Podcasts about Bed

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Trina Read to talk about the real meaning of intimacy and why it plays such an important role in healthy, long-term relationships. We discuss common myths about intimacy, how stress and lifestyle habits can impact connection, and why many couples struggle to talk openly about it. Dr. Read also shares simple ways couples can strengthen emotional and physical connection, rebuild closeness if they feel distant, and develop daily habits that support stronger relationships and overall well-being.Trina's Book: The Sex Course, The Taboo Show & You. Me. Bed. NOW! https://www.trinaread.com/273b685d-c1e0-42b8-9650-173c24d7667bFree resources: https://www.trinaread.com/3c9276f3-b35d-4cd9-845f-052e286c03f1YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DrTrinaReadSubstack: https://substack.com/@drtrinaread

Have you heard the phrase: "they fight like cats and dogs"? Well, this episode will show us exactly what that idiom means.It all started in the backyard with Melodybee and a very large harvest of loofah sponges. Our sweet Harold was just trying to be a helpful pup by answering the door with his special bionic thumbs, but—oh dear—a little accident turned into a big mystery in Mr. Honeybee's Garage!While Roger Robot works on a "durability upgrade," a mysterious new neighbor with sleek black fur and striking green eyes has snuck into the neighborhood. Is she the "wolf-bear" Melodybee is so excited to find? Or is she the reason Harold is suddenly acting so... incensed?Pack your curiosity and join us as we practice our mindful breathing and listen to our "quick thoughts" to solve this neighborhood puzzle. We'll follow the trail from the garden shed to the kitchen counters to see if a grumpy dog and a mischievous cat can ever truly find a way to share the Honeybee Neighborhood.

Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, an in-depth investigatory show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (3/16/26). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth is, or claiming they have the answer, is likely leading you astray, for one reason or another. Stay Vigilant. !function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src="https://rumble.com/embedJS/u2q643"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+"/?url="+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+"&args="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, "script", "Rumble");   Rumble("play", {"video":"v750yxu","div":"rumble_v750yxu"}); Source Links (In Chronological Order):  (7) The Last American Vagabond on X: "Yeah, that was called DOGE, and it turned out to be one huge bait & switch (as many of us warned at the time) to hide a massive AI data grab & the building out of a new surveillance grid. But sure, let's Trust-The-Plan™ guys, I am sure he's not lying THIS time. #TwoPartyIllusion" / X Exposing the Iran War Hype: Lessons from a One-Sided Debate with Naomi Wolf New Tab (21) More Perfect Union on X: "The estimated cost of the war against Iran has already surpassed $21,000,000,000." / X Shocker for Donald Trump as U.S. Treasury budget deficit off to one of worst starts in history. What Americans need to know - The Economic Times WSJ: Trump administration to announce coalition to escort ships through Strait of Hormuz | The Times of Israel Trump draws backlash for comment on Iran war: ‘Maybe we shouldn't even be there' | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian (21) Yousef Munayyer on X: "Imagine having the world's largest navy, by far, starting a war of choice that hurts the globe and could have been easily avoided, then asking your much smaller allies, who you have habitually insulted, to bail your ass out. Genius." / X (21) The Last American Vagabond on X: "Exactly what TLAV has been reporting the entire time, since, you know, we have eyes. All while the entirety of western MSM/MAM are reporting Hormuz is "CLOSED". Ask why that is. I will go more into it in the next couple hours in #TheDailyWrapUp. https://t.co/OOfBTyM4o7 https://t.co/MEQak5XNFS" / X HORMUZ STRAIT Ship Traffic Live Map U.S. allows Iranian oil tankers through Strait of Hormuz, says Bessent New Tab Behind the Curtain: Trump's escalation trap (21) The Last American Vagabond on X: "This what you get when you surround yourself with profiteering, incompetent, yes-men while listening to cartoons like Laura loomer." / X (21) The Last American Vagabond on X: "Now Trump says what Trump recently denied. How ridiculous all this is. American servicemen are dying to fight Israel's war, again, while Israel commits a multi-nation genocide with US government support. Anyone defending this is not fighting for American interests. #IsraelFirst" / X (19) Rapid Response 47 on X: ".@SecRubio: "The president made the very wise decision—we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we https://t.co/Jp5rqpRH4T" / X Rubio walks back comments about Iran war after Trump contradicts him - YouTube (21) The Last American Vagabond on X: "If accurate, that's a "preemptive" attack, as they call it. Why is this Important? Because that would require Congressional approval, whereas a response to a genuinely "imminent" attack would be allowed the War Powers Act. Saying "we attacked first" makes this unequivocal." / X (21) The Kremlin on X: "REPORTER: Any evidence Iran was about to attack the United States ? WHITE HOUSE: The president had a feeling. REPORTER: The president launched a war on a feeling ? WHITE HOUSE: That is what Jared Kushner told the president and it was final. https://t.co/3lhb16Gu4E" / X (21)

Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

If you have listened to a lot of my podcasts, you know I like to talk about sleep. It's one of the biggest topics for parents today. And part of why we have to talk about it is because those of us is WEIRD countries - Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic countries - get a very specific sleep message when we have our kids and that message is: Do NOT sleep with your children or you risk killing them. I think every new parent has heard the fear-based messaging that tells us there is nothing we can do except avoid it. And if we don't? Well, then there's something wrong with us as parents, right? What if the problem isn't us, but instead lies with the messaging we're getting? Joining me today is one of my favourite people - Carly Grubb. Carly is a PhD student at the University of the Sunshine Coast and is the lead author of the research we'll be discussing, which looks at the safe sleep messages parents receive, how helpful these messages are, and what parents are actually looking for. She also comes to this research table from a place of advocacy. As the founder of the Beyond Sleep Training Project and Little Sparklers, Carly has heard from thousands of families around the world how hard navigating new parenting and sleep can be. Welcome back to the podcast as we dive into the touchy topic of abstinence-only sleep education. Here are the following links for anyone who is interested: Research Article - https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1629678/pdf The Beyond Sleep Training Project - https://thebeyondsleeptrainingproject.com/ Little Sparklers - https://littlesparklers.org/ Carly Grubb's Research Page - https://research.usc.edu.au/esploro/profile/carly_grubb Carly's Previous Episode with Me - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-3-what-are-the-sleep-struggles-facing-families-today/id1177835448?i=1000501408655

IntroductionHow does a distillery in North Carolina begun by an Army veteran have most of their products become kosher-certified and go on to win many medals at spirits competitions? That's something we're going to explore on this 188th episode of The Jewish Drinking Show, featuring Bruce Tyler, Weldon Mills Distillery's co-owner and manager, along with Ari Cohen, Weldon Mills Distillery's operations and brand ambassador.Biography of GuestAlong with his business partner, Michael Hinderliter, Bruce Tyler established Weldon Mills Distillery in January of 2019. Through their hard work and perseverance, they pushed through the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly turned the company into the most awarded distillery in North Carolina. Weldon Mills Distillery is rapidly growing, and currently has over 36 product lines including Bourbon, Whiskey, Vodka, Gin, and Tequila. Weldon Mills has added a second location in downtown Durham, NC, and is in the process of restoring a historic mansion as a Bed and Breakfast. Bruce has moved to distillery operations full-time and reluctantly practices law on limited occasions.Prior to engaging in establishing the distillery, he is a retired 27-year U.S. Army Veteran who served as a Combat Arms Soldier, Military Police Officer, and a Judge Advocate General Officer. Bruce served a total of 27 Months in Afghanistan helping build a robust Rule of Law program and advising Commanders on all legal aspects of International Armed Conflict. He earned his undergraduate degree and a master's degree in business administration at Campbell University. Bruce then earned his law degree at North Carolina Central University. After completing his law degree in 2005, Bruce was commissioned as a U. S. Army Judge Advocate General Officer and returned to active duty where he served in several positions until he left active duty in 2014. After leaving active duty, Bruce served as Senior Trial Defense Counsel in the NC National Guard and opened his law firm, the Center for Military Law, servicing military clients in all areas of law.DisclosureReview samples of Weldon Mills' products were provided to Jewish Drinking for review purposes. Support the showThank you for listening!If you have any questions, suggestions, or more, feel free to reach out at Drew@JewishDrinking.coml'chaim!

Are you ready to discover the most important five minutes of each day?In this episode of the Terrain Theory Podcast, Ben and Mike sit down with former Australian Special Forces operator Tim Thomas, creator of the Breathwork in Bed app and a man who has spent the last decade helping veterans, first responders, and everyday people recover from chronic stress, burnout, and the silent damage of poor sleep.After experiencing the crushing effects of operational fatigue, trauma, and extreme sleep deprivation firsthand, Tim began exploring something deceptively simple: breath. What started as a personal experiment in the dark hours of the night eventually evolved into a powerful system for switching the nervous system from survival mode into deep recovery. Along the way, Tim helped design veteran recovery programs that have directly contributed to saving dozens of lives, while raising over $1.3 million for medical research.At the center of his work is a concept he calls “The Golden Five Minutes”—the small window before sleep and after waking where the body's chemistry, nervous system, and mental state can either spiral into stress… or reset into calm and clarity.This conversation blends battlefield lessons, personal hardship, practical breath techniques, and a refreshing reminder that sometimes the most powerful interventions are also the simplest.Topics discussed:• Why sleep may be the most underutilized asset for physical and mental health• How Special Forces operators manage stress and exhaustion in extreme environments• The origin of Tim's Breathwork in Bed technique • The “three breath” method for switching off a racing mind at night • Why the final five minutes before sleep can shape the entire next day • How breathwork shifts the nervous system from fight-or-flight into repair mode • Why restoring internal safety may be the key to reducing anxiety, burnout, and even suicidal ideation • Practical tools anyone can use tonight to improve sleep and regulate stressIf you've ever laid awake at night with a racing mind, felt stuck in a constant state of “wired but tired,” or wondered how to reclaim calm in a chronically overstimulated world, this episode offers both perspective and practical tools.Learn more about Tim's work at https://breathworkinbed.com.au/ and follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/breathworkinbed.Support Terrain Theory on Patreon! Our member platform gives you access to weekly bonus episode content. Check it out: https://www.patreon.com/TerrainTheoryExplore our growing list of intentional Terrain Support products at https://www.terraintheory.net/collections/terrainsupportTerrain Theory episodes are not to be taken as medical advice.If you have a Terrain Transformation story you would like to share, email us at ben@terraintheory.net.Learn more at www.terraintheory.netFollow Terrain Theory:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terrain_theory/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Terrain-TheoryX: https://twitter.com/terraintheory1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@terraintheoryMusic by Chris Merenda

(00:00-27:03) Bed head. Like Doug said, if the Blues just win every game the rest of the way, they're in. 4 in a row on the road. Chip and a chair, baby. The under hits on players moved at the deadline. The Blues are like going back to your ex. Faulk and Schenn gone. Schenn will be back in town tomorrow. Will he fight a former teammate? Colton Parayko talking about what that odd 24-48 hours was like for him and looking forward to still being a Blue. Who's the next captain? Blues going through phones looking for the leak.(27:11-43:33) Jackson still working on getting over the MIzzou loss on Saturday. Announcers couldn't stop talking about how tired Mark Mitchell was. Colonel got a little frustrated on the post game show. Mizzou and SLU are probably in at the moment but beware the bid stealers. Brad Underwood wasn't happy this weekend. Is Joe Lunardi releasing multiple brackets? Jackson has no interest in driving to OKC.(43:43-1:07:08) Drowning your kidneys in mozzarella cheese. Tough loss for SLU on Saturday. Avila dealing with some plantar fasciitis. Josh Schertz post game talking about the disappointing loss to end the regular season. Opposing defenses adjusting to SLU's style. Planes are successful at landing when they land.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Holistic Spaces podcast, we're diving into spring cleaning through the lens of feng shui. Cleaning with mindfulness isn't just about tidying up — It's about shifting energy, setting intention, and creating space for new opportunities as the seasons change.We share nine essential tips to elevate your spring cleaning into a meaningful ritual — from turning your cleaning into a ceremony to clearing out old food and stagnant storage. Each practice is designed to refresh your home, reset your qi, and help you step into the new season feeling aligned, energized, and open to what's next.What we talk about in this episode:-Spring cleaning as an opportunity to reset your space-Creating a cleaning ceremony to add intention to the process-The front door as the 'mouth of qi'-Opening windows of your home to breathe and invite new energy-Polishing windows to symbolize clearing your perspective-Revitalizing your bed to enhance rest and wellbeing-Clearing under the bed to remove stagnant energy-Resetting and cleansing your space to prepare for new beginnings…and much more!Mentioned in this episode:2026 Feng Shui Amulet for Protection and LuckOur Feng Shui Energy Map EkitRegister for our free & on-demand Feng Shui plant workshop, available for a limited timeHarmonize your Home with Feng Shui PlantsEnhance your qi, prosperity and wellnessThanks so much for listening to the Holistic Spaces Podcast brought to you by Mindful Design Feng Shui School!-Sign up for our newsletter for exclusive complimentary special workshops and offers for our newsletter subscribers ONLY! -Make sure you're following us on Instagram for feng shui tips and live Q&A's.-Learn about our courses and certification on our website at: Mindful Design School.-Check out our older episodes on our Holistic Spaces Podcast archive.Time stamps for this episode:[02:12] Creating a Cleaning Ceremony[04:39] Refreshing the Front Door[06:55] Opening Windows for Fresh Energy[08:28] Polishing Your Perspective[10:36] Revitalizing Your Bed[11:39] Clearing Under the Bed[13:04] Igniting Your Stove[15:28] Purging Your Food Storage[17:13] Resetting and Cleansing Your SpaceMORE QUESTIONSHire one of our Mindful design school Grads for a 1-1 consultation. We know so many personal questions come up. That's why you need a 1-1! Laura and Anjie offer all these freebies, but if you want to learn more it's time to ask a professional. learn more HERENEW EPISODES OF THE HOLISTIC SPACES PODCAST BY MINDFUL DESIGN ARE AVAILABLE EVERY MONDAY.Thanks so much for listening to the Holistic Spaces Podcast brought to you by Mindful Design Feng Shui School!Sign up for our newsletter for exclusive complimentary special workshops and offers for our newsletter subscribers ONLY! Make sure you're following us on Instagram for feng shui tips and live Q&A's.Learn about our courses and certification on our website at: Mindful Design School.Check out our older episodes on our Holistic Spaces Podcast archive.MORE QUESTIONSHire one of our Mindful design school Grads for a 1-1 consultation. We know so many personal questions come up. That's why you need a 1-1! Laura and Anjie offer all these freebies, but if you want to learn more it's time to ask a professional. learn more HEREORDER OUR NEW BOOK HERE

                                   Copperplate Time 529                                presented by Alan O'Leary                             www.copperplatemailorder.com    1. BOTHY BAND:  Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill.   After Hours 2. LUNASA:  Within A Mile Set.  Cas3. DAITHI FARRELL & LUNASA: Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore. Cas 4. BUTTONS & BOWS:  The Return of Spring/The Mountain Pathway.                    The Return of Spring 5. NIAMH Nic CHARRA:   The Curlew Hills/Tripping to the Well/Two Part Pour.                          Donnelly's Arm6. PADDY GLACKIN:  Top It Off/The Sunny Bank.  Ceol ar an bhFidil 7. NOEL HILL:  An Phis Fluich/The Fisherman's Jg.  Live in New York 8. JOHN BOWE & MARY CONROY:                          The Sailor's Cravat/The Reel of Bogy. Bowe & Conroy 9. ROGER SHERLOCK:The Queen of May/Mama's Pet.   Memories of Sligo 10. KEVIN BURKE:   London Town.   The Pound Ridge Sessions 11. DONAL LUNNY & SULT BAND:   Sult Set.  Spirit of the Music12. AOIFE & MICK O'BRIEN & EMER MAYOCK:             The Traveller/The Top of the Cliff/The Bride's to Bed.                  Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts 113. ELAINE REILLY & DAITHI GORMLEY:               The Jig of Port Fleadh/The Pride of Sliabh Aughty/Tapping Toes. Epiphany 14. DELORES KEANE & MICK HANLEY:                    My Love is in America.   Bringing It All Back Home 15. GATEHOUSE:  The Monasteravon Set.  Heather Down the Moor 16. HUGHIE GILLESPIE & FRANK KELLY:   Colonel Fraser. The Sparkling Dawn 17. ANGELINA CARBERRY & MARTIN QUINN:              Poll Hal'penny/Sean O'Duibhir an Ghleanna.  An Traidisiún Beo 18. MARY McNAMARA & P JOE HAYES:           The Humours of Glenfinn/The Glen of Aherlow/The Killarney Boys of Pleasure.               Trad Music from East Clare 19. SORCHA COSTELLO: John Naughton's Ryan's Rant.  The Primrose Lass 20. JOHN McEVOY & JOHN WYNNE: The Masters Return/The Dog Among the Bushes. The Dancer at the Fair 21. BOTHY BAND:  Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill.   After Hours

