Podcasts about barnes and noble

Kelvin Cook is Founder & CEO of IntimaSync, the AI software that helps companies boost productivity and retain talent with AI-driven relationship wellness. IntimaSync is an AI-powered relationship-wellness platform that converts behavioral science into three-minute coaching sessions. The goal is simple: cut work–family conflict, boost engagement, and give HR leaders clear ROI on every wellness dollar. Kelvin believes that healthy relationships, romantic, professional, and communal, are the ultimate leverage point for economic growth. When couples thrive at home, they bring sharper focus to work, which fuels better products, better service, and better bottom lines. Our word of 2025 is what? That's right: Community. That's what Kelvin is all about. __________________________________ Steve's third book in his cozy mystery series, THE DOG WALKING DETECTIVES is finally here: SEASON'S SLAYINGS lights up the holidays! Get your copy on Amazon: https://bit.ly/3WYTPiR or Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/4hOjILR Grab the first two: Book 1: DROWN TOWN Amazon: https://amzn.to/478W8mp Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3Mv7cCk & Book 2: MURDER UNMASKED Amazon: https://shorturl.at/fDR47 Barnes & Noble: https://shorturl.at/3ccTy

Natasha is joined by Dane Campbell, author of "Growing Up with Satan" on this episode of the Natasha Helfer Podcast. He and Natasha discuss the book and the environment that he was raised in that inspired it: "Growing Up with Satan - Told By a Brother that Knew Him Well" is an account of a boy growing up in an insular community as part of a high demand religion that espoused Satan or Lucifer to be a real and empowered entity that could bear sway on individuals and circumstances. This memoir describes someone facing major life events, how the religion's teachings around Satan and the interplay of forming beliefs led to shame, guilt and fear that was often crippling in life. The writer discusses ways they found to cope with the dogma, and eventually found a way to deconstruct and overcome the trauma of growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His stories as a mormon and exmormon are engaging and can be helpful to any who are struggling to leave cults, high-demand religions and organizations." Dane is taking new clients. You can contact him on his website: https://changewithdane.com/ Additional resources include: Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChangewithDane Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changewithdane Substack: https://substack.com/@changewithdane?utm_source=explore_sidebar You can buy his book at Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/growing%20up%20with%20satan Or Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Satan-Dane-Campbell/dp/B0FF7H34MV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1PR6YFN8GOC1R&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bj2xpbzBH9mrbreRJNUfBytTMeHfyIM4Jn4Fr0qIdiQSP9v4oz6Iw5_wCneijUetAn4mNTIphsS_l-kPqNSNCAErrAoDOlgvWkEwT6ILFNMMq2DluhsFMZ_Q2fqEeT0SW7DaHKOMbkU_QhmYTId4kVZ31Z6dYYdF67YsgzUGTBJ4_G78_42Xr9FvZDGLfKSMMN6D1JVRq9HmIM9Re9b0x8I8OWOw7Pz9b352r72Fnpo.zW8o07oX5iD7p67d-PWkpuTdwpWddOsL8Z6UNCWQkbw&dib_tag=se&keywords=growing+up+with+satan&qid=1764371075&sprefix=growing+up+with+satan%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-1   To help keep this podcast going, please consider donating at natashahelfer.com and share this episode. To watch the video of this podcast, you can subscribe to Natasha's channel on Youtube and follow her professional Facebook page at natashahelfer LCMFT, CST-S. You can find all her cool resources at natashahelfer.com.  The information shared on this program is informational and should not be considered therapy. This podcast addresses many topics around mental health and sexuality and may not be suitable for minors. Some topics may elicit a trigger or emotional response so please care for yourself accordingly. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or feelings of Natasha Helfer or the Natasha Helfer Podcast. We provide a platform for open and diverse discussions, and it is important to recognize that different perspectives may be shared. We encourage our listeners to engage in critical thinking and form their own opinions. The intro and outro music for these episodes is by Otter Creek. Thank you for listening. And remember: Symmetry is now offering Ketamine services. To find out more, go to symcounseling.com/ketamine-services. There are also several upcoming workshops. Visit natashahelfer.com or symcounseling.com to find out more.

Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, and Kevin Tumlinson as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including stories about B&T, James Patterson, Bookshop.org, and Barnes & Noble. Then, stick around for a chat with Bob Lingle!Bob Lingle: https://www.instagram.com/bookstorebob/Bob Lingle: "I've owned Good Neighbor Bookstore since 2018, and despite everything else going on in the world. It's been the best years of my life. My three kids have the opportunity to grow up in a bookstore. And collectively we have learned about the power and importance of community, and having a place where we've curated stories for people to enjoy, to learn from, to foster empathy, and maybe even change their life." - https://boldjourney.com/meet-bob-lingle/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of the Rachel Hollis podcast, Rachel urges listeners to defy the typical end-of-year slowdown and instead use December as a launchpad to a successful new year. She introduces her 'Five to Thrive' daily habitsGet your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!01:31 Who This Episode is For02:52 The Importance of Ending the Year Strong08:52 Personal Story: Overcoming Holiday Indulgence16:34 Creating a Vision for the New Year19:23 The Last 90 Days Challenge27:39 Five Daily Habits for Success31:45 A Surprise Coffee and Morning Joy33:07 Thanksgiving Reflections and Traditions34:36 The Power of Daily Gratitude35:43 Wake Up an Hour Earlier40:26 Give Up One Category of Food44:01 Move Your Body Daily45:59 Hydrate for Success49:01 Building a Foundation for Success52:12 Join the December ChallengeSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

277. Breaking Through Addiction in Marriage with Matthew and Joanna Raabsmith   *DISCLAIMER* This episode is intended for adults.   1 John 1:9 AMP "If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].”   *Transcription Below*   Thank You to Our Sponsor: Leman Property Management Company   Matthew and Joanna Raabsmith are clinicians, speakers, and authors with over 20 years of combined experience in counseling, coaching, and guiding couples toward healing and transformation. Their mission is to help couples navigate the complexities of relational challenges, particularly in the aftermath of sexual addiction and betrayal trauma, fostering deep restoration and growth.   Matthew is a Professional Certified Coach (ICF) with a background in pastoral leadership, while Joanna is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, EMDR practitioner, and Certified Clinical Partner Specialist through APSATS. Both hold Master of Divinity degrees and have served together on multiple church leadership teams. Currently, they co-lead their private practice, The Raabsmith Team, where they specialize in helping couples rebuild connection, trust, and intimacy.   Their passion for this work stems from their own journey of restoration. After experiencing the devastating effects of sexual addiction and betrayal in their marriage, Matthew and Joanna embarked on a years-long pursuit of reconciliation. This transformative experience led to the creation of tools like The Intimacy Pyramid™, a practical model for relational restoration and growth co-created with colleague Dan Drake.    Their first book, Building True Intimacy (2023), has sold over 1,000 copies and provides practical guidance for couples to use the Intimacy Pyramid to create enduring connections. They also founded Renewing Us Recovery™, a comprehensive program designed to support couples in the later stages of relational restoration. In November 2025, they will host the inaugural Renewing Us Couples Retreat, offering workshops and connection opportunities for couples on similar paths of recovery and growth.   Matthew and Joanna live in Memphis, Tennessee with their three young children. They prioritize self-care through shared adventures, new experiences, and a weekly game of pickleball.   Free Resource Mentioned in Episode   Building True Intimacy book   Questions and Topics Discussed: What were the warning signs that you noticed when you were newlyweds that tipped you off to believing things weren't quite as they seemed? Are there any common life circumstances, whether nature or nurture, that predispose someone to be more likely to struggle with a sexual addiction? As couples seek to thrive in marriage, will you give us an overview of the intimacy pyramid you wrote a book about?   Other Episodes Mentioned During Episode: Pornography: Protecting Children, Personal Healing, Recovery, and Victory in Christ with Sam Black Pornography Addiction and Helpful Recovery with Crystal Renaud Day   Additional Related Episodes on The Savvy Sauce: Anatomy of an Affair with Dave Carder Protecting Your Marriage Against Unfaithfulness with Dave Carder Stories Series: Recovery From Sexual Sin in Marriage with Garrett and Brenna Naufel Supernatural Restoration Story with Bob and Audrey Meisner Special Patreon Re-Release Wholehearted Quiet Time with Naomi Vacaro   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”   Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”   John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:12)   Laura Dugger: (0:13 - 1:38) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   Today's message is not intended for little ears. We'll be discussing some adult themes, and I want you to be aware before you listen to this message.   Leman Property Management Company has the apartment you will be able to call home, with over 1,700 apartment units available in Central Illinois. Visit them today at lemanproperties.com, or connect with them on Facebook.   Matthew and Joanna Raabsmith are my guests today. They are clinicians, speakers, and authors with over 20 years of combined experience in counseling, coaching, and guiding couples toward healing and transformation. Our conversation takes a few turns, from getting to hear their incredible and vulnerable story of healing and then getting tips for talking to our children about topics like sex, and also even receiving some practical wisdom and tips for enhancing our own marital enjoyment.   Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Matthew and Joanna.   Matthew Raabsmith: (1:39 - 1:40) So good to be here.   Joanna Raabsmith: (1:40 - 1:42) So glad to be here. Thanks for having us.   Laura Dugger: (1:42 - 1:51) Oh, truly my pleasure. And let's just start here. Can you share your story going back to meeting and falling in love and your first part of marriage?   Matthew Raabsmith: (1:53 - 2:17) Sure, yeah. It was a little bumpy at first, actually. So, I knew Joanna through her brother. Joanna's brother was one of my best friends, and I got to meet her whenever she would come in town and visit, and she would invade guy night. He would usually bring her along to like a Lord of the Rings movie or something, and I would be a little frustrated because I would be like, oh, you brought your sister. Great. That's wonderful.   Joanna Raabsmith: (2:18 - 2:24) A little off-putting, not super friendly. And I was like, your friend's kind of a jerk. We did not like each other at all in the beginning.   Matthew Raabsmith: (2:24 - 2:54) Not big fans. And eventually over some time, we started to realize we had a lot in common. We liked to do a lot of the same things.   And one summer that Joanna was in town, we started hanging out, started doing more and more together, and really just kind of developed a friendship, which was really fun. And at the very end of the summer, realized that there was something between us. And so, we went on one date.   Our first date, we entered a golf tournament. We won it, and that was a good sign.   Joanna Raabsmith: (2:54 - 2:55) That's a pretty good sign.   Matthew Raabsmith: (2:55 - 3:02) And we went on three more dates over the course of two months and got engaged.   Joanna Raabsmith: (3:03 - 3:07) And then two months after that, we got married.   Matthew Raabsmith: (3:07 - 3:16) Yeah. So, her brother went from like, yeah, it's cool you date my sister, to like, you're not ready to get married. But he's come around now.   Joanna Raabsmith: (3:17 - 3:19) 15 years later. Yeah.   Matthew Raabsmith: (3:19 - 3:40) And, you know, a lot of it was, I think we had a definite sense of being kind of called together, being, you know, something special about who we were as a couple. And also, a recognition that we wanted to figure out what a good marriage looked like. We were really excited about marriage, but we didn't really know what we were doing.   Joanna Raabsmith: (3:41 - 4:15) Yeah, I've had a really great model of healthy relationship. My parents have a wonderful marriage. They work really well as a team.   And so, I knew, like, I want something like that. But as soon as we got married, we realized, but how do you actually build that? There's no, like, instruction manual for, okay, here are the things to do to have a great relationship.   And so, we read books. We went to conferences. You know, we did what we could, but we still found ourselves getting stuck, not able to really create, like, that deep sense of, like, connection intimacy that we really wanted.   Matthew Raabsmith: (4:15 - 5:17) And we started kind of hunting more and more for resources. We found some incredible resources that really changed our understanding of the way relationships work, the way people work, and really, for us, shifted our entire focus of kind of what we wanted to do, even with our life. And as we started to do that, though, we still kind of found ourselves at this kind of glass wall.   We felt like no matter what we tried, there was always this kind of distance between us. And that started to grow kind of over the years that we were together. It wasn't getting better.   It was actually kind of getting worse and worse and worse. And so, Joanna had actually decided to, after we finished our first grad degree together, the idea was we were going to go be pastors. And so, we had finished our kind of theological training.   Joanna decided she wanted to get a master's in marriage and family therapy so we could do some work around marriages and ministry in that way. And her very first-class kind of just set our life in a completely different direction.   Joanna Raabsmith: (5:17 - 6:26) Yes. So, my first class in the MFT program was a two-week intensive called Shame and Guilt. So, that's a really fun two-week intensive to be a part of. And as a part of that, though, they had an anonymous pastor come and share his testimony of struggling with sex addiction, becoming sober, getting into good recovery, healing and restoration in his marriage, kind of like that whole journey. And as he was talking, something inside of me started stirring. And I knew, OK, what he's saying is resonating way too much with me right now.   I think this is the thing. This is what is keeping us stuck, not able to really create the relationship we want. And so, that day I went home and first I just kind of started talking about my class, what I learned, what this pastor had shared.   Right. And nothing. Right.   We're just kind of talking generally about it. And so, finally I couldn't do it anymore. And I just stopped and I looked him square in the eyes and I said, “Are you struggling with this in our marriage right now?”   Matthew Raabsmith: (6:26 - 8:03) Yeah. And for the first time in my life, 20 years, I had been struggling with pornography, sexual addiction, and acting out in our marriage. And for the first time in my life, I was honest.   I had lied for years, both with Joanna and everyone else. And the kind of floodgates just kind of opened up. And I finally said yes.   And it was really hearing the story, I think, is what did it for me. I think it was knowing that somebody else had made it, that their life hadn't come crashing down because that was the greatest fear for me. That the moment anyone found this out, everything in my life would be over. Everything that I loved would be gone.   And so, this kind of story of hope gave me a little bit of courage that day, to be honest. But that started a really long journey for us because there was a lot of damage that was done in both of my hiding. And now kind of this revelation, all the pain kind of came crashing down on Joanna and kind of her shoulders.   And so, we started a quite intensive recovery process. We talked about it being kind of a full-time job. I went to recovery for my addiction and for kind of my acting out behaviors. Joanna had to begin a process of healing from the trauma of this discovery. And that process took us a number of years. It really was a long kind of arduous journey, but one that we ultimately survived and now thrive in our marriage and get the incredible luxury and the kind of gift of helping other couples do that.   So, that's kind of where we find ourselves.   Laura Dugger: (8:04 - 8:30) That is incredible. I just really appreciate you sharing your story. Clearly, stories are so powerful and that's what led to some healing for you and hopefully can open the floodgates for somebody else listening.   So, if we go back in your story, then, Joanna, I'd love to start with you. What were some of those red flags in early marriage that things aren't quite as they seem?   Joanna Raabsmith: (8:31 - 10:28) Yeah, there are a few. You know, I think that, you know, one of the pieces we kind of talked about, like, OK, we knew we're still getting stuck because there's 90 percent that felt really good. But then 10 percent that was extremely chaotic, really destructive.   Right. We would get we call the pain cycles when we get emotionally dysregulated. And there would be some things that, right.   Sometimes we would get into pain cycles, get dysregulated. And I kind of understand why. Right.   Like something happened. There was the disagreement. But other times I couldn't put my finger on it.   Right. Matthew would just get really angry and really shut down. And I wouldn't be able to connect it to anything that had happened in our life.   And so, it was very confusing. It was really hard to understand what was going on. And I think kind of in the same way, when I would pull too close into that connection, that intimacy, he would pull back.   Right. And it felt like even though we both named this goal and this desire, he would never actually partner with me in it. And so, again, that was really confusing because the actions were not matching up with reality and what was happening.   And I think the other piece that was kind of true for us and true for a lot of other people is that our own sexual relationship was fraught with pain. And so, there was, again, a lot that was really good, but also a lot that was really painful and confusing. And some of the pieces just didn't connect.   Right. And I would wonder, OK, what's going on? Well, I guess this is just the reality that like this is how much we get to expect in this area of our life, right.   In our relationship. And so, it was when the pastor started describing his life and addiction and what that looked like emotionally, sexually, relationally. I was like, oh, those are all the things that I'm currently experiencing.   Here's one thing that would answer all those questions that I have. And so, I think that was part of it. He kind of told me, like, OK, this is it.   Laura Dugger: (10:28 - 11:00) That would be so eye opening. And my heart's going out to the couple who is maybe starting to identify with this. Was it and share whatever you're comfortable with from your story or the person's story who opened things up to you?   So, sexually, I'm wondering if it was for you, Joanna, if you were hoping to connect sexually and that wasn't happening and that was confusing. You didn't feel pursued. But I don't want to fill in the blanks.   So, could you elaborate?   Joanna Raabsmith: (11:00 - 12:03) Absolutely. Yeah. And we find it a lot of different ways than couples that we work with.   Right. And so, it can be sometimes on either side of the extreme. And so, for us, it was where there would be kind of times when he'd be fully present and interested and engaged. Right. And then all of a sudden, kind of like I described emotionally, he would just withdraw and not be there. And I would reach out to connect.   And that was this like non-response. And which, again, didn't match up with those other times when he was engaged and wanting to connect. And he would give some sort of excuse that didn't totally make sense.   Right. But I was kind of like, what else? What was I left with except that?   So, I would kind of believe that and go with it, even though it didn't sit right. And so, yeah, I think that was part of it. We will see on the other side for some other couples.   It's the opposite. And maybe that spouse is hypersexual in the relationship. Right.   To the point where there might be pressure, even pressure to do things sexually that people aren't comfortable with. And so, yeah, it can look a lot of different ways. But that was kind of what our disconnect looked like.   Laura Dugger: (12:04 - 12:33) That's so helpful. And there's two different directions I want to go, Matthew. So, I'll set it up.   I guess I'm thinking of the guilt and shame and how those are usually so present. So, I have two questions. Were you when Joanna came to you, were you at a point where you recognize something was off and you wanted freedom from this and or had tried freedom before?   Let's start with that and then I'll go into the other one.   Matthew Raabsmith: (12:34 - 14:40) Yeah, it really was holy timing in a lot of ways. I, you know, for a lot of years I had I hated what I did. I didn't feel like I could stop it, but didn't have a lot of interest in kind of doing anything to stop it.   I kind of just like would just say, “OK, this is going to be the last time.” And then, you know, of course it would come back. But I think at this point I had really started to see the damage that was happening to our relationship.   I could feel us growing close, growing further apart. I could see kind of Joanna and the confusion that she was having. And like she couldn't understand things.   She would ask me a lot of questions that I didn't have answers to. And so, I actually a couple of months earlier, we were at a worship service, and they had said like, “hey, if you are ready to give something up, if you feel like there's something holding you back, come forward and confess it.” And Joanna and I were sitting next to each other, and I remember feeling like the Holy Spirit just like pulling me to like get up out of my seat and I wouldn't move.   I was like, no, because she's going to ask me what I went down for. I'm going there's you know, there's a random kind of prayer partner at the front. I'm like, I'm not going and confessing this to some random person.   And so, I was ready. But I think like I said, I think there was no path forward. It was kind of confess this and everything stops and ends.   But everything like marriage ends, life ends. And so, when she when she brought this, it really did feel like God had kind of been answering a prayer that I've been praying of like, if you give me a way out, I'll take it. I'm desperate.   I want it to stop. And it felt like that. I think it was both this kind of terror and this hope that day.   And even when I said, yes, it was a little bit like, what have I done? Like, could this have been different? Should I have just gone and told someone else privately?   Right. But I think ultimately that it was out between the two of us and that we kind of knew it. We knew what we were dealing with made a huge difference.   But I mean, God had been working in my life, offering opportunities for so long. I just been saying no, no, no. And then finally, you know, I think my heart just broke and it was like, yes, OK, I'm ready for this.   Laura Dugger: (14:40 - 15:14) I love how the Holy Spirit equipped you with that humility and courage to be brave in that moment. And it's such a blessing for all of us to get to see the end or I guess not the end of the story, but you at this point in your story where you're thriving. And so, I hope that offers a lot of hope to people listening.   But let's also pause. And so, going back further in time, Matthew, this was the other part of my question. What was life and attachment and your growing up journey like?   Matthew Raabsmith: (15:15 - 18:09) Yeah, I didn't know that at the time. Right. I a lot of this I figured out in the last couple of years of recovery.   You know, if you would have asked me, you know, as I was growing up about my life, I would have told you I had the perfect family. I had the perfect life. I think I did not realize that some of the things that I was going through weren't perfect, were harder.   And part of that was because I think the way my family dynamic worked was we just swept everything under the rug. You know, whatever happened, we just kind of went, OK, and moved on from. And I learned to do that as a kid.   And that meant a lot of emotional chaos. There was a lot of physical chaos and kind of volatility in our house growing up. And even though I had parents who are still married to this day, have stayed together and have tried to create kind of a stable life.   There was a lot of emotional and kind of relational instability. We moved around a lot. And then once we started moving, I found myself more and more kind of isolated at school. I started dealing with bullying and some things that really kind of left me not knowing how to deal with the pain that I was going through. And so, my way of stuffing things under the rug was getting, you know, escaping, you know, kind of escaping into anything that I could. I watched a lot of TV.   I was a latchkey kid, so I would come home. I'd watch TV a lot in the afternoon and then TV kind of just turned to more and more. And I was exposed pretty young to pornography, actually at a church camp.   I was at a summer church camp. Someone brought a Playboy magazine, and I was exposed to pornography. And I kind of felt that high, that rush.   And that just became kind of a mode of my escape. Right. Of whatever I could do to engage sexually, whether with my mind or with others.   That's how I could get out of the pain I was in. That's how I could stop feeling kind of the chaos that I was having and not realizing that it was becoming this kind of adaptive habit, that it would just be this thing I would go back to more and more. And I grew up at a time that technology was still emerging.   So, I can remember when we got our first computer and no one was talking about safeguards or anything. And so, it was just kind of exposure. Here you go.   Here's everything you could ever want and don't need. And that really became my life. And the more and more that I did, the better and better I got at lying and hiding and even being kind of vulnerable in kind of fake ways.   I would mention things like, yeah, we all have this struggle. And even Joanna, I had told like, you know, that was a struggle of mine in the past, but I've moved on from it. Right.   I told myself and other people just kind of lie after lie after lie so that I could have really this double life. I could appear one way and then I could be acting a completely different way, kind of in the dark.   Laura Dugger: (18:10 - 20:41) Yeah. And that makes sense. I'm thinking back to two episodes.   We did one with a male, Sam Black from Covenant Eyes, and he speaks so much of the origins of pornography and that foothold that Satan gets. And so many times it is in childhood, unwittingly you're exposed and then what it can turn into. And then Crystal Renaud Day came on to share a lot of females struggle with this as well.   And so, I'll link to those if those are a help.   And now a brief message from our sponsor. 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For me, I had to figure out what had really gone on in my life and what was really happening.   Because, like I said, I had become such an expert at hiding from myself and others that I didn't really know how to live any other way. And so, I, you know, Joanna kind of handed me a list of everything this pastor had done. She was like, here you go.   Right. She kind of handed me that list and was like, good luck. And so, I dove in.   I went to a men's intensive. And I think that was probably one of the key places for me to tell my story for the first time. I really took a look at my life and had some people help me take a look and recognize the trauma that I had as a kid exposure that I had experienced and what that really meant to me and helped me understand what I was doing.   But also, kind of what I was doing to myself, how I was really kind of killing myself from the inside out and preventing myself from having the kind of relationship I wanted with God and other people. And so, that discovery was in really ways kind of invigorating for me. I felt like I was living for the first time.   I think I had started to kind of get out of this kind of burden, this fear of always being caught. I told Joanna kind of the history of everything that had happened in my life and our relationship. And so, I was feeling this kind of renewed sense of like energy and excitement of like, this is good.   I want this life. I want the life there that I'm not in constant kind of fear and in constant kind of connection to this thing I hate. And so, which is really different than what Joanna was experiencing.   Joanna Raabsmith: (22:30 - 25:07) Yeah. So, for me, it was very jarring in the beginning. Everything I thought was real came crashing down around me.   And that was especially jarring because I had left kind of the direction, the path that I was on. Right. We talked about our story earlier.   It included two months of dating, two months of engagement before we got married. And that also included me dropping out of law school, getting married and moving to California to pursue a ministry degree so we could work as pastors together or do something together. And so, in that moment, all of that came crashing down.   And I kind of was very lost, not just in our relationship, but in kind of what in the world am I even doing here? What am I going to do moving forward if he doesn't choose recovery? Right.   And so, just all of those question marks, all in that one moment of him answering that question affirmative. And so, so there was like that heaviness on one side and then on the other side was this relief of finally everything I've been experiencing makes sense. Right. Finally, I feel like I actually know what's going on. And because of that, there could maybe be a path forward for us as well. So, is this very, very weird dichotomy in that moment? And so, but I think I knew right away, like, I can't be vulnerable. I can't be intimate with him anymore. Right.   I have to step back in our relationship and wait and see what he chooses to do. Is he going to choose to do the work of recovery and get healthy and start to be honest and safe or not? And so, that's so we kind of did kind of there's some space for a very long period of time while we focused on our own individual recoveries.   And that, again, was a little bumpy for me. This is over a decade ago. And so, there is very little information about what partners experience.   We call it betrayal trauma, and that just wasn't a very common word at the time. And so, some of the resources I plugged into came from a more we would call it codependent, co-addict focus, which just really didn't fit. So, I struggled to find resources that felt like they fit for my journey.   But once I did, it all again, my own healing process started to make sense. And it was so like freeing and liberating to understand. Like, oh, OK, this is what I'm going through. This is why I feel this way.   This is what it looks like to heal and move forward. And so, kind of beginning that process was so important because then when Matthew was kind of in a healthy, safe place, I was as well, and we can start to step in towards each other on that kind of more couples' journey at that point.   Laura Dugger: (25:07 - 25:17) I love how you did that wisely, though, separate first, not rushing into couples at that time. Absolutely.   Matthew Raabsmith: (25:18 - 26:33) Appreciate you calling it wise. I think we were terrified. Yeah, we'll take God's help.   I think he was like, you guys just work on your own stuff for a while. And in some ways, like I said, it was we didn't know what we were doing. But I think we knew we wanted there to be a future between the two of us.   But we knew it had to be completely different in some ways than what we had before, which was scary because we liked what we had before. Like we had a really great marriage in many ways. Right.   There was this portion of it, this hidden portion that was really infecting and killing it all. But what we did have together, we didn't want to totally lose. It just was really hard to know, especially early on, what's going to come forward.   Like, who are we still going to be as we go forward? Are we still going to be a couple who does things together? Right. Who works together? Or is that all kind of going to have to be different? Is that the only way that we have kind of moving forward?   And so, that was that was probably the hardest part was having like this sense of like not wanting to lose us. We were like, if we lost that, that was going to be miserable. And I think a lot of our work was about how do we eventually reclaim this marriage that we want, that we love?   Laura Dugger: (26:34 - 27:04) Yes, because from what I'm sensing, you're friends with each other, you're on purpose or on mission with God. He did a course correction change, putting you on this path to help couples. But your desire to work together, it's like He still honored that in the ministry of reconciliation.   And I'm assuming abundantly blessed it beyond what you could ever dreamed up what we're doing now.   Joanna Raabsmith: (27:04 - 27:42) Right. It's been amazing to see what God has done, how he's used our story, which is so fitting because it was someone sharing their story that brought our healing. And I think because of that and it wasn't right away; it took some time to get to the place where we felt open to God using our story to bring healing to others. But we found as we stepped into that, that we have received such a blessing.   Right. And just being able to sit with other couples in that journey and see them go from that place of pain and confusion to this place of restoration and thriving. Like there is no better work that we could have imagined for ourselves.   Laura Dugger: (27:42 - 28:09) Love that. And really, you did have to pioneer a path. There weren't many resources at that time.   So, that's another reason I'm grateful you can share your story, because I hope it unlocks freedom for others. So, if we're turning more outward now and you're helping as you work with couples, how do you help them identify the difference between sexual struggles and sexual addiction?   Matthew Raabsmith: (28:10 - 30:15) Yeah, that's a great question. And I think that it really kind of exists on a spectrum. And so, everything kind of exists under what we call problematic sexual behavior or unwanted sexual behavior.   Whenever someone is acting in a way sexually that doesn't align with their values. And then the question is, is how often, how compulsive, right? How habituated, right?   How really embedded is that practice? Because the more and more embedded it is and the more and more that I continue to act on that, seeing the damage that it's doing, that's really what qualifies as the addiction. The addiction is when I know that this is causing harm and I and I feel that even though I want to stop it and I've tried to stop.   Right. I can't stop the 12 steps has a great line. They say addicts, you know, addicts have no problem stopping.   It's staying stopped. That's hard for an addict. Right.   And so, that's usually a sign that there's an addiction. And really what that means is that just means that I'm going to have to be even more kind of thorough and scrupulous in my willingness to change a lot. Because if I have built an addictive lifestyle, that means everything I do kind of functions to support that lifestyle.   Right. And so, my part of that was this hiding. I lied about everything.   I would lie about anything just to make sure that I was in control of the narrative. And so, for me, it was recognizing that if I was going to move forward free of my addiction, then it had to begin with honesty, with this kind of radical honesty and transparency and growing in that consistently, because that was the way that I manifested this addiction and kind of kept it going. And so, that's really what the addiction is about, is recognizing what are the kind of pieces in my life that are supporting this addiction to continue to exist?   And how is God going to dismantle those things? Right. And how am I going to be a part of that dismantling?   Laura Dugger: (30:16 - 30:33) That's well said. And also, I'm curious, are there any common life circumstances, whether that's nature or nurture, that are more likely to predispose someone to more likely have this struggle with sexual addiction?   Matthew Raabsmith: (30:34 - 32:30) I mean, there are, I think, you know, the things that we tend to look for are trauma and trauma comes in so many different forms. So, trauma is more it's rare that it's a single event. It's often more a kind of consistent occurrences.   As I mentioned, you know, I can't speak to kind of one event in my life that I say this was the traumatic moment in which everything changed. But it was more of the chaos. And so, I grew up in a family that could be really, really, really loving and incredibly encouraging and fun and silly and in a heartbeat switch into one that was verbally and physically just chaotic and terrifying.   And it was that chaos that kept me on edge. What it did was it created in me kind of a system of always wanting to be on high alert. And that would exhaust me.   That would kind of wear me out. And I would want to kind of numb that kind of feeling away. And so, I think those traumas, I do think early exposure.   Right. I mean, I was exposed early before my brain was ready to really understand what it was dealing with. And I think the third component that we often see is a low level or a kind of really a void of sexual education.   There was I'm sure I had a small talk with my dad at some point, but we were not talking about pornography. We weren't talking about bodies. We weren't talking about sex from a kind of healthy, good way.   I grew up in the church, and it was kind of don't do this until you're married and then you'll be fine. Right. That was the sexual education message.   And so, those things, right, trauma, exposure and lack of kind of education usually forms in someone a difficulty of knowing what they're doing, knowing that it's destroying them before it's really kind of gotten a deep hole.   Joanna Raabsmith: (32:30 - 33:20) I think like the brain. The brain aspect to when we talk about addiction, there are usually chemicals involved in addiction being formed, being created. And so, I think also co-occurring disorders, right, that emotional pain, also things like anxiety, depression, ADHD, where my brain really likes the dopamine it gets from sexual acting out. Right.   And you can actually need it to feel OK. That can also be a factor in kind of especially that addictive side of these behaviors. When my brain gets really attached to that dopamine release that it's getting because maybe I have some other things going on or I just have emotional pain.   I don't know what to deal with, how to handle it, how to regulate that in a healthy way.   Laura Dugger: (33:20 - 34:30) There's so many good points there. I'll just highlight one because there's a profound piece that you were talking about with early exposure to evil and the corruption of it is extremely harmful. And yet not being exposed to God's good design for sex and hopefully being coached by our parents, that is both of those play a part in the addiction. And so, I'm thinking even as we shift to think about parents, I know I've had parents come to me and just say, I don't want to talk about this with my kids.   I don't want to rob their innocence. And my approach is if God made it, this is good. We can talk to them.   You're not robbing their innocence when you're sharing the good age-appropriate parts of sex. And it's so great to be that first one to share with them. And I think it does the opposite of what we would expect.   We're afraid that that might make them hyper sexualized. But would you speak to that? Any encouragement for parents?   Matthew Raabsmith: (34:30 - 36:37) Yeah, it's tricky. I mean, even as parents, we've got kids and its still kind of navigating it. But I do think what it does is it lets someone learn the things they need to in the timeline they need to.   I think part of one of the things is that, you know, really good sexual education starts young. I mean, they start six and seven years old or even younger, just talking about our bodies. Right.   Because I think that's part of it. Really, this is about understanding the goodness of our bodies. This body was created by God, the maker of heaven and earth, and he called it good.   And so, I think part of a good sexual education begins with that. And then, what's really nice is once you've started the conversation, that means if your children are exposed or if they're presented with things that don't line up with what they've been hearing, they now feel safe to come and talk about that. Because that's really what this was about.   I didn't feel safe to talk about what I was exposed to, what people were doing. Right. And what people were encouraging me to engage in.   And so, you know, my parents would ask me how it's going. I would not tell them anything because it wasn't a conversation that they were having with me. And so, I didn't think it was a conversation I was going to have with them.   And so, that meant that as I found myself further and further away from my values, I felt like, who am I going to share this with? And so, part of having the conversation is it normalizes with our kids that this is OK to talk about, which is actually what adults need. I mean, part of our work with couples as adults, we have to get them talking about sex and body parts.   I mean, it's amazing to have 30, 40, and 50-year-olds in our offices and in our sessions. And they're so uncomfortable. Right.   They don't want to talk about sex. They don't want to talk about their bodies. They don't want to talk about what their bodies do.   Right. And we keep being like, this is God's good stuff. Right.   There is goodness here. But you have to begin by talking about it. Right.   Having these conversations.   Joanna Raabsmith: (36:38 - 37:54) I tell all the parents I work with, your kids are going to pick up a narrative about what sex is and what sexuality is, whether you want them to or not. And so, would you rather be the first person to step in and give them a healthy view, a healthy narrative to understand? Right.   And this is beyond kind of the nuts and bolts that everything our kids are learning. They're trying to find a deeper meaning. They don't think it's unconscious when they're young. Right. But they're taking it and they're going, what meaning does this have for me? How does this inform my self-worth, my view of my own value as a human in my body?   And how does it inform my experience of the world and my safety in the world? And am I empowered to make decisions? Am I connected?   Do I belong? Right. All of those questions are asking.   And so, as they're confronted with issues of sexuality, it's going to inform those things. And the world will not give them a healthy narrative about it. Right.   And so, being able as a parent to step in and give them that healthy meaning, that narrative, that understanding of their worth and their safety as they're piecing together kind of sexuality, again, at that age-appropriate level is so important.   Laura Dugger: (37:54 - 38:30) Guess what? We are no longer an audio only podcast. We now have video included as well.   If you want to view the conversation each week, make sure you watch our videos. We're on YouTube and you can access videos or find answers to any of your other questions about the podcast when you visit thesavvysauce.com. And I love that you're talking about this with couples you work with.   So, will you give us an overview of the intimacy pyramid that you actually wrote a book about and you teach to couples?   Joanna Raabsmith: (38:30 - 38:31) Absolutely.   Matthew Raabsmith: (38:31 - 39:15) Yeah. I mean, it was born out of our journey because, as you said, we wandered for a while and we felt a little bit like Israel, just kind of, you know, knowing that the Promised Land was out there, but never really feeling like we could find it. And when we started to piece together, I think the kind of relationship that we had dreamed of reclaiming, we really ask ourselves, how can we make this a more direct, a simpler process, not just for couples who went through what we went through, but really for any couple who's hungry for this, for the couple like us when we were first starting.   It really wants an amazing marriage. And so, we really focused on a kind of simplistic idea of what are the core kind of foundational levels of building really healthy intimacy.   Joanna Raabsmith: (39:16 - 40:10) Yeah. So, the intimacy pyramid, it's actually a triangle. There's a visual that goes along with it.   So, if you imagine the different levels of the triangle, very similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, starting at the bottom, you have to start with honesty. And so, we definitely experienced that reality in our own relationship. Right.   This is something we learned from Couples in Betrayal, but like Matthew said, we realized this is where every couple starts. Am I willing to be fully open, fully honest and transparent in this relationship? Am I being my authentic self?   Right. And after that level of honesty, that's when we start to build safety. And that has to do with our ability to communicate in really healthy, constructive ways.   Even when it's hard, even when we're disagreeing, even when we feel like yelling at each other. Are we able to show up with that belief that we both have the same goal? We're trying to build something together.   Matthew Raabsmith: (40:10 - 41:57) And with honesty and safety, that's where we get to work on trust as a couple. That's that next level. And trust is where we start to be more partners, where we're really starting to kind of lean in, work together, kind of be courageous and saying, “Hey, this isn't just my life anymore, right?”   This is our life together. And as that trust is established, this is what allows for the incredible work of vulnerability. And there's been all these studies about vulnerability over the last few years and how important it is.   What we recognize, though, is vulnerability on top of nothing is actually really risky and kind of even dangerous. It's vulnerability that's built on healthy trust where we step in and we do share some of those deeper pains in those wounds, those fears. We start to really heal some of those kind of early traumas that we experience.   It's in that vulnerability. That's what allows a couple to be truly intimate. And it's when they've worked through each of these levels, what we find is these couples, when they reach this kind of this intimacy level, they're passionate about who they are as a couple. They love kind of their relationship itself. They have a purpose to it. They have a sense that like our marriage, our relationship exists for a reason, but they're also really playful.   They're silly. They're really kind of comfortable in their own skin. And it's those five levels really working together that allows them to experience a relationship that gives life. I think one of the things we know is that when God creates, it gives life. And so, God created marriage not to burden us, right? Not to kind of, you know, not even just to get us through, you know, kind of surviving life, but actually to bring more life.   Right. And not just life within the relationship itself, but life outside of it.   Laura Dugger: (41:58 - 42:22) Oh, I love it. And you're also working with couples. I've heard you speak before about the working on offering your spouse the gift of self-awareness. And so, what could couples expect? How do you actually work with them to grow in self-awareness and recognize things like the emotional process they go through in marriage?   Joanna Raabsmith: (42:22 - 43:48) Absolutely. So, awareness. So, in our book, we obviously detail the intimacy period much more.   And that's Building True Intimacy is the name of the book. But each of those levels we just walked through have different components that go into that. And awareness is kind of like one of the most important components of that honesty foundation.   So, we have to start with awareness and we can't really build anything if there's a lack of self-awareness. And so, when we work with couples, one of the first places we start is we kind of look at the past. Are they aware of what they've been through, what those experiences are, and how those experiences have shaped them into the person that is now in the present, showing up with their spouse.   Right. And so, once I start to have that insight from my past, from those experiences, how they shape me, I can better understand my present. What are the things that I feel and why do I feel those things in particular?   Right. And then when I feel those things in a relationship, and these are typically those kind of heavier, more challenging, more painful emotions. How do I respond?   How am I showing up? Because the reality is that all of us cope with emotional pain the same way we cope with physical pain. We go into fight or flight.   That part of our brain gets triggered and we respond with these kind of destructive relational coping behaviors that then hurt my partner.   Matthew Raabsmith: (43:48 - 46:22) Yeah. Like, for example, I told you about that chaos I experienced as a kid. And so, those would always happen around conflicts.   My parents would disagree about something. There would be some type of argument about, you know, and it could be anything where we were going for dinner or what color the curtains were. Right.   But it would create this chaotic environment. So, as I got married, the thing that I didn't like the least was any type of conflict. Joanna and I would get in when I could sense us disagreeing and we are both passionate.   We have opinions and we believe things and we get into this kind of disagreement and argument. It would freak my system out. And I didn't realize that because I didn't really know my past.   I didn't know what was going on. I would just really do anything to shut it down. I get angry and I try to get loud, or I just walk away in the middle of a conversation.   As Joanna was talking, I would just leave the room and my acting out was just a further manifestation of that kind of leaving the relationship. And so, part of my healing journey was to learn about my story and recognize, oh, OK, I can see what's happening. And what's really interesting is it still happens in our life today.   I've been in recovery for 12 years. I still feel the same things. Now it's more like when my kids are getting involved.   Right. And there's energy in the room and people are online. And then I go, oh, yeah, there it is.   There's my system again. It's starting to feel unsafe. It's starting to feel alone. And I know what it wants to do. It wants to get angry, or it wants to just shut down and walk away. And what's incredible is that we've learned the ability to see where we're at but also speak directly to that.   And so, what I get to do for myself now is I get to go, “OK, I know I'm feeling unsafe and I know I'm feeling alone. And I know I want to get angry to solve it, but it won't do it. But here's the truth. The truth is that I'm safe in God's economy. I'm empowered. I have an incredible partner in my life. I've never been alone. I've always had someone there for me. And Joanna is the perfect example of that.”   And that totally changes my sense of really kind of where I am. And it changes how I show up. I tend to be much more calm.   I ask questions rather than make demands. And it's that ability to kind of see where we're at and shift. That's just been such a game changer for our family and just for our own relationship.   We still have to work on it. You know, it doesn't always look that pretty. Right.   But when we do, it's amazing how different it goes.   Laura Dugger: (46:24 - 46:44) And then I just think of the generational impacts that has when people are willing to do the work. And so, if there's a brave couple out there who wants to seek their own help and healing, can you share where they can go for help, including the Raabsmith team and all that you have to offer?   Matthew Raabsmith: (46:46 - 47:30) Yeah, you know, we would love them to connect with us because I think one of the things we recognize was having guides along the way. I mean, we had to figure a lot out ourselves, but we also had some really incredible guides, some mentors, some coaches, some therapists. And so, we always just say, hey, connect with us.   You can find us at raabsmithteam.com. We have a heart for couples who want restoration and reconciliation because that's what we're getting to live and experience. And what's cool is our whole team, they're couples who've been through this work, but who also have been professionally trained to help other couples to just continue to guide and to grow relationships so that they're thriving and they're kind of giving that life.   Joanna Raabsmith: (47:30 - 48:10) Absolutely. We also love to give out resources. And so, we have the kind of we call it the honest connection.   And so, again, if you're starting this journey or even this is for any couple who wants deeper connection, deeper intimacy, learning how to do that on a daily basis in small ways is so important. And so, we have a worksheet that couples can take and use. We're happy to provide that for them for free and kind of try this for 30 days and notice the changes that you experience in your relationship.   And so, that's a great starting point wherever you are in relationship to begin that journey of connection.   Matthew Raabsmith: (48:10 - 48:14) And you just go to raabsmithteam.com/free and that resource is all yours.   Laura Dugger: (48:15 - 48:26) Wonderful. Add links for that in the show notes for today's episode. And is this then for any couple worldwide, nationwide?   Can you work with people?   Matthew Raabsmith: (48:27 - 48:55) We have we've got couples across the world, which is really fun. It's been really neat just to see the way that God has used our work. One of the things when we first started this journey, we started getting couples calling us saying, “Hey, I don't have anybody in my area that specializes in this, that understands this journey. Can I work with you?” And so, we kind of felt a calling to say we want to make sure that we connect with people wherever they are. And so, absolutely.   If you can hear our voice, you can work with us.   Laura Dugger: (48:55 - 49:14) I love that. And just as a little bonus practical tip, you kind of mentioned being proactive to thriving in marriage. Is there any encouragement that you could share or a specific practical tip that anybody could start to incorporate if they want to take their marriage to that thriving level?   Matthew Raabsmith: (49:15 - 50:12) Yeah, I think just the ability to slow down. We have a  nine, seven and six-year-old. We own our own business, and we like life and life can get incredibly fast.   And I think what we have found is when, as I was mentioning, when I learned the ability just to slow down, even if I don't fully just know myself slowing down and checking in, just where am I at right now? Where's my heart? Right. Where do I want to be?   I think I realize that so often my values and my actions aren't aligned when I'm moving too quickly. I'm not being the person that I want to be. And we see that in so many couples. We meet so many couples and there are two really great people who have a hard time working together. They have a hard time kind of being a team.   And it's usually because they're working so fast. They don't realize they're kind of working against each other. So, slowing down, I think, is such a big thing.   Joanna Raabsmith: (50:12 - 51:18) Another piece that's, again, really easy to start right away. A lot of couples we work with, and I think probably even us when we start a relationship, was there were two individuals in a relationship, and it was kind of either me or you. And starting to understand there's this third thing between you, the relationship. There's a third almost entity that really needs care. It needs nurture. It needs you to focus on its needs from time to time.   And so, beginning to approach the day, even approach conversations with this question of like, what does our relationship need right now? And even as you're trying to make decisions, what is the way we can decide this in a way that's good for our relationship or what decision benefits our relationship rather than does it benefit you or me? Because when you get into that struggle, it can become a competition.   It can become transactional really quickly. So, starting to ask that question, starting to talk about the needs and caring for the relationship very intentionally can be a way to shift that.   Laura Dugger: (51:20 - 51:38) Thank you for sharing that. I think that leads into my last question, because you already know we're called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so, as my final question for both of you, Matthew and Joanna, what is your savvy sauce?   Matthew Raabsmith: (51:39 - 52:22) I kind of mentioned this, but I think it's the willingness to be honest. I was so willing to lie to myself and kind of really hide from other people. And I didn't even know that I was doing it.   But as I have learned to be more honest in really kind of healthy ways, right. You can dump, you can whine, you can complain, you can get angry. But truly being honest meant just looking at what I was feeling and trying to kind of figure that out and name that.   As I have learned that ability to be honest with myself and with others, it has just opened up a new world of possibilities. And it has shown me how many people care for me; how much God cares for me. So, I think that honesty is something I just want to practice more and more every day.   Joanna Raabsmith: (52:22 - 53:30) I think for me, just in my own journey and working with so many partners, that importance of being able to make empowered decisions in my life. Right. That I am really intentionally choosing the direction I'm going in life.   Realizing that instead of going into this more helpless, powerless victim stance is such a difference. And really the only thing that changes a lot of times is mindset. You don't have to overhaul your entire life.   Right. You have to add in like four hours of self-care and all of these things. But starting to shift that mindset into, wait, I have power in the decisions I make.   And one of the ways that's really important to do that is growing that self-awareness. I cannot make empowered decisions if I'm not aware of where I'm at emotionally, physically, spiritually. Right.   If I'm not aware of my needs on a regular basis. And so, slowing down to check those things in, sometimes even multiple times in the day if you're not used to that. So, you're more connected to yourself, to what you need, what you want.   So, you can start making those empowered decisions.   Laura Dugger: (53:32 - 54:00) I love that. It's just so enjoyable to host a very lively couple who's humble and you've done your work. And then you're willing to share all this overflow of goodness with all of us.   So, I think my prayer is that the Lord would richly bless you for this open-handed generosity of wisdom and your story and experience that you've shared with us and modeled for us today. So, thank you to both of you for being my guest.   Joanna Raabsmith: (54:00 - 54:03) Thank you so much. It's a joy being here.   Laura Dugger: (54:05 - 57:47) One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

