Podcasts about Big Bird

Big Bird Accounting Hit $100k! U.S. law firm owner doing $300k–$2M/year? Get a free Law Firm Profit & Tax Checkup where I review your books and tax setup and highlight a few ways similar firms are keeping more of what they earn. Book your checkup here: https://bigbirdaccounting.com

This Week on the Toy Power Podcast; we board the Hype Train - as we take a look at all the latest News! Neca with another Sesame Street Figure - this round Big Bird! Then a tease from Neca regarding the upcoming Muppets Toyline. But will they potentially live up to the Palisades offerings from 20+ years ago? Hasbro tease New Collaborations from both Voltron & Street Fighter. Both these franchise have Movies on the way - what can we expect? The Emperor is cashing in on Ben's Wallet - as a Foreign Micronauts figure is teased from Super7. Superman from Mondo - is just OUTSTANDING. But so is the Mondo Man-At-Arms too! Then we continue the MOTU chat as we breakdown the Movie Toy Announcements thus far! Both the Chronicles offerings plus the basic 5inch line too. Then we switch gears & chat towards the Excitement of what is being announced on the Big Screen. 2026 Hit or Shit of Cinema. A fun discussion & further solidifies how exciting 2026 will be for Pop-Culture fans of all different ages & passions! Enjoy this extended recording!!Support the show: http://patreon.com/toypowerpodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 51: Imagine a world where technology rules every aspect of our lives from cradle to the grave. Each moment recorded, watched, and rated by the world. Wouldn't it be nice to get away from everything and get some "me" time with your favorite AI therapist? Welcome to the world as Leslie Stephens sees it in You're Safe Here. Join the discussion with Escape the Earth: email: saplescapetheearth@gmail.com goodreads: www.goodreads.com/group/show/10939…escape-the-earth libguide: guides.mysapl.org/ETE

Crossing The Line As a Collector, NECA Big Bird, & More!CRYPTOIDS KICKSTARTER LAUNCH - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cryptoids/cryptoids-war-for-the-green-planet-action-figures#toys #actionfigure #transformers Support YHS Toy Anxiety on Patreon - http://www.patreon.com/yeshavesome YHS Patreon members gain exclusive access to bonus weekly audio and video content, and also receive all episodes in full video format, early and ad free. For more info. and to support YHS, head to patreon.com/yeshavesome.-Follow YHS on Social media - http://www.instagram.com/yhspodcast-Love Toys? Check out Toy Anxiety - http://www.youtube.com/@ToyAnxiety-Want to send us something?YHS PO Box 82024Atlanta GA, 30354