Pacific St Blues & AmericanaMarch 8, 20251. Ronnie Baker Brooks / Accept My Love2. Joe Bonamassa 'BB King 100 Birthday' w/ McDonald, Tedeschi / To Know You is To Love You 3. Joanne Shaw Taylor / Hell of High Water 4. Tinsley Ellis / Too Broke5. Fabulous Thunderbirds / Wait on Time 6. Jimmie Vaughan & Lou Ann Barton / Power of Love 7. Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps / When My Baby Comes Home 8. John Hiatt / Master of Disaster 9. Bates Motel / Put Your Hands on the Radio 10. Dr. Feelgood / Milk & Alcohol12. J Geils Band / Serves You Right to Suffer13. John Lee Hooker / House Rent Blues 14. Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials / Cold Side of the Bed 15. Johnny Burgin / Crazy About You 16. Magic Sam / Blues with a Feeling 17. Omar Coleman & Igor Prado / Cut You Loose18. Robben Ford / Nothin' to Nobody 19. Michael Lee Firkins / Space Crickets 

In dieser Episode sprechen wir mit Matze, dem Gründer und CEO von Jimdo, über die Veränderungen und Herausforderungen, die das Unternehmen in der neuen Ära der KI-Tools bewältigt. Matze gibt einen tiefen Einblick in die Entwicklung von Jimdo seit der letzten Aufnahme im Jahr 2020 und erläutert, warum er optimistisch in die Zukunft blickt. Wir diskutieren, wie Jimdo sich als Plattform für Selbstständige und kleine Unternehmen positioniert hat und welche neuen Funktionen und Produkte in der Pipeline sind, um den Nutzern zu helfen, ihre Webseiten effektiver zu gestalten und ihre Geschäfte voranzutreiben. Matze betont die unternehmerische Freiheit, die sie seit dem Rückkauf aller Anteile von Investoren gewinnen konnten, und wie dies die langfristige Vision von Jimdo positiv beeinflusst hat. Wir werfen einen Blick auf die Historie des Unternehmens, das seit 2007 existiert, und beleuchten die Mission, Webseiten für jedermann zugänglich zu machen. Dabei wird deutlich, dass Jimdo besonders auf die Bedürfnisse von Solo-Selbstständigen und kleinen Unternehmen eingeht, die oft nicht über das nötige technische Wissen oder die Ressourcen verfügen, um ihre Online-Präsenz zu stärken. Letzte Folge mit Matze in 2020: https://www.kassenzone.de/kleine-geschaefte-wollen-so-wenig-aufwand-wie-moeglich-matthias-henze-ceo-jimdo/ Partner in der Folge: https://linktr.ee/kassenzone Community: https://kassenzone.de/discord Feedback zum Podcast? Mail an alex@kassenzone.de Disclaimer: https://www.kassenzone.de/disclaimer/ Kassenzone” wird vermarktet von Podstars by OMR. Du möchtest in “Kassenzone” werben? Dann https://podstars.de/kontakt/?utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=shownotes_kassenzone Alexander Graf: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergraf/ https://twitter.com/supergraf Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KassenzoneDe/ Blog: https://www.kassenzone.de/ E-Commerce Buch 2019: https://amzn.eu/d/5Adc1ZH Plattformbuch 2024: https://amzn.eu/d/1tAk82E

On this adventure in the Honeybee Neighborhood, a million-year-old mystery stirs to life! After months of planning, building, and paleontological dreaming, we are finally ready to welcome a beloved fossilized friend into his new terrarium home and his new name. But when the triceratops skeleton awakens with a rattle and a breath, nothing could prepare them for what comes next.His name isn't Terry. It's Davie—and he's not exactly a dinosaur.Together, we have to piece together the greatest prehistoric puzzle of all: who Davie really is. With surprising revelations, new languages, compressed timelines, and deep questions about identity, science, and love. Join us for a truly historic adventure in the backyard and learn to listen beyond assumptions, learn through compassion, and find what you didn't know you were looking for.Welcome to the beginning of everything…again.

On this adventure in the Honeybee Neighborhood, a million-year-old mystery stirs to life! After months of planning, building, and paleontological dreaming, we are finally ready to welcome a beloved fossilized friend into his new terrarium home and his new name. But when the triceratops skeleton awakens with a rattle and a breath, nothing could prepare them for what comes next.His name isn't Terry. It's Davie—and he's not exactly a dinosaur.Together, we have to piece together the greatest prehistoric puzzle of all: who Davie really is. With surprising revelations, new languages, compressed timelines, and deep questions about identity, science, and love. Join us for a truly historic adventure in the backyard and learn to listen beyond assumptions, learn through compassion, and find what you didn't know you were looking for.Welcome to the beginning of everything…again.

On this adventure in the Honeybee Neighborhood, a million-year-old mystery stirs to life! After months of planning, building, and paleontological dreaming, we are finally ready to welcome a beloved fossilized friend into his new terrarium home and his new name. But when the triceratops skeleton awakens with a rattle and a breath, nothing could prepare them for what comes next.His name isn't Terry. It's Davie—and he's not exactly a dinosaur.Together, we have to piece together the greatest prehistoric puzzle of all: who Davie really is. With surprising revelations, new languages, compressed timelines, and deep questions about identity, science, and love. Join us for a truly historic adventure in the backyard and learn to listen beyond assumptions, learn through compassion, and find what you didn't know you were looking for.Welcome to the beginning of everything…again.

On this adventure in the Honeybee Neighborhood, a million-year-old mystery stirs to life! After months of planning, building, and paleontological dreaming, we are finally ready to welcome a beloved fossilized friend into his new terrarium home and his new name. But when the triceratops skeleton awakens with a rattle and a breath, nothing could prepare them for what comes next.His name isn't Terry. It's Davie—and he's not exactly a dinosaur.Together, we have to piece together the greatest prehistoric puzzle of all: who Davie really is. With surprising revelations, new languages, compressed timelines, and deep questions about identity, science, and love. Join us for a truly historic adventure in the backyard and learn to listen beyond assumptions, learn through compassion, and find what you didn't know you were looking for.Welcome to the beginning of everything…again.

In dieser Podcastfolge zum Weltfrauentag zeige ich dir, wie du gerade als Frau aus dem Teufelskreis der Care-Arbeit ausbrechen kannst und auf deine Bedürfnisse achtest.

This week, Lex P and Drea Nicole are joined by Atlanta royalty — rapper, entrepreneur, husband, father, and now author, 2 Chainz — and baby… this one goes everywhere. The episode kicks off with a wild conversation about meet-and-greet culture, concert ticket prices, and whether $1,000 for a photo is crazy… or worth it. From Chris Brown’s viral poses to fans taking things way too far (yes, Dre tells her wheelchair stalker story), the crew debates what access to celebrities should really cost and where fantasy crosses the line. Then they get into the origin story. 2 Chainz breaks down the transition from “Titty Boy” to a global brand, what rebranding really takes, and how playing D1 basketball at Alabama State shaped his discipline and stage presence. He opens up about hustling as a teen, navigating the music industry with longevity, and why he’s managed to stay out of trouble while so many peers crash out. The conversation takes a deeper turn when he talks about faith, fatherhood, and his new book, The Voice in My Head Is God. He explains what that inner voice really is, how it’s guided his biggest decisions, and what happened when he ignored it — including losing millions in bad investments. From financial literacy to trusting your instincts, the gems are real. Of course, the girls couldn’t let him leave without talking strip club classics, “KO” changing lives, rap evolution, tour pressure, Beyoncé-level production expectations, and why some artists need to stop just standing on stage rapping over their own lyrics. To close it out, things get a little unhinged in the Bed segment (as always). From hygiene education to libido talk to marriage transparency, nothing is off limits. This episode is funny, insightful, and unexpectedly vulnerable. It’s about growth, discernment, discipline, and knowing when to listen to that voice in your head. Because sometimes it’s just anxiety…And sometimes? It might be God.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's very rare for me to demand that the readers of my #AmReading substack pre-order something. And the bar to be my “Just One Book” is high. But here we go: The book is The Fountain—debut speculative fiction from Casey Scieszka—and you'll want to read it, but even more, you'll want to hear us talk about what it took to pull this big, beautiful novel from her Tuck-Everlasting-loving soul. And here's the question her agent asked her that is now stuck on a post-it on my computer and may be my next tattoo: How can you reveal these things in action?Casey is reading:Open Throat by Henry Hoke (“It's funny and deeply tender and unlike anything I've ever read.”Follow Casey on Instagram and Substack: Spruceton Inn.Transcript Below!EPISODE TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaThis is the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast, the place where we help you play big in your writing life, love the process, and finish what matters. I am KJ Dell'Antonia, and today we're talking with Casey Scieszka. And I meant to ask Casey how to pronounce her last name before we started. How'd I do?Casey ScieszkaI think you did great. Especially over in Poland, we say “SHESH-kah” over here, but I've been corrected many times. I think it's supposed to be more like what you said. So… bravo!KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay… SHESH-skah… SHESH-kah… all right, off we go. Y'all, you're going to want to know how to spell it, because you're going to want to order Casey's debut novel, The Fountain, and it is spelled S-C-I-E-S-Z-K-A. But to carry on with my introduction, Casey is a ridiculously well-traveled innkeeper in upstate New York, and we are just going to let that fantasy sit there for a minute without talking about the amount of snow she's going to be shoveling tomorrow, because we're recording this in January and are talking about the fact that I can see her and she is wearing a full-on puffer. So… romance, Hallmark, innkeeper, debut novel—all the things—and also a puffer and snow shovels and pipes and, yeah. You will hear this episode just as Casey's first book, The Fountain,, comes out, and that is what we're here to talk about, because I happened to have gotten an advanced copy of it, and I happen to actually have read it—which does not always happen—and even more relevantly, loved it. Therefore, here we are. And Casey, welcome to Hashtag AmWriting.Casey ScieszkaThank you so much. I am so thrilled. I'm like really just beyond that you enjoyed it so much.KJ Dell'AntoniaAh, I'm so—I'm, I really did. I will be encouraging everyone to pick it up. It's mind-boggling that it's not… and it is your debut. So I'm going to go ahead and—is it, is it really? Like, I mean, I know it's your debut, but like, is it the first book you've written? Oh no, you've, you've got a kind of a memoirs situation out, right?Casey ScieszkaI wrote like a young adult travelogue with my now husband that he illustrated about when we lived like in China and West Africa and wound up literally out in Timbuktu. So I had some experience that way, but that was nonfiction and for a totally different audience. All that said, this novel is my first published one, but you better believe I have a bin in the drawer.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's what I meant.Casey ScieszkaDrawer. (laughing)KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Yeah. So, The Fountain, is—just as briefly as possible—it's the story of an immortal woman who really would like to die, for excellent reasons, because immortality is a weight that is really, really heavy, and you convey that beautifully and wonderfully in this book. And so I want to just start right off—I maybe should let you describe the book—and then I'll just warn you that my next question is going to be, “Man, how did you have the guts to swing for the fences like this?”Casey ScieszkaWell, I think it probably began when I read Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting as a fifth grader in English class, which is about a family that—or a little girl who comes across a magical spring that an immortal family is guarding, and then she has to decide, ultimately, throughout the book, what she's going to do with this information and this knowledge while other people are hunting it down as well. And those questions just haunted and delighted me for decades, and I kept returning to them, and at some point I was working on a novel, had a whole manuscript going, was deeply frustrated, and I started a little something on the side where I was like, this will just be a short story. We'll see where this goes. This is nothing, and I think, because… I don't know, maybe you've experienced this before too, where if you're not looking it directly in the eye, sometimes it can just take off, and it all of a sudden had a life of its own. Essentially, this grown-up version of Tuck Everlasting, where it's about a woman who has come back to her small hometown in the Catskill Mountains, where she was born in the 1800s, 214 years later, to figure out what did this to her so she can reverse it and finally be released.KJ Dell'AntoniaWow, you really have the… the short pitch. What's your book about? Down! Congratulations! That's a tough one. Yeah, you, you nailed it. That is what it is about. And I will say that it took—one of the things that I loved about it, and that I like in a book—is that not only was I not sure at some points what the protagonist wanted for herself, I was not sure what I wanted for her. All I knew was that I wanted “something” for her. And that makes for a really interesting reading experience. Because normally, you know, you find yourself sitting there going, well, just, you know, just tell the person, or just, you know, kiss them or accept your reality, or you'd normally—you know what you want—like, take the ring, Frodo, or whatever. Or don't take the ring, Frodo. And now there's no book. But, and in this one, we didn't. How hard was—was that for you to write—sort of, I don't know… did you know what you wanted the protagonist—or what you wanted the reader to want for her? Or…?Casey ScieszkaYes and no.KJ Dell'AntoniaHow did you feel about that?Casey ScieszkaRight. Yes and no, and yes and no. I think when you're writing, ultimately, later on in draft, you have to be very clear about what your character wants. But in the early process, I had no idea. The whole thing, like I said, began as a short story, and that's really just the first chapter or two, and then I was essentially hunting with her. When I was writing that first draft, I was like, what are we looking for? What has happened in the past 200 years in your life that would make you feel one way or another? And then every time I had a different little angel or devil on my shoulder, whatever you will, who was the—well, what about this point of view? What if? Wouldn't this type of—wouldn't someone say, well, living forever would be amazing, because you could share that type of science with other people, and you could, you know, have these wonderful medical advances or, you know, things like that? I could then have other characters essentially embody those, those other points of view as well. Although, I'm really glad that you say that in your reading experience, you still weren't quite sure what she wanted, because I definitely didn't want, you know—I mean, no, no author wants characters to just be symbols for points of view.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh yeah, no, absolutely not. And I should say that I know that she wants to reverse this. That's never in question. But this sort of—there—you're always aware of the question of what does she really want? Because that's kind of only part of it to want…Casey ScieszkaRight.KJ Dell'AntoniaAn end to this pain, but, but why and what other alternatives there are. And then, of course, I just—I did not know how you were going to end it. I could not imagine how you were going to land that plane. It must have been a tough one. Did you always know where you were going? We will not in any way spoil this.Casey ScieszkaRight. No spoilers.KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, no spoilers.Casey ScieszkaI'd say that about halfway through my first draft, I just saw the ending. I was like, “Oh, this is…”KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's amazing.Casey ScieszkaThis is like that very last moment. I was like, this is where I need to get. And those handful of chapters before the penultimate one, whoa, boy, those were the ones that are like I wrote, like seven different books, you know?KJ Dell'AntoniaOh yeah.Casey ScieszkaCompletely different versions to actually get there.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo what was your… what's your hope for the reader experience of this book? Besides, you know vast entertainment and pressing it into the hands of their friends.Casey ScieszkaRight. Naturally.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah…Casey ScieszkaBeyond that…KJ Dell'AntoniaWe love that.Casey ScieszkaUm, I mean, I love books that essentially look at what it means to be human and what makes a life worth living. And those are the type of questions that I hope someone would then linger on in their own life after putting down the book. Even in between chapters, you know? That you would be able to reflect on the choices that each character is making and think, like, oh, I would do this. I wouldn't do that. Or, you know, to kind of just bring that back into your own life that way. Because… I don't know. Time is perspective, like ever—what is—what does it mean to live forever? What is a long life? Is it? You know, when you're when you're little, a summer lasts an eternity. I guess what I'm saying is like our perspective of time is always bendy, and that was an interesting challenge in trying to write a 214 year old woman, where it was very tempting to just turn her into a superhero, where I'd be like, “Oh, well, she'd know 10 language.”KJ Dell'AntoniaShe'd know things, yeah.Casey ScieszkaAnd she'd be like, amazing at all these things. And I had to be like, Casey, you have a lot of time on your hands as well. Like, you're, you know, you're 40 years old. And do you know 10 languages? Do you know five languages? Like, what are, like what are we talking about here?KJ Dell'AntoniaOn that ratio you should at least know two. (laughing) Uh, maybe three. If we're going to say 200 is 10… you know you got, yeah, you should have at least two.Casey ScieszkaExactly. So just kind of examining, like, why would I—why would I have expectation, different expectations for someone simply because they've lived longer, and, you know, those types of things?KJ Dell'AntoniaSo you mentioned that you had a bunch of books in a drawer. So what's bigger about this project than maybe the thing that you put aside to focus on it? Is it bigger?Casey ScieszkaI don't know if it's bigger. I think I just had, I had better tools in my toolbox at this point. Like I might return to that other one, but I didn't have the full heart of the question I was getting at there. I think I had more of a premise, or something like that. Whereas this one, when I was writing, I felt like the problem was I had own—like in the writing was like I had too much meat, I had so many questions, I had so much I was wrestling with. And then it also really helped that, I mean, it's, its set in a small town in the Catskills, and, spoiler alert, that's the type of place that I now live.KJ Dell'AntoniaRight.Casey ScieszkaAnd knew. People always tell you like, write what you know. I am, I am not, secretly, 214 years old. I know you can't see me on camera, guys.Multiple Speakers(both laughing)Casey ScieszkaMy skin's not that great for a… you know? But, but I do know what small-town life is in the Catskills. I do—there are some characters who are opening up a business. I know what it's like to open a business. Like, it was really fun for me. I felt like I had this endless well of inspiration to keep pulling from that way. And that was something I couldn't have written 10 years before. You know?KJ Dell'AntoniaYou also handled the depth of the questions that you're dealing with remarkably tightly. Did you have to clear away a lot of like… asking for a friend…(laughing). Did you have to clear away a lot of mulling over these questions by people or? I guess what I'm getting at is these are really deep and big questions, like you said, but I don't feel—you did not Atlas Shrugged these. You know, there's not like a 20-page dissertation by John Galt in the middle of it. How hard was it to keep that from happening? Or did it come a little more easily for you?Casey ScieszkaI think, nothing, nothing, none of it comes easily. We know this.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Casey ScieszkaI mean, sometimes you reach the flow state, you know? And it is funny to even think back on these things, because I have a, like, a willful blindness, almost in the same way that, like, I have given birth to two children, and, like, I can't believe I did it a second time, you know? But it's by, you know, it's by design, some—perhaps similar with writing. Once you know how the sausage is made, sometimes it can be hard to do again. But anyway, all of this is to go back and actually answer your question. I was very wary of doing the… this is how I feel about something info dump. And one of the things that my agent as an editor has been helpful with from early drafts was, how can you reveal these things in action? So anytime I was tempted to just start explaining things, I was like, Casey, is this happening in action? Like, is this a character actually finding something out? Like from another character in a natural way. So that…KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's a great question.Casey ScieszkaRight. That really, that really helped me. And then also sometimes with the writing I did, just let myself write a whole bunch, you know, because sometimes, especially if you know it's the beginning of your writing day, maybe it's, it's that equivalent of the throat clearing—you're just or the dog who's doing circles before they sit down, like you're, you're getting around to the thing that you actually want to say. And then when you re read it, you're like, “Oh, well, those first four paragraphs can go, and here's where I actually start to say…”KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, here's what i meant to say.Casey ScieszkaYeah. Yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaTake this. Put it up at the front— delayed all this. Yeah. No. I get it. So how long did this take you?Casey ScieszkaWell, I started the short story in 2021 and then it comes out now. I will say we had, like; everything was in the can, if you will, at least, like a year and a half ago, just kind of waiting for this springtime pub date. But, yeah, it's a journey. That's a—I feel, you know, like another thing you don't want to hear when you're like, 25 and are like, I'm going to write a book, and you hear an interview with someone who's like, it took me 10 years, and I was like, my god. And I'm like, well, girl.KJ Dell'AntoniaI can do it faster than that.Casey ScieszkaThis one is five years. But…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, yeah, no, it takes, it takes a long time, and it's hard, and it takes a lot of painful thinking, and yeah, all of those things are true. So now, now that you can look back at this project with hopefully a little bit of distance, and you're about to be talking about it a lot, I suspect. What do you love most about it?Casey ScieszkaOoh. I love most that these characters feel so real to me still that I sometimes catch myself wondering, like, what they're doing. You know?KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's amazing.Casey ScieszkaLike I lived with them, and I just, I'm so excited that I actually, like made—was able to make that for, you know, not just myself, though, that I surely entertained myself in the process. But it is such a humbling dream that this story is now existing in other people's brains, that these are characters who have felt real to other people as well.KJ Dell'AntoniaWhat, as you look back, what would you say was the hardest part of the process?Casey ScieszkaAside from all of the waiting?!KJ Dell'AntoniaAll of it! Aside from all of it.Casey ScieszkaWhich felt like…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah I was going to say aside from…Casey ScieszkaIt felt eternal.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Yeah.Multiple Speakers(both laughing)Casey ScieszkaI think the very hardest part is early on, when you don't know—well, the earliest, earliest is delightful, because you're in just your little creative cocoon, and you're having these wonderful ideas, and you don't have to solve any of the plot problems yet, or things like that. You know, you're just like being your own little creative genius for yourself. But then it's I feel like that, that first real revision phase when you don't know fully if this is actually going to become a book where you're—and time, you know, to talk about time again, is precious, like I, you know, I run this other hotel. It's open half the year. But when I began it, it was open seven days a week, all year long; I had two children under the age of four at the time. Like, time was precious. I was writing during nap time, like things were being sacrificed in order for me to do this. And it is. It just feels audacious and possibly insane to be doing it when you're in it, and when you're on the other side, you're like, oh, but the road was always pointing here, and you just, you just don't know that when you're in it.KJ Dell'AntoniaNo.Casey ScieszkaYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou could easily have, really think, you know, you could easily still be sitting on this going, well, I'm going to finish this…Casey ScieszkaExactly. And, you know…KJ Dell'AntoniaWhen the kids are… you know… or whatever.Casey ScieszkaYeah, exactly I have these other, you know, unfinished or manuscripts that haven't seen the light of day. But, at this point, I tell myself, and I 99.9999% believe it that those were necessary to write in order to write this.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, I sure hope so.Multiple Speakers(both laughing)Casey ScieszkaThere's just that other point 0.0001 that's like—KJ Dell'AntoniaWhat?!Casey ScieszkaYeah, it's like, no, no, it really was necessary.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, you have to. You have to do it. Well, I hate to be, you know, not trying to raise the bar here, but, but what is next after, you know, a topic like this and a big book like, like this? Do you know yet? Are you, are you thinking about it? Where are you in your process?Casey ScieszkaI have been working on something else which is fun. And I definitely have, like, you know, while as much as I know how, how wild it is with how the sausage is made and what I'm, you know, the many revisions and things I'm looking down the barrel at, I also have another level of excitement, because I know, like, wow, I have an agent this time who's actually excited to read it, and I have a working relationship with an editor. Like, I'm trying to appreciate that…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, because it's what you wanted before.Casey ScieszkaAnd it can be so easy to just, you know, slip back into the like; you know, I don't know, the chaos feelings. But, I will say, I'm not going to say much about the project, other than historically, for everything I've ever been drawn to, and including stuff I love to read. I always love when character, when there's a character who knows like way too much or way too little, like in their situation.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's a very like tempting pitch without having anything you'd like to put your fingers in.Casey ScieszkaWithout…KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's good. That's good, that's clever.Casey ScieszkaI told you nothing.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou told me nothing, and yet I'm like, ooh yeah, that does sound… that does sound interesting. Well, I as I've as I've said I wholeheartedly enjoyed this. It was twisty. You had me thinking things that were not what was so at many, many points of the book.Casey ScieszkaI love to hear this. Love to hear.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah and when we are off, off recording, I'll tell you some of them, because that is always kind of fun. I really feel like this book is such an achievement. For someone who's just getting started, it's great. I can't wait to see what you do next. And I guess, on that note, what's something you have read recently where you also felt like the writer was, was really big, really playing big. Is there anything that you would like to press on into people's hands the way I want to press The Fountain, into their hands?Casey ScieszkaI've loved this. Thank you again. One book I keep pressing into many people's hands is Open Throat by Henry Hoke.KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay.Casey ScieszkaIt's very slim. You can read it in like a day, although I recommend taking a little bit longer, because you'll want to enjoy it. It is told from the point of view of a mountain lion who lives under the Hollywood sign.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, I—I think I've heard the description, even if I don't remember the—okay.Casey ScieszkaIt's so funny and so deeply tender, like and just unlike anything I've read recently, and I just really felt like, like he was swinging for the fences with this, like it's from the point of view of an animal, which should be ridiculous, but after…KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd not just an animal, but an animal that lives under the Hollywood sign.Casey ScieszkaYeah, like that's a mountain lion who's—it open up or he's overhearing like you know hikers discussing therapist, you know? It's just, it's so silly, but it's also so deep and kind of truly experimental, but still so accessible and I just feel like it's the type of thing that I don't know. Maybe when he sat down to write it, he was like, this, someone's going to tell me, I'm nuts, but I just connected with it so much.KJ Dell'AntoniaI…yeah. Alright I love that then, and that is a great response to the question, because that really is somebody else swinging for the fences, and that's what we're just trying to talk about here for everyone. So where? Well, listeners can find you, obviously they can, they can buy The Fountain,, and they should. You're inn is called?Casey ScieszkaThe Spruceton Inn, a Catskills Bed & Bar. We're a little nine-room hotel.KJ Dell'Antonia(laughing) Bed and bar. That's awesome.Casey ScieszkaYeah. I mean, I don't, I don't really mess with breakfast. I mean, you get very nice coffee and some pop tarts. I love a good highbrow, lowbrow, and we are five miles down a seven mile dead end road in the middle of the mountains.KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay, I love this for everyone. And is there any particular social media where you are fun and joyful?Casey ScieszkaYeah, you can find us on Instagram at sprucetoninn. That's also like some writing stuff and same with Substack. Only other thing I'll say about the inn is we also run an artist residency program, an annual one. So every August we open it up to folks, writers, 2D artists. Basically, if you can make it in a motel room without disturbing your neighbors, come on and make it with us, and you get, you get, like, a week-long stay. No cost, in the month of November.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat is so fun and so cool. And I bet you're going to get a lot more applications than you can handle this time around. Alright, well, thank you so much for spending this time with me.Casey ScieszkaThank you so much for chatting.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd amazing best of luck with the book, which I loved. All right, kids, I'm signing this off with our new sign off. Until next time, stop playing small and write like it matters.NarratorThe Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perrella. Our intro music, aptly titled, Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

