Podcasts about books on tape

Rain in car, plus: wipers, marimba and a pipa. "It's rain with feeling!" Look; I've been working on a new "At the..." ambience, that I wanted to release this week, but it's about a fictional dystopian California crime... And there's probably enough dystopia to go around fictional or otherwise. So... audible... the football audible not the books on tape for your phone Audible. Gawd, speaking of which... there was always that button on Playstation I would accidentally hit and "audible" would appear and the players would all change positions and I never knew what the play was so it would end in disaster and I would throw my controller and it would hit the cat and then the ****** cat would get pissed and tell all of his cat friends that I am a piece of **** which makes sense I just threw a controller at a cat I am a piece of **** but with a good excuse having accidentally dialed up some ****** option play that I run backwards for a loss and am treated to cut screens of some massive dude flexing and dunking on my 4th and like 50 and that's why I threw the ****** controller and the cat was in the way and now there is just angry cats and they have their paws around my neck

The Kolchak train rolls on, with energy devouring bear gods, shapeshifters from Hindu legend, and androids looking for books on tape to complete their programming! Time to continue our look at this 70s cult classic with "The Energy Eater", "Horror in the Heights", and "Mister R.I.N.G."!

This week Chuck rants about Sketchy gas, books on tape, vampires, quiet drivesand much much more on this episode of Casually UncomfortableCall Show And Leave A Question, Comment, And Or A Concernshttps://www.speakpipe.com/CasuallyUncomfortable

What old things do you do? Audio books called BOOKS ON TAPE?! What?

When a chocolate factory sweepstakes sweeps the nation, a young poor boy sweeps up some luck to sweep his way into finding a winning ticket and a chance at a better life.  The small group of winners are taken on what they believe to be a tour of a famous chocolate factory to find there's more inside than just chocolate, inventions, and mistreated workers. Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).      Sponsored by: Lady Coughs, O'Barry's Family Orthodontics     Credits:     Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, Mr. Bucket, Reporter, Driver, Lady Coughs Caller, Oompa Loompa, O'Barry's Announcer Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - Grandma Josephine, Mrs. Bucket, Veruca, Mrs. Television, Reporter, Lady Coughs Announcer, Oompa Loompa x2, Sherry O'Barry Dylan Carey (@_groovebox_) - Grandpa Joe, Augustus, Mr. Salt, Driver, Willy Wonka Jeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5) - Grandpa George, Mike Television, Reporter, Lady Coughs Caller, Oompa Loompa, Larry O'Barry Alex Campbell (@likethesoup92) - Dan Raymond/Charlie Bucket  Susan Day - Grandma Josephine, Violet Inregardes, Reporter, Candy Shop Owner, Lady Cougher, Oompa Loompa 

On the episode we talk to Mike Paine but more importantly we listen to Mike Paine, because when you have a prominent voice actor on you don't want to miss your opportunity to learn.  And not only is he a voice actor extraordinaire but he has decades of experience appearing on radio, books on tape, teaching and all sorts of other stuff.  Not only that but he's interviewed people like Slayer and Ozzy.  You can't imagine how much pressure that puts on a podcast host who stumbles through interviews and barely knows what he's doing - but you can listen to it AND MORE on this episode!!!And check out more of Mike Paine here:VO site: https://mikepaineshow.carrd.co/Coaching Website: https://mikepainecoaching.carrd.co/https://motivatingradio.com/https://www.youtube.com/@mikepaine6287https://soundcloud.com/mike-paine-showSupport the show

A small group of children is taken on what they believe to be a tour of a famous chocolate factory to find there's more inside than just chocolate, inventions, and mistreated workers. Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).      Sponsored by: O'Barry's Family Orthodontics  Credits:     Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, Oompa Loompa, O'Barry's Announcer Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - Veruca Salt, Oompa Loompa x2, Sherry O'Barry Dylan Carey (@_groovebox_) - Grandpa Joe, Augustus Plugh, Mr. Salt, Willy Wonka Jeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5) - Mike Television, Oompa Loompa, Larry O'Barry Alex Campbell (@likethesoup92) - Dan Raymond/Charlie Bucket  Susan Day - Mrs. Plugh Violet Inregardes, Oompa Loompa 

Your favorite podcast crew taking another opportunity to talk direct to you Storytellers out there, and discuss the difference between a bad guy, and a villain.But first, in some bullshit, we talk books, books on tape, more video games and Bon Jovi...............???????????  Want to Talk to us?Website:  Rage Across the InternetJoin the Forums to get the Code for our discord and come chat with us!Email: rageacrosspodcast@gmail.comTwitter: @rageacrossFacebook: Rage Across the InternetWe've got a YouTube too, check it Right HereSeason 4's theme is: No Culture by Silent Partner Dead at 21

There's a caveat out the gate here, which is that in this week's interview, Tom Perrotta stipulates that he writes about people and communities and the dramas that unfold—in places that just happen to be the suburbs. That said, we're bringing you a great and often funny conversation with Perrotta about his decades of work, how his character Tracy Flick got caught up in the backlash of #MeToo, how he thinks about recurring characters, and his reminiscences about early books on tape when they used to be ten or more cassettes in a giant plastic case. Lots to sink your teeth into in this week's show. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a chocolate factory sweepstakes sweeps the nation, a young poor boy sweeps up some luck to sweep his way into finding a winning ticket and a chance at a better life.  Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).      Sponsored by: Lady Coughs Credits:     Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, Mr. Bucket, Reporter, Driver, Lady Coughs Caller Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - Grandma Josephine, Mrs. Bucket, Veruca Salt, Mrs. Television, Reporter, Lady Coughs Announcer Dylan Carey (@_groovebox_) - Grandpa Joe, Augustus Plugh, Mr. Salt, Driver Jeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5) - Grandpa George, Mike Television, Reporter, Lady Coughs Caller Alex Campbell (@likethesoup92) - Dan Raymond/Charlie Bucket Susan Day - Grandma Josephine, Mrs. Plugh, Violet Inregardes, Reporter, Candy Shop Owner, Lady Cougher 

Cassandra's sister is here! "Win for Life" and what we dream of having forever, like free coffee, concert tickets, or no more bills. We also laugh about funny TikToks, with Meredith admitting she'll miss the jewelry reveal videos that brought her so much entertainment. Along the way, we poke fun at ourselves for aging into phrases like “reels” and “books on tape,”. Jenn reads off great responses from our followers about what they'd love to win for life, from free gas, crab legs, and steak to endless Amazon deliveries. All the Clopen links: https://linktr.ee/theclopeneffectSupport us here to keep us recording: https://the-clopen-effect.captivate.fm/supportBuy merch here because it's cool: https://www.zazzle.com/the_clopen_effect_t_shirt-256038010043042814All material, unless otherwise stated, written and performed by The Clopen EffectFrom our other podcast, the book: Anxiety Makes Me Poop, Too: https://a.co/d/3eDNUzn

Click here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.Do you struggle with getting your child to sleep? Join our conversation with Macall Gordon and Kim West, co-authors of the book, Why Won't You Sleep?!: A Game-Changing Approach for Exhausted Parents of Nonstop, Super Alert, Big Feeling Kids.In this episode, we cover:This is not a newborn sleep training book. This is for those exhausted parents of kids from about age 1-6 who have tried it all and their child still won't fall asleep easily or put themselves back to sleep when they awake in the night. Why are some kids just harder to get to sleep or harder to keep asleep?Why is sleep so hard for some kids?How does trauma impact a child's ability to fall and stay asleep?What are the biggest sleep issues for these kids and what can we do about them?OvertirednessProblems with the lead-up to lights out (transitions and routine)Parent is a required part of the go-to-sleep and back-to-sleep patternPast inconsistency (trying a method then stopping too soon or only partly trying)Parents worry that if they don't immediately respond to their child's cry, they will damage the attachment or that their child will feel unloved.Thoughts on co-sleeping or the family bed.Thoughts on books on tape or video?AD has been with us since she was 1, is now almost 7. She's always required us to be with her to fall asleep, occasionally waking in the night. Now for about 2 months she basically needs my husband or I to sleep in her room. If we aren't there, she wakes multiple times, crying for us.She says she's afraid of bad dreams and bad thoughts inside her head, so no lights, monster spray, soothing music, etc. have helped. There is no event we can recall that started this, the only thing that fits time-wise is an age-appropriate storybook we read about adoption, with a happy ending.We are happy to give her the connection she needs but we are also tired... Any ideas on how to help?Support the showPlease leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content: Weekly podcasts Weekly articles/blog posts Resource pages on all aspects of family building