Michael Kent, traveling comedian and magician, joins Marissa to share hard-won lessons from 20 years of marriage while spending up to 250 days per year on the road. Discover why performer relationships fail, the "dopamine trap" of audience affirmation, and the one ritual that saved his marriage. Learn the three pillars of healthy relationships (communication, respect, trust), how to communicate vulnerably without blame, and why human connection matters more than ever in our isolated world. Michael reveals advice from Ralphie May that transformed his marriage and shares practical strategies for maintaining intimacy across distance. Topics covered: Why entertainment industry marriages fail (and why his didn't) How to distinguish between audience affirmation and real love The power of saying "What can I do to help?" Reframing relationship conflicts Breaking the content vs. happiness debate Connection as the antidote to addiction and loneliness Keywords: healthy relationships, marriage advice, communication skills, long-distance relationships, relationship tips, emotional intimacy, relationship goals   Full Transcript:  Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Welcome, Michael. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast today. Thank you so much for joining us.    Michael Kent Absolutely. It's so good to be here. I was happy to have you on my podcast recently, and I've never been on a podcast like yours, so I'm kind of excited and nervous. Oh, don't be nervous.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) It's easy, breezy conversation. We're just chit-chatting. But tell everyone about your podcast, because I thought it was so much fun to be a guest on yours. Thank you. Sure.   Michael Kent Well, my podcast, it's funny because it has nothing to do with what I do for a living. So I make my living as a comedian and magician. During the pandemic, me and so many other people decided we were going to podcast. So I decided that mine was going to be about history, but not like the boring history. I am fascinated by the fact that I'm in my 40s and I'm still learning things. Every day, like there's new things to learn. And some of them are important. Some of them are just interesting. They're not important. And so what I decided to do was find a different story from history every week. And it has to sound like it's something that I just made up. And initially, the podcast was called Tell Me What to Google, because tell me what to Google, because there were people giving me these ideas like, hey, you should Google this. Because after the first season, I realized that it's really hard to be found on Google when you have Google in the name of your show. So my buddy Jonathan Burns came up with the title, The Internet Says It's True. And that's what it's been called for 267 episodes. Every week is a news story that sounds like it's absolutely made up. And they're all 100% verifiably true. I go through painstaking efforts to like go back and find the original newspaper articles and everything. But I present them in a way that's really fun and lighthearted. And then we do a quiz at the end. So yeah, it's been a fun project. It's really fun for me to work on something that is not me. It's not about my show and me.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) And it sounds really fun. History is so interesting, and there's so much fun stuff out there. I love being on your podcast. For the last couple episodes, we were talking about food, which anyone who knows me knows that food is a passion of mine. Not cooking it, just eating it. But yeah, so check out The Internet Says It's True. It streams everywhere. You can listen to the episodes I'm on. But let's jump into the Healing for Emotional Abuse podcast. Michael, so you mentioned that you are a traveling comedian and magician. Will you tell us a little bit more about what you do?   Michael Kent Yeah. Basically, my job for the last 22 years has been to give people an hour of their life where they don't have to think about what's going on outside. They don't have to think about the... about the... They Thank You know, the stress and the tests and the exams, or if it's a workplace, you know, the deadlines and the news and politics. I'm just giving them an escape, which is what magic is. Magic is an amazing ability for us to be able to suspend our disbelief as if we're watching a wrestling match. And it's really easy, it turns out, for people to believe that something's happening that's impossible, because we all want to believe that that's true. Even the most skeptical people react to magic in a way that is almost childlike. Magic has a different reaction from everyone. Everyone has a different way of reacting to it. And I really love that, but I don't love the tension that magic brings. So I do a comedy show. I do a comedy magic show that sort of acknowledges the strange elephant in the room, and that is, I'm a man in my 40s pretending to be a wizard. This crazy career has taken me quite literally all over the world to 49 states. I still need to go to Wyoming. I haven't performed there yet. But 49 states, 19 countries, I believe, and cruise ships and military bases. And gosh, I performed on board an aircraft carrier last year while they were active in the sea. It's been an amazing career for the last couple decades. I'm focusing my efforts now more toward corporate groups and providing corporate groups with sort of an engagement tool and being that engagement facilitator for them to improve their events. So that's sort of the focus of my career currently. But for the last 20 years, I've been one of the top comedian magicians on the college market. So that's how I know you.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) That's true. That's awesome. So you have... You've in one relationship for basically like the extent of all of your career. So 22 years on the road, and you and your wife, first, can you tell us how you met?   Michael Kent Yeah, it's not like one of those, you know, Hallmark stories. But my wife and I went to college together, had the same major and several of the same classes and never met.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) We figured that out after the fact.   Michael Kent So we met through the girl that I grew up next door to when I was a little kid. So from the time I was born until I was eight years old, I lived next door to this person who I won't name because I don't know if I have their permission to talk about them publicly. So I grew up next to her, and she's like a sister to me. And we reconnected after college, like right after college, for the end of college, and we're hanging out. And Allison, my wife, was always around in the friend group. And I started sort of jokingly referring to her as my girlfriend because I had a crush on her. And finally, I asked her out, and we went on what I thought was like an amazing date. It was an amazing date. And then, let's see what happened next. We went off and dated other people. It didn't last. And then we reconnected like four or five months later, and that was the end of that. And we're coming up on our 20th wedding anniversary in August.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Wow. Yeah.   Michael Kent And like any marriage, know, it's had ups and downs and good times and bad times. And much of the good times and bad times have come from dealing with exactly what you're talking about, the idea that I do spend. At one point, I spent 250 days a year on the road doing shows. And that's really tough on any relationship, married or not, however long, you know, it's... It's just a difficult thing to learn how to deal with. When we met and started, you know, getting serious about dating, I was wanting to be a magician. I was wanting to do this, but I wasn't very successful yet. So she was sort of my sugar mama for the first few years because she had a job and I didn't. And so, you know, it took a while for my career to take off. And then it's been obviously a very, like, fulfilling and lucrative career since. And so, yeah, that's sort of where we are. And she and I are one of those sort of opposites attract couples, you know, like she is a bit more conservative and pragmatic. And I'm sort of a dreamy artist who, you know, head in the clouds type. But we have sort of become more similar as we've gotten older. think that probably just happens with married couples. After a long time, our tastes have become more similar.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) That's awesome. So 20 years married, more than 22 years together. In our industry, like the college market, the traveling to entertain market, I don't know the statistic. I can look it up. But I think most marriages end with one partner that travels a lot and the other that doesn't. And thinking to the conferences that we go to or the colleagues that we have, most of them have been divorced. I can really only think of four people who have been consistently married to the same person. So keeping the communication, the love, the marriage alive is very challenging. So what do you and Allison do or like what have you learned over the years that has helped you guys navigate this, you know, kind   Michael Kent Yeah, first of all, she is a saint to be able to deal with this, right? Like when you think about someone being gone that much, and that's just the half of it. The being gone part is only half of the equation. We'll talk about the other half in a minute, but I was in Chicago Midway Airport headed to, where was I going? St. Louis. And I was headed to a conference, and the comedian Ralphie May, who has since passed, I recognized him just being a fan of comedy, and we struck up a conversation, and we sat next to each other on the flight, and we talked the whole way to St. Louis, and somehow we got talking about relationships. And at that point, Ralphie was married. He ended up getting divorced later, but he gave me the best relationship advice ever, and it sort of, I think, saved my marriage. And Basically, what he said was, the reason that show business relationships fail is because entertainers, night after night, get this amazing feeling from complete strangers. This affirmation that everyone would love. You'd be crazy not to love it. You have complete strangers. You know, it's like if your husband tells you, you look great today. It means something. It's important. But if a stranger at the gas station says, look great today, why does that? It means a little bit more because they don't have an incentive or motive, you know, like they don't have to tell you that. And that's kind of the feeling that entertainers get on stage is like, oh, my God, these complete strangers adore me. And then that night after night after night. And then you go home to your significant other. And they're like, where have you been? Your dirty laundry is on the floor. You didn't do the chore you said you were going to do. And you start comparing them to the people in the audience. And that's. It's so unfair because the people in the audience only know you for one hour at the most, and it's your best hour. It's the hour that you've been rehearsing. It'd be bad. It'd be weird if they didn't love you for that hour. You know what I mean? Whereas now you're comparing them to someone who knows all of you and all the warts and all of the, you know, the, the history and the, the arguments and your tendencies. And, and it's just not a fair comparison. You're comparing apples to oranges in that instance, and it's not And so I spent so much time like thinking about that and examining that and how, which one's wrong, which one's right? You know? And I think the answer is like, neither one's wrong. Neither one's right. But what I realized is that audience while I, God, I love them. I appreciate them so much that they come to my shows and that they laugh with me. They're not my friends in most Most instances. And so when the show is over, that relationship is over. Now, that's not to say, like, I don't want to, you know, put out content for them to consume and interact with people and enjoy their acquaintanceship. But those aren't family. They're not friends. And so that's the that is the struggle that most entertainers run into is that they see that feeling that they get from a complete stranger when they're on stage or when they're, you know, someone who's reacting to their art and they say, oh, this person sees me. This person really likes me because they see me and through my art and all this. But that's not a real healthy. That's not a relationship. That's just a one sided thing. And and so it took a really long time to realize that. And so what I did, I put in almost immediately after talking to Ralphie, a know, A new tradition slash ritual. When I finish a job, a gig, when I finish a show, after I load out, I have a schedule that I do normally. And this is just what I do. I get to, when the show's over and I've done a meet and greet or merch or whatever it might be afterward, when I start loading out and tearing down my show, I text my wife. I let her know I'm loading out. And both of us know that that means that I'm going to be sitting in my car in about 45 minutes to an hour. And when I get in my car, I don't put in the directions to the hotel. I don't put in directions to the airport. I just sit and I call her and we talk. And we don't talk about my show or my travels. We talk about her day. And we talk about the dogs and what's going on back home. And what it is, is a snapback to what is real. It's a snapback to what is good and what is real. And it's a buffer between this world that can make anyone feel like a king to a world that is more mutual, where this is like, this is reality. This is two-way now. It's not just a one-way thing. That call has met the world to me, and I think to Allison, too, because she doesn't want to hear about magic. Allison hates magic.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) I tried to show her magic on our first date, and she goes, know what you're doing, and it's not going to work on me.   Michael Kent And she wasn't talking about the trick wasn't going to work. You know what I mean? I had just spent all those years in college using magic to impress strangers, and now all of a sudden I have to use my personality. I was like, I like this girl. So when we talk after the show, it's, you know, it's about her and her horses and the dogs and what's going on back home, you know, and it's, while that's nice for her, it's also nice for me because then... Let's see. I don't do what I used to do, which is before that, I would be like, how can I make this feeling of this audience continue? And I would start looking and saying, okay, who added me on Instagram? Who liked my show? Who commented on that photo? You know, and being like, you know, you just want that feeling to continue. It's why a lot of artists, musicians, comedians turn to substance abuse, because they're trying to continue the feeling that they get when they're on stage. It's an indescribable feeling, and I'm sure you get it when you speak as well. You know, it's indescribable how it feels to be affirmed by complete strangers in a room where there are hundreds of them looking at you. So it's a really difficult thing to compete with, but that's a much bigger aspect of the problem than is the just being gone. Because I could do, it doesn't matter if you're gone, if you're gone. All the time anyway, mentally or emotionally, you know, like that's the important thing is, are you emotionally there? And it's taken me a long time to do this. And you're talking, you're talking to someone who has spent years in therapy dealing with this. think therapy has been just as important as that discussion with, with, with Ralphie May on an airplane, you know.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) That's so interesting. I, first of all, that's really cool that you got to, you got to sit next to Ralphie May, but also like that, that advice and like that thought process makes a lot of sense. And I never really thought about it that way, where that like euphoric feeling of being loved and adored, right? Right. And then you turn to your family or your partner where, you know, they don't, you know, they know the full you versus other people who only know, like you said, the one dimension of you, you know, it's, and I wonder just in like the full world, not just our world, but how. that translates to them, right? Sure.   Michael Kent Well, it does, because like people that are in the workplace have their work life and their home life. And it's completely different. The people that the way that they interact with people at work is completely different than the way that they interact with their family. And. It's I know that this is a problem for a lot of people, because when you get to that place where you're pulling into the driveway or you're pulling into your garage or whatever to go home, there's a really harsh shift that has to happen between how you deal with work and how you deal with home. And it is it is incredible. It's the same with sports teams as well. When you're on a sports team, your relationship with that sports team or military unit is a bond that you might feel like you never can compete with, with your with your personal relationship. And you have you have to realize and look at it that. It's apples and oranges. It is not the same type of thing. And it's okay for both of those things to coexist. They are not competing with one another.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Yeah. And I think it translates a lot to why people cheat, right? Because if you, like even just looking at work wives and work husbands, right? You have somebody that you have developed a relationship with in your place of work and you're like, oh, this is my work husband or this is my work wife or my work whatever, you know? And then that person only knows the little bit of you that you show at work versus at home where, you know, you leave your dirty socks everywhere and, you know, or, or you're acting at your very comfortable personality, right? And then the other people, when you get upset with your partner and you talk to your work friends about it, right? Or like your work, whatever work wife about it. They're like, oh, I would never do that. I don't understand. I would never yell at you for something so minuscule. So that becomes very, um, attractive, right? Like, oh, this, Person, they would never treat me. But if they knew you the way that your home partner does, right, your real partner, they would absolutely not be okay with that, right? Or they would also have, there would be tiffs, right? And so I just think that that's so fascinating. That's such an interesting perspective.   Michael Kent Well, was a perspective that was sort of forced on me that I'm glad that I came to because, you know, when you are in a relationship that you value, that you really want to, if you realize in that moment the value of it, you'll do anything you can to keep it. And in my case, what I realized was that the problem was me, right? The problem was that, and it wasn't just me being gone a lot. Obviously, that's tough. But the problem was that, like, I needed to look at things realistically. And, you know, it's kind of like... When you look at an artist's painting that they've put up in a gallery, like if they put it up in a gallery, they know it's good. But what you're not seeing is all their early works that they're not proud of, that they're not showing off. And your relationship with your significant other probably knows and has seen those early works. And so to stick with the metaphor, the gallery goer might be like, this is the best artist in the world. They can never do anything wrong. You know what I mean? And that's that audience member. That's that person who's only seeing you for or knowing you for an hour. Or the people who only know that you're really good at work and you're a good problem solver. Oh, that person must be like that at home. And, you know, and you fantasize and you create this thing that's not there. And reality is often much more boring. And reality is the...   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) The reality is in between the highs and lows.   Michael Kent That's where most of our life happens, is in the waiting for the next exciting thing to happen. And so you have to kind of get, like, very comfortable with the fact that things aren't always exciting and full of affirmation and butterflies and puppy dogs. Sometimes the greatness of life is those days where you're like, you want to go out to dinner, but we're just so exhausted. So we're going to just make ramen and sit on the couch and watch TV. And that's going to have to be fine. And that's like even the most successful, exciting movie stars do that. You know what I mean? Like they have, it might not be ramen. might still be, you know, their executive chef cooks them something, but everyone has in between times where you might be in between projects or you might be in between this. And that's what, like, to me, that's kind of the beauty of relationships. It's like, this is someone who you have deemed to be comfortable with you when things aren't exciting, when things are good, and when things are really difficult and hard and you're at each other's throats and fighting, like, someone that you can get through that with. So, yeah. I'm talking, like, I feel like I'm really self-conscious right now talking about this because I know how I have struggled as a husband, and, like, I know how I've had my, like, shortcomings in the past, and I'm talking as if I'm some expert on relationships. It's taken a lot of work for me to get here, and in 10 years from now, I probably will look back at this and be like, I was, I didn't know what I was talking about because I will have learned more. You know, that's the hope anyway, right?   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) That's the whole point of life and relationships, right? Like, we are always growing. We're always learning, right? On your podcast, the premise of it was, I can't believe I'm in my 40s and I'm still learning every day. I have always been like an avid lifelong learner, right? I still – I'm in my mid-30s. I still want to go back for more degrees. I still want to do more learning. And my mother-in-law is always making fun of me because I told her at Christmas I want to go to law school. And she's like, why? Why do you want to go to law school? You don't want to be a lawyer. And I'm like, yeah, but I want to understand. And I want to be able to help. And like if you're not learning, you're dying, right? And so, you know, I can look back on things I wrote. My first book, know, Breaking Through the Silence, I wrote it in 2017. And when I put it out, I was like, oh, this is incredible. Like I did so much work. I did all of this. And look where I got, right? And now I read it and I'm like, oh, my God, this is so embarrassing, right? Because we are always growing. We're always learning. So where you are – about when I make a promo video for my show.    Michael Kent By the time I'm editing it, I'm embarrassed by it.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) That's how quickly I'm always changing stuff, you know? Yeah, but that's, I mean, we're always growing, and right now, especially in the world with technology and all that we have, we're absorbing so much stimuli and so much information every minute of every day to a point where our brains have shifted so much, and we're kind of getting off topic, but I'm happy about it because I like to talk about this. Yeah, two quick things.   Michael Kent Something that I realized that I have realized about relationships is another thing that makes them fail, in my opinion, is that people expect it to always feel the way it did in the beginning. I mean, this isn't a surprise to anyone. Everyone knows that this is a problem, right? You might feel that way with someone at work or someone that, you know, like comes through your life, incidentally, and you'll be like, oh, this is the way I felt with my significant other in the beginning. And what you fail to realize is that relationships always... Are changing and you're never going to have, I mean, I can't say never because I don't, you know, obviously there, I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but it's rare to be able to have the same relationship with your significant other that you had when you met and my wife and I have had different iterations of our life together, right? Like there have been different, it's almost like a different thing that you find that you love about that person and you both grow and you're not the same people you were back then. It would be silly if you were acting the same way you were when you were, you know, I met Ali when I was like 22 or something, right? So there's a, my favorite book is called Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. It's just a book about Zen and the main premise of it is in the beginner's mind, there are many options. In the expert's mind, there are few and many possibilities, I think is what he says. And that is to realize that you don't know. Everything is the ability to learn and to change and to grow. Whereas if you say, well, I got married, I aced it, done, I succeeded, I'm at the plateau, now everything's always going to be like this, and everything's always going to be great, and I don't have to try anymore. That's death, right? That's death. As you described, when you stop learning, you're dying. So anyway, those are the two quick things I wanted to bring up.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) And I appreciate that. So Larry and I had a conversation, my husband, it was more of like a debate actually a few months ago where do you strive to be content all the time or do you strive to be happy all the time? Like what's the right, what's the right way to look at life, right? Because if we are striving to be happy, and I was on team, I want to be happy. Thank you. All the time, right? I want to always be feeling like I'm accomplishing. I always want to be feeling like I'm doing something and growing. And he was like, no, because if that's the case, then you're basically chasing a moving goalpost, right? If you always strive to be happy, then you are never happy where you are. And I thought that was so fascinating. So like striving to be content versus striving to be happy. It sounds like from what you said, you strive to be content, right? You know that things are changing and growing and you adjust and adapt and you grow together or you grow apart, right? But you guys work to grow together. So what's your take on that?   Michael Kent Well, you're right. mean, I think of those two options, I would say like striving to be content, but I'm not even sure I'm, I like the phrasing of like content because content, it can bring about feelings of like, I'm content, so I'm not going to strive for happiness or for joy, I guess is what I would replace happiness with is. So Or pleasure. Joy and pleasure are fleeting, whereas contentment is not. Contentment is what I would describe as the middle path or the middle road. If you can't tell, I'm really into Buddhism, and that's kind of where a lot of my philosophy comes from, is that it's going back to what I said earlier about how most of life are those in-between times. And those in-between times, contentment is a great way to describe those. You're fine. There's nothing wrong. You're lacking pleasure in that moment, maybe. But you're also lacking profound sadness or fear. You know what I mean? There's just times when you just are. And if you aren't happy, and I mean happy in a very large, vague sense here, if you can't survive, and if you're suffering in the times when... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... There's nothing to be particularly pleasurable or to be joyful about or whatever. That's most of your life. Most of our life are those in-between times. And so if you were on a desert island, a deserted island somewhere, and you didn't have anything, how would you be happy? What would you do to not suffer? And the answer is, you have to just be able to live with yourself. You have to be able to understand that we are beings. The only thing we have to do is breathe. And that's it. We have to eat and breathe and just be. Everything else is icing on the cake. So, but the reason I kind of have issue with the word content is because I think, at least in modern use, it sort of can mean settling or not striving. And I'm always... This is a struggle for me. Sometimes it's really difficult for me to just sit. And it sounds like you're the same way. You've written 40 books. Sometimes it's difficult to just be still. I always have to have that project to worry about. And thanks to my therapist, I know that that's a nervous system response. That's a nervous system response medicating me to try to run away from being here right now. And so it's okay once you have that in mind to do what you want. But realizing it is the hard part. Realizing it is the part where you have to be like, okay, my nervous system is telling me that I'm only doing this and I'm only stressing about this because I need something for it to stress about. We'll be right back. be right And so now that I know that, I can work on it, but not freak out if I don't do it, or not freak out if, you know, about having this thing. So, and allowing yourself to be kind to yourself and take breaks and do whatever else.