In dieser Folge spricht Emily (35) offen über ihren Weg raus aus alten Beziehungsmustern und rein in echten Selbstwert. Als selbstständige Frau im Vertrieb war sie nach einer langen Ehe zwar „frei“, innerlich aber noch gebrandmarkt: Sie landete wieder in einer Situationship, wartete auf Nachrichten, zweifelte an sich... bis ihr Körper ihr ganz klar gezeigt hat: So geht es nicht weiter. Du erfährst, wie Emily es geschafft hat:

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Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

Rebecca Davis joins John Maytham each week to reflect on just how strange the news can be. From the most important to the very strange, John and Rebecca offer their view of what is happening in our world that makes it, at times, infuriating, at times inspirational, but always fascinating. Afternoon Drive with John Maytham is the late afternoon show on CapeTalk. Presenter John Maytham is an actor and author-turned-talk radio veteran and seasoned journalist. His show serves a round-up of local and international news coupled with the latest in business, sport, traffic and weather. The host’s eclectic interests mean the program often surprises the audience with intriguing book reviews and inspiring interviews profiling artists. A daily highlight is Rapid Fire, just after 5:30 pm. CapeTalk fans call in to stump the presenter with their general knowledge questions. Another firm favourite is the humorous Thursday crossing with award-winning journalist Rebecca Davis, called “Plan B”. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Afternoon Drive with John Maytham Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 15:00 to 18:00 (SA Time) to Afternoon Drive with John Maytham broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show, go to https://buff.ly/BSFy4Cn or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/n8nWt4x Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media: CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is a turnkey rehab property in Akron, OH  Price $130,000 Cash Flow: $114/mo Bed: 3 Bath: 1.0 Built in 1928 Square Footage: 912   Find more information at www.RentToRetirement.com or call 1-800-311-6781 We offer high quality, turnkey rental properties in markets that maximize cash flow, equity & appreciation! All properties are renovated, leased & managed allowing you to passively build a rental portfolio while you learn along the way. Please contact us for our full inventory, or to schedule a consultation. Rent To Retirement is your partner in achieving financial freedom through real estate investing! *Information given is to the best knowledge of Rent to Retirement. All individuals are solely responsible for conduction of their own evaluation and verifying all data related to any specific property.

Sonja Ruess ist Sexologin und Beziehungsexpertin. In ihren Online-Kursen und über soziale Medien begleitet sie Menschen dabei, ihr Liebesleben bewusster zu gestalten und die Bedürfnisse ihres Gegenübers besser zu verstehen. Mit ihrer offenen, humorvollen Art spricht sie über alles – ohne Tabus. Wie sich ein eingeschlafenes Sexleben neu beleben lässt, beschreibt sie in ihrem Buch „Der Elefant in deinem Bett“. Im Podcast erzählt sie, wie sie selbst zur Sexologin wurde – der Ausgangspunkt war eine Phase persönlicher Unzufriedenheit. Sie erklärt die Unterschiede zwischen männlicher und weiblicher Erregung und macht deutlich, dass sich Lust trainieren lässt. Und schließlich spricht sie über einen besonderen Tanz, der viel dazu beitragen kann, die eigene Lust zu steigern. Podcasttipp: „Ein Zimmer für uns allein“ https://www.ardaudiothek.de/sendung/ein-zimmer-fuer-uns-allein/urn:ard:show:0901ee64e854603b/