This week on the pod we welcome back our friend Bill Kenney to discuss the CV of Mr. Danny DeVito. Transcript:Track 2:[0:41] Thank you, Doug DeNance. My name falls off a cliff. And now, J.D. Welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame podcast. My name is J.D., and it is great to be here with you all. I am just fumbling with my keys to get into the Hall of Fame. While I'm doing that, I will wipe my feet. Do the same would you come on in as we prepare to go to a conversation with our friend thomas senna and our equally good friend bill kenny is back to join us and they are here to discuss danny devito now before we go any further i want to just make sure everyone is aware of our new you email address. It is the SNL hall of fame at gmail.com. That's correct. I chose the maximum number of letters I could choose for the prefix, the SNL hall of fame at gmail.com.Track 2:[1:44] It might seem trivial to you, but, uh, we love to hear from you. So send us those emails, review the pod and for heaven's sake listen to the snl water cooler it's our brand new show on the snl hall of fame and uh we have sherry fesco and joe gannon joining me once a week to discuss the week that was in the snl hall of fame and we touch upon the current episode of snl as well where we identify the Hall of Shame and the Hall of Fame moments of that particular episode. I am out of breath because I have been racing down the hall to catch up with our friend Matt Ardill, and we should probably do that.Track 3:[2:33] So I'm going to make a confession here. Even though the show has been on for coming up to 20 seasons, and this gentleman has been on most of those seasons, I haven't seen a single flippin' episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And this week we're talking about one of its actors and somebody who's got a long resume dating back to Taxi, at least. I'm sure there's more before that. But let's go to our friend Matt Ardill and learn some more about this week's nominee, Denny DeVito. Hey, Denny. Thanks. I am shocked. i genuinely you can't jump in with the nightmare nightmare episode that would just be too much of a system shock but if you ever have the chance it's it's it is dark but it is funny so i highly recommend always sunny um but yeah so i'm looking forward danny is a great a great actor um, 4'10", born November 17th, 1944, who shares the birthday with Lorne Michaels. So same birthday.Track 3:[3:49] So he's born in Neptune, New Jersey, grew up in a family of five, and was raised in Ashbury Park, New Jersey. He would frequently eat at Jersey Mike's, which he grew up just down the street from the first location, which is why in 2022, he became the spokesperson for the subway chain, Jersey Mike's. He just loved it. And Danny is a person who follows his passions.Track 3:[4:17] He was sent to boarding school to keep him out of trouble. He graduated in 1962 and then took a job at his older sister's beautician salon. She paid for him to get his beautician certification, which led to him getting a certificate in makeup at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. But to get that, the teacher said he had to sign up because she couldn't just teach him on the side. He had to be a student of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, so he signed up and found his passion for acting after only a single semester at the school. Cool. Wildly enough, one of his sister's partners at the hair salon was a relative of a future colleague of his, Jack Nicholson, with whom he performed on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That's right.Track 3:[5:23] This eventually became a prolific career, including 154 acting credits, 49 producer credits, 23 director credits, 16 soundtrack credits and four writing credits. I mean, how can we forget his performance of Troll Toll in the Dayman musical on Always Sunny? I mean, it's the weirdest one of his ever, his experience, his performances.Track 3:[5:52] But I do have to say, I was shocked to also see that he performed Put Down the Ducky on the Sesame Street Put Down the Ducky TV movie. His range is truly epic in scope um now after starting as an actor he actually shared a small apartment with michael douglas and they remain friends to this day um during his time uh in new york he actually met his now estranged wife rhea perlman well in the off-broadway play the shrinking bride uh they then went on to get a grant from the american film institute together and write the and produce minestrone a short film in 1975 which screened at con and has.Track 3:[6:42] Since been translated into five languages um he was the original casting choice for mario in the 1993 super mario's movie uh dropping out i'm guessing after seeing the script uh condemning bob hoskins to infamy um now he this is another one of those like i i'm kind of glad they didn't cast make this choice uh because i don't think it would have worked but he was almost george costanza what he almost he was in consideration for the role of george costanza it wouldn't have worked it would it's it's the wrong energy but it would have been wild to see Now he has been nominated for Best Picture for Aaron Brockovich.Track 3:[7:30] Along with NOMS for Batman Returns, American Comedy Writing Awards, Berlin International Film Festival Awards, Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, BAFTAs, Cable A's, Emmys.Track 3:[7:43] And more. He is so award-nominated, it's hard to keep track. But one of his earliest big wins was a 1981 Emmy for Taxi, which revolved around buying a pair of pants. About how he was so short and so round, he had to go to the Husky Boys section to get pants as an adult. And that was the plot in a Taxi episode that won him his first Emmy. Um, he commits, uh, like during his time as the penguin in those scenes where you see him like noshing on raw fish, that is actual raw fish that he is just tearing into, uh, not fake fish. Um, he is very famous, uh, on social media for his troll foot pictures where he will travel around the world and just take pictures of his great old big troll feet. Um, and in fact own, he is such a fan of Lemoncello. He has actually opened his own Lemoncello, uh, manufacturing plant simply named Lemoncello by Danny DeVito. Well, short and sweet, I suppose you might say.Track 2:[9:03] Of course you might not say as well. There's both options on the table. So let's get right to thomas and our friend bill kenny as they continue to talk about danny devito take it away thomas.Track 4:[9:48] Alright, JD and Matt, thank you so much for that. Hello and welcome to the conversation portion of this episode of the SNL Hall of Fame. Season 6 and we are rolling in this season. It's been a really good one. Talking about lots of great hosts, cast members, musical guests, etc.Track 4:[10:07] Today we're dipping into the host category. A six-timer? If you, well, it depends. I'll ask Bill about this. But yeah, so there's maybe a little caveat to this, but he's at least a five-timer. We consider him a six-timer. It's Danny DeVito today on the SNL Hall of Fame. And with that, of course, Bill Kenney, just amazing SNL knowledge with the Saturday Night Network, a man who mingles with the stars, with Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi. So he, yeah, he's he. But he kind of stepped down in weight class a little bit, and he's appearing with me here on the SNL Hall of Fame. Bill, thanks for joining me. Thomas, thank you for having me back. This is always such a good time. Listen, I mean, you're a celebrity in your own right, so let's not bury the lead here.Track 4:[11:01] Dan Aykroyd is fine, but the conversation is going to be great with this. Always a good time to talk to you. I appreciate that, man. So you've done a host before, Martin Short. We had such a blast with that Marty Short episode. And I know you're a Danny DeVito fan, so I had to ask you. He's one of the names that I threw out, and you jumped on Danny right away. So before we get started in that, I'm curious, what's going on over at the Saturday Night Network? We just started celebrating Season 50 of Saturday Night Live, a couple episodes into it. What's going on there as far as continuing the celebration here? Yeah, if you haven't checked us out in a while, please do so.Track 4:[11:44] During show weeks, we have a lot of great content from our Hot Take show, which is right after SNL on Saturday night at 1.10 a.m. We also have our roundtables, which dive deeper into the sketches. And then By the Numbers is every Wednesday, and we talk about the statistics, which is where we made our bones at the beginning of our podcast so and then of course there's lots of other content we do in off weeks uh during the summer we just uh did the greatest host countdown of all time thomas you joined us for one of the last episodes of that we had a lot of fun uh breaking that down and uh i think that's where the danny devito uh stuff started right because he was on the very first episode of the host countdown that we did and uh we all agreed, that it was way too low, and I can't wait to talk about that as well.Track 4:[12:36] Yeah, 100%. And I heard how much love you had for Danny and his hosting gigs and stuff. So I had to kind of like throw his name out there for you in the off season. So I love the stuff that you do in the off weeks in the off season. That's where all of us like dorks can roll up our sleeves and get get into like brass tacks about SNL. So I love that you guys do different drafts. There's different like neat concept shows. That's when the dorks thrive, Bill.Track 4:[13:03] Oh, without a doubt. That's when we have, we've had a lot of great stuff like SNL stories, which we talked to alumni, you kind of referenced Dan Aykroyd. We did a Blues Brothers, we went to a Blues Brothers convention, James Stevens and I, another podcaster, and we got to talk to Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd there. So that was a lot of fun. But we've talked to Mary Gross and Gary Kroger, a whole host of people who have had some association with SNL through the years. So that's always a lot of fun, too. So check that out as well. And then, of course, everything you need to know about SNL. And this will be the final plug, Thomas. We don't want to bog it down too much. But John and James have been doing that every week. And it's kind of these 15-minute mini episodes of kind of a starter's guide to SNL. Starting with season one going through. So if you don't have the time, like Thomas and I do, to sit through 30 episodes of SNL in a week, you can go watch this for 15 minutes and kind of satiate your thirst for it.Track 4:[14:09] Now, recently, John was a guest of mine and Deremy's on our other podcast, Pop Culture 5. We did six essential SNL sketches. And I was telling John, like, the everything you need to know about SNL. Those videos are some of my favorite content on YouTube. Just in general. Like, the editing's immaculate. The content is great. It looks great. It sounds great. It's just, like, that's one of my favorite things on YouTube that I look forward to. Yeah, without a doubt. And even people like us who know so much about SNL, it's still good to go back and be able to watch these and remember, what season was that in? Oh, yeah, that's right. So it kind of gives you, you know, jumpstart your brain as far as SNL. If you're not doing it already, make sure to check out all the great content they have over at the Saturday Night Network. Today, we're going to get into Danny DeVito as a host. So a little brief background, Danny did a lot of acting throughout the 70s, mostly playing bit parts. He was in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a decent amount of screen time. He basically said nothing in that movie, but he was just kind of there smiling and grinning while Jack Nicholson did his thing. He got his big break, though, starring in Taxi from 1978 to 1983. Bill, how did you become acquainted with the peculiar and unique person that is Danny DeVito?Track 4:[15:37] Definitely Taxi. And there was a different time back then where we would watch more mature shows like Taxi as kids because we only had three channels. But it was on this killer Tuesday night ABC lineup with Happy Days and Laverna Shirley and shows like that. And it was, you know, if you've liked Cheers, it's kind of the Cheers that people have forgotten about. It was set in this cab company in New York. And Danny played this very kind of volatile role, you know, scoundrel with a heart of gold as the years went on and you got to see. But that was where I met him. And it's still a great show. It's something I like to go back and watch every now and then. And it still holds up after all these years. It's a stellar ensemble. Yeah, it's one that I keep meaning to go back and try to rewatch. I used to catch episodes every now and then on Nick at Night.Track 4:[16:32] And then maybe MASH would come on or something. I'd hear the music and then that was time for me to go to sleep. But I would catch Taxi sometimes on Nick at Night. Probably for me, watching Twins, Throw Mama from the Train, kind of things of that nature. I really started appreciating Danny and his quirks. And he had this presence about him that far exceeded his stature, you know what I'm saying? So the way he was able to command the screen, it was almost like a Joe Pesci in a way, even though Danny maybe was less menacing, but he was still that kind of intense guy who would just take over the screen, I think, Bill. Yeah, I wonder how people view him, younger people view him today, because, I mean, he was a legitimate movie star. You mentioned some of them. I mean, from starting around 84, 85, he's in a hit almost every year for the next 10 years. You know, Romancing the Stone, War of the Roses, gets into the 90s and he's in Hoffa and Batman Returns, gets shorty. So there's always something going on with Danny. He compensates his short stature with just a commanding performance, no matter what he's in.Track 4:[17:45] Well, I'm really happy. I think a lot of the younger folks still watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Philadelphia so they really like enjoy Danny DeVito from that so it's funny to talk to like my niece is a big uh it's always sunny fan and so it's funny I tell her like have you seen Danny in this have you watched this have you seen his SNL hosting gigs like you need to go check out Danny like pre it's always sunny but I'm glad that the younger generation is getting a little taste uh of DeVito on it's always sunny is that something that you've checked out Bill oh my One of my favorite shows outside of SNL. Yeah, still. I mean, that's something that if I just need to have something on in the background, I'm going to Always Sunny and throwing on an episode. Because it's been on for 18 years at this point, almost 19 years. Yeah. And it still holds up. I mean, it really, it's the dirtier friends or Seinfeld or however you want to look at it. people with no soul who just kind of found each other in this crazy world and don't give a shit what they do to anybody else. And Danny is a huge part of that. He probably saved that show because he wasn't in the first season of that and was able to kind of boost it up.Track 4:[18:57] Make it what it is. Yeah, absolutely. It definitely wouldn't be around without Danny. I think the other core guys like Rob and Glenn and Charlie and them, Caitlin, would tell you that Danny probably saved the show. So I'm really just happy that the younger folks, some of whom probably shouldn't be watching It's Always Sunny, but be that as it may, that they get to appreciate Danny. We talked about, obviously, some of his trademarks, like his stature, his offbeat personality. One thing, especially watching these episodes, and it relates back to something that I've noticed or talked about with other hosts who I consider great, is that Danny's a really good actor.Track 4:[19:41] And that serves him well in committing to these sketches. We just talked about on the S&N host countdown and on the SNL Hall of Fame, Adam Driver, who's a good actor and that serves him well. Danny, you know, I think, like I said, his stature, his kind of weird personality sometimes, I think that kind of overshadows that he's a good actor, Bill, and it serves him well in these sketches.Track 4:[20:07] Matches. Yeah, and it's very interesting to see when he came into SNL. You know, you can say a lot about the Ebersole years that didn't work. I think one of the things that definitely did work is that he found hosts that were kind of outside the box. There was no reason in 1982 to bring a Danny DeVito into the show. Now, this predates most of his movies. He is on Taxi, of course, but he's the the third or fourth or fifth lead on that show but ebersole saw something in him and decided to bring him in uh i mean it's one of those seasons in season seven where we get so many unique we get the smothers brothers we get olivia newton john right after this which is kind of outside of uh normal thinking as well uh and so he just kind of fits into this one of the wackiest seasons of snl we've ever had. And he just, he meshes immediately with the people he's working with. They feel comfortable putting him in recurring sketches immediately and some original pieces as well. So right out of the gate, we get to see what Dan does.Track 4:[21:14] Yeah, so he first appeared season seven toward the end, episode 19. That was in May of 1982.Track 4:[21:21] Interesting timing. And I think it's kind of funny. I almost wonder if Ebersole and NBC brought him on as like maybe to brag on ABC. A little bit, a little bit of a friendly competition there because Taxi had just been canceled, Bill. And that was what his monologue was all about, Taxi having been canceled by ABC. This afternoon, my little immigrant Italian mother, she gave me this letter. She said to me, Danny, I want you to read this on the national TV.Track 4:[22:03] Son, you have been besmirched by men so shallow that they do not know the depths to which their deeds have taken them.Track 4:[22:16] And funny enough, about a month after this aired, NBC picked up Taxi for one final season. So that's the funny side of it. But I find this monologue fascinating because you know i can't think of another monologue in the history of the show that's like this it's very very unique so he as you say you know they're kind of giving a swan song to to taxi and he brings out the entire cast now we've we've seen cameos when when tv stars have hosted before uh the most recent i can think of is like steve carell bringing in and Jenna Fisher, and a couple other people from the office, but to have the entire cast of a show from another network.Track 4:[23:01] Come on to the stage to kind of take their final bow. And it's the only time in the history of the show that we see Judd Hirsch, Mary Lou Henner, Christopher Lloyd. These are big names. These are people who go on to do a lot of different things, and they never appear on SNL at any other point. So that is very, very intriguing to me, that they gave Danny the freedom to do this and find a way to make this one of the most unique monologues in the history of the show. Yeah, it totally is. And just seeing who they would become. People still know Judd Hirsch. He just recently appeared in The Fablemans not too long ago. Christopher Lloyd, obviously, who would go on to do Back to the Future. Who framed Roger Rabbit after that? Tony Danza. So Tony Danza did host SNL. Tony Danza does come back and host, yeah. A couple times.Track 4:[23:52] Yeah yeah but he's really the only one he's the only one andy kaufman comes out uh in his neck brace he's still in the middle of the whole wrestling jerry lawler thing so he has to come out sporting the neck brace kind of keep kayfabe alive uh there but this was neat i love danny's calling out like abc the american broadcasting corporation is the one who canceled us and i'm sure nbc had i if they didn't already had signed the contracts they had ideas probably of like, we're bringing in Taxi into the family, so let's do this. No, I agree. It was just so cool to see all those people on stage. Mary Lou Henner. Yeah. Yeah, it was just so cool to see all those people on stage. I enjoyed it. It was simple, but I enjoyed getting to know Danny and seeing the rest of the cast of Taxi. Yeah, exactly. And it was such a great segue into the next piece where you get to see this pre-tape.Track 4:[24:45] With the opening credits to Taxi, basically, until it cuts to danny getting out of the taxi looking at the building at the abc building and kind of mulling in his mind now this is not something after 9-11 we would ever see again i'm sure right but at the time it was very very humorous and still very funny if you if you can look at it in the frame of where it's at and uh he's mulling what he should do and then decides to blow up abc and drives away like are you serious we're we're on a network television show granted at 11 30 at night and we have the star of another network show blowing up that network like absolutely bananas yeah yeah yeah i doubt that would happen today for for a few reasons i mean of course you mentioned the obvious one but yeah network on network crime doesn't seem to be happening much more they seem to be more buddies you had the uh the late night hosts on cbs nbc and abc doing a whole podcast together during during exactly yeah that wouldn't happen yeah yeah that's when there was competition and rivalry no that was great and we gave he they gave the people what they wanted he's coming from taxi he's familiar with taxi so right away let's do a test so let's do something taxi related that's what we saw with adam driver and first thing, in his first episode, he was Kylo Ren, doing a sketch as Kylo Ren. So we're kind of giving the people what we want, Bill. You like that as a viewer?Track 4:[26:15] Sure, absolutely. And to put yourself in the mindset of a 1982 viewer, you know, the.Track 4:[26:22] Network shows where you were attached to them in a way, I think that is not quite the same today. There are shows like that, obviously, that people still attach themselves to and things like that. But when popular shows that weren't quite getting the ratings that the networks wanted were canceled, people would petition, would not riot in the streets, but they would get to a point where they would do whatever they could to try to bring the show back. And I think this is a perfect example of that. And to have this kind of moment in time encapsulated on SNL is really, really interesting. Yeah, 100%. Just like a bygone era of network TV. It's like a really neat time capsule to see. I think he was kind of light, though, on sketches. I think he did really well this episode. Just a little light on sketches. Were there any highlights that you wanted to talk about from his first hosting gig here? Yeah. One of the interesting things, and this has come up on the host countdown on the SNN.Track 4:[27:22] It's hard to explain to people who haven't gone back and watched pre-2000 that SNL didn't lean on its host as much as they do today. Today you'll get them in 10, 11 sketches sometimes or segments. They didn't always do that back then. And you're right. There isn't as much here. In fact, I think the last 20 minutes of the show we don't even see him. Right. He just kind of disappeared. Like, that's just crazy to think about. I don't know if his makeup from Pudge and Solomon was, like, hard to get off, so they just kind of, like, said, take the rest of the night off or something. Yeah, exactly. Like, how did that come to be? But, yeah, he just kind of completely disappears. But, yeah, Solomon and Pudge is a great one to talk about. That's one of my favorite recurring sketches from that era. I think it's just one of those quieter recurring things that we got. It really showcases Eddie and Joe. And when they bring somebody in like Danny to play off of them, I found that very interesting.Track 4:[28:20] I disappeared last December when we had that big snowstorm I'm home I'm home in my room my cold I try to keep warm I drinking some wine get down I looked out at the bottom and it says on the label visit our visions in Sonoma Valley valley. Next thing you know, I'm walking around some valley.Track 4:[28:50] I'm walking in the valley. It's all over.Track 4:[28:54] I look up, I look up. The executive stress test, I think, is probably the best original sketch that we see. He's working for this company, and he's been promoted, but they kind of want to make sure that he's got the bones for it. So he calls his wife, and his wife is clearly having some kind of intimate affair with a gardener. And you know he's he's perplexed on what's happening eddie comes in as a drug dealer who's saying that he owes all this money for the drugs that he's been taking christine ebersol comes in and talks about uh the herpes that that he gave her so and then it just kind of wraps up with ah well we just wanted to make sure you were okay with uh with this job so um it's all an act and as we find out towards the end so i think that's one of the better acting moments that we get to see from danny in this episode yeah he played really aggravated confused like really well in that sketch that's where his acting ability really shines i completely agree with that that executive stress test sketch again light episode he was in a whiner sketch he played kind of like a somebody who was kind of annoyed but showed extra try to exercise some patience with the whiners.Track 4:[30:21] Well, you have to plug them in here. Well, don't kick the china. All right, I won't kick the china. Just let me put... Here. Give me this. Plug it in. Oh, thank you. Let's be honest. That's good acting in and of itself because those whiners are a little hard to take. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I imagine... In the sketch and out of the sketch. On an airplane, I imagine, for sure. So, yeah, that was awesome acting by Danny. But I think even though he was only in a handful of sketches that night, his screen presence was really felt. And it's not a surprise that the show brought him back just barely under two years later, two seasons later. But you could really feel Danny's screen presence in this first episode, even given the light work. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's rare to see somebody come back that quickly at this point in the show. After we get out of the original era, Ebersole doesn't seem to like to have a lot of recurring hosts.Track 4:[31:24] So, yeah, to have him come back, as you said, quickly in season nine, pretty much, I think, is it the second episode of that season? It's episode two, yeah. Yeah, and talk of another strange thing, you know, talked about Danny not really fitting the mold of what you would think an SNL host would be at that point because he didn't have any movies coming out and things like that. Well, now he's hosting with his wife, Rhea Permit. And you say, oh, well, she's on Cheers.Track 4:[31:53] Cheers was 77th in the rankings, Nielsen rankings, the year before. It was not a hit. It was almost canceled. So here it is. They're just starting their second season. Danny's not on any show, but they're hosting the show together. So that's really funny to me to see how that matched up. And the episodes where we get married couples, I mean, take it with a grain of salt. Your mileage may vary with Kim Basinger's and Alec Baldwin's of the world but I think this one works pretty good we get them together a lot which is something that is great to see they're not kind of separated, so I enjoyed this episode a lot yeah I thought it was good the monologue was a little flat it seemed like neither of them they were kind of like we're not sure what to do we have some sort of kernel of a thing.Track 4:[32:49] Yeah but it was It sort of fell flat a little bit. I'll give them a pass, though, because Vicky said this is a fun episode. It really shined a light on a reason why I love Danny DeVito. He plays weird. He has such weird energy that he can convey. The two sketches from this episode that I was drawn most toward had that weird quality about Danny. That's what stood out to me for this episode. Which sketches stood out for you? So the Autograph Hounds one, I kind of got a kick out of. And they reminded me of, you've seen The King of Comedy?Track 4:[33:30] So they totally reminded me of, like, Sandra Bernhardt and Robert De Niro's characters from The King of Comedy. Hey, Denise! You screwball! I said you were going to miss it, and you missed it! Yes, you did! You missed it! I struck gold! No, you didn't! You couldn't! I did, I could, and I would even if I couldn't! You know, as Cole Porter said, it's delightful, it's delicious, it's DeWitt! No! Yeah, yeah, yeah, Joyce DeWitt. I saw her coming out of the Burger King, and I nailed her. Look at this. It says, to Herbie, with love, Joyce DeWitt. I don't believe it. Yeah, yeah, what a woman. They're out there waiting. Dick Cavett comes out, and it was really funny. I think there was an ad lib that Dick Cavett made that kind of caught Danny off guard a little bit. He referenced his hat or something.Track 4:[34:21] Yes, yeah. And Danny was like, ah, so he kind of tried to play it off. Danny's obsessed with Ed McMahon. man that's like his white whale of autographs so but the way they they talk about it there's just like he and uh and uh rio perlman's in that sketch as well and tim kazarensky and the way they're playing that is something of the king of comedy it just like he plays weird so well yeah and i wonder if i i think this is about the time that movie was coming out so it might be a kind of an homage to that yeah that's great i had not thought of that yeah i think because i've recently seen the king of comedy so i'm like oh yeah they exactly remind me of he reminds me of rupert pubkin for me uh one of my favorite and i think we get to see uh as you said the wacky side of danny is uh the small world sketch which just really cracks me up and i know you'll get this reference uh you know it's about 12 years later that we get to wake up and smile with david allen Alan Greer and Will Ferrell and, you know, one of the all-time greats. This gets forgotten. I think this is along that lines and is almost like the ancestor to what that would be, where they get stuck on the small world ride in Disney and they're playing that infectious and annoying song over and over and over again. And, you know, cut to three hours later and now Kazerinsky's dead.Track 4:[35:45] And they're trying to figure out how they're going to get him off this, you know, this ride that anybody could easily just jump off of and, you know, jump on the stairs and get out of there. But I love the wackiness of this and the darkness that's kind of under the cover of, of it's a small world after all. So we get to see Danny really shine here with real.Track 4:[36:19] Try and get us out of here you're gonna have to swim for hell don't be crazy Doris the boat's gonna start up any second come on there's no need to panic it is that darkness and I love when uh and wake up and smile is like a great example and I think uh Andrew Dismukes is somebody current who kind of like does things that are similar is when something just like some little thing that happens in life or some little inconvenience that just seems so innocuous and so small at the time just like freaks people out and and it gets built up and like you like you said like tim kazarensky like dies in the sketch and