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) I think what you said about, you know, content being kind of sitting still, that's kind of exactly how I felt and feel. I just didn't know how to verbalize it. So thank you, because you just kind of gave me the more of an understanding of what I meant. Yeah, stillness is the middle way.   Michael Kent Like, it's the middle path. It's not the big hill you're trying to climb or the valley that you're falling into. It's just being. Yeah.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) And I love that. So I loved what you said about, like, if you were on a deserted island, what would you do to not suffer, right? Because you're not going to be happy sitting there on a deserted island every minute of every day. Like, you just can't. How does that translate? Out of relationships, right? So if you're not happy with yourself, you know, the theory is, and I 100% agree with it, but like, if you're not happy with yourself, you're not going to be happy with someone else because you're looking for what you're missing in someone else to come from someone else. So like, how does that, in your opinion, like, how does that translate?   Michael Kent Communication. I think you and your partner need to be able to tell each other how you're feeling. So I mean, it starts with you knowing how you're feeling, right? A lot of people just don't realize how they're feeling. But like, or a lot, you know, you might be feeling anxiety, but not know what the anxiety is about. And that's a perfectly acceptable thing to say to a partner, is that saying, I'm just on edge, and I don't know why. That's such a great thing to say. Because if you are short with your partner, and you didn't mean to be short with a partner, which is what most arguments start from, I think is like, you know, Someone's already have something going on by themselves, right? There's something in their life that they're stressed about, and they just accidentally put that on the other person in the act of normal conversation or whatever. If you start that by saying, by realizing, I'm really anxious today, or I'm really, I feel like I'm really on edge today. Just saying that can maybe stop that next interaction from blowing up into an argument or a fight. And because there's a little bit more communication and understanding of where the other person is coming from. And, you know, my wife and I both suffer from general anxiety at different times. And we both know that sometimes there's not a thing that triggers it. It's just there. And so we know that the answer isn't, why are you anxious? What's making you anxious? How can we make that go away? You know, sometimes the answer, a better answer is, what can I do to help? Which is... That's phrase that both of us use quite often with each other. And sometimes that question is enough to help. Because usually there's not a thing, you know, because our brains are weird and we don't understand them. And sometimes you just have anxiety about stuff. So what can I do to help is like one of the most loving things you can say to a partner. One of the most caring, one of the most efficient ways to show care is by saying, I'm here. That's all you're saying. You're not trying to solve problems. That's a big pet peeve of mine. That'll, that'll, if I tell someone my problem and I don't want them to solve it and they start trying to solve it, that is so frustrating. Not just relationship wise, but just in general, you know, family members, anything like that. Like sometimes I just want a . Just let me complain. And getting that complaint out is, is the purpose, right? So, you know, what can I do to help is like commit that to That statement, because there have been so many times my wife has said that to me, and it's all I needed to hear. Because what she's saying is, I'm here, I hear you, and I care. And that little bit of affirmation is enough to be like, oh, it's going to be fine. She's here to help me with whatever this is.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) So that's such a good point. And I teach that to a lot of people, especially college students, right? And you're not solving anyone's issue. Just ask what you can do. Be empathetic. I'm here with you, right? We're going to do this together. What do you need right now? You know, so I love that that's how you two communicate with each other and show support. We also both have anxiety and we both have bad days. I'll wake up sometimes and just be like, nope, this is one of those days I'm not getting out of bed. No bones day.   Michael Kent Yeah, yeah.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) I'm going to melt into my couch and eat as much popcorn as my body can handle.   Michael Kent And that's my day, you know?   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) But I love that. So what piece of advice would you give to... listeners, to our listeners, about having healthy relationships and maintaining a healthy relationship.   Michael Kent You have to be brutally honest with yourself about what it is that you're feeling and be able to be vulnerable enough to share that with this other person. That's the thing. Because I think most fights from unspoken things, most fights stem from unspoken things. And humans are just notoriously bad at working our brains. Sometimes we just don't know why we're thinking the way we're thinking. But if you can acknowledge it, it all of a sudden doesn't seem that bad. There's an analogy that I like to use. It's like most suffering in our lives is, it seems a lot larger than it actually is. Whether it's like physical pain, you know, our nerve endings send these signals to our brain that say, like, there's danger, something's wrong, you should know about this. lives. All And that's the siren, not the thing causing it. That's the that's the response. So the analogy I like to use is like on your car, you have like a headlight. And if you've ever seen what a headlight is, it's a tiny little light the size of a pinky. It's a tiny little thing that plugs in. And that creates hundreds of feet of of brightness in front of you because of the reflector. Most of the suffering that we experience in our lives, we perceive from the receptor, not realizing that the thing that's causing the pain is the pinky is the little tiny little the tiny little element that's inside that thing. And so if you can find a way during painful moments, whether it be emotional pain or physical pain, to focus on the pain and what's causing it, it can actually alleviate some of the pain. It can alleviate some of the suffering because you're able to look at what attachment it might be that that brought you to that point. Or what it is. And it takes a lot of work to be brutally honest with yourself to know how you're feeling in order to communicate it. And you have to have a partner who is on that journey with you and receptive to hearing about that. Which is tough because a lot of people, when they hear someone's problems, they want to do what we were just talking about. They want to try to solve them. They feel like that's their job. And sometimes, you know, you just need to . That's sometimes all you need. I had a long conversation about that.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) My mom is a problem solver. And so I'd call her and just really want to vent. And she would try and solve the problem. And I'd be like, no, mom, I just want to talk. Right? So we've developed a system where if I call her to, you know, for anything, she'll stop before she says anything and say, is this for comfort or for advice? Like, do you want me to just sit and listen? Or do you actually want me to advise and you want my opinion? And then I get to choose. That's a huge win.   Michael Kent mean, what an evolved thing to be able to say, like. And that's because that's like, what she's asking you is, would you like me to turn my maternal instinct that's inside of my body and I can't get rid of off for a moment? And it's probably hard, really hard for her to do that. Because that's just a, I think that's just a parent thing. Parents hear your problems and it's been their job, you know, for the first 18 years of their life, it was their job to absolutely solve those problems for you. No questions asked. And so it's hard. It's got to be, I'm not a parent, so I don't know, but it's got to be hard to turn that off and be like, okay, I'll just listen. Yeah.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) I mean, I can't, I had to remind her many a time, but we finally got to a point where I feel comfortable and safe talking to her. Whereas in the past I would call her for something and she would advise, advise, advise. And I'd be like, I don't want your advice. And it would, it actually caused a lot of rifts in our relationship. So it was, it took work, but, but we're in a good spot where like, she's very respectful of, of what I need, whether I want to just vent or, or get advice. So that could be really good way.   Michael Kent If you're listening, Marissa's mother, good job. Good work.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Thanks, Amy. You call your mom by your first name?   Michael Kent No.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Oh, okay. That was just for the show. Okay. Thanks, Amy.   Michael Kent I can say it. You can say it.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) So thank you for that advice. That was really helpful. I think even to kind of, it was, it is. And to kind of spin off that, not just to tell, you know, yes, tell like, I'm feeling anxious today. And being honest about it. So instead of saying something like, you know, you're always at work and we never talk, right? It's, I feel lonely, right? So like, I feel like I'm not a priority to you, right? Personalizing it. So you're not talking about this symptom. You're talking about the cause, right? I feel lonely. It feels like you're prioritizing work or it feels like you're prioritizing your friends or it feels like you're whatever over me, right? So it's addressing the things that you're feeling, but also making it honest.   Michael Kent And you also have to learn sometimes to sort of reframe that, that statement. So like, you know, if my wife says to me, you're always gone. My tendency is to hear that as what do you want me to do? Not work, not have money. You like, you know, like you're, my tendency is to hear it as a complaint. But I can reframe it to mean she's complaining because she wants me to be around more because she likes Like, you know what I mean? Like that's, you can reframe these types of things and think like, what is, what is this person really saying to me? And, you know, and that's the common thing that people say in relationships when there's some sort of issue is like, what's wrong? And the other person will say, I'm just tired. It's just the easiest thing to say. And it's usually a cop out. I mean, you could legitimately be tired, but usually there's something else going on. Even if you don't know what it is, or, you know, it might be depression, it might be anxiety, but usually it's not just that you're tired, but it could be. I mean, it could be, I do not have the ability to have an in-depth conversation right now because I'm emotionally exhausted or I'm physically exhausted or whatever it might be, and then sometimes you just have some space, but that goes back to communication, right? Like, that's a huge part of a relationship. Yeah.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) It's my three pillars, right? My triangle of healthy relationships, communication, respect, and trust, right? If you don't have all three of those things, you don't have a healthy relationship. If you can't communicate and resolve issues, right? If you can't trust each other to be honest and vulnerable, and then you don't feel like you're being respected or like your needs are being met by your partner, like the boundaries or what you say, you know, are not being respected, then you don't have a healthy relationship. And even missing one of those three, just the communication piece alone is so important. You know, it was trust, communication.   Michael Kent What was the third pillar?   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Respect. Respect. Okay. Yep, yep. If you don't have one of the three, right, you don't have a healthy relationship because trust is built on respecting communication.   Michael Kent Yeah, they all are interrelated, right? Yeah.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) And so it's important that you have, you know, that strong communication because no one wants to wake up every day and resent your partner because of an issue that happened 10 years ago. And I use Friends, the show Friends is a great reference for that because if you look at Ross and Rachel, right, they had one fight one time in like season two and they never talked about it. Like they talked about it, but it was always very nitpicky and jabby and aggressive.   Michael Kent Yeah. And so then by season 10, like there's still, I think it was 10, right?   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) There's still, were they on a break? Were they not on a break? I don't know. Cause they never had a 15 minute sit down, honest discussion about it. And so they are such an unhealthy relationship. But everyone's like, I want the Ross and Rachel kind of love.   Michael Kent And I'm like, no, you don't. No one would have watched if it was a healthy relationship. That's where most of the conflict and the storylines came from.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) In any show, right? The only show I can currently think of where the two protagonists have a very healthy relationship is Nobody Wants This. Have you seen that? No. Oh, it's so good. It's Adam Brody and Kristen Bell. But the toxic relationships. weird? I think I have two friends that are in that show. Oh.   Michael Kent And I've never watched it.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) I do have two friends that are in that show. Like, I've never watched it.   Michael Kent And I have no excuse for that. So I'm sorry, friends.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) It's a really good show. But Adam Brody and Kristen Bell's characters, anytime there's conflict and there's a lot of external conflict, they have a conversation about it and they work it out together and they understand. So even when one is feeling slighted or one is feeling put off, they have a conversation about it and they resolve it. The rest of the conflict is from external sources. So you're seeing these two people. It's like us against the world, but in a very positive way. And so more shows, I think, are going to start to have that similar dynamic. But up until now, and I do this at colleges all the time, think of a TV show or your favorite movie and think of a healthy relationship dynamic that's in it. It doesn't need to be 100% healthy all the time because that's not realistic. But think of one relationship where through the arc of the show, it is built on healthy principles. Yeah, I can't. It's so hard. It is really hard. Because conflict, like we're addicted to that conflict. That's why we watch the reality TV shows, right? Love is Blind. It's all built on conflict. It's nonsense. Right. Real housewives and all that. It's all conflict. They're all unhealthy. It's all produced on purpose that way.   Michael Kent Also, like, you know, there was probably a push in the 60s that was like, we need TV couples to fight and to be unhealthy because real couples are. And people don't want to see the 50s, you know, Cleaver family, like perfect relationships because it doesn't they don't identify with it. So it might be a thing of like where, you know, reality, art imitates life rather than life imitating art.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) But I think the pendulum swung too far. Right. Now we look at like we've got Walter and Skylar White, who it's like impossible to know who's telling the truth and who's not. Right. And I mean, now we've set terrible expectations. Right. So in the 50s with Leave it to Beaver and all that, we set a terrible expectation for women. Right. If you are not happy and made up, if you don't like look at Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Did you watch that show? I watched. Right.   Michael Kent Real housewives and all that. It's all conflict.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) They're all unhealthy. It's all produced on purpose that way. Also, like, you know, there was probably a push in the 60s that was like, we need TV couples to fight and to be unhealthy because real couples are. And people don't want to see the 50s, you know, Cleaver family, like perfect relationships because it doesn't they don't identify with it. So it might be a thing of like where, you know, reality, art imitates life rather than life imitating art. But I think the pendulum swung too far. Right. Now we look at like we've got Walter and Skylar White, who it's like impossible to know who's telling the truth and who's not. Right. And I mean, now we've set terrible expectations. Right. So in the 50s with Leave it to Beaver and all that, we set a terrible expectation for women. Right. If you are not happy and made up, if you don't like look at Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Did you watch that show? I watched.   Michael Kent Some of it, but I'm currently rewatching Mad Men, but it's a similar era and the same vibe, yeah. If the woman isn't made up, hair perfect, dinner on the table the second the father gets home, right? Then if that's not what you're doing, you're a bad wife. Whereas now, it's like, you know, if you're not fighting about dumb stuff or if, you know, one of the people in the relationship isn't just a complete follower. Like, one person's not allowed to have an opinion and the other person has an opinion or whatever the dynamic is, right? It sets a terrible precedent for what people are willing to accept, which is why I have such a fundamentally challenging time at colleges when I do this activity. And inevitably, somebody will say, you know, well, Joker and Harley Quinn, I want that kind of love. Like, that's a healthy relationship. There's not a moment of time where that's a healthy relationship. But like when Suicide Squad came out, how many young women do you know dressed up like Harley Quinn for Halloween? Yeah. Yeah, there's a similar thing right now with one of my focuses with my career is engagement and dealing with, particularly in the corporate sphere, dealing with apathy and people who are not wanting to open themselves up to connect with other people. And it is somewhat generational, which I hate to say, but this is more of a younger person problem than an older person problem. And when you look at a very famous quote that came from Schitt's Creek, I'm trying really hard not to connect with people right now. It's on sweaters, it's on tote bags, it's on bumper stickers, and it's funny, but I hate it because it is contagion. Like there are people that now think like staying in and binge watching Netflix is a replacement for real live connection. And we are all needing more connection. And it becomes, you know, it's cliche to say, like, you know, because of the internet and social media and all that, but we need connection. We, like, people need connection to be fulfilled in our lives. It's how we, we are a very social species. And so everyone, when they get in that room with friends and they're connected, feels amazing. And if there's those times when you're in that room and you don't feel amazing, it's because you're not connected, which means you're either not present or you're not listening or you're not, you know what I mean?   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Like, but when you really, truly feel connected, there's no feeling like that. And it's, we're setting a really bad example by having these types of quotes, like, I'm really trying hard not to connect with people right now as, like, a popular feeling. Because it's, it becomes more than just a TV, you know, line. It becomes like... A whole culture type of thing where you're just, you know, this is more preferable. And I get it. It is more preferable sometimes to not like it feels more safe to just stay at home. But it's sort of lazy and it's sort of it's an easy way to you're letting your nervous system win. You're letting your, you know, your anxieties and everything win when you could be a much more fulfilled, happy person if you content person. If you do allow yourself to connect and be open to connection. Yeah. So fun fact, you might, you might be able to use this on your podcast, but the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia was the first penitentiary in the country that tried using isolation as a tactic as like a punishment for inmates. And what they found, yeah. So what they would do is like, they'd have everybody, um, uh, In their cells, staggered outdoor time. So they'd never know who was outside with them, and they couldn't see anyone. And they were all in like little, literally high wall, brick wall, five by five outdoor spaces. So they were completely isolated from each other. And they did not have any interaction with anybody, not in their cell, not around their cell, nothing. They were on one wall, separated by walls. And what they found was that within a few months of that lack of connection to anyone, these men went crazy.   Michael Kent They went bananas. They tried to unalive themselves. They like were starting to hallucinate and like having severe mental health like backlash from it. So it's not, you know, it is in us. It's biological, that need for connection. And so phrases like I'm trying really hard not to, you know, connect with people right now. I agree with you. It's very funny. I love Schitt's Creek. I'm rewatching it for like the 18th time right now. I just watched that episode. It's like the second episode. But it really does set a bad precedent. And then you have the backlash of that where the loneliness epidemic. And when I go to colleges, a lot of these advisors are talking about, my students come to me and say, I feel like I have no friends, like I'm not connected. But then they have events and the students don't come out to events, right? So it's kind of like you're shooting, you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. Yeah, it's a huge problem. And outside, I don't know whether or not in the higher education world, if this is as much of an issue, but it definitely fuels addiction in the real world. The isolation fuels addiction. And have you ever heard of the Rat Park study? There's a famous study in the 70s. I think it was in Canada, but like British Columbia. Basically, they had a bunch of mice or lab rats or whatever. And they gave them access to, in their water bottle, they had like drugs in the water bottle, like morphine or cocaine or something in the water bottle. And the rats that were isolated constantly drugged themselves, but the rats that were in a community of other rats did not. That's so interesting. Yeah, and it's been used for, you know, for 40 years as this or 50 years as this study that shows that, like, we need connection. We need connection because we don't have connection. find other ways to satisfy our, I don't know if that's our nervous system or whatever that is in us. But we end up, you know, basically the connection aspect of it replaces the need to get dopamine from other things, right?   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) So we're getting dopamine from those connections, which is critically important to our data. And it might not be substance abuse, right, particularly in those instances like you were talking about where the college students complain and then they don't leave.   Michael Kent Well, they might be getting dopamine from scrolling Instagram or scrolling TikTok or reading or watching Netflix or whatever it is that they're doing. I'm not saying any one of those things is worse than the other.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) I'm just saying all of them are a thing you do when you're not connecting. If that becomes a replacement for connection to get your dopamine, that's when you're going to be, you know, basically you have to keep feeding that beast, you know, and keep you because that's where addiction comes from. need to keep feeding that dopamine thing because you're not getting it naturally. So I think the key here is, right, even if it's uncomfortable or if it feels, you know, weird, especially post-COVID, right, which I think creates...   Michael Kent Created a lot of disconnection. It's finding that connection somehow. And so it kind of takes you away from, you know, trying to find it in other sources. Is that, I love that. absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we, I think like just natural human connection provides a lot of dopamine. Yeah. But that's if you're actually connecting. That doesn't mean being in a room with a person. means actually connecting. Yeah. That's really interesting. I feel like we've overshot your episode. This is gonna be like three different episodes. No, this is great. Honestly, I love this conversation. I was going to say like, I think we, you know, I could talk to you about this kind of all day. I love your perspective. But we should probably, we should probably get on with our days, you know, but thank you so much, Michael, for being here. Would you mind, I know you just put out a book. So would you mind talking about that for a second, telling everyone where they can get it, how they can reach you? Yeah, I selected more than 50 episodes or topics. pass.,ages, take you It's from my podcast, The Internet Says It's True, and compiled them into sort of like a bathroom reader style book. So you pick this thing up, and each story is only three or four pages, and they're all these amazing stories that sound made up but are really true.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Like, for instance, one of the stories is about how before the Teachers in Space program from the Challenger space shuttle mission, their first idea was to put Big Bird in space.   Michael Kent And I did an entire episode about how they really were going to, and Carol Spinney, the guy inside Big Bird costume, agreed to it and wanted to do it. And so we talk about that and, like, why it eventually failed and didn't, you know, that's what launched the Teachers in Space program. So there's stories like that that were, like, you know, make you say there's no way that's true, and they're all true. And at the end of every chapter, there's a QR code that you can scan that links you to the episode where you get to hear not only, you know, that story, but then also...   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) A quiz with a guest, like we did with you on my previous two episodes. So, but yeah, you can find that wherever you buy books.   Michael Kent It's called The Internet Says It's True, Stories That Sound Made Up But Aren't. Thank you so much.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Thank you so much, Michael, for being here, for having this conversation. It felt very, I know we covered kind of a wide range of topics, but I think that it was all very valid and very, like, fascinating.   Michael Kent So thank you, and I'd love to have you back on any time that you'd like.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) I would love to.   Michael Kent This is, I agree with you.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) We could have just kept going because I love to talk about things that aren't magic and aren't, you know, history. Like if I can get to a point where I can just talk about real world stuff that, you know, is affecting all of us, I love that. So I envy what you do for a living, that you're helping people in a way that's like very connecting A to B in a straight line, you know?   Michael Kent So it's really cool.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) Thank you very much.   Michael Kent And I love what you do.   Marissa F. Cohen (Marissa F. Cohen) I think magic is so fascinating and comedy just makes. People happy. I wish I was funnier. I always laugh when I'm talking to you, so. Oh, it's usually at me, but I appreciate it anyways. Well, you have a very happy new year, you and Larry, and it's good to talk to you again. Thank you. You too. That was awesome. Thank you very much. very welcome. Absolutely. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Oh, good. And truly, anytime you want to come back. I will. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like we covered everything in the first episode. My episodes always range. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. All right. So now I'm going to record my two episodes, and I won't have to do anything next week. Woo! Thank you. So I have one set up for this week and next week, so this will be probably January 21st, and when it goes up, I'll send it. me in it, and yep. Will do. Sounds great. Okay. Thanks, Marissa. Thanks, Michael. Have a good one. All right. You too. Bye. Bye.