#CyberMonday, December 1, 2025. Week 49.   Go buy The Monster Inside My Brother by Nicole Ciccone illustrated by Lena Bardy. Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-monster-inside-my-brother-nicole-ciccone/8986b9c64d1ebe5d?ean=9798999980700&next=t& Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-monster-inside-my-brother-nicole-m-ciccone/1148368158  Amazon: ​​https://a.co/d/imfxmwG    See you Thursday at the CURE SYNGAP1 Conference 2025 Atlanta: https://curesyngap1.org/events/conferences/cure-syngap1-conference-2025-hosted-by-srf/   SOCIAL MATTERS 4,474 LinkedIn.  https://www.linkedin.com/company/curesyngap1/  1,480 YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/@CureSYNGAP1    11.2k Twitter https://twitter.com/cureSYNGAP1  45k Insta https://www.instagram.com/curesyngap1/    $CAMP stock is at $3.80 on 26 Nov. ‘25 https://www.google.com/finance/beta/quote/CAMP:NASDAQ   Episode 191 of #Syngap10 #CureSYNGAP1

Join Cindy Watson and pioneering health expert Udo Erasmus as they reveal the integrated formula for a truly successful life. Udo is a towering figure in the world of health and wellnes, an accomplished author, Udo has impacted millions with his fresh message on achieving perfect health, understanding human nature, and developing inner awareness.    This interview dives into Negotiating Your Best Life by exploring three fundamental components: the foundational science of Oils for bodily health, the practice of achieving inner Peace for mental clarity, and the profound power of Presence to anchor us in authentic, effective action. Discover how a healthy body and a clear mind are your ultimate tools for negotiation.   In this episode, you will learn:   The eight step total sacred health framework. What are the triggers of heartache. What are the functions and importance of heartache. What is the thirst of the heart? The importance of self negotiation. And many more!   Learn more about Udo Erasmus:   Website:https://udoerasmus.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theudoerasmus/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/udoerasmus/   If you're looking to up-level your negotiation skills, I have everything from online to group to my signature one-on-one mastermind & VIP experiences available to help you better leverage your innate power to get more of what you want and deserve in life. Check out our website at www.artofFeminineNegotiation.com if that sounds interesting to you.   Get Cindy's book here: Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/Art-Feminine-Negotiation-Boardroom-Bedroom-ebook/dp/B0B8KPCYZP?inf_contact_key=94d07c699eea186d2adfbddfef6fb9e2&inf_contact_key=013613337189d4d12be8d2bca3c26821680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1 EBook   https://www.amazon.com/Art-Feminine-Negotiation-Boardroom-Bedroom-ebook/dp/B0B8KPCYZP?inf_contact_key=94d07c699eea186d2adfbddfef6fb9e2&inf_contact_key=013613337189d4d12be8d2bca3c26821680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1 Barnes and Noble   https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-art-of-feminine-negotiation-cindy-watson/1141499614?ean=9781631959776 CONNECT WITH CINDY: Website: www.womenonpurpose.ca Website: www.practicingwithpurpose.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/womenonpurposecommunity/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenonpurposecoaching/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thecindywatson Show: https://www.womenonpurpose.ca/media/podcast-2/ X(Twitter):  https://twitter.com/womenonpurpose1 YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@hersuasion Email: cindy@womenonpurpose.ca

In this Thanksgiving episode, I take a look at five things I am thankful for as an indie author. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Exile series at my Payhip store: EXILE2025 The coupon code is valid through December 8, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this winter, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 279 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November 24th, 2025, and today I'm discussing five things I'm thankful for as an indie author for this Thanksgiving themed episode. As you might guess, I am recording this a little early to get ahead of the [United States] Thanksgiving holiday, but all the news and updates should still be current. We will start off with Coupon of the Week and then a progress update on my current writing and publishing projects. First up is Coupon of the Week and this week's coupon code will get you 25% off all the ebooks in the Ghost Exile series at my Payhip store. And that code is EXILE2025, and as always, the coupon code and the link to my store will be available in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through December 8, 2025, so if you need a new ebook this winter as we head into the Christmas season, we've got you covered. Now an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. Blade of Shadows is done and it should be available on all the ebook stores: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and my own Payhip store. Initial reviews and reactions have been positive, so thank you all very much for that. My next main project is Wizard-Assassin, and that will be the fifth book in the Half-Elven Thief series. If my math is right, I think I'm about 25% of the way through the rough draft, and my goal is to get that out on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited before Christmas 2025, which will make (hopefully if all goes well) Wizard-Assassin the final book I publish in 2025. The first book I hopefully publish in 2026 will be Blade of Storms, the third book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series, and the direct sequel to Blade of Shadows. I am about a thousand words into Blade of Storms, so just starting and hopefully that will be the first book I publish in 2026 (if all goes well). In audiobook news, Blade of Shadows…the status of that is pretty much the same as the last time I recorded three days ago. It's available at some of the audiobook stores but hasn't finished processing and gotten up on ACX yet. That was narrated by Brad Wills. We are approaching proof copies of the audiobook of Cloak of Embers, and that will be narrated by Hollis McCarthy. So that is where we are at with my current writing, publishing and audiobook projects. 00:02:24 Main Topic: 5 Things to Be Thankful For as an Indie Author So let's move on to our main topic in keeping with the Thanksgiving holiday, which is only a few days away as I record this and was only a few days past when this episode was live, and that is five things to be thankful for as an indie author because I do spend on the show a lot of time talking about the various challenges and difficulties of being an indie author, but there are a lot of things to be thankful for as well. So as I said before, the Thanksgiving holiday is coming up here in the United States and that day always leads [me] to reflect on what we have to be thankful for. And one of the things at the top of my list is my work as an indie author and publisher. Today I'm going to talk about five things that I can be thankful for as an indie author and that other indie authors may be thankful for as well. #1: Creative freedom. As I've talked about before on this podcast, the most immediate benefit to indie publishing is not having to make creative compromises in order to get published. For example, you can make a series the exact length that you want it to be, not what the market can support. You can write in whatever genre, style, and using the themes you want without any interference. As we all know, traditional publishing is pretty trend driven and they seek out books that match trends because they are very risk averse. There's a time about a decade and a half ago when publishers were outright telling authors not to submit books with goblins and orcs and other traditional fantasy creatures, for example. Instead of trying to change your book or writing style in order to get accepted by traditional publishing, indie publishing allows you to create and share the exact book that you want to and then it can rise and fall on its own merits and how well you market it. In fact, what has been traditionally called genre writing (such as categories [like] science fiction and fantasy and mystery and so forth) have flourished without the constraints of traditional publishing. The Internet and platforms like Amazon and the other ebook platforms as well have made it easy for readers to discover books that fit in their preferred genres and styles, not what publishers think they want to read. #2: Freedom from bad deals. The traditional publishing industry is not quite as exploitative as the music industry, but it is not through a lack of trying. Bad deals abound in traditional publishing because they're relying on the fact that new authors want to be published so badly that they're willing to compromise on things like royalty rates, exclusivity agreements, and control over rights. This mindset persists quite strongly even today where if you go on any of the social media platforms, you'll see writers desperately trying to get themselves an agent rather than doing what they should be doing, self-publishing and learning digital marketing. The amounts paid out in advances (which is the amount that publishers pay authors before a book is released) are decreasing and fewer and fewer books are earning out (which means that the author receives royalties beyond the initial advance). Romance writers are especially benefiting from indie publishing because one of the top publishers in that genre is known to make deals that don't favor the author such as low advances and royalty rates, and they don't allow for contract negotiations. Indie publishing gives you the ability to get published and get your book to readers without taking a bad deal from a publisher or worse yet, turning to scammers. And unfortunately, there are a lot of scammers out there. In indie publishing, where you publish is what determines how much you receive. Each platform has their own royalty setup and payment structures, and you'll get paid far more often (usually monthly, sometimes quarterly) and have the ability to review book sales in real time instead of waiting for quarterly statements (if that or sometimes biannual statements) from a publisher that feel like they're written in hieroglyphics. If you're publishing on a direct sales platform like Pay Hip or Shopify, you can get as much as 90% of each sale and you don't have to wait for a book to reach the mysterious point where it earns out in order to get that money because the money is immediately available to you, although usually after a period of 60 days or so. And if you are an indie author, you don't have to worry about your publisher canceling your active series because of sales that the publisher doesn't like, which is allowed in a standard traditional publishing contract. It's becoming increasingly common to have publishers do this even when the next book in the series is ready for publication or even scheduled for publication. Indie authors can always complete a series for their readers, (which I've been able to do with Stealth and Spells Online most recently, for example). #3: Write [and] release at your own pace. There are no, or at the very least, very, very, very few traditional publishers that would let me have the frequent release schedule I currently have. For example, Blade of Flames came out in September, and then Blade of Shadows is coming out right now in the gap of only two months. Publishing still thinks in terms of seasonal releases, especially the fall and spring release seasons. The schedules for these releases are created far, far in advance and don't change all that much. In self-publishing, there is no one bumping your release to another season or telling you that you can't put out a book because a similar book is coming out at the same time. If you want to put out a book monthly like the pulp writers of old, you are completely free to do that. I do that myself when possible because I'm hoping there's less about a month gap between Blade Shadows and Wizard Assassin. #4: Control over your online brand. Traditional publishers like their authors to have a strong social media presence and heavily favor authors with a large and preexisting follower account. They even give pre-written social posts to their authors or require pre-approval from their team before posting on social media. With indie publishing, you are completely free to exist online in the way that makes the most sense and is the healthiest for you, and no one is telling you what you can or you can post. You can post as much as you want or even forego certain media platforms altogether or as many of them as you want. For myself, I like to post about my hobbies like vintage video games, even though that's a not a high engagement topic that the algorithm favors. There is no one telling me what I can post or trying get me to increase my follower count as a condition of getting future contracts. #5: And for me personally, the fifth and final thing to be thankful for that we'll discuss on this episode is the ability to make a living and hire others. And obviously this is a big, big, big thing to be grateful for. I've been an indie author for 14 and a half years now, and a full-time one for over nine years, and I was able to hire people to help me two and a half years ago with many non-writing tasks such as Amazon Ads, podcast transcripts, bookkeeping, and so forth. I have also been able to hire narrators like Brad Wills, Hollis McCarthy, C.J. McCallister, and Leanne Woodward to produce my audiobooks since the majority of my audiobooks are self-funded by me. I don't have to rely on a team that a publisher that has been picked out for me, and I can choose my own team as an indie author, or I can do everything myself, which is what I really did for the first 11 years. Unlike a team that a traditional publisher that has been spread too thin across an increasing number of authors, the team I hire is focused on making the best ebook or audiobook we can, and we're all on the same page. The ability to make a living at my work and even hire others is because of all of you. I am very, very grateful for all of you who have read my books and listened to my audiobooks, and so thank you very much, and we hopefully we will have new things for you to read and listen to in the coming months and in 2026. In conclusion, there is a lot to be thankful for in the world of indie publishing. Although it is hard work, the benefits of being an indie author over a traditionally published one are significant, and I suspect they're only going to grow over time as the traditional publishing industry continues to consolidate into one or two few mega corporations. So for Thanksgiving 2025, I'm grateful for all of my readers who allow me to be an indie author, and thank you once again for all of your support. So that's it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review of your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.  

We know from social and cultural psychology that our attitudes and opinions towards different topics are largely informed by the world we live in. Everything from our culture of origin, our family, our friends and more can influence our attitudes. This extends into our beliefs and attitudes surrounding mental health conditions and the lived experience of others. For example, hearing voices is heavily stigmatised in the West but in certain cultures, hearing voices is often celebrated and seen as a sign of the gods. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you're going to learn how culture impacts attitudes towards learning disabilities across the world, why this is important and more. Whether you're an aspiring or qualified psychologist, a teaching assistant or a mental health professional, this will be a great episode for you. In the psychology news section, you'll learn how brain-cleaning "flushes" break focus, human can "catch" fear from robots, and brain changes across common mental health diagnoses look strikingly similar.LISTEN NOW!If you want to support the podcast, please check out:FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET- https://www.subscribepage.io/psychologyboxsetGamification of Autism- https://www.connorwhiteley.net/gamification-of-autism Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and libraries systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon- patreon.com/ThePsychologyWorldPodcast#learningdisability #learningdisabilities #learningdisabilityawareness #culturalpsychology #socialpsychology #clinicalpsychology #mentalhealth #clinicalmentalhealth #clinicalpsychologist #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthsupport #mentalhealthadvocate #psychology #psychology_facts #psychologyfacts #psychologyfact #psychologystudent #psychologystudents #podcast #podcasts

My Perimenopause Weight Loss Journey: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rachel-hollis-podcast/id1245763628?i=1000716780630Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!In this episode of The Rachel Hollis Podcast, Rachel explores the common struggles many face when trying to achieve personal goals such as weight loss, starting a business, or improving relationships. She emphasizes the importance of mindset and introduces the idea that everyone has their own unique equation to achieve success.Sign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/01:15 Rachel Hollis: Real Talk on Life and Growth02:30 The Weight Loss Journey Begins06:02 The Pilates Revelation09:38 The Equation for Success16:44 Understanding Your Unique Equation20:00 Real Stories, Real Struggles23:10 Understanding the Importance of Personalization26:08 The Role of Constants and Variables in Success26:30 The Weight Loss Equation: Constants and Variables27:41 The Confusion Tactic in Diet Culture28:28 Finding Your Unique Equation37:15 Applying the Equation to Business38:17 Three Ways to Increase Business Revenue41:25 Taking Ownership of Your Life42:31 Grandma's Gut Check: Universal Truths43:59 Overcoming Limiting Beliefs44:41 Conclusion and Call to ActionSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For over 50 years, John DeCando has been with the Paterson NJ Animal Control department and for 50 years he has saved and rescued tens of thousands of animals. John shares his story and is proud to introduce his new book, 50 Years of Animal Rescue, available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.Please subscribe, it helps the Towncast.

Squirrel away those pills and burn that manuscript because we're talking about Rob Reiner's adaptation of Stephen King's Misery (1990).Joining us for the discussion is comedian Roz Hernandez, who has begun (but maybe never finished?) every King novel.We're talking Kathy Bates' Academy award winning performance as Annie Wilkes, a horny Sheriff & Deputy combo, and multiple fiery manuscripts.Plus: toxic (queer) fandom, Lauren Bacall's smoker voice, the FX we do - and don't - see, and pranking Barnes & Noble employees Questions? Comments? Snark? Connect with the boys on BlueSky, Instagram, Youtube, Letterboxd, Facebook, or join the Facebook Group or the Horror Queers Discord to get in touch with other listeners.> Trace: @tracedthurman (BlueSky)/ @tracedthurman (Instagram)> Joe: @joelipsett (BlueSky) / @bstolemyremote (Instagram) > Roz: @rozhernandez (Instagram) / Ghosted PodcastBe sure to support the boys on Patreon!  Theme Music: Alexander Nakarada   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Carly Bedard, a play facilitator for adult early educators, joins host Heather Bernt-Santy to discuss the ways that self active play can transform early childhood practitioners’ practice with young children. Listen in as Heather shares the ways participating in one of Carly’s workshops at a recent teacher retreat reminded her of the importance of being an adult who plays in order to provide spaces and programming where children can play. Have you ordered Heather's book Using Schema Play Theory to Advocate for Free Play in Early Childhood yet? It's available now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org or you can order directly from the publisher on the Teachers College Press website Thanks for listening! Save 10% on professional development from Explorations Early Learning and support the show with the coupon code NERD. Like the show? Consider supporting our work by becoming a Patron, shopping our Amazon Link, or sharing it with someone who might enjoy it. You can leave a comment or ask a question here. Click here for more Heather. For a small fee we can issue self-study certificates for listening to podcasts.