🧭 REBEL Rundown 🔑Key Points Try the coffee nap! Where you combine caffeine and a 30-minute nap to then have that boost energy and alertness by the time it kicks in.💤 Sleep isn’t optional—it’s crucial for memory, mood regulation, and physical recovery. It is fundamentally different from rest❌ Replacing sleep with caffeine isn’t effective and can have negative health impacts. Make getting enough sleep a priority🌞 Sunlight exposure is important for maintaining circadian rhythms and sleep quality. This applies even if you work as a nocturnist💡 Creating a personalized sleep system enhances quality and consistency. It gives you back control of a schedule that you may feel like is out of your hands.🧩 If you’ve tried these strategies and you’re still struggling, consider true sleep pathology (insomnia, shift work disorder, sleep apnea) and get help—this is not a “be tougher” problem.🩺 Better sleep isn’t just about feeling good; it’s directly tied to error reduction, patient safety, and longevity in EM/ICU careers. Click here for Direct Download of the Podcast. 👀Previously Covered and Related Content: REBEL Core Cast: Sleep HygieneREBEL MIND: Rest Is Not Sleep: The Seven Dimensions of True RecoveryRebellion in EM: Care For Yourself – Sleep HygieneFirst10EM: Some Evidence For Working Night ShiftsREBEL MIND: Dunning Kruger Effect 📝 Introduction Welcome to this episode of REBEL MIND, where MIND stands for Mastering Internal Negativity during Difficulty. Here we sharpen the person behind the practitioner by focusing on things that improve our performance, optimizing team dynamics and the human behavior that embodies the hidden curriculum of medicine. Today we are exploring the imperative topic of rest and why it’s not just about sleeping. The second of a two part series, hosted by Dr. Mark Ramzy with guests Dr. Maureen Aiad and Dr. Amil Badoolah, continue our discussion but this time on the multifaceted nature of sleep, how it serves as medicine and how we can use our tools deliberately to get more of it! Cognitive Question How would your clinical performance, patience with families, and long-term career sustainability change if you treated sleep as a non-negotiable clinical intervention rather than a flexible “nice-to-have”? 💤How is Sleep Different From Rest? 1. Rest reduces load; sleep repairs systemsWe previously talked about the 7 types of rest and you can check that out hereExamples of physical rest include: pausing tasks, stepping away from the monitor, taking a walk, stretching, breathing, journaling, connecting with a colleague. This lightens your cognitive/emotional burden.Sleep is fundamentally different in that it’s an active biologic process that helps:Consolidates memory and learning (yes, including the tough cases from last night).Regulates mood, impulse control, and emotional reactivity.Supports immunity, metabolic health, and cardiovascular function.Repairs tissue, replenishes neurotransmitters, and fine-tunes neural networks.You can have “rested but underslept” days (you took breaks but got 4 hours in bed), and “slept but unrested” days (you got hours, but all junk sleep). Both matter, but they are not interchangeable.2. Sleep architecture vs. “knocking out”True restorative sleep cycles through NREM and REM in predictable patterns.Alcohol, late caffeine, and fragmented nights may help you fall asleep faster but:Suppress REM.Shorten deep sleep.Increase awakenings and light sleep.The result: you technically slept, but your brain didn’t get the “software updates” it needed.Biology isn’t built for your scheduleCircadian rhythms were designed for light-day / dark-night cycles, not:10 pm–7 am ED shifts.24-hour calls.6 nights in a row followed by days.Your body can adapt partially, but not instantly and not perfectly. That’s why:You can feel “jet-lagged” even when you haven’t traveled.Sleep before and after nights feels odd and fragile.Recognizing that “this is biologically unnatural” is key: you’re not weak; you’re fighting physiology. 🏥How This Applies to the Emergency Department or ICU? Performance & safetySleep deprivation:Slows reaction time and increases error rate.Impairs risk assessment and complex decision-making.Drops your frustration tolerance with consultants, families, and staff.In both emergency medicine and critical care, that translates into:Anchoring on the wrong diagnosis.Missing subtle clinical changes.Snapping at a tech, nurse or resident and damaging team culture. Chronic health for chronic shift workLong-term sleep disruption is associated with:Hypertension, diabetes, obesity.Depression, anxiety, burnout.Arrhythmias (e.g., AFib) and increased stroke risk.Possibly increased all-cause mortality.You’re already in a high-stress, high-exposure specialty. Chronically poor sleep amplifies that risk profile and can end a career early—or make you miserable while you’re still in it.Culture of “heroics” vs. healthSkipping sleep to pick up extra shifts, late meetings, or “just one more note” is often praised.We rarely celebrate:The attending who says “no” to a 2 pm meeting post-nights.The resident who defends their blackout-curtains-and-earplugs routine. 🛏️Different Ways to Improve Your Sleep Clarify your “sleep non-negotiables”Decide how many hours you realistically need to function (e.g., 7–9 on off days, realistic blocks on nights).Treat those hours as you would a procedure time—blocked, protected, and respected.Use caffeine like a drug, not a reflexAim for ≤ 2 cups equivalent on most days.Avoid caffeine within 4–6 hours of your planned sleep time (remember: it can hang around up to 12 hours).Consider scheduling caffeine for:Early in the shift for alertness.Strategic “coffee naps” (see below), not late-night chugging.Respect alcohol’s impact on sleepRecognize that even small to moderate doses degrade sleep architecture.Avoid using alcohol as a “sleep aid”—you’ll fall asleep faster but sleep worse.If you do drink, separate it from bedtime and keep it modest.Optimize food and fluid timingHydrate consistently on shift, but taper fluids ~4 hours before bed to reduce nocturnal bathroom trips.Avoid heavy, spicy, or large meals within 2–3 hours of sleep to decrease reflux and discomfort.Plan a light, balanced “pre-sleep” snack if going to bed hungry keeps you awake.Move your body (but not right before bed)Regular exercise improves sleep depth and latency.Try to avoid intense workouts within 2 hours of bedtime.On shift: micro-movement (stairs, brisk walks between pods, quick stretch sessions) can help alertness without wrecking sleep later.Control light exposureMaximize sunlight or bright light after waking (even if that’s 3–4 pm after a night).Minimize bright light and screens before sleep:Dim lights.Use night mode/blue-light filters if you must scroll.For daytime sleep:Use blackout curtains, tinfoil, cardboard, or sleep masks.Yes seriously use tinfoil if you have to, we talk about it on the podcast episode!Aim for “I might be blind” darkness—so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face.Dial in your sleep environmentCool room temperature (fan or AC if possible).White noise or sound machine to mask household/traffic noise.Earplugs and eye masks as needed.Bed used primarily for sleep (and sex)—not for charting, doom scrolling, or email.Strategic power napsKeep naps ≤ 20–30 minutes to avoid sleep inertia.Prefer early-afternoon or pre-night-shift naps.Coffee nap strategy:Drink a small coffee.Immediately lie down for a 20–30 min nap.Wake up as the caffeine kicks in, combining nap benefit + stimulant.Thoughtful melatonin useRemember melatonin is a hormone, not a vitamin gummy.Lower doses often work as well as (or better than) large OTC doses.Use it intentionally and intermittently, not as a crutch every night.Over-reliance may reduce your own natural production and its effectiveness over time.Build pre-sleep ritualsRepeated, calming habits signal your body it’s time to downshift:Warm shower, gentle stretching, or yoga.Guided breathing or body scan.Brief journaling or “brain dump” of tasks to get them out of your head and onto paper.Protect from pathologic patternsIf despite consistent effort you:Snore heavily, stop breathing, or gasp in sleep.Feel excessively sleepy driving home or at work.Cannot fall asleep or stay asleep for weeks to months.Consider evaluation for sleep apnea, insomnia, or shift-work sleep disorder with your physician or sleep specialist. ⏩Immediate Action Steps for Before/During/After Your Next Shift 1. **Before the Shift**: Plan a 20–90 minute nap before your first night shift (many clinicians find 3–5 hours earlier in the day is ideal).I treat ED and ICU shifts very differently. I always sleep 3-5 hours before my night shifts aiming for the full 5 (sometimes 6 or more) hours for my ED shifts because you always have to be “on”. Depending on the ICU I’m working in, I may have a bit more downtime so 3 to 5 hours is plenty.Set a caffeine plan: decide in advance when your last dose will be (e.g., none after 2–3 am if sleeping at 8–9 am).Tell your household, “This is my sleep block” and agree on a plan for kids, pets, deliveries, etc.On my calendar, I completely block off time called “Pre-call sleep” so no meetings can be scheduled and then put my phone in airplane mode2. **During the Shift** Hydrate early; taper fluids in the last 3–4 hours of your shift Eat something light but adequate; avoid “last-minute” heavy meals right before sign-out.Build in micro-breaks and movement: one or two short walks, a few stretches, even a quick stair run if safe.Get outside or near a window for a few minutes of light exposure if possible.3. **After the Shift**On the way home:Use sunglasses to reduce bright morning light if you’re aiming for sleep soon.Avoid “just checking” email or messages; shift into wind-down mode.At home:Do a brief, calming decompression (shower, light snack, 10–15 minutes of low-stimulation TV or reading).Make your room cold, quiet, and dark (blackout curtains, tinfoil/cardboard, white noise, fan).Put your phone on Do Not Disturb and physically place it away from the bed.On my calendar, I completely block off time called “Post-call sleep” so again no meetings can be scheduled and then I personally don’t just put my phone on Do Not Disturb but rather in airplane mode and WIFI OFF If you can’t sleep after ~20–30 minutes:Get out of bed, do something calming in dim light (breathing, gentle stretching, journaling).Return to bed when sleepy—this trains your brain to associate bed with sleep, not frustration. Conclusion Rest and sleep are both critical—but they’re not interchangeable. Rest helps you step out of the constant “on” of our jobs, while sleep is the biological intervention that restores your ability to show up safely and sustainably. Rest ≠ sleep. Rest reduces load; sleep repairs your brain and body. You need both, on purpose.As EM and ICU clinicians, we’re trying to perform formula-one-level medicine with engines that often only see half their maintenance. You won’t fix shift work. You can build a sleep system that respects your biology, your schedule, and your life at home.That system starts with valuing sleep, then prioritizing it, personalizing it, trusting the process when it’s imperfect, and actively protecting both your routine and your mindset. 🚨 Clinical Bottom Line Sleep is medicine. Shift work is biologically unnatural. Struggling does not mean you’re weak; it means you’re human fighting physiology. Use your tools deliberately. Caffeine, naps, light, food, movement, melatonin, and environment can be leveraged—or can quietly sabotage you. Build and defend a personalized sleep routine. Communicate it, normalize it, and protect it from casual encroachment. You can’t control every trauma, code, or admission—but you can control how seriously you take your own recovery. Your patients, your team, and your future self all benefit when you do. Further Reading Espie CA. The ‘5 principles’ of good sleep health. J Sleep Res. 2022 Jun; PMID: 34676592Solodar, J“Sleep hygiene: Simple practices for better rest.” Harvard Health, 31 January 2025 Link is HereSuni, E.“Mastering Sleep Hygiene: Your Path to Quality Sleep.” Sleep Foundation, 7 July 2025, Link is Here Meet the Authors Mark Ramzy, DO Co-Editor-in-Chief Cardiothoracic Intensivist and EM Attending RWJBH / Rutgers Health, Newark, NJ Maureen Aiad, DO Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, New York Amil Badoolah, DO Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, New York REBEL Core Cast 119.0 – Sleep Hygiene REBEL Core Cast 119.0 – Sleep Hygiene Click here for Direct Download of ... Read More The post REBEL MIND – How to Sleep When the World Says You Can't appeared first on REBEL EM - Emergency Medicine Blog.

With everything heavy in the world right now, I've been feeling that “stuck” feeling myself — so I recorded this last-minute episode for you.We're talking about the viral “bed rotting” trend and what's really happening in your body when you can't get out of bed. You'll learn:• The three nervous system states (ventral vagal, sympathetic, dorsal vagal)• How they line up with the Window of Tolerance you've heard me talk about before• What widens or narrows your window• How to tell if you're in genuine rest, passive consumption, or full shutdown• The 6 smallest, most effective tools to gently come back onlineWhether you're in couples coaching with me or a longtime listener, these tools will help you and the person you love move through shutdown with compassion instead of criticism. Your nervous system is just trying to keep you safe — and now you'll know exactly how to work with it.Key TakeawaysInside the Window = ventral vagal (calm, clear, restorative rest)Above the Window = sympathetic hyperarousal (wired & anxious)Below the Window = dorsal vagal shutdown (numb, heavy, frozen)Bed rotting is usually passive consumption or sliding into shutdown — not true restYour window size changes based on sleep, boundaries, connection, stress & recoveryThe fastest way out of shutdown: micro-movement → 5-4-3-2-1 grounding → voice → get vertical → name what you're avoiding → reality-check your bandwidthHarshness never works as well as loving firmness (with yourself or your partner)Resources:The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique (do this while still in bed!)Name out loud or silently:5 things you can see4 things you can touch/feel3 things you can hear2 things you can smell1 thing you can tasteTakes 60–90 seconds and sends immediate safety signals to your nervous system.Next StepsIf this helped you feel less alone in the “stuck” feeling, share it with your partner or someone you love. Subscribe, leave a quick rating or review (it really helps the show), and remember — putting each other first and doing the small things often is what creates a big impact in your marriage.Get in TouchWebsite: MasterYourMarriage.usInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/masteryourmarriageFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MasterYourMarriage/

Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

In this podcast episode, Michael Wienecke and Travis McGowin from Peskies Pest Control share a startling story about a family who purchased a home only to find a massive bed bug infestation waiting for them. The sellers had actually been living in a camper on the property to escape the bugs, a major “red flag” that was unfortunately missed during the buying process . After the homeowners were let down by a liquid spray treatment that offered no warranty, Peskies stepped in to solve the problem using high-intensity heat. By raising the home’s temperature to 160°F—effectively turning it into an oven—they were able to pull the insects out of the woodwork and eliminate them for good . The episode concludes with a reminder to “buy once, cry once” by investing in reputable inspections and choosing companies that stand behind their work with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Read more about this in our blog post! Watch this vlog on YouTube! Podcast Transcript:Michael Wienecke 0:00 It baffles me that somebody can say they can get rid of bed bugs in one setting with a spray. So just tell me go back over that.Travis McGowin 0:14 All right, right, so we did a bed bug job yesterday. Super nice family. They bought a house. I think it’s been about eight to nine months ago. They, from what they advised to me, that has not been a full year. So they bought this house, and they kind of told me it probably should have been a bit of a red flag when they bought the house, because the previous owners of the house were not living in the house. They were living in a camper in front of the house.Michael Wienecke 0:46 You know, if there were any signs, that would have been the sign.Travis McGowin 0:52 Right, that one definitely, probably would have, would have been like a, you know, a bit of a red flag. It’s like, okay, so you have this house, as opposed to this camper. And maybe, you know, I could get that maybe, if you were doing, like, some serious remodeling or something like that, but, but evidently, they weren’t. So you have this, this house, you know, this three bedroom, one bathroom house, and then you have the people selling it, and they’re not even living in it, but they’re not renovating it, they just don’t want to be in there. So, I mean, that’s at least what I can assume. So anyway, they bought this house, and then come to find out, all of a sudden, they have bed bugs. To their knowledge, they never had them from wherever it was that they were living. So it’s very unlikely that they that they moved and brought something with them. So they move into this house, all of a sudden they have bed bugs. One of the local companies in their area where they live doesn’t touch bed bugs, but they did recommend a gentleman to come and treat them. Claimed that this gentleman is the one that they always recommend when it comes to bed bugs, and so they gave him the card. And so they call the guy. The guy comes out says, Yes, you got bed bugs. I’ll treat it for you. And apparently, from what the customer had advised us, did some sort of liquid treatment. I don’t know what the product was, or how he treated, or what he did, but I think charged them, you know, close to $1,000 and then advise them that they were not going to need a warranty, because this was going to solve the problem, and it didn’t.Michael Wienecke 2:32 I would always say, you know, talk to somebody about their warranty, their guarantee. I mean, we brought up that in the past. It’s just, it’s a really important thing, you know, it’s kind of what, what that company is going to, you know, back themselves.Travis McGowin 2:46 Right, and you’re, you’re going to want to do, and this isn’t even just with pest control. I mean, you can use this in pretty much any faucet of your life. I mean, you know, you probably wouldn’t go buy a new refrigerator if you didn’t think that for X amount of years, it was going to be warrantied for defects or, you know, I mean, there any anything you you want to know that a company that you’re hiring to do a service, or a company that makes a product that you’re wanting to buy is going to stand behind that product in the event that something doesn’t go as planned, something doesn’t work out, or something just fails.Michael Wienecke 3:25 Well, unless question to what the other company did. I mean, did they talk about washing the clothes? Do they talk about, you know, leaving everything inside the house when they were doing the treatment, you know, like with our heat, you know, we give you a full list and of instructions of how to get, you know, the house prepped and ready to go for us to have the best chance to get rid of those bed bugs for you,Travis McGowin 3:48 Right, you know, you’ll probably laugh when I say this, but, you know, it’s like we always tell our guys during training, like, Help us. Help you. Like, get the customer. You know, it’s a partnership. Yes, we are there to take care of these, these pests. We are there, whether it’s bed bugs, German roaches, general household pests, termites, whatever, whatever it is that’s ailing you, so to speak, but we’re there to take it. But it is a partnership.Michael Wienecke 4:15 What’s bugging you. Travis? What’s bugging you?Travis McGowin 4:18 The bugs, all the bugs. So it’s a partnership, though. So you know, case in point, let’s just say you got a really bad German Roach infestation, and we come in to treat but you you know, may not necessarily keep the cleanest kitchen, so instead of the roaches having to contact our product and our bait, well, maybe they’re eating what’s left on the counter or what’s left in the garbage can? Well, it’s going to take a lot longer to get rid of the problem if we can even get rid of it at all, because we’re these are some extenuating circumstances that are not helping us do our job. So in the same token as a bed bug treatment, you know, if the company comes in and says, Hey, you know, we need you to remove. Bed linens, launder them on a high heat. Laundry cycle from washing and dry. And we need you to, you know, remove items off the floor, all these things, these are all things that are going to help you get rid of this infestation. And so help that company, help you.Michael Wienecke 5:18 Well and it, you know, that’s why we chose heat, because we’re able to give that guarantee one one thing. It’s a 90 day guarantee, and that guarantee that we can get you back in your house relatively fast, I wouldn’t say, the very next day, because it’s still a baked potato by the time we’re done with it.Travis McGowin 5:37 The customer’s husband did come home as we were packing up, and it was comical, because he did have some choice things to say about how warm it was in the house. He wasn’t, you know, he wasn’t upset or mad. He knew. He knew we had already advised him. But, you know, it’s one thing to mentally play it out in your mind and go, Okay, you know, they’re going to increase the temperature of our house to X number of degrees, and it’s going to be warm and but 160 degrees in your mind, it’s not doesn’t really seem like a thing until you walk into it, and then it hits you in the face, and then it’s like, oh, wow, it really is hot. So he did. He had some entertaining things to say about it. But, you know, like I said, we had advised them of that before the treatment was ever done, that, you know, hey, when we pack our stuff up and pull our stuff out of the structure, you’re you’re going to need to wait to go in there, because it’s going to be hot.Michael Wienecke 6:39 I did come up with a good idea the other day, we could start selling this to fire departments too, because I felt like I was in a house fire.Travis McGowin 6:47 Right, I mean, you know, we pipe the heat in there through mylar duct work with our propane heater. I mean, the contents from floor to ceiling and everything in between are heating, you know, heating, and then eventually reach this point where we can finally start our timer. And I mean, it was just amazing, you know, when I, when I did the inspection a couple of days earlier. I mean, of course there were bed bugs, but when you start to put the fire to their feet, that’s when they all start to come out of the woodwork. And, I mean, you just, you would be very surprised as that how many you actually end up seeing when they all start to try to find a cooler place to go, and they can’t, I mean, it was just, you know, it’s, it’s baffling to see just how many are actually in there that you didn’t find because they’re so good at hiding.Michael Wienecke 7:40 Well, and that’s why during inspection, I mean, one to 50 of bed bugs, of that. I mean, how long does it take before we have just a full blown infestation on our hands? You’re looking at 21 days to 30 days, and you’ve got something that is almost out of control already.Travis McGowin 7:57 Right, and you know, so looking back, when the customer was purchasing the property, and they, you know, came on site to see that there was the previous owner living in a camper. Well, Michael, as you and I both know, just from being in this profession long enough and dealing with bed bugs long enough, there’s a high likelihood that one, if they were living in that camper to avoid bed bugs. They probably had bed bugs in the camper too, because if they pulled any of their belongings from that house to put them into that camper, they probably brought some bed bugs over there with them. It’s super easy to do.Michael Wienecke 8:36 Karma is a…Travis McGowin 8:39 Right, especially if they didn’t, and I’m assuming they did not disclose any of that to the to the buyers when they bought the house, you know. So it’s unfortunate. You know, it does happen. Obviously, if someone’s looking to sell property, then they’re trying to get rid of it. And you know, unfortunately, people don’t necessarily disclose all the problems, whether it’s structural or electrical or plumbing. And of course, that’s why we have, you know, some inspections. You know, you got a home inspection. Of course, you know, a pest inspection, as a lot of people call, is usually limited to termites or wood destroying organisms. But you know, I’d like to say that even, you know, even if we were called to do an inspection, a wood infestation report, or wood destroying organism inspection on that house, we would have probably went, they have bed bugs, even if everything was out of the house. I mean, there was still plenty of signs there were bed bugs around the top corners of the ceiling. Just there was, there was a pretty, pretty decent amount in there.Michael Wienecke 9:43 Well, and going back to other podcasts we’ve done about just the inspection process and all that. I mean, this is why you pay that little bit of money up front. I mean, you know to varies, but three to $600 is a is a pretty cheap price to pay to make sure that you don’t have all these issues or whatnot. You know?Travis McGowin 10:03 Well, a person’s home. Usually, I don’t know yet. I don’t know if you priced a new vehicle here lately. So this may not be true. This may not be true anymore.Michael Wienecke 10:13 $120,000Travis McGowin 10:15 But typically, most people’s most expensive investment is their home.Michael Wienecke 10:22 100%Travis McGowin 10:24 But like I said, vehicles have really shot up. So let’s you know, I don’t want to leave anything off the table there in terms of vehicles could be more expensive than a house sometimes, but that’s your most expensive investment. And so if it’s something that is my most expensive thing, I’m probably not going to cheap out on something that’s going to make sure that I’m buying a quality product, a quality property. I’m just, I’m just not, you know, I’m not going to cheap out on that. I mean, you can cheap out on ketchup, you know, instead of buying the name brand, you could buy the store brand, or mustard or ranch or something like that. But when it comes to a property, I’m probably not going to cheap out and try to find the lowest bidder on an inspection. I’m going to I’m going to try to find the most reputable company to do it, or the most reputable inspector to do it, and even if that costs me a little more money, that reputation of being able to sniff out problems or disclose problems is going to be well worth the extra money paid.Michael Wienecke 11:26 100%, I mean, a really good guy No. Larry short, he always told me, it’s a stupid tax, right? So if you, if you do something, and you try to cheapen out on doing something, eventually you’re probably going to end up paying something a little bit moreTravis McGowin 11:46 AbsolutelyMichael Wienecke 11:47 Shout out to Larry.Travis McGowin 11:48 You know it’s, it’s the the old saying, buy once, cry once, right?Michael Wienecke 11:53 Yes!Travis McGowin 11:54 You know if I’m going to shop for something, and I know that this one thing checks all the boxes, or this other thing over here checks a couple of the boxes, and I can get by with it, but it’s likely down the road I need to buy this one, and eventually I’m going to have to buy this one. So why not buy this one now and go ahead and get everything that it is that I need so that I’m not paying double the price because I was cheap in the in the beginning.Michael Wienecke 12:21 Well, in this guy that treated the house before for bed bugs, it’s he didn’t give them any kind of information on what he was doing or how he was doing. It seems to be he was nowhere to be seen after whatever he did failed. So again, it just it do some do some research on who you’re hiring.Travis McGowin 12:44 Yeah, absolutely, you know. And do some research on who you’re hiring. Do a really good interview. Get all those questions, write all those questions down, have everything that you want to know on the table if you had a bad experience previously. These were the things left undone, you know, and what is it that that next company that you’re going to hire, what is it that they’re going to do about it? Do you handle this? Like I said when I when I first inspected this house and spoke to that customer, they had some really great questions. You know, really listened and, I think took notes and jotted down everything that that I said, and then one of the top questions, and I know they asked this because the previous guy did not offer them a warranty, but that was one of the first questions they asked after I got kind of done looking at everything, was “What’s your warranty?” And I like that. I hate that it had to come to a second company coming out to get them to that point. And I wish that they could have had that experience the first go around and been bed bug free after that. But ultimately, you know, that was that was that question that said, Hey, I expect you to have a warranty, I expect you to stand beside your product and your treatment. And I have a very sneaking suspicion that if I would have said, “Oh, we don’t have a warranty”, they probably would not have allowed us to step foot on the property of a tree. And that’s a smart idea on their part.Michael Wienecke 14:15 It made me think of Tommy Boy and Callahan Auto, and he was like, “If it doesn’t have a warranty on the box, it’s not any good.”Travis McGowin 14:22 Well, but, yeah. But you know, in that context, in that movie, you know, Tommy Boy basically says, I’m glad your warranty makes your customers feel all warm and fuzzy that they’re buying a junky product with a warranty. So, but in our context, we we genuinely do our best to provide the best service to our customer, and then it’s like our motto. If you’ve seen it on our trucks, you see it on our website, I say it all the time, you’ll be 100% happy, or you won’t pay a penny. And we stand beside that. That’s that, right there is even better than saying, you know, hey, we’re going to warranty this for 90 Days, and that’s great. But hey, if you’re, if we step on the property to handle this problem, and if given an ample opportunity to handle it for some crazy reason, we can’t, what do you got to lose?Michael Wienecke 15:13 Well, I hate I had a I had a newscaster call me a couple months ago, and he was like, Hey, do y’all really, you know, guarantee your your product 100% and I was like, has it? Was like, Have you ever given anybody of their money back? And I said, we absolutely have.Travis McGowin 15:27 Yep, exactly. It’s one of those things, you know, stuff happens unfortunately, but I always like to throw that in, yes, you’ll be 100% happy, or you won’t pay a penny. But we’re going to strive to do everything in our power to make sure that you are, in fact, 100% happy. We’re not just going to do the once and done and go, Well, I’m sorry I didn’t make you happy. Here’s your money back. No, we want you to get what it was that you were searching for, if you were searching for the end of your bed bug infestation from a heat treatment, and for some reason, we were unable to deliver that on the first go around. Guess what? We’re going to try it again. That’s right, we’re going to do our best to handle the problem, because that’s what you hired us to do.Michael Wienecke 16:17 Well, and that’s, you know, some pest issues do require coming back. I mean, there are some, you know, special situations like that. So you really have to know, you know, I would say, as as well as having a warranty, also knowing that that person knows exactly what they’re doing.Travis McGowin 16:32 Absolutely, and that’s where you know, if you’ve got a company stepping on your property for one reason or another, whether it’s to get your roof repaired to, you know, get a pest control treatment to get a crawl space encapsulated. You know what, whatever it is that you’re needing done on your property, a good thorough interview of that company’s representative, a good check online of of customer reviews, you know, what? What are people in your city saying about that, that company, I mean, and if there is negative, you know, feedback, how did that company respond to it? I mean, negative feedback. You know, unfortunately, we’re all people, and sometimes that’s going to happen. But you know, how does that company respond to it? And you know, when the ball is back in their court, you know, what do they do to make it right with the customer? How do they address it? So, you know, being thorough in your in your check of that company’s background, and then being thorough in your questioning to make sure that they’re going to do everything that you want them to do, and then warranty that product is, is just important.  The post The Camper Red Flag: A Bed Bug Nightmare appeared first on Peskies Pest Control.