In 2023 Matt Vogel was in London for the coronation of King Charles III. In the royal box, Vogel also had a very special frog with him: Kermit the Frog. Vogel is the puppeteer behind Kermit, Big Bird, Count von Count and more. The Webster University alum joined “St. Louis on the Air” in May 2023 to talk about his remarkable career before he delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater.

In this engaging Part 4 caramel conversation, Cooper Lee & Kennedy Rizzo explore the nostalgic impact of beloved mascots from Disney, The Muppets, and Sesame Street, discussing how these characters have shaped fond childhood memories and branding. They delve into the evolution of food mascots along with the emotional connections they foster, while reflecting on the changes in branding and marketing in modern culture. Are any of these characters this week your favorite? Perhaps, Ernie's rubber duckie? See ya on the other side!What famous throwback mascot do you cherish baked into this Part 4 discussion?-Disney characters (Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto) The Disney Princesses, Tinkerbell- The Muppets (Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Rolff the Dog, Gonzo) - Sesame Street (Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, Grover, Bert & Ernie - Julio Pringles -Charley Tuna, Chicken of the Sea & Starbucks mermaids - If you like what we do in the way of caramelicious nostalgia, drop by and show us some support at Buy Me a Coffee dot com… (go to link below), we so appreciate you! Thanks a latte!!