Lucious Lowe never saw his empire, but his son and son-in-law figured out how to give the customer what they needed. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is… Well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients, so here’s one of those. [OG Law Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young, Steve Semple’s here, and we’re going to talk about another empire. Stephen Semple: Another one. Imagine that. Dave Young: And it’s another one of these big boxes. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: So this is brick and mortar big box store. And so there’s two things. One thing I love, one thing I hate about big box stores in this category. I used to love going down to my local hardware store and just tooling around. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: And I guess you can still do that, but there’s something about some old guy walking up and chatting with you about what you could maybe buy or not. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: And so Lowe’s is our subject today. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: I’m interested to see how they started. And again, I love shopping at Lowe’s, I hate shopping at Lowe’s, for two different reasons, right? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: The variety. It’s all there. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: The old guy that knows every piece of hardware in the store. Good luck finding that person. I mean, they may be there, they may not. It’s hit and miss. Stephen Semple: Yes. So the first Lowe’s, of course, started as one of those old-timey hardware stores. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: It was a 3000-foot store in 1921 in North Wilkesboro in North Carolina by Lucius Smith Lowe. That’s basically the first Lowe’s was way back in 1921. Dave Young: Lucius Smith Lowe. Okay. Stephen Semple: But the success of Lowe’s actually did not come from Lowe, but rather an in-law named Carl Buchan, who came on the scene in 1943. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: So when Lucius died in 1940, the business was inherited by his daughter, Ruth Buchan, who then… Now, I was not able to find the family story on this, because I find this interesting. It was inherited by the daughter, who then sold the company to her brother, and I always thought, “Why’d the brother not inherit the business?” Dave Young: Right? Stephen Semple: Now, I also get why she probably sold it, because as we know, one of the really big problems, especially back in the 1940s, was women couldn’t get credit, and it was very, very, very hard in the forties for a woman to actually run a business. So I also understand why she sold. Dave Young: Yeah. Yeah, and weird estate planning goes on that you don’t know why they did what they did. Right? Maybe the son had an insurance policy. Right? Stephen Semple: Who knows? Who knows? Dave Young: I don’t know, but maybe he got… Who knows? Stephen Semple: Now, at the same time, when she sold it to her brother, her husband, Carl, ended up becoming a partner in the business. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: So it was this really weird, father dies, it goes to the daughter, the daughter sells it to the brother, and the husband ends up becoming a partner. Dave Young: Who knows about the transactions inside family businesses, right? That’s a… Stephen Semple: Right? All I’m just saying is, if it sounds weird, it was. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: That’s all I’m saying. But moving forward, what’s really incredible is today, Lowe’s is 1700 locations doing 80 billion in sales. So it is- Dave Young: That’s not nothing. Stephen Semple: That’s not nothing. That’s not nothing. But back in the early forties, hardware stores did not have building supplies. They didn’t have plywood, they didn’t have… They didn’t have building supplies. Dave Young: Yeah, yeah. You went across to the lumber yard to get that stuff. Stephen Semple: Correct. Correct. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And so one day Carl gets this deal on toilets, and he decides to buy a whole pile of toilets. When I say a whole pile, the whole truckload, which was 400 toilets. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: And James? James Lowe comes in the office one day and he’s like, “Toilets in the office.” And he says, “Carl, why is there toilets in the office?” He goes, “Well, I bought 400 of them and I ran out of space, so they’re sitting in here.” And he’s like, “We don’t sell toilets.” He goes, “Well, we are now, because we got 400 of them.” Dave Young: “Yeah, we sell toilets. Sell them or else.” Stephen Semple: “[inaudible 00:05:20] now!” So, “Yes we are.” And what turns out is that they sell out really quickly. And Carl looks into this a little bit more and he sees this trend. Right? Think about it. It’s 1946. What’s happening in the United States? There’s a building boom. Right? The number of homes being built has grown 10 times over the last three years, because we got the baby boom happening. We got the return of the soldiers, we got the baby boom, we got the sprouting up of the suburbs. That part is growing. So they sell out these toilets in like a week, and so he wants to open a second store. He goes, “Look, here’s what I want to do. I want to open a second store and we’re going to sell everything for building and fixing a home. Everything. We’re going to turn specialty stores into one shop.” So in other words, you don’t have to go to the plumber… you know. Look, this is another variation on the department store and the convenience store. Dave Young: Absolutely. Stephen Semple: So Lowe agrees, and they invest a hundred and sixty thousand dollars in the second store, and it’s a 10,000 square foot, so they’ve gone from 3000 square feet to a 10,000 square foot store in Spartan, North Carolina. Dave Young: And so yeah, we tripled the size. It’s all the space we’ll ever need. 10,000 feet. Stephen Semple: Right. So it’s 1949, and literally customers are coming. Yeah, that’s right. It’s 10,000 square feet. I missed that for a minute. Yeah, yeah. Hold that thought. Dave Young: “Hang on.” Stephen Semple: Hold that thought. So it’s so popular, they’re actually finding customers are coming from states away from, outside of North Carolina. So Carl wants to open a third store, and Lowe doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to grow this thing. Dave Young: Isn’t it amazing that the whole company’s not called Carl’s instead of Lowe’s? Stephen Semple: Well, here’s what ends up happening. Lowe says, “Look, I don’t want to do this. Why don’t you just buy me out?” Carl buys out Lowe, but says, “Well, let’s keep the name.” Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: “Let’s keep the name.” Dave Young: Yeah, that’s smart. You got equity there. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So in 1952, Lowe is bought out, but they keep the name. And it expands rapidly. They quickly open 13 more stores. [inaudible 00:07:27] Dave Young: Oh, wow. See, I did not know they were this old. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So it starts growing like crazy, but then they hit a problem. After six years, profits stall. Dave Young: Oh, okay. Stephen Semple: What he notices is, he’s been focusing on opening stores, but not focusing on the buying experience. And if you went into a Lowe’s at that time, it was super disorganized. Stuff was just all over the place. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: And so it was not appealing. So he hires Bob Strickland, marketing guy. Bob points out that people come in to get what they need, but what if we were able to make them to stay and buy other things? Like instead of an oven, how about a whole kitchen? Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: So he says, “Let’s be like a department store.” They looked at how Sears was laid out, right? There was these departments. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And basically this is the model that they created, which is really the template that all these big box home improvement stores are built on. Here’s the appliance section, here’s the flooring section. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: But it didn’t just have flooring. It had, okay, along with the flooring, the caulking and the this and the… Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: All the things that you need with it. Dave Young: So take those toilets out of the power tool section and put them where they belong. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So they create this template that they’re going to roll out, and before they’re ready to roll it out, Buchan passes away. Dave Young: Oh no. Stephen Semple: And so now it’s up to Strickland to open with the new idea. So Strickland takes the ideas. He opens five stores on it. They’re super successful. In two decades they got a hundred and eighty stores, 1978 they’re the largest in the region, 1979 they’re 200 stores, and they just grow and grow and grow and become what they are today. But Lowe’s basically built this idea. The two innovations Lowe’s did was built this idea of, “We should have a store that’s dedicated to home improvement,” because they saw the trend on it. And then they created this whole idea of looking at department stores and saying, “This is how a home improvement store should be organized.” Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: That template? That template, that idea that every one of these big box home improvement stores is built on, was created by Lowe’s. Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories to Sell Ad] Dave Young: Let’s pick up our story where we left off, and trust me, you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: … that idea that every one of these big box home improvement stores is built on, was created by Lowe’s. Dave Young: Well, and so the reason I didn’t know about them when I was younger is that they started in the east and slowly moved west. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Yes. Dave Young: And I don’t know where Home Depot started, but in the Rocky Mountain West and Western Plains, there were Home Depot stores long before there were any Lowe’s stores. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Dave Young: So it’s just a matter of growth at that point then, right? Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: They figured out the formula. Stephen Semple: They figured out the formula, and then it’s just grow, grow, grow. Dave Young: I’m guessing that, yeah, Home Depot probably has a similar story. Either they copied Lowe’s or they figured it out themselves that this is the right way to do a big box home improvement store. We going to do that one sometime? Stephen Semple: Well, I don’t want to say much, because we are going to do… Oh. Dave Young: Okay. All right. I’ll hold that for another day. But- Stephen Semple: Well, what ends up often happening when I’m researching these things, there’s no way to do it without learning about both. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: So often that’s the reason why when we’re doing these, there will be two in a category, because you learn about both of them at the same time, because they have kind of a shared history, right? Dave Young: Well, and those guys absolutely copy each other. Right? Stephen Semple: They did. Dave Young: I think we go back, I don’t know what episode it was, but we talked about Cabela’s, and then we sort of told the story of them being eventually bought by Bass Pro. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: And the [inaudible 00:12:08] Bass Pro, I think… Well, at least according to the people that I knew at Cabela’s, they were the first ones to build this giant experiential store. Right? Stephen Semple: Well, in Sam Walton- Dave Young: And so… But that gets copied. And Sam Walton, same thing, right? Stephen Semple: Well, Sam Walton has openly stated that he stole a lot of his ideas from Sol Price. Dave Young: Yeah. Yeah. Stephen Semple: He has come right out and said that. He’s like, “Oh yeah, I always watched what this guy did, and I’d always keeping my eye on him, because he was brilliant.” Right? Dave Young: Yeah, I mean- Stephen Semple: Who was the founder of Costco. Right? So. Dave Young: At the end of the day, these are just sharing good commerce ideas. Right? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Nothing new under the sun here. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: There’s a reason that every ancient city has a bazaar, a marketplace where they all gather, right? You make it convenient for consumers by, even though you’re 10,000 little competitors, you’re all in one place. Stephen Semple: Yeah. What I really liked, again, about this story, was Lowe saw a trend going on in the United States, and the trend was, “People are building these homes, and so there’s going to be more demand for home improvement stuff. How do I make it easier?” Again, that theme of, “How do I make it easier for the consumer? Wouldn’t it be so much easier for the consumer if it was this one stop?” Dave Young: Yeah. [inaudible 00:13:29] Stephen Semple: Now, the other thing I thought that was brilliant is that when the profits stalled out, he didn’t flip to, “I need more leads, I need more customers.” He didn’t go there. He went, “Oh, if this has stalled out, there’s something I’m doing wrong inside my four walls.” Dave Young: Yeah, yeah. Stephen Semple: And he looked at the experience and he said, “Okay, I’ve already got customers. What I need to do is if I make that experience better, the customers will return more often and will spend more.” I remember going to a presentation from the folks from Barnes and Noble, and Barnes and Noble talking about how they… And Ikea’s the same. They would measure how long somebody was in the store. Ikea’s amazing at this. And what they know is, the longer you’re in the store, the more you spend. Period. So what’s their whole objective is “I’m going to keep you in the store. How do I do that? I’m going to put a restaurant in. I’m going to put in a place where you can stick your kids to play. I’m going to make it so that you’ve got to walk the maze.” The point is, the longer you’re there, the more you’re going to buy. And not only that, Ikea’s figured out, “If I display these things this way, people will stop and look at it,” so that they do move through the stores slower. Dave Young: Yeah. You- Stephen Semple: But Lowe’s really caught into- Dave Young: And there’s sort of a logical progression to it. Stephen Semple: Right. Right. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So Lowe’s created that idea of “Let’s do this one stop shop.” And then the next one was, “Okay. Now that we’ve made this idea more convenient, let’s now make this idea more enjoyable and also more convenient, because there’s all these ancillary things that you need when you’re doing that in the moment. Let’s put all that stuff together.” Dave Young: Well, and you bring designers in because if you’re coming in for all these kitchen products- Stephen Semple: Yeah, absolutely. Dave Young: … maybe you don’t know how to put that all together and make it look good. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Yeah. Dave Young: Right? So here’s you’re somebody that can help you lay it out. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: And then they can sell you all the materials that either you or your contractor need to make it happen. Stephen Semple: Now what we know is, David Young is going to leave this talk with an even more love-hate relationship of Lowe’s. Am I right? Dave Young: I’m not remodeling anything. No, I love walking around a Lowe’s. I find it hard to… If I need some adhesive, I need some Gorilla Glue or something, and I walk into a Lowe’s, two things are going to happen. Unless I’m in just a blazing hurry and I’ve left someone in the car with the car running- Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: … I’m going to just wander around. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: And I’m likely to walk out with something else besides the glue. Along with the glue. Stephen Semple: Correct. Yes. Dave Young: Sometimes without the glue, because I forgot why I went in. Stephen Semple: Oh God, yeah. Dave Young: But that’s a whole different psychological thing. We just finished talking about that at my portals class this week. Stephen Semple: Oh yeah, [inaudible 00:16:25] Dave Young: Tell you about that sometimes. That was fun. Stephen Semple: It’s a thing. It’s a thing. Dave Young: We had a blast. Yeah. Wow. Lowe’s. Stephen Semple: Yeah. There you go. Dave Young: Now I’m thinking in my head, what do I need? You know, near Wizard Academy, we’re not really close to a Lowe’s. You’ve got to drive 20 minutes or so to get to a Lowe’s. Stephen Semple: Yep. Dave Young: But about 10 minutes, 15 minutes away is independently owned Ace Hardware store. Stephen Semple: Yep. Dave Young: And I love that one too. Right? Because if you’re really just looking for a tool or some little hardware bits and bobs, you’ll always find it there. Right? [inaudible 00:17:02] Stephen Semple: Yeah, well, because Ace is the place with a helpful hardware man, right? Dave Young: Yeah. And they’re helpful because they’re locally owned. So there’s always somebody in there that can, “This is not the glue you really want. You want this.” Stephen Semple: Right. Right. Dave Young: “Oh, I thought I just wanted Gorilla Glue.” But this guy knows. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: So it’s two different experiences, and a lot of your choice in it is based on experience. Stephen Semple: Yeah, yep. Yes. Dave Young: I mean, shoot. When we lived in western Nebraska, they eventually got a Lowe’s, but they had a Home Depot first in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We were a hundred miles from there. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: And there was a lumber yard in Sydney, and there was a hardware store in Sydney, and we would drive to Home Depot a hundred miles away. Stephen Semple: Yes. Yes. Dave Young: Because one, we could find any of it there. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: And two, Cheyenne also had a Starbucks and a Baskin-Robbins and a… right? Stephen Semple: That’s the other thing that starts to end up happening, is you get one of these, and then the other things sprout up around that. Dave Young: Yeah. Yeah, you rarely see one off by itself somewhere. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Well, that’s the reason why you would see a movie theater, and then the restaurants go. Dave Young: Yeah, yeah. Stephen Semple: These things happen. But yeah. But you know, I was pretty impressed when I heard the history of Lowe, and also thought it was really interesting looking at this department store and bringing it across. And again, it’s that idea. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: “Who outside of my world is doing this really well?” Dave Young: I kind of wasn’t surprised that their origin goes back as far as it did, because I think you always are going to assume that that started as a little hardware store somewhere, or a lumber yard. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: But I was surprised that they started that growth curve as soon as they did. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Right? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: So they were really the pioneers in that. So. Stephen Semple: Yep, and the key is you didn’t need more than 10,000 square feet, as you pointed out. Dave Young: Yeah. Well, you do today. Stephen Semple: Some of them are like, “Holy crap.” Yeah. Dave Young: You need 10,000 square feet in the kitchen part. Stephen Semple: No kidding. No kidding. Dave Young: All right, well, thank you for bringing that story, Stephen. I like that. Stephen Semple: All right. All right, thanks David. Dave Young: And congrats, Lowe’s, on decades and decades of money making as an empire. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks, man. Dave Young: Thanks. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us, subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a big fat juicy five star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute empire building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

On this day before Thanksgiving, Wed. 26 Nov. 2025 our topic is what I wrote about for Orange County Gun Owners/San Diego County Gun Owners blog (now published at Gun Owners Radio blog) 9 April 2020, what I called then "Two Types of Self Defense." One type is against the threat the immoral criminal aggressor -- the training appropriate to that threat might involve self defense training with weapons or martial arts and situational awareness. The second type of self defense, though, is self defense against the criminal justice system that wrongly sides with the immoral criminal against victims trying to defend themselves. Michael Schwartz posted my guest post but you can see my name in the byline as the author. You can read my 9 April 2020 article on Gun Owners Radio blog here : https://gunownersradio.com/two-types-of-self-defense/ Retired Army Ranger Captain Barry D. Todd describes his experience with both types of self defense in his book "Stand Your Ground: One Man's Self-Defense Nightmare." It's available on Barnes and Noble or Amazon or on the Defense Resources Foundation website, DefenseResourcesFoundation.org . The best way to get the book is to visit The foundation he started is dedicated to preventing this kind of victimization of victims by our criminal justice system. There is a link to donate. Enjoy our conversation, buy the book and read it, and enjoy your Thanksgiving 2025. The Republican Professor is a pro-two-types-of-self-defense, pro-standing-your-ground podcast. Therefore, welcome CAPT Barry D. Todd (US Army Ranger, ret.) ! The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. Warmly, Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. The Republican Professor Podcast The Republican Professor Newsletter on Substack https://therepublicanprofessor.substack.com/ https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/ https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/articles/ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRepublicanProfessor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRepublicanProfessor Twitter: @RepublicanProf Instagram: @the_republican_professor

Tamara Jong joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up Jehovah's Witness, her mother's untimely passing, losing faith, disguising who we are, trying multiple approaches to a writing practice, navigating material that resists us, becoming vulnerable, the tenderness of losing, learning to trust ourselves, weaving in motherhood and mother figures in our work, finding community and home, spirituality without religion, when we feel comfortable enough to be ourselves, and her new memoir in essays Worldly Girls. Also in this episode: -learning to trust others -leaning into what works for us -feeling compelled to finish books   Books mentioned in this episode: Lit by Mary Karr How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee Unquenchable Thirst by Mary Johnson    TAMARA JONG is a Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) born writer of Chinese and European ancestry. Her work has been published in the Humber Literary Review, Room Magazine, and The Fiddlehead, and has been both long and shortlisted for various creative non-fiction prizes. She is a graduate of The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University, and a former member of Room Magazine's collective. She currently lives and works on Treaty 3 territory, the occupied and ancestral lands of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (Guelph, ON). Worldly Girls is her first book.   Connect with Tamara: Website: https://www.tamaraljong.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bokchoygurl BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social Twitter: @Bokchoygurl Book*hug's website: https://bookhugpress.ca/shop/author/tamara-jong/worldly-girls-by-tamara-jong/ Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/worldly-girls-tamara-jong/1146964224?ean=9781771669504 Also available on Amazon or ask for it at your local bookstore or your library   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

In Part 2 of our conversation with USAF Tech Sgt. Anthony Dyer (Ret), we revisit the 2018 combat rescue mission in East Africa that began in chaos - runaway weapons, jettisoned flares, and broken comms - and ended with a high-risk landing under fire to evacuate wounded teammates. Anthony reflects on the loss of an American operator that day, what the motto “These things we do, that others may live” means in the moments that matter, and how those events shaped him long after the mission was over. He also opens up about the difficult transition out of the military, identity loss, drinking, confronting trauma, and how therapy, medication, and writing his memoir Moonchild helped him rebuild purpose as a husband, father, and storyteller. A raw and deeply human look at service, sacrifice, and healing.American Veteran's Crisis Line (24/7 confidential crisis support):Dial 988 then press 1 ORText 838255To contact Anthony for speaking engagements etc, you can reach him at anthonyp.dyer@gmail.comTo buy his book you can visit Barnes and Noble or Amazon at the following links (or simply Google "Moon Child Anthony Dyer for many options):https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/moon-child-anthony-dyer/1147103074https://www.amazon.ca/Moon-Child-Special-Missions-Aviator/dp/B0DZMXBHJ4

In this episode, Rachel Hollis addresses how to act like the future version of yourself to achieve greater successes. Drawing from her own experiences in event planning and business transformation, Rachel emphasizes the importance of daily proof, routines, and habits.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!00:46 Introduction to the Show03:00 Daily Practices for Confidence and Strength04:45 Understanding Identity and Reinvention10:35 The Power of a Brag File14:45 Business Advice and Overcoming Fear21:05 Hyping Yourself Up22:28 The Call to Leadership24:05 Breaking Free from Societal Norms25:12 Embracing Personal Evolution26:21 The Power of Daily Movement38:12 Closing Open Loops for Success44:26 Final Thoughts and Community CallSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kathryn and Coach Julie explore the idea of bringing integrity into your recovery from binge eating, which can help you have more clarity and motivation. We'll talk about what integrity looks like in many different aspects of recovery. You'll learn why integrity is not the same as perfection, and instead, it's about following through with what you want for yourself in the moments that matter most. Get the FREE 30-day Inspiration Booklet Join coach Julie's free Zoom call (11/28 from 2:00-2:30pmEST) Brain over Binge resources: Get personalized support with one-on-one coaching or group coaching Subscribe to the Brain over Binge Course for only $18.99 per month Get the Second Edition of Brain over Binge on Amazon and Audible, BarnesandNoble.com, Apple iBooks, or Kobo. Get the Brain over Binge Recovery Guide   Disclaimer: *The Brain over Binge Podcast is produced and recorded by Brain over Binge Recovery Coaching, LLC. All work is copyrighted by Brain over Binge Recovery Coaching, LLC, and all rights are reserved. As a disclaimer, the hosts of the Brain over Binge Podcast are not professional counselors or licensed healthcare providers, and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice or any form of professional therapy. Eating disorders can have serious health consequences and you are strongly advised to seek medical attention for matters relating to your health. Please get help when you need it, and good luck on your journey.