Life 3 Years After Stroke: Three years ago, Pete Rumple was in a hospital bed, weighing 337 pounds, unable to walk, unable to talk, and completely paralysed down his right side following a massive hemorrhagic stroke. He was on 17 medications and had just spent his first night as a wheelchair user. By his own admission, the first year was so dark that he didn’t want to live. Today, Pete does CrossFit every day, has lost 150 pounds, is off 15 of his 17 medications, and is about to launch a new business at 61 years old. This is what life 3 years after a stroke can look like and, more importantly, how Pete got there. The First Decision: Control What You Can Within days of his stroke, while still in the hospital, Pete made a choice. He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t use his right arm. Doctors were managing everything around him. But he could control one thing: what he ate. “I got to change everything,” he says. “And as I lay there, this was one thing I could control with all the things I couldn’t.” Pete reduced his intake to two or three bites of food per day. By the time he left the hospital 30 days later, he had lost 40 pounds. That single decision became the foundation of everything that followed. For anyone newly out of the hospital and feeling overwhelmed, this is perhaps the most important message: you don’t have to fix everything at once. Find one controllable. Start there. Books like Grain Brain by Dr David Perlmutter and Why We Get Sick by Benjamin Bikman are excellent starting points for understanding the role of nutrition in brain recovery; both are recommended in this episode.   Movement: From Water to CrossFit Pete’s physical recovery moved in deliberate stages. With right-side proprioception severely affected, his body couldn’t properly sense where it was in space land-based exercise felt impossible at first. The solution was water. “The water surrounds you,” Pete explains. “It’s easier to move with what we both have.” He spent nearly a year in the pool doing aquatic therapy, then transitioned to a gym with a personal trainer for four months, then, in April 2024, ditched his cane and started CrossFit. He now attends every day, with about 30% modification. The journey from wheelchair to CrossFit wasn’t fast, and it wasn’t linear. But it was intentional.   The Brain Science Behind Doing Hard Things One of the most fascinating parts of Pete’s recovery is how he used neuroscience to drive his progress. After watching a Huberman Lab episode featuring David Goggins, he learned about the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (AMCC), a region of the brain that grows and strengthens specifically when you do things that are difficult and unpleasant. “Everything I did not enjoy or created pain, I’m doing it.” This wasn’t masochism. It was a strategy. Pete began deliberately choosing the exercises, behaviours, and tasks he least wanted to do and watched his recovery accelerate as a result. His speech improved. His movement improved. His cognitive function came back faster. Bill adds important context here: when you visualise movement, your brain fires the same neural pathways as when you physically perform it. Pete used this daily, studying his CrossFit workout the night before, visualising each exercise, then arriving 30 minutes early to breathe and mentally rehearse before training. This is neuroplasticity working for you, not against you. The choice is yours: choose the hard that rewards you, or endure the hard that doesn’t.   Identity: Three Words That Changed Everything Beyond the physical, Pete’s recovery demanded a complete rebuild of who he was. An executive career was gone. Independence had been stripped away. The personality and habits that contributed to the stroke, such as overworking, overeating, and using alcohol to manage stress, needed to be replaced, not just removed. He approached this the way he’d approached business: with a framework. At any given time, Pete identifies three words that define who he is. Right now: resilient, consistent, and unafraid. “I try to be honest with myself and say, where am I now?” he explains. “And it may change, but it gives me something to triangulate toward.” This kind of identity-based self-management, knowing who you are deciding to be, not just what you are trying to do, is one of the most transferable lessons from Pete’s story. What Life 3 Years After Stroke Really Looks Like Pete’s neurologist, who once saw him quarterly, recently told him she doesn’t need to see him annually anymore. “We have not seen this kind of recovery before from what you had,” she said. He’s about to start a fractional leadership business with a former CFO. He does CrossFit every day. He sleeps well. He volunteers. He uses AI tools to stay sharp and curious. He is, as he puts it, “on the other side of it.” But he’s also clear-eyed about what’s ahead: returning to high-stakes work, managing the stressors that contributed to his stroke in the first place, and monitoring the potholes that come with re-entering a demanding professional world. “I realise that is a very real risk,” he says. “I’m going to test and learn.”   The Lily Pad Principle When asked how to frame the journey for people still in the early stages, Pete offers one of the most useful images in this entire conversation: “It’s like lily pads across the lake. Get to a lily pad, then get to the next one. Don’t worry about boiling the ocean. Don’t worry about what it’s going to be in months or a year. Step by step. Keep pushing.” That is life 3 years after stroke, not a finish line, but a direction. And for Pete Rumple, the direction is forward.   Want more stories like this? Read Bill’s book recoveryafterstroke.com/book | Support the show: patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke   Disclaimer This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan. From Wheelchair to CrossFit: Life 3 Years After a Massive Hemorrhagic Stroke Pete Rumple lost 150 lbs, ditched the wheelchair, and now does CrossFit at 61. Here’s what life 3 years after a stroke really looks like. Turnto.ai InterviewPeter Rumple Interview EP 332Turnto.ai discount code: Bill10Highlights: 00:00 Introduction to Life 3 Years After Stroke Recovery Journey05:31 Physical Recovery and Rehabilitation11:05 Dietary Changes and Weight Loss15:42 Medication Management and Health Improvements21:29 The Role of Visualisation in Recovery26:03 Embracing Discomfort for Growth33:31 The Power of Hard Work and Persistence40:53 The Journey Back to Work50:48 Navigating Health Challenges56:25 Resilience and Consistency in Recovery01:04:38 Proactive Health Management01:15:11 Defining Identity Through Resilience Transcript: Introduction to Life 3 Years After Stroke Recovery Journey Pete Rumple (00:00)And Bill, I want to take a second and plug your book back in the first ⁓ the first session I did with you, I referenced a number of things you taught me through the podcast that I did to make to start building momentum like the cooking dinner every day was the to do. That was your mission. Yeah. so much of what I’ve learned from you, the podcast and what’s inevitably in the book was a great starting point for me. And I built my, my stuff on top of it, but it was really great to stand on your shoulders and get, and get that lift. Bill Gasiamis (00:44)Hi everyone, before we get into Pete’s story and you are definitely going to want to hear this one. I want to share something I’ve been using myself that I genuinely think could help a lot of you. It’s called turn2.ai and it’s an AI health sidekick that keeps you up to date with personalized updates every single week. Did you know there were over 800 new things published every week related to stroke? Research, expert discussions. patient stories, clinical trials, events. It’s an enormous amount of information. Turn2 finds what’s most relevant to you and delivers it straight to your inbox. I use it myself and it’s genuinely my favorite tool for 2026 for staying across what’s new in stroke recovery. It’s low cost and completely patient first. You can try it for free. And when you’re ready to subscribe, you can use my code, BILL10, at turn2.ai slash sidekick slash stroke to get a discount. I earn a small commission if you use that link at no extra cost to you. And that helps keep this podcast going. Also, if you haven’t yet, pick up a copy of my book, head to recoveryafterstroke.com/book. Real stories, real tools. The same stuff Pete and I talk about today and a huge thank you to everyone supporting us on Patreon and in the other ways that you support the show and myself. You’re the reason this content stays free for the people who need it You can support the show at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. Right. Let’s get into Pete Rumple’s story. Massive hemorrhagic stroke. Wheelchair couldn’t walk or talk 337 pounds three years later. He does CrossFit every day So you’re gonna want to hear this one. Let’s get into it Bill Gasiamis (02:35)Pete Rumpel, hello, welcome back. Pete Rumple (02:38)Hey Bill, it’s great to see you again. Bill Gasiamis (02:41)Great to see you too, my friend. ⁓ Last time we met was about a year ago. And this is gonna be a slightly different episode because we’re gonna talk about what things were like then and then what they’re like now, just so that we can paint a picture for people about how recovery has gone, what happened in the last 12 or so months. And in the previous episode, by the way, that was episode… 338 or something. And now we’re nearing episode 394, 395. will be. So I’ve been pretty consistent. So it means that it’s been over a year because I try and release one episode a week, et cetera. So it’d be a really good thing to do for people is to give them a bit of a guide of. some of the setbacks, some of the challenges, some of the things that have changed, improved. And now everyone’s different, okay? So this is Pete’s version. And what we’re hoping to do is kind of inspire hope, Pete, right? We wanna give people hope that things can change and improve. And even if it’s slower for you than other people, there can be a reward for putting in a lot of effort, hard work, re-educating yourself about what it means to live healthily. and all that kind of thing. And give us just a little bit of an insight because there’ll be a link to the original video where you can find out Pete’s complete story, but give us a little bit of an insight into the stroke, the day that it happened, what it was like. Pete Rumple (04:24)Okay, you bet Bill it was about 38 months ago. The stroke, was, it was a massive hemorrhagic stroke. ⁓ eight months in a wheelchair had to learn to talk again, walk again, all that. And, ⁓ so we had, ⁓ had the call about a little over a year and a half through it. And then, ⁓ now I’m further through it and, it’s gone amazing. I’m so lucky. So whatever we want to dig into that’ll be great. Bill Gasiamis (05:04)So your deficits were your right arm wasn’t working properly. Initially you weren’t able to walk. You were wheelchair bound for nearly six months. ⁓ So what are the physical deficits like now? What has changed? What has improved? And how did that go? what were the things that you did that helped you improve in that way? Physical Recovery and Rehabilitation Pete Rumple (05:31)Yeah. So Bill, I, um, it was my right side that I lost, which I forget what the term is, but, uh, it was my whole right side. So, um, when I, what, what I did that was important is first of all, totally overhauled my diet. And I, um, I had lost about 150 pounds. Um, I then, when I started about a year into it, I started, um, doing aquatics, the water aerobics to start dealing with their proprioception and the, um, and just movement. couldn’t, I couldn’t do that in, the ether. I couldn’t do it in the air. had to do it with the water. Bill Gasiamis (06:27)Okay, why is that? Because that’s interesting, because I have a similar problem with proprioception. My left side kind of doesn’t know where it is. There’s not enough information telling it where it is. And sometimes it overcompensates and I get off balance, etc. It feels strange. In the water, I also calmly, I felt calmly different, like I felt ⁓ more supported, even though the water wasn’t really supporting me. How was it for you? Pete Rumple (06:56)You’re absolutely right, Bill, because the water surrounds you, right? So it’s easy to move in the water with what we both have. So I spent almost a year in the water. then I started to, then what I did is I moved to a gym with someone helping me work out for about four months. And then in April, so almost a year ago, in April, I got rid of my cane and I went to CrossFit. And so now I do CrossFit every day. And that was really ugly at first, Bill, and I had to do a lot of modification. But now I modify probably 30%. But Bill Gasiamis (07:42)Uh-huh. Pete Rumple (07:54)row bike. can’t run yet. I’m still walking, but I’m getting ready to go to the beach and practice running for about a month. Bill Gasiamis (08:05)Okay, where in the head was the hemorrhagic stroke? Where did it happen? Do you know? Pete Rumple (08:14)The where, ⁓ I forget. Bill Gasiamis (08:18)That’s all right. It’s not important to remember. So also then, ⁓ when you had the hemorrhagic stroke, how was it rectified or resolved? Did they operate? What did they do? Pete Rumple (08:30)They didn’t have to operate. Bill Gasiamis (08:32)Uh-huh. Pete Rumple (08:33)They just, I got in there, they did things to make sure the bleeding stopped, ⁓ but it was no operation. Bill Gasiamis (08:45)what caused the bleed? Was it ⁓ high blood pressure as a result of your weight? Pete Rumple (08:50)It was a number of things, was high blood pressure, it was a lot of stress. They have a scale bill called the Holmes Raw Scale, Holmes with an L and Raw, R-A-H-E, where you can, it has like 42 major stress events. If you score under 150, you’re fine, 150, 300s. pretty bad and then over 300 is devastating like it’s predicts a major stroke or heart attack within a year. And I was 360 on that scale. I’d gone through the divorce, I had the kids, I had a job change, you name it, I had it. ⁓ Weight was not good, drank too much. So that was my wake up call. if you will, which was severe. And it’s been, it’s great now. Bill Gasiamis (09:53)Yeah, so your arm was completely flaccid, I think, when we spoke last. So where is it now? Pete Rumple (10:03)I can do everything with it. This is the, so I can lift and I’m lifting more weight, not where I was, but about probably 50%. I’m doing pull-ups with the arm and my legs are, I’ve worked them a lot. I’m very strong there. So it’s getting there. Bill Gasiamis (10:25)Okay, cool. When we spoke, you mentioned that in hospital alone, you’d lost 40 pounds. That kind of makes sense. A lot of people say that things change in hospital food relation. When you’re unwell, ⁓ how you consume food completely changes, as well as how hospitals ⁓ treat people with regards to the food, how it’s terrible, how often you get to eat. and how accessible it is. So, but earlier, a little earlier, you said that you lost 150 pounds all up. Dietary Changes and Weight Loss Pete Rumple (11:05)Yeah, Bill. So when I was in the hospital, which was obvious, I was there 30 days from the stroke. And that was where I had to make a choice. And it was like, if am I going to try and get better or not. And so what I did is I ate two to three bites of food a day. That was it because I was in a wheelchair, Bill, I couldn’t move. So coming out 40 pounds lighter was ⁓ a lot of work and a lot of fasting, if you will. Bill Gasiamis (11:42)Why did you decide that that was what you needed to do? How did you conclude that? I know I’m gonna be in hospital. I’ve had a hemorrhagic stroke. There’s nothing else I can do. What I’m gonna do is fast and stop eating food. How does that? Pete Rumple (12:01)was a first step, Bill. Absolutely. was like, I got to change everything. And so as I lay here, this is one thing I can control with all the things I can’t. Bill Gasiamis (12:14)In hospital though, most people in hospital don’t have that realization. I mean, that would have been days out from a hemorrhagic stroke. They’re telling you all these things. Like how did you get to that conclusion? Were you cognizant of needing to do that earlier before you got sick and then you thought, well, now I have to do it or was it an aha moment of some other kind? Pete Rumple (12:40)No, you’re absolutely right. And it was something I knew was getting out of control, Bill. And I couldn’t, I couldn’t resolve it. It was just, it was really tough. And I’m like, this is it. I mean, this is the ultimate wake up call. The other one, Bill, was I had, when I came into the hospital, I was on 17 meds. I now have two. and I’m at 20 milligrams and I’m probably off those in the next four to five months. So it’s been a long programmatic diet, nutrition, health, and it’s been three years. I mean, it’s not insignificant for sure. Bill Gasiamis (13:27)⁓ What was the 17 medications treating or or or managing? Pete Rumple (13:37)I think Bill, it’s almost like, like, what do you do with this guy? You got to throw everything at him to keep on going. I don’t think it would have been 17 for very long. It was probably stop gap measures. Some were pain, but even the pain bill second day. I said, I want no more pain meds, take them away. And it was brutal, right? Cause you know, the way you feel and the, my scapula, my legs, was, it was awful, but I was like, I found my way here, I got to find my way out and let me get off as much as I can and start the pilgrimage back. Bill Gasiamis (14:20)Before the stroke, would you have been somebody who would have taken a device to change your diet? Pete Rumple (14:28)I would have taken every hack I could have, Bill, before the stroke. Bill Gasiamis (14:34)Anything to avoid doing the hard work? that what you mean? Yes. Pete Rumple (14:38)Yes, sir. And look, I was always a hard worker. And I would work out and do stuff. But this is a whole other level. This became life or death. I mean, because you know, the stats bill, like, when I looked at the stats that about 75 % of people are gone in year one, there’s 25%, especially hemorrhagic, 25 % at the time. 25 % a month later, 25 % at the end of the year, another 20 at the end of year two. I’m like, I’m gonna go through all this and then I still have so little chance. So I just went for it and I went really hardcore. Bill Gasiamis (15:25)Did you eat, drink too much to manage emotional ⁓ stress, challenges? What do you think was behind it? Or was it just bad habits? Or did you think you were bulletproof? What was the reason behind it? Medication Management and Health Improvements Pete Rumple (15:42)Everything you just said, Bill, everything you just said. Yeah. I mean, it’s everything, right? You start justifying bad behavior. You have a reason for why things happen. And I just like, even when I try to lose weight, though, I might lose a couple pounds, but then I eat again and what I was eating, how I was eating. So in that first year, I went super deep on nutrition. and how your body works. And I went from, at the stroke I was 337 pounds. And then when I did my podcast with you, I was 180. Bill Gasiamis (16:25)Yeah, well, ⁓ one of the books that I’ll mention to people, you might have read different ones, and that’s cool. But the one that always comes to mind that I always recommend is Grain Brain by Dr. David Pelmutter. So if you’re in the very early stages of recovery and you want to make some changes like Pete did, read or listen to the book Grain Brain by Dr. David Pelmutter, and then ⁓ read a book called ⁓ Why We Get Sick. ⁓ I’m going to quickly do a search on ⁓ online because I keep forgetting the person’s name. ⁓ And what it’s going to do is going to why we get sick by Benjamin Bickman. And what it’s going to do is going to give people an insight into the. ⁓ I one of the things is the first book is the food that you can avoid and stop eating and the reasons why and how they benefit the brain and then ⁓ why we get sick is an insight into, in fact, exactly that why we get sick. so that you have an understanding of what might have got you into that real bad state. And then also before that, ⁓ the food component of it, because those two things, if you know why you got somewhere and then you know what the trigger was, what the thing was that made you