Today on Australia's ONLY Christmas Podcast we have a Podcast a every day as we countdown till Christmas Day. How did the Turkey become the festive bird of choice worldwide? We discover what lead to the humble Turkey becoming the Big Bird it is , loved and adored on Christmas Day, and we uncover the Bird it replaced on Christmas Tables many years ago. We look at the words that Christmas gave us. All the words we only use at this time of year and where they came from, Plus Are you guilty of having a Christmas Party Standby list? A group of friends on the A list and a group on your B list that get a last minute invite? The shocking new practice that could offend your guests this Christmas . With your Aussie Hosts Liam and Ness talking all things Christmas all year round.  Tune In to Christmas Talk Radio. Our 24/7 Christmas Radio Station talking All Things Christmas, Non-Stop every day of the week. Find us on the I Heart Radio Ap or Click on the link to listen below https://tunein.com/radio/Christmas-Talk-Radio-s345979/

Today Show weatherman and acclaimed author Al Roker discusses his compelling book Ruthless Tide, which chronicles the 1889 Johnstown Flood that killed over 2,200 people and remains America's deadliest flooding disaster 139 years later. Roker explains how the tragedy resulted from the hubris of the era's wealthiest industrialists—oil, steel, and railroad magnates who created an exclusive club with a recreational lake maintained by a faulty dam. Through meticulous research that reads like a blockbuster movie, Roker reveals how 20 million tons of water released within 30 minutes traveled up to 60 miles per hour, devastating everything in its path.The book explores how this catastrophe transformed American society, changing liability laws, environmental regulations, and business responsibility standards while putting the Red Cross on the map as the nation's premier disaster relief organization. Roker draws urgent parallels to today's challenges, warning that rolling back environmental protections and zoning regulations at the exact time climate change is intensifying storms and flooding represents dangerous timing. He also shares a delightful Sesame Street memory about his daughter's reaction to seeing Big Bird being operated, promoting his new Sirius XM show "Afterrails" with colleagues Janelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer on the Today Show channel.

We are talking about the big guyPlease check out our Patreon by searching Cheese State ProductionsPatreon: patreon.com/CheeseStateProductionsEmail: Realcreaturefeature@gmail.comInstagram @realcreaturefeatureBluesky: @real-creature.bsky.socialsearch for A Real Creature Feature on facebookAlso please check out these amazing podcasts from our friendsThe Marvel Podcast for Gifted ListenersFish Nerds Podcasthttps://www.podpage.com/fish-nerds-fishing-podcast-1/Macabre Emporium podcasthttps://www.macabreemporiumpodcast.com/History Goon PodcastHorror Timehttps://horror-time.com/The Remedial Scholarhttps://open.spotify.com/show/5ROWgRdWXN0u7Am5lZiZdQ?si=6c5f0c2bf6e04195Private Dickshttps://open.spotify.com/show/5zsA2nthooqf1NJjVhDQBq?si=JohIguo7Q8OW4xlceX_e7QDark Windows PodcastCrimes Killers Cults and Beerhttps://www.ckcbpodcast.comAnd tell them we sent you Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Student: Let's get out of here!Narrator: Uh oh! Some students are having trouble at school! The trouble is not about their homework or tests. It is about some big birds!有些學生惹上大麻煩了！這個大麻煩不是考試或是作業，而是一些很大隻的鳥！Click HERE for the full transcript!

Welcome to a special Holiday Edition of Pop Goes the Couch, a limited series that looks at some of the greatest Christmas TV Specials in history.   In this edition, Steve Riddle is joined by James Gruenberg as they live-watch the 1978 special, "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street". Join the pair as they discuss what was on TV that same night, Christmas memories, differences between Sesame Street and the Muppets, favorite Christmas songs, the opening scene at the skating rink, Big Bird's dilemma of how Santa can come down a chimney, Kermit making random appearances, Bert and Ernie giving up their prized possessions for each other, Cookie Monster having a stomach of iron, the fun songs throughout the special, thoughts of a crossover with Oscar the Grouch and the Grinch, Big Bird's final plan to see Santa, and the simple yet heartwarming ending to the special.   So join Steve and Gruney as they tell you how to get to Sesame Street and discuss a forgotten Christmas TV Special.