Special Patreon Release: Janelle Rupp Conversations with your Teen About Sex Puberty and Identity   *DISCLAIMER* This episode contains adult themes and is not intended for little ears.   "Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm." Proverbs 13:20 (NIV)   *Transcript Below*   Questions We Discuss: Perhaps one of the most asked questions by Christian singles is, "How far is too far?" How do you respond to that question? Knowing the importance of educating ourselves as adults, what is the most popular sexual behavior among teens? What are some wise and age-appropriate guidelines recommend for teaching our kids about sex and sexuality?   Janelle Rupp is a Christ-follower, wife & mom of three (in that order).  Upon graduating from Cedarville University with a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing and a Minor in Biblical Studies, she worked nine years as a Pediatric ICU nurse before transitioning into nine years of nursing education for the Empower Life Center of Peoria, Illinois. There she specialized in Sexual Health with an emphasis on Sexual-Risk Avoidance. After moving to the Atlanta, Georgia area, Janelle developed a Biblically-based, Christian & Home school curriculum entitled “Remember Whose You Are: Rooting Human Sexuality in Gospel Identity." Using an expositional study of Genesis 1-3 alongside evidence-based scientific research, the four-unit program builds on itself to establish how gospel identity determines holy & healthy & holy sexuality. With a passion for both science & Scripture, Janelle is currently teaching the curriculum at North Cobb Christian School while watching the Lord grow the program at schools nation-wide.  She can be reached at jrupp.rememberwhoseyouare@gmail.com.   Recommended website for Parents: axis.org   Thank you to our sponsor: Daisy Kings Use code SAVVY to Save!   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook, Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”   Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”   Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”   John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcript*   Music: (0:00 – 0:09)   Laura Dugger: (0:09 - 1:31) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. Today's message is not intended for little ears.   We'll be discussing some adult themes, and I want you to be aware before you listen to this message.   Thank you to Daisy King's, a skincare brand that meets simplicity. Their tallow-based products are made with wholesome, God-given ingredients to deeply nourish, restore, and protect your skin.   There are no toxins, no fillers, just pure, effective skincare. Visit DaisyKings.com to nourish, restore, and glow.   Janelle Rupp is my guest today, and she packed so much knowledge and inspiration into this time by educating us on a healthy view of sex, sharing God's holy and awe-inspiring design of our bodies, and ways that all of this points to Him.   She also is going to include meaningful conversations to have with our children throughout the years that they're in our home. Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Janelle.   Janelle Rupp: (1:32 - 1:35) Thanks so much, Laura. I'm so glad to be with you today.   Laura Dugger: (1:35 - 1:42) Will you just get us started by telling us a little bit about your faith journey and where it's brought you to today?   Janelle Rupp: (1:43 - 4:51) Sure. I was raised in a Christian home. I remember from a young age actually being struck with the realization that God loved me so much that He sent His own son for me.   But it really was probably more in my teenage years that I realized the depth of my sin, that it was great, and that Jesus was that bridge between who God was and who I was. Also, early on in my life, I knew I wanted to be a nurse, which is actually kind of interesting because there was no one in my family who was a nurse or in healthcare. But I had watched my mom care well for others in her family who had a myriad of mental and physical health problems.   So, I do think that the compassion that God put in my heart at a young age did find its place in a healthcare setting just over time and experiences I watched her. I really felt like my dream job would be to work in preventative healthcare, specifically with teenagers. And I had a heart for girls in really tough situations like teenage pregnancy.   It's a very marginalized group of humanity. And so, after college, I ended up in the pediatric intensive care unit at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis for about seven years. And during that time, I met my husband.   We got married. We had our first child. And then while pregnant with our second, we decided to move closer to my extended family back in Illinois.   And a few years after I had our second child, I actually ended up landing that dream job that I felt like the Lord had laid on my heart way back in college. And so, I started the Empower Life Center in Peoria, Illinois in 2008. And I worked there for nearly 10 years as a nurse educator, teaching parenting and newborn classes.   But my primary role was a sexual risk avoidance educator, specializing in sexually transmitted disease and infections. And I would teach in public schools and private schools and charter schools. It's a junior high and high school level and also a guest lecturer at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.   And I always tell people that no one grows up and hopes to be a sex teacher one day. I did not envision that God would put me in that area of education, but he did. And so, after 10 years of doing that, when our family then transitioned down to Atlanta, Georgia for a job transfer for my husband, we had chosen to put our kids, now three kids at that point, in Christian education.   And within months, the middle school principal had heard about my background and approached me to create a curriculum for their fifth through eighth graders that was centered on a biblical view of sex and sexuality. So, I spent a series of months developing that curriculum. I then decided to go ahead and accept a teaching job to teach that curriculum.   And it's entitled Remember Whose You Are. And it's designed as a four unit developmentally appropriate program for Christian schools or homeschool environments. And currently we're in the beginning stages of equipping and training other schools to implement it at their school as well.   Laura Dugger: (4:52 - 5:17) Wow, that is so interesting to hear how you got interested in teaching others this healthy view of God and sex. And at the foundation of your teaching, you begin with a theology of God. So, I'd love to zero in on just one of your points that God is a relational God.   Will you elaborate on that and share how it ties into this topic we're discussing today?   Janelle Rupp: (5:18 - 7:13) For sure. One of my goals in teaching this is just to help my students see God for who he is, fall in love with who he is. And God being relational is one of the places where I always notice that beginning to take shape.   I find evidence for that in Genesis 1:26, where it says, “and God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness.” The definition of the word relational means a desire to pursue relationship or connection with another. And before we think of God pursuing relationship with us, it's actually really critical to look at that verse and note that God is already relational within himself. So, we see evidence in that verse that he's referring to himself in a plural sense.   And when we take that alongside other areas of Scripture as well, we see God existing as Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, three in one, indicating that God does not need humanity for relationship. He only desires humanity for relationship. And one day, actually, when I was teaching that to a group of fifth grade boys last year, I said, God does not need you, but he wants you.   One of the fifth grade boys, in all complete sincerity, said, “Aww.” And it was one of the sweetest things I had ever heard because it was this very honest verbal expression of what it felt like to know that we are wanted by the God of the universe. I tell my students, “You know, someone only wants relationship with you when they love you.”   And so, while 1 John 4:8 tells us, “that God is love.” It's pretty amazing that way back in the first chapter of Genesis, as we find God creating man and creating woman, He's still incredibly loving that He even desired to create it in the first place. So, I think God being relational is such an important aspect to the who and the why of who He is.   Laura Dugger: (7:14 - 7:28) Absolutely. And I really envision this chat being a time when parents can listen alongside their teen or their tween or whenever it's age appropriate. So, will you just give us a glimpse of what you do teach in schools?   Janelle Rupp: (7:29 - 13:04) I would be happy too. The very first unit is just the who and the why of God. We focus on 10 characteristics of God, and then we transition to the who and the why of humanity.   What do all humans have in common? And we highlight eight characteristics that we all share in common. And then unit two, it's centered on the who and the why of me.   And specifically looking at Genesis 1:27, identity means that we're made in the image of God and that we are made male and female. So, Genesis 1:27 says, “So God made man in his own image, in the image of God, he made them male and female, he created them.” So, here we really want to introduce what does it mean to be made in the image of God as a social being, emotional being, a spiritual being, an intellectual being?   But also, what does it mean to be made with this physical body, male or female? And so, we introduced the reproductive system with an emphasis on puberty and human growth and development. And within that introduction, in that unit, I do something that's historically not been done in Christian settings, which is that I am teaching both the male and the female reproductive system to both genders.   And this next sentence may sound a little odd to some of your listeners. I know my students sometimes giggle when I say it, but I see the glory of God when I study the anatomy of both the male and the female reproductive systems and the intricacies of the design in order to see how they both work perfectly together. To me, it's awe-inspiring.   And so, I believe females have every right to see and begin to grasp the design of a male reproductive system. We use really basic anatomical diagrams for that. And then males equally have every right to see and begin to understand the basics of the female reproductive system using a diagram.   And my approach to that is clinical and scientific. It's definitely from an anatomy perspective. But I also make sure to take the time to point out some of, again, the beauty of the design.   For example, females, when they are born, are born with all the eggs that they will ever, ever have in their ovaries. And this design is super perfect because it means that you and I are not going to be 70 years old and find out that we're unexpectedly pregnant. Eventually, those eggs will run out about in our mid-40s.   And I always thank God for that design. It is a good design. Another one is just the female cervix.   The female cervix doesn't reach full maturity and protection until our early to mid-20s, where it then provides this wonderful protective barrier between the external and internal anatomy of the female reproductive system. When you explain things like that, I literally watch the kids have what I call light bulb moments, where they begin to see the why behind the design. And it's so important.   They've never taken the time to look at that and to hear it. In fact, I often call the reproductive system the forgotten body system. Christian kids in particular, they will get through a whole unit on the body having never talked about the reproductive system.   And if they are, then usually they're taught just about their own gender and they're missing that overarching beauty of what God designed. So, I think it's really important to highlight that reproductive system and for both genders. But in Unit 3, we move from the foundation of just gospel identity as made in His image and male and female into then specifically human sexuality.   And we use mostly Genesis 2 as we look through this about how God designed marriage and God designed sex, which is super clear in Genesis 2:24 and says, “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and take hold of his wife and they will become one flesh.” And so, God's design for marriage and sex is clear that it's between a man and a woman. And also that that man and woman should follow the order of this verse.   First, that they leave and leaving might be dating. It might be courting. It might be pursuing a relationship.   However, we set those boundaries for our kids. And then second, that they would take hold and experience the intimacy and blessing of marriage, referencing that connection that God put Adam and Eve in through marriage. And third and last in that order, but that they become one flesh, which is referencing sex.   And so, after explaining that very good design, we transition into Genesis 3. And honestly, I love how Moses starts off the chapter here, Genesis 3, by saying, “Now the serpent.” And I always tell the kids that I hear that music in my head of dun, dun, dun. Like you just know that everything is going to change.   This good design is going to change and it's not changing for the better. And so, we start then looking at all the distortions that sin has caused within the overall topic of sex. And that means not just looking at premarital sex, but also adultery, pornography, sexting, gender identity, sexual identity.   And honestly, that list just keeps on growing every year that I teach. And so, then unit four, that last unit, is what I call the now what unit. In light of taking everything that we know now about gospel identity and human sexuality, I really encourage the kids to start really thinking about how they practically should be living in relationships with someone that they're attracted to and that they want to pursue.   And we use the entire Bible to help us answer that question. We actually end that unit with the question and answer panel discussion, using questions that the students have come up with through the course of that week. And it's always a sweet time of conversation focused on, again, gospel identity and human sexuality.   Laura Dugger: (13:06 - 13:19) Oh my goodness, that is so amazing and comprehensive. If parents are listening and they're wondering just about that diagram, what age do you recommend showing something like that? How would you respond to that question?   Janelle Rupp: (13:20 - 14:08) That's an excellent question. So, we're doing that in sixth grade. You know, it always depends on what your child's exposure and experience is, what their environment is, and their curiosity.   I think each child is so different. But in general, sixth grade would be age 11, 12, I think that's 10 to 12 for sure. But even you could probably push it as you're talking about puberty, which is where we interject it, just because it gives reference to what is a period for a girl?   Or what are the changes as a male that I'm having inside my body right now? Where's that coming from? So, I think starting as young as eight or nine to 10.   No later really than 12, I think would be really, really important.   Laura Dugger: (14:09 - 14:16) Thank you. That is helpful. I'm assuming that you're everybody's favorite teacher and that this is their favorite course to take.   Janelle Rupp: (14:17 - 14:48) We have a lot of fun. And I love when the kids buy into it. You know, sometimes I'll find that kids come in and they're a little hesitant to talk about this or they feel awkward by it.   But I think, you know, coming at it from both a clinical perspective, but also a biblical perspective, doing my best to keep them at ease and have fun as we have these conversations. Eventually, they loosen up over time. And it ends up being a really sweet time to talk about stuff that really, really matters in life.   Laura Dugger: (14:48 - 15:05) It does. And you're sharing so much truth. And it is the truth that sets us free.   And I can see where that would overcome so much confusion. So, let's even get really practical. When you're teaching these young people about sex, how do you define it?   Janelle Rupp: (15:06 - 19:12) This is such a great question. No one's ever actually asked me this. And I think it's so, so important.   The CDC definition of sex, it is very complete in its definition. It does a really good job covering what I believe are really important distinctives within that definition. And so, that definition is, quote, “Sex is defined as any part of your body and or specifically your reproductive area coming into contact with another person's body and or specifically their reproductive area.”   And one of the key points that I want to point out from this definition includes this phrase, reproductive area. I find my students have no reference for that, and even adults often don't. But simply put, the reproductive area is anything on the outside of the body that covers the reproductive system organs on the inside of the body.   So, this area actually extends from the belly button down to the genitals. A lot of times we only reference those genitals, but it actually extends belly button down to the genitals. And so, again, people are often surprised by that.   But at the same time, you know, whether it's called the reproductive area or maybe a private area, people do commonly recognize the importance of keeping that area safe and private. I often stick with that phrase, reproductive area, to reference the importance of trust when it comes to keeping things safe and private as a jumping off point to just help the kids see that a person is trustworthy if they keep you safe and if they keep things private. And again, such an important thing that we need to teach our children is that if someone pushes past what feels safe for us or pushes past areas on our body that are private, our children need to know, and we need to know those are not trustworthy people.   And furthermore, we should then give our children permission to tell someone that they do trust, hopefully us, but somebody that they do trust, somebody that keeps things safe and private about any person whose words or actions don't prove trustworthy. And as a side note, giving kids appropriate anatomical names is so important for this as well. But if you aren't using those terms and they don't understand it, we're speaking a language that they can't understand and maybe aren't able to convey.   And so, I think additionally, as children get older and you continue to reference that reproductive area as an area you keep private, I think it's super important to keep going back to theology and to Scripture. And in Genesis 1 and 2, we don't see anything having to be kept private because there was nothing that needed to be private. And in fact, the end of Genesis 2 says in verse 25, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” My students giggle when we get to that verse because that sounds so foreign to them.   But reminding them that again, God's design was so good that there was nothing to be held back. They were fully intimately known by God and fully intimately known by each other and also without sin. But then when sin enters in Genesis 3, as Eve is tempted and enticed by the serpent, Adam is tempted, and enticed by Eve.   We see in that instant that sin changes every single thing because it causes Adam and Eve to then feel ashamed before God. They want to hide from God. It causes them to feel ashamed between each other.   They want to blame each other and it causes them to lose their sense of identity and purpose. And this is what happens to us, too, when sex and sin become entwined. It causes shame.   It causes us to hide. It makes us want to blame others. It causes us to question our identity and question our purpose.   But even though sexual sin changes the heart of man, it does not change the heart of God. And so, if our heart's desire is to love God in return for the love He's shown us, then our heart's desire should be to orient our lives around His design for our lives. And I would say even especially orienting our lives around His design for marriage and sex.   Laura Dugger: (19:13 - 19:23) Perhaps one of the most asked questions by Christian Singles is, How far is too far? So, how do you respond to that question?   Janelle Rupp: (19:24 - 25:50) Yes, I mean, this is the question that inevitably somebody's going to ask in my classes every single year. And no doubt, I mean, I think everyone has asked that question at some point or another in their lives. I certainly did.   And I was told that that was the wrong question. And I want to explain why first and then tell you how I answer it. But the reason was because when we look at Scripture in terms of holiness, which is having our heart completely for God versus idolatry, which means having our heart turned to something else, we see over and over and over in Scripture that we can't serve two masters.   We can't serve both holiness and idolatry. Matthew 6:24 is a great example. It's talking about the idolatry of money.   But it does say that whenever our heart is going after two things, we will either end up being devoted to the one and hate the other or devoted to the other and thus hate the one. And so, in other words, as we apply it to this question, we actually can't just straddle the line of both holiness and idolatry. And a lot of times that's where this heart of motivation of how far is too far is like, what line is the line that I can get to and still be holy?   But we really can't try to find and live on that line, because healthy and holy sexuality and sexual immorality doesn't exist. It is one or it is the other. And so, that's an important truth of Scripture.   I'm always in complete agreement with everything that I just said. But I also recognize that the Bible is really, really clear on how to give us direction in terms of setting boundaries and learning how to escape and endure temptation rather than to be enticed by it. And so, I teach my students a method to answer this question using an acronym called GRAY, G-R-A-Y, just to help them think biblically and critically about this question.   And actually it can be applied to any what I call the gray areas of life where Scripture may not specifically be very black and white about what we can and can't do. For example, another easy gray area topic within this same kind of umbrella idea would be dating. We aren't specifically told if we're to encourage our kids towards dating or courting or maybe arrange marriages.   Right. And yet I believe that there's four specific steps that we can use to determine the heart of God for our lives when it comes to gray areas of life. And so, the G in gray stands for go to God and it refers to prayer.   James 1:5 encourages believers to ask God for wisdom. It says, “He will give it generously to anyone who asks.” And I think praying for wisdom is such a foundational place to start on any topic, but specifically this one.   And then the R in the acronym stands for read the word. I always encourage my students and I would encourage parents as well, actively study the word of God, finding verses that give direction for decision making on this question. How far is too far?   One that I think jumped out at me is First Corinthians 10:23. As it's again, speaking of idolatry of the heart and it says, “all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful. I can do all things, but not all things are building up. And so, let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.”   So, when you apply that verse to this question of how far is too far, you begin to see that the question isn't so much is kissing OK, is anything done with our clothes on OK? But the question is more what behavior is helpful for me as I try to honor Christ with my body? What behavior builds up my desire to honor Christ with my life and or what behavior seeks to honor the person that I'm with?   And so, again, I think reading scripture can help us be able to know how to reframe that question and create boundaries. And then the A in gray stands for ask for advice. And here I encourage teens to seek out someone who is doing relationships well.   In other words, is there a couple that they admire, someone older than them that they admire, maybe a friend or sibling or a friend of a sibling, a teacher, a parent, a youth group leader? I found in my own life that God often gives wisdom through people like that. And actually, in the last 10 years, as I've been teaching this type of material, I found that asking couples that I respect this very same question.   How did you answer? How far is too far? It brings some of the best responses and encouragement that then I can share with my students to help them learn and grow.   So, I think asking for advice is a vital part of this. And then lastly, the Y stands for yield. It is the last step.   And yet it's such an important part of answering this question. Yield just simply means to wait. And you and I both know this generation does not like to wait.   Instinct gratification is their thing. And yet teaching them that there's so much value in yielding when we don't have clear answers to critical questions like this. So, I actually love to literally walk this out in front of the classroom.   I will demonstrate how, when I yield, I hold back on decisions such as how far is too far. I am always allowing myself room to continue to walk forward as I feel more certainty over the answer or I feel more led with the wisdom that God is continuing to give. However, if I walk forward without clarity, if I'm pushing boundaries that are perhaps lawful, I can.   But they're not to my benefit, not to my partner's benefit. Then it's very realistic that I am going to push farther than I am able to handle. It's going to bring harm to the relationship that I am in.   And I can't ever go back. The truth is that the line between being enticed by sin versus escaping and enduring the temptation to turn from sin. It's a thin line.   And so, helping teenagers with these four steps, I think just think more critically about where to set those boundaries is important. And then I do usually go on to encourage students to be really specific in writing out those boundaries. I'm a big fan that writing is remembering.   It stores in our long-term memory. And then to even share those boundaries in order to have accountability with them.   Laura Dugger: (25:51 - 27:47) And now a brief message from our sponsor. I would like to specifically address the ladies. Because let's talk skin care.   As moms, as women, we spend so much time caring for everyone else. But what about us? If you're tired of dull or dry skin and products filled with chemicals and fillers, it is time for something better.   God designed our skin to thrive with real nourishing ingredients. 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But I think this is really helpful having you share statistics.   So, what are some statistics you think we need to be aware of to educate us on sexuality and youth in America right now?   Janelle Rupp: (27:49 - 29:55) Yes, you know, this is constantly changing. And so, I do look for these on the regular. And so, the ones I'm currently kind of using as I educate this year, the average age of first pornography exposure is currently 11 years old.   And 1 out of every 10 visitors to porn sites are actually under the age of 10. And 22% of those are regular visitors to those sites. It's not that they're just there once.   They're regular visitors. When you talk about that next age group, 11 to 17-year-olds, 53% of them are accessing pornography. In addition, 1 out of every 14 are receiving sexually explicit material through social media, through texting.   And 1 out of every 17 are sending it, which is an interesting thing. I always tell my students that means that as people are receiving it, they're sending it to more than one person. And so, you know, somehow we could think that it's a conversation maybe staying between two people.   And almost in every case, that is not the reality. 41% of teens are engaging in sexual behavior and oral sex and vaginal sex and anal sex and what I call outer course. Every 11 minutes, CPS finds evidence of sexual abuse claims.   And 2 out of every 3 of those are age 12 to 17 years old. And then lastly, and this is kind of newer from a research study that is an important one, but identifying as LGBTQ+, has actually risen in teens on average by 4% in the last 5 years. Girls being higher than boys.   Girls averaging about 5% increase and boys at 3%. And I think, you know, you give those 9 quick statistics, and I'll be honest, you know, even every time I have to say them, I get that sinking feeling in my stomach. It takes a lot to shock me after 10 years of working with teens on this topic.   But it never feels good to say those out loud. I think it just reflects such brokenness on behalf of our culture's view of sex and sexuality.   Laura Dugger: (29:57 - 30:09) Wow, that is sobering. And if that reality feels alarming or overwhelming to a parent listening, then how would you advise them to educate their son or daughter?   Janelle Rupp: (30:10 - 33:09) Yeah, I think the scariest thing is when we allow those feelings that we're having to really just cripple us and our ability to parent our children through them. I had a mom come up last year, and she said, I'm just really exhausted by it all. I'm tired of checking up on my kid.   And, you know, as a mom of teenagers, I hear that. I resonate with that. But I think we need to fight through those feelings and encourage each other to fight through those feelings in order to parent with intention and godliness when it comes to these subjects.   I developed this Remember Who's You Are curriculum for students, but I 100% believe that parents are to be the first go-to for our kids on these topics, whether they feel like they have all the answers or not. It's really not the role of the school, nor of the church, nor of the youth pastor. It is primarily and foundationally the role of parents, with ideally then the school and the church, you know, locking arms with parents, coming alongside with a similar message.   And so, when it comes to equipping parents, which is something I feel strongly about as well, in order to have these ongoing conversations, I break down educating parents with three regular statements to help them kind of combat those feelings of overwhelmed or anxiousness when it comes to these topics. And the first regular statement would be to regularly educate yourself. We can't teach what we don't know.   And so, parents need to have answers to questions, and I'm going to give a series of questions here that I think need to be answered as examples, but there's certainly more. But questions like, what is God's design? Again, what is the reproductive area?   What does sexting mean? What does sending nudes mean? Because that's becoming actually a more popular phrase right now than using the phrase sexting.   Why is not porn good for our brains if it actually keeps us from not having sex outside of God's design? That's a question I've been asked. And a follow-up to that, what does the Bible say about masturbation?   How does a condom work? I've been asked that one. What is the most popular sexual behavior among teens?   Those are some toughies. You don't just kind of like pop out an answer to that without dedicating some time to researching those answers. I don't think that this needs to be an overwhelming amount of time.   In fact, I actually just encourage parents to set aside 15 to 20 minutes once a week, maybe even once every other week, but just put it on the calendar so that you really devote yourself to that time. You know, I think we dedicate ourselves as parents to things we care about. And I don't mean to say this harshly, but many moms spend much more time exercising than they do in their Bibles and figuring out answers to these questions and apologetic type answers.   And parents, you know, we spend a lot of time talking to our kids about sports and grades. And yet these are topics that have lasting relational impacts for their lives, not just in our family, but in their family to come. And so, we have to be diligent to set aside time and regularly educate ourselves.   Laura Dugger: (33:09 - 33:38) Janelle, I love all of this that you're saying. And I just want to pause on this first step of educating ourselves as the adults and as the parents. So, listening to something like this, hopefully people feel encouraged already doing a great job educating yourself.   And so, let's just answer a couple of those questions because it can be hard to know where do I go to find out these answers. I'm careful to Google this because something may pop up that I don't want to see.   Janelle Rupp: (33:38 - 33:38) Right.   Laura Dugger: (33:38 - 33:46) So, let's go with two of them. One of them you said is what is the most popular sexual behavior among teens right now?   Janelle Rupp: (33:47 - 34:46) Yeah, I think that this one is a little bit shocking for parents. And they often are unaware of where their teens are at as they are pushing boundaries on sexual behavior. You know, when I was growing up, oral sex became, and that's mouth to genitals, but that became a really popular sexual behavior.   And I remember hearing people say, well, that makes me feel a virgin because I now have not had vaginal sex. And so, again, just continuing to push these boundaries. So, now today's teenagers are past oral sex.   That's become just something that's normal and acceptable. And the most popular sexual behavior right now that you'll actually they will talk about and do would be anal sex right now, which is the anal area, which is obviously I always point this out, not actually the reproductive system, but in fact, the expiratory or the end of the digestive system. But that is the most popular sexual behavior among teens currently.   Laura Dugger: (34:47 - 35:14) That is really helpful to hear. And even years ago, when I was practicing as a marriage and family therapist, something that we learned was that the rise in pornography exposure was also corresponding or correlating with this rise in pressure for women to engage in anal sex. And that was a lot of times where it was coming from.   I'm assuming very similar with teens.   Janelle Rupp: (35:15 - 35:59) Yes, absolutely. And as our culture continues to kind of push the envelope on trying to get teenagers and adults to accept pornography is a natural part of human sexuality. I think we will just continue to see that behavior pushed more and more and more just among teens and relationships in general, which is really devastating.   I think of so many of these behaviors that are very degrading, particularly to women, but even to men. And again, that women, that girls would be thinking that that is considered an acceptable part of a relationship is such a tragedy, really. And again, just so reflective of the brokenness of our culture.   Laura Dugger: (36:00 - 36:19) And you bring up another question I want to follow up with, Ben, because porn is so destructive for a lifetime. But how do you answer that question if parents want to educate themselves of somebody making an argument of why not pornography if it keeps them from engaging in penetrative sex?   Janelle Rupp: (36:20 - 38:18) Yeah, so, there's some excellent websites that you can find that talk about the damaging effects of pornography. And I found, you know, good resources. Anyone's welcome to email me.   I'll include that later. But to get some of those resources. But it really does change and alter, actually, the connections that are created in the brain.   And one of the, I think, more interesting studies on pornography in the brain, as they looked at men who were watching and engaging in pornography, it would continually light up an area of the brain and stimulate it, which is an area of the brain that is usually lit and stimulated when a man would use power tools. And that's concerning on, I think, a couple of levels. One, that is degrading.   And again, this human made in the image of God to something that is to be just used. Right. And then second, anytime we engage in pornography, we are we're engaging more with a screen than a person.   And so, that intimacy level, that is something that's so precious about sex. You know, sex isn't just for making babies. It isn't just for this intimate connection.   It isn't just for pleasure. But it is to be wholly represented, all three of those when we look at God's design. But when we engage with pornography, we're completely reducing it down to one person's pleasure, one person's use.   And so, again, those connections that are supposed to exist between people now exist between a person and their screen. And you'll see across the board, these are people who easily get addicted. It's meant to be addicted, experience increased levels of depression, anxiety, suicide.   Grades go down for teenagers. They lose friends. So much research showing the devastating impact of pornography.   Laura Dugger: (38:19 - 38:32) That is really helpful. Thank you for sharing that. And back to that greater question. So, when you're advising parents to educate themselves, that's the first step. What's the next step in the process?   Janelle Rupp: (38:33 - 41:29) So, the second step that I recommend is to regularly to enter in. We aren't called to be our kids' best friends. We're called to step into their lives.   And that means stepping into friendships and relationships. It actually means stepping into their phone. You know, the amount of parents that tell me, I feel really bad because it's their phone.   And yet it's something that the parent is paying for, right? And so, that is a part of our lives, too. Theirs and ours.   But stepping into social media pages, their schools, their activities. And I think we don't have to be creepy about it. And that's what I think parents most, they're like, I don't want to creep my kid out or make them pull away.   I just think we have to be really intentional beforehand that we're developing this relationship of trust and communication. So, Josh McDowell has said rules without relationship equal rebellion. And so, the flip side of that is that when I have rules where I'm entering in and I have relationships where I'm entering in, that will equal trust.   And so, we need to keep entering in because we want to keep earning their trust. It goes both ways. We want that trust and communication.   So, entering in out of a desire for relationship, but also entering in with boundaries and rules for our kids in order to continue to build that trust between us. And then the third regularly statement is to regularly extend grace to yourself. Guilt and shame cannot go away without grace.   And a lot of us live with guilt and shame when it comes to these subjects. I often hear that that's one of the key reasons that parents will hesitate to talk to their child. They'll say to me, I don't want them to ask me about what I did.   And the only remedy for shame is grace. It's why God's plan to extend grace in sending Jesus. It's the best plan for our world because we're literally drowning in guilt and shame over these subjects.   And so, as parents, we first have to learn and work through accepting grace for ourselves. But for the purpose of extending it to others, it's very, very hard to extend grace when we haven't accepted it ourselves. And so, I think it starts with us.   And then again, it extends out to our kids. My husband and I were working through something that was happening with our teenagers this year. And I thought it was so profound.   As he said this statement, by God's grace, our kids will never get caught up in it. But it's also that same grace that will provide a way for our kids to get out of it. And so, we need to remember God's grace is greater than all of our sins.   And we can rest in that even if we don't do everything perfectly as a parent. Even if we forget to answer one of the questions. Even if our kids choose a path that is different than what we had taught them.   God's grace is greater than all of our sins.   Laura Dugger: (41:30 - 43:53) And I don't think we can hear that enough. So, thank you for that reminder.   Did you know that we are now accepting donations online through Venmo?   It's just one of our additional ways that you can give to support the work of the Savvy Sauce Charities and keep us on the air where we can keep providing this content for free. We pray that you'll consider partnering with us and generously donating before your end. Thanks for your support.   Well, Janelle, I think that you're so wise to teach parents that there's obviously no formula, and that's why it's so vitally important to keep in step with the spirit as we have these conversations with our children. But also, I'm sure that you've learned some wise and age-appropriate guidelines for teaching our kids about sex and sexuality.   So, will you share those with us for the different age ranges?   Janelle Rupp: (43:55 - 50:10) Yes, I think you're exactly right. There isn't a set formula because, again, as I mentioned before, every kid is different. Every experience and exposure is different.   But there are some general guidelines in order to, again, have these regular conversations with our kids. So, beginning ages kind of three to seven, I think focusing on what it means to be made in God's image, what it means to have a male part versus female part, how that kind of defines each gender. And understanding also what is private and safe within that is important.   So, one of the things that I did with my kids is very early on, as we were bathing in those ages, we would say, Thank you, God, for our fingers and our noses, and thank you, God, for our toes, and say, Thank you, God, for a penis because you're a boy, and thank you, God, for a vagina because you're a girl, and thank you for parts that we can't see inside of us. And I would name some of those parts as well, because I think it just helps them start recognizing, again, the beauty of what it means to be created by God. And also highlighting safe pictures and unsafe pictures, safe touch and unsafe touch, and stuff that I touched on before.   I think that's important as well. But then I personally believe this is one of the best ages to begin forming a framework on the sanctity of human life, that all life is created by God and for God in the image of God. And therefore, all life should be treated with dignity, respect, and love, regardless of size, regardless of gender, regardless of skin color, regardless of neediness or challenges.   It's a really natural and important tie-in to the subject at this age. And then when you get into that next age, age 8 to 10, I kind of think of it a little bit like preteen. Just continuing on with that conversation but bringing up this word puberty.   And kids always look terrified when I say that word. And I always tell them, then puberty is not a scary word. And I'm sorry that you have this vision that it is.   But puberty really is just human growth and development that make us male and make us female. And so, I think teaching our kids not to be even afraid of that word. There are parts that we need to keep private.   And yes, we don't need to talk about that with everybody. But these are not wrong or bad parts. They're parts that are created by God for God.   And God is a good God. And God is a sovereign God. And so, He created it for our good with us in mind.   And so, just continuing to engage and encourage our kids on those ideas at age 10. And then 10 to 12, and some educators would say sex should be introduced by age 10. I found that based on just, again, the exposure that my kids had, we had this type of a conversation as they headed into more age 11.   I think it for sure should be talked about before age 12. But at that point, you want to make sure you're including just a framework on what biblical sex and marriage is and what it's purposed for. Again, purpose for procreation, making babies, purpose for intimacy, even purpose for pleasure.   Listen, no 10 to 12-year-old is going to understand that part yet, which is fine because you're going to revisit it later when they're kids. This is a regular thing, right? But you want them to hear it from you.   You want them to hear it from you first so they understand that you are trustworthy. And so, they should be taught that sex is best seen in that context of marriage. One man, one woman that have left their father and mother, they've taken hold of each other in marriage.   And as a result, then a parent and actually ideally both parents, mom and dad, are able to help a child understand that framework and also recognize basic deviations outside of that framework. Not just that sex before marriage is outside, but also sex outside of marriage, the sexual and gender identity confusion. Anything that's falling outside of God's design for marriage and sex is a deviation from what he designed.   And then in that kind of 13 and older, recommendations that I make is always that you begin to establish a really good framework on how to have God-honoring relationships with someone of the opposite gender. I actually highly recommend Ephesians chapter 5 as you make this plan with your child. And a couple key points that it talks about within that chapter is that we treat those in the faith, those that share our common belief in Jesus Christ as brothers and sisters in Christ, in friendship and in a possible relationship, but one that has a lot of purpose and a plan in place.   But then we treat those who are not sharing our faith with love, but yet an understanding that those aren't relationships that I can pursue because I can't have an expectation that they are going to bring me closer to Christ, whereas the other should. And so, as parents within that, again, 13 and older category, you really need to start paying very much attention and entering in into those relationships that they have with their friends and their peers, because this is the second biggest impact maker on their decision-making next to you. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with the wise will be wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”   I really believe in parents. If you need to change up their environment in order to help them form more God-honoring relationships in step with that Ephesians 5, we should not be afraid to do so. And again, continuing to expand on those other frameworks before, because regular conversations, but you're just getting into greater detail, more fine-tuning.   And I actually think at this age, too, you're digging deep into the truth of Scripture with your child. So, you let them come alongside you as you're learning how to answer these questions so that they can continue to refine who they are in Christ and to refine how to keep accountable with the Word of God and to refine how to set boundaries and how to navigate relationships in what I call purposeful dating versus purposeless dating. And purposeful dating, really just the overarching idea there is just that in the end, if it does end, that there may be sadness, but that there is also learning that comes so that I am lessening the brokenness and damage that may come as a result as well.   Laura Dugger: (50:11 - 50:30) And I love how also in your teaching, you lay out specific guidelines that don't fit within an age category, but they're more so for children who are at cell phone age or where they have unattended internet use. So, will you share some of those guidelines with us now, too?   Janelle Rupp: (50:31 - 54:54) Yes, for sure. You know, I always say when you introduce a cell phone to your child, especially one that has internet included with that phone, it does change a little of those guidelines that I just mentioned in that you need to increase the speed and the ages or decrease the ages, technically, in which you are discussing these things. Just because you're giving them a lot of access to things that will speak an opposite message from what you would be saying.   And so, when I encourage parents to look at a couple things as they're making the decisions about when to give a cell phone, I think you're specifically looking at does your child understand what it means to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit? And are they showing evidence of the fruits of his work in their lives? In other words, do I see evidence of the Spirit in the life of my child?   And so, that means does he or she recognize self-control? They know when they have it and they know when they don't. Do they recognize how to be a peacemaker?   Do they recognize how to be loving in what they say and what they do? Do they recognize and show faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, joy, patience, all of those fruits of the Spirit? And do they recognize and show that not just in person with someone, but even behind the screen when they don't see that person face to face?   And listen, no parent is going to say, oh, yeah, 100% of the time my kid is showing evidence of the fruits of the Spirit. But if I can honestly say yes, my child is showing that he is growing in evidence of that. And then you decide this is the age for him to have a phone.   Most educators, I'll just be super clear, most educators that work with teens, they recommend an age of anywhere from 13 to 15. But when you do give that, those same adults that work with those teens will also say the following, that a device should not be allowed in a private room or a private place. There should be a family charging place.   And we are on phones when we are around other people. And then that you should also have no phone zones for us. The dinner table is one of our very most important ones so that we are learning how to, again, continue to engage in conversation with one another without our phones, which is growing the relationship building that we want to grow.   And so, we hold to those boundaries. Understanding that an all access, unmonitored pass to the Internet does break down identity. It does work against.   And there's so much evidence to this. You know, even five years ago, I was less inclined to say hard and fast rules on the use of cell phones for teens. However, more and more and more and more, we continue to see research study after research study.   There's documentaries. Now there's reports about the dangers of the unlimited, unmonitored access to screens and how it hurts our kids emotionally, intellectually, socially, spiritually and even physically. I mean, I think of less sleep.   Right. Something that I've learned over these 10 years is that no kid stumbles into pornography with the use of their phone on purpose. So, so, so many times the first time is an accident and it happens again because that Internet use is unmonitored.   And so, here's another hard truth as well. It often also happens because someone else in the house or the family may be viewing pornography and it's in that browser history or it's in the logarithm of the device they're using. And so, understanding what drives that first use, but then the ramifications of that first look.   So, even if it's an inadvertent look, the hook to pornography is so addicting. And again, we talked about the damaging effects on our brains, our emotions and our relationship. So, I just think monitoring phones and Internet access is, yes, exhausting.   I mean, I feel it. But at the same time, the risk is so great that there's no way that we can stop while they are in our home. Because the worry and the regret of, oh, I should have done X, Y, Z, I think outweighs any type of temporary exhaustion for me in my day to have to check and monitor phone use.   Laura Dugger: (54:55 - 55:21) That's such a good point. It's going to cost us energy on one side or the other. But that is a wise choice to go with the hard choice first and hopefully more of an easier or more fruitful path.   When you reflect on our conversation so far, what hope do we all have for the gospel of grace impacting us specifically as it relates to our sexuality?   Janelle Rupp: (55:23 - 58:58) When I hear that question, I really love it. I instantly think shame is a result of sin, connecting that to the grace that is shown from our Creator and our Redeemer. And all of that, again, is really on display in Genesis 3.   And so, I want to take us there as I answer that question. I tell my students shame has two definitions. There is shame as a verb to shame someone.   And then there is shame as a noun to feel shame as a result of something that we have done wrong. Shame as a verb is something we never want to do. That's not a good thing, right?   But shame as a noun is actually a God-given gift that is meant to bring us back into relationship with God. And you look at how Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. It makes me chuckle, honestly, because as they feel the shame of their sin, their next step is to create garments to cover themselves.   And their shame was so great, but they went ahead and put these fig leaves on top of their bodies, these parts that now have to be private because of shame. And I just think to myself, those fig leaves had to have been so insufficient. We do this too, though.   We come up with ways to clothe ourselves to cover up the shame that we feel. It might be past sexual sin. It might be present sexual sin.   And we try our best to hide it. We try our best to make ourselves look presentable with our covering so that people won't see our sin and see our shame. I mean, all of that is that feeling that comes from that feeling of shame as a result of sin.   But what's beautiful when we look at Genesis 3, when Adam finally comes clean about his sin and shame. And I will say, listen, he doesn't do it perfectly because God has to literally say, where are you? Knowing where he is, but like basically saying, Adam, come out, come clean, right?   But as Adam does come clean about his sin and the shame that he's feeling, right? What does God do? God covers Adam and Eve with garments that He provides and He makes from the very first shedding of blood that we see recorded in Scripture.   And I'm doing it now. I weep every single time that I talk about this part, because God knows how to deal with shame so much better than we do. He knows how to deal with our shame in a way and cover us in a way that is a once for always.   And it's Genesis 3 is just a beautiful foreshadowing of how Christ is going to be sent. And there he comes in Matthew, right? To cover shame forever.   And so, as we remember that Jesus spilled his blood on a cross and then resurrected, conquering death and sin and the grave. We also get covered by that blood so that we no longer have to hide. We no longer have to feel that shame.   And we can stand, Romans 8 says, without condemnation. “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ,” because Christ has covered us with garments completely and perfectly for forever. And so, our hope in this for our own sin, our past sin, any present sin, any future sin, and our hope for any sin that may rise up out of the heart of our child.   It's in the gospel that the gracious and loving covering that God gives us through Jesus is complete, making us right before God for all time.   Laura Dugger: (58:58 - 1:00:05) I love that so much, Janelle. And it makes me think of, I can't remember the research study, but they tracked people's brains when they were feeling like shame or regret or guilt. And found that sometimes people who struggle with anxious thoughts, that they have an over-functioning part of their brain where they can have those feelings of shame, sometimes when they haven't done anything shameful.   So, there's almost like a real guilt or a false guilt. And all of this conversation brings me to 2 Corinthians 7:10, where God addressed that first, because in the Bible it says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” And so, if we're going like even a level deeper to tease out that shame, sometimes we've felt that before.   Maybe, let's say, if something was done to us, and that's not the same shame that requires repentance, which is the godly sorrow. So, does that make sense?   Janelle Rupp: (1:00:05 - 1:00:28) Yes, exactly. That's exactly my point. And getting the kids to understand the difference between those shames but then seeing shame as not something that I have to push against.   Because if it is that godly shame that comes after me making a wrong choice, that is that shame to bring me closer to God in and through repentance. And again, that's a beautiful thing.   Laura Dugger: (1:00:29 - 1:00:39) It is, and it leads to freedom, which we may not think of in the moment, but that confession and bringing something to the light, that that is the best way to live.   Janelle Rupp: (1:00:39 - 1:00:40) Exactly.   Laura Dugger: (1:00:40 - 1:00:48) Are there any other important takeaways that you want parents and their children to be aware of as it applies to sex and sexuality?   Janelle Rupp: (1:00:49 - 1:02:44) Yes, you know, I think of two things here. The first being that, you know, sexual sin is really just one of many sins that Christ covers that he died for. You know, the blood of Christ covers the adulterer just as much as it covers the gossiper.   It covers the pregnant teenager and her boyfriend just as much as it covers you and I. And I think in the past, the church has overemphasized this sin and underemphasized others. But yet on the flip side, I mean, I think we really can't deny these are sins.   And even when we look at Scripture, it doesn't deny this. These are sins that carry a greater consequence and potential for enticing us towards, again, more habitual, ongoing sin in ways that just affect us deeper than other sins, which is why 1 Corinthians 6:18 says “Flee from sexual immorality.” And I'm going to pause there for just a second, because the Greek word for sexual immorality is the word pornea.   And you and I can't hear the word pornea without immediately thinking of porn. And so, I think it's fascinating that the root word for pornography is literally translated as sexual immorality. It's really an important thing.   But 1 Corinthians 6:18, again, it starts saying “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside of the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” And this means that sexual sin at its root is a problem of identity, which is, again, why you have to link that human sexuality with gospel identity.   Our aim cannot be for our children to make it to marriage having never had sex or never getting pregnant. To me, that's a low fruit. That is a low aim.   Our aim needs to be raising children with a gospel identity that is rooted in the creative and redemptive work of Jesus Christ and seeing the outgrowth from there.   Laura Dugger: (1:02:44 - 1:02:56) Wow. Well said. And if we boil all of this down, what is just one action step that you first recommend for anyone who finishes this message today?   Janelle Rupp: (1:02:57 - 1:04:19) Yeah, I'm going to give you a three-in-one just tying back to those three key regularly statements. One of the primary resources that I love to recommend in terms of educating ourselves is for parents to go to axis.org. That is A-X-I-S dot org, and sign up to receive their free Culture Translator weekly newsletter. And that will be sent to your email on a weekly basis for free.   And it gives a whole rundown of what's been happening in teen culture for that week. And just by simply opening up your email, you're going to start educating yourself. And they also have a host of other excellent resources and podcasts and a ton of material on their website that I would recommend.   But that's just one little step. And then for the enter in, I would recommend scheduling a date now. Put it on your calendar.   Find a time to take your child on a shopping date, an ice cream date, so that you can begin to enter into their lives and keep building that relationship with them. And then lastly, between now and that date, just open up God's Word. Reflect on the grace of God.   Let it wash over your heart. Let it wash over your mind. Get engaged with worship.   All of those will equip you well to do that hard work of entering in with your child when you meet them for that date.   Laura Dugger: (1:04:20 - 1:04:29) I've loved this chat so much. And if anybody's wondering about

Adversity is inevitable — especially for today's youth, who face mounting pressures, shifting social landscapes, and an often relentless pursuit of perfection. Yet, within those challenges lies the potential for remarkable growth. How do we help young people not just survive, but truly thrive in the face of life's struggles?   In this episode, Cindy Watson invites us to explore that question with Dr. Christine Silverstein, a leading expert in peak performance and mind-body resilience.Together, they unpack how tools like self-hypnosis, mental rehearsal, and positive self-talk can help build Mindful Toughness® — a mindset that transforms fear into focus and setbacks into stepping stones. Together, let us explore Wrestling Through Adversity: Empowering Youth With the Skill Sets to Thrive.   In this episode, you will discover:   What does mindful toughness mean? And how does it tie into the idea about being able to negotiate our best life? The importance of inner negotiation in building resilience. How do you learn to handle adversity if you've been sheltered from it? what should parents, educators, and leaders understood about how young people negotiate stress and fear and even identity today? The most essential mindset shifts that young people can make to become more empowered negotiators of their own futures. And many more!   Learn more about Dr. Christine Silverstein:   Website: https://drchristinesilverstein.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winning-ways-for-wrestlers/about/?viewAsMember=true Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063704306329 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYSxKE0SsfPtvFmNR5HjpQA   About the book: https://drchristinesilverstein.com/about-book/   If you're looking to up-level your negotiation skills, I have everything from online to group to my signature one-on-one mastermind & VIP experiences available to help you better leverage your innate power to get more of what you want and deserve in life. Check out our website at www.artofFeminineNegotiation.com if that sounds interesting to you.   Get Cindy's book here: Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/Art-Feminine-Negotiation-Boardroom-Bedroom-ebook/dp/B0B8KPCYZP?inf_contact_key=94d07c699eea186d2adfbddfef6fb9e2&inf_contact_key=013613337189d4d12be8d2bca3c26821680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1 EBook   https://www.amazon.com/Art-Feminine-Negotiation-Boardroom-Bedroom-ebook/dp/B0B8KPCYZP?inf_contact_key=94d07c699eea186d2adfbddfef6fb9e2&inf_contact_key=013613337189d4d12be8d2bca3c26821680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1 Barnes and Noble   https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-art-of-feminine-negotiation-cindy-watson/1141499614?ean=9781631959776 CONNECT WITH CINDY: Website: www.womenonpurpose.ca Website: www.practicingwithpurpose.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/womenonpurposecommunity/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenonpurposecoaching/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thecindywatson Show: https://www.womenonpurpose.ca/media/podcast-2/ X(Twitter):  https://twitter.com/womenonpurpose1 YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@hersuasion Email: cindy@womenonpurpose.ca

Have you ever watched a movie, or a show that dealt with satanic abuse or mind control, and thought that you're grateful it wasn't real? It seems too horrific, and too traumatic to possibly be something that takes place in our world. Tragically, it absolutely does, and you would be surprised to know how closely you might come in contact with it with people you meet. There are people all over the world who are suffering even as you read this, at the hands of someone who appears as a normal and sane person.You, someone you know, or love could be hiding, and suppressing immense damage done to them as a child. They may or may not even remember the details, but they know that something is indeed not right. Listen in today as Tiffany Jo Baker spends time talking with Kelly Hawley, founder of Warrior Bride Ministries. They will discuss the different forms of mind control and abuse that are prevalent in our world today, and how God can heal and restore from them as well.Listen in for:How prevalent mind control really isWho might be the most susceptible When disassociation could occurWhy a person needs healing from mind control Favorite Quotes:“The whole goal (of mind control), ultimately or part of it, is to keep them away from Yeshua, that He can never redeem them.” - Kelly Hawley“Dissociation is something that the Lord put in our design to deal with the more natural trauma that would happen in this life, but the enemy has manipulated it.” - Kelly HawleyFavorite Scripture:"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." - Isaiah 61:1To learn more about Kelly Hawley and all they have going on at Warrior Bride Ministries, be sure to visit https://warriorbrideministries.com/*Want timely words, resources and episodes delivered right to your inbox to help you fuel and fulfill your faith journey? Simply subscribe today to never miss an episode at https://www.tiffanyjobaker.com/subscribe (don't worry, you won't get spam or excessive emails)*If you're looking for perfectly polished people or podcast, this isn't for you. We're real people, with real good information, and a really great God.Don't miss the next Tiffany Jo Baker Podcast episode as we continue to help you GET FREE, LIVE FULL & THANK GOD! You can watch on YouTube and https://www.tiffanyjobaker.com/tiffany-jo-baker-podcast or listen in on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Ratings and reviews are like high-fives and “go-girl's” on podcast Helping you refresh and refocus so you can do all the things you are called and created to do, my 31 Day Devotional “Soul-Care for Go-Getters” is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and my website shop here. ( https://www.tiffanyjobaker.com/go-getters-devo )As a 3x Surrogate, Speaker, Soul-Care and Success Coach and Spirit-led Strategist, I uplift the soul and success of women like you who are walking out your WHY, so you can birth your God-given dreams at home, online, and in the real world. Find me, @TiffanyJoBaker, on Instagram , Facebook and https://www.tiffanyjobaker.com. I would love to connect with you there!

