rankings.io has acquired Gladiator. Aw, shucks—Chris Dreyer named us as top SEOs. Thanks, Chris! Aaaaand, another acquisition, if you care to know — SEMRush (an SEO tool) was purchased by Adobe. Still steadily sinking toward the inevitability of your AI overlords? Welp, with new updates from both ChatGPT and Gemini, we'll all get there eventually. Conrad's spidey senses are tingling… Floyd Mayweather got into the law through The Money Team Law Firm, and is now entering the legal marketing realm. Hmm.  Last, more thoughts on exclusivity with Gyi and Conrad. And, we want to know what you think! Leave us a comment on LinkedIn or YouTube.  Suggested LHLM Episodes:  Local SEO 2024: How to Rank with Local Falcon Connect: The Bite - Lunch Hour Legal Marketing Newsletter! Leave Us an Apple Review  Lunch Hour Legal Marketing on YouTube  Lunch Hour Legal Marketing on TikTok r/LHLM   

Decoding the how, why, when and where of Mantra-Sacred Sound Vibrations. How does a mantra differ from a chant? Wait, is mantra itself the chant? Aw, so confusing-this podcast clarifies all about mantra and more...

There’s such a stigma that we can’t even talk about it. Well, hey there. Welcome back. The Stigma of Private Worry What are you worried about? No, really. What are you worried about? Maybe you say nothing. Maybe you say, “Oh, the usual, you know, the things everyone worries about.” We deal with life and concerns and we take objective measures to reach goals in public. But then in private we worry and sometimes the worry doesn’t match our outward demeanor does it? Worry has a stigma to it just like suicide does. And I talked about this in my episode called throwing away the container. There’s such a stigma that we can’t even talk about it. We don’t even allow ourselves to talk about it. We wave it off as a few moments of weakness or we just think everyone feels the same way about this that or the other thing, but we don’t really address it for the most part. Now, you may feel that you have a worry about a certain thing and then you decide you’re going to take action. And when you do that, you actually feel a lot better. But it doesn’t happen often, does it? The stigma and guilt prevents you from really exploring it. And if you’ve noticed through a number of episodes and even my books, I tend to push really hard in the direction of, well, no, let’s just do that. Let’s feel that. Let’s let’s see what that’s like. Let’s not hide. Let’s not shove things into the dark recesses and not deal with them. Because that’s how they get their power. That’s how they fester and get stronger because we push them into a corner and we don’t deal with them. Saying It Out Loud: The Power of the “Third Voice” It’s typical for someone to feel bad and embarrassed if they say out loud to someone, I am worried about this because it almost feels so unnatural to just say it that way. And if you’ve read three voices, it means you’re saying it in your third voice. We like to say it in our second voice all the time, which is our inner dialogue and monologue. Because like many other things, fears, paranoia, and so forth, they sound silly when you say them out loud. Well, then why wouldn’t you say them out loud then? If it sounds silly and sort of dispels it. Here’s the contrast. This does not apply if we’re worried for someone else. If we think to ourselves, “Oh, I’m worried about Susan. And Susan being someone you work with or Susan being your daughter or your cousin or your sister. Now you’re concerned. Oh, that’s so much better. Well, I’m just concerned for her.” Well, it’s sort of silly for you to be worried about that. But I’m sure she’ll be fine. Yeah, I’m just worried about her. Aw, it’s really nice that you feel that way. It’s really nice to have all that empathy towards someone who isn’t you. Do you see how odd that is? If you’re worried about Susan, you may just have coffee with her and sit down and say, you know, how have you been? What’s going on with that? It’s you won’t even say I am worried about you because you know that’s a full paw. You’ll say, “So, what’s going on with Rick?” or “What’s going on with that thing that you were dealing with? How’s that going?” And then you’ll assess what you need to do, your empathy and your your advice and so forth based on that. If you’re born with male psychological genetics, you will think, “I’m hearing a problem. I want to fix that.” If you’re born with female psychological genetics, you will think, “I’m hearing that someone is hurting and suffering. I want to help them. I want to listen and make sure that they feel heard. But neither of these things is applied to yourself. And again, you may hear this and think, “Oh, okay. I get it that some people worry, but I don’t do this. This is not me.” And you know, if you’re true, if you’re accurate, then cool. Then good for you. I’m actually thrilled. If this is something that doesn’t apply to you, that you don’t find yourself in a in a corner or in a a self-perpetuating loop or something that rules your brain anytime it has free time, then you’re doing pretty well. Bringing Worry Into the Light But a lot of people aren’t. A lot of people experience this. And as with so many things, it’s something that we can deal with. It’s not something that’s part of the human experience per se. I mean, worry and concern and all that stuff and fear, yes, it’s all part of that human experience, but only to a degree. We can deal with the stuff that is, as I said, the loop or things that are shoved into the corner. We can bring them into the light. And again, how do we do that? As always, we raise awareness of it, which we’ve just done. So, here’s some thoughts on dealing with worry. And again, if you’re using the app, all these things will be in the project library, and you can just click on it, and boom, you’ll have these on your little clipboard. Cuz I like when you’re lazy. Sometimes I’m lazy, too. What if you just said out loud all of your worries? Like I’m a big proponent of waking up and saying I’m grateful for and then you list the things you’re grateful for. I do that in the morning. I stumble around half asleep and my feet hit the ground and I’m immediately saying I’m grateful. Your feet hit the ground, Mark. Don’t you have carpet? Sorry. My feet hit the carpet. I’m grateful. I love myself editing. Don’t you? The “Worry List” Exercise But what if you just wrote down I’m not saying first thing in the morning, don’t do that. I’m saying once you’re awake or whatever time of the day that you have a lot of cognitive ability and you’re and you’re clear-minded, what if you sat down and you made a list of everything you’re worried about? Not projects, not goals, not stuff you want to take care of, not even stuff you want to think about, but stuff you’re worried about. And isn’t it odd that those things may not be the same list? Isn’t it weird that you go, “Well, wait a second. The stuff I’m worried about is stuff I don’t want to deal with. The stuff I’m worried about isn’t even related to me. Like, I worry sometimes about this or that or the other thing. But what if you brought it into the light? What if you wrote it down? What if you made this list, looked at it, and then went back to it, and then noted how realistic each one of those was? What if you went back and you wrote a why next to it, like, why am I worried about this? Tracing the Origins of Our Fears And what if we took a page from my book BeCAUSE! and we tried to trace it back to where it actually comes from. If you grow up poor, you can have a worry about having enough money. Even though you have enough money, even though you have more than enough money, even though you have everything in place to keep you safe and comfortable and prosperous, you may still worry about money because in your childhood, that’s all you did. Do you not think that bringing that to the light could dispel that? that the monster that’s pushing you away from the pain of being poor, the pain of not having enough isn’t really needed because everything’s okay. Now, granted, maybe things aren’t okay. Maybe you are in a a downturn. Maybe you see a pattern and you really are kind of hard on your luck right now. And I’m sorry if you are. And so, the monster’s warranted and he’s doing his job to to protect you. But this can apply to so many things. And again, it gets back to the book Because where you pull it backwards and you say, “Well, what’s propelling me to feel this way. It’s it’s a self-reflection and can be a selfrevelation. I mean, the coolest thing from this could be you lit you literally listen to this silly 10-minute episode, then you write a bunch of stuff down and you go, “Oh my god, I’m not worried about that anymore.” The Goal: Just One Less Worry What if this one episode took away just one of your worries? just one no matter how silly it is because the silliness of a worry does not dictate its intensity. It does not dictate its effect on you. You can worry constantly about the silliest of things that have no business being in reality and it will hurt you and it will make you suffer. And as you know, one of my themes is I don’t want people to suffer. If there’s something I can do with my voice or my actions or something I create for them that can help them to not suffer, that is part of my mission with this podcast. So, think about that. Even if you don’t write stuff down, even if you don’t use my my productivity app and you click on the little thing and you get the nice little list that goes along with this episode, just leave this episode thinking about that. Feel free to listen to it again, but I hope you leave with one less worry. Outro And as always, thank you for listening. Take care. This episode is available in the Task Projects page of CheckMark™!