will and wake up and smile will ferrell kills david allen career and the because the teleprompter's been off the weatherman is dead the teleprompter's been off for like 30 seconds and they start freaking out so i love when something's so simple that hat that just like a minor inconvenience or gets escalated to 11 so quickly. Those are some of my favorite sketches, Bill. A hundred percent. Yeah. This is one of those great moments that, again, I think is just forgotten because it's so long ago and it's in this kind of wishy-washy season of SNL.Track 4:[37:31] Yeah, that was a good one. Small World from, yeah, season nine, episode two. Danny also played a weirdo, a stalker in a book beat. He wrote books about stalking a woman named Deborah Rapoport. And he's just like so right at home with these types of weird characters as we've seen for a long time and it's always sunny but kids danny was doing this in the 80s 70s and 80s yes exactly and i love the way that one ends where he ends up getting shot by the woman he was talking to begin with uh yeah he you know it would be very easy to kind of put him in this uh box of of the character that he played on taxi but he finds a different angle to the smarmyness and the and the real like weirdness of all the different ways he can play that he doesn't just do a caricature of another character that he's.Track 4:[38:28] So I think, again, this is just a perfect example of what we get to see from Danny. Yeah, 100%. It's also cool that he was able to do a sketch with Eddie, with the Dion Dion. It's neat, as comedy nerds, to be able to look it back. That's what's so darn cool about SNL, is we have these pieces where you could go back and say, oh, Danny DeVito did something with Eddie Murphy. They're just doing a scene together. and we're out what other show does that happen where we have this treasure trove of material with these two famous actors and this this might be i don't i can't remember honestly unless i'm blanking of the danny devito and eddie murphy doing any movies together but i think i can think of no but but we have this on snl like that's a part of why i love this show see if you can answer this one look at the screen all right frank is talking on the phone to his good friend Then Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States. Suddenly, the president puts him on hold. What would Frank do?Track 4:[39:28] Well, let me see. Back in the 60s, the candidates lightened him and he switched to Republican party. Now, he's a different Frank now, so I think he let it slide, but he let them know not to let it happen again. Maybe so, Dion. All right, for 50 points and a lot of prizes, let's see what Frank would do. Even though it's a less than great game show concept uh danny really ratchets it up again as the game show host you know they don't just go with the obvious person uh in the host role and uh the the whole point is that they're cutting to scenes of piscopo as sinatra and apparently i i don't know if you knew this um i had not heard this before.Track 4:[40:12] But the entire concept of this sketch was that Piscopo would shoot down ideas about Sinatra for sketches because he'd say Frank wouldn't do that. So he was so embodied in what Frank Sinatra would be okay with that they decided to make an entire sketch about what would Frank do. So that's how the entire point of this sketch is to kind of stick it to Piscopo. Yeah kind of like that yeah that's it that's a that's a fun little nugget for snl fans just kind of them ribbing piscopo for his like adoration of frank and not wanting to like go certain places with uh right right i love it so i think yeah especially as far when you said like as far as uh two people hosting together married couple hosting together uh i think this came off really well. Danny came off great. He's looking like a mainstay on SNL. And the next one, we get to see him play with an entirely different cast. So this is awesome. We see what he can do with another era of the show. So it was season 13, episode 6, December of 87. He's promoting Throw Mama from the Train. Bill, SNL nerd here.Track 4:[41:30] I love it when the host is in a cold open. I'm a sucker for that. Oh, yes, absolutely. I do have a trivia question for you. I'm going to put you on the spot. Oh, boy. I know you like trivia as much as I do. So I went back and kind of culled through the archives of it all. Do you know there's only 10 hosts from the Ebersole era that came into the next Lorne era? Now, we're not counting people like Lily or who were on the original era and then went into Ebersole. I'm talking Ebersole to Lorne, only 10 times in the history of the show in the 35 years since that's happened. And Danny is one of those people. How many do you think you could name? Oh, three? I completely... Did Robin Williams? Robin Williams, yep. He was one of them. A couple of obvious ones with former cast. Oh, like Bill Murray. Yeah. Bill and Chetty. Yep.Track 4:[42:26] I think, I swear like Michael Keaton, but I don't know if he hosted under Lorne. Very good. Okay. That's one of the ones I had forgotten. Really? Yeah, I remember Michael hosting during the Ebersole era. Okay, so he did come back for Lorne. I guess I named four. Yeah, that's... So there's also Drew Barrymore, Eddie, Rick Moranis, another one I had forgotten about because he had hosted with Dave Thomas in the Ebersole era, Jeff Bridges, and Kathleen Lane Turner. Okay. Jeff Bridges is one that, that would have somewhat. Yeah. It took, it took a long time for him to come back. I think it was 2010, but yeah, I mean, it's just kind of because Lauren kind of, it felt like he had decided that that era didn't exist in a lot of ways. He obviously couldn't ignore the Eddie of it all. He must have thought an awful lot of Danny DeVito and what he had done the two times he had hosted previous to Lorne coming back to have him come into this new golden era in season 13. So I found it very, very interesting to see this is one of the few people that Lorne was like, okay, we'll give him a pass. He's too good not to bring back. No kidding. Yeah, that's a really cool stat. I love it. Thanks. Thanks for putting me on the spot. Love to do that. You've done that to me. So, you know, I'm just paying it forward.Track 4:[43:47] Yeah, like to my earlier point in excitement, like they must have really, like Lorne must have really seen something and trusted him and the writers must have trusted him. Again, he's in this cold open and you don't often see that with hosts. And I love, like, that's one of those little SNL things that like I love seeing. Well and again to not to keep going back to the host countdown but that's something that we've seen with the people who are really really good being hosts that they trust him so much that they could put them in a cold open and uh you know often i think the reason that we don't see it a lot is because cold open is one of the last things they do most weeks because it's often topical so there's usually a political slant especially these days um so it's not like the game show that they can write on a tuesday night so the host if they're not comfortable or they're having a hard time adjusting to all the stress of doing the show they don't want to add to that stress by putting the code open and as you said like having somebody like danny who you know you can trust and putting him in there with somebody like phil hartman uh in a topical sketch at the time you know, Reagan versus Gorbachev, was really a tip of the cap to what they were able to.Track 4:[45:01] I think it's also too, I mean, obviously the quick turnaround between the live from New York and the monologue and the host has to be ready for the monologue. And usually, I mean, the host is required to be in the monologue. Cast members may or may not be in the monologue. So they have time to dress and stuff, but the host has to change and then go do the monologue. So unless it's a pre-tape, unless it's something like that, I can see logistically why that might not happen. But Danny was so good here. like it's Gorbachev, like getting annoyed at Reagan's little Hollywood anecdotes and babbling, all of that. So just a really fun characterization by Danny. Really inspired casting. But he could have gotten Lovitz or something to play Gorbachev here. It is important that we do not expect too much from this summit, but it is first step. And from first step, many.Track 4:[45:57] Please, Ron, stop staring at my forehead. Oh, I'm sorry I did it again, didn't I? I'm trying so hard not to, but I've got kind of a mental thing about it. Please continue. Never mind. It wasn't important. Anyway, here we are in Washington, D.C. Please give me the grand tour. And Phil's Reagan is so fantastic, probably the best that we've gotten on the show. And to see the two of them play off of each other, and reagan just keeps getting distracted as he's showing them the washington dc monuments and instead of talking about you know the historical value it's you know where jimmy stewart made a movie or where so-and-so stood on the steps and gave this monologue in a movie back in 1940 and gorbachev wants nothing to do with it and i think danny really plays off of phil so well, So cool to see Danny in the cold open. A light little monologue. He's saying that he went to school with Bruce Springsteen from Asbury Park. So he's showing probably doctored yearbook photos of them. But just a fun, just a quirky little Danny thing.Track 4:[47:10] It highlights Bill from this, his third hosting gig. Gig yeah well i mean we have to talk about church chat right because this is uh you know one of those few instances in the church chat history where the host has done it twice now technically he was not the host the first time he did church chat he was a special guest with uh willie nelson's episode in the season before uh kind of like a crutch because they weren't sure how much willie could do uh so they you know they they picked up the bat phone literally and said you know danny can you do and he came in and did two or three sketches is willie's not an actor and how high is he gonna be well yeah exactly yeah i mean it is the 80s and it is willie so so uh so they do the first church chat in this one but this is the one that's more remembered because this was in christmas specials probably until the early 2010s when you'd see these best of christmas snls um where he's you know ends up singing i think santa claus is coming to town correct yeah here here comes santa claus i think yeah so yeah but yeah this was something that everybody even if they hadn't watched this era of the show was really familiar with because you get to see daddy singing with the church lady, church ladies playing the drums. I'm sure that if you have a kid who was watching this in the early 2000s, you'd have to explain who Jessica Hahn was.Track 4:[48:39] But other than that, you've got this great chemistry, again, with another cast member and Danny, with Dana and Danny. I think they were really good together. So church chat has always been one of those things. It's one of the first recurring sketches that really spoke to me.Track 4:[48:55] So I love going back and watching any church chat I can. and this is one of the best ones that they do. All righty. Now, Daniel, you've been very, very busy. I understand you have a new motion picture out, Throw Mama from the Train. That's right. Wow, that's a charming little title, Daniel. And what is our little film about? Well, in the movie, I want Billy Crystal to do away with my mother, knock her off, because she's a pain in the... Oh so it's a family picture we've done a little film about murdering our mother just in time for christmas how convenient.Track 4:[49:34] Come on loosen up church lady i mean it's a comedy yeah i always remember loving this one even when i was a kid like if you're a child of the 80s you were bombarded with jim baker Baker and Tammy Faye Baker, Jessica Hahn, like, uh, all, all those, like all those people, all this, like, so, so if you're an SNL fan as a kid watching the news as a kid, you knew who these people were. I have vivid memories of like Jan hooks is Jessica Hahn. Uh, so, so this was like, yeah, this is like a, something that's etched in my SNL brain and Danny just like playing himself um it's a good vehicle of course for for uh the church lady to shame him and then show obviously she has like sexual repression deep down in there scolding danny about the title of his movie he's promoting throw mama from the train uh so this yeah this is one of the uh very like memorable i think this one and like the sean penn one the rob lowe one those are like the handful of church lady ones that I'll always remember.Track 4:[50:36] Absolutely. Yes. Yeah, that stands out. Another one that I really like from this episode is Mona Lisa. And it's Danny and our girl Jan are this redneck couple living in this trailer. And they've somehow decided to call in this appraiser who's played by Phil Hartman because they're not sure that their Mona Lisa is the real thing. And of course, it's not. But, you know, it's an easy mistake to make for something like that. It's a reprint, you know, it's a blah, blah, blah. And it just escalates. And it gets into, there's Stradivarius, but it actually turns out to be a little kid's plastic ukulele. Right. And Phil just keeps, you know, dashing their dreams, the amount of money. They spent 50 bucks on this. Gold doubloon, which turns out to be, of course, a chocolate candy. Yeah. The gold wrapper on it, until they get to the Orlov diamond, and it is the actual diamond. And Phil sees an opportunity to fool these supposedly dumb people. No, this is just glass. You are a liar. You get out of here. You're a liar, man. That is the Orlov diamond, mister. We had it appraised at the American Gemological Society. It's a certified stone. Serious. Perhaps I can take another look. No, no, no. Get out of here. Get out of here, mister. We don't need those city folks around here. Go on, get out. Get out. Bam. Woo, woo. Out.Track 4:[52:00] You scared me for a minute there. That phony had me thinking we'd been ripped off right and left. I know it. You know what? We shouldn't have let him eat that gold doubloon, though. That's all right. We've got plenty more where that came from. It's just such a great, great work with Jan again. It's never not good to see somebody with Jan, but I think Danny plays really well with that. That Phil playing the smarmy role is kind of a strange kind of turn of the head because he's always not really in that role a lot, but I think he plays it really well. And getting to see the way that they all play off each other is really, really great. Yeah. And seeing Danny play like a Southern, like a Redneck character, like that's like kind of against type of what Danny will usually play. So that was so fun. Yeah, you're right. Like anybody paired with Jan, it's going gonna make for good watching but it just really struck me is how Danny was playing this like southern character he wasn't playing an angry boss or he wasn't you know he just fell right into this like good acting chops man that's like really those acting chops really definitely helped the sketch.Track 4:[53:08] Yeah, and I mean, listen, we're talking about season 13, and you can argue that this is maybe the greatest season of SNL, one of the greatest, for sure, 13, 14.Track 4:[53:21] And when people ask me about this, like, well, how, why, what makes it so special? I think what you see is, and we'll talk about this sketch now a little bit, the doorman, which kind of wraps up the night. Um you know every it's a buzzword especially within the snl community slice of life slice of life but this is actual slice of life and and there's not it's not played for laughs uh danny's a doorman at an expensive uh hotel and uh you know he's talking to nora who comes in and you know none of the people in the building really seem to know each other because you know coming and going and they're all rich and this and that. But obviously Danny is the doorman does. And Phil is moving out of the building that day. And they start to realize that they had never really gotten to talk to each other in a meaningful way. And this kind of really touches Phil. You know, it's funny. It just hit me. I have seen you every day for years. And I don't know anything about you. I mean, I don't know anything about your life or where you're from or your family. It's no big deal. You know, the building is a big chunk of my life, so I'm here. But still, it hits me like that. Well, you know, I live in Long Island City. I commute. I got three kids. Little one, Amy, is still in high school.Track 4:[54:45] The big one, my son's in engineering school. Oh, he's so smart. My Susan, she's at Queens College. And I love this. Like this, you would not see this in modern SNL, for better or worse, and I think for worse, because there's not a lot of laughs here. It's just three people and then two people having a conversation, figuring out, you know, human way to be. And it's just, I don't know, this is something that always gets to me. I love this. And again, getting to see Danny and Phil work together so much this week is fantastic. And this was kind of the cherry on top.Track 4:[55:25] You said it perfectly. Like this is one of those things that I love that touches on shared human experiences is we've all been in that situation where we kind of get one on one with somebody, the co worker, maybe a family member, like some cousin that maybe we should know better, but we haven't. So we get up one on one and it's like, what are we talking about? And then so they're reminiscing about like, because they only know each other's doorman and tenant. It so they're like remember when that package was delivered and it fell back here like so that's the their only common ground that they're establishing right away is that like a one of tenant and doorman so i think that's like funny and it's like it's inherently funny but it's not like played for like comedic heights necessarily it's very relatable but i just i just love that but there's humanity there because you're right like feel like they want to get to know each other but they're just struggling to figure out the common ground that they have outside of the obvious tenant-doorman thing. Yeah, I mean, they're from two walks of life. You imagine this to be probably a fairly low-paying job, and Phil is the rich person who's leaving this building probably for an even nicer place.Track 4:[56:37] So yeah, as you said, the common ground is really, really interesting. Great season. I'm so glad that Danny came back to play with this cast. He's back the next season 14 episode 7 December of 88 he and Arnold did Twins they're out there promoting that movie Arnold makes an appearance here in this episode they had to do Hans and Franz cold open again Danny's in the cold open Bill two episodes in a row Danny's in the cold open with Hans and Franz which by this point was getting a little stale but he injects life into it as an even more more extreme workout partner with Hans and Franz, Victor, I believe his name was. He's taking it past the pump you up into, you should be dead if you're not working out.Track 4:[57:27] Yeah, and then, as you said, Arnold, I think only the one of two times we ever see him on SNL as well. I think he does a filmed cameo at some other point. But yeah, he's sitting in the audience with Maria Shriver. And this, to me, talk about this monologue. We've talked about a couple of monologues that are kind of, eh, okay. We get to see literally behind the door Thomas. And other than Melissa McCarthy on that Mother's Day episode, do we ever really see this? Like, I can't think of another time. Not on the show. Like, the SNL's released videos and we get to see, like, the host waiting. Yes. Or the James Franco documentary, we got to see John Malkovich waiting. But you're right. Like, in an actual episode, we don't see that. Yeah. And it's all because he had such a rush coming out for the first time.Track 4:[58:24] So he wants to do it again, and that's how they get Arnold involved. He gets to see it live from New York, and they're playing the montage, and Danny's just back there, and you can see him getting riled up. I mean, it's such a tiny space, and it's so funny to think about it, because I think in your mind, especially then, when you didn't have as many behind-the-scenes things to see, you're like, this has to be a huge space. They're walking out onto 8-8. No, it's smaller than a closet in your house, like and you know could barely fit two people as they're standing back there but it's just fascinating and i know i know when i was watching this in 1988 that i just i it blew my mind like it's just one of those moments that you're like oh my god did we really see behind the door so.Track 4:[59:11] It's just fantastic it's just such a great way to open probably his best episode arguably not yeah i think it might be and and that's perfectly for for snl geeks like us yeah seeing that backstage i love danny mouthing when like don pardo's like uh because they do the whole intro and i have forgotten that they did that when i watch this again i'm like oh they might just say danny's name and he's gonna know they did like the whole intro i guess back then there were many cast members so so but you could see a mouth like yeah nora dunn and then he i love how the look on his face when he was able to mouth Danny DeVito, he looked all excited. And then the, you can see the, the, the stage director is like, okay, go, go, go, go, go. And then he, and then, then I love it. He's tired. So he does the rest of the monologue laying down.Track 4:[59:59] Exactly. So, so unique. Even at this point, they had done probably 300, 400 episodes of SNL. So to find a new twist on it was really, really great. And again, to this day, we don't really see something like this. So a lot of fun. This episode has in the running for maybe the best sketch that Danny was in throughout his six episodes. I don't know if we're doing parallel thinking as far as what stood out, but I want to hear from you. There's so much from this one. I assume you're talking about You Shot Me? Yes, absolutely. Yes, I mean, oh my goodness. How great is this? How about you, senor? Do you know how to dance?Track 4:[1:00:48] Ow, ow, ow, ow! Why did you shot me? Oh no, I shot you! Did I hit you? Where did I hit you? Where did I hit you? I shot you in the foot. Oh, no, let me see. Oh, no. Oh, no. Are you all right? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit you. Get away from me. Are you okay? You shot me. It doesn't hurt. I'm so sorry. I don't mean let me help you. Get away. A nothing concept. A nothing concept. And talk about where host matters. He finds a way to make, and Lovitz too, but basically to set it up, he's a Mexican bandolier in this old west town, and he walks in and they do the whole stereotypical thing with shoot at his feet to make the guy dance, and they don't usually hit them, even in the movies, but somehow Danny hits Lovitz, and.Track 4:[1:01:48] It's into, you shot me. You shot me. Over and over. Over and over and over again. And there's so many other people in this sketch, but who the hell knows that? Because it's just Lovitz and Danny going back and forth. Lovitz is clearly trying to make Danny break, especially towards the end when he's in the bed. You shot me again. Yeah, this is one of those, I mean, all-time moment with Lovitz. But again, if you had an off week and this was, I don't know, Chris Everett, this doesn't work. You need an all-time classic host coming in here to carry a one-note sketch like this and make it into an all-time classic. It is one note, but it's also clever. To me, I don't know what the writing credit on it is, but it has Conan O'Brien's fingerprints on this or Smigel or somebody like that. I don't know if your close personal friend, Robert Smigel, mentioned this sketch to you. I don't know.Track 4:[1:02:50] He has not, but I can ask him next time we have coffee. Yeah, ask him. It feels like Conan or Jack Handy or just that whole writing stable.Track 4:[1:03:00] The cliche of, now dance for me.Track 4:[1:03:03] You see the cowboy shooting. But what if the cowboy actually shot him in the foot? And also what if the cat the guy still maybe felt a little bad about shooting him so that goes to his house the next day yeah exactly that's like one of the things he's like it's almost like i didn't mean to shoot him i was just trying to literally get him to dance so that's like another just like layer to this and then i love how danny tries to convince him that maybe we're both at fault if you really think about it that's right and that's when you see love it's turn and really start to hammer Danny with the shot. And you almost see Danny break. I think, I think he does a pretty good job of, of turning his head. So you can't really see it, but you know, what's happening. We know what's happening there. Yeah.Track 4:[1:03:51] Danny seems like somebody who's just always wanting to stay in the scene as goofy as he can be. He seems like somebody who's like, here's the scene I'm staying in this because it's going to make it better. So yeah, to me, that's like a forgotten classic kind of hard to watch nowadays. Days you kind of have to know where to be a sleuth and know where to look but this was one when i was a kid and the you shot me is like hearing lubbitt say that's just all burned into my snl brain again yeah and it's only done this one time but it is one of those things that you would say with your friends and uh yeah it it held up the test of time for a long time to me that's the highlight of the episode but again you're right like what else like good episode what what else.Track 4:[1:04:35] Yeah, you know, it's funny because you wonder why some of the Christmas sketches haven't carried through. And I think, talk about underrated and forgotten, I think the Scrooge sketch in this is really phenomenal.Track 4:[1:04:50] I mean, last Christmas I gave away so much money and forgave so many loons. I mean, I just barely got my head above water this year. Boy, you gave everyone some great Christmas presents. Ah, tell me about it. Yeah, and then you got New Year's Eve presents for everybody. Yeah, I know. I didn't even realize that you're not supposed to give New Year's Eve presents. They were nice, though. Tell me about it. They were good. Well, sir, maybe you shouldn't have given me that raise. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The raise was good. But I think I should have just concentrated on you and a little less on the rest of the world. You know, it's been done to death. We've seen it as recently as Steve and Marty. You know scrooge is just kind of hammered into the zeitgeist as far as christmas stuff but yeah they basically it's it's danny as scrooge and uh dana as marley and it's the next year so we've moved a year past you know his realization about the world and and how he's been a.Track 4:[1:05:52] So mean to everyone and he's still nice but he's trying to cut back and that's that's really the genius of this concept to me he's paying for tiny tim's medical bills but he's moving him to a you know a smaller a cheaper hospital still gonna get great care and you know dana's kind of a dick in this like he's just like well okay you know and and like he he offers to get him a turkey and he's He's like, well, last year, you know, he got me the biggest goose in town. So he's being kind of, he's being overextended by this. And he spent so much the year before that he's, again, still being nice, but he needs to. And then it escalates where we get Victoria in one of her better roles, I think, who's trying to collect for drunken sailors who want to stay drunk.Track 4:[1:06:44] You know you donated all this money to them last year mr scrooge like why why can't and he eventually is talked into it but it's it's so smartly written and it's one of those things again that just kind of could have been overplayed it's not it's perfectly done a quieter piece as far as christmas pieces go but yeah this this is something that sticks out to me and something that I've almost forgotten over the years because we don't see it in the specials. So yeah, a couple of like really cool, smart pieces with the Scrooge and the, you shot me. Uh, uh, and, uh, another thing, anything else that kind of sticks out for you? Um, I mean, I think, uh, you know, it's another Christmas piece and it's not as good as the Scrooge one we just talked about, but they, they doubled down on wonderful life here too, where Kevin's, uh, in the Jimmy Stewart role and, and looks like he's going to kill himself and, and Danny shows up as his angel. But he wasn't going to kill himself. He was actually admiring life and kind of just contemplating all the good in the world.Track 4:[1:07:48] Dandy's just never going to get his wings because he can't find anybody who's ready to jump off a bridge and uh you know then we get phil and dana in there as well so that's another one that's that's kind of something that sticks out to me that i think i will put into my christmas rotation along with the scrooge one because i i think uh they just really hold up yeah i like that one little parade of ghosts there right yeah and that all the angels waiting for their wings yeah absolutely so a really great appearance that was his fourth gig season 14 episode 7 january of 93 his uh fifth time though according to danny and the show this might be his fourth time bill i don't know we'll get to that uh here in probably in a few minutes but but this is his fifth time damn it and uh what i'm gonna call unofficially the amy fisher episode of snl.Track 4:[1:08:43] Gather the kids around and explain why the hell an entire episode of snl is dedicated to this one story like almost an entire episode of us oh my goodness like but you know i mean you're younger than me thomas this was everywhere and this was yeah i mean completely this is accurate to the time that it's in and you would never see this we talked about alec baldwin on the episode that you were on with us on the John Goodman episode for the host and how they leaned into the Monica Lewinsky thing. And it was an entire episode dedicated to that controversy. And you wouldn't see this in SNL today because it's more of the YouTube bits. What can we put up online and as a five minute thing to have a runner like this.Track 4:[1:09:37] Uh danny playing multiple roles he's playing butafuco a couple of times uh if if you don't know what we're talking about kids go look it up we're not going to explain it to you uh amy fisher joey butafuco it's a real thing but um yeah and and they do this like what four or five times we get this runner throughout the episode and then they do other sketches dedicated to it as well So the runner is like, they start off with Aaron Spelling's Amy Fisher. It's like a takeoff on Beverly Hills 90210. So they play it like that. Danny's playing Joey Buttafuoco. Amy, you really did it this time. You really banged up your car. Yeah. I'll bet that's not all you could bang. Yeah. The only Amy Fisher story told from Tori Spelling's point of view. You know, I've been with the same woman for 17 years. That's crazy.Track 4:[1:10:42] You don't want to get involved with an old guy like me. And then they do a Masterpiece Theater version of it that Danny was in again. Again, my favorite one, Danny wasn't in it, but it was the BET version with Ellen, Clay Horn and Tim Meadows. So good. Yeah.