In this week's episode, I rate the movies and streaming shows I saw in Autumn 2025. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in The Ghosts series at my Payhip store: GHOSTS2025 The coupon code is valid through December 1, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 278 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November 21st, 2025, and today I am sharing my reviews of the movies and streaming shows I saw in Fall 2025. We also have a Coupon of the Week and an update my current writing, audiobook, and publishing projects. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off all the ebooks in The Ghosts series at my Payhip store, and that is GHOSTS2025. And as always, we'll have the link to my Payhip store and the coupon code in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code is valid through December 1, 2025, so if you need a new ebook for this fall, we have got you covered. Now for my current writing and publishing projects: I'm very pleased to report that Blade of Shadows, the second book in my Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series, is now out. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and my Payhip store. By the time this episode goes live, all those stores should be available and you can get the book at any one of them and I hope you will read and enjoy it. I'm also 15,000 words into what will be my next main project Wizard-Assassin, the fifth book in the Half-Elven Thief series, and if all goes well, I want that to be out before Christmas. I'm also working on the outline for what will be the third book in the Blades of Ruin series, Blade of Storms, and that will hopefully, if all goes well, be the first book I publish in 2026. In audiobook news, as I mentioned last week, the audiobook of Blade of Flames is done and I believe as of this recording, you can get at my Payhip store, Google Play, Kobo, and I think Spotify. It's not up on Audible or Apple yet, but that should be soon, if all goes well. That is excellently narrated by Brad Wills. Hollis McCarthy is still working on Cloak of Embers. I believe main recording is done for that and it just has to be edited and proofed, so hopefully we'll get both audiobooks to you before the end of the year. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. 00:02:08 Main Topic of the Week: Autumn 2025 Movie Review Roundup Now on to this week's main project, the Autumn 2025 Movie Review Roundup. I watched a lot of classic horror movies this time around. The old Universal black and white monster movies from the '30s and '40s turned up on Prime for Halloween and I hadn't seen them since I was a kid, so I watched a bunch of them in October and November, which seemed an appropriate thing to do for Halloween. They mostly held up as well as I remembered from when I was a kid, which was a nice surprise. As ever, the grades I give these movies are totally subjective and based on nothing more than my own opinions and thoughts. With that, let's take a look at the movies from least favorite to most favorite. First up is The Other Guys, which came out in 2010 and this is a parody of the buddy cop/ cowboy cop movie along with a heavy critique of the reckless and corrupt culture of late 2000s Wall Street. "Dumb funny" movies I've noticed tend to fall on either side of the "dumb but actually funny" or "dumb and not funny" line. And this one definitely landed on "dumb but actually funny". Danson and Highsmith, played by The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, are two maverick popular detectives who never do paperwork. Their paperwork is always done by Allen Gamble, who's played by Will Ferrell and Terry Hoitz, played by Mark Wahlberg. Gamble is a mild-mannered forensic accountant, while Hoitz desperately wants to be as cool as either Danson or Highsmith, but since he accidentally shot Yankees player Derek Jeter (in a recurring gag), he's a pariah within the New York Police Department. However, Danon and Highsmith's plot armor suddenly run out and they accidentally kill themselves in a darkly hilarious scene that made me laugh so much I hurt a little. Hoitz wants to step into their shoes, but Gamble has stumbled onto potentially dangerous case and soon Hoitz and Gamble have to overcome their difficulties and unravel a complicated financial crime. This was pretty funny and I enjoyed it. Amusingly in real life, someone like Gamble would be massively respected in whatever law enforcement agency he works for, since someone who prepares ironclad paperwork and correct documentation that stands up in court is an invaluable asset in law enforcement work. Overall Grade: B Next up is Fantastic Four: First Steps, which came out in 2025. I like this though, to be honest, I liked Thunderbolts and Superman 2025 better. I think my difficulty is I never really understood The Fantastic Four as a concept and why they're appealing. Maybe the Fantastic Four are one of those things you just have to imprint on when you're a kid to really enjoy or maybe at my age, the sort of retro futurism of the Four, the idea that science, technology, and rational thought will solve all our problems does seem a bit naive after the last 65 years of history or so. Additionally, the idea of a naked silver space alien riding a surfboard does seem kind of ridiculous. Anyway, the movie glides over the origin story of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm and gets right into it. To their surprise, Reed and Sue find out that Sue is pregnant, which seemed unlikely due to their superpower induced genetic mutations. Shortly after that, the Silver Surfer arrives and announces that Earth will be devoured by Galactus. The Four travel in their spaceship to confront Galactus and realize that he's a foe far beyond their power, but Galactus offers them a bargain. If Reed and Sue give him their son, he will leave Earth in peace. They refuse and so it's up to the Four to figure out a way to save Earth and Reed and Sue's son. Pretty solid superhero movie all told, but it is amusing how in every version of the character, Reed Richards is allegedly the smartest man on Earth but still can't keep his mouth shut to save his life. Overall Grade: B The next movie is Superman, which came out in 1978. After seeing the 2025 version of Superman, I decided to watch the old one from the '70s. It's kind of a classic because it was one of the progenitors of the modern superhero film. Interestingly, it was one of the most expensive films ever made at that time, costing about $55 million in '70s-era dollars, which are much less inflated than today. A rough back of the envelope calculation would put 55 million in the '70s worth at about $272 million today, give or take. Anyway, this was a big gamble, but it paid off for the producers since they got $300 million back, which would be like around $1.4 billion in 2025 money. Anyway, the movie tells the origin story of Superman, how his father Jor-El knows that Krypton is doomed, so he sends Kal-El to Earth. Kal-El is raised as Clark Kent by his adoptive Kansas parents and uses his powers to become Superman- defender of truth, justice, and the American way. Superman must balance his growing feelings for ace reporter Lois Lane with his need for a secret identity and the necessity of stopping Lex Luthor's dangerous schemes. Christopher Reeve was an excellent Superman and the special effects were impressive by the standards of 1978, but I think the weakest part of the movie were the villains. Lex Luthor just seemed comedic and not at all that threatening. Unexpected fun fact: Mario Puzio, author of The Godfather, wrote the screenplay. Overall Grade: B Next up is Superman II, which came out in 1980. This is a direct sequel to the previous movie. When Superman stops terrorists from detonating a nuclear bomb by throwing it into space, the blast releases the evil Kryptonian General Zod and his minions from their prison and they decide to conquer Earth. Meanwhile, Superman is falling deeper in love with the Lois Lane and unknowing of the threat from Zod, decides to renounce his powers to live with Lois as an ordinary man. I think this had the same strengths and weaknesses as the first movie. Christopher Reeve was an excellent Superman. The special effects were impressive by the standards of the 1980s, but the villains remained kind of comedic goofballs. Additionally, and while this will sound harsh, this version of Lois Lane was kind of dumb and her main function in the plot was to generate problems for Superman via her questionable decisions. Like at the end, Superman has to wipe her memory because she can't keep his secret identity to herself. If this version of Lois Lane lived today, she'd be oversharing everything she ever thought or heard on TikTok. The 2025 movie version of Lois, by contrast, bullies Mr. Terrific into lending her his flying saucer so she can rescue Superman when he's in trouble and is instrumental in destroying Lex Luthor's public image and triggering his downfall. 1970s Louis would've just had a meltdown and made things worse until Superman could get around to rescuing her. Overall, I would say the 1978 movie was too goofy, the Zac Snyder Superman movies were too grimdark, but the 2025 Superman hit the right balance between goofy and serious. Overall Grade: B Next up is Dracula, which came out in 1931, and this was one of the earliest horror movies ever made and also one of the earliest movies ever produced with sound. It is a very compressed adaptation of the stage version of Dracula. Imagine the theatrical stage version of Dracula, but then imagine that the movie was only 70 minutes long, so you have to cut a lot to fit the story into those 70 minutes. So if you haven't read the book, Dracula the movie from 1931 will not make a lot of sense. It's almost like the "Cliff's Notes Fast Run" version of Dracula. That said, Bela Lugosi's famous performance as Dracula really carries the movie. Like Boris Karloff in Frankenstein and The Mummy (which we'll talk about shortly), Bela Lugosi really captures the uncanny valley aspect of Dracula because the count isn't human anymore and has all these little tics of a creature that isn't human but only pretending to be one. Edward Van Sloan's performance as Dr. Van Helsing is likewise good and helped define the character in the public eye. So worth watching as a historical artifact, but I think some of the other Universal monster movies (which we'll discuss shortly) are much stronger. Overall Grade: B Next up is The Horror of Dracula, which came out in 1958. This is one of the first of the Hammer Horror movies from the '50s, starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing and Christopher Lee as Count Dracula. It's also apparently the first vampire movie ever made in color. Like the 1931 version of Dracula, it's a condensed version of the story, though frankly, I think it hangs together a little better. Van Helsing is a bit more of an action hero in this one, since in the end he engages Dracula in fisticuffs. The movie is essentially carried by the charisma of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee and worth watching as a good example of a classic '50s horror movie. Overall Grade: B Next up is The Wolf Man, which came out in 1941. This is another one of the classic Universal horror movies. This one features Lon Cheney Jr. as Larry Talbot, the younger son of Sir John Talbot. Larry's older brother died in a hunting accident, so Larry comes home to reconcile with his father and take up his duties as the family heir. Larry is kind of an amiable Average Joe and is immediately smitten with the prettiest girl in the village, but when he takes her out for a walk, they're attacked by a werewolf, who bites Larry. Larry and everyone else in the village do not believe in werewolves, but they're about to have their minds changed the hard way. The transformation sequences where Larry turns into the Wolfman were cutting edge of the time, though poor Lon Chaney Jr had to stay motionless for hours as they gradually glued yak hair to him. I think Claude Rains had the best performance in the movie as Sir John and he's almost the co-protagonist. Overall Grade: B Next up is Jurassic World: Rebirth, which came out in 2025, which I thought was a perfectly straightforward but nonetheless enjoyable adventure film. After all the many disasters caused by various genetic engineering experiments in the previous movies, dinosaurs mostly live in relatively compatible ecosystems and tropical zones near the equator. No one's looking to create a theme park with dinosaurs or create bioengineered dinosaurs as military assets any longer. However, the dinosaurs are still valuable for research and a pharmaceutical company is developing a revolutionary drug for treating cardiac disease. They just need some dinosaur blood from three of the largest species to finish it, and so the company hires a team of mercenaries to retrieve the blood. We have the usual Jurassic Park style story tropes: the savvy mercenary leader, the scientist protesting the ethics of it all, the sinister corporate executive, the troubled family getting sucked into the chaos. And of course, it all goes wrong and there are lots and lots of dinosaurs running around. It's all been done before of course, but this was done well and was entertaining. Overall Grade: B+ Next up is The Thursday Murder Club, which came out in 2025, and this is a cozy mystery set in a very high-end retirement home. Retired nurse Joyce moves into Coopers Chase, the aforementioned high end retirement home. Looking to make new friends, she falls in with a former MI6 agent named Liz, a retired trade unionist named Ron, and psychiatrist Ibrahim, who have what they call The Thursday Murder Club, where they look into cold cases and attempt to solve them. However, things are not all sunshine and light at Coopers Chase as the two owners of the building have fallen out. When one of them is murdered, The Thursday Murder Club has to solve a real murder before Coopers Chase is bulldozed to make high-end apartments. A good cozy mystery with high caliber acting talent. Both Pierce Brosnan and Jonathan Price are in the movie and regrettably do not share a scene together, because that would've been hilarious since they were both in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies in the '90s with Brosnan as Bond and Price as the Bond villain for the movie. Overall Grade: B+ Next up is The Creature From the Black Lagoon, which came out in 1954 and is one of the last of the black and white classic horror movies since in the '50s, color film was just around the corner. When a scientist finds the unusual half fish, half human fossil on a riverbank in Brazil, he decides to organize an expedition upriver to see if he can find the rest of the fossil. The trail leads his expedition to the mysterious Black Lagoon, which all the locals avoid because of its bad reputation, but a living member of the species that produce the fossils lurking the lagoon while it normally doesn't welcome visitors, it does like the one female member of the expedition and decides to claim her for its own. The creature was good monster and the underwater water sequences were impressive by the standards of the 1950s. Overall Grade: A- Next up is The Invisible Man, which came out in 1933, and this is another of the classic Universal black and white horror movies. Jack Griffin is a scientist who discovered a chemical formula for invisibility. Unfortunately, one of the drugs in his formula causes homicidal insanity, so he becomes a megalomaniac who wants to use his invisibility to rule the world. This causes Griffin to overlook the numerous weaknesses of his invisibility, which allow the police to hunt him down. The Invisible Man's special effects were state of the art at the time and definitely hold up nearly a hundred years later. It's worth watching as another classic of the genre. Claude Rains plays Griffin, and as with The Wolf Man, his performance as Griffin descends into homicidal insanity is one of the strengths of the movie. Overall Grade: A- Next up is The Mummy, which came out in 1932, and this is another of the original Universal black and white horror movies. Boris Karloff plays the Mummy, who is the ancient Egyptian priest Imhotep, who was mummified alive for the crime of desiring the Pharaoh's daughter Ankh-es-en-Amon. After 3,000 years, Imhotep is accidentally brought back to life when an archeologist reads a magical spell and Imhotep sets out immediately to find the reincarnation of his beloved and transform her into a mummy as well so they can live together forever as undead. Edward Van Sloan plays Dr. Mueller, who is basically Edward Van Sloan's Van Helsing from Dracula if Van Helsing specialized in mummy hunting rather than vampire hunting. This version of the Mummy acts more like a Dungeons and Dragons lich instead of the now classic image of a shambling mummy in dragging bandages. That said, Boris Karloff is an excellent physical actor. As he does with Frankenstein, he brings Imhotep to life. His performance captures the essence of a creature that hasn't been human for a very long time, is trying to pretend to be human, and isn't quite getting there. Of course, the plot was reused for the 1999 version of The Mummy with Brendan Fraser. That was excellent and this is as well. Overall Grade: A- Next up is The Wedding Singer, which came out in 1998, and this is basically the Adam Sandler version of a Hallmark movie. Adam Sandler plays Robbie, a formerly famous musician whose career has lapsed and has become a wedding singer and a venue singer. He befriends the new waitress Julia at the venue, played by Drew Barrymore. The day after that, Robbie's abandoned at the altar by his fiancée, which is understandably devastating. Meanwhile, Julia's fiancé Glenn proposes to her and Robbie agrees to help her with the wedding planning since he's an expert in the area and knows all the local vendors. However, in the process, Robbie and Julia fall in love, but are in denial about the fact, a situation made more tense when Robbie realizes Glenn is cheating on Julia and intends to continue to do so after the wedding. So it's basically a Hallmark movie filtered through the comedic sensibilities of Adam Sandler. It was very funny and Steve Buscemi always does great side characters in Adam Sandler movies. Overall Grade: A Next up is Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, which came out in 2025. This movie was sort of a self-indulgent victory lap, but it was earned. The writers of the sitcom Community used to joke that they wanted "six seasons and a movie" and Downton Abbey got "six seasons and three movies". Anyway, this movie is about handing off things to the next generation. Lord Grantham is reluctant to fully retire as his daughter goes through a scandal related to her divorce. The next generation of servants take over as the previous ones ease into retirement. What's interesting is both the nobles and the servants are fully aware that they're sort of LARPing a historical relic by this point because by 1930, grand country houses like Downton were increasingly rare in the UK since World War I wiped out most of them and crippling post-war taxes and economic disruption finished off many more. Anyway, if you like Downton Abbey, you like this movie. Overall Grade: A Next up is Argo, which came out in 2012, a very tense thriller about the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979. During that particular crisis, six Americans escaped the embassy and hid out at the Canadian Ambassador's house in Tehran. For obvious reasons, the Canadian ambassador wanted them out as quickly as possible, so the CIA and the State Department needed to cook up a plan to get the six out while the rest of the government tried to figure out what to do about the larger group of hostages. Finally, the government comes with "Argo." A CIA operative will create a fake film crew, a fake film company, and smuggle the six out of Tehran as part of the production. The movie was very tense and very well constructed, even if you know the outcome in advance if you know a little bit of history. Ben Affleck directed and starred, and this was in my opinion one of his best performances. It did take some liberties with historical accuracy, but nonetheless, a very tense political thriller/heist movie with some moments of very dark comedy. Overall Grade: A Next up is The Naked Gun, which came out in 2025, and this is a pitch perfect parody of the gritty cop movie with a lot of absurdist humor, which works well because Liam Neeson brings his grim action persona to the movie and it works really well with the comedy. Neeson plays Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr., the son of the original Frank Drebin from The Naked Gun movies back in the '80s. After stopping a bank robbery, Drebin finds himself investigating the suicide of an engineer for the sinister tech mogul Richard Cane. Naturally, the suicide isn't what it appears and when the engineer's mysterious but seductive sister asks for Drebin's help, he pushes deeper into the case. Richard Cane was a hilarious villain because the writers couldn't decide which tech billionaire to parody with him, so they kind of parodied all the tech billionaires at once, and I kid you not, the original Frank Drebin makes an appearance as a magical owl. It was hilarious. Overall Grade: A Now for my two favorite things I saw in Autumn 2025. The first is the combination of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, which came out in 1931 and 1935. These are two separate movies, but Frankenstein leads directly to Bride of Frankenstein, so I'm going to treat them as one movie. Honestly, I think they're two halves of the same story the way that Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame would be two halves of the same story 90 years later, so I'll review them as one. Frankenstein by itself on its own will get a B. Colin Clive's performance is Dr. Henry Frankenstein was great, and Boris Karloff gives the Creature a suitable air of menace and uncanny valley. You really feel like he's something that's been brought to life but isn't quite right and still extremely dangerous. The movie does have a very pat ending that implies everyone will live happily ever after, with Dr. Frankenstein's father giving a toast to his son. But Bride of Frankenstein takes everything from the first movie and improves on it. It's one of those sequels that actually makes the preceding movie better. In Bride, Henry is recovering from his ordeal and swears off his experiments of trying to create artificial humans, but the Creature survived the fire at the windmill at the end of the last movie and is seeking for a new purpose. Meanwhile, Henry receives a visit from his previous mentor, the sinister Dr. Pretorius. Like Henry, Pretorius succeeded in creating artificial life and now he wants to work with Henry to perfect their work, but Henry refuses, horrified by the consequences of his previous experiments. Pretorius, undaunted, makes an alliance with the Creature, who then kidnaps Henry's wife. This will let Pretorius force Henry to work on their ultimate work together-a bride for the Creature. Bride of Frankenstein is a lot tighter than Frankenstein. It was surprising to see how rapidly filmmaking techniques evolved over just four years. Pretorius is an excellent villain, more evil wizard than mad scientist, and the scene where he calmly and effortlessly persuades the Creature to his side was excellent. One amusing note, Bride was framed as Mary Shelley telling the second half of the story to her friends, and then the actress playing Mary Shelley, Elsa Lancaster, also played the Bride. So that was a funny bit of meta humor. Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein combined is one of my two favorite movies of Fall 2025. Overall Grade: A+ And now for my second favorite movie of Autumn 2025, which as it turns out is also Frankenstein, but Guillermo del Toro's version that came out in 2025. And honestly, I think Guillermo del Toro's version of Frankenstein is the best version put to screen so far and even does the rarest of all feats, it improves a little on the original novel. Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein as a brilliant, driven scientist with something of a sociopathic edge. In other words, he's a man who's utterly inadequate to the task when his experiment succeeds and he actually creates an artificial human that have assembled dead body parts. Jacob Elordi does a good job as the Creature, playing him is essentially a good hearted man who's driven to violence and despair by the cruelty and rejection of the world. The recurring question of the Frankenstein mythos is whether or not Victor Frankenstein is the real monster. In this version, he definitely is, though he gets a chance to repent of his evil by the end. Honestly, everything about this was good. The performances, the cinematography, everything. How good was it? It was so good that I will waive my usual one grade penalty for unnecessary nudity since there were a few brief scenes of it. Overall Grade: A+ So that was the Autumn 2025 Movie Roundup. A lot of good movies this time around. While some movies of course were better than others, I didn't see anything I actively disliked, which is always nice. So that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.  

Whats going down Yall !!!!! Ok so in this gripping episode I sit down with special guest Dr. Dennis Carroll yet again for a deep dive into the realms of witchcraft, prophecy, and the End Times. We explore how ancient beliefs, spiritual warfare, and modern-day supernatural encounters connect to the Book of Revelation and the Last Days.   Dr. Carroll shares his insights on the rise of occult practices, the signs of the times, and what biblical prophecy may reveal about the world we're living in right now. From historical witchcraft to modern spiritual battles, this conversation bridges theology, mystery, and the unseen forces at work around us. Whether you're fascinated by biblical prophecy, spiritual warfare, or the darker corners of the supernatural, this episode delivers a powerful, thought-provoking journey you won't want to miss.   (Dr. Dennis Carroll is a National and Internationally Known Writer/Author and an Authority on The Occult and Folklore. His career in all Fields of the Paranormal and The Supernatural has spanned over 55+ Years. He is a Spiritual Research and Demonology Consultant and a Cryptid and Ufology Investigative Field Researcher. He is a Retired Law Enforcement Officer, an Ordained Minister, Doctor of Metaphysics, Parapsychologist and A Certified Paranormal Investigator. His Books are on Amazon and Barnes/Noble. Website: denniswcarroll.com Email: denniswcarroll@gmail.com.)     Ways to Support and Connect with Dr. Dennis Carroll (Hunting the Shadows):  ✅https://youtube.com/@huntingtheshadows denniswcarroll.com denniswcarroll@gmail.com     Help a brother out and buy me a Coffee ☕️ (Monthly or one time donation keeps the show going): We know there is room for improvement and have decided to ask you (Our amazing listeners) to help the podcast grow! This will help with better audio, expedition funding, and much more!  ✅ https://venmo.com/u/cryptidwarfare     Email me:  Podcast Cryptidwarfare@gmail.com   Critter/Cryptid Control/Consulting  C.WOPPS@protonmail.com C.woperations17905@gmail.com         Help support our mission in giving you the best podcast on ? Anchor.fm/Spotify, iTunes, Podbean +   Make sure to give me a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review :). Thank yall!   ✅ Cryptid Warfare: https://www.instagram.com/cryptid_warfare_pod_cast/ youtube: www.youtube.com/@cryptidwarfare     Business Shout Outs:   C.W OPERATIONS & SURVIVAL  Owner & Operator : Drew M Critter Hitters / Monster Hunters for Hire email: c.woperations17905@gmail.com. or  C.WOPPS@protonmail.com    Tier1 Restoration  Brain Cochrans phone = 615-809-9839 https://tier1restoration.godaddysites.com/   Bearded Brothers Trucking  Danny Vega  https://vegabrostn.com/   BerryHill Window Cleaning  https://www.berryhillwindowcleaningtn.com/     The Tac Patch  https://www.instagram.com/thetacpatch_?igsh=MWFidzk3d2tib3Ztdw== https://thetacpatch.com/   FLatTopK9  Owner - Tim Russell  www.FlatTopK9.com   Stead Fast OverLand Owner - Jerrett Hudson https://www.instagram.com/steadfastoverland?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==     kingdom.defense.llc   Part Owner : Mr. Charlie  https://www.instagram.com/kingdom.defense.llc?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==   https://www.instagram.com/anestillc?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==     Amazing outtro ? by my friend D & Andrew (Walking Lightly Tones Studios Music) as well as Paul and Amber. Check out CallhimD Spotify and Instagram give him a listen/follow https://open.spotify.com/artist/16BHUS6UGILgxsBEUxqQJ https://www.instagram.com/call.him.d?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==    

In this episode of Ask Rach, Rachel Hollis dives deep into the power of habits over motivation, the importance of focusing on impactful habits, and how to manage the feelings of stress induced by others' decisions.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!00:00 Understanding Motivation and Habits00:58 Welcome to Ask Rach02:32 Dealing with Codependency06:15 Addressing Name Stereotypes08:10 Finding Motivation for Fitness20:36 Embracing Self-Care and Retreats31:09 Conclusion and FarewellSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chris Lardieri and Gerald Glassford are back as they go over the big results from Week 11 and get you ready for NFL Week 12. Tune in as they go over Buffalo's success off the familiar back of Josh Allen, and if his six TD performance has catapulted him back into the MVP conversation. They also discuss the rise of teams like Denver and the Rams, and whether people should buy into the great showing so far for both teams. They also talk about how fantasy owners should not sleep on Jalen Hurts and why the backlash currently against him may be unwarranted. All this, and what matchups are we looking at for Week 12 from a fan and fantasy perspective, and what should you be looking for in a deal as fantasy football trade deadlines get closer and closer. The guys also answer viewer questions, and of course, another trip to the Dog House is in order as we get into Week 12 of the NFL with your friends at Inside Sports Fantasy Football!Joe's new game Coreupt is OUT NOW! Wish List it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2360770/Coreupt/Lakers Fast Break now has YouTube memberships! Join today at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQQa0G1GLHIo7RRmN5_uaqA/join and for just $2.99 a month, you get access to LFB badges and emojis, channel page recognition, and more!Check out Stone Hansen on Twitter @report_court, Alfred Ezman @alfredezman, and John Costa's channels: Clutch Talk- https://www.youtube.com/@UCK5a8gQuHatSHCe6iEgNH5w and Lakers Corner- https://www.youtube.com/@UCPVus5ukOvYFmy098vv9qhw and Legend350 on his new channel https://www.youtube.com/@UCOZ69zK4btu9OlG9zFnlRRQ Special Deals today from our friends at #temu today at https://temu.to/m/u1samwbo8cc use code: aca785401 and you might save some $$$ at TEMU!Take a look at the line of Kinhank Mini PC's and retro game machines today at https://www.kinhank-retrogame.com?rs_ref=e8NA2Rm2 for some gaming and computing fun from Kinhank!Don't forget to watch the Lakers games with us LIVE at playback.tv/lakersfastbreak and our newest Lakers Fast Break merchandise site is now up at ⁠https://tinyurl.com/39yb4ta3⁠, check it out!Please Like, Share, and Subscribe to our channel and our social media @lakersfastbreak on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, on BLUESKY at @lakersfastbreak.bsky.social, e-mail us lakersfastbreak@yahoo.com or catch our audio of the Lakers Fast Break today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://anchor.fm/lakers-fast-break⁠, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast outlet!The views and opinions expressed on the Lakers Fast Break are those of the panelists or guests themselves and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lakers Fast Break or its owners. Any content or thoughts provided by our panelists or guests are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, anyone, or anything.Presented by our friends at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lakerholics.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lakersball.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pop Culture Cosmos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Inside Sports Fantasy Football⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vampires and Vitae⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SynBlades.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube's John Mikaelian⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the novel Congratulations, You Suck (available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble), ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Happy Hoarder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, EmpireJeffTV, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Retro City Games!

The doctors are in: Dr. Mark Sherwood and Dr. Michele Neil-Sherwood are husband and wife, best selling health and wellness authors, motivational speakers, film producers, podcasters, product formulators, and run the Functional Medical Institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So if nothing else, based on everything just listed, know this: We are in good hands for this episode. Doctors Mark and Michele share a bold vision: To eradicate self-imposed, lifestyle-driven diseases and to reduce and eliminate dependency on unnecessary medications.They are focused on addressing the root cause - not just the symptoms - when helping their patients. And they're doing this through their holistic, proactive approach. We talk about where and when they first met, how aging isn't a bad thing, Reba on the WB and much more good stuff. This is an oh-so-good double house call. _________________________ Steve's third book in his cozy mystery series, THE DOG WALKING DETECTIVES is finally here: SEASON'S SLAYINGS lights up the holidays! Get your copy on Amazon: https://bit.ly/3WYTPiR or Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/4hOjILR Grab the first two: Book 1: DROWN TOWN Amazon: https://amzn.to/478W8mp Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3Mv7cCk & Book 2: MURDER UNMASKED Amazon: https://shorturl.at/fDR47 Barnes & Noble: https://shorturl.at/3ccTy

Early childhood education researcher and advocate Emily Clark is back for another conversation with host Heather Bernt-Santy. In this episode, they talk about her work on children's rights in early childhood programs. Here's more from Emily: https://www.earlyedem.com/Have you ordered Heather's book Using Schema Play Theory to Advocate for Free Play in Early Childhood yet? It's available now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org or you can order directly from the publisher on the Teachers College Press website Thanks for listening! Save 10% on professional development from Explorations Early Learning and support the show with the coupon code NERD. Like the show? Consider supporting our work by becoming a Patron, shopping our Amazon Link, or sharing it with someone who might enjoy it. You can leave a comment or ask a question here. Click here for more Heather. For a small fee we can issue self-study certificates for listening to podcasts.