get there, so the food, for example, then you’ve got a great foundation for taking the next step forward ⁓ and reversing it. Pete Rumple (18:02)Absolutely. Bill Gasiamis (18:04)and improving your health and improving your diet, losing weight and decreasing your risks of heart attack, stroke, cancer, all that kind of stuff. ⁓ So I love that you got curious. That’s what I did. I was in hospital reading and watching YouTube videos about how I’m going to recover, how I’m going to overcome things, all sorts of stuff like that. And it was… Pete Rumple (18:19)I remember. Bill Gasiamis (18:31)in a situation where control is given over to medics, doctors, surgeons, all that kind of stuff, you feel like you’re a little bit of a, you’re just floating in the wind and you’re not really stable and you don’t have an anchor point, right? So when you, if you want to feel like you’re a little more anchored, what you could do is you could take control of the controllables and Nutrition is one of those controllables and it doesn’t cost you any extra. You don’t have to spend money. Pete Rumple (19:04)You’re absolutely right, Bill. It’s a huge point. By the way, there’s a great app, and I know there are many, but there’s a great app called Yuka, Y-U-K-A. You can scan any barcode in the store and it will tell you the score and what’s wrong with it and the amount of food I was eating that was, especially in the U.S., Bill, heavily processed, additives, dyes. It’s like toxic. And so you can scan it and know what’s really in it. And it tells you what’s good, what’s bad. And it was a huge help. Bill Gasiamis (19:44)Yeah. So we’re going to have some of these links in the show notes for anyone who wants to find them. I’ll put a link to the books. I’ll put a link to Pete’s previous episode. We’ll put a link to that Yuka app. Pete, that’s your homework. You have to send me that link when we’re chatting. ⁓ When you say you’ve lost 150 pounds, like that is 50 kilograms. That is almost two-thirds of my weight. Well, it’s actually, yeah, it’s about two-thirds of my weight. That means that if I lost 50 pounds, I would just be a bag of bones. Pete Rumple (20:30)Well, and Bill, I was a bigger guy to begin with. have a big frame and I played a lot of US football, American football. So I had a lot of weight to lose, Bill, and it’s gone now. And I’m back up to about 205 and it’s all muscle life, about a 32 inch waist now. really, really fit and I go for it. And by the way, by the way, I want to make one point to all listeners that took a long time, Bill, like between being the wheelchair for eight months and then getting the pool. It took a long time. I used to go and sit and watch people work out to just reacquaint myself. Bill Gasiamis (21:03)How old are you? The Role of Visualisation in Recovery Pete Rumple (21:29)what it looked like and inspire myself. It has been a long road, but my goodness, is absolutely I’m on the other side of it now. Cause as I had said in the first podcast, the first 18 months, I did not want to live, especially year one, ⁓ immense amount of pain. had been a successful executive that was gone. Like it was really really rough. And so now it’s beautiful. And I want people to know that because it it’s so worth it. Delay gratification, you learn a lot about it. And it’s ⁓ Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (22:14)I love that delayed gratification, but also you went into a gym watching other people train when you couldn’t train, just so you can be around it and familiarize yourself with it again. That’s really interesting. That’s probably one thing I’ve never done is go to a gymnasium and watch other people train. It’s a bit creepy Pete. Pete Rumple (22:32)Yeah, it is. It’s weird. And people would look at me like, what’s he doing? And by and by the way, Bill, I did a lot of work on how to breathe, which was really helpful, how to how to manifest and to really sit and get mentally so I go even today, Bill, I go in a half hour before my workout to work on breathing and visualizing my exercises, because I get the the list of what my workout is before I get there the night before. So I study and I prepare and then go. Bill Gasiamis (23:10)What I love about visualizing is that if you visualize the brain actually fires off the exact same neuron and pathways that it does if you actually physically do that thing. And there’s been studies in the past that have showed that you can take an average guy like me and you can make them watch a video of somebody doing archery, for example, and you can ⁓ take them through a number of repetitions of this person, this champion doing archery. And just with that information and the visualization techniques later, you can take somebody who has basically never shot ⁓ an arrow through a bow and you can get them to a certain level of competence far more rapidly than you would have if you just got that person out of a crowd and sent to him. Have you ever shot an arrow? If they said no and they took the shot, they probably wouldn’t be able to do it as well as the person who was trained by just watching what the other person, the champion was doing. And when I was in hospital wanting to walk again, I’m sitting in my bed between sessions because I had a wheelchair as well. And I was visualizing myself doing the perfect walk, what the perfect walk would look like. And then I would take myself later to ⁓ therapy where I would be walking and I would be trying to replicate what I was seeing in my head so that we could get a similar result. And of course at the beginning, your leg is now doing it physically and it needs to catch up to the brain. The brain has ⁓ the pathway, but the leg needs to catch up. So then what the leg does is it goes, this feels a bit weird or this is a bit strange or this is not how I expected it. But it has a reference point for where to get to and how to do the perfect step, right? And then you’re closer to the perfect step than you were if you were just relying on therapists to ⁓ train you through that. Pete Rumple (25:22)You’re absolutely right, Bill. And the brain is amazing. Look, it can work for you or against you depending on what you’re thinking and how you’re doing things. And it was really amazing, Bill, because as I built my capability through CrossFit, it was amazing how my brain would start to take over. Like I wasn’t sure, but my brain was already, I got it, and so grew. It started carrying me and just getting it done. It’s amazing. Bill Gasiamis (25:58)Yeah, yeah. Embracing Discomfort for Growth But how did you know to do that? That’s the thing that I’m interested in understanding because I didn’t know the guy before stroke didn’t know about doing like magic like this. know, how do you, I don’t know, like, can you explain how you found yourself in that situation? Cause I can’t, people go to me like, well, how did you know to do that? Or how did you do that? And I’m like, I don’t know what happened, but something clicked. that made me stumble onto, discover, find all the necessary tools that I needed to get me to the next stage. I’ve never been able to do that before and I can do that now. Pete Rumple (26:46)Yep, me too, Bill, me too. And you know what? I think it’s how desperate we are for answers. And especially you can read all these blogs about what doesn’t work and what’s a waste of time, but you find the nuggets and you go for it. Here’s a great one, Bill. And I’ll send this in the link. Andrew Huberman, he runs a podcast called Huberman Lab. He had David Goggins on and he purposely waited for Goggins to share with him the research around the AMCC, which is the anterior mid-cruciate cortex, which is a part of the brain. And when you do things that are hard and you don’t enjoy it, that part of your brain grows and gets stronger. So I sat there, Bill, and I’m like, well, damn, if I can start to make my brain stronger, I’m going to do it. So I did all the stuff I hate to do. And I started doing it. And I started even faster, talking better, walking better, and really doing everything I did not like to do. And he even brings up the point when he describes it. He brings up that if you like running every day, It doesn’t work. But if you hate running and you have to go run, it works and it makes sure and make, they’ve learned so much that was, that was about three to four years ago. They found it, but this is a massive find in the brain. And I started using it, Bill. And what I started to do was everything I did not enjoy or created pain. I’m like, I’m doing it. And it took me from averting it to leaning into it. And it was amazing. it’s, you’d think it’s BS, it’s not. And Huberman, you know, he works at Stanford. He knows his stuff. It was really, really impactful. Bill Gasiamis (29:03)Yeah, it’s about being comfortable being uncomfortable, isn’t it? Like it’s realizing that you’re probably not killing yourself by paying in a little bit of pain exercising. also, yeah. Pete Rumple (29:16)And Bill, I will just say, I did a very good job for the first time in my life of listening to my body. So I go hard, I push, but when I wasn’t feeling it or didn’t feel right, I take the day, relax, and then come back stronger next. Bill Gasiamis (29:38)I want to pause there for a second because what Pete just described is exactly the kind of thing I wrote about in my book. The idea that the obstacle is the path, the doing the hard stuff in recovery. If you haven’t grabbed the copy yet, it’s called the unexpected way that a stroke became the best thing that happened. You can find it at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. The link is in the show notes and in the YouTube description. So let’s get packed. to Pete. Bill Gasiamis (30:08)Yeah, yeah, agreed. And it’s important to listen to your body after a stroke, because you don’t want to make things worse, especially when you’re still healing and still recovering and you’re still fragile, you know, there’s a lot of things that you need to take into consideration. However, being uncomfortable and being comfortable with that is really a good skill to master. ⁓ It is, ⁓ it reminds me of the saying that we hear that’s often attributed to the old great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, which is the obstacle is the way, you know, when you get to something that’s really hard, you go for it, because that’s what you’re to be. That’s the purpose of the obstacle. It’s to overcome it, to find the way around it, under it, over it, through it, whatever it is. And Goggins is a scary guy. He’s a scary guy, because he runs without, without cartilage in his knees or something. I don’t know what he’s missing. but he shouldn’t be able to run, he shouldn’t be running and somehow he still runs. I think his version of running is a little toxic. I think he’s just a slight too far, ⁓ but nonetheless, it’s still proof of ⁓ what you’re capable of and how much people can push and go beyond their comfort zone. And if you’ve never pushed beyond your comfort zone, there’s no better time to do it. You really have to do it now because you want to activate the right neuroplasticity. You don’t want to activate negative neuroplasticity, which rewires your brain to be more comfortable, less willing to do hard things. ⁓ And therefore, you get the results of that. You get the decrease in your recovery or the ⁓ overcoming of your deficits. So I appreciate that whole ⁓ mentality of finding what’s hard and you’re probably in the right place. That’s probably what you need to do. Pete Rumple (32:07)Absolutely right, Bill. And I agree with everything you said. And look, I love Goggins, but it’s not to be like a warrior like him. The point is, like with Huberman, it was cool because Goggins thinks that way so much. He wanted to launch the foundational research with Goggins there with him. He purposely waited. So it was pretty cool. Bill Gasiamis (32:35)Yeah. And that that’s the thing, right? It’s like you get rewarded for doing hard things. ⁓ Stroke is hard. And if you ⁓ take the easy route, the comfortable route, the hard part of your stroke remains hard. Like it doesn’t get better. If you choose the other hard, the recovery Pete Rumple (32:59)right. Bill Gasiamis (33:04)benefits that you get from choosing hard of exercise, the hard of changing your diet, the hard of changing your mindset, et cetera. Like then that version of hard gets you a reward that is beneficial. The other hard just gets you more suffering. And that’s the hard you wanna avoid. Suffering without purpose. Well, suffering for a purpose gets you a payoff. The Power of Hard Work and Persistence Pete Rumple (33:31)That’s right. That’s exactly right, Bill. And look, with the, when you put it all together between the diet, though, increasingly working out, going after the deficits, all that, day by day, painful, hard, depressing, but you start looking three months, six months, a year later, you’re like, you start building your will and your ability. to do things you did not think you could do, and then it starts feeding on itself, and it becomes so powerful. Bill Gasiamis (34:09)Yeah, that’s my experience too. ⁓ Somebody put it in my head that I should start a podcast 10 years ago. It’s been 14 years since my first stroke this month, February, 14 years. It’s just gone like that. And then about three years in, a friend of mine said, should start a podcast type of thing. So I did. And it has been more than 10 years that I’ve been doing this podcast. ⁓ And I never thought that I’d be doing a podcast, let alone for 10 years. We’re talking about at the beginning, not a lot of episodes because I was too unwell to put a lot of episodes out. it’s ramped up now in the last four or five years, doing an episode a week, most weeks. And then the other thing I never ended up, I never thought I’d end up doing is writing a book here. Here’s the plug for the book. Pete Rumple (35:01)love it. I love it. Bill Gasiamis (35:03)The title is mental, like it’s the unexpected way that a stroke became the best thing that happened. ⁓ But the book is exactly the things that you’ve said. And I thought initially when I discovered those things about my book that I needed to put in my book, I thought that I was rediscovering these for the first time. Like at the very beginning, diets, ⁓ mindset, ⁓ exercise, sleep. ⁓ ⁓ meditation, hanging around other people who are positive, all that kind of stuff, doing stuff for other people, ⁓ like volunteering, that kind of thing. I thought I was discovering these things ⁓ for the first time ever, but turns out these are things that humans have always done. That’s what they default to. They default to all of these things when it’s necessary, and that’s where they get lost from. They kind of move away from there because they get diverted from there, from say, marketing or advertising or what somebody else is doing or through a lack of ⁓ focus from being distracted from work, from relationship issues, whatever the situation is. I didn’t write anything different in my book than has been written in the hundreds and thousands of books on this topic that have come before it. I just reorganized that and set it in my own words. But the reality is, is this is what people do when they’re trying to recover. They default back to the bare basics and they’re things that you can implement without ⁓ spending any extra money buying a course or anything like that. Of course, you might need to read it in a book for the first time to remind you or you might need to hear it on a YouTube video, but the reality is, is that nothing new in this book. Pete Rumple (36:51)And Bill, I want to take a second and plug your book because I have not read it yet. But back in the first ⁓ the first session I did with you, I referenced a number of things you taught me through the podcast that I did to make to start building momentum like the cooking dinner every day was the to do. That was your mission. Yeah. so much of what I’ve learned from you, the podcast and what’s inevitably in the book was a great starting point for me. And I built my, my stuff on top of it, but it was really great to stand on your shoulders and get, and get that lift. Bill Gasiamis (37:38)Yeah, isn’t it weird? Like it was just one thing, but it was the most important one thing. My whole world revolved around that. If I could put dinner on the table for the family in any capacity, it didn’t have to be like a five star meal or three courses or anything like that. It just had to be dinner. If I could do that, then that was kind of how I rehabilitated myself. I needed to be healthy enough, good enough, fit enough, have enough energy to just put a meal on the table for everyone when they came home from. work. was such a it’s such a it was it was important for many reasons. But it was also what I didn’t realize the underlying benefits that it was creating, which were the ones that ⁓ I noticed later after Pete Rumple (38:25)Yep. And you were re-engaging and you were pushing yourself. And I remember you go to the store to buy the stuff you needed sometimes. like all that stuff, Bill, when I look at the beginning, I couldn’t watch a TV for over a year. I couldn’t listen and did not listen to music for two years. It was, and now I’m like back in the fold, but it’s the push, the push, the push and just, you know, listening to the body, but going for it all the time. Bill Gasiamis (39:03)Yeah, exposure, like exposure, exposure, exposure, small, then larger, then more and more. I remember going to the stores to the local mall here, and we call it a shopping center, and parking the car, and then not being able to remember where I parked the car, walking around the entire car park, and talking to my brother, and going to him, he rang me just out of blue and I said to him, he goes, what are you doing? I said, I’m walking around the car park. He what are you doing that for? That’s because I don’t know where my car is. I’ve been looking for it for half an hour and I’ve got no idea where it is. I parked it and I just got no idea where. I don’t know which car park. I don’t know where I came in from. I don’t know what level it was on. And I was just walking around the car park talking to my brother, just telling him, I came and got a few things, but now I can’t get back to my car. Pete Rumple (39:55)Yeah, and there’s definitely you know bill once I got out of the darkness There’s definitely some really funny stories That that happened especially like the way The way I would walk people would see me I might be in a restaurant and i’m going to the bathroom and they think i’m drunk Yeah, and they’re like making fun of him like hey i’m not drunk, but ⁓ I get you know, I’m all right, I got it. And they’d be like horrified and I’d just start laughing. It was funny, but you gotta have some fun with it too, you know? Bill Gasiamis (40:34)Absolutely, you have to, you gotta laugh. you don’t laugh, well, it’s gonna be difficult time. You, ⁓ I remember when we spoke last time, you mentioned about trying to get back to work. ⁓ How did that go? Was it successful? Did you have some challenges? What was going back to work like? The Journey Back to Work Life 3 Years After Stroke Pete Rumple (40:53)So Bill, I’m gonna start back in June. I’ve done some projects, work projects, but I have not officially started working, but I’m going to. I’m starting a business with a close friend of mine, my former CFO, and we’re gonna start a new business. Bill Gasiamis (41:18)Tell me about the new business. What is it about? Can you share anything about it? Pete Rumple (41:22)Yeah, it’s called fractional leadership bill will probably go to companies that are ⁓ getting funded, trying to grow. They got a good idea. They can’t afford the people they need. So you basically it’s less consulting. It’s more you’re operating it for them and you work with multiple customers and it’s called fractional leadership is becoming a really pretty popular model. And, ⁓ and also for companies that have that have their revenue is stalled or shrinking, get them turned around. That was my background. My background was ⁓ running chief revenue officer. So everything that drives revenue in a company and I was a CEO twice. Bill Gasiamis (42:06)Uh-huh. Soon. Did you have a specific industry that you worked in? Pete Rumple (42:23)Yet a lot of times I call it TMT for telecom media and tech so tech companies and media and That kind of stuff