Joe Mantegna is an award-winning actor as well as writer, producer and director who's been in the business for 50 + years! He has won a Tony award, been nominated for 3 Primetime Emmy Awards and has over 400 IMDB credits. He is probably best known for his role as Joey Zasa in the Francis Ford Coppola epic The Godfather Part III, in which he stars alongside Al Pacino and Andy Garcia or his long serving role as David Rossi in Criminal Minds which he has appeared in almost 300 episodes! He also plays Fat Tony in the Simpsons and has been in a number of films and shows such as Shooting Gallery, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Joan of Arcadia, National Memorial Day Concert, Elvis and Anabelle, Homicide, Baby's Day Out, The Rat Pack, The Last Don and The Starter Wife. After making his Broadway debut in Stephen Schwartz's musical of Studs Terkel's Working, Joe was awarded the Tony and Joseph Jefferson Award for his acclaimed performance as cynical real-estate agent Richard Roma in David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross.  Closely associated with Mamet's work, Joe starred in the theatrical premiere of A Life in the Theater, The Disappearance of the Jews at the Goodman Theater, and in the Broadway production of Speed the Plow with Ron Silver and Madonna. In addition, Joe directed a critically acclaimed stage production of Mamet's Lakeboat, starring Ed O'Neil and George Wendt, in a successful Los Angeles theatrical run.  Other stand-out roles include Up Close and Personal, Baby's Day Out, Airheads, Queens Logic, Wait Until Spring Bandini, Eye for an Eye, The Runner, and Stephen King's Thinner. In addition to being the featured reader for numerous books-on-tape, Joe has narrated the Oscar-nominated documentary films Crack U.S.A.: Country Under Siege and Death on the Job.  He has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. If you're a Criminal Minds fan we've also had AJ Cook (JJ) and Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss) on the show as well, if you want to check them out as well. We chat about playing Fat Tony on the Simpsons, Criminal Minds, competitive shooting, confidence, David Mamet, being a photographer, raising awareness about autism, being let go from his agent, winning awards, balance plus plenty more! The video footage of this entire chat is now out as well (one day after release)! So check them out on YouTube under Michael Kahan Check Joe out on: Website: https://www.joemantegna.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joemantegna/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joemantegna/ Twitter / X: https://x.com/JoeMantegna

How far have we made it into our 2024 year goals?   Time Stamps: (00:00) Intro (01:40) Books Galore, including Just for the Summer (10:20) Books on tape, I mean on the phone including First Lie Wins (21:30) Seattle to Portland pre-race (28:11) Alex has made ZERO progress (35:00) Struggling with the writing process (44:00) Matt's game rec process (51:30) Tiffany's Switch gaming, Super Mario Wonder-less? (01:00:35) Yasser's gaming genre journey (01:15:58) Matt's new movies (01:22:05) Outro   Find us on Twitter: @rxp_podcast Music: Grandmaster Doug

Similar to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a storytelling contest takes place at an inn for a free meal, featuring the Miller's Tale, the Nun's Tale, the Wife of Bath's Tale, and the Knight's Tale.  Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).     Sponsored by: Robby's Bobbin' On Up: A Private Affair, MyBees    Credits:    Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, Fox, Kid 2, TV Anchor, Cpl. Utah, Soldier 3, Hern Askwabbitite Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - Prioress, Nun, Absolon, Pertelote, Midwife, Old Woman, Angry Person 3, Guest 1, Kid 1, Pvt. New Mexico, Widow 1, Arcite, Bandit, Diana, Soldier 2, Kid Dylan Carey (@_groovebox_) - Miller, Squire, Nick, Hen 2, Bad Shitty Knight, Angry Person 2, Guest 2, Robby Bobbins, Palamon, Widow 2, Banditee, Waiter, Paramedic 2 Travis Marsala (@travismarsala) - Innkeeper, Knight, Monk, John, Chanticleer, King Arthur, Announcer, Lt. Arkansassachusetts, Pvt. Ohio, Theseus, Soldier 1, Lawyer, Paramedic 1 Susan Day - Wife of Bath, Alisoun, Hen 1, Old Lady, Queen Arthur, Angry Person 1, Kid 3, Cpt. Montana, Portunda, Widow 3, Emelye, Witness Creators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

Similar to Chapter 1, which was similar to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a storytelling contest takes place at an inn for a free meal, this time featuring the Knight's Tale.  Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray)    Sponsored by: MyBees    Credits:    Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, Soldier 3, Hern Askwabbitite Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - Prioress, Widow 1, Arcite, Bandit, Diana, Soldier 2, Kid Dylan Carey (@_groovebox_) - Miller, Squire, Palamon, Widow 2, Banditee, Waiter, Paramedic 2 Travis Marsala (@travismarsala) - Innkeeper, Knight, Monk, Theseus, Soldier 1, Lawyer, Paramedic 1 Susan Day - Wife of Bath, Portunda, Widow 3, Emelye, Witness Creators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

Movie Meltdown - Episode 627 We're coming to you “live” from WonderFest as we hang out and talk about toys and marriage… and possibly even a few movies.  And while we're confused about converting things to the metric system, we also mention… getting married to George Romero, Lego storylines, Kill Bill 1 and 2, head trauma, Greg Nicotero, bringing a howler monkey to a fancy affair, Shrek 2, a specific face of Barbie, murder shows, references that don't land, changing burritos, tiny little Godzillas, a breakfast taco, Michael Madsen, asking questions about liters and trees, older than Elvis, obsessed with whatnot, layers of pop culture references, building a slightly futuristic world, books on tape, double decker tacos and a howler monkey in a tuxedo.   “How many yards are in a two liter?” For more on WonderFest, go to: https://wonderfest.com/

Similar to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a storytelling contest takes place at an inn for a free meal, featuring the Miller's Tale, the Nun's Tale, and the Wife of Bath's Tale.  Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray)  Sponsored by: Robby's Bobbin' On Up: A Private Affair    Credits:    Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, Fox, Kid 2, TV Anchor, Cpl. Utah Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - Prioress, Nun, Absolon, Pertelote, Midwife, Old Woman, Angry Person 3, Guest 1, Kid 1, Pvt. New Mexico Dylan Carey (@_groovebox_) - Miller, Squire, Nick, Hen 2, Bad Shitty Knight, Angry Person 2, Guest 2, Robby Bobbins Travis Marsala (@travismarsala) - Innkeeper, Knight, Monk, John, Chanticleer, King Arthur, Announcer, Lt. Arkansassachusetts, Pvt. Ohio Susan Day - Wife of Bath, Alisoun, Hen 1, Old Lady, Queen Arthur, Angry Person 1, Kid 3, Cpt. Montana Creators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

This week we are joined by Imogen Church! Imogen is the voice of some of your favorite audiobooks! She trained as an actress at The Drama Centre London, has worked extensively in theatre, film, commercials, comedy sketch work, and works regularly as a voice artist! Imogen is also the author of Audible Original “Death and the Burlesque Maiden” and “Boop” on Xigxag.In this episode, we discuss learning to read from books on tape, training as an actress, being shy and socially awkward, being good at voices and accents, being an extroverted introvert, shopping at thrift shops, writing horror comedy, and so much more. You don't want to miss our discussion about the audiobook narration process and how Imogen finds and practices different characters. Give this episode a listen!Recommendations from this episode: In A WorldBridgertonHow I Met Your MotherFollow Imogen Church: @imogenchurchgobshiteFollow Carly: @carlyjmontagFollow Emily: @thefunnywalshFollow the podcast: @aloneatlunchpodPlease rate and review the podcast! Spread the word! Tell your friends! Email us: aloneatlunch@gmail.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We analyze the behavior of the transient person outside our studio, a winter weather advisory, Gary dismisses books on tape, dig deep on the voice of “You've Got Mail”, the dry versus wet cereal debate, Gary delivers a SLEW of breakfast takes, Connor gives us a Costco find & a food take, Nick reveals FAR too much about himself, and a good ol' fashioned Pepsi/Coke debate.