Music behind DJ: Booker T. & the MG's - "Fannie Mae" - 45 Joe Simon - "Just Like Yesterday" - 45 Etta James - "Next Door to the Blues" - 45 Joe Tex - "I Wanna Be Free" - 45 Betty Everett - "I'll Be There" - 45 Music behind DJ: Booker T. & the MG's - "Plum-Nellie" - 45 The Fuller Brothers - "Moanin', Groanin', and Cryin'" - 45 The Dynamics - "I Need Your Love" - 45 James Bynum - "Up and Down" - 45 Mary Davis - "Danger! (Playboy at Work)" - 45 Music behind DJ: Booker T. & the MG's - "Aw' Mercy" - 45 Jimmy Holiday & Clydie King - "Ready, Willing and Able" - 45 Demon Brothers - "Uh-Huh" - 45 Regina Sherard - "A Woman's Work is Never Done" - 45 Paul Griffin - "Here I Come" - 45 Music behind DJ: Booker T. & the MG's - "Can't Be Still" - 45 The Showmen - "You're Everything" - 45 The Decisions - "I Can't Forget About You" - 45 C.J. Leach - "Branded" - 45 Denise LaSalle - "Good Goody Getter" - 45 Music behind DJ: Booker T. & the MG's - "Hip Hug-Her" - 45 Rufus Thomas - "Funky Mississippi" - 45 Romona Jones - "Shows All Over Your Face" - 45 Music behind DJ: Booker T. & the MG's - "Soul Dressing" - 45 https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/158914