Rosetta Stone was his language learning company. I was I ran all our institutional business education government and and ⁓ Corporate Bill Gasiamis (42:49)Wow, what a challenge. mean, technology is changing so rapidly. ⁓ I Pete Rumple (42:55)love it, Bill. And look, I’m sorry, I just had to make this point and not forget it. That was another thing I’ve done, Bill is I’ve gone heavy into AI. And I did it, not just because it’s the buzzword. But I’m like, Hey, if I’m going through this process, if I’m retraining my brain, why not try to get good at stuff that I either didn’t do or need to know. And it’s been so rewarding, Bill. Bill Gasiamis (43:24)out. Pete Rumple (43:25)It’s just crazy. Like AI, use chat chat, GBT, and it’s like my, my best friend. now work with chat daily and it’s amazing how the tech technology works. Not only can it be really helpful for figuring things out and having a partner, but it also remembers things about you in how it builds the profile. So it’ll basically say, Pete, don’t forget this, this, and this. And it’s awesome. It’s really killer. Bill Gasiamis (44:02)So here comes another plug, Pete. Okay, so this is not a sponsor, but it’s something that I truly believe in, okay? Because the person who contacted me, A, is an Australian, B, is a mother, ⁓ C, is a mother of two children with cerebral palsy. And she was looking for solutions to all the challenges that they faced as a family, especially to help her children, right? parent would do. So then ⁓ she used to do research like you and me jump on the computer, do some research, find out about all the things that ⁓ she needed to know with regards to what was most current in cerebral palsy right now. And she’s the struggle because ⁓ imagine like the time that it takes when you have a stroke brain to research, read, comprehend, determine whether Pete Rumple (45:01)We know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (45:04)whether or not that is applicable. Okay, that’s not applicable. Put that to the side, do another search. And then also going to doctors and researchers and all these other people and saying to them, what about this? What about that? And then them not being aware of anything that was new because they’re too swamped. They’ve got a massive workload. They don’t have time to be up to date with all the research, right? And this is a hundred percent a full on plug. I’m not apologizing for that. However, what this lady did, Jess from turn2.ai, I have a link to her interview as well, because I interviewed her, is she created an ⁓ AI that goes and does the research, the searching for you, and then sends you an email every week with everything new in your particular topic, for example, stroke. And then it tells you, I found seven, nine, 10 things for you this week that are new on stroke. It could be a podcast. It could be a research document. could be ⁓ whatever it is. It could be a book. It could be anything. It just finds it and sends you that information. And as your recovery continues, right, ⁓ what happens is ⁓ you might say, okay, now is there any information about food related to stroke recovery and healing the brain? And then it adds that to the search list. And then it comes back at the end of the next week with all the new information from food and brain. And then also whatever it was that you previously prompted it to find you. And it just keeps finding information and you build it and you build it and you build it. And then next week you get interested in meditation and you type, what can you tell me about meditation and healing the brain? And then it’s going to bring you all that information to your inbox. I spent hours and hours and days and days trying to find information about what I needed to know about stroke recovery. And when I found that little piece of paper, I had to go through the rabbit hole. I had to go down the rabbit hole and try and find ⁓ where ⁓ where it kind of where the exit point was where it led to so that I can discover whether I need to implement this, do this. So this just saves so much time and the guys are selling it for two bucks a week. Like you can get a month free and two, and then after that it’s two bucks a week just to find and do all the searching for you and bring you specific and relevant stuff. And we’re talking about scientifically relevant and specific like PubMed articles, like scientifically proven stuff, not what Bill ⁓ concocted up in his bedroom. you know, in suburban Melbourne, like proper things. So I love that you said that you’ve turned to AI. I’ve been using chat as well. Chat helps me with so many things, but what’s important is to learn how to interact with it. And that’s another, that’s another thing, another skill to discover. And it’s important that we jump on the bandwagon. AI is not going away. You need to learn about it, how to interact with it, and how to use it to benefit you and decrease the amount of time it takes to do something and get to recovery. Pete Rumple (48:37)You’re absolutely, absolutely right, Bill. I mean, it is, and even if you just use it for basic stuff to begin with, and you start learning how to create the right prompts to get the kind of answers you’re looking for, it’s a great skill. And the biggest thing is not being afraid and leaning into it. Bill Gasiamis (49:00)Yeah, not bad. Well, there’s nothing to be afraid of. They can get them all for free. At the beginning, you can get a free subscription. It doesn’t cost anything. And it’s just as useful. Perfect for that early training kind of phase in your chat, in your chat, JBT kind of discovery. There’s also Claude, there’s also the Elon Musk one. There’s hundreds of them now. Yeah, there’s heaps of them now, right? So I really encourage people to do that because If you ask it one question like, you know, what is one of the most ⁓ best books that I can read for, we’ll call it nutrition for nutrition and stroke recovery. That’s just going to decrease the amount of time it takes to find those books and bring that to you. Jump on Amazon, find it, get it sent to your house. ⁓ So I think it’s a great time for people. and it’s never been a better time to recover from a stroke. I mean, it’s a shit ⁓ group to become a part of at the beginning and it’s difficult and it’s painful. But if somebody has a stroke today compared to a stroke 30 years ago. Pete Rumple (50:17)⁓ my goodness. Bill Gasiamis (50:19)Like it’s a completely different experience. ⁓ I think we’re kind of lucky to be living in the time that we’re living. ⁓ Even though I know that people hear about AI and what it could potentially do in some other situations. ⁓ Let’s use it for good. Like let’s break the work. Pete Rumple (50:21)That’s all we’ll That’s right. That’s exactly right, Bill. It can be used for evil, but it can be used for good. So use it. That’s right. Navigating Health Challenges Bill Gasiamis (50:48)Yeah, just like any technology, right? Like you hear all these things, but any technology can be used for good or evil. So let’s just use it for good. Let’s just make the most of it. So before your stroke, you were going through a divorce or had you already been divorced? Pete Rumple (51:08)I was already divorced. Yeah, it had been it had been a couple of years earlier. I had a bad car accident a bunch of but you know the kids live with me. It was just a stress sandwich and I did not go out the right way. Bill Gasiamis (51:27)Yeah. You didn’t go out at the right way because what do you think was behind that? Like, it’s hard to make really good decisions in very stressful times anyway. You have to have an opportunity or the insight to pause, step out of that situation for a little bit, reflect and then try and make decisions. how did you get into that stage where you found yourself not being ⁓ not going about things appropriately, for example, perhaps. Pete Rumple (52:02)For me, Bill, it was like I didn’t have a choice. I was now in a wheelchair. I was in pain and I had nothing I could do but think. And at first that was very negative. It was, I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t accept it. And once I went through that process and I got like, okay, I’m going to get holistic about this. And by the way, I don’t want to, I don’t want to just fix the physical and then I get done and everything else is a wreck. So went after all of it and just started carving up my day, spiritual, cognitive, physical, mental, every day, a block of each practicing writing, all that stuff. So I just started doing it and rebuilt my life. probably like I should have in the first place, but stuff happens. I had to, you sometimes, you know, we, you and I laughed about this before. Sometimes we’re a little thick. takes a little longer. So it took me a while, but I’m there now. Bill Gasiamis (53:18)Yeah. And reflecting on that version of yourself from the past, does that does that person ever come up again, every so often, because we’re talking about all these positive things, all these amazing changes. And I don’t want to paint a picture that it’s only ever fantastic you and I like what we go through after our initial stroke has been all just roses. Is there moments of that things rearing their ugly head and you reverting back, how do you catch yourself when you’re there? Pete Rumple (53:57)Yeah, I mean bill that’s why what’s really good about this is my first podcast with you because we went really deep in the in the darkness of that now bill is beautiful man. It is beautiful. I am almost I almost don’t talk to people about it because My life is so much better because I had a stroke. It’s crazy. It sounds nuts, but it’s so true. Everything’s sweeter. I just, it’s hard to describe. It’s a blessing. Bill Gasiamis (54:38)Yeah, that’s crazy. It is probably crazy. Pete Rumple (54:42)It is? Bill Gasiamis (54:45)I find myself, ⁓ I find myself obviously having bad days. My bad days are related to stress, ⁓ you know, work, if they’re related to ⁓ interactions with people that don’t go the way that I preferred. They’re related to ⁓ what the stroke still does to me after 14 years. ⁓ It still causes neurological imbalances. still causes tightness on my left side, know, that tightness causes dysfunction on my right side, you know, the body goes out of whack. And if I catch it, if I have a bad night’s sleep, things get thrown out and it’s hard to, ⁓ it’s hard to always navigate it and be effective at catching it and then doing something about it, you know, cause you’re human, you get distracted, et cetera. Pete Rumple (55:38)Well, and Bill, you’re bringing up great points because as I transition back to work, I’ll have some potential potholes that I don’t have right now. So I’m very, I’m very conscious of what I’m going to go back into. Now. I love, I love work. It’s my sport and I love it. But, ⁓ and today I have now. bad moments, not bad days. Maybe those occurred, but I’m going to try to stave that off. But that’s just how it is now. as of as of now, that’s that’s the update, if you will. Yeah. Resilience and Consistency in Recovery Bill Gasiamis (56:25)Yeah. Okay. I like that you said that about work, like there’s gonna be some potholes with if you’re doing the type of work that you’re doing. ⁓ That’s pretty high level and high stress and intense for ⁓ at some stages, it could be right, you’re talking at organizations that are going through a hard time that are looking to you to solve their problems, so to speak, or to support them solve their own problems. So ⁓ You know, the ramping that up is gonna need a little bit of thought so that you don’t go too far into that type of work without realizing how far in you’ve gotten. Pete Rumple (57:10)Absolutely right, Bill. You’re absolutely right. And look, I’m going to try to be as bulletproof as I can. The good news is I’ve been doing this work my whole career. So it’s been 40 years. So I don’t think I have to micromanage or get to like, I think I can find the right balance if I can’t. I’ll go to a lesser job and do something else. But so I realize, especially because I can get pretty intense. So ⁓ I realized that is a risk, a very real risk. I’m not shying away from it. I’m not saying, don’t worry. yes, there is stuff to worry about, but I’m gonna, I’m gonna test and learn. Test and learn is what I always do. Test it and learn, can I do it, not do it, do I have to do different, do I have to do something else? Bill Gasiamis (58:14)Yeah, brilliant. How old are you now? Pete Rumple (58:17)61. Bill Gasiamis (58:18)Okay, so at 61, most people are thinking about retiring. What are you thinking starting a new business at 61? Pete Rumple (58:25)Well, mean, Bill, look, let’s be honest, I think the last three years off. So I have some ⁓ room left in the battery. But I mean, part of the reason for this type of job, Bill, is because if we do this, we run it. And we’ll decide how we take care of clients, how we work and all that. And if I have to take on less, take on less. If I can take on more, take on more. And I’m gonna, like everything else, I’m gonna figure it out one step at a time, Bill. And I, you know, I don’t have the answers, but I’m gonna find them. Bill Gasiamis (59:11)And retirement’s not really in the frame for you. Like it’s not something that you’re thinking about, like to ⁓ officially retire, know, step away from the day to day and just, you know, go and sail off into the sunset type of thing. Pete Rumple (59:24)Yeah, I think to your point, Bill, like if I can make this work, I’ll probably work through my 60s. If I can’t, then I’ll have to probably hang it up earlier or do something lighter. And if that’s the way to be healthy, so be it. I’ll do that. Bill Gasiamis (59:43)What else does work bring you though? Because it doesn’t just bring work income. Like it brings more than that. Like for you, I feel like it’s more than just I’m making a wage or bringing in some money or whatever. What else does it bring? Pete Rumple (1:00:02)Yeah, it’s it’s competitive, Bill. It’s it’s my sport. You know, so hitting the numbers in a month and a quarter and a year. That is the scoreboard for what I do. And if you if you do it well, you can do really well and be very happy and influence a lot of people’s lives in a positive way. And if you don’t, it can be really awful. So Fortunately, I’ve been on the right side of that for a long time and I want to get back to it and no ego stuff I just I want to I want to I want to have an impact and I want to enjoy my sport. Bill Gasiamis (1:00:48)Fair enough. Even in your unhealthiest and heaviest before the stroke, were you this energetic? Did you have this same amount of energy? Pete Rumple (1:01:00)I’ve always been energetic, Bill, but I couldn’t operate like I do now. Like my sleep is wonderful. I go hard at the gym. I do projects. I volunteer. Like I’ve been readying myself for coming back in. And look, if I can, great. If I can’t, I’ll adapt. Bill Gasiamis (1:01:27)Yeah. I know when I went back to work, uh, well, I had to, I had to pause my business. have a painting and maintenance. Yeah. I had to pause it. I had to go back into an office, very basic admin role, like low level, but it was so hard being at work, sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day. We started, I started that job in 2016 and finished in 2019. By the time I got to 2019. Pete Rumple (1:01:36)I remember. Bill Gasiamis (1:01:57)I was way more capable of going in focusing on the task at hand and doing the work that needed to be done and then being able to be okay to do the drive home because at some point at the beginning I wasn’t really able or up to the task. But I kind of built ⁓ the muscle again and then got to that stage where by 2019 it was fine. So some people might find going back to work like You know, retraining that muscle of being at work and working and focusing and all that kind of stuff. They might find that it’s gonna take a little bit of time to get there and you might have to step back. You might have to decrease the days, decrease the hours and then go again and then try and find where the threshold is, see if you can exceed it and then see how far you can push it and reflect a year, 18 months, two years. Pete Rumple (1:02:38)That’s right. Bill Gasiamis (1:02:56)down the track back to notice how far you’ve come. Pete Rumple (1:03:00)Yeah, right on Bill. I mean, I’m gonna have been out of it for 42 months, probably when I go back. So I hear you loud and clear, and it would have been really tough to do it. before now. Bill Gasiamis (1:03:20)Yeah. Yeah. And you did have a you had a goal to get back to work a lot earlier. Pete Rumple (1:03:29)Yes, that’s right. And ⁓ that’s another thing, Bill, like I’ll set an intention to do something. I’ll go for it. I’m not ready. I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna do it wrong. I’m not gonna hurt myself. So I set a goal. I try to manifest it, but if I have to push it, I push it. Bill Gasiamis (1:03:51)Yeah. Just before we spoke and started this episode, you’re you apologize for wearing a hat, which is was unnecessary ⁓ because you have a scar on your head because there was a skin cancer found. And before it became a thing, the you got you had it removed. That’s right. So now when So I wanna understand like your mindset now compared to before when you come across ⁓ an issue like that, a health, potentially health issue for people. How do you navigate that now compared to how you might have done things before? ⁓ Proactive Health Management Pete Rumple (1:04:38)Beautiful question. Yeah, I used to avoid all that stuff. I avoided the doctor. I don’t want to do this. I want to there’s always a reason to do something else. Now I lean in, I pay attention, I learn I go in, I may agree or not agree with the doctor on certain things. But especially now because I can think again, took me a couple years. But yeah, I lean in. I want to I want to get in there. I want to know what’s wrong. What’s right. What have you just had my annual exam two days ago ago. It went great. Labs came back great. I I my neurologist that I used to have to ⁓ visit quarterly said Pete I don’t even need to see you annually now. Just if you need me call me. Other than that you’re good to go. And she said, we have not seen this kind of recovery before from what you had. Bill Gasiamis (1:05:43)Yeah, I have a similar experience when I was in hospital. They booked me in for two months. I was out in a month ⁓ in rehab and I feel like they should have asked me what I was doing because It’s really important for people to know the difference between being passive and waiting for somebody to rehabilitate you or being the person who’s driving your own rehabilitation. Like there’s a massive difference and Pete Rumple (1:06:13)Huge difference, Bill. You’re right. Huge difference. mean, last last call, I talked to you from my sister’s house in December, just a couple months, few months after it, I made the decision to move out on my own, which I did, which really stunk, Bill. That was hard. Like, I there were some nights I couldn’t eat. I was like, I can’t I’m either gonna make the the bed or the kitchen, which am I doing? Bed. And I just do it. And but it was important. It was important to start knowing where I could push and not being too reliant. Bill Gasiamis (1:06:59)Yeah, yeah, the less reliant you can be the better, but still also good to be able to rely on people when you need a little bit of support. Pete Rumple (1:07:05)Right on. Absolutely. don’t, you know, it was, there’s not a right or wrong. It’s like, what do you think? What’s your gut? Bill Gasiamis (1:07:14)Yeah. Now let’s do a little bit of a community service announcement about this skin cancer. A, how did you notice it? ⁓ What were the steps that you took after you noticed it? How long did you take? Why did they remove it? And so on. Give us a little bit of information. There’ll be people listening here who ⁓ may have noticed a little bump or a lesion or something on their face, their head, their arm, whatever. Give us a little bit of an understanding of how that came to be. Pete Rumple (1:07:43)absolutely the one thing I’ve done Bill through my life as I’ve stayed disciplined on the dermatologist and I don’t know why I think it’s how I was raised everything else I skipped but the dermatologist I stayed on top of and to your point if I notice something and it seems pervasive like it’s not going away I have it looked at a