Hey it's Arroe. Pod Fest brings together three different conversations from musicians, authors, doctors environmentalists or cooks in their own kitchen. It's real people with real stories. Pod Fest 64 We kick things off with a true Pawn Star Rick Harrison Then we're going behind the scenes to spend some time with a real wizard the voice of so many books on tape and audible, Robert Bathurst Our third conversation is with one of the most memorable comedians of our time Richard Lewis. Pod Fest 64

Al & Eddie talk about news, tech, social media and books on tape To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Al & Eddie talk about news, tech, social media and books on tape--plus warm up To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From 'Al & Jerry's Postgame Podcast' (subscribe here): Al & Eddie talk about news, tech, social media and books on tape To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Coughlin was born in 1947 and had what most people would say is a somewhat normal childhood. I would agree, but it is relevant to say that Mike was diagnosed in the second grade with youth related Macular Degeneration. While he did not lose all his eyesight, he lost enough that reading, especially out loud in school, was not doable for him. In fact, his eye specialists did not even tell him that he was what we classify today as legally blind. Michael did not learn the true extent of his eye condition until he was in his twenties. He was not given access to what we call today assistive technology. Even so, he survived and flourished. He is an Eagle Scout and has achieved the highest rank in the Boy Scouts Order of the Arrow society. Mike secured a college degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Master's degree in Ocean Engineering from the University of Miami. Later he earned a second Master's degree in systems management (MSSM) from the University of Southern California's continuing education program. He worked for General Dynamics for seven years. Then he went with his boss to work for 20 years at Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc in acoustics. He then worked, again as an underwater acoustical engineer, for 20 years at Boeing. Michael is clearly unstoppable. He will discuss the various technologies he began to use although somewhat later in life. He also will discuss just how he accomplished so much and, as you will see, it is all about attitude. About the Guest: Until early in my second-grade year at St. John the Baptist Catholic grammar school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, no-one knew my eyes were changing. It was the eye screening they provided that singled me out as having a problem. My wonderful parents, Joseph and Dorothy Coughlin, transplants to Fort Wayne from New York City, started trying to find out what was wrong. Eventually they learned it was Macular Degermation, something rarely found in young people. My earliest years were spent on a farm outside of Fort Wayne as my parents had moved from New York to Fort Wayne due to a transfer by the General Electric Company, where my father was an engineer. The transfer included a move to a rural rental farmhouse on a 40-acre farm and the birth of myself in 1947 and my brother two years later. My mother, with a master's degree in education from Columbia University, was raising my brother and I and teaching English at the local rural high school. During those four years my father took up hunting and growing a large garden, a big step for a kid from New York, and I learned about rural life with the ability to play on farm equipment and see many types of farm animals. Early on I wanted to be a farmer. Once I reached school age, we moved into Fort Wayne for the schools. Fort Wayne is a middle sized Mid-west city of about 250,000 people. It was like so many Mid-western cities of that day. We lived outside the center of the city and my schools, both grammar and high school, were made up of middle-class children. As my sight degraded, I was taken to several ophthalmologists and to the University of Indiana Medical Center, but learned little helpful information other than the details of my situation. My teachers accommodated me by letting me sit in front of class and because my outload reading skills where poor did not call on me to read aloud. Interestingly, I seemed to be able to hold things close to my eyes and comprehend the text I saw silently. Because I passed all written tests and my classes with satisfactory grades, they gave me. OK grades and passed me. My shining moments during my grade school years came in my achievement as a Boy Scout. I attained the rank of Eagle Scout with a Bronze Palm and was selected for all three steps in the Order of the Arrow. I also was the senior patrol leader for our troop. My years at Bishop Luers High School, a co-institutional Catholic school, were another matter. I succeeded from the start, earning high honors grades and selection as president of both the Junior and Senior National Honor Societies. I was a member of the yearbook staff and was given a leading part in the senior play. Although I am sure a number of the girls in my class had the higher grades, due to the non-mixing of most classes, class rankings were separated. So, I was 3rd in my class. of about 150 boys. I was also awarded the Indiana State Catholic Youth Leadership Award by the Knights of Columbus. I still had not been given information on my actual visual status nor information about assistive aides for the blind. Everything I did was by holding written materials close to my face, listening very attentively and not driving. I took the SAT and other tests such as an engineering aptitude test, I wanted to be like my father, an electrical engineer. I scored adequately on the SAT and highly on the aptitude test. I applied to four mid-western colleges and was accepted in all and chose to attend the University of Notre Dame in south Bend, Indiana, which I thought would be fairly near home. The summer after high school, I was an exchange student to France, where I lived with a French family for seven weeks and my counterpart lived with our family for seven. It was a great experience, but while in France, I learned my father had taken a job in Philadelphia. On my return, together with my family and my French counterpart, Francise, we moved to Strafford, PA, outside of Philadelphia. The move took me to a new part of the country and my summers in Philly were full of excitement with the exploration of a big city and learning about the Jersey Shore. During those summers, I worked for General Electric as an engineering aide. College went very well too. Nort Dame was a good experience. It was competitive but their Electrical Engineering Department was staffed with excellent professors who helped me through every step, but not as a person with a visual disability because I rarely mentioned it to anyone. Honestly, I am not sure why, but I tried to be as normal seeming as possible. I learned to take notes from verbal descriptions of what was being written on the blackboard and if a professor did not verbalize the writing, I asked him to do so, and he did. If I missed something, I left a blank in my notebook and obtained the missing information from a friend. I completed all my course work and had a 3.5 grade average at graduation and was selected to the Eta-Kappa-Nu honorary Electrical Engineering Fraternity. ND won the football national championship my sophomore year and that was a real highlight. During my senior year, it became obvious that due to a crash in the space program, jobs would be hard to find. I decided to go to graduate school and took the GRE and GMAT, again with no assistive help. One path I investigated was to get an MBA, and I had also heard from a friend, about Ocean Engineering. My advisor suggested I stay in engineer, because he felt my talents were best suited for it. Although I applied to several MBA programs, I also applied to the University of Miami in Ocean Engineering (OE). In addition to the advice I received to stay in engineering, it is possible the choice of Miami was because my brother was a sophomore there. I was accepted and given money at Miami, and the next year started my graduate studies in OE. Two years flew by during which I was married to my first wife Judi and I left Miami with an MS in OE. One course of suey in OE is underwater sound. It is focused on SONAR and is quite mathematical, just what an electrical engineer likes. During the summer of those two years, I was married to my first wife, Judi. The job market was still tight, but I interviewed and was hired into the Sound and Vibration group at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics (GDEB) due to my studies in underwater sound. Once in Connecticut, I found a very good ophthalmologist, Dr. Kaplan, and for the very first time, was told I was legally blind and what that meant. We had some long discussions after which he voiced some displeasure on how little information I had been given on my situation. He said he had to register me with the state and set me up with a low vision specialist. Those steps led me to getting a Closed-Circuit TV (CCTV) magnifier and access to the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (LBPH) and their Talking Book program. Both the CCTV and Talking Books opened my world to general reading and technical literature which I generally avoided due to the increasing strain of both the MD and the onset of myopia or age reeled eye changes. During seven years at GDEB I moved from engineer to supervisor and had the opportunity to earn a second master's degree in systems management (MSSM) from the University of Southern California's continuing education program offered at many military installations. For me it was at the submarine base in Groton CT. My wife and I bought a house and had our daughter, Laura. In 1978, my boss at EB opened an opportunity for me by interacting with associates at Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (bbn), at the time, the foremost acoustics firm in the world. He opened a local, New London, CT, office of the firm and hired three of us to staff it. We continued working for the Navy, but as consultants. I stayed with bbn for twenty years and participated in many projects around the world. For the last ten years I was manager of a group of about 40 engineers and scientists, many ay of whom had Ph.D. or master's degrees. bbn provided me with several CCTVs and a Xerox/Kurz well scanner-reader. bbn was an early adopter of Ap-le Macintosh computers. One of my associates immediately found that all Mac's had magnification and text to speech features. This opened the computing world to me. (I had been able to deal with punch cards, but the computer screen with small letter left me out.) During these years, I was able to travel to Hawaii, Japan, and many cities in the US. My LBPH recorded books were constant companions. During this time, my daughter Laura was married and gave us a grandchild, Chloe. Throughout my working life, I have had the opportunity to give something back to several communities. I was on the advisory board for the Connecticut Stat Library for the Blind, on the Board of directors for CHRIS Radio, and on the Board of Directors for the Waterford Education Foundation I was president of a a Macular Support Group in Waterford, CT and am now on the Board of Directors for the Southeastern Connecticut Center of the Blind, where I conduct a support group for those with Macular on how to use digital technology. Shifts in the Department of Defense (DOD) business world produced some big layoffs at bbn. Thus, in 2000, I was searching for a job and with the help of a friend, connected with a group at the Boeing Company that worked in the undersea world, as opposed to most of the company which did airborne things. They were looking for someone who lived on the east coast who had a background like their work. The group was in Anaheim, CA, and then in Huntington Beach, CA. I fit the profile and after an interview was offered a. job as an off-site Technical Representative. Since I had no other solid offers, I accepted feeling the job would last at least a few years. The relationship lasted over 20 and provided a very rewarding end to my career. Boeing, like bbn was totally accommodating to my assistive needs. Although they computer usage was based on Windows PC's s, they provided me with special software which was now available on those platforms and with CCTV equipment as I needed. Someone was always available to assist in getting special software up and running. By the time I started with Boeing, LBPH cassette readers were small and made traveling with them quite easy. I also had a laptop with screen magnifier'/reader software and internet connectivity anywhere I needed ii. While at Boeing, family matters took some good and bad turns. My daughter and her husband had my second grandchild, Evan. The bad part is my long-time wife and partner, Judi, died of cancer. After the grieving time, where things seemed s unsteady. it all turned around, when I met and married my current wife, Karen. I am again on firm footing and life has not been better. As I grew nearer retirement and brought up the subject with my supervisor, she had other ideas. She wanted me to keep working, however, I was able to reduce my work week to four and then three days. Finally, when I found a good replacement, she agreed to let me go. I had to stay in a two day a week consulting role for a year or so. I worked for Triad Systems Inc., a firm that provided part time support to aerospace firms on the west coast. On the home front , life proceeded without mishap. I am now fully retired and working as a volunteer for the southeastern Connecticut Center of the Blind. God things have again arrived as Karen's daughter, Kate, and her husband brought us another grandchild, Esme. Although most of the events above were very good, I am now happy in retirement and ready to do what I can to support others and to enjoy my family. Ways to connect with Mike: mjcoughl@aol.com About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes **Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. **Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hello, once again. I'm Mike Hingson. Your host Welcome to unstoppable mindset. And today we get to interview Michael Coughlin. Who's Michael Coghlan? Well, that's what we're going to find out in the course of the day. But I'm going to start a little bit different Lee than I have in the past. Let me tell you how I met Michael. He wrote me an email a few months ago, and talked about the fact that he read my book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man's guide dog in the triumphant trust. And we had discussions about that Michael happens to be a person who was blind. And he talked about his engineering background and other such things. And me being a person with a physics background and also in sales, but also doing a lot of engineering and tech stuff. It just seemed like the thing to do was to have Michael come on to the podcast. So we can find out all the scandalous and non scandalous things that we want to know about him. And just give us a chance to dialogue. And I thought it'd be kind of fun if all of you get to hear it. And that's how we, we discovered each other, we finally were able to get a time where we could get together and chat. So here we are. And Michael, welcome to unstoppable mindset. **Michael Coughlin ** 02:34 Thank you. I'm glad to be here. **Michael Hingson ** 02:37 Well, we'll really appreciate you being here. Why don't we start by you may be talking about the the younger early, Michael and tell us a little bit about you. And we'll go from there. Sure. **Michael Coughlin ** 02:48 And as you said, I had emailed you because of reading the book, which was powerful. There were in addition to my low vision blindness, were a few other parallels that caught my eye and maybe we'll cover those as we go through this feel free start. I was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, another midwesterner and I was born on a farm, as was my brother. My mother and father were New Yorkers at birth, and in their early years, they moved to Indiana, because my father was an engineer working for General Electric, and he was transferred to Fort Wayne. When they arrived in Fort Wayne, they decided to look at the Midwest, there's different sets of eyes and they rented a farmhouse on a 40 acre farm. And my father even became a hunter and raised a large garden and it was something pretty adventurous for a New York kid. But they were loving it. And I grew up for the first five years of my life on that farm, exposed a farm animals farm equipment. And I think at that time, I had been wanting to be a farmer. But quickly, they moved me into the city because of the school system. My mother had been a was a school teacher by trade and that taught in a rural schools and they felt the city schools would just be stronger. So at five years old, we moved in to Fort Wayne, and I started school at St. John the Baptist Catholic school and began my early years. In second grade. When they were doing I skipped screening for students. They immediately picked up on the fact that I couldn't see very well. And it was a bit of a shock to everybody I was getting by okay, but my parents were told that I had high problems and they immediately contacted a friend who was not the mala just to look at me, sent me to quote the best ophthalmologist in the city and I started going to him, he examined me and examined me and sent me to the University of Indiana Medical Center. And they all pretty quickly decided that I had macular degeneration. As a juvenile, um, it's very unusual in those days to come up with juvenile macular degeneration. **Michael Hingson ** 05:21 So What year was this? This would **Michael Coughlin ** 05:24 have been about 1953 or 54. Yeah. So, I mean, I was in second grade. And I was obviously starting to have visual difficulties. One of the things I didn't do very well was read aloud, because I was having trouble seeing the print even though I held it close I, I just never could read things out loud. But the school accommodated that well enough. They sat me in front of the class, when the work was going around, and each kid was asked to read a paragraph, they just skipped me. However, I was able to hold things close, read silently, figure out what was on the page, do my homework, pass my tests, and get reasonably good grades, I was probably an average to a little better than average student. So as I progressed, through grammar school, I was just given a little leeway on reading out loud, and everything else seemed to work fine. So they said average student, but if I had something to brag about in those years, it was my Boy Scout work. We had a wonderful Troop at my school. And in the years that I was a boy scout, I earned the rank of Eagle Scout with a bronze POM. I was awarded all three steps in the Order of the Arrow. And by eighth grade, was the senior patrol leader for our troop. Though I had managed through scouting, to excel in something, and then I moved on to high school. At this point, of course, I'd gone through all through grammar school, I'd been seeing ophthalmologists, I knew I had macular degeneration. But I had not been given one piece of information regarding assistive technology, such as talking books, large print, learning Braille, or anything else. I can only attribute that to the fact that I kind of saw things. I didn't run into anything, because I did have a low vision, but I could see. And so they just treated me like everybody else. And just acted like everybody else as best I could. When I got in high school. And I went yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead. Alright, went to Bishop lures High School, called institutional Catholic High School where the boys were sort of separated from the girls in most classes, because that's what was done in those days. I really got it, my grades markedly improved. I made high honors or honors at every grade point, every grade session all the way through high school. I was elected president of the Junior National Honor Society and the senior national honor society. I was in senior play with the lead one of the lead roles. I was on a yearbook staff. I just participated in everything I could, and the only thing I could not do was drive. And I had a lot of friends. And back then, at 16, not only could you drive, you could drive with a friend. So I was always able to get rides, and I just went right through high school. Still not using anything in the way of assistive technology, assistive technology. But I prospered. And at the end of my senior year, I was awarded the Catholic, the Catholic Leadership Award for the state of Indiana by the Knights of Columbus. And I decided that it was time to think about college. So there I was, and I was starting to fill that application. And so I took the graduate or the SATs test, it took another test in engineering aptitude. I scored reasonably well on the LSAT, again, with no help, no large print, no extra time holding it close. But I got through it did pretty well on that engineering aptitude test applied to four colleges in the Midwest and were accepted to all of them. I think a lot because my high school teachers liked me and gave me good recommendations. Anyway I have the four selected the University of Notre Dame, which was a good school, good Catholic school, had electrical engineering, which was where I had applied to get in and was ready to head off to college. My senior year at the end of my senior year, in high school, my parents, I was an exchange student in France, where I went there for seven weeks and lived to the French family. The correspondent, French student, Francis came back in the US for seven weeks. And right in the middle of that, my father took a job in Philadelphia, and we moved to Philadelphia. So I was transplanted into the east coast into a big city, and had a whole nother set of experiences that were great. I enjoyed it, I explored that city for the four years I was in college, even though I went back to Notre Dame, went to the Jersey Shore and saw what that was about. And went off to college, where they put me on an airplane in Philadelphia, I flew out and began my career at Notre Dame in electrical engineering, again, doing everything everybody else did, I didn't go out of my way to tell people that I couldn't see very well, I just played the role of a student. And for four years, managed to get by with pretty good grades, I had a 3.5 GPA at the end of my four years. And I had a degree in electrical engineering, and was ready to move on again to the next stage in life when the space program collapsed, and engineering jobs virtually disappeared. And so I said, Well, maybe grad school would be something one might think about for a little while longer. And I started looking into MBA programs, which I don't know we're getting popular. But my one of my engineering advisors suggests that I might want to stay in engineering because he thought I was a good engineer. I had done well in all my classes, all my labs, working with computers. So I thought about it. And somebody mentioned that there was a kind of a new field opening up called Ocean Engineering. And at the University of Miami had a program. While at the time my brother is a sophomore at Miami. And it seemed like wow, wouldn't it be kind of interesting to put out there and maybe room with my brother and, and whatever. And so I applied in ocean engineering, as well as a few MBA programs. I was accepted to Miami, they gave me money to go to school, paid my tuition gave me a stipend. And so I went, I went off to the University of Miami for a to attain that graduate degree, which I did in two years. In the middle of those two years, married my first wife, Judy, we moved she moved down to Florida. And there we were, for a couple years earning a graduate degree in ocean engineering. One of the curricula within ocean engineering is underwater acoustics. And that was very interesting to me because it was pretty mathematical. And guy double E's love math. And so I spent my courses in acoustics. And when some job interviews on campus came around, one of the companies looking for people with odd degrees were was electric boat Division of General Dynamics, because noise and submarines go together, or at least the lack of noise. They want you to be quiet. Yeah. So they gave me a job offer. And I took it, and we moved to Connecticut. And the came up here and one of the things I did during that first year, besides getting started with my job was to find an ophthalmologist because since I didn't see very well and I didn't want it to get too much worse. It was probably a good idea. And I found a fella Dr. Kaplan in Mystic and got an appointment and walked in and for the first time in my life had been I was told I was legally blind. I had no idea what that meant. And I was surprised because up until that point, I was getting by. I was enjoying what I was doing. I wasn't failing in anything, and like seem good. But anyway, he gave me a good overview on it. He said yeah, he was pretty disappointed. At the fact that I had been involved in everything to that point and never been told I was legally blind, nor had been told that there was any assistive technologies available to make it easier for me. So wait, you're mistaken. That would have been 1971. **Michael Coughlin ** 15:19 Okay. He did a few things, he registered me with the state of Connecticut. They actually have people in the state that come out and try to help you with things. He, they then sign me up for the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. They stay State Library. And, lo and behold, they provided me with a talking book reader and talking books. For the first time ever, I was able to listen to books. All the ones I wanted, anything I wanted, was there available to me. And it was eye opening at that point. i From that time on, even though the device they had for as a player was pretty bulky. I carried that around everywhere. I went and was always listening to books, in addition, **Michael Hingson ** 16:11 is that records or cassettes? That **Michael Coughlin ** 16:15 at that point, they were both that's and I got records. Okay. They gave me a record player. Mostly those were the periodicals on what were then throwaway discs and, and the cassette, but I had to carry a second briefcase anywhere I went to bring that recorder because it was pretty big beast. Yes, **Michael Hingson ** 16:36 I remember those ranking was a General Electric manufacturing machine might **Michael Coughlin ** 16:42 have been but it was a great believe me went from nothing to that it **Michael Hingson ** 16:46 was large, but still Yeah. **Michael Coughlin ** 16:50 In addition, through Kaplan, I met another low vision specialist. And what he showed me was a closed circuit TV magnifier. And at that time, that beast was bigger than the tape recorder, believe me, oh, yes, full size, black and white television with a separate camera. But all of a sudden, I could see things I couldn't see because there were magnified. And so instantly, on arrival in Connecticut or close to it. I had two pieces of technology that just opened up the world. And it allowed me through that CCTV to get a second master's degree in systems management from University of Southern California. They ran that program on military bases. And they gave it I went to the submarine base in Groton and took that for two years and earned a master's second master's, I had access to closed circuit television for that I had my library books on or talking books on tape, and I was pretty happy in my career at General Dynamics was going well. I went, I went from an engineer, through senior to specialist and was an engineering supervisor in about seven years. And anyway, so we were good, but my boss at the time was struggling a bit with his advancement in life. And we had been doing a lot of work underwater acoustics on submarines with with a consulting firm that worked for the Navy called Bolt Beranek and Newman while the BBN was a diverse company, because not only were they the leading acoustics company in the world, but they also had some people that were working on something through DARPA called the ARPANET. So here we go, he gets an offer to start a local, then in New London, which is across the river from Groton, a local office of BBN recruits myself and a couple of other engineers and I am now a consultant working for the Navy Department. At that point in time, BBN was extremely interested in helping me out. So they provided me with a closed circuit was actually a portable closed circuit TV magnifier as well as the desktop version. And a few years later, I Xerox kurz wild text to speech reader. So now I had a little more technology that I could use to get printed books into text format, or speech format. And soon thereafter, one of my good friends who I still play golf with Doug Hannah, came across the fact that a Macintosh computer could magnify the screen and had text to speech. And that was from the all Most of the beginning of the Mac, those features were built into their operating system. Did **Michael Hingson ** 20:06 you ever get to spend much time up at BBN in Cambridge? **Michael Coughlin ** 20:10 Oh, yes. Lots of time at BBN in Cambridge. **Michael Hingson ** 20:14 Did you ever get to meet a guy up there named Dick Durbin sign? **Michael Coughlin ** 20:19 No, but I'll bet he was in a speech synthesis group. **Michael Hingson ** 20:24 I don't know that. He was there. He, he and I went to UC Irvine together. And I actually saw him. I actually saw him at BBN later, and we worked on some projects together, but I suppose there's a large place. So it **Michael Coughlin ** 20:41 was it was large and, and for the most part, my work was done with the acoustic side of things. Although as the internet grew, the computer side of BBN, when I started was about 5050 grew huge and dominated the company and, and all. I mean, they were very early adopters in, in speech recognition, right? They had a voice recognition or a voice sort of dialer feature in their phones from years before they were they were very much into that sort of thing. I **Michael Hingson ** 21:20 remember once when I visited BBN, he Dick told me about a transducer they had that actually would simulate the sound of a jet engine. I believe that yes, he said it was like the size of an ashtray that like the typical floor ashtray in a hotel but he said you didn't want to be anywhere near it when they fired it up because it really was just like a jet engine and it had all the the audio capabilities and all the features. So it really sounded like a jet engine. So you didn't want to be anywhere near Munich fire to an **Michael Coughlin ** 21:57 an aircraft acoustics was a huge part of the work that was done there. And air airport acoustics and they were just in a lot of acoustics but our little group was in submarine acoustics and, and kept us busy. Working at BBN was great in that they were a Mac House, everybody used maps. They put a Macintosh on my desk. It had the ability to magnify what I wanted to see and do text to speech. Even though it's a bit cumbersome, in that you had to copy things paste and whatever. But But I got good at that. I was able to use that computer to do word I could do Excel spreadsheets. I could do graph view graphs. I could do program planning, you name it. All of a sudden the world of the PC was opened to me, thanks to the Mac. And my career at BBN span 20 years. It was it was a great place. They were very early adopters in a lot of technology exposed to a lot of it early emails. They were one of the first companies to to use email. In fact, the fella that put the at sign in email name worked at BBN Ray Tomlinson, so that that was the place but after 20 years, because they were a true consulting firm and fairly expensive rates. And the government was competing on a cost basis. And so eventually I was in a situation where I was looking for a job. And friend of mine at BBN suggested a fella he knew at Boeing might want to buy mica job. And that led to a situation where they their group who was doing work and underwater vehicles, were located on the west coast, wanted somebody on the East Coast who did similar work. And so I was hired as a tech rep, where I would represent the group on the west coast, but I would interact with their Prime customers on the East Coast, one of whom was General Dynamics electric boat, and so my location in Groton was, was great. So what I thought would be about a four three or four year experiment with Boeing ended up as a 20 plus year career with Boeing. And I, they too, were a great employer. They provided me with up to date, closed circuit TVs, they made sure that I my laptop had the best software it turned out by that time. In the PC world. There were software there were things like Jaws and zoom texts. And so I they had Zoom Text on my machine. I was stopped into the internet anywhere I went. And I had closed circuit TVs, both at their facility in California and at my house. And by that time, you could put the library of the blind cassettes into Walkman size machines. So it was easy to carry that along on my travels. And for what was what 20 plus years I had a great career with them as as a tech rep. I was no longer now you had mentioned sales. My father and brother are sales people he was a sales engineer, my brother was a salesman and so is light all his career. My case not so much being in Myers Brigg ISTJ, which stands for introvert a bit. Sales was always a pressure job to me. And as a manager, by that time at BBN have have managed managed the Department of 40 engineers and scientists, the whole job was get more work sales. That was a pressure position for me, when I switched to BBN and I was nothing but a an engineer in the field with no sales pressure and work at all times. I loved it just lower pay less pressure, but I prospered. i I'm sure I was a huge help to them. Because every year my contract or the thought of me coming on for another year came up. Different supervisors wanted me and I just stayed in I was there for over 20 years. And it was it was kind of career where I was traveling a lot. And I enjoyed traveling. And I could get by in airports with little monoculars and asking questions and remembering the Airport layout. So I didn't get lost. And I just got by. Great. And as that careers continued through 20 plus years, and I was getting older, the subject of retirement began to crop in. I talked to my supervisor, you know, I'm at an age where retirement is something I might want to think about. Nope, nope. Well, I went from five day weeks to 40 weeks to three day weeks always saying I want to get out now. And finally they said, Well, if you can find a replacement, then we'll talk about it. So I was fortunate and able to find somebody I thought was good at it as today. And so then they put me on as a consultant for another year and a half on Tuesday weeks. And finally I was able to retire. What year was that? He retired? Yes. And that's where I am today. **Michael Hingson ** 27:42 But what year did you retire? **Michael Coughlin ** 27:45 Okay. During my time at Boeing, which I thought the career itself was fantastic. There were some times good and bad. I, my, my daughter and her husband gave us two grandchildren, Chloe and Evan. However, after many, many years, my first wife Judy succumbed to cancer. And that was tough. And when you are seeing some of that now, I'm sure, but in any case, after that, there's some low points and whatever I met Karen, my current wife, we, we went out for a few years and eventually we're married and, and everything has just turned back around the way it was. I'm happy. I'm retired. Her daughter has given us a grandchild ESMI who's now two and a half, almost three. And we are enjoying life. **Michael Hingson ** 28:42 So how long have you guys been married? **Michael Coughlin ** 28:45 This will be it was just 10 years we were we were married in 2012. Newlyweds? **Michael Hingson ** 28:50 Almost. Yeah. Well, I'm curious. What. So you, you clearly had a rich life you'd have the life that you enjoyed. But what do you think about the fact that early on? They did not that that no one the ophthalmologists and others didn't give you any access to assistive technology didn't give you more access to understanding about blindness and so on. And I don't ask that to say what a horrible thing but rather just what do you think about it? Now looking back on hindsight is always a wonderful thing. Looking back, **Michael Coughlin ** 29:34 I almost angry. At the time, I thought everything was fine. But when you look back, I believe. Number one, I think a lot of eye doctors are great if they can help you but if they can't help you, they tend to push you off to the side. And I think that was a little of it. And it maybe was just the fact that in the URL The days even though I had macular and I couldn't see printed and everything I saw well enough to get by. And I'm just thinking they figured, well, he's doing okay, whatever they should have done way more. And maybe even my parents should have done more. But But I don't I even looking back feel that in some sense the fact that I had to hold things up here to read was almost embarrassing to them, they they didn't grasp the concept of a young person not saying well, it just didn't grasp it. And unfortunately, since we were in the middle of Indiana, and there really weren't Apparently, people with very much knowledge of the subject. It just happened. And I just hope today, that way more attention is paid to people, the few juveniles that are limited sight, because I'm sure I could have had a fuller experience in life, if I at least had been exposed to talking books at a younger age. **Michael Hingson ** 31:14 Here are a lot of us who believe that it is so unfortunate that more of us also did not get the opportunity to learn braille, because right is outcomes, the basic means of reading and writing. **Michael Coughlin ** 31:30 I understand I agree completely. And so here I am having to sit here with my closed circuit TV, off to the right with about 40 power magnification in order to be able to see my notes, hey, I have a fellow in our, at the center of the blind Kevin, who is a braille reader and, and he's totally blind, but he has the Braille and he can sit at a meeting and read what he needs by reading it in Braille, when I'm at those meetings, I can't read anything. You can't, I cannot see any print, I just always have to rely on what I hear or ask questions. **Michael Hingson ** 32:13 So you're seeing reality, the advantage that we had was being blind people than if we do read braille, and so on, for not the advantages that we can look at meetings from a different perspective, which I love to talk about which, namely, is, if people are doing meetings truly the right way, they would provide everyone the information in advance of the meeting, so that people could read this stuff with the idea, then you can prepare and then you go to the meeting, and you can discuss it rather than spending half the meeting reading the information. Yep, well, they **Michael Coughlin ** 32:50 do that fortunately, times. Case of the center, I gather all of the information they're going to pass out as Word documents earlier, and I do go through them. **Michael Hingson ** 33:02 But what I'm saying is they should really do that for everyone, rather than passing out information at the meeting. People should get it in advance so that nobody has to read it at the meeting, rather use the meeting to be more efficient. So that's a lesson we could teach them which, which a lot of people really haven't caught on to yet understood. It does make life a little bit of a challenge. But I'm glad that that your your work at the Center will tell me a little bit about your work at the center and how you got involved in what the center is all about. **Michael Coughlin ** 33:34 Right? Well, it's my second time involved being involved with the center of the Blind in New London. First, the first interaction came about in in probably the late mid mid to late 90s, when we had a macular degeneration support group in Waterford, that that was started by a fellow's a friend Duncan Smith since passed. And, and I ended up as president of the group. And it was it was a pretty active group for about 10 years. And we brought people in that had macular and tried to provide him with information. And as part of that the center of the blind was one of the participants and their lead person helped us get speakers and so there's sort of a three to four person group as the lead and and that center lead person was one of those. I can tell you what her name was, but I forgotten it is too many years ago. So when I retired and I'm trying to think of giving back and doing things that what what can I do also I should have mentioned that not only they work with a senator I also at one point in time was a reader On the advisory group for the State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, where I'd attend meetings and from a reader point of view, try to help them with their services. And I was on the board of directors for Chris radio, which is a radio service that reads newspapers and periodicals to people. So I've done a few of those kinds of things as well. But now I'm retired, I say, I want to be able to give back to some degree and, and so I thought of the Senator and gave them a call. They looked up their webpage, and there's a phone number I gave a call, talk to the Executive Director, Wendy Lusk. And she said, we'd love to have you come down and talk so. So I did, Karen and I went down. And we sat and talked to Wendy and, and Tammy, the assistant and said, well, might I be able to do. And after a little discussion, the concept of a support group for macular degeneration came up. And they didn't have such a thing. And they thought that would be a worthwhile project that they should put into their calendar. And that's what we've done. So I, every first Wednesday of the month, get together with others who are interested in. And the primary focus is learning how to use cell phones, because the new cell phones or smartphones and iPhones and also that others are pretty hard for people who are beginning to lose their sight. And they don't have an understanding of some of the assistive aids that are in the phone. So that's what we do. We spend a couple hours just answering questions and presenting information that I pick up over the web on things their smartphone can do for them. And as as that went and started gaining traction, Wendy asked me if I wanted to be on the board. And I said I'd be glad to do that and was elected to the board a couple of months back. So I'm on the board of directors as well as running that support group. **Michael Hingson ** 37:17 Do you think that let's deal with the pathological world? Do you think that attitudes have changed very much in terms of how I doctors handled blindness and blind people today over, say 40 years ago? **Michael Coughlin ** 37:35 Well, a little better. I mean, I have a fella now Dr. Parker I've been seeing for when, when Kaplan sold his practice, Dr. Parker took it over, I go to see him. He, he tries to keep me appraised of any new emerging things in the way of AI specialists, and what they may be doing for people with low vision. But, but they're more on the scientific side, and he really doesn't have any, any of the low vision aids, you have to go to a separate guy for that. And I've gone through those things so many times. That? I don't know, right? I would say better, but not great. Yeah, **Michael Hingson ** 38:29 what, what I have found and having significant conversations with people is that still all too often, if you go to an ophthalmologist, and it's discovered that for whatever reason, you're losing eyesight, and they can't do anything about it. They consider it a failure. And they just walk out sorry, there's nothing we can do and that we haven't seen enough of an awareness raising in the eye care world, where people recognize that just because you can't see it's not the end of the world and you can still be just as productive as you otherwise might have been accepted when you use different techniques. And, and a lot of state rehabilitation agencies are somewhat in the same sort of boat, they don't really ultimately do the things that they could do to better prepare people for having a positive attitude about blindness when they're losing their son. **Michael Coughlin ** 39:31 Yeah, I think that's true, although Connecticut, their agency is called WSB. The Bureau for the education of the blind and and they're pretty good. I just actually had a SB fella come to my house to give me a how do you use a cane training? I've never used a cane. And it's part part of our macular sport group. Discussion. One of the fellas in They're mentioned the, what he called his ID cane. And that was a term I'd never heard him. And what do you mean by that? And he said, Well, he said, because he has macular like me, said, I still see well enough to get around. But I'm tired of explaining to people they don't see very well. And so I got an I A cane, white cane, which you're legally able to use. And he said, the one I have is a little shorter, because I don't really need it as two more people with less vision. And it helps people understand that I don't see very well **Michael Hingson ** 40:37 in the answers. And the answer is even with an ID cane, that works until it doesn't. I know, I know, a guy who lived in I think it was Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and will take the train to Philadelphia every day, when he was losing his eyesight and the New Jersey Commission gave him a cane. But they also continued to emphasize eyesight a lot. And they didn't really convey to him the true importance of learning to use a cane as he's losing his eyesight. So one day, he was walking along the side of the New Jersey Transit train to go into the car to find a seat and involved process to Philadelphia. And key he turned in where the where he saw the openings for the car, and promptly fell between two cars. And then the train started to move and they got stopped and got him out. If he had been using his cane that would never have happened. And he became an avid cane user after that. Right. **Michael Coughlin ** 41:48 Great. And I completely understand that. And and I'm using it more and more. No doubt. **Michael Hingson ** 41:56 Yeah, there's and the problem is that people just all too often think it's a horrible thing and makes you look weird. Well, you know, there are a lot of things that all sorts of people use that make them look different than other people, that doesn't mean that they're less people. **Michael Coughlin ** 42:12 I actually had an experience a while back, which made the use of the cane even more, it highlighted it a little more is a number we were going back and forth to the Caribbean for a few years at on vacation at the Sandals Resort, and we got to the airport in Antigua getting ready to fly home. And since I don't see very well, I always will go up to the attendant at the ticket counter and say, you know, I'm visually disabled, can't see I really need early boarding we could cause legs, feet and other things trip me and I I'd like to get into a seat before the crowd arrives. And the first thing she did is looked at me and said, You're not blind, you know. And, and I was stunned. But but said yes, I am I cannot see. And they let me show. All right. All right. So after that in airports, I started at least wearing dark glasses. That helped a little bit with a cane. It's even at least then you have a claim to your claim, having to pull out the piece of paper from the state that says I'm legally blind. I have one of those, but that's kind of going a little too far. So I do find it a little bit more helpful. **Michael Hingson ** 43:39 Well, of course, what you discovered, the more you use a cane is the better traveler you are. And that helps you get around. Yes. Now as you know, I happen to use a guide dog. In fact, I didn't use either a cane or a guide. Well Mark cane or guide until I was 14 when I got the guideline. I never learned to use a cane until I was 18. But I discovered that I could teach anyone to use a cane in five minutes, but teaching people to have the competence to use a cane takes months because one is just a technique which you can learn easily the other is developing an attitude and developing the true awareness of that you know where you are and what's around you and how to recover from getting lost and and other such things like that along the way. That's a whole different animal entirely. Absolutely. But nevertheless, it's it's doable. So I still mostly use guide dog but there are some times that I'll leave the puppy dog at home or if I'm just stepping out a little bit leave the dog tied down and I'll use a cane but that doesn't happen very often. And certainly when I travel Alamo who is not a current guide dog comes with ready to go so We just returned from a weekend Israel doing work and all that, and he needed fine. And even on the long airplane flight to and from Israel, He did really well. Excellent. You know, it's, it is a matter of learning to use the skills that that we have. That **Michael Coughlin ** 45:19 is That is true. And in my case technology has been my savior. Sure, closer to TVs, the books on tape, and the fact that computers now have text to speech and magnification. Without it without those. I would not have had an engineering career I don't believe. So **Michael Hingson ** 45:44 what do you use to read books today? **Michael Coughlin ** 45:48 I do. I use my iPad. I have the bard application, which is the current app that's put out by the library. handicapper, I think they changed their name recently, but it's the same thing. And so I download books through them, and use the iPad, to read the books to me, I don't have to use a recorder anymore. It's and I can do the same thing on my iPhone. So. **Michael Hingson ** 46:23 So now of course, you have the ability to navigate through those books a whole lot more than you used to. **Michael Coughlin ** 46:28 Yes, because the again, I'm an apple person, but on my iPad, I can magnify the screen very easily. So downloading books is a little cumbersome, but not bad. And then I can pick whatever book I want to listen to and with Bluetooth headphones, or what I air pods or whatever they call them and listen to those without bothering anybody else. **Michael Hingson ** 46:53 Yeah. And again, the other neat thing is that you can skip around in a book, which is something that you couldn't do before, right now with the advantage of the DAISY format and so on you can which is a format, which is kind of an ePub environment. But you can literally skip around the book by chapter or any number of levels. Yep. **Michael Coughlin ** 47:15 And, and not only do I use that app, but I also have downloaded books on audible. Occasionally, if I can't find where I wanted, or, or iBooks it's now called something else. But and so some of the books he can't get it the library right away, you can you can go on and pay for him. And but mostly, it's through the the Library for the Blind. Certainly, that's where I found the underdog. So **Michael Hingson ** 47:45 what do you think overall has been the biggest obstacle you've had to overcome? **Michael Coughlin ** 47:49 If you go back and look, to me, the biggest obstacle was the invent the advent of the PC, and getting to use a PC. When, when I was moving along in my career, and early on, I did a lot of software engineering. But I was back in the earliest days, it was key punches. And all of that I got by then as they started using terminals, but simple terminals, I could have the software printed out, I could use the CCTV to see it, I could make changes to the software and have others enter it. It was everything was slow back then. But when the PC came along, it became an individual tool that everybody used, you had to be able to use it and and as I said it was Doug, Hannah and my good golfing buddy now who, who figured out how to use that with text to speech and magnification. And that just opened up the whole world of the personal computer, which which is today I mean MATLAB and other pieces of software you have to use. It made it available to me, had I not been able to make that jump into the PC world, I think I would have really been hampered on my ability to continue as an engineer or an engineering manager. **Michael Hingson ** 49:20 So you're not too bothered by the fact that there was a time that Bill Gates said that 640 K is all you'd ever need. And we have Emory. **Michael Coughlin ** 49:29 Well, you know, I remember using before Yeah. And I remember when the very first Mac's came out, they only had two floppy drives and no hard drives. So I had **Michael Hingson ** 49:45 a my first computer that I really use it all was Xerox sigma seven. We also had an OS born from my wife even before that, but it had the Xerox had two eight inch floppies no hard drive 64k and What was it? Yeah, you know, but amazing. I **Michael Coughlin ** 50:03 mean, the technology has just moved so fast. And, and the fast moving technology is great. And it's frustrating. Because a lot of the people that develop it's because now they can write software that does everything. The concept and of course you work for a company that that's very attuned to that fact, is that much of the stuff they throw out there now is very hard to use. If you're visually disabled, **Michael Hingson ** 50:34 you'd have visual issues there. The awareness has not grown like it needs to to make sure that all that stuff is inclusive. Absolutely. **Michael Coughlin ** 50:42 And it as fast as the technology is moving it. The accessibility features of software, to me are falling further and further behind. Even though there's more and more people that seemed to work in the field of accessibility. I think they're still not moving fast enough. And it is frustrating I had, I mentioned that one of the other obstacles that are countered, over the years when I was working at Boeing. Computer Training was becoming easy. And everybody had to take seven or eight computers, courses through the year and be qualified in things like obstacle don't leave obstacles and jet engines in called FOD and foreign object detection and on and on. And, and those courses were originally written by the various divisions and by people who got told make a course. And so they might dig up a course making pieces of software, whatever. And when they would finish it and put it out to everybody. Many of them wouldn't work with screen readers. And not only Weren't they work with screen readers, and they didn't redo the text, they'd have little tests you had to pass. And those certainly didn't work for the screen reader. And they were very, very frustrating. And I ran across to fellow at Boeing corporate, who became a friend and his father who had macular and he was really sensitive to that fact. And between the two of us we, we fought tooth and nail to get a standard a corporate standard on for courses put in place that included the fact that you had to be able to access the course with a screen reader took about five years for for that standard to finally be propagated throughout Boeing. And even when they did, I ran across the fire protection course where it wasn't in place. And I couldn't do that test and this. So you have to fight for that stuff. There's no doubt about it. **Michael Hingson ** 52:55 There are times that you do things to draw the line and say, look, you've got to make this inclusive. **Michael Coughlin ** 53:01 Great. Absolutely. It's getting better. I mean, I mean, at least if you stand up and squawk about it, there are people who will listen more than they used to. **Michael Hingson ** 53:13 Yeah, well and I think we're slowly raising awareness and it's a it's a challenge. consumer organizations are helping and we're we're we're now getting people to recognize it more much less that it really is part of the law the Americans with Disabilities Act really is more comprehensive than people want it sometimes to get credit for. And sometimes we have sites where it is still happening. **Michael Coughlin ** 53:40 Oh yeah. And and sometimes it just happens when you don't think about it we had when I was at the Boeing facility in California and they had been California it's always beautiful as you know. And and so stairways for buildings are often outside and inside stairways and we had a nice building and an out big, big wide outside stairway and they came in and put in new a new surface on the top step of the third floor landing so you wouldn't slip and a just as they did it, they covered up that yellow stripe that marked the top step and that next day I almost stepped right off into an clobbered down a flight of stairs, got my supervisor and said hey, help me an appointment and we she took me right over to the safety people within this was in Huntington Beach and today a day later they had a yellow stripe on the top **Michael Hingson ** 54:40 of that step car alternative that is which you didn't really have access to at the time was 30 Days came back. Which is another story of course I agree. But at **Michael Coughlin ** 54:51 that time, I was not. Right. Right. Look for yellow stripes, because I could see that much But anyhow. **Michael Hingson ** 55:02 So what what do you do for extra curricular activities in such out of work like sports and so on? Yeah, **Michael Coughlin ** 55:09 I, I love sports. When I was younger, I could play other few others like I never could be a baseball player with a little ball moving real fast, or a tennis player. But But I did like to play football because I was big enough to be a blocker and part of that team. And I played basketball, because basketball is pretty big. I played that least through college but but I was very fortunate in that my father, as an engineer had a medium kind of income and belonged to we belong to a country club in Fort Wayne. And the golf pro, there was a big advocate of teaching young kids how to play golf. So I started learning golf when I was about eight years old, and have always played golf. It got harder when I couldn't see the golf ball very well. I became eventually became a member of the US blind Golfers Association. I still am a member, they have a well, it was at the time a DVD. Now I think it's an online thing. It's a course for coaches of blind golfers. And they adopted the term coach, but I don't know helper to whatever the sighted person is about the blind golfer. And I show my friends that and, and pretty quickly, they figured out well, let's see, we've got to help him line the ball up in the middle of his clubface and point out where the hole is. And, and then there's these new range finders, the one I have talked. And so I push a button, it says your 180 yards. And so between a friend Nirn learning how to be a coach, and that I'm still an avid golfer, I play that a couple times a week. And if I have a good round, and I play from the senior tees, because I'm definitely senior, I still can once in a while break at which is a very, I think a very good score. And then I love to swim. And we had a swim team at that club and I from about age eight to 15 or something I was into competitive swimming. And now we have a pool and I swim every day in the summer. So **Michael Hingson ** 57:23 So is is Karen a golfer? **Michael Coughlin ** 57:27 No. It was the last week. We thought about that once but it didn't go over too. **Michael Hingson ** 57:33 Well. You try Yeah. Now you have, **Michael Coughlin ** 57:36 of course also love sports on television where I have a big TV and sit close my my passion of course is Notre Dame football. And for the people that see a video, the back screen of my my video is a picture I took of the Notre Dame Stadium football field when I was back at my 50th college reunion. **Michael Hingson ** 58:01 So Oh, go ahead. **Michael Coughlin ** 58:04 Well, I was gonna say they improve the stadium immensely since I was there. And there's a big area up at the top where you they have banquets and and you entertain and and so our class that was where we had our 50th anniversary dinner. And so he couldn't be looking over the stadium and I took a picture and put it in my Zoom background. So so they **Michael Hingson ** 58:28 still talk to you. They still talk to you even though you've got some advanced degree work from USC, and Miami and Miami, USC even more than Miami. But yeah, **Michael Coughlin ** 58:40 well there was a time Miami and Notre Dame went like that. Now it's not but USC Of course. And I tell people that but I I have never had bad vibes over the fact I have advanced degrees from **Michael Hingson ** 58:55 C See, I love to tell the story that when my wife and I got married, the church didn't fill up until 12 minutes after the wedding was supposed to start, I suppose started for and and for 12 crowds came in and Only later did we learned that everyone was still sitting out in your pliers waiting for the end of the USC Notre Dame game. Of course. Again, I want to point out that my wife, of course, is an SE grad she did her master's work there. And of course I have to point out that we won, which proves that God was really on our side that day. Just say sometimes, **Michael Coughlin ** 59:30 you know the story of one of the Notre Dame Miami games where they had the great dinner or breakfast before the game and and when they the University of Miami Chaplain got up and said that well, you all know that God is not doesn't take sides in football. And so we'll both pray and see who the better team wins and Lou Holtz, then the coach Scott up and said, Yeah, you're completely right. God is not involved. But his mother is. **Michael Hingson ** 1:00:08 Good answer. Yeah, only Luke could do that. That's the neat thing about good college football rivalries. Absolutely. Always find that. That's **Michael Coughlin ** 1:00:19 kind of my sports, fat, passion for, for television, and then golf and swimming or my dad, **Michael Hingson ** 1:00:26 I grew up listening to the Dodgers. And of course, we're spoiled. We have been Skelly who I still know them. Yes, yes. The best announcer that ever is when was and probably will be in. So I learned baseball from him. There's a lot of fun listening to him. And **Michael Coughlin ** 1:00:43 posters where Claire and I are now. I've been converted. She's from Boston. So we're Red Sox fans. So this weekend, they're playing each other. Well, **Michael Hingson ** 1:00:53 and then in days gone by in basketball. We had Chick Hearn, and of course, Boston had Johnny most. **Michael Coughlin ** 1:00:59 Oh, yes. Oh, yes. **Michael Hingson ** 1:01:03 Johnny is, Johnny was certainly a character. Well, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this today. It was was fun to do. I'm glad that we got a chance to really chat and do