Hey!When you title an essay, “One Last Secret,” I guess you're asking for it, right? My last Substack was about how all my life I'd subconsciously been trying get closer with my family of birth. I went through a laundry list of reasons for why we may not be close. I won't bore you with a full rehash, but you get the drift – lifetime of blaming myself, then blaming the culture then lightbulb moment: I built my own close family and dreams really do come true! Wheeee!End of story, right?Wrong.Grab some popcorn, sis.My partner at the time, Anthony, wanted to do 23andMe. (Sidebar: No, we're not together anymore, but we're total besties. Yes, I'm super happy. And yes, more on all that in another letter.) 23andMe sounded fun. And it was! I matched with my favorite cousin on my mom's side. I learned I'm 99.5% Iranian… and .5% Chinese! And I also matched with a cousin who had the same last name as a family that was close with mine. Hmmm…. A cousin. I know all my cousins, don't you? But I didn't know this cousin. At least, not as a cousin. A quick google search revealed that this is the family I remember from my childhood. But cousins? Hm.When I wrote that last Substack, I had already matched with him. As Hilaria Baldwin would say, “What is the English word?” Ah yes. Denial. I literally stared at his name for a year.One. Year.Every so often, I'd open the site. Yep. Still there. Still my number one match.I asked my sister to do a 23andMe, telling her that I had gotten this strange connection on the site. Sure, she said. I sent her a kit and then got a notification a few weeks later from Amazon that she had returned it. I guess she changed her mind. I found out from Amazon and not her. This is the lack of closeness I'm talking about.So I just sat on my hands for months. I didn't want to reach out to someone I don't know and perhaps disturb them. I didn't want to upset my 93-year-old mother or risk being rejected again by my other siblings. In my family there's an (invisible) barbed wire fence around all uncomfortable topics. Positive news, yes! Bring. It. On. Sexual abuse, Cancer, Divorce? No, ma'am! Keep it to yourself. Mustn't disturb anyone.Then one day I had an idea. Thanks to Instagram, I had a direct line to a very chill 20-something-year-old cousin on my dad's side. “Hey! I'd love to gift you 23andMe, if you're at all interested. I have selfish reasons I won't bother you with for wanting you to take it, but if you're up for it, I'd love to send you a kit.” He was totally up for it.And…We didn't match.There's obviously so much more to this story but suffice it to say, the man I thought was my father…the man I always felt guilty for not feeling connected to despite how kind he was to me…was not my father. My siblings are half siblings.And everyone either knew for sure or at least suspected this.Everyone, that is, except me.My close friends who know all this have asked me if I'm angry. Honestly? I'm relieved. Everything finally makes sense now and I'm just finally resting in the truth.Instead of making up excuses for why I don't look like my siblings, I know why. Instead of feeling guilty that I didn't even like the way my dad smelled, I know that no kid wants to sit on the lap of someone else's dad and smell their smells. Instead of thinking how bizarre it was that my mother never told me (at age 16) when my dad died, I understand now that she didn't think of him as my father. Instead of wondering why I was always treated like a guest in my home, I know now that I was. I was a guest in their family home. And, of course, stepparents and half siblings can have great and close relationships – when they are introduced as stepparents and half siblings. There IS a difference.Many years ago, in 2004, an interviewer asked about my family immigrating to America. I gave the canned answer that I'd been told my whole life. We came to America just before the revolution so we could be educated here, blah blah blah. I mean, it's the story of many Iranians in the diaspora. But after that interview came out, a Lebanese friend told me, “You know, your coming-to-America story doesn't add up. Based on the dates, that is not why you all moved to the US.” In that very moment, I flashed to a scene from a trip back to Tehran (1977 - 1st grade) of a tall, handsome distinguished man in a very decorated officer's uniform twirling my mother and her laughing in a way I'd never seen her laugh before or since. He also picked me up and held me high in the air. This visit took place a few years after we had all made the big move to America. In that conversation with my friend, I thought my mom might have had an affair. Never in a million years did I think, “and that man must be my father.” Not even years later after seeing his last name on my 23andMe did I believe he was my father or that we had moved to America because my mother's husband needed an ocean of space between that man and the rest of his family.Instead, I went through my life thinking what's wrong with me that things in my family are so disconnected. I guess in some ways, I was right – it was me. But of course, there's so much more. This is more than a single serving of tea. There have been so many layers to unpack – a mille-feuille – that this past year has been like a never-ending unboxing video.After finding out that I was not a match with my paternal cousin, I reached out through 23andMe to the cousin I was a match with. I kept it very light, just telling him I remembered his family fondly, so nice to connect, would love to catch up on the phone if he's up for it. He was even warmer than expected in his response, knew my family very well, seemed not surprised at all to hear from me.I gave my mom one more chance before he and I spoke to clarify how we may be related to this family. She confirmed we are not related, just close friends. I wish I were wearing a heart rate monitor during that Christmas Day 2024 conversation. When my 23andMe cousin and I got on the phone, we exchanged polite and warm pleasantries, but then I got right into it. “We didn't match on Facebook. We matched on 23andMe. What do you understand our family relationship to be?” Deep breath on his side. “I need you to say it,” he said. “I suspect I have a different father than my siblings.” I heard huge sigh of relief. “You don't know what a burden has been lifted off my shoulders,” he practically sobbed. He had known for almost my whole life. He knew everything about me and had been watching my life from afar knowing that I'm the only child of his long deceased, much beloved and very famous uncle.The belonging my cousin has offered me, is what I've been searching for my entire life. I am not naming him here because well, naming him would name my father and I'm not there yet. Not publicly. That's a bigger story and one I will tell in time.I will only say it's deep how the brain will not see what's obvious until it's ready. I look exactly like my birth father. His picture was all over my baby album. He is well known enough that I knew exactly what he looked like. We look alike in the same way the Kennedy's all look alike. And yet – I needed scientific proof to see it. I believed everything I was told up until the moment I could no longer refuse it.Having said all this, my dad (what I call the man who raised me - versus father - which is what I call my birth father) impacted my life in many important ways - especially after his death. And I've never had more respect for him than I do today knowing what I now know and what he, also, knew back then. He was always so kind to me and there's not a moment that I don't have gratitude for him. In fact, and this is silly, but I was able to track down, the Big Bird alarm clock, my most cherished gift he bought me as a child, on Ebay, and it sits right in front of my writing chair so I can remember his kindness and generosity every single day. And behind me hangs a picture of my father. The man, without whom, I would not exist. The man whose face and energy I inherited. The bull-in-a-china shop energy I was always ashamed of because it was so mismatched with the more discreet and formal members of my family. Now I break china with pride.

Week 11 recap, week 12 previews, leftover sandwiches, and Falcons slander. Follow us on Betstamp and I'll fight Jalen Ramsey! https://signupexpert.com/thfantac Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Sesame Street's 56th season gets underway, Elmo, Big Bird, and the Sesame organization are navigating a volatile chapter in the show's history — marked by government funding cuts, evolving new media habits, and AI's impact on education. Sesame Workshop's CEO Sherrie Westin joins Rapid Response to discuss balancing risk-taking with brand trust, partnering with Netflix and with Google, and why emotional well-being and kindness are the skills that matter most in today's world.Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sesame Street stars Elmo, Oscar the Grouch, and Big Bird chat about their issues and share advice in a Social Dilemmas: Sesame Street Edition segment. Also, TV Personality and Fashion Expert Carson Kressley discusses his new Christmas movie “Christmas in the Ballroom” and judges while Jenna and Leslie face off in a ugly Christmas sweater competition. Plus, authors Laura Brown and Kristina O'Neill chat about their new book “All The Cool Girls Get Fired” and how they consider getting let go from their jobs a rite of passage. And, Shop Today Contributor Chassie Post shows off some of the best gifts to give this holiday season.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Morgan Chesky sits down with the award-winning team behind the LA Chargers' social media. Also, Billy Bob Thornton stops by to discuss the newest season of his show “Landman”. Plus, Big Bird, Elmo, Abby Cadabby, and Cookie Monster chat with Savannah and Craig ahead of the 56th season of Sesame Street.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

HEART/FELT – AMERICA'S OLDEST CHILD STAR: FOLLOW THAT BIRD In this episode of Heart/Felt, I'm joined by friend of the show Elliot Williams to talk about Follow That Bird, Big Bird's big-screen debut. We discuss the film's gentle mix of road-trip adventure and emotional storytelling, its reflections on belonging and community, and what makes Big […]

Big Bird, Oscar and Bert & Ernie were first introduced to America's children on 10th November, 1969, when Sesame Street made its small-screen debut. Designed to resemble a real inner-city street, its set and multicultural cast including African Americans was a groundbreaking concept. Aiming to address educational inequality, its creators Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morissette had been inspired by the idea that TV could help underprivileged kids get a leg-up by learning through engaging skits, songs, and lovable characters. The show became wildly popular, with 7 million children watching daily, and early studies showing viewers scored higher on educational tests.  Over time, the series tackled issues such as racism, death, autism and bullying. Arion, Rebecca and Olly recount how Jim Henson came on-board; reveal how racists in Mississippi refused to screen the series; and explain how this transformational show came about thanks to a dinner party gambit… Further Reading: • ‘How Sesame Street Helps Children Learn for Life' (PBS, 2017): https://www.pbs.org/education/blogs/pbs-in-the-classroom/how-sesame-street-helps-children-learn-for-life/ •  ‘Mississippi banned Sesame Street for showing Black and White kids playing' (The Washington Post, 2023): https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/02/05/sesame-street-ban-mississippi/ • ‘Sesame Street' (Children's Television Workshop, 1969): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9NUiHCr9Cs Love the show? Support us!  Join 

We are now on major podcast streaming services!! Catch NOFODcast every Friday night at the following links: @nofodcast itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1363254594 www.stitcher.com/podcast/nofodcast @nofodcast player.fm/series/nofodcast playmusic.app.goo.gl/?ibi=com.googl…o-pr-mu-pod-16 open.spotify.com/show/2chygBiLWVQDy70vDK6cbQ www.youtube.com/channel/UCvo0YoRFkPGCipJ-_6Vjiqg www.twitch.tv/nofodcast

On today's episode, we welcome PUP guitarist Steve Sladkowski to the show to chat with us about upgrading to that tour bus life, a look behind the curtain on NPR's Tiny Desk concerts, what it takes to become a Kentucky Colonel, and much more.* Follow PUP on Instagram. * Follow Steven Sladkowski on Instagram. * Grab PUP's new album and score tickets to their tour here. * Celebrate 25 years of Bullseye!* Order Jordan's new Predator comic: Black, White & Blood!* Order Jordan's new Venom comic!* Donate to Al Otro Lado.* Purchase signed copies of *Youth Group* and *Bubble* from Mission: Comics And Art!~ NEW JJGo MERCH ~Get new Bronto Dino-Merch!Get our ‘Ack Tuah' shirt in the Max Fun store.Grab an ‘Ack Tuah' mug!The Maximum Fun Bookshop!Follow the podcast on Instagram and send us your dank memes!Check out Jesse's thrifted clothing store, Put This On.Follow beloved former producer, Steven Ray Morris, on Instagram.Follow new producer, Jordan Kauwling, on Instagram.Listen to See Jurassic Right!

Writer, scholar, and academic organizer E.F. McAdam joins to talk about human evolution & extinction, AI, pseudo-science, and much more in Kawakami’s very strange and really quite funny far-future novel. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Eleanor McAdam Title: Under The Eye Of The Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda Host: Jake Casella Brookins Music by Giselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork by Rob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson References: Current Research in Science Fiction Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori Annie Bot by Sierra Greer Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent and Some Desperate Glory Niall Harrison’s Locus review of Under The Eye Of The Big Bird Adrian Tchaikovsky's Service Model J.G. Ballard Stephen Baxter's Evolution William Hope Hogdson's The Night Land X-Men Isaac Asimov's Foundation Margaret Atwood MaddAddam Trilogy Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Cat's Cradle Erika Swyler's We Lived On The Horizon Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun & Never Let Me Go Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time          Text  - HTML . com Convert your visual text documents to HTML code instantly. Edit and clean your markup with a couple of clicks. How to use the Text to HTML converter? Paste a visual document to the left to convert it to HTML Paste your HTML code it the right to preview the document Press the Clean button to execute the checked HTML cleaning options. Erase the page to get started.    

Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB's Patreon!Guest: Eleanor McAdamTitle: Under The Eye Of The Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa YonedaHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:Current Research in Science FictionVanishing World by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley TakemoriAnnie Bot by Sierra GreerEmily Tesh's The Incandescent and Some Desperate GloryNiall Harrison's Locus review of Under The Eye Of The Big BirdAdrian Tchaikovsky's Service ModelJ.G. BallardStephen Baxter's EvolutionWilliam Hope Hogdson's The Night LandX-MenIsaac Asimov's FoundationMargaret Atwood MaddAddam TrilogyKurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Cat's CradleErika Swyler's We Lived On The HorizonKazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun & Never Let Me GoAdrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time

Join Andrew Dunn and Chris Triebel as they discuss Peacemaker Season 2! Then stick around for a review of Birdking by Daniel Freedman, CROM, and Michael David Thomas! Personally, I think Big Bird is the TRUE Birdking. SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/c/themedialunchbreak?sub_confirmation=1 BUY SOME MERCH: https://the-media-lunch-break.creator-spring.com Twitter: twitter.com/MediaLunchBreak Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheMediaLunchBreak Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/TheMediaLunchBreak Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheMediaLunchBreak Instagram: @TheMediaLunchBreak Or email us at: TheMediaLunchBreak@gmail.com Listen to and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts! The Media Lunch Break on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/themedialunchbreak Graphic art by: Melinda Filonuk - www.melgraphics.com www.etsy.com/shop/melgraphicscreations Eric Scotolati - https://twitter.com/ericscotolati

It's a Halloween special with Sal Vulcano and Gary Vider joining Mark and Sam, dressed up as your favorite Sesame Street crew—Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, and Elmo. It's candy, chaos, and comedy as the guys debate kids' TV, Blippi's wild past, and overpriced Italian dinners. Plus, Iceland adventures, Joe Pesci stories, and the world's worst toy memories. Sponsored by: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month Shopify trial https://www.shopify.com/DRUNK Get 50% off your first Factor box + free breakfast for a year with code DRUNK50OFF https://www.factormeals.com/drunk50off Subscribe to We Might Be Drunk: https://bit.ly/SubscribeToWMBD Merch: https://wemightbedrunkpod.com/ Clips Channel: https://bit.ly/WMBDClips Sam Morril: https://punchup.live/sammorril/tickets Mark Normand: https://punchup.live/marknormand/tickets ⸻ Produced by Gotham Production Studios @GothamProductionStudios | Producer: Matthew Peters #WeMightBeDrunk #MarkNormand #SamMorril #SalVulcano #GaryVider #HalloweenEpisode #ComedyPodcast #StandUpComedy #SesameStreet #BodegaCatWhiskey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pre-order Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It: sites.prh.com/phoebe-bermans-gonna-lose-it SUBSCRIBE TO THE BNC CHANNEL: https://bit.ly/45Pspyl   Ad Free & Bonus Episodes: https://bit.ly/3OZxwpr This week, Brooke and Connor take a trip to Grouchland USA to talk about the Louvre heist, panhandling in Phoenix, and getting intimate with Big Bird. Plus, Connor is completely moved by Austin Butler's life changing and Brooke says her favorite words in French.  Join our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5356639204457124/  Buy a pack at Target, Walmart, Kroger—or your local store—then head to https://goodwipes.com/BNC text them your receipt and get reimbursed! Head to https://www.squarespace.com/BANDC to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code BANDC.  Shop SKIMS Mens at https://www.skims.com/bnc  B+C IG: https://www.instagram.com/bncmap/ B+C Twitter: https://twitter.com/bncmap TMG Studios YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/tinymeatgang TMG Studios IG: https://www.instagram.com/realtmgstudios/ TMG Studios Twitter: https://twitter.com/realtmgstudios BROOKE https://www.instagram.com/brookeaverick https://twitter.com/ladyefron https://www.tiktok.com/@ladyefron  CONNOR https://www.instagram.com/fibula/ https://twitter.com/fibulaa https://www.tiktok.com/@fibulaa Hosted by Brooke Averick & Connor Wood, Created by TMG Studios, Brooke Averick & Connor Wood, and Produced by TMG Studios, Brooke Averick & Connor Wood. Chapters: 0:00 Let A Woman Talk For Once 0:37 Intro 0:52 Feeling Grumpy 3:33 Oscar The Grouch's Past 5:20 Loafer Omens 6:55 Snap Bracelet Fun Facts 7:48 Chipper Calls From Mom & Dad 9:38 To Be Is To Grouch 10:36 Big Bird Is The Worst 12:10 The Perfect Neighbor & D Day 15:05 Panhandling In Phoenix 18:21 Goodwipes 19:57 Squarespace  21:12 Phoenix Isn't Real 22:30 Hanging With All The Henrys 23:34 Roof vs Ceilings 24:05 Podcasters Must Die Out Now! 26:32 Halloween Horror Nights Coming Soon! 27:50 World's Smallest Woman 30:35 People Who Wear Loafers 31:06 Shooting The Mountains and Seas 35:15 Airport TSA Questions 37:08 Skims Men 38:16 Government Shutdowns 40:10 Attempting French Accents 43:23 The Louvre Heist 47:38 Feathers McGraw's Heist 49:30 Robbing The Louvre With The Boys 50:27 Belt Limbo  52:25 Shoutout The DOMS Community 54:08 Group 7  55:15 Back on Hinge 56:00 Pro Dua & Callum 57:55 The Dirty Bubble 59:25 Vibes 200% Off 1:01:05 Comfort Shows 1:02:04 Brooke's Bangs 1:02:48 Life Changing Advice From Austin Butler 1:06:03 See You In Bonus!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 175 October 15, 2025   HAPPY 7TH ANNIVERSARY! On the Needles ALL KNITTING LINKS GO TO RAVELRY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.  Please visit our Instagram page @craftcookreadrepeat for non-Rav photos and info     Paul klee- saw in vienna! Flax worsted Fleetwood Cortney loved: the succulent squares–eager for tote bag collaboration. And the Paul Klee sweater. On the Easel 4:11   More variety, darker colors and backgrounds Grey parrot with red in March   Ceramics   Cortney loved: delving into floral paintings, floral ceramics, growing flowers…also–the kryptonite illustration, and Monica's Viennese cake collection. On the Table 7:11   Cocktail club   Empty nest= one gf veg meal!    Double swiss chicken cutlets   Cortney loved: cocktail club–so inspiring! And teaching my boys how to cook. On the Nightstand 12:49 We are now a Bookshop.org affiliate!  You can visit our shop to find books we've talked about or click on the links below.  The books are supplied by local independent bookstores and a percentage goes to us at no cost to you! Weird books are the best!   Endling by Maria Reva On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle Orbital by Samatha Harvey Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami   Cortney loved: catching up with the LouisePenny Three Pines series. All the floral volumes this spring (great resources!), and the Eco-lit list in our Bookshop.org site.

Jessica and Lorenzo nerdout about homesteading then they get into ducks, permaculture, horses, Big Bird chicken, chicken laws, rats, headless ducks, hamster gas chamber, farms for pets, gecko, terrarium contest, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Stick Stickly, after school TV, equestrian, cross country, horseback riding, music blends, research, china trip, shrimp shells, whole fish, train ride and so much more!

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is Illinois Congressman Eric Sorensen.  He last joined the WeatherBrains panel in 2022 when he was first running for office. He is now in his second term in Congress and is a meteorologist who has represented Illinois's 17th congressional district since 2023, covering much of western and central Illinois, including Moline, Rock Island, parts of Peoria, Rockford, and the Illinois side of the Quad Cities.  Congressman, we are honored to have you join us tonight! Our email officer Jen is continuing to handle the incoming messages from our listeners. Reach us here: email@weatherbrains.com. Update on Dr. Jacobs (0:45) June 20th, 2025 North Dakota EF5 (02:45) Meteorologists in Congress (09:00) Weather and politics (17:00) Bipartisan SST Committee (18:00) U.S. Government shutdown and how it has affected the weather community (21:30) Science-focused legislators (29:00) Learning to admit you can be wrong and don't know (45:00) Social media reaction to the end of the EF5 drought (46:00) Ted Fujita's tornado scale was created in 1973 (53:00) Is the door open to change ratings of long-past tornadoes and hurricanes?  (56:00) Tornado damage vs straight-line wind damage (01:08:00)  Inaction during Severe Thunderstorm Warnings (01:12:00) The Astronomy Outlook with Tony Rice (No segment this week - stay tuned!) This Week in Tornado History With Jen (01:13:30) E-Mail Segment (01:15:20) Tropics discussion (01:19:00)   and more! Web Sites from Episode 1029: Alabama Weather Network Congressman Eric Sorensen on X Picks of the Week: James Aydelott - EF5 tornado drought is over Jen Narramore - Helpful tornado technology created by MU meteorology student Rick Smith - New study reveals potential cause of a ‘drought' in violent EF5 tornadoes Troy Kimmel - Delta Flight Museum Kim Klockow-McClain - Foghorn John Gordon - Rain, snow and a double rainbow in Laramie, Wyoming Bill Murray - Out James Spann - Tim Marshall: We have an EF5 tornado in North Dakota! The WeatherBrains crew includes your host, James Spann, plus other notable geeks like Troy Kimmel, Bill Murray, Rick Smith, James Aydelott, Jen Narramore, John Gordon, and Dr. Kim Klockow-McClain. They bring together a wealth of weather knowledge and experience for another fascinating podcast about weather.

For Pete's Sake 09.20.25 - Three of the Most Important Stories of the Week

Amelia had a painfully costly month. Emily bought Crocs that look like Big Bird's feet. But in the end, they find the true meaning of No Buy / Low Buy.Links:Danger zone (food safety)Innocence (Opera composed by Kaija Saariaho)Dyslexie FontThe Big Short (film)

I set down with my brother Gabe to catch up on things. We talk about when is the right time to have kids and what kind of person that would be willing to do that with me. We went over gooning and some of the greatest games to goon to. Government assistance and how it shaped our childhood and so much more in this episode.

The right has waged a war on “woke” Sesame Street for generations. When the party passed the 2025 Recissions Act, they were finally able to take a significant field advantage in this battle—one which Big Bird and Mr Snuffleupagus never wanted to be in. That bill stripped $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, greatly damaging NPR, PBS, and mostly their member stations. The CPB announced it will have to close in January 2026. What will take its place? Well, the right has a plan for that, or so Vox speculates: PragerU. Founded in 2009 as a right-wing alternative to reality, the sprawling, well-funded network teaches kids to hate DEI, love paying taxes, and recognize that the Bible offers the only salvation on this planet. Could it replace Sesame Street, however? Well, it's already in use in numerous classrooms—and the right wants it in all of them. Show Notes The White House has a preferred alternative to PBS. It may already be in countless classrooms. What Percentage of White Southerners Owned Slaves How Neoliberalism Swallowed Arts Policy The Global Liberal Arts Challenge | Ethics & International Affairs When the Arts Are Attacked, Democracy Is at Risk | Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Davis, Michael. Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. New York: Penguin Books, 2014. Kamp, David. Sunny Days. New York: Simon & Schuster, n.d. Ledbetter, James. Made Possible By...: The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States. London; New York: Verso, 1997. Stewart, David C.The PBS Companion: A History of Public Television. New York: TV Books, 1999. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tawinee's Actual Factuals Rockies, Abbey Road and Big Bird by STAR 102.5/Des Moines

Easy ideas on how you can help save Stephen Colbert, PBS, NPR, Howard Stern and Big Bird! Are "carpet baggers" ruining the beauty contest / pageant system? Will Bill Bellichick's 24 year old girlfriend Jordon Hudson to call into the show? What's the best part about being VIP at Z100's Summer Bash? Why did Amazon wake Tom up at 5 AM? And should Wingmen Think?