March 2, 2026 ~ Major Dawn Worthy joined Jamie Edmonds, Lloyd Jackson, and Chris Renwick to discuss The Salvation Army's Bed and Bread Club. The 39th annual radiothon raised over $1.3 million to fight hunger and homelessness. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

March 2, 2026 ~ Chris Renwick, Lloyd Jackson, and Jamie Edmonds discuss the US military actions in Iran, including casualties and shifting alliances. They also cover Michigan's data center boom and proposed property tax changes. Other topics include the Michigan Golf Show and the ongoing success of the Salvation Army's Bed and Bread Club Radiothon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a new construction property in Burleson, TX Price $624,900 Cash Flow: $1792/mo Bed: 6 Bath: 6.0 Built in 2026 Square Footage: 3485   Find more information at www.RentToRetirement.com or call 1-800-311-6781 We offer high quality, turnkey rental properties in markets that maximize cash flow, equity & appreciation! All properties are renovated, leased & managed allowing you to passively build a rental portfolio while you learn along the way. Please contact us for our full inventory, or to schedule a consultation. Rent To Retirement is your partner in achieving financial freedom through real estate investing! *Information given is to the best knowledge of Rent to Retirement. All individuals are solely responsible for conduction of their own evaluation and verifying all data related to any specific property.

This is a new construction property in Burleson, TX Price $595,000 Cash Flow: $936/mo Bed: 6 Bath: 6.0 Built in 2026 Square Footage: 2760   Find more information at www.RentToRetirement.com or call 1-800-311-6781 We offer high quality, turnkey rental properties in markets that maximize cash flow, equity & appreciation! All properties are renovated, leased & managed allowing you to passively build a rental portfolio while you learn along the way. Please contact us for our full inventory, or to schedule a consultation. Rent To Retirement is your partner in achieving financial freedom through real estate investing! *Information given is to the best knowledge of Rent to Retirement. All individuals are solely responsible for conduction of their own evaluation and verifying all data related to any specific property.

This is a new construction property in San Antonio, TX Price $625,000 Cash Flow: $1514/mo Bed: 6 Bath: 5.0 Built in 2026 Square Footage: 2760   Find more information at www.RentToRetirement.com or call 1-800-311-6781 We offer high quality, turnkey rental properties in markets that maximize cash flow, equity & appreciation! All properties are renovated, leased & managed allowing you to passively build a rental portfolio while you learn along the way. Please contact us for our full inventory, or to schedule a consultation. Rent To Retirement is your partner in achieving financial freedom through real estate investing! *Information given is to the best knowledge of Rent to Retirement. All individuals are solely responsible for conduction of their own evaluation and verifying all data related to any specific property.

This is a new construction property in Lehigh Acres, FL Price $550,000 Cash Flow: $1039/mo Bed: 6 Bath: 4.0 Built in 2025 Square Footage: 2364   Find more information at www.RentToRetirement.com or call 1-800-311-6781 We offer high quality, turnkey rental properties in markets that maximize cash flow, equity & appreciation! All properties are renovated, leased & managed allowing you to passively build a rental portfolio while you learn along the way. Please contact us for our full inventory, or to schedule a consultation. Rent To Retirement is your partner in achieving financial freedom through real estate investing! *Information given is to the best knowledge of Rent to Retirement. All individuals are solely responsible for conduction of their own evaluation and verifying all data related to any specific property.

This week's episode is a tribute to Facebook Marketplace, because where else are you going to find a deal on that vintage hamburger phone you've always wanted. This week's picks "Rag & Bone" by The White Stripes "Your New Twin Sized Bed" by Death Cab For Cutie "Kill The Ghost" by Little Image Related Links "Where is Bed?" | Lou Wall's Facebook Marketplace Musical The Playlist No Repeat Playlist on Spotify No Repeat Playlist on Apple Music B-Sides Unofficial B-Sides Playlist Support the Show No Repeat on Patreon Join our Discord Email us: norepeatpod[at]gmail[dot]com Follow Us Follow Tyler on Instagram Follow Shaun on Instagram Follow Taylor on Instagram

Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

We're coming to you mid-snowstorm (40 inches in Rhode Island?! Are people just tunneling to Target at this point?) and somehow we start the episode with “we have nothing to talk about” which is always when things spiral the fastest. This week's chaos includes:  The wrinkle debate. What are those lines from your nose to your mouth and why are they suddenly… aggressive? Do we need facelifts? Frownies? Lymphatic brushes from TikTok Shop? Or is this just collagen packing its bags and leaving the chat? Red light therapy masks miracle or $500 mistake? Danna breaks down what it actually does (muscle recovery, inflammation, mood boost… allegedly), but then the ski-trip hot tub drama hits. Red dots. Panic Googling. Bed bug flashbacks. Lice PTSD. Turns out? Hot tub folliculitis. Antibiotics for everyone. Public hot tubs are officially cancelled. Farm update from the barn. Kristin is now the proud mother of two new lambs and still refusing to wash the overalls until lambing season is over. The coat has been washed (breaking news), but the pants may legally qualify as a biohazard. Progress is progress. Olympic feelings. We're not ready for the Olympics to be over. Hockey gold, missing teeth, heartfelt moments, and why the Winter Olympics are basically the unhinged best friend of the Summer Games. Leftovers for 20… from a dinner for 7. Shrimp. Deviled eggs. Soup. Pepperoni bread. A hot cheese dip situation. We may have catered our own podcast night. And we also share about a really cool networking opportunity our kids were part of because in between lice stories, hot tub bacteria, and lambs being born, we're still trying to raise capable humans. It's skincare confusion, farm chaos, mom spirals, and Olympic nostalgia, basically, peak Mismatched. New episode out now. Come laugh with us.

In this Medium episode of The Noise of Life Podcast, I sit down with Jane Langof, feng shui master and educator, to explore one of the most overlooked influences on our wellbeing — how our homes are designed before we ever move in.Jane explains why the most powerful time to consider energy is not when something feels wrong, but at the very beginning, when a home is still just lines on a page and small design decisions can shape years of living.We unpack why feng shui is not about quick fixes or decorative cures, but about understanding how energy flows through a home — influencing sleep quality, emotional health, relationships, and mental clarity.In this episode, we explore:• Why every home has a unique energy map• How intentional design can prevent stress instead of correcting it later• The hidden impact of layout on wellbeing and daily life• Why “one-size-fits-all” home advice often falls short• The bedroom as one of the most powerful rooms for recovery, connection, and communication• How clutter, technology, and even what sits behind your bed can affect rest• Clearing the energy after relationship breakdowns and creating a true reset• Small, practical changes that can transform how your home feels.At its core, this conversation is an invitation to become more aware of whether your environment is supporting you — or quietly draining your energy.Because when your space is designed with intention, life begins to feel calmer, clearer, and far easier to navigate.If you've ever felt unsettled in your own home, struggled to fully rest, or wondered why certain spaces don't feel right, this episode offers a powerful new lens on the environments you live in every day.Connect with Jane:Instagram  → https://bit.ly/3NEWWuP Website → https://www.fengshuiconcepts.com.au/ LinkedIn  →  https://bit.ly/3LLljGD Connect with Steve:Instagram → https://bit.ly/3KARQhR LinkedIn  → https://bit.ly/48sw8Vj Episode Highlights00:00:00 - Why the design stage is the most powerful time to work with energy 00:01:10 - Making changes before walls and staircases lock things in 00:02:00 - Understanding positive and negative energy zones 00:03:00 - Why feng shui is not one size fits all 00:04:30 - Creating a unique energy map for every home00:05:40 - Bedrooms as the foundation for sleep and relationships 00:06:40 - Bed placement, support, and feeling safe while resting 00:07:30 - Why clutter and storage under the bed matter00:08:30 - Technology, TVs, and energy in the bedroom00:09:40 - Clearing energy after relationship breakdowns00:10:40 - Simple resets that create a fresh start 00:11:40 - Why water and colour amplify energy 00:13:00 - Being intentional rather than reactive with your spaceABOUT THE PODCAST SHOWThe Noise of Life is a podcast that shares real stories, raw truths, and remarkable growth. Hosted by Steve Hodgson a coach, facilitator, speaker, and Mental Health First Aid Instructor. This podcast dives deep into the “noise” we all face, the distractions, doubts and challenges that can pull us away from who we truly are.

Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge

A housewife, a shovel, and a chorus you can't stop chanting—meet the story engine behind Mary Kutter's breakout. We sit down with the Broken Bow recording artist to trace the wild path from a bootlegger's legacy in “Devil's Money” to the hard truth of “Lab Coat,” and the darkly funny new single “Bed of Roses.” What emerges is a masterclass in doing the work that most people only talk about: 5 a.m. runs, 452 writing sessions in a year, and an album‑a‑day habit that sharpened her ear for iconic intros and crowd‑binding post‑chorus chants.Mary opens up about the moment a simple church‑front video sent “Devil's Money” into millions of feeds, the flood of industry DMs that followed, and how trusted mentors helped her separate real partners from fast talkers. We dig into the writing room lightning that produced “Lab Coat” in 45 minutes, why fearless lyrics about the opioid crisis resonated nationwide, and how honest storytelling can outpace any ad spend. In the studio, Kurt Allison and Tully Kennedy break down the production moves—live band, tone over volume, and the “30 percent less” vocal note—that let Mary's character lead the record instead of the track.Then comes “Bed of Roses,” a country thriller with a wink, built on drums, a chant hook, and verses that talk straight. Born from criticism and refined with intent, it's the kind of song that makes you lean in and then sing along. Along the way we tackle label politics, the art of staying unwatered, building a set that breathes live, and why authenticity still slices through the algorithmic fog. If you care about country music that takes risks and pays them off, this one's for you.Hit play, then tell us the line that stuck with you. If you enjoy these deep dives into songwriting, production, and the grind behind the hits, follow the show, share with a friend, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find us.Follow Mary: www.marykutter.com______________________________________________________________________________________________SPONSORS: The Try That in a Small Town Podcast is powered by e|spaces!Redefining Coworking - Exceptional Office Space for Every BusinessBook a tour today at espaces.comFrom the Patriot Mobile studios:Don't get fooled by other cellular providers pretending to share your values or have the same coverage. They don't and they can't!Go to PATRIOTMOBILE.COM/SMALLTOWN or call 972-PATRIOTRight now, get a FREE MONTH when you use the offer code SMALLTOWN.Original Brands - Our original sponsor since the beginning!!Original brands is starting a new era and American domestic premium beer, American made, American owned, Original glory.Join the movement at www.drinkoriginalbrands.comPeacemaker Coffee CompanyFounded by retired police officer/chief Chris Morris, Peacemaker delivers clean, low-acidity coffee while supporting police, firefighters, EMS, military, veterans, teachers, dispatchers, and medical personnel through donations and programs. https://www.peacemakercoffeecompany.com/________________________________________________________________________________________________ Follow/Rate/Share at www.trythatinasmalltown.com -For advertising inquiries, email info@trythatinasmalltown.comProduced by Jim McCarthy and www.ItsYourShow.co

Fresh Outta Bed Head to Head Challenge