Al & Eddie talk about dogs vs cats in a fight and books on tape To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Al & Eddie talk about dogs vs cats in a fight and books on tape--plus warm up To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From 'Al & Jerry's Postgame Podcast' (subscribe here): Al & Eddie talk about dogs vs cats in a fight and books on tape To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Frank Ring grew up in Palisades Park, NJ with a view of the New York City skyline. He loved sports and played both basketball and baseball. He was always into physical fitness and took to running on a regular basis. Frank discovered the benefits of walking almost by accident. A severe back injury caused him to discontinue his habit of running and really take time off from exercise altogether. When he felt it was time to start back up, he began walking. Soon, he realized that walking was helping him reduce his weight, giving him opportunities to listen to podcasts, books on tape and enjoy his surroundings. Of course, walking is just a big part of Frank's story.  If you want to see what Frank has to say about the benefits of walking; here's a few links, you'll want to check out. From his website: https://www.walkingforhealthandfitness.com“Walking for Health and Fitness is a health,fitness, and wellness website, books, newsletter, and digital programsdedicated to walking and all the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefitsthat come from it in order to achieve a healthy, balanced lifestyle!”Podcast: Walking for Health and Fitness: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walking-for-health-and-fitness/id1689142698?i=1000615839443Book: Walking for Health and Fitness. Download the first two chapters free: https://tinyurl.com/whfchaptersWalk Around the U.S. : https://www.walkingforhealthandfitness.com/blog/my-virtual-walk-around-the-united-statesMom's Life Lessons: https://www.walkingforhealthandfitness.com/blog/10-life-lessons-moms-life-well-lived

The Bible instructs us to number our days wisely, for the same God who knit us together in our mother’s wombs holds in his hand our lifespan as well. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - In Daniel Chapter 5, one of the most dramatic moments in redemptive history occurred with a wicked king named Belshazzar. Belshazzar was putting on a big feast, and he was stopped in his tracks suddenly by a disembodied hand that began writing in the wall above his corrupt throne. The hand that wrote the words was terrifying to everyone there, and the words could not be understood easily or read. The hand carved letters into the plaster in the wall, and I envisioned dust sprinkling down to the floor while the hand continued to write the mysterious words. I imagine at that time that the music and the lustful revelry in the entire hall from the 1,00 noble men partying with him instantly came to an end. If you'd been close enough to the throne, you would've seen the color drain from the king's face. You would've been able to hear his knees knocking together, but the focus of everyone in that formerly riotous hall would've been the writing on the wall. That moment moved into proverbial truth. To see the writing on the wall in our culture means to see something inevitable, something that's coming and there's nothing that can stop it. It means to see clearly that your end is near. Of course, this story is recounted for us in Daniel Chapter 5, Belshazzar's feast, and the man who read the writing on the wall at that time was a prophet named Daniel. He first, as he read it, proclaimed the great wickedness of the king of Babylon. After recounting the famous story of Belshazzar's grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, how God humbled him and changed his mind of that of an animal and then changed it back again seven years later, teaching him that God alone rules over the kingdoms of men and that all people are accountable to Him. After accounting that history, Daniel then leveled Belshazzar with this righteous accusation. He says in Daniel 5:22-24, "But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praise the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wooden stone which cannot see or hear, understand, but you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life in all your ways. Therefore, He sent the hand that wrote this inscription." That phrase has arrested me for years. You did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life in all your ways. Daniel then read the writing on the wall clearly so everyone could hear him, the words were “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN”, and then Daniel interpreted them. "This is what the words mean. MENE; God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. TEKEL; You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. PERES; Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Meads and Persians." That very night Belshazzar was slain and the Babylonian empire came to an end and the Medo-Persian empire took over. The words that very night remind me of Jesus's parable of the rich fool. You remember that man who had a bumper crop and thought he had plenty of years to enjoy all of that wealth and he thought, “'What shall I do? I'll tear down my barns and build bigger barns, and I'll store up all of this harvest, and I'll eat and drink and be merry for years to come.’But God said to him, ‘You fool, this very night, your soul will be required of you.’" That's an important phrase, isn't it, “required of you”? It's not an option when that summons comes. When God who gives life takes it from us, there's nothing we can say. There will come a time that all of us, our souls will be required from us by the God who gave them. That's the point of my whole sermon. We do not know how much more time we have left here on Earth, and we should number our days wisely. "When God who gives life takes it from us, there's nothing we can say. There will come a time that all of us, our souls will be required from us by the God who gave them." Today is the last day of the year 2023. If God wills, tomorrow will come, and it will be a new year, 2024. We've been instructed by the Lord to say that, to say, "If the Lord wills.” In James 4, it says, “'Today or tomorrow I'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. You don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life that it's a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes? Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’" So if the Lord wills, January 1, 2024 will come for any of us, most likely for most of us, if not all of us. Therefore, it seems wise for us to heed the timeless advice that you heard read for us in Psalm 90:12, "Teach us to number our days aright," or properly, "that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Let's look at Psalm 90 briefly. Let's try to understand Moses, the man of God, and what he said. We're also going to go over to another passage, Ephesians 5, and we're going to try to number our days rightly so we can make the most of the time that we have left. Moses begins by asserting that God alone is our eternal dwelling place. Look at Verses 1 and 2, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the Earth in the world from everlasting to everlasting you are God." The doctrine there is the majestic eternality of God. He alone is from everlasting to everlasting. He is timeless. He is eternal. He is above time. He's not bound by time, unlike us. God knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end because He ordained every day that ever has been or ever will be. The statement “from everlasting to everlasting” means that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. He's always the same, and He is our dwelling place. God is where we will spend eternity. God is the New Jerusalem. God is the new heaven and new Earth. Not to say that there will not be beautiful created things at that point or a place for our resurrected bodies to be, not at all. There will be, but God is our home. God is our dwelling place from generation to generation. Then Moses goes on to speak of the temporariness and the frailty of all human beings. Look at Verse 3-6, "You turn men back to dust saying, ‘Return to dust, oh, sons of men for a thousand years in your sight or like a day that has just gone by or like a watch in the night.’ You sweep men away in the sleep of death. They are like new grass in the morning. Though, in the morning it springs up new, by evening, it is dry and withered." All of us, the Bible teaches, are ultimately fashioned from the dust of the earth. To dust, someday all of us will return as God said to Adam, condemning him to the death penalty that his sin deserves. When we die, our bodies go back into the native elements from which they're originally taken, back to dust, but God is eternal. "A thousand years in his sight is as a few hours or like a single day or like a watch in the night." God's judgments stand over all human beings. They don't just die accidentally as though God has nothing to do with their deaths. Not at all. "God," it says, "sweeps men away in the sleep of death." It's because God takes away their breath that they die. It's not an accident. "People," it says in the text, "spring up quickly like fresh new blades of grass." They flourish, they look beautiful, they're radiant and strong, but in a short amount of time they wither, they sink back down just as quickly. "In the morning, they're new. In the evening, they're dry and withered." So our time here in our strength, especially in our youth, the prime of life is very brief. We should therefore make the most of our days when we have youth, when we have strength, when we have vigor and ability because soon one by one we will lose all of those capabilities. All you have to do is walk through a nursing home and look around into each room and see most likely your future. You see the feeble, elderly people there, all of them stripped of strength, stripped of their possessions. They'll never go to their homes again. They'll never enjoy their material possessions again. They occasionally have visitors. If they have a family structure of people that visit them, then it's kind. Sometimes they don't even remember their closest family members. This is what the text is saying happens to some degree to all of us, and so therefore, it is essential for us to make the most of every moment that we have of every opportunity. Each day has unique opportunities. Soon we can do little because age and feebleness has overtaken us and we can't do much at all. Behind all of this, according to Moses and according to the Bible more generally, is the sinfulness of man. It's because we are sinners the wages of sin is death. The troubles are caused originally by Adam's sin but then by our own sinful choices. In Verses 7-11, Moses recounts this, the sinfulness of man and the wrath of God. He writes, "We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath. We finish our years with a moan. The length of our years is seventy years or eighty. If we have the strength yet their span is but trouble and sorrow for they quickly pass and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger for your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you?" Moses was very aware of the sinfulness of the Jewish nation. God had warned them according to Ezekiel Chapter 20, before He ever took them out of Egypt, before He ever took them out of bondage to Egypt, that they needed to give up their idolatry, which they had learned and their pagan ways. They weren't any different than the Egyptians that surrounded them. They were every bit as pagan and idolatrous as the Egyptians were. He warned them and it says plainly in Ezekiel 20 to give up their idols, but He said, you would not do it. They were a pagan nation when they were brought out in the Exodus, this is what I think Moses referred to. We saw it very, very clearly in the golden calf at the bottom of Mount Sinai, how God said very plainly, "I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other God. You shall not make any idols or worship any idols." In a short amount of time, they broke all of those commandments immediately, and we see their paganism and their idolatry and their wickedness. Soon after that, after testing God in many ways and trying Him in many ways, they utterly rebelled when the twelve spies came back and brought a good report about the land. But they said that the Anakimes are there with cities walled up to the sky, and we look like grasshoppers in our own eyes and to them, and “we can't do it.” Ten of the twelve spies gave that report, Joshua and Caleb alone spoke words of faith. God then condemned the nation to wander around in the desert until that generation of fighting men should die. In a short amount of time, destroying all actuarial charts and all that, that entire generation, 40 years, fell dead. Moses, the man of God, wrote this psalm during those years. When he was writing also the Pentateuch, he's writing the rest of the Scripture, he's watching that generation of sinners wither and die; they're dying before his eyes. He has this in mind, "You've taken our secret sins, our idolatries and our wickedness and our paganism and you've put it in the light of your holy presence and because of that we are dying." He says, "In a very short amount of time, we fly away and we are no more." Then he makes the central request, which is the reason why I chose Psalm 90 for this New Year's Eve sermon. Look at verse 12, "Teach us to number our days of right that we may gain a heart of wisdom." This is a prayer. The entire Psalm is a prayer of the man of God, Moses. This is the central prayer. Looking up to God, the man of God is saying, "God, would you please teach us something that we don't know? Would you please give us a heart of wisdom specifically in the right understanding of time. God teach us to number our days properly that we may gain a heart of wisdom." We need to understand this. We need to see why it is essential for us to number our days properly. We need to number our days because God has already numbered them so that we can be wise about salvation, so that we can make the most of the days that we have left here on Earth. I. Number Your Days To Be Wise About Death Let's walk through it. First, number your days so that you may be wise about death. Teach us to number our days properly or rightly that we may gain a heart of wisdom. First of all, the Bible tells us that your days are already numbered. Your days are finite. You're not going to continue in this present state, in this present world, in this present body forever. We are all of us mortal. It says in Psalm 13:16, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." God has set a boundary to our lives. There is our birth day and there will be our death day, and nothing will change that. That's what Psalm 139 means, all the days that God has laid out for us, that all the days He has ordained were written in God's sovereign book, the book of his decrees before even one of them came to be, and that's what Moses asked for. Secondly, we don't know the number of those days. That number is hidden from us. God has hidden from each person the day of his or her death. In a very real sense, therefore, we can never number our days. We just don't know. It's a bit of an ironic prayer because it's the very thing that we cannot do. We are not ever going to be able properly to number our days. Instead, it seems the wisdom that Moses is seeking here is an acute mindfulness of the limits of the days, an acute mindfulness of the fact that we will die someday, an awareness of that that should dominate the way we live our lives. This will not go on forever. As the psalmist said in Psalm 39:4-5, "Show me, oh Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreath, the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath." I think that's a partner to Psalm 90:12, "Show me how brief my life is. Show me how a breath it is. Show me how quick it is. Help me to know that." That's all we can do. We cannot actually know the numbers. As he says here in Psalm 90 in Verse 10, "The length of our days is seventy years or eighty. If we have the strength, yet their span is but trouble and sorrow for they quickly pass and we fly away." We need to understand, as I've already said, God's direct activity in sustaining us and then in His own good time taking us out of this world. Look at Verse 3, "You turn men back to dust saying return to dust, O sons of men." None of us dies accidentally. We use that kind of language just in the human, the horizontal way. Talk about people dying from a car accident or something like that, we use the word “accident”, but there are no accidents when it comes to God. God is absolutely sovereign. He rules over all things. You could have prevented that so-called accident. People do not accidentally die when it comes to God. What Moses is saying here is He takes away the breath and they perish. Again, in Verse 5 and 6, "You, [meaning God] "sweep men away in the sleep of death. They're like new grass in the morning. Though, in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered." As Daniel said to Belshazzar, this really convicting and haunting verse, Daniel 5:23, "You did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life and all your ways." If I could get one thing out of this sermon for all of you that are listening to me, intensely feel that God holds in His hand your life and all your ways. That's the point of the whole sermon. Feel that. Understand you're not your own. Understand your days are not your own to do whatever you want with. Recently, I was doing men's Bible study on Thursdays when we went to the Book of Titus. The thing about that Bible study is we take forever to go through Books of the Bible. Anybody who's gone to it knows. It's like, "Well, when are we going to be done with Gospel of Matthew? Who knows? How long will it take you to go through Titus?” This is what happens, Titus 1:1, "Paul, a slave of God." All right, stop right there. How long are we going to take on that phrase? Maybe the whole time. What does it mean to be a slave of God? Are we? We actually are, or we're slaves of sin. Roman 6 says you're a slave of one of the other. Suppose you say, "I don't want to be a slave of anyone?" Well then, you're being lied to by Satan, you’re being deceived. You are a slave either of God or of sin/Satan/death. You are a slave. We were born to be a slave. The beauty of salvation is we come to realize that the master that we're serving, God and Christ are good masters and the yoke is easy and the burden is light. We're not deceived, but we still live like we are our own entities. Like we get to do whatever we want with our time, energy, money. It's ours, isn't it? Isn't our time ours to spend as we see fit? No, it's not. If you had a faithful slave back in those days in the first century and you saw him in the morning in the marketplace and he's a good slave and you asked him, "So what are your plans today?" What do you think he would say? "Whatever my master wants. Whatever my master wants." Let me ask you a question. Do you think that's the right way for a Christian to think? It is absolutely the right way for a Christian to think, for none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. That's what ownership language sounds like. Jesus died to buy you as He says openly in 1 Corinthians 6, "You're not your own, you're bought at a price." But we still think like free agents, don't we? We still think we get to do whatever we want with our time and our energy and our money, but we don't. "It is absolutely the right way for a Christian to think, for none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord." That's why we spent all that time on, "Paul, a slave of God," because I realized much to my shame, I don't think like that, not enough. I still think too much like a free agent, and I need to think, in the year 2024 if God lets me live, more like a slave than I've ever thought in my life. I would commend that to you. So the prayer, "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom," means to be aware that the same God who knit us together in our mother's wombs and holds in His hand our lifespan as well, in Him, we live and move and have our being. We need to be prepared for death so we can live a wise life honoring the God who holds in His hand our life and all our ways. II. Number Your Days To Be Wise for Salvation Secondly, remember your days to be wise for salvation. Moses ultimately yearns for a heart of wisdom. Given the brevity of life, the wisest thing we can do is to find salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. There is nothing wiser that you could do, conversely, there's nothing more foolish that you could ever do than to live 70 or 80 years in this life and go to hell. It'd be the most foolish thing you could ever have done with your 70 or 80 years. The wisest thing you can do is to find salvation. The scriptures are given for that exact purpose, to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Since death is certain and its timing is uncertain, the wisest thing we can do is to say, "Today is the day of salvation for me," and flee to Christ because you don't know if you'll have tomorrow. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you. I tell you now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation." So that's what we have, we have today. It's all we ever have. God set aside a certain day calling it “today”. That's what we have [Hebrews 3:4]. Today is about salvation and not just justification, not just crossing over from death to life, but growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ. You're left alive here on Earth for salvation, so the wisest thing you can do is to immerse yourself in Scripture for your own salvation and that of others. I would charge you in the year 2024, give yourself like never before to the Word of God. Start there. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 speaks of the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. "All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work," says it all. The Scripture is given first to save your soul from hell and secondly, to make you maximally fruitful through every good work. That's what Scripture is given to do. That's its purpose. The scripture has power to show you your sin, has power to convict you of your sin. Scripture has the power to show you Christ and to move you to trust Him for salvation. Scripture has the power to continue to instruct you, rebuke you, correct you, and train you in righteousness and to thoroughly equipped you for every good work. There is no better way for you to use the limited days that we have left than to immerse yourself first in Scripture. A new year is a great time to renew your commitment to daily Bible intake and to prayer, a daily quiet time. II. Number Your Days To Be Wise About Redeeming Time Thirdly, number your days so that you can be wise about redeeming the time. Ephesians 5:15-16 says, "Be very careful then how you live not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil." I want to say something about almost every modern translation of that verse. They almost all say something like making the most of every opportunity, which is fine, but it's not technically what the Greek is. The Greek is “exagorazo”, which means “agora.” In the marketplace it’s a buying kind of marketplace word. “Ex” meaning "out of”, a prefix. So to buy out of, that's what redemption is. The idea of redeeming is of the payment of a price to get an individual out of trouble like slavery or a kidnapped victim or a hostage, something like that. They are redeemed by the payment of some silver or gold and the individual is brought out. You can imagine David and his men when they found out that their families have been kidnapped by the Amalekites after weeping and whatever, they went after their families to rescue them out of danger. That's the idea. Only the KJV and I think NKJV still retained “redeeming the time” language. The idea is that time, the day, is in danger. It's lost. It starts lost. You have to get up and go redeem it, or it will end lost as well. It's just like “carpe diem”, “seize the day.” If you don't get up and exert energy and faith and love toward the day, it will be wasted. You and I have both had plenty of those days. That's what Paul says, be very careful how you live, not as foolish, but as wise. It's the same idea. Teach us to number our days so that you gain- What? -a heart of wisdom and not be foolish. Paul's using the same foolishness, wisdom type language. Be very careful then how you live, not as foolish, but as wise. That's what he's saying. Years ago I came across a sermon that helped me understand this text. It was preached by Jonathan Edwards when he was 31 years old, and it was called “On the Preciousness of Time.” It's one of the most convicting sermons I've ever read. I read it again last night and again this morning and I was thoroughly convicted. I realized this isn't going to be some happy New Year's Eve sermon for you all, but that's okay. The fact is we're not supposed to come to the Scriptures and say, "I thank you God that I'm doing so well." That's not what primarily I desire to do. What I want to do is say, "Lord, show us where we need to repent. It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. How can I repent? What is there in my life that is sinful and is wasting time? I need to understand that." Edward's sermon helped me understand that, the preciousness of time. His doctrine was clear. Time is a thing that is exceedingly precious. He then gave reasons. Reason number one time is precious is because eternity, your eternity and mine, depends on improving the time. It depends on making the most of the time you have while you're alive. You're born and then you live. At some point in time, you have to repent and believe in Jesus. Time is precious because your eternity depends on the improvement of it. Edward says this, "According as we either improve or lose time, so shall we be happy or miserable for all eternity. Without the improvement of time, our eternity will be miserable, and with a good improvement of time, our eternity will be happy. As we use our time wisely with the gospel of Jesus Christ, as we walk wisely in this present age storing up treasure for eternity, in that proportion we shall be happy for all eternity. As people squander the gospel through unbelief and waste their days in sin, they guarantee their own eternal misery." Time must be very valuable indeed simply because so much depends on using it wisely. Second, time is precious because it is very short. It's a commodity that is in short supply. The more scarce a precious commodity is, the more valuable it is. This is basic economics, the law of supply and demand. We've already established that time is precious, but it's even more so because the time we're told in the Bible is short. The time is short. When there's a famine in the city, even the smallest crust of bread will sell for much silver or gold. The bread at that point is far more valuable than the silver or gold. So if time is already short and we squander even a small proportion of it, how dreadful would that be? A number of years ago I listened, I do a lot of listening to books on tape while I ride my bike, and there was this book about Louis Zamperini called Unbroken. It was later made into a movie. Louis Zamperini was a World War II airman, and his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean. He and two other men survived the crash, and they're floating in two rafts tied together in the midst of the vast Pacific Ocean with only a very slim hopeless survival. Their raft had meager supplies of food and drinking water. They had a few precious chocolate bars, the calories of which could sustain them for a few vital days, and they divided the bars up into small squares and stored them. But unfortunately, one of the men panicked and while the other two were sleeping, ate all of the chocolate in one night. Their food supply up to that point was already critically low and limited. But now it was even in a worse situation because this one man had squandered it. This is a picture of us in life with a very limited supply of the precious thing known as time. Our life depends on it. It depends on the use of it, and it's limited. It's in a limited supply. Furthermore, thirdly, Edward says, "Time is precious because we don't know how much of it we have." They're able to do an inventory and they knew how much food they have. We are not able to actually number our days as I already said. We have a sense that they're limited. We have a sense that there's just a few of them, but we just don't know how many. So time is precious because time is uncertain. Our lives could end tonight or they could continue for many years. We actually have no idea, so we have to make the most of what God has given us. Edward said this, "If a man has food and supplies laid up for his journey and he doesn't actually know how much food is left or how much he will need, and if he knows that his stores are going to run out, if his stores run out, he will die. His life depends on it that he'll be exceedingly careful about how he uses each morsel of food." How much more than that would people prize their time if they knew they had about a few months left or even a few days left in this world? So it is with multitudes in this world who assume that they have plenty of time left. I think about around the world, how many people who it is ordained for them to die tomorrow are thinking right now they have plenty of time left. We who read the Bible should not be so deceived. We should be aware that we don't actually know how much time we have left. How many will be surprised by the coming of their death and think to themselves, "I always assumed that I would have more time." Fourth, time is precious because once it is spent, it can never be recovered again. You could imagine someone having a precious heirloom like a piece of jewelry or something like that and losing it through theft maybe or losing it or going to a pawn shop because they needed some money. You could imagine through extreme effort they might be able to reclaim that precious item again somehow. It might be difficult, but they could get it back. But that's not the way it is with any Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. Once that Monday is gone, it'll never come back again. It was a unique gift. "This is the day the Lord has made." God crafted it, and how you spent it is done. It's in the past, you can never get it again. Therefore time is unspeakably precious because once it's spent, it can never be reclaimed. Edwards says this, "Every moment of time is served up to you as if it were a meal. If we turn up our noses at it, the divine table waiter will take it away and you'll never see that dish again." You can imagine every day it's like God is a chef and you're sitting at a table with a nice tablecloth and heavy silverware and He sets before you a dish that He's crafted. This is the day the Lord has made and you get to eat that dish as He has ordained. But if you waste it, that particular dish is taken away and will never be served to you again. That's how precious time is. Ephesians 2:10 says, "We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them." So that's what I mean by “this day.” God has crafted unique opportunities for the day, and we are to make the most of them, and we'll never have that chance again. If we have lived up to this point 50 or 60 or 70 years and we haven't improved those years, it can't be helped. There's nothing that can be done for them now, it is eternally gone from us. All we can do is to improve the time we have left. If we waste our money, we might be able to get money back, but if we waste our time, our days, they are gone forever. I remember when I was going through this, when I was preaching through Ephesians 5, it's very easy to become overwhelmed with discouragement at this topic. We are meant to be convicted, but we're not meant to be crushed. It doesn't make actually any sense for us to be overwhelmed and say, "What's the use?" I was thinking about that, that feeling of discouragement or whatever, it's like, "I've wasted so much time in my life. Well, what's the use?” I don't know, I picture a wheat farm out West and the family's all asleep. There's a fire burning in the fields and also burning a corner of the house and part of the barn. Imagine a neighbor sees the fire and comes and rouses the family and starts yelling and say, "Get up. Your fields are on fire. Your house is on fire. Get up. You need to put the fire out. You need to save what's left." It would make no sense for those people to come to their senses, realize what the situation is and say, "Well, we've already lost so much. What's the point?" and just sink back down into the bed. That would be literally deadly for them. Therefore, the point of this sermon and the point of these kinds of reflections is there's nothing you can do about the past except learn from it. The question is what are you going to do with the time you have left? What are you going to do with that year if God does give you 2024? That's the point. So what has been spent has been spent how you chose to spend it. "There's nothing you can do about the past except learn from it. The question is what are you going to do with the time you have left? What are you going to do with that year if God does give you 2024?" III. Number Your Days To Be Wise About Heaven Fourth, number your days properly to be wise about heaven. In one sense, I want to say it's actually good news that our time here on earth is brief. This is a world characterized by death, mourning, crying and pain. In heaven, there will be no more death, mourning, crying and pain. We'll be free from those forever. As Revelation 21:4 says, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away." It's good news that we're not going to be here forever. That is a good thing. If you come to faith in Christ, you've trusted in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, you're going to spend eternity in a place completely free from pain. Also, time we are told brings us closer and closer to our final salvation. As it says in Romans 13:11, "And do this understanding the present time, the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." That implies there's some aspect of our salvation that hasn't come yet, and that's the final salvation that we'll get on Judgment Day. That salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Every day brings us closer to that good destination. Therefore, we should number our days properly, gain a heart of wisdom and think like aliens and strangers in this world. As it says in Hebrews 11, the heroes of the faith admitted that they were aliens and strangers on Earth. “People who say such things show that they're looking for a country their own. If they'd been thinking of the country they had left, they would've had opportunity to return, but they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”[Hebrews 11: 14-16] IV. Applications What applications can we take from this topic? Today is the last day of 2023. If God wills, we'll venture ahead into 2024 tomorrow. It's a good opportunity for us to look both ways. Look back at 2023 and honestly, by the power of the Spirit, evaluate yourself on this topic. Did I use my time well and wisely in the twelve months that were given me? God gave me a whole year. How did I use my time? Did I grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ in the year 2023? Am I closer to Christ's likeness than I was on December 31, 2022? Was it a year of growing for me? It may have been, it may not have been. Maybe you're further away from Christ than you were a year ago, but maybe you've grown. Just evaluate. Secondly, did I help others to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ? Was I useful? Did I use my spiritual gifts? Did I use the Gospel? Did I use biblical exhortations? Did I help brothers and sisters in Christ? Did I help lost co-workers and neighbors and family members to come to faith in Christ? Did I use my time well? Did I serve God in this world? Did I serve God's purposes or did I serve myself? Did I live selfishly? Did I waste time? What are my habits? What do I generally do with a day? What do I generally do with free time? Just evaluate. Say, "Lord, show me what I'm like. Show me what I do. Help me to understand myself." Like Edwards would say, "Let time seem unspeakably precious to you." Think of it as a valuable thing for me to spend my time well and wisely. This afternoon, I don't know what your plans are. What are your plans, you bond slaves of God? What you should do is you should say, "God, what do you want me to do with my afternoon?" I would commend if you have some time to be reflective based on the themes of this sermon and say, "Lord, what changes do you want to see in me in 2024 if you let me live? What new habits do you want me to develop?" Start with the Bible. "Am I regular in my Bible intake? Am I memorizing scripture? Am I giving myself fully to scripture?" Let's start there. That primes the pump for everything in the Christian life. What's my prayer life like? God, how can I grow in that? Search me, oh, God, and know my heart. What bad habits do you want me to slay as was said earlier?" What are some sin habits that have crept up that are stronger in you now than they were a year ago, that you need to kill by death by starvation? What can you put to death? What lusts and habits can you put to death in the year 2024 if God gives you time to live? How can you serve this present generation? There are some things we can do here on Earth now that we will not be able to do in the new heaven new Earth. One of them is to suffer well. If you're going through suffering, the ability to suffer well is something you'll get to do now you cannot do in heaven because there'll be no suffering in heaven. Secondly, you can also help alleviate other people's suffering now. You can't do that in heaven because no one of all the redeemed will be suffering at all, but we are able to alleviate suffering in this world. Maybe you didn't do that in 2023 the way you wanted to, but you say, "Lord, would you make me an instrument of your grace? Would you make me an instrument to alleviate the suffering of people around?" Obviously, the most important thing that any of you could do if you're lost is to come to faith in Christ. There's no point in you doing any of these other things if you're lost listening to me now, if you're not yet a Christian. I would beg you, while there's time, crossover from death to life. Understand that God sent His Son. That's what we celebrate at Christmastime. The incarnate Son of God came, took on a body and blood so that He could give that body and that blood to bring us to Christ, bring us to salvation. Trust in Him. That is the purpose of time. Once that's happened, then say, "Lord, help me to redeem the time, make the most of the time that I have here on Earth." Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the opportunity we've had to look at this sobering text. God, we know that if we're Christians and we look back at 2023, we have to be honest and say it was mixed. There was some wood, hay and straw mixed in with the gold, silver and precious stones. We know that if we're Christians, we did some good works. It's impossible for us to be alive in Christ and not bear some fruit. We also know that we wasted a lot of time. So Lord, I pray that you would help all of us who are Christians to look ahead to 2024 with resolution by faith relying on you to waste far less time in 2024 than we did in 2023, that more of our days would be gold and silver and costly stones than wood, hay and straw. God, help us to be faithful in sharing the gospel. We're surrounded by lostness. We're surrounded by people who don't understand what life is about. They're like Belshazzar. They're eating and drinking in idolatrous ways, and they don't know that time is short. Help us to be willing to tell them the truth for the sake of their eternal souls. In Jesus' name, Amen.