In this heartfelt and engaging episode, Rachel Hollis introduces a novel podcast format where she takes a walk with her guest instead of a conventional studio interview. Her guest, renowned interior designer Nate Berkus, shares his journey from his early career, including his significant experience on the Oprah Winfrey Show, to his present-day success and personal life. They discuss the value of authentic, layered design, life-changing experiences, like the tsunami that deeply impacted Nate, and how these events shaped their perspectives.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!00:22 Introducing the New Podcast Format02:10 Guest Introduction: Nate Burki05:26 Nate's Journey and Early Career09:45 Design Philosophy and Practical Tips15:04 Balancing Personal and Professional Life22:14 Maintaining Relevance in Media24:38 Reflecting on Personal Growth25:14 Balancing Career and Family27:04 Navigating Identity and Legacy33:50 Coping with Trauma and PTSD37:32 The Importance of Supportive Relationships41:30 Exploring Therapy and Self-Improvement46:04 Creating a Practical Design BookSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices.1 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chris Feistl spent 26 years working for the DEA, including three years in Colombia during the 1990s, helping take down one of the most powerful drug empires in history — the Cali Cartel. His real-life work was portrayed in Narcos: Season 3, but the truth behind the show is even wilder. From undercover operations to high-stakes cartel takedowns, he witnessed firsthand the danger, corruption, and chaos of the war on drugs. Over his career, he earned the DEA Award of Honor, Award for Exceptional Service, and multiple Performance Awards for his role in international investigations. In this exclusive interview, he opens up about what really happened in Colombia, how Narcos got it right (and wrong), and what it was like to spend decades hunting some of the world's most dangerous traffickers. #LockedInWithIanBick #DEAAgent #Narcos #CaliCartel #TrueCrime #DrugCartel #NarcosNetflix #realstories Thank you to BLUECHEW for sponsoring this episode: Visit https://bluechew.com/ and use promo code LOCKEDIN at checkout to get your first month of BlueChew & pay five bucks for shipping. Connect with Chris Feistl: Website: www.After.Escobar.com. After Escobar is available on Amazon (http://a.co/d/4U3kWXB), Barnes and Noble (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1146855946), www.AfterEscobar.com, and in select bookstores worldwide! Signed copies of After Escobar available only at www.AfterEscobar.com. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop Timestamps: 00:00 Becoming a DEA Agent & Taking Down Cartels 04:44 Early Life, Law Enforcement Dreams & First Arrests 13:11 From Small-Town Cop to Federal Agent 20:01 Joining the DEA: Training, Requirements & Reality 27:47 First Assignment in Miami — Cocaine Capital of the '80s 38:41 Inside the Miami Drug Wars: Chaos, Cartels & Corruption 45:42 Cartel Smuggling Tactics & DEA Challenges on the Ground 53:03 Dirty Cops, Corruption & How the DEA Adapted 01:01:12 Hunting the Cali Cartel Bosses in Colombia 01:12:40 Deep Undercover: The DEA's Dangerous Life in Colombia 01:20:01 Surviving the Cartel Wars — Second & Third DEA Tours 01:31:00 Coming Home: DEA Retirement & Life After the Mission 01:36:02 How Netflix's Narcos Got It Right (and Wrong) 01:40:02 Hard Lessons, Close Calls & Reflections from a DEA Agent Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Rachel Hollis discusses the unique pressures women face to feel content once they achieve their dreams. She emphasizes the importance of balancing gratitude with curiosity and the drive to grow.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!01:06 Welcome and Podcast Subscription Request02:04 The Myth of Success and Personal Growth06:40 Embracing the Journey Over the Destination17:17 The Importance of Seasons in Life24:06 Navigating the Messy Middle35:34 Practical Steps for Moving Forward41:28 Conclusion: Embrace Your Next ChapterSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Galatians 5:22-23 NLT "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!"   *Transcription Below*   Hi, I'm Emily Johnson. I am a homeschool mama of two beautiful kiddos, married to my high school sweetheart, and the owner of Gracious Healing, a online nutritional practice that works with families to get to the root of their health issues with a holistic view and approach. I deeply love Jesus and pursue Him in all that I do, including health.  After walking through decades of undiagnosed health issues, I was lead to the world of functional medicine and eventually into the holistic health world. After finding support for my body and that of my kids (who have been on their own health journeys) I was able to pursue further education and began working with clients on a 1:1 basis, to help them find the hope and health that I have found.   Emily's Website   Questions and Topics We Cover: Another topic of health is pursuing the opposite of isolation, which is relationships. What does friendship do to us, even at a hormonal or bio-physical level? Will you share all your wisdom on the topic of nutrition? What other health topics have we not yet covered that you want to mention as we get started?   Thank You to Our Sponsor:  Sam Leman Eureka   Other Episodes Mentioned from The Savvy Sauce: 254 Raising Healthy Children with Dr. Charles Fay   Additional Savvy Sauce Episodes Related to Healthy Living: 3. Being intentional with our health, finances, and relationships with business leader, writer, and speaker, Elizabeth Dixon 14. Simple Changes for Healthier Living with Chick-fil-A Wellness Experts, Vasu Thorpe and Leslie Sexton 23. Nurturing Friendships With Harvard Graduate, Jackie Coleman 25. Leadership Principles and Practices with Former NFL Player, J Leman 81. Sacred Rest with Doctor, Wife, Mother, and Author, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith 251. Wintering and Embracing Holy Hygge with Jamie Erickson 256. Gut Health, Allergies, Inflammation and Proactive Solutions with Emily Macleod-Wolfe   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook, Instagram or Our Website   Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast!   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:09)   Laura Dugger: (0:10 - 1:40) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   The principles of honesty and integrity that Sam Leman founded his business on continue today, over 55 years later, at Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka.   Owned and operated by the Burchie family, Sam Leman and Eureka appreciates the support they've received from their customers all over central Illinois and beyond. Visit them today at LemanGM.com.   As I mentioned last time, my amazing guest, Emily Johnson, had so much goodness to share that we decided to split this episode into two parts, so I'm going to make sure that you first go back to part one before you listen to this episode today.   But I'm looking forward now to continuing the chat about nutritional benefits and soul benefits and relational benefits in our health and the health in our children with my returning guest, Emily Johnson. Another topic that's health-related is pursuing the opposite of isolation, which is relationships. So, Emily, what does friendship do to us or do to our children, even at hormonal levels and biophysical levels?   Emily Johnson: (1:40 - 8:39) Yeah, yeah. So, you know, when I was really, really, really sick, from a pretty young age on, and then I had kids really young, and so my kids had some health issues. I was sick. I felt so isolated, and I really, really, really was discouraged when people would speak about community.   You have to be in community, right? And all the sermons and different things, books, these great books are like, you have to be in community, and I'm like, I don't know how to do that with where I'm at. I don't have, I barely have capacity, right, to like feed my children and like get out of bed most days.   How in the world am I supposed to like go find community? And so, I think that, one, I always go back to, for those people who do struggle, and they are in a season where community is tough, right? I always, I love the saying, where the ideal lacks, grace abounds, and there's something beautiful that happens within that, right?   So just to speak to that, because I feel like so many women I walk with have had seasons in their life, or whether it's health-related, or their kids, or just there, you know. Mom home with four young kids, and they just don't have capacity, or their single mom with four kids, and they're working full-time. Right, they just don't have great capacity for community. I always want to plug that reminder in that there are seasons, and God's grace always abounds beyond what is ideal. But then we take it too ideal, right?   And we say, what does that actually look like? And we were made for community, right? We see all the fun videos of the little kids who are like the babies who were in the womb together, right?   And you come out, and they're still like touching, right? We were made for connection. There's something really, really amazing that happens from a cellular level.   When we are, when we are hugged, right, you see some of those neurosciences of like, you need to hug for six seconds a day, because it'll increase your endorphins, you know, and so there's this beautiful thing. There is, in certain science communities, there is a thing called biofield, right? And so it's kind of this idea that from six feet out from me in any direction, I kind of have this like space, like there's a spatial awareness that most of us have about six feet like outside of our bodies.   And when you kind of like, you know, when you're like somebody walks up behind you, and you just know somebody's behind you, even though you haven't turned around or heard them necessarily, but there's just this awareness that they're there. And that is just, I think, so ingrained in who we are to be in community, because we actually have been created not for isolation, but we've been created even with this biofilm biofield idea that we actually get to when people are around us, right, there's an energy that happens, right? When my kid is sick, there's like this energy transfer that happens when my kiddo is sick, and their energy is low, their overall body is just depleted, right?   When I hold them and touch them, there's actually can be like this cool transfer that happens from an electrical perspective that actually boosts them back up, right? Why do we hold babies skin on skin? Because there is that super, super crucial need for connection.   One of my favorite studies I always refer to is a heart map study, where they took babies and mom, and they hooked mom and baby up to like heart monitors. They had mom just kind of like go through her natural day. Right, really smiley, happy, and they kind of watch baby match mom's heartbeat completely like in sync. And then they said, “Okay mom, like start running, like don't change your facial expression or your tone, but start running through all the like scary things that you have going on, right, and all the worries and fears and all the things.”   And they watch mom's heart rate level start coming up, and then they watch baby's heart rate level start coming up, right? Like we were just designed from the womb to connect with people. Then they found those who they ran some studies on who had moms who were super depressed, right? They weren't in connection.   They had whatever lives, whatever circumstances led to this, those kiddos didn't have the kind of intense one-on-one connection, maybe that another kid did. And just watching that those kids had a harder time empathizing and being around other people, right? So, like this idea that from the womb we were designed to be connected to one another, that there is something ingrained in our soul, right?   That the Lord put there that deeply, we deeply want community, but beyond community we want to be known and seen and loved, right? And obviously the ultimate desire is to be known and seen and loved by God the Father, but at a lesser level like we have been created to see that in one another and champion one another and encourage one another, right? One of my favorite Bible stories is when Moses is holding his hands up, right?   And as long as his arms are up, the Israelites are winning, but the minute his arm starts to fall, and then you know you have Aaron and her have to come lift his arms up, and he sits down and they're the ones holding his arms. And I just think that is such a picture of when we have this vision of what God's called us to, and kind of whether that be a mom or a specific vocation or a specific ministry, when we have been called as women to do that, but yet there's these seasons where we're like we're still trying really hard to do that, but I'm so wiped out and tired, right? You need those people around you who are going to go hold your arms up so that the battle doesn't break.   The battle is not going to stop whether you drop your arms or not, it's still going to keep going. And so, when we look at that from just again, like a metabolic perspective, we see that heart rates come down, right? We see someone super, super anxious in isolation, they go into a community where they feel seen and known and loved, and their body comes into this beautiful, restful, parasympathetic state, right?   I would say a caveat to that is a little bit of picking your community well, because I think that the opposite is true. You go into a community where everyone's naggy and negative and discouraging, and you will walk away feeling gross and weary and tired, right? And it doesn't necessarily...   Good community is what again boosts your soul, but it actually... I had a client, it was my favorite story, is we were having a hard time getting her blood sugar stable, and we were kind of trying all these things, and then she went and hung out with her girlfriend, and she was super tired that day, it had been a really, really stressful week, goes and hangs out with her girlfriend outside, right? Letting the kids play at the park, and that's all she did.   And her blood sugar, she took her blood sugar, and her blood came perfectly back into balance, right? And just, we need community for every metabolic process, honestly.   Laura Dugger: (8:40 - 9:27) That is incredible, and it is such a powerful truth, because I'd love to also talk about handling, managing, minimizing stress, which is important, but I think the enemy, our enemy, Satan, wants to convince us that if you're stressed, just power through, whereas like you said, God's inviting us into community with Him and with others. He's created us to need both, and that that is even more important, that trumps the stress and may even help us diminish the stress. So, I know it's not helpful for us to hear, you just need to lower your stress in your life, but how can we actually do that, and why is it beneficial?   Emily Johnson: (9:28 - 14:18) Yeah, so, we talked a little bit earlier about just kind of the idea of fight and flight, and I think one of the things that you see a lot in the world of holistic medicine is just looking at the nervous system. Because if I, everything that we're kind of bringing in is create, like our brains are always hyper vigilant and always looking at, is this safe? Is this not safe? So, you have somebody who is always stressed, always anxious, always running, running, running, running.   Your brain is kind of almost starting to get primed to think everything is dangerous, everything is a lie, and everything I need to be afraid of, right? And so, when we're constantly in that place, you never really, you're sleeping, just because you go to sleep, people are like, I sleep six hours a night. I'm like, you're unconscious six hours of the night. Are you actually getting restored sleep?   Or are you just running, running, running, and then you go to sleep. Yeah, you're unconscious, because your body's like, I'm exhausted, but is your mind actually calming down? Is your heart rate coming down, right? And so, when you look at the overall, every process of the body, there's so much that is related to nervous system, right?   Your breath, like we're not thinking about our hearts beating right now, or our lungs opening and closing. But our nervous system is, right? Our nervous system is always assessing and communicating.   And so, every sound we hear, every noise we come in contact with, every smell, light, right? All of it is having to be processed through that. And so, when you look at that, I would say there's a lot of stress in life that we can't control.   We're always looking, it's kind of like, you know, going on a bear hunt when they're like, we can't go under it, we can't go over it, we have to go through it. There's a lot of stress in life. That we just have to plow through.   I can't help my special needs kid, like I can't take that away, right? I can't help my marriage that's struggling. I can't necessarily run, I can't just like move around, you know, the financial struggles or whatever.   I can't always control everything, but I often go back to, but what can we control? Because when we kind of get into a place where we understand, I can't heal or be functionally healthy if I don't feel safe. So, do I feel safe, right?   And again, I can't control everything, but I often can sit with Jesus, and he will help me change the perspective of it. And so, when we look at how we, right, stress is going to put a huge burden on every organ system. Stress is going to put a huge burden on our adrenals.   Most of us know that kind of specifically, but it's going to put a huge stress on our nervous system. And so, where we can minimize stress, where it is within our control is always the best place to start, right? Again, sometimes simple things like unplugging your Wi-Fi will limit your metabolic stress, eating protein, right?   Eating good whole foods, not being dehydrated. Those are all things that are going to limit. Those are all most of the time within the stress that we can control, right?   I can control being on my phone, which has crazy blue light. And then right before I go to bed, which is going to like create a whole issue with my circadian rhythm. Like I can control putting my phone away.   I can control how I breathe and how I get outside. And so, minimizing stress, being in community with friends that are encouraging you and lifting you up, like those type of things are all things that we often can control at some level in order to help minimize that stress that way. Because the point I think of is the whole of health in general, right?   We know 2 Corinthians chapter four is my favorite because it's like we're all wasting away and this body is going to waste away. So, what is the point of this, right? And the point of it, I believe, is resilience to some degree.   Do we understand the processes of our body? Are we actively working to create some resilience? So, things don't knock us out, right?   You have some people, they'll get real sick, or they'll get into a car accident or something. And it's not major from the world's perspective, but metabolically it is enough stress and trauma that their whole system shuts down. Right?   Like the goal is that we are always renewing our spirit, but we're always working towards resiliency. And so, the more we can minimize stress, the better resiliency, every part of our body from a nervous system perspective, all the way down to a cellular perspective, it's going to function better and have more resiliency. So, when stress does come that we can't control, we can handle it better and not, it doesn't blow us over so quickly.   Laura Dugger: (14:18 - 15:59) And now a brief message from our sponsor, Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka has been owned and operated by the Burchie family for over 25 years. A lot has changed in the car business since Sam and Steven's grandfather; Sam Leman opened his first Chevrolet dealership over 55 years ago. If you visit their dealership today, though, you'll find that not everything has changed.   They still operate their dealership like their grandfather did with honesty and integrity. Sam and Steven understand that you have many different choices in where you buy or service your vehicle. This is why they do everything they can to make the car buying process as easy and hassle free as possible.   They are thankful for the many lasting friendships that began with a simple welcome to Sam Leman's. Their customers keep coming back because they experience something different. I've known Sam and Steven and their wives my entire life and I can vouch for their character and integrity, which makes it easy to highly recommend you check them out today.   Your car buying process doesn't have to be something you dread. So, come see for yourself at Sam Leman Chevrolet in Eureka. Sam and Steven would love to see you, and they appreciate your business.   Learn more at their website, LemanEureka.com or visit them on Facebook by searching for Sam Leman Eureka. You can also call them at 309-467-2351. Thanks for your sponsorship.   Okay, Emily, everything you've said so far is gold. But there's a huge piece of our health, which is nutrition. And as we're training our children on healthy nutrition, I just love to hear all your wisdom on this topic.   So, take it where you'd like.   Emily Johnson: (16:00 - 24:16) Yeah, okay. Nutrition is part of my story, is actually nutrition was the thing that got me in the store that I write. I had so many crazy health things.   I remember asking a doctor at one point, like, will, if I change my diet, will that help? And he was like, no, right? That's not going to help your seizures. That's not going to help your allergies. That's not going to help all the stress, right? And all the things that you have.   And, which, by the way, right, to kind of go back to the stress thing, the amount of times that people who are really truly unhealthy are told it's just in your head, it's just stress, right? It's, it's crazy. So, I feel like there's that level of like, do what you can to deal with the stress, but also, you're not crazy.   If something doesn't feel right, it's probably not right. And you're probably not just so stressed that right, there's a level that is true that we can control, but then sometimes it has nothing to do with what you're doing. Just a little snippet in there.   Just because I think that can be so helpful for moms to hear sometimes it's okay. It's not all in your head, you're not making it up. But when we look at nutrition, when I started diving into it, I always joke that I was going to write a book that said like, it started with paleo, right?   Because we dove into this world of paleo. And all of a sudden, all these symptoms that I had been told I was going to live with forever, all of a sudden started disappearing. And I was like, I don't need my inhaler anymore.   I don't have seizures anymore. I'm sleeping better. I feel better.   My puffiness is gone, like all because I changed my diet like this. Why in the world did no one tell me this sooner? Right?   Which is crazy. So, when you look at again, nutrition, and we're saying what did God give us and all the different levels of nutrition, you can look at macronutrients. So, that's your protein, your carbohydrates and your fat.   Those when we look at metabolic processes, those are like our big three that we want to get in every meal to kind of keep that fire burning, right? So, from a metabolic perspective, you want metabolism is so huge in hormones, metabolism is huge in our weight, and how we feel and just energy levels in general. And so, when you're getting good protein, good carbs, good healthy fats.   And obviously, with all of these, right, there can be not so great proteins and not so great carbs, right? We're like, “Oh, I ate a cinnamon roll.” I'm like, well, not probably your best carbohydrate.   But so, when I talk about these things, what I'm always meaning is God made food, right? God food that is in its closest to full nature, right? And obviously, we've altered food over the years.   But to the best of our ability, what grows in the ground, what grows on the earth is what I'm talking about. I'm not necessarily processed food, even things like Siete chips, right? Those things are like, yes, their ingredients are better, but still processed, right?   Crackers, I don't care if they're gluten free, they're still processed. And so, when we talk about this, we're talking about just whole food, God food, right? And so, it doesn't matter what you have doesn't matter, the health situations, you have kind of the background you're coming from, everyone can on a fundamental foundational level, look at their nutrition and say, food is the building block to my health.   So, when I give again, we kind of talked a lot about nervous system and information, when I give the body good nutrition through what I'm eating, it is going to help every cell of the body right function and thrive. And when we're getting those good nutrients in, you're going to get all those you're looking at the big macros, but then we're looking at the micronutrients, you know, so, a lot of people talk about magnesium and calcium, right?   And so, all those are, you know, selenium, vitamin D, right, not necessarily synthetic form, but in so many of our foods, these nutrients are in abundance when you eat whole foods, right.   And so, I feel like for so many people one of the best things because food can also become this really, really, really scary topic. I always say if you want to tick somebody off, talk about their money and talk about what they're eating. Because everyone's like, now I'm mad.   Now you're not my friend, right? How dare you talk about what I'm putting in my mouth. And I think there's a really interesting spiritual component to what we see all throughout Israelites, right?   And just how they grumbled because their bellies were driving the train, right? Like God is literally giving them manna from heaven, his glory, like food, the angels food is on the ground. And they're like, I want to go back into captivity because they had leeks and watermelon, right?   And it's like, this isn't a new thing. Food is really hard and can be really scary for people to talk about because we are really honestly controlled by our stomachs more than most of us would like to admit. And so, when we look at food in general and nutrition, and we're being really honest with ourselves, right?   We don't want to be in a place of fear. That's I think the biggest thing with all the holistic space, just like this health realm is sometimes we trade like Western medicine for which we're afraid, like we're fearful and that like I, you know, we have to take antibiotics. We don't want to get, um, we don't want the strep throat to get out of control.   But then we run to this holistic side and we're like, well, I don't want to take the antibiotics. I'm afraid my gut microbiome is going to be all mess. I'm like either side, you're still walking in fear.   God's word tells us to not be afraid, right? This is the point of this is, is to empower us to make us stand in awe of our creator who made all of this in such abundance for our good. He created all of our bodies, right?   He created every mechanism, every cell. So, of course he's going to give us the nutrition in the food that we eat in order to help support those natural functions of the body when we eat food that he's created. Right.   And so, I say that with food because I think most people we can dive down, right? Some people do need very specific diets for short period of time to create better function in their body. Maybe they have an overgrowth of something and certain foods are not helping them kind of achieve that overall kind of thriving stability.   But for most of us, my favorite thing when it comes to nutrition is to go back to Philippians chapter four, right? What is good? What is true?   What is lovely? What is pure, right? And when we're focusing on that part of nutrition, we are just undone, right?   How do you combat fear? You stand in awe. And when we can stand in awe of how God created an egg, right?   Like we get to consume an egg, and an egg isn't just protein fat. It also is vitamin D and selenium, right? And all these other micro macro nutrients that we get to consume.   And all of a sudden, right, we're taught to sit and pray and thank God for our food. And we're like, but what does that mean? We're just pausing and taking a deep breath, which is there is some really interesting health studies that have agreed with that, right?   And they're like, you need to pause and breathe every time before you eat to better further digestion. But what are we actually doing? Are we teaching our children, like, look at this asparagus and this chicken breast that you get to eat?   Do you understand how intentional our God is that he made this food with such nutrient packed availability for you to be able to function right within your body. So, when we look at every part of the body, every process of the body, we need good information, right? Good food to be able to come in to support that.   And I think most people, when we use nutrition, you don't need your multivitamins, you don't need some of these things like food is fundamental. I always say supplements should be supplemental. They're supplemental, getting you where you need to go.   But nutrition is the foundation, the building blocks the road, right? It's paving the way to health.   Laura Dugger: (24:17 - 24:40) Okay, that is so well said. But then I'm even thinking, what are some examples of you've talked about the egg and the chicken and asparagus. So, will you share maybe we'll start here a way to get our kids involved.   I know you've shared something that you do with the farmer's market. Can you tell us that story? And then maybe give a few ideas for healthy snacks or meals.   Emily Johnson: (24:41 - 31:13) Yeah. And I do like Instagram, my website, I have I feel like I have lots of information. And honestly, maybe I could even share with you some of the handouts that I give and you could just put it in people are welcome to have them.   Because I love getting kids involved. It depends on your kiddos age depends on how you want to approach this potentially, right. So, when my kids were super little, we all we did a lot of rainbows, like, are we eating the rainbow?   And so, you know, we'd have like, I have a chart that we laminated. And you know, we'd be like, okay, here's your day how you know, maybe you get a sticker at the end of the day or something if you ate the rainbow. And so, that would be for younger kids.   That's super fun. Sometimes for older kids, kind of that who need to say like, high school necessarily, but when they're kind of in the like, end of elementary, maybe junior high ish, depending on how they're wired, and depending on parenting skills, I will have some other ones that are like, if you eat protein, fat and carb, now you can have maybe another choice that you would like, right. So, for my daughter, that might look like you need protein carbs, you know, like, let's say you're going to have protein, which is, again, I have some great handouts that are like, here's kind of a chunk of protein, right.   So, that might look like steak, eggs, or chicken, or ground beef, or, you know, bison patty, or we actually love Force of Nature, they make a really great ancestral blend. So, you're getting like liver, heart, all that stuff, and it's ground in ground beef. So, your kids don't necessarily know they're eating organ meats, but we'll do like little patties or something, right, keep it simple.   I feel like some of the most challenging things with nutrition is people want to really overcomplicate it. And if you're just thinking protein, animal protein, you get one of those, right, you grab on to like, maybe it's like, okay, now you need some salad, which is going to be, you know, maybe some less of good carbs, because you're throwing in zucchini and cucumber, and you're making a green salad, you know, with a few nuts in it, you know, and drizzling some olive oil on it. homemade dressings, I think are probably the probably the most complicated thing that I get to, just because it's easier to leave out all the bad ingredients in homemade dressing.   But there's some decent dressings out there, right? So, that's your fat. So, you do all that.   And then I'm like, now, if you want, like, maybe we'll have little snacks around the house that might be like, some healthy chocolate versions, right? And it's like, now, if you want a treat, you can, but you have to eat protein, carb and fat first, right? That type of thing.   So, there's different checklists, different things that you can do. We years ago, when my kids were super little, we actually started a list. And there, I think Dr. Walls is the one I originally got this from where she was like, you need to eat close to 300 different varieties within a year, right?   Because, again, kind of thinking back before refrigeration, before we were able to cart food places, we would have eaten a variety based on what was local to you that was growing in this season. Rright, which meant we didn't eat the same thing every single week, we had a lot of variety, I think diversity within the diet is also so important. Again, I think it's a further down the road, right? So, if you're like just starting in this journey, just getting yourself to whole foods is a great place to start.   If you're further along, the next thing we do is diversity, how many different foods. So, our goal one year was to get 300 different varieties, which doesn't sound like a lot until you actually start writing it down. We're like, cucumbers one. Okay, we eat a lot of cucumber, right?   Okay, tomatoes. Okay, well, that's two, right. And then so, one of the things that we had done when they were little was, we would go to the farmer's market.   And we would kind of think, our area and I think a lot of areas are really increasing in kind of this idea of farmers market's over the last few years, which is really cool. My kids were really little, we had one farmer's market, like, and so, we would go there once a week. They had to pick out one new vegetable or fruit that they had never tried before, whatever it looks like, right. And if they could get it on a color of the rainbow that was hard to consume, right, there's some colors of the rainbow, like purple, that's not always super easy to necessarily consume outside of grapes, you know, or any plant.   And they're like, Okay, what other purple options are there. And so, if you could find purple cauliflower, right, then that was like, the best thing because you found a color and a new food, maybe that we hadn't tried. Purple potatoes, right, if you could try even if it was like a food that we already had tried, but it was a different color of that food, right carrots, different things like that, that you could have different varieties of color, then that would count as well.   So, that was kind of one way that we and it's works outside of farmers markets are just going to the grocery store going to a different grocery store. And looking Is there anything in the produce section that we haven't tried before. It can be a good place start sometimes you have to like Google what in the world it is. How you write that was like our, we started off like I remember googling, how do you cut a mango, like I didn't even like I did not grow up eating this way. And so, everything was very new.   I didn't know how to eat anything but iceberg lettuce or canned corn as a vegetable. And, you know, learning and so, again, bite sized pieces, right? Easy plus one, my kids do classical, we do a classical model for education.   And I love one of the things they had done when they were little. In their writing was an idea of easy plus one. And I feel like this always applies to almost everything in life.   But nutrition is one of those where I'm like, don't get overwhelmed. Because it took me and my family years to get to where we are. It wasn't like an overnight thing, right?   It's been a 13-year journey for us, which sounds like a lot when you actually like look at what we eat. And you're like, it took us 13 years to change out things. And it's always evolving, because my kids are older.   So, now they're aware of things they weren't aware of when they were little. But easy plus one, right? What do we already have, swap it out for something new.   It doesn't have to be overwhelming.   Laura Dugger: (31:15 - 33:12) I love that easy plus one. And I'm even thinking of all these fresh ideas of how I plan to incorporate this into our homeschool because some of our daughters are interested in going on with culinary arts, and they love being in the kitchen. So, I think that's a great way to involve them.   By now, I hope you've checked out our updated website, thesavvysauce.com so that you can have access to all the additional freebies we are offering, including all of our previous articles, and all of our previous episodes, which now include transcriptions. You will be equipped to have your own practical chats for intentional living when you read all the recommended questions in the articles or gain insight from expert guests and past episodes as you read through the transcriptions. Because many people have shared with us that they want to take notes on previous episodes, or maybe their spouse prefers to read our conversations rather than listen to them or watch them now that we're offering video rather than just audio.   So, we heard all of that. And we now have provided transcripts for all our episodes. Just visit thesavvysauce.com.   All of this is conveniently located under the tab show notes on our website. Happy reading.   But as you're talking about swaps, this is just kind of my personal journey this year.   I feel like God doesn't always give me a word of the year. But this year, I felt like he gave the word nourish, and even added to that as the year went on, nourishing and flourishing. And food is a big piece of that.   But also just tied in with all of this and helping our kids grow up in a healthy environment. What are some other product swaps that would be helpful for things that we're putting on our body, maybe makeup if they're older, or laundry detergent and different things like that.   Emily Johnson: (33:13 - 36:27) Yeah, I would say we I always feel like my encouragement is to start with what goes on your body. Right, sometimes and again, there's always grace. So, sometimes it's like just stop burning the candle in your house.   That's creating actually more toxins, it smells nice. So, anything that smells like fake fragrance is probably not going to be helpful to your system. But I would say that my next favorite is what are we putting on our body?   So, that's shampoos, conditioner, deodorant, lotions, makeup, laundry detergent, right, anything that would be like touching our skin, then the next thing out of that would be, I think there's a lot of fascinating information that has surfaced the last five years of just the importance of undergarments and what it does to the endocrine system. When we're not, you know, putting natural fibers on our skin, we're putting all these synthetic fibers. So, again, it's not like you can financially most of us go out and swap out everything.   And sometimes I still, like my girlfriend, I was just talking like, I kind of miss Tide. I miss the smell of Tide deodorant. Like I haven't used it for years.   But I still like there's something like emotional pride just from childhood that like just feels clean. Even though I know right that it's not. But when you look at all these different chemicals on the body, so, again, when we talk about stress, when we talk about nourishing, right, anything extra that goes on your skin absorbs, right, we forget that it's the largest organ of our body.   And it is absorbing all sorts of chemicals and endocrine disruptors, and creating more stress on our bodies, right, clogging our pores. When you think of that the lymphatic system, the lymphatic system is a huge system within the body that will push toxins around and help drain the body of kind of this overburden of toxic waste. And one of the biggest places, well, the biggest places for lymphatic movement is around your armpits, right?   And what do we do, we put on deodorant, which actually then doesn't allow our arms to sweat and to get that toxin out. And the next part is around the groin. And it's like, okay, what are you putting around the groin?   Are you putting synthetic fibers? Are you putting plastics? Are you putting things, toxins within your laundry detergent, right, that is then creating a disruption, right, the body's trying to release toxins.   And now you're either not letting it sweat it out, or you're actually putting other chemicals in those places where it's going to absorb even more, and make that lymphatic system even more backed up. So, I would say, a home like cleaning supplies and candles and fragrances, those are all really important. But again, if we're starting with absolutely ground zero, I tend to go what's on your skin first, what's touching your skin, moving away from that stuff is super helpful.   There's so many different apps, you know, I we started with, you know, the IW or the Oh, my goodness, I totally blanked on what that is called. The app. Oh, my goodness.   Oh, well, it'll come back.   Laura Dugger: (36:27 - 36:59) Maybe say more about I wonder if one that I've started with a girlfriend of mine, Rachel Allen, actually, her husband was a previous guest on The Savvy Sauce, Chris Allen, but she's very healthy and has been on this health journey for a while. And she showed me the Yuka app, the YUKA, which is great. It's she said, it's not perfect.   It's just helpful. It doesn't tell you if there's seed oils in food. So, that's a bummer.   But with products, if I am out shopping, and I scan a few, it'll tell which is a better option.   Emily Johnson: (37:00 - 37:56) Yeah, so, that's a good one. IWD was the one that we originally started with, you know, 10 years ago. And so, that can be helpful when you just don't know, right?   And you're in the store. And you're like, I always buy this, you know, and you kind of scan it and see what pops up. But that can be helpful.   But I would say in general, again, looking at just reading ingredients, if you can understand the ingredients, and you're like, oh, this is beef tallow, and, you know, some essential oils, and baking soda, right? Like, that's probably okay, you know, versus the like, I don't know these ingredients. These are a long list of ingredients.   And I have no idea how to even pronounce them. So, apps can be helpful. My preference is to encourage us as much as we can, right, to get away from electronics.   And I think that sometimes it's hard when we're like, so, scanning apps can be helpful. But also, just reading ingredients can be helpful.   Laura Dugger: (37:59 - 38:12) That's great. And again, just to kind of jumpstart us, do you have any favorite brands to recommend? Or even on your website?   Is there a place where you talk about swaps that we can link to?   Emily Johnson: (38:13 - 39:44) Yeah, so, on my website, and I'm constantly trying to update this, as best I can, because again, a lot of this started for me almost 13 years ago. And so, so much has changed in 13 years. So, I'm constantly trying to stay up with the new things, because we all know that anytime something becomes a buzzword, all of a sudden, all these companies jump out of the blue.   We're in the world of the and are they good, you know, and so, being able to kind of, obviously, now, there's so much more happening so quickly. So, on my website, I have a blog post that's just like getting started. And that I just keep trying to add to it.   I find books or information or podcasts that I think are helpful in this realm. It kind of breaks it down. Do you want to read a book?   Do you want to listen to a podcast? Do you want to me and some of my girlfriends did like a whole series on different parts of the body and just different things. And like, that's all links there.   So, just whether you want to watch something, read something, listen to something, there's lots of information there. And then on my website, I have lots of different like my favorite things. And those are just some of my favorite products.   There's great products out there just because it's on not on there doesn't mean it's not great. But there's a lot of products that I really used to love, and that they don't make the products either the same that they used to or they have disbanded over the years, right. And so, just because it's not on there doesn't mean it's still a lot of great products.   But I try to update that if I find something I really love, I will try to update those two spots on my website.   Laura Dugger: (39:45 - 39:56) Well, definitely want to link to that in the show notes. But can you give us your website name and just tell more about in general all the work that you do and what you have to offer if we want to follow up after this conversation?   Emily Johnson: (39:56 - 41:56) Yeah, so, my website is mygracioushealing.com. Between my website, I have an email list. But then I also do a lot on social media, Instagram specifically.   So, my handle over there is gracious.healing. Try just to give lots of tips and lots of trying to reclaim some of that social media space to let it be more encouraging and not fear based. But hopefully, try to kind of clue people in on just things that I'm learning and things I see in my clients. I do have a one-on-one practice called gracious healing.   And it is we just work bio individual with, I started off with children, and then I've obviously moved to moms. And now I'm kind of treating most whole families. But I love working with families just because it's sometimes easier because you already know so much history and everything.   But our goal in doing one-on-one nutrition clients is we're looking at lifestyle history, symptoms, we're looking at personality, we're looking at all the ways God created you, and where is their dysfunction on labs? Or, again, we're not thriving, right? Someone might be tired, but what does that mean?   Is it a soul issue, a heart issue, a mental issue? Is it you're not getting enough rest? Do you need more nutrition, that kind of stuff.   So, we look at all of that, and really holistically, and then we break down a road plan, how are we going to get you there, you're in the driver's seat, I'm just trying to help you navigate what nutrition might you need, what kind of steps might you need, in terms of supplementation, diet recommendations, lifestyle pieces. And we kind of address all of that with kind of a game plan of follow ups and what that looks like. My goal is for people to not need me forever.   So, our goal is to help as much as clients want to be discipled and learn all of this, so that then they can get to where they feel they're truly thriving, and then they can run off into the world that God has for them.   Laura Dugger: (41:56 - 42:24) I love that. Thank you for sharing that. And I will definitely link to that in the show notes.   And I just have a couple more questions for you, because I want to make sure, even as you talk about meeting with your clients, and it's very bio individual. So, maybe there's not an answer to this. But is there anything in general, any other health principles or even supplements that you do see, generally speaking, this would be beneficial to everyone?   Anything that we haven't covered yet?   Emily Johnson: (42:25 - 45:21) Yeah, so, I'd say at this point, the only two supplement companies that I feel like can be pretty helpful for most people. One is called Core Formulas. They are just kind of basic, like nothing they're doing is crazy detox, nothing they're doing is like killing anything.   They're just really supporting the body from a nutritional standpoint. So, you're thinking drainage, gut support, and vitamin support. So, they're pretty basic companies, like most people kind of look on their website, determine if that's something that would be helpful for them.   And then the other one would be body bio. So, BodyBio is a great company that focuses specifically on cellular health. And so, you're going to have electrolytes, you're going to have some good kind of fatty acids, right?   When we look at the cell, we need four to one omega six to omega three, a lot of us focus on omega three, because they're just aren't great sources for omega six. And so, they make some really great companies that really look at the cellular level, the mitochondria level, being able their products are really based on that you're not going to have again, crazy detox supplements. So, most people can tolerate at least to a small degree, I always say it's individual, you should always kind of look at who you are, what you have, what your goals are.   Because again, sometimes I think we hear things and we're like, oh, this is the roadmap, I need to detox, I need to liver do a liver blast, I need to do all these things. And that may not be true, right. And so, the ability in this day and age to just be able to chew and spit right, like what information is helpful, spit out what's not, and then maybe tuck away in my brain what might be helpful down the road.   Yeah, I think that those companies are the only companies I ever feel confident being like, most people would benefit from kind of playing around with those products. Yep, I don't think I think everything we talked about just feels super fundamental and foundational. I think encouraging people to really know where they're not thriving and to be really honest and raw with themselves as to what they are, what God has for them and where they're maybe not stewarding or operating fully right with the knowledge they have in those places. I think can be really helpful.   It's kind of like going on a trip without a destination, right? Like you're just kind of wandering. And I feel like this stuff is so beautiful and so wonderful to incorporate in our lives.   But if we don't actually have a picture of what we're trying to achieve in the process, I feel like we kind of just get tossed around. And so, while this stuff is all wonderful and the nutrition and focusing on I think if we don't really know where we're trying to go with it, then it can just get really muddied.   Laura Dugger: (45:22 - 46:11) I think that's so good to talk about purpose and be aware. And I love this conversation how you've incorporated for us as the parent, but also for our children. And I will link to one other episode as well with Dr. Charles Fay, where he talks about raising emotionally healthy and mentally healthy children. He wrote a book with Dr. Amen. And in the episode, he just talked about instilling purpose in our children and talking about that, because God does have a purpose for them as well. And so, I love how you're bringing all of this back as you've done so well shining your faith throughout this conversation.   But Emily, you know, we are called The Savvy Sauce, because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so, as my final question for you today, what is your savvy sauce?   Emily Johnson: (46:13 - 46:57) Yeah, you I knew this question was coming. And honestly, I was like, how do I pick just one? So, I think this is what I'm going to say.   Discipline equals freedom. And I have just found for me that kind of that savvy sauce, and it may change that discipline may change over a period of time. But if I can get real honest with what I need to be disciplined in in the moment, it gives me so much freedom for the rest of my day.   And so, being disciplined it used to feel constraining. And now it actually feels like, I don't have to think about right. Decision fatigue is a real thing.   And so, if I can just be disciplined, there's so much freedom that happens in my day with that.   Laura Dugger: (46:57 - 47:32) Wow, I love that so much. And I love how self-control I think of self-discipline as a fruit of the spirit. And that's what I've experienced.   You've cultivated that fruit in your life. And we've gotten to experience the good sweet fruit in this conversation and the abundant life that you're living in the overflow. So, thank you for walking this journey while stewarding all of this well and sharing so generously with each of us.   You are just a delight to spend time with. So, thank you for being my guest.   Emily Johnson: (47:32 - 47:35) Yes, thank you. Oh my goodness, such kind words.   Laura Dugger: (47:36 – 51:19) One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