It's the last stop on our road to The Highwaymen with Waylon Jennings! He's an icon of Outlaw Country, and his 1973 record Honky Tonk Heroes combines his diverse musical influences and Billy Joe Shaver's modern cowboy songwriting into a consistent, ramblin' experience. From his humble DJ beginnings to his near brush with the Day The Music Died, we'll uncover how Waylon (not Wayland) became a staple of the Nashville country scene. We'll talk about hits like Black Rose and We Had It All, reminisce about Five & Dimes, and more. The Mixtaper will teach us about an indoor motorcycle, a Big Bird mishap, and a high-stakes Presidential(ish) Mix-Up. Enjoy the album and the episode, and remember.. if it was here, it ain't here no more!Keep Spinning at www.SpinItPod.com!Thanks for listening!0:00 Intro3:22 About Waylon Jennings12:10 About Honky Tonk Heroes17:12 Awards & Accolades18:05 Fact Or Spin19:00 He Got Stuck In A Big Bird Costume25:03 Waylon Inspired A Classic TV Gag28:31 He Fired Up Buddy Holly's Motorcycle In His Hotel Room31:25 Waylon Had A Presidential Mix-Up37:24 Album Art38:18 Honky Tonk Heroes41:42 Old Five And Dimers (Like Me)43:38 Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me45:12 Low Down Freedom46:36 Omaha48:05 You Ask Me To50:15 Ride Me Down Easy51:22 Ain't No God In Mexico52:41 Black Rose53:53 We Had It All55:33 Final Spin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Big Bird leaves Sesame Street to live with a family of dodos, then tries to find his way home. Special guest Samantha Noah joins us to discuss a good old boy walking out of “We Are the World,” Miss Finch's creeper van, and sad songs to talk to your therapist about. Then we see if Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird stands the Test of Time.

Medicine Place joins Poducer live at Sound Haven 2024 to share stories about his musical roots, cultural background, and the path that led him from college basketball to becoming one of the tallest DJs in the game. We talk about his first concert (Beyoncé in Miami), growing up on a reservation, and how the name “Medicine Place” represents something deeper than just music. This episode touches on Native tradition, the healing power of sound, learning from elders, and how Electric Forest changed everything. Plus shoutouts to Snake Blood, Big Bird, and the Wiggles.

Big Bird's Hide and Speak is an edutainment title for based on the Sesame Street license. It is designed to teach early recognition, memorization and reading skills to young children. It is one of the few NES games to use digitized speech thanks to a special chip included in the cartridge.Support NEStalgia directly by becoming a member of our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/Nestalgia  Members at the $5 and above level get access to our brand new show NEStalgia Bytes. A look at the famicom games you can play without any Japanese knowledge! For More NEStalgia, visit www.NEStalgiacast.com

Send us a message! Really!This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, the 2026 Primary field for Colorado Democrats up and down the ticket is getting crowded! And we've got a big announcement for you on what that means for the podcast! Then, are you a human being, with a body, and, skin, and organs, and stuff like that which needs occasional tending to? Well, your healthcare is about to get a lot more expensive, and most likely, not any better! Next, Schrodinger's Epstein Files are the scandal of the decade. Or they don't exist. Or...maybe BOTH, depending on whom you talk to. But one thing is certain: Donald J Trump is absolutely in them! Then, do recissions cause recessions? We're about to find out, unfortunately; Big Bird and your local public radio station are on the chopping block because of it. And finally, in a country that has seen some progress on fighting gerrymandering and making elections and democracy more fair, representative, and reflective of the will of the people, one part in one state says…to hell with all that, we want power! Can you guess who it is? Can you? 

Trump pulls the plug on NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—over a billion dollars gone. Boortz dives into why taxpayer money should never fund media indoctrination, exposes the left-wing Twitter trail of NPR’s CEO, and reminds us that Big Bird was never the victim. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Among the revelations of this week's episode that were entirely predictable when you think about it: "Lucretia" was a child TV star in Mason City, Iowa, on the local non-PBS kid's show "Bart's Clubhouse"; John Yoo confesses he was bad at sports as a schoolkid; and as everyone can guess, in childhood Steve merely aspired to be a walking historical analogy when he grew up. Meanwhile, poor Phil Munoz, last week's drive-by guest, is still in therapy. . .So what's all this about the Epstein Files? Does Richard Epstein still have any unexpressed thoughts at this point. . . Wait. What's that? You mean Jeffrey Epstein's files? Never mind. Anyway, we weigh the evidence and circumstances as to whether Epstein's exploits merit elevation to the status of plausible conspiracy or not. And this week saw the fulfillment of Glenn Garvin's classic 1983 article, "How Do I Hate NPR? Let Me Count the Ways." And Steve offers his favorite recipes for how he'd like to see Big Bird cooked.Other name checks on this episode include Zohran Mamdani, Upton Sinclair, Tony Podesta, Jasmine Crockett, and Craig Masback (bonus points if you know that name). And some exit music in a minor key to bring listeners back donw after this extra-exuberant episode (and also to annoy Lucretia. . .).

The World Health Organisation has agreed a treaty looking at tackling the issue of future pandemics. It's hoped it will help to avoid some of the disorganisation and competition for resources like vaccines and personal protective equipment that were seen during the Covid-19 outbreak. Victoria Gill speaks to global health journalist Andrew Green from the World Health Assembly in Geneva to ask if this will help to make the world a safer, fairer place.Marnie Chesterton visits Kew Gardens in London to speak to some of the artists and scientists behind a new installation that's digitally recreated one of the site's most famous trees.As it's announced the iconic American children's TV programme Sesame Street is moving to Netflix, Victoria speaks to the programme's scientific advisor and Associate Professor of Elementary and Environmental Education at the University of Rhode Island, Sara Sweetman, about exactly how the likes of Elmo, Big Bird and the Cookie Monster go about informing young people about science.And Caroline Steel joins Victoria in the studio to look through the most fascinating highlights from the world's scientific discoveries this week. Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Clare Salisbury, Jonathan Blackwell, Dan Welsh Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Turns out we've got another climax in us so we're bringing you a second treatise on Italian Sodas. Molly gets caught pneumatic tube cheating while Matthew attempts a keynote joke as they sip these grown up sodas that still aren't peaty enough for our tastes. Listen, we've been using divining rods to do vibe checks since time immemorial so trust us to know the difference between France and Italy. San Pellegrino Matthew's Now But Wow: Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami  Support Spilled Milk Podcast!Molly's SubstackMatthew's Bands: Early to the Airport and Twilight DinersProducer Abby's WebsiteListen to our spinoff show Dire DesiresJoin our reddit

And in THIS episode of Who Would Win Unleashed... The battle lines are drawn and chaos erupts as The Muppets collide headfirst with the beloved residents of Sesame Street in an all-out WAR. From Kermit's leadership and Miss Piggy's fierce fighting skills to Big Bird's towering presence and Elmo's unstoppable charm, these iconic puppet factions bring their unique weapons, fighting abilities, and unexpected tactics to the fight the WORLD has been waiting for!Hosts James Gavsie and Eric Holmes dive deep into this unprecedented clash, breaking down each team's strengths, weaknesses, and secret weapons. Who will claim victory in this epic puppet pandemonium? Will the Muppets' theatrical flair and wild creativity outmatch Sesame Street's street smarts, and tough East Coast savvy? Expect sharp wit, expert geek culture insights, and plenty of laughs as your favorite characters go head-to-head in a battle for the ages.You can now support us on Patreon at Patreon.com/WhoWouldWinShowCheck out the Who Would Win YouTube Channel!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvvgEElLPGQG2GXkqMhQ5JwJoin our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/whowouldwinshowFollow u son Twitter: @jamesgavsie @whowouldwinshowFollow us on IG and Threads: @WhoWouldWinShow @jamesgavsie @theericholmesCheck out the Who Would Win Merch Store:https://saywerd.co/collections/who-whould-win-merchSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/who-would-win/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/who-would-win/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Topics: Prayer Struggles, Social Media Anger, Big Bird, Survival School, Awkward Gratitude Jog, Fruit of the Spirit, Pummeling Brant's Face for Cure, Fantasy Football Baby Squirrels, Day of Awesome BONUS CONTENT: Bumping Into Trees, Love Your Neighbor Quotes: "The very thing that made you feel good... terrified me" “Not praying makes no sense if I believe I'm dependent on God.” “You don't have to go to China to find your calling.” “You find the chubbiest part of your body and you lie on that.” . . . Holy Ghost Mama Pre-Order! Want more of the Oddcast? Check out our website! Watch our YouTube videos here. Connect with us on Facebook! For Christian banking you can trust, click here!

The heads of PBS and NPR we called to the Hill yesterday to explain why taxpayers subsidize them by the billions while they continue to actively promote Democrat causes while display overt bias against conservatives. House members bring receipts and Tim Graham of NewsBusters joins Stigall to explain further. Plus, the most important conversations this week weren't about the stupid Signal app, it was hearings on government censorship led by Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt. Col. Kurt Schlichter says not to give an inch to Democrats on the Signal story. And the Secretary of Veterans Affairs - Doug Collins visits the show to explain how he's working hard to reform the VA to serve veterans more effectively and efficiently. -For more info visit the official website: https://chrisstigall.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisstigallshow/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisStigallFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.stigall/Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/StigallPodListen on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/StigallShow-Global Coin, for exclusive listener offers go to https://www.shopglobalcoin.com/pages/stigall or call 1-888-560-3125.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big Bird, politics, and the ABCs: how a television show made to represent New York City neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bronx became beloved by families around a divided country. This episode originally ran in 2022 as "Getting to Sesame Street."To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/Once upon a time, American kids had a problem—OK, two. They were watching way, WAY too much TV and they were falling way, way behind in school. But then a trailblazing producer and her psychologist friend asked a bold question: What if we used the first problem to solve the second? The result: Sesame Street, home of Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert & Ernie, and a social-media superstar named Elmo. Since Sesame Street's debut in 1969—the same year as the moon landing!—the show's helped educate more than 150 million kids in 70 different languages while breaking racial barriers along the way. It's also taught us the meaning of friendship, the value of neighbors, and the joy of a good rubber ducky. And it was only possible thanks to audacious creators, educators, and one shaggy-looking puppeteer named James Maury Henson (but you can call him Jim). Learn about Kermit The Frog's commercial past, why the only bets worth making are contrarian ones, and why Sesame Street is the best idea yet.Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet for the untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with — and the bold risk takers who made them go viral.Episodes drop every Tuesday, listen here: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/—-----------------------------------------------------GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.