This week's episode is sponsored by: Ready for some retail therapy with a side of laughter and community? Look no further than Erin.Lane's monthly live sales! Each sale features a fresh theme (think whimsical unicorns, sassy llamas, you name it!), and you'll be the first to snag brand spankin' new fabrics. Who knows, you might just find your new favorite bag too.   Make sure to never miss a minute (or fabric) by signing up for the newsletter, and keep up with us in real time by with our Facebook community, Erin.Lane Bag Buddies. Bag buddies always get first access to new bags and fabrics, because who doesn't want to share the love of their besties?     Have you ever had to frog because you forgot a step several rows back? Or lost your spot because you dropped your magnet board or lost track with your highlighter tape? Instead of wrestling with paper, use the knitCompanion app. It keeps you on track so you can knit more and frog less. knitCompanion works with ALL your patterns and is available for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire Devices                   Are you feeling dis-GRUNT-eled about your stash? Are you browsing Insta-HAM looking for knitting inspiration? Is color "kind of a PIG deal" in your life? Oink Pigments offers over one hundred forty PIG-ture perfect colorways to make you SQUEAL with delight. For a limited time only, bring home the bacon with code KNITMORE and get fifteen percent off in-stock yarns and fibers at oinkpigments dot com. Shop soon, because these pigs will FLY!   Seismic Yarn & Dyeworks, based just outside of San Francisco, CA, creates color for people who love bold, saturated yarn and fiber as well as for those who might be *a little* afraid of wearing color.   We dye a large range of colorways from neon and black light/UV reactive colors all the way through to deep, rich semi-solid, tonal, and low contrast variegated colorways. Of course, we only use the softest and most exquisite bases!   Seismic Yarn & Dyeworks - color to rock your world!     On the Needles:(0:30) - Gigi:  Meadowlands 7 :Electro: yellows , orange, to brown , finished  crocheted border , weighed before starting and finishing each round. About 11 g per round. Had 6 g left over- not enough  - Jasmin has finished the hood on her Patons Cabled Hoodie in Seismic Yarns “Citrine” Butter Sock Dk - Gigi: Meadowlands 8 Chimera. Rainbow with a lot of grey shades . Finished 1st triangle.  - Jasmin picked up her Halloween stripe cardigan again, in the leftovers from her Halloween heart pullover (oink pigments sock); she is into the second stripe, almost at the armholes In Stitches:         - Gigi: socks, self sewn comfy nightgowns   Events:(7:38) Cognitive Fiber Retreat Nov 11,  Jasmin is teaching steeking workshop Spinning on the Daedalus Falcon in preparation  Knitting club  Repair Cafe's Instagram    Mother Knows Best :(19:00) Road Trip! Service the car before, check tire pressure, supply entertainment and snacks. Gummi bears, books on tape, music, groceries, special orange juicer    Knit more, know more :(32:04) A segment about Persian culture, history, or just generally cool stuff about Persian people. Protests are ongoing. Still. Over a year. Korsi/ kotatsu how to deal with the cold.  

After a Kansas tornader carries a young girl and her talking dog to the strange land of Oz, they set out to find a wizard coincidentally named Oz to ask if he can help them return home. Along with two friends and an acquaintance, they venture to the West to find and kill an evil witch in return for Oz's help investigating the Munchkin murders, providing landmines, and getting the two travelers back to their home to Kansas.Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).      Credits:   Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, Oz, WinkieFee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - Dorothy, Winkie, Oz's MomLauren Rivas (@larivasnumerouno) - Aunt Em, Toto, Doorman, Evil WitchAlex Campbell (@likethesoup92) - Moe, Munchkin, Tin Man, Apiarist, WinkieTravis Marsala (@travismarsala) -  Curly, Munchkin, Lion, Flying Monkey, WinkieJeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5) - Larry, Munchkin, Scarecrow, Winkie, GeneralSusan Day - Almira Gulch, Good WitchCreators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

With one evil witch already dead, Dorothy and her hit squad must travel to the West to neutralize the other in order for Oz, the Great and Powerful, to help Dorothy and Toto return home, open an investigation into the Munchkin murders, and provide the Tin Man with landmines to protect his property. Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray)  Credits:   Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, Oz, WinkieFee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - Dorothy, Winkie, Oz's MomLauren Rivas (@larivasnumerouno) - Aunt Em, Toto, Doorman, Evil WitchAlex Campbell (@likethesoup92) - Moe, Munchkin, Tin Man, Apiarist, WinkieTravis Marsala (@travismarsala) -  Curly, Munchkin, Lion, Flying Monkey, WinkieJeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5) - Larry, Munchkin, Scarecrow, Winkie, GeneralSusan Day - Almira Gulch, Good WitchCreators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

After a Kansas tornader carries a young girl and her talking dog to the strange land of Oz, they set out to find a wizard coincidentally named Oz to ask if he can help them return home. Written by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).      Credits:   Matthew Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator, OzFee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius) - DorothyLauren Rivas (@larivasnumerouno) - Aunt Em, Toto, DoormanAlex Campbell (@likethesoup92) - Moe, Munchkin, Tin ManJeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5) -  Curly, Munchkin, ScarecrowTravis Marsala (@travismarsala) - Larry, Munchkin, LionSusan Day - Almira Gulch, Good WitchCreators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

This week the painter and curator Kristin Calabrese. Kristin was born in 1968 in Mountain View, a suburb of San Jose, CA and spent her childhood moving back and forth between Massachusetts and Arizona. Her father, Bill, was an engineer and her mother, Karen, a housewife. Kristin has a younger brother Greg and they grew up in the 70s in a middle-class white American suburb with an abundance of children in the neighborhood. However, Kristin's childhood was not easy; her father was an authoritarian and she was bullied by children in school. She says her family environment was very sexist and she vowed to live a very different life to her mother's. In 1995, Kristin graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1998. She found her way as an artist after exploring a variety of mediums in college, venturing into graphic design and creating websites before eventually concentrating on oils. She says: “My paintings speak plainly, make jokes, and are irreverent. I paint to make my thoughts, feelings, and experience into monuments that mark my small and large, personal existence.” The focus of Kristin's work includes psychology, humor, politics and formal issues of composition and representation, primarily through painting. Since the mid 90's, Kristin has held numerous shows in the US and Europe. Solo exhibitions include Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, Brennan & Griffin in New York, and Michael Jansen in Cologne. She has also curated many group exhibitions, including at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and Honor Fraser Gallery. Her work is featured in numerous collections, including Saatchi and The Armand Hammer Museum. Together with her husband, artist Joshua Aster, they have a small business for art supplies, such as canvases and framing, and then they spend the evenings painting. Kristin says that she is now in a happy place as an artist and curator at home in Los Angeles.Women artists whose work Kristin admires:Mary WeatherfordSusanna CoffeyMichelle GrabnerAnne HarrisDeb SokoloLucy BullLauren QuinKristin's Playlist“I don't listen to music in the studio. I listen to podcasts and books on tape. Once I recognize a song, I find it annoying and distracting, so I listen to podcasts and books on tape. I'm pretty interested in history right now, stuff I never learned in school like the 30 Years War, The Reformation, even more current American history, like J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. I play podcasts all day long, need it to sort of distract myself from being antsy, they help me focus on the painting.Kristin's Podcasts:American PrestigeBackground BriefingKnow Your EnemyThe MajorityReport ChapoTrap HouseThe Tom Hartman ShowLeft ReckoningLetters and PoliticsAndI've adopted a couple astrology podcasts:Chani Nicholas Astrology of the Week AheadAnne Ortelee weekly weatherAlso some comedy podcasts, here's one: Thought Spiral".Kristin's website: https://kristincalabrese.com/Instagram: @only_future_thingHost: Chris StaffordFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramEmail: hollowellstudios@gmail.comThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4769409/advertisement

Books That Make You…Tune In Are you an audio book fan? Are your kids? Particularly beneficial for auditory learners, or for those of us who like to multitask while taking in our stories, the industry has come a long way since the days of “books on tape”. Author Kelly Anne Manuel is known for connecting with children through her poetry and her books. She boasts a total of 31 books, one for each day of the month, and all of which span four series. Also with us is Becky Parker Geist, CEO of Pro Audio Voices, an audiobook production and marketing service that produced Kelly's audio books. The president of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, Becky is also the author of The Left Turn: Two Lives, Worlds Apart. Find out more on Books That Make You. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

This week the painter and curator Kristin Calabrese. Kristin was born in 1968 in Mountain View, a suburb of San Jose, CA and spent her childhood moving back and forth between Massachusetts and Arizona. Her father, Bill, was an engineer and her mother, Karen, a housewife. Kristin has a younger brother Greg and they grew up in the 70s in a middle-class white American suburb with an abundance of children in the neighborhood. However, Kristin's childhood was not easy; her father was an authoritarian and she was bullied by children in school. She says her family environment was very sexist and she vowed to live a very different life to her mother's. In 1995, Kristin graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1998. She found her way as an artist after exploring a variety of mediums in college, venturing into graphic design and creating websites before eventually concentrating on oils. She says: “My paintings speak plainly, make jokes, and are irreverent. I paint to make my thoughts, feelings, and experience into monuments that mark my small and large, personal existence.” The focus of Kristin's work includes psychology, humor, politics and formal issues of composition and representation, primarily through painting. Since the mid 90's, Kristin has held numerous shows in the US and Europe. Solo exhibitions include Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, Brennan & Griffin in New York, and Michael Jansen in Cologne. She has also curated many group exhibitions, including at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and Honor Fraser Gallery. Her work is featured in numerous collections, including Saatchi and The Armand Hammer Museum. Together with her husband, artist Joshua Aster, they have a small business for art supplies, such as canvases and framing, and then they spend the evenings painting. Kristin says that she is now in a happy place as an artist and curator at home in Los Angeles. Women artists whose work Kristin admires: Mary WeatherfordSusanna CoffeyMichelle GrabnerAnne HarrisDeb SokoloLucy BullLauren Quin Kristin's Playlist “I don't listen to music in the studio. I listen to podcasts and books on tape. Once I recognize a song, I find it annoying and distracting, so I listen to podcasts and books on tape. I'm pretty interested in history right now, stuff I never learned in school like the 30 Years War, The Reformation, even more current American history, like J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. I play podcasts all day long, need it to sort of distract myself from being antsy, they help me focus on the painting.Here are some or my current podcast faves: American PrestigeBackground BriefingKnow Your EnemyThe MajorityReport ChapoTrap HouseThe Tom Hartman ShowLeft ReckoningLetters and Politics AndI've adopted a couple astrology podcasts:Chani Nicholas Astrology of the Week AheadAnne Ortelee weekly weather Also some comedy podcasts, here's one: Thought Spiral".Kristin's website: https://kristincalabrese.com/ Instagram: @only_future_thingHost: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramEmail: hollowellstudios@gmail.com