Every life holds a turning point — a moment when the path forward demands not just change, but complete reinvention. For some, that moment comes quietly. For others, it arrives through struggle, loss, or even confinement. But what if those very experiences that seem to break us could, instead, become the foundation of our redemption?   In this episode, Cindy Watson and Dr. Kim Nugent, together they will discuss about From Prison to Possibilities: Negotiating Redemption, Reinvention, and Radical Self-Worth. Cindy Watson and Dr. Kim Nugent take us on a journey through the transformative power of self-belief and second chances. Together, they uncover how even in our darkest chapters, there lies an opportunity to rediscover purpose, reclaim dignity, and rise with renewed vision — proving that the greatest negotiations we ever make are the ones we make for our own redemption.   In this episode, you will learn:   The key internal negotiations that we have to make to shift from feeling stuck to stepping into new opportunities or possibilities. How to negotiate our way if we feel isolated or unsupported? Negotiating trust and forgiveness with other people in your life. How to negotiate past your fear when wanting to step into a new future? How to negotiate as a mentor even we don't see ourselves as one? And many more!   Learn more about Dr. Kim:   Website: https://drnugentspeaks.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063645326738# Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drkimsnugent/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimsnugent   Get her book!   From Prison to Possibilities: Paving Your Path  If you're looking to up-level your negotiation skills, I have everything from online to group to my signature one-on-one mastermind & VIP experiences available to help you better leverage your innate power to get more of what you want and deserve in life. Check out our website at www.artofFeminineNegotiation.com if that sounds interesting to you.   Get Cindy's book here: Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/Art-Feminine-Negotiation-Boardroom-Bedroom-ebook/dp/B0B8KPCYZP?inf_contact_key=94d07c699eea186d2adfbddfef6fb9e2&inf_contact_key=013613337189d4d12be8d2bca3c26821680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1 EBook   https://www.amazon.com/Art-Feminine-Negotiation-Boardroom-Bedroom-ebook/dp/B0B8KPCYZP?inf_contact_key=94d07c699eea186d2adfbddfef6fb9e2&inf_contact_key=013613337189d4d12be8d2bca3c26821680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1 Barnes and Noble   https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-art-of-feminine-negotiation-cindy-watson/1141499614?ean=9781631959776 CONNECT WITH CINDY: Website: www.womenonpurpose.ca Website: www.practicingwithpurpose.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/womenonpurposecommunity/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenonpurposecoaching/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thecindywatson Show: https://www.womenonpurpose.ca/media/podcast-2/ X(Twitter):  https://twitter.com/womenonpurpose1 YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@hersuasion Email: cindy@womenonpurpose.ca

About Dr. Emily Jamea: Dr. Emily Jamea is a licensed sex and relationship therapist, speaker, and USA Today bestselling author of Anatomy of Desire: Five Secrets to Create Connection and Cultivate Passion. With over 15 years of clinical experience, she helps individuals and couples cultivate intimacy, heal emotional barriers, and experience pleasure as an essential part of well-being. Her pioneering research on "sexual flow state" has reshaped the way modern relationships approach passion and connection. What We Discuss In This Episode: Midlife can bring profound emotional and physical changes, affecting how women experience desire, intimacy, and connection. In this incredibly insightful episode, Lynne Wadsworth welcomes Dr. Emily Jamea, sex and relationship therapist and USA Today bestselling author of Anatomy of Desire. Together, they dive into how women can rediscover passion and pleasure during perimenopause, menopause, and beyond. Dr. Jamea explains how her groundbreaking research identified "sexual flow state" — a psychological state of deep presence and absorption — as the key to long-term sexual satisfaction. She walks us through the emotional, relational, hormonal, and mindset shifts that help couples stay connected through every life stage. You'll hear real strategies around adaptability, curiosity, vulnerability, sensuality, and attunement, plus how women can reclaim their pleasure even amid midlife transitions.

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Chris Dalla Riva, author of the new book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. Chris is a fixture here at Numlock, we're big fans of his newsletter Can't Get Much Higher and have been eagerly waiting for this book, which tracks the history of music by coasting along the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The book can be found at Amazon and wherever books are sold, grab a copy!This interview has been condensed and edited. Chris Dalla Riva, it is great to have you back on. Especially great this week, because you are finally out with a book that I know you've been working on for a very long time, Uncharted Territory. Thanks for coming back on.Yeah, thrilled to be back, but also thrilled to have the book come out. The book publishing world is one of the only worlds left in the world that moves slow enough where you're waiting for so long for something to happen.You have guest-written for Numlock before; you have been a staple of the Sunday editions in the past. You are definitely familiar to the audience at this point because you are doing some of the best music data journalism out there. You've been working on this thing for, I feel like, as long as I've known you, and it is just great to have it come out finally, man.Yeah, actually, I met you because I was working on this project. I was trying to track down some data that you'd used at FiveThirtyEight, and you responded to my email with your phone number. You were like, “This is easier to explain over the phone.”Yeah, I remember I had scraped the radio for months at FiveThirtyEight just to see where it went, and you hit me up with that. I think that you focused some of your energies on the newsletter, and that's been so fun to follow, but this is truly what you've been working at. It is great to get you on finally to talk all about it.What would you describe this book as? How would you describe it, either to folks who might be familiar with your newsletter or unfamiliar with your newsletter, about what you're setting out to do with this particular project?The subtitle, I think, is helpful. It's What Numbers Tell Us About the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. My typical pitch is that it's a data-driven history of popular music that I wrote as I spent years listening to every number one hit song in history. You get a balance of music history, data analysis, just random music chart shenanigans. I wrote it over such a very long period of time that you get a little bit of how my life was intersecting with this book over the years as I tried to get it published.I love the angle on the No.1s being a place to go with, because it gives you a pulse on what's popular at the time and not necessarily what's the most influential at the time. You can see there's a lot of stuff that hit number one at one point or another that have no musical legacy whatsoever, but nevertheless are still interesting. It's dipping your toe in the stream, right? You can see that a lot of things that we assume about how the music industry works weren't always the case.You wrote a little bit about the early transition from big bands to singers as the front-facing people in their operation. That was informed in no small part by what was performing on the charts, but also, I think, labor action, right?An under-discussed part of music history in the last 100 years is that when thinking of any band now or any musical artist, you almost certainly think of the front person being the singer. But if you go look back at big bands of the 1930s and 1940s, anyone whose name was attached to the band was often not a singer. Some that come to mind are Glenn Miller, the Glenn Miller band. Glenn Miller was a trombone player. Artie Shaw was a clarinet player. If none of these names are familiar to you, that's okay. But you can ask your grandparents.Why does this transition happen: suddenly, the lead singer is always getting top billing in a band? There are a bunch of things that contributed to this. One thing I talk about pretty extensively is just the advent of better microphones. If a voice cannot be heard over the roar of an orchestra or a big band, you need a choir of people to sing. It makes the singer less identifiable. As we get better amplification, better microphones, you can get a wider range of vocal styles. Those vocalists can now compete with the sound of a ton of instruments.At the same time, something you mentioned that I think is a fun bit of history is how music used to be much better organized. They had better labor organization, the same way that Hollywood has much better labor organization than music these days. There still exists a group called the American Federation of Musicians. For two years, they had a strike for a work stoppage, when no new music was being recorded. This was during World War II. You weren't allowed to strike during World War II.They were frowned upon very much, it seems, yes.Yes, even if you were a musician. People were like, “Come on, why are the musicians striking?” There's a lot of interesting history there. One of the weird loopholes was that singers could not join the American Federation of Musicians. Because of that, some labels would get around the strike by just recording acapella songs or songs with instruments that were not eligible to be membership because they weren't “serious” enough, like the harmonica. There were weird harmonica songs that were popular at this time. By the time the strike ended, by the time World War II ended, suddenly, singers had a much more prominent role because they were the only ones allowed to perform.There is tons of weird stuff about this strike. Like, labels backlogged tons of recordings because they knew the strike was coming. “White Christmas,” maybe the best-selling record of all time, was one of those backlogged recordings — recorded in July of 1942 and put out however many months later.That's fun. That's basically why Tom Cruise is in a union but Bad Bunny isn't?I guess so. Music and labor have a history that I'm not an expert on. For some reason, musicians have had a much more difficult time organizing. It seemed to be a little bit easier back when there were these big bands that needed to be rolled out to perform in movie theaters or local clubs. You needed a tuba player and a trombone player and a sax player. I guess it was easier for those musicians to organize. Whereas now, things are so scattered and productions can be super small, and you could record something in your bedroom. They never got that level of organization. I think it's actually hurt artists to some degree because they don't have the protections that the film industry does.Because you're able to just coast along at the top of the charts throughout basically the century, you're able to get lots of different interweaving stories of labor and also legal disputes/legal outcomes, as well as this technological evolution. What are some of the ways that technology has informed how the music that we listen to changes or evolves over time? Or even some of the litigation that we have seen over the course of the century of musical creation. It just seems like it's a really fun way to track some of these bigger trends that we don't even know are really trends.Yeah, totally. I think one of the key themes of the book is that musical evolution is often downstream from technological innovation, which has a nice little ring to it. But in general, there's this idea that creativity is being struck by the muse, and you create something. Whereas in reality, there are usually physical constraints or technological constraints that shape the art that we make. One of the most basic examples is the length of songs. From the '40s up till the early, mid-60s, the pop song sits around 2.5 to three minutes. The reason for this is that vinyl singles could literally not hold more sound without degrading, which is completely backwards from the idea that there was an artist who chose to write a 2.5-minute song.I was like, “Well, you had to work within the constraint.” Then technology gets better, singles start to get longer. During the disco era, they actually made bigger discs to put out these long dance mixes. The single sat around like 3.5 to 4.5 minutes for decades until about 10 years ago, when it started to shorten again. People typically point to music streaming for this reason, because artists are paid if a song is listened to for more than 30 seconds, so it's really just a volume game. If you have a 14 minute song that someone listens to one time, they get paid once. But if I listen to a two-minute song seven times (which is again, the same amount of time spent listening), I will be paid out seven times. There is this financial incentive to shorten songs.I don't think artists are sitting in the studio thinking about this constantly. But what I see, what I saw again and again, is that artists were rational beings to some degree and would work within the constraints that they were given. They would usually push against those constraints. That's where a lot of great art comes out of.Even new mediums are offering new opportunities. You wrote a little bit about MTV and how that really changed a lot of what was able to be successful at the time. You had new types of acts that were able to really start competing there, and other acts that just weren't. Do you wanna speak a little bit about like what video did?Yeah, video certainly changed the game. There were artists who had visual presences earlier. The Beatles had a very visual presence. I think part of their success is tied to the fact that television was becoming a thing, and mass media was really becoming a thing. However, we associate musicians with visuals so much these days. That really emerged in the 1980s, where you needed your visual concepts to be as strong, if not stronger than, your musical concepts. I think because of that, you start seeing some artists break through who I don't think are considered great musicians.I always sadly point to the song, “Hey Mickey” by Tony Basil. If it's your favorite song, sorry. I don't think it's a masterful musical creation, but it had this fun music video where she's dressed up as a cheerleader. A lot of that song's success was just the fact that MTV was willing to put that in heavy rotation because it was a fun video to watch. We live in the shadow of that era where visuals matter just as much as anything else.When you think about the most popular artists, outside of maybe a handful, you think of their visual concepts. You think of what Beyoncé looks like, what her videos are like, same with Taylor Swift, as much as you think about their music. That really reshaped our relationship with popular music. We expect to know what artists look like. It's odd to think about that; it really wasn't a thing decades before. You could be a fan of an artist and not really know what they look like. How would you know? Maybe you saw them in a magazine. Maybe you caught them on one television show. The idea that we have access to what everyone looks like is a pretty new phenomenon.That's fun. It's just so interesting to see how a simple change, whether it's today an algorithm or then a medium of distribution, can just have material impacts on the popularity of British synth music in America.Yeah, that's the perfect example. There's a great book called I Want My MTV, and it's an oral history of MTV. They talked to one of the founders. Early MTV would play, as you're saying, all these British new wave acts. Think A Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran or even someone like U2. They asked the founder, “Why were you playing so many British artists on early MTV?” He was like, “For some reason, British artists happened to make music videos. And there were about 200 music videos in existence. We had to fill 24 hours of programming.” A Flock of Seagulls was gonna get played a bunch of times just because they happened to make music videos.It is a weird thing. Why would anyone make a music video if there was nowhere to really play them? I don't know why specifically the British had more videos, but there were occasional times where television shows might show a video.They do love that over there, like Top of the Pops. I can see why.Music and television have always been connected. You even think Saturday Night Live still has musical acts. Back then, say your label didn't wanna send you out to Britain to go on Top of the Pops. Maybe they would send a video of you instead. There were videos that would float around on these variety shows, and some early videos were just concert footage. It was like, it was a chicken or the egg thing. Once some people had success on MTV, everyone started producing videos. MTV somehow pulled off the miracle of convincing labels that they needed to make videos and that they needed to front the cost for that. Then they had to give MTV the video for free. I don't know how MTV managed to do that.Well, all of Gen X can't be wrong. If you do wanna get it out there, you do have to get it out there. One really fun recurring thing in the book — which again, like I really enjoyed. I think it's a phenomenal work. I think it's a great history. I'm telling stories that I learned in your book to everybody. It is a really fun read in that regard, I wanna say.I do love how you occasionally clock a genre that really only exists briefly. There's one that always goes around for like the strangest things to hit number one, like the Ballad of the Green Berets. I think like there's a Star Wars disco track that I definitely have on vinyl at home about that. You wrote a lot about like teen tragedy songs. What are some of the fascinating like brief trends that only made a small splash and that all of us have forgotten ever existed, but nevertheless achieve some measure of immortality?Yeah, the teen tragedy song is a good one. That actually inspired the writing of this whole book because I got 50 No. 1s, and I was like, “Why are there so many number ones about teenagers dying? That's a little weird.” And then I did a little digging and tried to piece together why that was. The teenage tragedy song, late '50s, early '60s, there are all of these songs about two teenagers in love, usually high schoolers. One tragically dies often in a car crash, and the other is very sad and maybe says that they'll reunite again one day in the afterlife. Some of the big ones are “Leader of the Pack” by the Shangri-Las and “Teen Angel” by Mark Dinning.It's a very weird blip in popular music history. I won't say it has cast a long shadow, but there are some occasional people who pull from that tradition. The craziest teen tragedy song ever was “Bat Outta Hell” by Meatloaf, in which Jim Steinman tried to write a nine-minute motorcycle crash song. I think that's a really interesting one.Disco: bizarre in the amount of people that made disco songs. I really came to like disco and the best disco music, I'm like, “These are the greatest sounds that have ever been recorded.” But it got so big and so popular that everyone felt the need to record disco songs.Not everything is “I Feel Love,” right?No, most things are not. It strikes me that this happened with disco, but has not happened with other genres. Frank Sinatra recorded disco songs. Basically, every television theme song got a disco remix. I Love Lucy had a disco remix. The Rocky theme song had a disco remix.What? I'm sorry, Frank Sinatra did a disco song? Is it good?It's not good. It's “Night and Day” over a disco beat. And it's not clear to me if they just remixed it or if he actually recut the vocal because I just cannot imagine him doing that. In the mid-60s, there was a nun who topped the charts, The Singing Nun with a song called “Dominique.” Of course, during the disco era, it was remixed as a disco song. There are examples of this where people went sort of disco. The Rolling Stones record “Miss You” and it has the disco beat, or Pink Floyd does “Another Brick in the Wall” or Queen does “Another One Bites the Dust.”Everyone was gonna give it a try. There was so much money being made in the disco world at the time. You can always find some artists you would never think would do a disco song probably tried. They probably gave it their best.That's great. It's just fun because the things that hit number one for a week don't necessarily have to be good. They just have to be popular for like a week. Even the construction of the Top 40 chart, which you get into in the book, isn't exactly science. A lot of times, it's a little bit of intuition. It's a lot of what's selling and what's selling where specifically. It is a little bit woo woo, right?Yeah, definitely. The goal of this chart is “What's the most popular song in America in a given week?” Back in the day, that meant what were people buying? What were people listening to on the radio? What were people spinning in jukeboxes? Today, most music is done on streaming. It's consumption-based, rather than sales-based. So the chart's the same in name only, but it's really measuring very different things. The equivalent would be if we knew after you purchased your copy of “I Feel Love,” how many times did you actually play it at home? You could have purchased it, went home and never played it again. Something like that would not register on the charts these days.I respect the people at Billboard because they have an impossible task. It's like “We're gonna take all the information and we're going to boil it down into choosing or measuring what the most popular song is.” It's an impossible task to some degree.I have watched the evolution of the chart, and I go back and forth on whether they have given up on actually trying to rank stuff or if they are just ranking things in a different way. I think that the apples-to-apples between the era stuff is just so hard to do.One thing I really enjoyed about your book, in particular, is that it's not a story of why these songs are the best. It's a story of why these songs were popular at the time, just dipping the toe into the river of human sound. One thing that I'll ask as you wrap: as you were going through these eras, who did you hear a lot more of than you thought? Who did you hear a lot less than you expected?I joked with some people that if you just looked at the top of the charts, the greatest rock band of the 1970s is either Grand Funk Railroad or Three Dog Night because they both had three number one hits, and many other bands in the classic rock canon have none. Led Zeppelin does not really exist on the pop chart, the singles chart. Led Zeppelin really only put out albums. The Eagles were also big during the '70s on the music charts. But Three Dog Night, they're the legends.There are tons of people that I didn't realize how much I would see of them. Someone like Lionel Richie and Phil Collins, of course, they're tremendously popular, but they were so popular. Phil Collins was popular at the height of the bald pop star era, which I think is a thing of the past. You had multiple bald men who were regularly topping the charts in the mid-80s. You see a ton of Phil Collins, more than I was expecting, even though I know he's very popular.Who don't you see a ton of? Sometimes you don't see people until a bit later in their careers. This is actually an interesting phenomenon. Artists do not score a number one hit during their most critically acclaimed period, and then a decade later, they do. For example, Cheap Trick. They have a number one hit, but it's at the end of the '80s song called “The Flame.” Whereas if you hear Cheap Trick on the radio, it's probably their live album from the 1970s. This is a phenomenon you see again and again. Some old timer will get their number one much later in their career. Tina Turner gets her number one when she's probably in her 40s. It's always interesting to see that.There are also some artists where I feel like there's a divergence between what their most popular songs are these days and what was topping the charts. Elton John is a good example there. “Benny and the Jets” was a number one hit, still a tremendously popular song. But he's got a lot of weird No. 1s that I don't think have as much street cred these days. He has a song called “Island Girl.” Did not age like fine wine. I don't even think he plays it live anymore because it's considered somewhat racially insensitive. But it was a No. 1 hit at the time. “Philadelphia Freedom” is another one by Elton John. I feel like when people think of the Elton John catalog, it's probably not the first song that comes to mind. But it was a No. 1 hit, huge smash. His cover of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was a No. 1. Elton John has been very popular throughout the decades, but I feel like the reasons he's been popular have changed.People have just gravitated towards different songs as time has gone on. You get distortions at the top of the charts. But I think, as you mentioned, it provides a good sample of what was actually popular. You have the good, the bad, and the ugly. Whereas if you look at some other sources, people are just gonna be like, “Oh, listen to these records. These are the best records.” In reality, the bad records are important, too.Yeah, bad records are great. They're at least interesting. I imagine also some of this process must have been missing out on a lot of interesting music because one song was just dominating the charts. Were there any songs in particular that come to mind that wooled the roost for potentially a little bit too long?Yeah, the quintessential example is the “Macarena” in the ‘90s.Oh, no!I think it was No. 1 for 13 weeks.Christ!There's a great clip of people at the Democratic National Convention and '96 dancing the “Macarena.” It's so bad. Yeah, so a very popular song. There are tons of stuff that gets stuck behind it. There's a great No.1 hit in the '90s called “I Love You Always Forever.” It's a very nice song by Donna Lewis. It's stuck at No. 2 because it just happened to be popular during the “Macarena's” very long run. YYour life's work, your greatest accomplishment, being stymied by the “Macarena” feels like a level of creative hell that I have never envisioned before.Yeah, there are other artists who got unlucky. Bruce Springsteen never performed a No. 1 hit. He wrote a No.1 hit for another artist. His closest was “Dancing in the Dark” got to No. 2, but that was also when Prince released “When Doves Cry,” so it's a tough, tough week. Bob Dylan, similar thing. He wrote a No. 1 hit, but he only ever got to No. 2. I think he got to No. 2 twice. Once, he got stuck behind “Help” by the Beatles, and another time he got stuck behind “Monday Monday” by the Mamas and the Papas.This is another thing when I talk about the charts. There could be many fewer units sold in a given week, or there could be many more units sold. There's a lot of luck involved if you're gonna go all the way to No. 1. You could be Bruce Springsteen: you release the biggest record of your life, and Prince also releases the biggest record of his life at the exact same time.Incredible. So again, I have read the book. I really, really like it. People are doubtlessly familiar with the newsletter at this point, but I am also a big fan and booster of that. But I guess I'll just throw it to you. Where can folks find the book, and where can folks find you?Yeah, you can find me, Chris Dalla Riva, basically on every social media platform under cdallarivamusic. I'm most active on TikTok and Instagram. The book, Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us About the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves, should be available from every major retailer online. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Booklist, all that good stuff. Not available physically in stores, so definitely order it online.Like I said, I spent years listening to every No. 1 hit in history, built a giant data set about all those songs and used that to write a data-driven history of popular music from 1958 to basically 2025. So go pick up a copy, buy one for your mother for Christmas. Or your father, I don't discriminate. Yeah, check it out. I'm hoping people enjoy it, and I'm really excited to finally get it out in the world. It's been a long, circuitous journey to get it published.It's a really fun read, and I wish it nothing but the best. And yeah, congrats, thanks for coming on.Yeah, thanks for having me.Edited by Crystal WangIf you have anything you'd like to see in this Sunday special, shoot me an email. Comment below! Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for supporting Numlock.Thank you so much for becoming a paid subscriber! Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.numlock.com/subscribe

On this episode, we define osteoporosis and describe its clinical presentations, underlying pathophysiology, and common etiologies. We compare and contrast the efficacy, safety profiles, and appropriate use of various antiresorptive and anabolic agents used in osteoporosis management. We also review current guidelines and evidence-based approaches for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, including pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions. Cole and I are happy to share that our listeners can claim ACPE-accredited continuing education for listening to this podcast episode! We have continued to partner with freeCE.com to provide listeners with the opportunity to claim 1-hour of continuing education credit for select episodes. For existing Unlimited (Gold) freeCE members, this CE option is included in your membership benefits at no additional cost! A password, which will be given at some point during this episode, is required to access the post-activity test. To earn credit for this episode, visit the following link below to go to freeCE's website: https://www.freece.com/ If you're not currently a freeCE member, we definitely suggest you explore all the benefits of their Unlimited Membership on their website and earn CE for listening to this podcast. Thanks for listening! If you want to support the podcast, check out our Patreon account. Subscribers will have access to all previous and new pharmacotherapy lectures as well as downloadable PowerPoint slides for each lecture. If you purchase an annual membership, you'll also get a free digital copy of High-Powered Medicine 3rd edition by Dr. Alex Poppen, PharmD. HPM is a book/website database of summaries for over 150 landmark clinical trials.You can visit our Patreon page at the website below:  www.patreon.com/corconsultrx We want to give a big thanks to Dr. Alex Poppen, PharmD and High-Powered Medicine for sponsoring the podcast..  You can get a copy of HPM at the links below:  Purchase a subscription or PDF copy - https://highpoweredmedicine.com/ Purchase the paperback and hardcover - Barnes and Noble website We want to say thank you to our sponsor, Pyrls. Try out their drug information app today. Visit the website below for a free trial: www.pyrls.com/corconsultrx We also want to thank our sponsor Freed AI. Freed is an AI scribe that listens, prepares your SOAP notes, and writes patient instructions. Charting is done before your patient walks out of the room. You can try 10 notes for free and after that it only costs $99/month. Visit the website below for more information: https://www.getfreed.ai/  If you have any questions for Cole or me, reach out to us via e-mail: Mike - mcorvino@corconsultrx.com Cole - cswanson@corconsultrx.com

This episode features Dr. Jamie Knopman, a leading reproductive endocrinologist, in an insightful conversation about fertility, modern family planning, and the emotional realities of trying to conceive. She debunks common myths, including the overlooked role of male fertility, explains why more women delay motherhood, and breaks down how ovarian aging affects fertility. Ash and Dr. Knopman explore fertility preservation, comparing egg freezing to a proactive safety measure for future options. They discuss age, egg quality, realistic success rates, and why both partners should be evaluated. She also shares what the egg-freezing process and transition to IVF truly look like. They also dive into the emotional and financial challenges of fertility treatments, misconceptions about birth control, when to seek help, and the importance of supportive, honest communities. This episode offers a clear, empowering guide to reproductive health and informed family planning.   In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why fertility challenges often involve both partners, not just women How ovarian aging works and why age matters more than most realize The truth behind egg freezing and what it can (and can't) guarantee How many eggs women typically need for the best chance of success Common myths around birth control, infertility, and reproductive health What transitioning from egg freezing to IVF really looks like The emotional and financial realities behind fertility treatments How to navigate community, connection, and support during fertility journeys   Visit shopify.com/youturn and only pay $1 for your first month's trial. Connect with Dr. Jamie Knopman Own Your Fertility Book Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Own-Your-Fertility-Freezing-Surrogacy/dp/1324111488?ascsubtag=srctok-e029e76d99901477&btn_ref=srctok-e029e76d99901477 Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/own-your-fertility-jaime-knopman/1147402776?ean=9781324111481&st=AFF&2sid=Linktree%20Inc_100589976_NA&sourceId=AFFLinktree%20Inc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjaimeknopman/ Connect with Ash: https://www.instagram.com/ashleystahl/ Want to become a professional speaker and skyrocket your personal brand?  Ashley's team at Wise Whisper Agency offers a done-with-you method to get your signature talk written and booked and it's helped more than 100 clients onto the TEDx stage! Head over to WiseWhisperAgency.com/speak  

Very excited to announce that my new book Running Breakthroughs is available now as audiobook, hardcover, paperback and ebook. Get incredible Book Launch Bonuses when you order now at https://florisgierman.com ! Getting your heart rate zones wrong can stall progress or worse, lead to burnout and injury. In this video, I walk you step-by-step through 6 ways to set your HR zones correctly, who it's for, pros and cons and troubleshooting tips.  We compare each calculation from MAF Method, Zone 2, Karvonen and more. This is a deep dive that hopefully answers many questions about how to find your ideal training zone on the day to day basis.  Watch this full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1AxKtpNXl8E    CHAPTERS: 0:00 – Get Your Heart-Rate Zones Right: Methods That Actually Work 0:27 – I wrote a book, it's available now! 1:41 – Method 1: The Talk Test 3:26 – Talk Test: Troubleshooting 4:11 – Talk test: Advantages and limitations 4:56 – Method 2: Nasal Breathing 5:29 – Andrew Huberman on Nasal Breathing 7:36 – Nasal Breathing: Advantages and Limitations 8:11 – Method 3: The MAF Method (180 Formula) 11:00 – MAF Method: Troubleshooting 11:48 – MAF Method: Advantages and limitations 12:40 – Method 4: Zone Training by % of Max HR 14:45 – % Max HR method: who this method works best for 15:41 – % Max HR method: Advantages and limitations 16:16 – Method 5: Karvonen Formula (Heart Rate Reserve Method) 17:04 – HR calculator on extramilest.com 20:04 – Method 6: Laboratory Testing 22:17 – Lab Testing: Advantages and limitations 24:08 – Lab Testing: James' ultra training 25:58 – About my new book Running Breakthroughs 27:16 – Closing thoughts     LINKS & TOOLS MENTIONED ► Buy Running Breakthroughs Book and get amazing Book Launch bonuses: https://florisgierman.com  ► Buy my book on Amazon - https://geni.us/running-breakthroughs  ► Buy my book Barnes and Nobles - https://geni.us/runningbreakthroughs  ► Heart Rate Calculator: https://extramilest.com/hr-calculator  ► PB Program: https://pbprogram.com      YOU CAN FIND ME, COACH FLORIS GIERMAN HERE:  ► Our Personal Best Coaching Program: https://www.pbprogram.com/  ► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/florisgierman ► Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/1329785  ► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/florisgierman  ► Extramilest: https://extramilest.com/  ► Path Projects: https://pathprojects.com/flo ► Podcast: https://extramilest.com/podcast/    Affiliate Disclosure: I may earn commissions if you purchase items via my affiliate links. "As an affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases." Affiliate links do not increase cost to you. Also, you do not need to use these links. You can also search for these same items in Amazon or on any search engine/shopping site of your choice and buy/research them that way.     ABOUT THE EXTRAMILEST SHOW: A podcast and YouTube channel where host Floris Gierman interviews world class athletes, coaches and health experts on the topic of how to become a stronger, healthier and happier athlete.     More info about our Personal Best Running Coaching Program can be found at https://www.pbprogram.com.      SUBSCRIBE and hit the bell to see new videos: https://bit.ly/Flo-YT    

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We talk with author Trevor James Wilson about courage, faith, and starting over at fifty, tracing a life from postwar Europe to guiding seniors around the world. Travel becomes a way to practice humility, face hard history, and find goodness in strangers.• leaving a senior banking career to lead travel• travel as education, empathy and self-belief• Berlin Wall, freedom and moral courage• guiding first-time and senior travelers abroad• gratitude, humility, balance as daily practice• finding beauty in unlikely places• confronting Auschwitz and preserving memory• humor and resilience as longevity tools• writing a debut memoir at eighty-four• practical links to buy the bookGet the book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and most major online retailersTo learn more visit trevorjameswilson.comSupport the showElsa's AMAZON STORE Elsa's FAITH & FREEDOM MERCH STORE Elsa's BOOKSElsa Kurt: You may know her for her uncanny, viral Kamala Harris impressions & conservative comedy skits, but she's also a lifelong Patriot & longtime Police Wife. She has channeled her fierce love and passion for God, family, country, and those who serve as the creator, Executive Producer & Host of the Elsa Kurt Show with Clay Novak. Her show discusses today's topics & news from a middle class/blue collar family & conservative perspective. The vocal LEOW's career began as a multi-genre author who has penned over 25 books, including twelve contemporary women's novels. Clay Novak: Clay Novak was commissioned in 1995 as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry and served as an officer for twenty four years in Mechanized Infantry, Airborne Infantry, and Cavalry units . He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2019. Clay is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School and is a Master Rated Parachutist, serving for more th...