Fox Chatter Episode 25 features the 169th Fighter Wing's monthly commander update as U.S. Air Force Col. Shaun Bowes, commander of the 169th Fighter Wing, reflects on the challenges of the recent government shutdown, the resilience of the Swamp Fox team, and the support provided by the Family Readiness Program. The episode includes a discussion with Col. Ryan Hurt, commander of the 143rd Airlift Wing from the Rhode Island Air National Guard, as both wings continue building their Deployable Combat Wing partnership ahead of the 2027 deployment cycle. Chief Master Sgt. Eric Bowen, command chief for the 169th FW also speaks with Chief Master Sgt. Nicholas Kollette, command chief assigned to the 143rd AW, about leadership, taking care of Airmen, and preparing both wings for integrated operations. The episode closes with an update on the Winterfest lineup, organized by the 3rd Go, and several announcements for the December drill weekend.

Me So Phony. Age Appropriate Creepiness. Ussy Galore. Is There a Band Called The Band Because I Like Really Wanted to Know. My Man Thing Smells. We Dropped A Lot of Tools. Appropriately aged crush. Enshitificating Aura Farming for Rage Baiting. The Last Christoph Waltz. Swamp Thing Smells Like Flowers. 52 Socket Pick Up. That's not how caviar works. Aw, the Bigaboop! Goats are Dicks, and This Proves It. Only room for one Danica with Dan. and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Me So Phony. Age Appropriate Creepiness. Ussy Galore. Is There a Band Called The Band Because I Like Really Wanted to Know. My Man Thing Smells. We Dropped A Lot of Tools. Appropriately aged crush. Enshitificating Aura Farming for Rage Baiting. The Last Christoph Waltz. Swamp Thing Smells Like Flowers. 52 Socket Pick Up. That's not how caviar works. Aw, the Bigaboop! Goats are Dicks, and This Proves It. Only room for one Danica with Dan. and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On episode 317 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson alongside AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer and Josh Parham to go back 30 years and take a look at the 68th Academy Awards, covering the films of 1995. On this retrospective, the AW team take a trip to 1995, where actor Mel Gibson rode off the with multiple Oscars, winning Best Picture for his war epic, Braveheart. While a hit within its own right, it was a bit of a shocking win considering many believed that Apollo 13 was going to take home Oscar's top prize. It's a massive upset that would have ripple effects over the course of Academy history that would have make up wins not just for Ron Howard, but for other nominees in this Oscar field. 1995 is a stacked, incredible year of cinema that the gang tries to reflect a little better than what the Academy nominated with films like Heat, Showgirls, Get Shorty, Clueless, Seven, Before Sunset, Friday, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and more getting either mentions, nominations, or wins in the big top eight categories.Maybe one of them wins Best Picture, maybe they don't, you'll have to listen and try not to fall down a flight of stairs to find out. In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 1995, briefly discuss talk about Braveheart as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren't normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy. You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more. This podcast runs 2h47m. We will be back in next week for another retrospective over the 83rd Academy Awards, covering the films of 2010. Till then, let's get into it. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

Jack Prine shares intimate stories about his legendary father John Prine, discusses the new "You Got Gold" movie, the history and state of "Oh Boy Records" and reveals intentions for unreleased recordings from the family archives. Check out screenings of "You Got Gold - A Celebration of John Prine" here Topics Include: Jack Prine discusses "You Got Gold" film celebrating his father John Prine's legacy Film originated through family friend connection at Radical Media, directed by Michael John Warren Documentary captures 2022 Ryman concert series benefiting the Hello In There Foundation Foundation started after John's death in April 2020, helping family navigate grief Jack reflects on balancing family's personal grief with fans' collective loss Film features collaborators like Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams sharing stories and performances Many people know John Prine's songs without realizing he wrote them Movie bridges generations from Dwight Yoakam to Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell Tyler Childers shares quirky story about John keeping Dairy Queen coupon in wallet Jack's legal name is John Patrick Prine; uses Jack to separate identity Growing up in Nashville, didn't have special musicians' kids friend group Jack joined family business at Oh Boy Records after college, learning the ropes Worked in warehouse initially, understanding physical product and distribution fundamentals Oh Boy Records started in 1984 as fiercely independent label maintaining creative control Archives contain decades of unreleased recordings being carefully curated for future releases Lost Dogs deluxe edition recently released with unheard track "Hey, Aw, Nothing" John Prine disliked his debut album cover showing him on hay bale John was technologically simple, kept flip phone until he died, browsed cars on eBay 80th birthday celebration planned for October, possibly in Chicago rather than Nashville Jack's lessons from father: live in the moment and always give to others Extended and High resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide Apple: https://tinyurl.com/tvg-ios Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/tvg-spot Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/tvg-amazon Support the show at Patreon.com/VinylGuide