In this episode of the Rachel Hollis Podcast, Rachel addresses two listener questions about personal development and planning. She emphasizes the importance of actually working on existing plans rather than constantly seeking new ones and suggests treating it like an important meeting. Additionally, she discusses the significance of attending conferences, how to choose the right ones, and the benefits they offer. Rachel also shares her own evening routine and answers a question about maintaining routines with kids and working full-time.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!00:56 Welcome and Podcast Subscription Request01:55 Ask Rach: Personal Development and Conferences03:54 How to Choose the Right Conference14:33 Evening Routine for Busy Moms26:16 Planning and Sticking to It32:17 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Orlando Jaime shared his 20-year journey of developing "The Seven Thunders" series, which evolved from a spontaneous creative inspiration into a multi-formatted project including theater, music, and eventually a novel. He discussed the challenges and successes of bringing the project to life through various media formats, including the creation of a book trailer and organizing book events at Barnes & Noble stores.wesiseli.compatreon.com/wes_iseli

Paige Parsons Roache and Sherri Johnson are two health-focused, powerhouse self-starters, raising their individual families plant-based, all the while maintaining their BFF status with one another. What started as two people who just happened to go to the same gym turned into two women on a mission to educate and inspire through their show Plant-Based in the Burbs. In this oh-so-good episode, Paige and Sherri share how they maintain their friendship and uplift one another, how going vegan has both empowered and educated them along with their families, and most importantly, how important laughter has been through it all. Go ahead and share this one with your own BFF. Let's celebrate friendship together, yes? _________________________ Steve's third book in his cozy mystery series, THE DOG WALKING DETECTIVES is finally here: SEASON'S SLAYINGS lights up the holidays! Get your copy on Amazon: https://bit.ly/3WYTPiR or Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/4hOjILR Grab the first two: Book 1: DROWN TOWN Amazon: https://amzn.to/478W8mp Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3Mv7cCk & Book 2: MURDER UNMASKED Amazon: https://shorturl.at/fDR47 Barnes & Noble: https://shorturl.at/3ccTy

Check out the video on Youtube! - https://youtu.be/TwaNcOcBzuoIn this episode, Rachel Hollis discusses her new podcast format involving cooking, chatting, and testing recipes amidst the chaos of her home renovation.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold! Sign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How to Organize Your Week (Rachel Hollis' Exact Method) - https://youtu.be/s4Z0aeb7N4wGet your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!00:53 Welcome and Subscribe!01:50 Adapting to Change: My Office Story03:40 Work With What You've Got07:19 Maximizing Your Time19:37 The Importance of Leaving the House22:10 Results Over Time: A New Mindset26:12 Introducing Premium Content30:50 Expect Imperfection34:28 Final Thoughts and EncouragementSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

275. Raising Healthy Kids Free Tips with Emily Johnson   Exodus 31:3 NIV "and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—"   *Transcription Below*   Emily Johnson is a homeschool mama who married her high school sweetheart, and she's now additionally the owner of Gracious Healing, which is an online nutritional practice that works with families to get to the root of their health issues with a holistic view and approach. Emily has so much goodness to share to encourage each of us about our own health and also how we can pass these healthy habits along to our children.   Thank You to Our Sponsor: Sue Neihouser Team   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:09) Laura Dugger: (0:11 - 1:29) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   Thank you to the Sue Neihouser team for sponsoring this episode.   If you're looking to buy or sell a home this season, make sure you reach out to Sue at 309-229-8831. Sue would love to walk alongside you as you unlock new doors. You are in for a treat today.   My fabulous guest is Emily Johnson. She's a homeschool mama who married her high school sweetheart, and she's now additionally the owner of Gracious Healing, which is an online nutritional practice that works with families to get to the root of their health issues with a holistic view and approach. Emily has so much goodness to share to encourage each of us about our own health and also how we can pass these healthy habits along to our children.   Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Emily.   Emily Johnson: (1:29 - 1:31) Thank you so much for having me.   Laura Dugger: (1:32 - 1:46) I'm so excited to chat with you today, and I'd love for you just to start off by vision casting the biblical reasons for pursuing a healthy life, both for ourselves and for our family.   Emily Johnson: (1:47 - 3:22) Yeah, I feel like this is a question that I have wrestled with a lot, right, because there's so much depth to this, and so, obviously in a short podcast we're trying to like paint the picture. I think the best way I can paint this picture without really going into like deep theology is just this idea that when we have a big picture of the destiny that God has for us and our children. We want to steward every part of our lives, including our health, to be able to run after all that he has for us, right?   If He came to give us life abundantly, that doesn't always look like maybe this Western view of abundance. When we kind of approach our health in the same way we do our finances and our resources and steward them well. I find that that big picture actually helps kind of keep us on this path of like, right, my kids may love McDonald's, maybe want to go to McDonald's all the time, but the reality is I believe that I know who God created them to be, and I believe that he has this destiny over them, and so, if I allow them to steward their bodies poorly in a way that makes them sick and tired, then they're not able to run after that destiny fully, and then, right, there's this limitation, and so, to have this idea of abundance, this whole holistic view, is that we steward our mind, our hearts, our spirits, our bodies, it's all one, and if we steward that according to God's Word, then we just get to run with him in such a way that just brings joy in life.   That is so opposite, I think, then what happens when we're sick and tired and depleted.   Laura Dugger: (3:23 - 4:00) That's a good word, and I think all of this information, you do such a great job with all of your work running it through the lens of parenting so, we can help our kids, but it's helpful even for me to remember everything that's healthy for our children is also healthy for us as the parents, and so, I appreciate that reminder, but I'd love to just go through some various areas and see if you even have quick tips to get us started for ideas, so, we'll just begin very basic, even water and hydration. Can you just lay the groundwork here?   Emily Johnson: (4:01 - 11:08) Yeah, so, to backtrack a little bit to what you said, because I think it's super important, I firmly believe that in most things, there's always a caveat to some things, but in almost everything, you can't give what you don't have, so, how do we give our children health and a big picture and asking them to steward something when we ourselves don't have the experience of what that means, and so, I think that it's a whole family affair, but often we are the gatekeepers, so, as parents, if we are not open and willing to understand health and wellness, then how do we ask our kids to do that, and so, I feel like that's just kind of so often it starts with mom, honestly, so, kind of running into water, hydration, there are so many pillars, right, you can look at all sorts of different practitioners out there, health, kind of all sides, whether you're looking at kind of Western medicine, or you're looking at more traditional, like Eastern medicine, or you're looking at holistic, functional, right, everybody's going to have the like seven, eight pillars to health. I think that almost everyone would agree within those pillars are going to be different, but almost everyone has hydration as a pillar, right, and why do we need hydration as a pillar?   We are, our bodies are so, there's so many facets and different mechanisms within the body, but so much of it depends upon hydration, and if the cell has enough water and electricity, right, to operate and continue those processes, I feel like so often when we look at hydration, just, we just are, and it's not so much just drinking water, right, some people are like, I just am not drinking enough water to stay hydrated, and that is a huge factor, but when we look at hydration and just what happens when the cell doesn't have enough water, and you're just, right, your body is depleted of that hydration, you will, right, be more tired, I feel like, again, disease kind of sets in quicker, that cell doesn't have the capacity to do what it's supposed to do, and bowels move slower, right, you, your skin is more dry and cracked, like there's just so many different facets of detox and flushing things out that are dependent upon hydration, but I think that we have to look at one, how much water are we drinking? I think some people, everything in health I have found is truly that Goldilocks approach, sometimes we want to take something and we want to run with it and be like, well, if a little is good, a lot's better, right, and it's often this approach of like, what is really best for you and your body and your system? So, when we look at water, we want to be well hydrated from just the metabolic perspective, but with that, we're looking at how much water are you drinking and what is in your water, right, so, if you have somebody who's drinking super contaminated water, it's going to be adding toxins as they're adding water, right, and so, we want to look at what kind of water are we drinking, then we want to say like, how much water, right, there's a kind of a general rule of thumb that people jump off of and they would say, half of your body weight in ounces is a good place to start. I say that's true for most people under certain conditions, if you are somebody who is, right, sometimes I will find that people will drink a hundred plus ounces of water a day, but then they're drinking just as much coffee and energy drinks along with it, and so, you're like, that's a lot of pressure on your kidneys to have to flush out all of that liquid, and then you have somebody who is potentially eating very processed food, right, that processed food, so, we think anytime we take what we're going to say is like man food or God food in the way God created, right, so, God created water to be enriched with minerals, structured water, you find it in nature when water is like running over a brook and like hitting those rocks and kind of moving that becomes almost electrical within it, and so, when you look at how God created the water and we see that is what's best for our bodies, now we backtrack and we say whenever we take something that God created and we kind of make a man version of it, it often requires more nutrients within our bodies to process that, so, when you have like processed food that's void of hydration, void of nutrients, it's going to actually require your body to take the reserves that it has to process that thing within the body, so, hydration is no different, right, when we're eating really whole good foods that are full of water content, right, like watermelon, cucumbers, chicken, ground beef, right, if we're not overcooking things, it should hold moisture in those foods, so, when we're eating whole foods, we're actually getting hydration, right, when we're drinking herbal teas, we're getting good minerals and hydration, and so, I say a lot of people it's like okay, yes, do the like half your body weight in ounces for an average person, but also take into account are you somebody who's sweating a lot and you're just constantly working in an environment where you're dripping with or you're an athlete, you're probably gonna need more than that, are you a person who eats really good whole nutrient-dense food and you don't eat any processed food and you're not necessarily overly exerting yourself in sweat, you may not need that much hydration, right, so, kind of listening to those body cues, I've always heard when you find you're thirsty, probably because you're already dehydrated, right, so, being on top of it, I feel like so many of us do better in the summer because we're hot and we're thirsty, but being intentional all the time with kind of trying to measure that amount of water and then taking into account other things. One of the parts of cellular hydration that I feel like it's often missed and this might be going down a rabbit trail, so, you can cut me off if it is, but when you have a healthy functioning body, your mitochondria will make ATP and one of the products of ATP is actually like a fourth phase of water, it's like a little gelatinous form of water, which is super, super hydrating, so, somebody who is really metabolically functioning well and getting all the nutrients and vitamins they need, the rest, the sunshine, right, they're just living that life and their body is thriving in it, they actually, again, may need less water because their body's producing enough water that they don't necessarily have to be chugging the same amount of water, so, I find some people, if we're overexerting our water, we might want to ask the question, why are you so thirsty all the time, why are you drinking so much water, there might actually be something metabolically imbalanced. Kids are super great, I feel like they're so intuitive that unless they're drinking sodas and juices and energy drinks, if they're just drinking water and eating whole foods, most of the time they're pretty good at knowing when they need water and when they don't.   Laura Dugger: (11:09 - 11:20) Because is that rule, I guess, generally recommended as well with the half your body weight in ounces, is that the same for kids and you feel like they're just natural at regulating that?   Emily Johnson: (11:21 - 12:27) Yeah, and so, sometimes you look at a kiddo who's super tired all the time, and you might ask the question, how much water are they drinking, right? The other thing I find with kids, with kind of this like new Stanley water bottles and stuff for women, it's a little bit different, but I feel like with kids, because we're so like in this mindset of kids get water bottles, right, and you like fill their water bottle up before you send them to school or daycare or whatever, or just for the day, unless you're drinking out of a glass cup at home all the time, most kids just naturally fill up a water bottle, I find just nowadays. And so, it's easier to track their water, I feel like for most kids.   And so, okay, kind of that general rule of thumb, in general, half your body weight. You know, my son, when my kids were in public school, he used to come home and like none of his water, like his water hadn't been touched, right? And I'm like, okay, you went six hours through a whole day and never took a sip of water, right?   Like that's obviously would be a problem. But I think he was so distracted at school, right? That like, he wasn't realizing kind of those cues within his body to reach for his water.   But yes, it would be the same for kids.   Laura Dugger: (12:28 - 15:19) And now a brief message from our sponsor.   With over 28 years of experience in real estate, Sue Neihouser of the Sue Neihouser team is a RE-MAX agent of Central Illinois, and she loves to walk alongside her clients as they unlock new doors. For anyone local, I highly recommend you call Sue today on 309-229-8831 and you can ask her any real estate questions.   Sue lives in Central Illinois and loves this community and all that it has to offer. When unlocking new doors with her clients, Sue works hard to gain a depth of understanding of their motivations and dreams and interests in buying and selling their home. And then she commits to extensive market research that will give them confidence in their decision.   Sue truly cares for each of her clients and the relationship she forms with each family along the entire home buying or selling process. This was absolutely our experience when we worked with Sue and her team. The house that we desired at the time was actually not even on the market, but Sue had a connection and was able to ask those homeowners if they would be willing to sell.   She was timely in her response as she walked us through this whole process, and she helped us sell our home with the right offer coming in hours after it was listed. It was astonishing. I remember one afternoon after we had settled into our new home, and she was knocking on the door dropping off a goodie bag for our family that came from the local bakery.   Our daughters also loved getting to know Miss Sue as she assisted us in finding truly our dream home. So, whether you're looking to buy a home for the first time, or looking to upgrade or downsize, or making the big decision to move to an assisted living from your home of many years, Sue will be there to help you navigate the big emotions and ensure the process is smooth and stress-free, and that the new doors to be unlocked are ready and waiting for more memories to be made. So, call her today at 309-229-8831 or visit her website at sueneihouser.com. And that is sueneihouser.com. Thanks for your sponsorship.   Okay, well then you also mentioned sunlight.   So, how does sunlight and just general outdoor time impact our children's health?   Emily Johnson: (15:20 - 21:49) Yeah, so, there's again so many rabbit shells we could probably go down on this, but in general I always look at the body as what did God create and how close to nature are we living or how far away are, right? So, there's a doctor that is always quoted, he says, you know, the further away from nature that we get the more disease that we see, right? And so, when you look at sunlight and getting your feet on the ground, so, from a metabolic perspective, sunshine is super important for our circadian rhythm.   It's super important just for cellular health, for energy, right? So, when you get that sunlight on your face that not only gives you vitamin D, if you kind of have the processes in the body right to convert the sunlight to vitamin D, but it is also going to be super helpful for your eyes because the minute your eyes see sunlight in the morning, people always say, I can't sleep at night. And I'm like, okay, what do you do the first hour of your morning?   Because the first hour of our morning actually sets that clock for the rest of our day and actually kind of helps us fall asleep at night. So, when you look at sunlight and just the way that it actually helps your circadian rhythm, it's gonna help naturally calm. If you ever go outside and you feel a little bit anxious and then you go outside and you almost just breathe, right?   Like I think there's just this beautiful calming effect that the sun has on most people, right? It just lifts your mood. It's just because our bodies are so deprived of sunlight.   When you look at, again, the cell, it's why red light, things like that, people really enjoy because you do get some of those light waves within them, like your skin absorbs it. And then, right, it just kind of helps your adrenals, your cellular function, and just in general your body. There was an interesting study years ago that I had come across that was actually talking about chickens and how, right, why do you use chicken lights?   Why do farmers use chickens? Because if you don't use a warming light and give, get like a fake sunlight, right, on the chicken, they'll molt in the winter, and they won't lay eggs. But as long as you keep stimulating the sun by getting light on their skin, then they actually keep reproducing eggs and their feathers don't molt.   And so, they were using that study to say, okay, how does that affect humans, right? And I always feel like God gave us the sun and, right, he, when we're out in the sun, like so many parts of the body just process better and more efficiently. Then you mentioned getting your feet on the ground, right?   And so, when you look at the electromagnetic fields within the earth, they are, again, God-made electric magnetic field. When you get your feet on the ground, when you're in nature, when you're out in, there's a grounding effect that happens. So, I think this happens in both our physical and our spiritual sense, right?   So, physically, you actually start getting, in the same way we need water, we also need really good electricity within the body to, again, kind of make all those processes of the body happen. When we are so, when we're kind of living under false light, we're not getting our feet on the ground. We're not getting out in nature where everything is kind of artificial, right?   The body just doesn't thrive in the same way that it does out in nature. So, getting our kids outside, getting them in the sunlight is not only gonna help just make them feel better, it's gonna help their skin, right? Their energy of the body, all those different things.   Then getting their feet on the ground, they're actually can start absorbing that electromagnetic field from the earth. It's why astronauts, right, when they go off into space, they actually, their body ages really, really, really fast because they don't have the gravity and they don't have that electrical pull that happens when we're out in nature. There's some fun studies that talk about how when you get like even just like one 24-hour period of like camping is enough to totally reset your circadian rhythm.   Just like one and then it lasts, right? There's some other studies on the immune system and how when we're in nature for just even two to three days consistently, right? And so, that looks like man-made environment going in nature for a couple days and then coming back to man-made environment and how that just boosts your immune system, you know, for up to several months, like it just kind of lingers, right?   And so, the idea is that we're always in nature, we're always getting outside, we're always gonna get these benefits. Because I work a lot with children with neurodivergent issues, one of the best things again, we can do for our kids from a brain development perspective is actually letting them get outside and run around and climb on things and jump off things and right because that actually helps strengthen parts of the brain as well as just their overall body. For kids who are super nearsighted, getting them outside in the sun and doing work and stuff outside actually will help strengthen those eye muscles.   So, there's just so many cool benefits. I think even just when you look at, you know, being inside a building, you have walls, right? So, your depth perception, your awareness is still kind of closed in.   But when you go outside in nature and you're even just in your backyard, right? There are no walls, right? So, there's just an expanse and your mind and your perception, what you hear, what you see, what you smell, everything just gets kind of grounded is honestly the best word.   And I think even spiritually, you see that, right. We started gardening years ago, not because I'm particularly good at gardening, but because I had read that like, the parables in the gospels are so much more amplified when your kids understand what it looks to farm. And obviously, we live in town, we don't live on land where we can like do the full farming thing.   But at least the idea was that our kids would understand what it means for a seed to go in the ground, what it means for it to sprout, what it means, you know, to have to prune the peach trees, what it means to have, you know, to, to be able to harvest after you've done all of this work, right? And so, that even just those things, like there's so much more, I think, spiritual, and physical and emotional of just being in nature, right? We slow down; we just appreciate God's beauty in a different way.   And then metabolically, we just see all the amazing benefits that it has.   Laura Dugger: (21:50 - 22:13) And I'd never heard that before about camping resetting us even for months. If that feels too big for somebody to do right away, is there any recommended amount of time just as we're getting started, even as it's starting to get colder out, when the weather is tolerable, what amount of time will we maybe start to see benefits of being outdoors?   Emily Johnson: (22:14 - 25:41) Yeah, so, everyone, unfortunately, right, is a little bit different in kind of, because it's going to depend on what you're doing inside too, right? So, if you're on a screen, 24 hours a day, and then once you go outside, you can spend 20 minutes outside, right? I would say most of my clients, I encourage 20 minutes a day outside, even when it's really, really cold, right?   Because there's also beautiful benefits of cold therapy. So, as you're moving into the winter, sometimes I'm like, that's actually so fun, because you get light in the morning, you get your kids outside, they get their energy out, and they're getting cold exposure, which is also super helpful at boosting the immune system, right? It's a hormesis stress.   So, there's some stresses that are really bad. And you kind of want to avoid those stresses, right? But there are other stresses that in short measurements actually increase the ability of the immune system to kind of modulate it and boost just resiliency in general.   And so, honestly, even cold in, I just think with air conditioning, with lighting, with all that stuff, right, we have just kind of lost our ability to be resilient from a biological perspective. So, the more in the summer, when it's really warm, and you're pushing your kids outside, right. They're kind of getting like, “Oh, it's too hot.” Or when it's in the middle of winter, and you're pushing your kids outside. They're like, “It's freezing cold, right.”   And so, it doesn't have to be a lot, but I would say a little bit. And I also find that it's kind of the teenager and adults that have a harder time being outside, kids will always run outside and play, right? Once you get them out there, I feel like most of the time, they're, it's hard to then get them back in.   But I would say in general, starting off with just, and you know, I say 20 minutes for kids, because I think that's super important. And even more, right. So, I love the like 100 hours, you know, a year outside, like a lot of that initiative in those books are just so cool.   Because it just kids love charts, and they love being outside. So, an hour a day is another kind of helpful benefit. But I would say, if you're really struggling, depending on the schedule, and just your work and sports and all the things, any amount outside is going to be beneficial.   So, grab your coffee, go stand outside, even in the cold, even if it's still dark outside, right, sip on your coffee for five minutes. And then as much as you can do throughout the day to just get outside, park a little farther away from the grocery store. So, you get a little bit more time outside, right?   Camping in your backyard, if you're like, I don't want to go camping or my kids used to, you know, put hammocks out and sleep outside. Just that type of stuff. It doesn't have to be like going into the middle of the woods and hibernate, you know, it can be these little chunks of just exposure.   Even when we say nature, the studies of all that I've always come across are like deep in the woods. But we also see the benefit of just being outside, even in a rural area, right, or super industrial area, or a super heavily populated city, like it is still, you still see a lot of benefits, people in New York who are just going outside on their patio, like you still see health benefits. So, I would say, make a resolve amount of time and stick with it until that becomes easy.   And then you start doing the next thing, right?   Laura Dugger: (25:42 - 26:12) I love that. Okay, that's doable to start with a bite size and some is better than none and more is better than some. I'm also thinking, as you're talking about cold therapy and grounding, maybe not for kids with cold plunging, but are there any other kind of bio hacks? Are grounding mats that we can sleep on, is that helpful for children too, if they're not getting the amount of time barefoot on the ground outdoors as we would like?   Emily Johnson: (26:13 - 29:08) Yeah. So, one of the things we think about with grounding is again, eating whole nutrient dense food that is going to help that mitochondria, right? Those types of foods, the electrical current of the body, that actually I find some kids don't need to kind of ground like on the grounding mats, maybe the way an adult would, because they're just not depleted as much energy, right?   As maybe an adult might be. Grounding mats, I feel like can go either way because some kiddos, adults too, I just think kiddos, you're not as aware of it as maybe an adult might be that some, even with grounding mats, I have some very sensitive clients who can't do like manmade EMFs, right? So, anything electrical that you're plugging into a wall, Wi-Fi, even like batteries sometimes, you know, they're just very sensitive too.   And so, sometimes those kinds of biohacking things don't work super well if it brings in kind of a manmade current. PEMF is one of my favorite. Most kids respond well to that.   And it just kind of boosts the cell backup. I don't know if I've had great reviews from people with grounding mats that anyone feels any different. I don't know if it's placebo.   I just haven't had personal testimony that it does a whole lot. PEMF, I definitely have had lots of testimony that kids feel more grounded, adults feel better, just overall kind of addresses the whole cellular function. Red light is my next favorite, because again, if you are sensitive to EMF, you can stay away from it and you're still getting it on your skin.   So, you see some of those health benefits. Red light is probably my favorite because I just think it's so much easier for kids to do. And there's so many different variations out there that can be super helpful.   Again, just getting light on the skin can just kind of help boost the overall, just cellular process of the body. You said cold plunges. Cold plunges, again, yeah, for adults are great.   Kids, it's just hard to measure. But cold washcloths, right? Cold, even just like a cold face plunge, right?   Some kids don't mind that and that can be super beneficial for them. But most kids you're like, just go outside in the cold and you start to see the benefits of that. But I have a couple of kids just from a nervous system perspective, they get really amped up and real worked up, right?   And obviously for an adult, I'd be like, go cold plunge. For a kid, you're not going to necessarily do that. But we take ice packs and I just say, take ice packs, put them on the face for just a little bit until they're tolerating it.   And a lot of times that will bring kind of that nervous system back into balance, just putting ice packs on your face.   Laura Dugger: (29:09 - 29:54) I just wanted to let you know, there are now multiple ways to give when you visit TheSavvySauce.com. We now have a donation button on our website, and you can find it under the donate page, which is under the tab entitled support. Our mailing address is also provided if you would prefer to save us the processing fee and send a check that is tax deductible.   Either way, you'll be supporting the work of Savvy Sauce Charities and helping us continue to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ. Make sure you visit TheSavvySauce.com today. Thanks for your support.   This is new to me. Did you say PEMFs or what is that?   Emily Johnson: (29:54 - 31:35) Yeah. So, it's post electromagnetic field therapy. Yeah.   So, it's kind of, and there are homemade ones or like ones you can get for home that are doable. Therisage is my favorite one just because it's price wise, it's doable. Most I've had lots and lots of testimonies of, you know, autistic kiddos that just they're calm when they're sitting on it.   And then there's really great like high tech ones that you would find. Pulse centers is my favorite. Like they're just really expensive.   So, most of the time you're going to go to a pulse center center of some kind or chiropractor or something like that that might have one. But the idea is that it is trying to mimic as close to the ground, right? So, when you think EMFs in nature, there's a certain frequency that the sun gives off a certain frequency that the earth gives off.   But manmade EMFs tend to be significantly higher and just way, way, way out of range of kind of what these manmade or I'm sorry, God made ones are. So, when you're sitting on a PEMF, it's kind of mimicking that frequency of the earth and the sun. So, you get kind of there's different frequencies for different levels.   So, pain, neurological, kind of resetting your nervous system, sleep, like there's a lot of different frequencies that you might look at if depending on the health concern that you have. But again, it's sensitive to like manmade EMFs and sometimes having something plugged in the wall that you're sitting on doesn't really do it for you.   Laura Dugger: (31:36 - 31:54) Okay, you're making me even think of weighted blankets then as well. But before we go there while we're on EMFs, are things like AirPods the worst for us? Or what are practice to have in place to avoid the most harmful EMFs?   And why are they harmful?   Emily Johnson: (31:55 - 37:20) Yes, yeah. So, so, again, when we're thinking the best way I feel like I can describe it without getting super, super sciency is that it is kind of like these frequencies are coming at us in a way. So, when you're outside on the ground, right, your body, it's like this really beautiful hurt, like slow hurts that your body is receiving.   When you get into these higher frequencies, it's kind of like microwaves, right? Like it's just this constant noise that is bombarding your system. So, one of the things that you hear a lot in health is, and I know this is again, maybe a little bit of rabbit trail, but I think it applies to maybe kind of encompasses lots of conversation here.   But when you think about health, we're always saying like, can you stay in a place of rest and digest? Can you say is your nervous system always in this heightened fight or flight stage, or even worse. So, it's called dorsal vagal.   When you jump up to this, like freeze mode and your body just kind of freezes, right. We're not making good cells. We're not necessarily running from a dragon, right.   Or a lion or something. We're not like scared in that way, but we're not, we're also not resting and we're not digesting and absorbing either because there's this heightened kind of nervous system reaction that's happening. So, when you look, obviously, we always think of stress as emotional, right.   And it's like, oh, I want to avoid the stress emotionally, but metabolically we're looking at what externally also is causing stress on my system. And so, EMFs, because we don't see them, I think a lot of people don't realize how problematic they are, but it's almost this, like, you can't feel the, you can't see the wind, but you can feel it, right. It's kind of like that in the sense that you can't necessarily feel the EMFs, but if you were to take certain electrical measurements, you're able to see like that's emitting a ridiculous amount of frequency.   And so, you think of like just sitting in your living room, super calm, relaxed, right. But if you have all of this bombardment of EMFs kind of at a frequency level hitting your body, then without realizing it, you're like, why does my body always feel like it's stressed out? And so, again, from a resilience perspective, how do you fight infection and deal with actual stressors in your life?   If you're in a place of always being in this kind of heightened fight or flight stage. So, EMFs, manmade EMFs, there's a lot of different ones you can talk about. There's ones, obviously you have an ACDC that runs through your walls that can be problematic.   You have Wi-Fi. I would say the top things that I would say for most people, AirPods, I would say is relatively low. It depends on how much you wear them, right?   If you're a kiddo who's wearing it 12 hours a day, it's not super great. Some people would say that unless you get like a tubed type EMF specific, you know, earbud or headphone that every single one, whether it's wired or wireless is probably not great for you. The younger you are, the more problematic it is because you, the way your brain is and the way that the protection around your brain is, you're more sensitive the younger you are.   So, you can look on like a thermogram and you can see how a kiddo with like a cell phone to their head is going to be like, all of a sudden their whole head is like bright red and hot versus an adult who does the same amount of time. It might be a little bit more like orange, but it's not going to be as bright red because you don't have that barrier around your brain quite yet. When you're little, it's still forming versus when you're an adult, you have more of a thicker skull.   Your brain protection is just different. So, I would say top ones that seem like the most problematic are 5G, because again, it's just this, like, you know, I just read a study the other day that we had more bees die this last winter in America than we've had, right? Like all, like, I don't know, ever recorded, you know?   And the question was, you have really high frequencies, like 5G, that's like disrupting a lot of our animals. And actually, they've shown that it does kill bees, you know? And so, when you think of if it's killing off animals and disrupting kind of the natural way that birds and bees and things are able to communicate and locate where they need to go because that EMF is so, or that 5G is so disruptive, then what is it doing to our own brains and bodies?   So, I would say 5G is not great. So, if you live by a tower, sometimes you do need to, like, protect yourself if you can. That looks like different sheets.   There's different sheets and options and things that you can go on your wall. There's a ton of, like, EMF protection in the world. I don't know if that's necessary for most people.   Unplugging your Wi-Fi at night, talking on a speakerphone and not having your cell phone up to your head can be some of the easiest ones I have found that most people, it feels very doable to unplug your Wi-Fi because that can emit a lot of really high EMF frequencies. And then anything that you can do that's just more on speaker and not in your ear is probably better, but I don't think it's terrible if it's short-term.   Laura Dugger: (37:21 - 37:45) Even going back to that outdoor time, we've talked about clean water, mentioned some clean food, and grounding. All of these things are free options so far as well. And even just how much cleaner outdoor air is compared to indoor air.   Can you speak to how nature is a natural filtration system for air?   Emily Johnson: (37:45 - 38:40) Yeah. I'm trying to think of where we want to go with that. So, I think that when you look at the way that grass and leaves, right, you know, when you're thinking of, like, fourth grade science and you're like, okay, photosynthesis, right, all these different things, the way that they give up oxygen and the way that they filter, you know, different pathogens in the air.   And when you think of the breeze and just the natural way that things move around outside, it is, you're going to just have that natural, nothing's going to settle as much, right? And when you have your indoor, your windows are all closed. You don't have that natural cross bees.   You don't have that natural movement flowing through. And then, right, you just have nature that's just good at releasing oxygen into the air and you have trees that just naturally absorb those toxins. And yeah, does that answer your question?   Laura Dugger: (38:41 - 42:18) It's so good. It's helpful to have those little takeaways. And I'm just thinking, get outside, get outside.   Emily and I were having so much fun recording that we went way over the planned time limit. So, I want to share all of it with you, but we're going to divide this episode into two parts. So, make sure you tune in next time for part two with Emily Johnson.   One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

In this episode of the Rachel Hollis Podcast, Rachel answers listener questions addressing complex relationship dynamics and personal development.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!01:03 Welcome and Podcast Subscription Request02:00 Ask Rach Series Introduction03:19 First Listener Question: Relationship Concerns12:54 Second Listener Question: Emotional Connection22:45 Third Listener Question: Home Cleansing Practices30:36 Conclusion and FarewellSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Rachel Hollis discusses the complexities of breaking free from a monotonous, autopilot existence to rediscover and rebuild one's true self. She shares personal insights, listener interactions, and offers nine practical steps to reclaim and re-energize your life. By embracing intentional routines, incorporating new experiences, and establishing meaningful rituals, Rachel encourages listeners to find and nurture their authentic selves.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!01:15 Welcome and Community Connection03:21 The Struggle of Losing Yourself07:05 Rebuilding Yourself: Nine Steps07:15 Stop Running on Autopilot11:04 Shake Up Your Routine15:23 Reconnect with Your Old Self18:39 Subtract, Don't Add23:52 Embrace Being the Villain28:10 The Importance of Boredom30:47 Rituals Over Routines34:24 Collect Evidence of Growth36:28 Don't Rush the Rebuild38:30 Conclusion and EncouragementSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel Hollis discusses the fear of change and how to approach building a new life without drastic measures. In this episode, she answers listener questions, including a callers search for career fulfillment. Rachel offers practical advice on content creation, staying present, and shifting mindsets to improve mental well-being. She encourages listeners to follow their intuition, make incremental changes, and adopt a positive outlook to live more fulfilling lives.Get your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!01:04 Welcome to the Show02:02 Ask Rach: Recording from Home06:15 Listener Question: Finding Yourself20:52 Listener Question: Balancing Future and Present32:12 Final Thoughts and EncouragementSign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Check out the second Episode of our new show on Youtube - https://youtu.be/a23CA3RsUWMThe Perfect Pumpkin-Shaped Charcuterie Board - https://msrachelhollis.com/2025/10/24/pumpkin-charcuterie-board/In this episode, the host takes inspiration from a Pinterest find of a pumpkin-shaped cheeseboard and attempts to recreate it without a kitchen, transforming her backyard into a makeshift kitchenGet your copy of Rachel's New Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!Sign up for Rachel's weekly email: https://msrachelhollis.com/insider/Call the podcast hotline and leave a voicemail! Call (737) 400-4626Watch the podcast on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@MsRachelHollisFollow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MsRachelHollisTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.