Episode 85 of Inside Quotes! This week Jeremy picked the 2007 film “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”.   Conversation includes: Our reaction to the Harry Potter reboot announcement, reading the Harry Potter books with your family, midnight releases, books on tape, Pros and Cons of David Yates' directorial style, scenes from the book that were left out, O.W.Ls, breakdown of all the Hogwarts classes, ranking the defense against the dark arts teachers, the muppet recasting continues, and what pet would we take to Hogwarts!     Mentioned in the Episode:   Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Nicholas Hooper   Harry Potter' Hogwarts Classes, Ranked From Potions to Defence Against the Dark Arts   The Man Who Ruined Harry Potter | Video Essay     For more Harry Potter Conversation, check out Inside Quotes episodes# 68. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 72. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 77. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 81. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Part I 82. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Part II     Inside Quotes Show Notes: Inside Quotes Merch Store Linktree: @insidequotescast Artwork by Bryce Bridgeman: @Groovybridge  

A collection of Grimm fairy tales, rewritten by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).  Hansel & Gretel, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, The Elves & The Shoemaker, Tom Thumb, Rumpelstiltskin.    Credits:   Matthew Storino (@StorinoMP) - Ch. 1 NarratorDylan Carey (@_groovebox_) - Ch. 2 Narrator Alex Campbell (@likethesoup92)Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius)Jeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5)Kayte Pietrick (@kayte_astrophy)Travis Marsala (@travismarsala)Susan DayCreators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

A collection of Grimm fairy tales, rewritten by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).  The Elves & The Shoemaker, Tom Thumb, Rumpelstiltskin.    Credits:   Dylan Carey (@_groovebox_) - Narrator Alex Campbell (@likethesoup92)Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius)Jeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5)Kayte Pietrick (@kayte_astrophy)Susan DayCreators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

A collection of Grimm fairy tales, rewritten by Ean Smith (@marcusdayhooray).   Hansel & Gretel, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood.Credits:   Matt Storino (@StorinoMp) - Narrator Jeremy DeAntonio (@jeremydeantonio5)Fee Basanavicius (@fbasanavicius)Travis Marsala (@travismarsala)Susan DayCreators & Guests Ean Smith - Producer

Episode #44. Perspective Shifts in Overcoming Burnout Welcome to the Empowering Working Moms Podcast with Dr. Prianca Naik! In this episode, Dr. Prianca talks about the importance of perspective and how it can help high-achieving moms overcome burnout. She shares her experiences and offers practical tips for shifting your perspective, including two specific lenses you can use in your day-to-day life. The first lens is your 80-year-old self. Ask yourself what your 80-year-old would do or say about any situation. This can provide perspective and maturity and help you prioritize what truly matters. The second lens is rose-colored glasses, which means putting a rosy lens on things. This can help you see the positive aspects of a situation and avoid getting lost in the daily grind. Dr. Prianca also shares a personal example of using the 80-year-old lens to manage a stressful situation with her sick baby. So, if you're a high-achieving, Type A mom who is exhausted or struggling with burnout, don't miss Dr. Prianca's free on-demand masterclass on four steps to overcome burnout and get your peace of mind back.   In this episode, you will learn: Empowering High Achieving Moms to Overcome Burnout Shifting Your Perspective: A Key to Overcoming Burnout Tools for Shifting Your Perspective: Future Self and Bird's Eye View Lenses Real-life Examples: How Shifting Your Perspective Can Help Combat Burnout The Importance of Mindset and Perspective in Achieving Peace of Mind and Living a Better Life: Free Masterclass Available And so much more!   If you want to work with Coach Prianca Naik, MD, Join Overcome Burnout For Good to end burnout and get your peace of mind back in 90 days or less  www.program.stresscleansemd.com/workwithme   To get started on loving your life, check out her free masterclass on 4 proven methods to love your life https://program.stresscleansemd.com/4-secrets-to-living-a-life-you-ll-love-podcast   Follow Dr. Prianca on social media: https://www.facebook.com/prianca.naik https://www.instagram.com/doctorprianca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/prianca-naik-md-0524a196/   Join her FREE Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/646992382603860   [FULL TRANSCRIPT]   Hello. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I'm glad to have you here, actually, I'm so happy to have you here. So, thanks for listening and I hope you're doing well. I know, I am, I've had like a hoarse voice for a couple of weeks on and off and my voice, I think is finally back, so I'm grateful for that. And that means that I'm able to record this podcast today. So, if you're listening this podcast, you might be a high achieving type A mom and you're probably exhausted. Maybe even struggling with burnout. You've probably done all the right things. You've an awesome resume. You've checked the boxes for success, conventional success. As we know it right? But maybe you're not happy but you really don't have to feel this way forever. Imagine a life beyond burnout where you have confidence peace of mind better relationships and I know this is possible for you because it has been for me and my clients with a little bit of work and not a whole lot of time. You can be out of burnout and truly enjoying your life every single day. Check out my free on-demand master class “4 Steps to Overcome Burnout, Get Rid of Overwhelm and finally, Get your Peace of Mind Back”. Link will be in the show notes. Check it out. You don't want to miss it.   So, I'm going to talk today about our perspective, the lens with which we see the world. And our lens, and our perspective, there's so important because they create how we experience our reality, how we experience our lives. And it just reminds me of playing. I used to play Super Nintendo, Jeopardy. I loved Jeopardy. And I memorize all the answers and one of the descriptions was rose-colored glasses. That was the answer. What are rose-colored glasses? I don't know. I don't know what the prompt was for that. I don't even think I understood what that meant at the time, because I was only maybe 10 years old or so 10 or 11. And now I understand rose-colored glasses and realize that it means, you know, putting a Rosy lens on things. So that gives you a little context for what we are going to talk about today. This is one of my favorite topics actually and it's come up in a few of my coaching sessions and I thought you would find it useful or I knew you would find it useful.   So, lenses are how we see the world, how our lives are unfolding, how we experience our lives. And when we empower ourselves to control our lens to change our lens, to work on our mindset, we increase our peace of mind, we have more energy and therefore we're able to overcome exhaustion and burnout. One of the key components of burnout High-achieving moms like ourselves is really being in the thick of it. Where let's say you have young children, you've got a high-power career. There's so much going on. It is very easy to default to being overwhelmed and exhausted. If you let yourself drown in it and most people do. However, if we can start seeing our lives today from the following lenses has it becomes so much easier. So, I'm going to give you two specific lenses, you can use in your day-to-day life that will shift your perspective to really keep things in perspective, have peace of mind and not have that modus operandi. Where you feel like you're drowning, you're in the thick of it. You're in survival mode. No, there's no room for that. Here, we want to get out of survival mode. Okay. And into a better freaking life. All right, I have, I will tell you a little anecdote.   Oh, I have, you know, I have stressful situations going on all the time and a lot of people can be like, oh like I don't know how you do it. Like your life is must be so hard. This is hard and I don't, that's one thing I really don't enjoy people saying that to me, because I don't think it's helpful telling me that things are hard. But what I will tell you is that no matter what comes up in my life, I'm able to, I know I can, manage it. So, I don't stress out about impending stressors and I really use my lenses to make decisions and see things in a way where I have perspective. So, I don't get sucked into - narratives or adding extra layers of stress and suffering to what might already be a stressful situation. And that's why I'm teaching you how to do the same.   So here we go 2 lenses today, lens number one is my future self or your future self. It's my 80-year-old self. So, ask yourself what your 18-year-old self would do or what that 80-year-old self would have to say about any given situation and this immediately gives perspective and maturity to a situation, right? Because we're so busy thinking that we have forever to live and you know, we're in the thick of trying to make money and trying to rear our kid. Feed them. Keep them alive, all those things and it's just easy to get lost in the day-to-day rot, the to-do lists and allow all of that to make us miserable. So, try this 80-year-old lens to Any Given put it on any given situation and see how it feels. I'm going to give you a personal example of my own my baby was sick recently and my au pair who so wonderful, God lover. She Had just started with me and I was new to my au pair being my backup child care, which of course, that's why she's there and I had patients to see that day. Now, I wasn't sure if I wanted to take my daughter into the pediatrician yet so, you know that, but I had a lot going on and I was trying to manage, you know, my Au pairs hours properly, meanwhile, take care of my daughter. And I'm sure you can imagine this exact scenario, right? You have definitely been there at one time or another.   And again people often say about these situations it's so hard which okay. Yeah it's not easy, right? But I took my eight-year-old lens and I knew that this time in my life isn't coming back. I'm grateful for the back of childcare and also, I was forced in a way to spend extra time with my daughter snuggling and cuddling reading her stories. And I was so grateful for that and it was lovely. And that way I mean it wasn't lovely that she was sick, but it was a gift of getting extra time with her. Okay. And so that is the eight-year-old lens because when we say, oh, it's so hard, not only is that even whether it's true or not, that's a moment isn't helpful, right? And it makes us feel even more tired. So, we add to our own exhaustion. What is the point about? We're just making things worse for ourselves, so I'm just trying to show you if you're not aware that, this is what's going on. Like just be aware of when you're doing these things and catch yourself in playing into the negative, narratives, or hard it is, or how exhausted you are. Because the more we keep saying that to ourselves, the more, we really feel it, even more and more, because these small things may seem innocuous, but they are contributing to your own sustenance sense of exhaustion and burnout. So, I knew of course that this day was going to come and go the one with my daughter, being sick and everything would be. Okay, right. And it's just a part of being a working parent is, it is what it is. It happens to everyone and I knew that, you know, I had a new few thing to juggle including my new au pair, who is a huge blessing and it was fine before I could stress. I had the wherewithal, the awareness to ask what my eight-year-old Prianka self would say. And she would say life is large and long. The stay is going to pass. You'll figure. Figure it out. Just like you always have just like you always will enjoy the extra time with your daughter time and life are precious. And that's exactly what I did.   But do you see how with this lens? This shift and shift impacted my perspective and therefore, impacted my day and ultimately, ultimately my life. It gave me a sense of Peace. It gave me gratitude, so I wasn't contributing to my own sense of tired, stress, exhaustion. Okay. I'm going to challenge you here and challenge you to commit to asking yourself, what your eight-year-old self would say, in any big decision that comes up. We are not certain. Or when you're stressed, she's older. She's wiser, she's calmer and by taking her advice, you will be wiser and calmer too, see how I did that. Try it and let try this lens on for size and let me know how It goes message me @doctorprianca on Instagram. My name is, prianca, not the traditional, Indian spelling of Priyanka with the “Y” and the “K”, just just FYI. Now the second lens I'm going to discuss is the one of the persons who loves you. The lens of self-love and self-love gets talked about a lot and that's because it is a key component of peace of mind ending exhaustion. Ending burnout. Self-love is actually one component of a pillar in my program called self-empowerment because it's so important in this work. And really, I know for a lot of people depending on their background, depending on their childhoods, self-love is a real stretch, but I think as mother's we know how we love our own children and we love them unconditionally, right? And so, taking how we love our children and transposing that onto ourselves.   For example, what would you do if you loved yourself? What would you tell your child to do in this situation, right? Because once you pretend to love yourself, and in this case, really fake it till you make it really ask yourself questions. What would I do if and you can put the lens of what you would want your child to do. And that really helps you in making difficult decisions. It really increases your sense of clarity and I have a client story that I've mentioned I believe before, but a female physician was in a very tough situation relationship with her spouse. Who is also a physician, they had two small children and he was verbally and mainly verbally but sometimes physically abusive towards her and she put up with that because she didn't believe in divorce and she really wanted to stay married.   So, she tolerated behavior that she told me that she'd even recognize who she was anymore, that she was surprised that she would tolerate such disrespect and it was not a good example for her children and we really started working on Self-love and through her work with me on loving herself. She eventually asked herself. What would Ido if I love myself, if I love myself, what I keep putting myself In. harms way, would I keep being here, getting hurt, mentally and physically, and once she actually truly loved herself, she decided to physically get away from him and she moved out. So that is the power of self-love. And I'm not saying that you have to have such an extreme situation, whatsoever, okay? Self-love can be as simple as if I love myself. What would I say to taking on an extra call weekend? And if I love myself, I would say no. So, you say no similar to last week's episode when we talk about boundaries, but it's a similar concept, where you really treat yourself with love and care. You treat yourself with kindness, you have a kind of voice to yourself, and I know this might sound corny, because, when I first started, and learning about these Concepts and practicing them. They felt lame to me. I'm being honest about that. But with time, I learn that pretending even or being aware of the mean voice in my head. The critical voice and not playing into it and really trying to give myself some compassion for being Human in my not best moments by imperfect moments. My mistakes that really created so much inner peace. Right? And, and that is really what we're craving. Inner peace is our ticket, out of burnout, right? So that's just something to keep in mind.   So, the next time you have a big decision, where maybe you're spinning and fusion, ask yourself, what would you do if you loved yourself? What would you tell your child to do? Put the self-love lens on it and believe me, you will get so much clarity so quickly, you're going to have peace of mind. And a lot faster than anything, you've probably tried before and I know you've I'm guessing right? I don't know, but I'm guessing you've tried yoga, therapy, self-help books, books on tape. Maybe you have a long stack of books on your bookshelf that you want to read and you just haven't gotten to it, am I right? Or am I right? But these methods will get you the results. The peace of mind that you want that, you've been craving, try these things, let me know how it goes. You can find me @doctorprianca on Instagram and really shoot me a message. I would love to hear about how this is helping you, and if you want to dive even deeper, check out my free on-demand masterclass, watch it anytime you want. It's about 40 minutes for steps to overcome burnout, get rid of overwhelm and finally, get your peace of mind back. Link is in the show notes. Thanks for tuning in and I will talk to you next week.

Ray Gagnon is here again.  It's been a while since we had him in studio.  We talk about old age, listening to books on tape, Ray getting out of politics, his weight loss, and more.

An elder statesman of Minnesota has died. We'll hear about the life and career of former US Senator Dave Durenberger. Governor Walz is scheduled to sign a law protecting the right to an abortion. We'll hear what it does and does not do for Minnesotans and our neighbors. Many of us are still wrapping our brains around the tragic death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police. We'll talk with therapist and best-selling author Resmaa Menakem about how to process this tragedy. You've likely heard of books on tape, but 54 years ago, a service in Minnestoa first began reading newspaper articles on the radio for people who are blind. We'll hear how that got started. MPR reporter Cat Richert has tips for those of us who want to try our hand at dog sledding.

The podcast this week combines some of my very favorite things: kid podcasts and travel. Goop Tales is a kid podcasts that helps kids expand their imagination while taking them on enthralling adventures all around the globe. You can use this podcast to keep your kids entertained with stories of far off places that can keep their attention while you are running errands or on a road trip. Kids podcasts are like the books on tape from our childhood, but they are on your phone, making them way easier to access and use in your daily life. Links from the Episode: - Take the FPG Demographics Survey - Find the rest of the links from the show on The Friendly Podcast Guide website. 

What or who are the villains in your life keeping you from the things that are meant for you? This episode holds everything from overcoming those villains, changing nervousness to confidence, and the best tips for road trips. If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co . And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:How to survive a long road trip Take a bet on yourself How to connect past dots to move forward The ebbs and flows of confidence is normal The ultimate way you achieve confidence How to change nervousness to confidenceThree steps to overcoming you villains Episode References/Links:Join the Pilates popup tour!Come to Cambodia!Find out more about Agency! Educated By Tara WestoverOvercome Your Villains by Heather Monahan  If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.Be It Till You See It Podcast SurveyUse this link to get your Toe Sox!ResourcesWatch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!Lesley Logan websiteBe It Till You See It PodcastOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley LoganOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTubeProfitable PilatesSocial MediaInstagramFacebookLinkedInEpisode Transcript:Lesley Logan  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guests will bring Bold, Executable, Intrinsic and Targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co hosts in life, Brad and I want to dig into the influential convo I had with Heather Monahan in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to the interview, feel free to pause this now, go back and listen to that one and then come back and join us. Honestly, you should listen to her. (Brad: Yeah) She is written two books. She has been talking this talk and walking this walk for a long time. And if anyone's been be it till she sees it, she's one of those examples and if you've been listening to pod for a long time, you will remember many moons ago I said, I want to have Heather Monahan on this show. Boom, I have Heather Monahan on this show. (Brad: Love it.) I'm so proud of that.Brad Crowell  Yeah. I do remember she was on the wish list.Lesley Logan  She was on the wish list.Brad Crowell  Because of a quote that she said.Lesley Logan  Yes. She said, "Don't take a no from anyone who ... isn't able to give you a yes."Brad Crowell  Yeah. And I remember we had a whole conversation about that. You were really excited when you heard that.Lesley Logan  Yeah. So that hey, y'all what that means is, if someone's assistant tells you, no, they're telling you no, because I have an assistant most people know, because the person said, "I don't want to do any of these things." But that doesn't mean they don't want to ever do any of those things. They just want to make sure that like most of them don't get through. But if you find the third door, another person I want to have on the show, someone can put that person down the wish list. There's a third door and that's how you get the yes from an actual person and give you the yes, boom. Anyways, hello from Texas. We are on the road this week, officially. And we are if you're listening this like today, when this drops, we have two classes in Frisco, and we which is like just North of Dallas. It's a really cool area of Dallas at air, actually. And I've been there many times and I love it. In fact, I was just there last week, just so then we're gonna go Houston. (Brad: Tomorrow) Yep. I've actually never been to Houston. So I'm really excited about this.Brad Crowell  Yeah, I've only driven through. I've never been there to be there.Lesley Logan  Do we call them Houstonians? I don't know. Well, tell me.Brad Crowell  I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with the ... I don't know on that one.Lesley Logan  I don't know about that one. But you know, I'm sure that they're Texas. They'll tell us. Then we had to Nashville. And then it's Atlanta, then Greensboro, North Carolina, and then Cleveland and then St. Louis. And then a little hang sesh with food and Denver. (Brad: Yeah.) So Denver peeps, you need to reach out and let us know if you want in on an info. Because there's no way to buy a ticket for that situation.Brad Crowell  Yeah. And we may have some spots left on this tour here. So if you wanted to come, hang and have a class, go to onlinepilatesclasses.com/tour.Lesley Logan  Yeah. And if there are no space, spaces left, definitely let our team know, because you never know what happens with people. (Brad: It's true.) We can like ...Brad Crowell  Yeah, keep us posted. Because also too, there's a chance we may add additional classes if we get enough interest. So make sure you reach out.Lesley Logan  And well, you can also just show up. And buy flashcards if you want to buy that as a gift for yourself. (Brad: Yeah, come meet us. Come say, hi.) You could say hi to the dogs, they will be at these events, probably hanging out in the van. But we'll bring them out for people who are dog lovers. And don't forget, if you are on the waitlist for Cambodia for 2023, you have emails in your inbox. (Brad: Oh yeah.) And I know you're thinking, "Oh, I can wait till ..." Like it's fine. It's like 10 9 11 months away. So here's the deal, we actually go public with this offer. And very soon, and that means we're not holding a spot for you. We're not saving it for you. So right now the perk of being on the waitlist is that you hear about it early, and you get first dibs and it could sell out just by the waitlist. So make sure you snag your spot if that's what you're wanting to do. Especially before the price goes up. And before other people hear about it, you go to lesleylogan.co/retreat. And then one more thing that's very important we want to make sure no one misses out on this. It's like key to me. And it's something I actually preach on when we are coaching people on raising their rates. But we are raising the Agency rate on January 1st. (Brad: That's right. Yeah.) So if you've ever, ever been like, "Oh, someday I'm gonna do that." Now is the time because it will never be the price that it is right now. (Brad: That's true.) And here's the deal. We, when you join Agency, whatever rate you join in it, is the rate you get to keep (Brad: Yeah) for as long as you're an Agency member. So you'd be like think about the people been there for five years. Yeah. So don't wait till next year because think about what you could have done in this last year. If you've wondered like what Agency members have done in the past year. Let me just tell you, we've had members open new studios. We've had several open studios, by the way, actually, (Brad: Yeah) at this point in the year. I think we're at six studios this year that people have opened. (Brad: Yeah) You like, "I don't want to open a studio. I just want it for myself." Yeah, we have hundreds of people doing it, too. One of our members her her social media following has quadrupled in size, she's had like 1000s, like 10s of 1000s in one month, and her online platform has had multiple people buy. So like, whether or not you wanna work for yourself, you want to open a studio, you want to run multiple studios. We got people for you. We got Erika Quests, we got Roxy Menzies, we got Alex Street. Everyone has had a podcast here.Brad Crowell  Yeah. At the end of last year, one of our members hosted an international Pilates festival. (Lesley: Yeah) You know with so many things that have happened inside of Agency and ...Lesley Logan  Two of our, two of our pro members have teamed up to lead our mentorship together. (Brad: Yeah) They would never have met, like and trust each other in that way, if they had not had their Agency experience over these years ...Brad Crowell  People have launched teacher training programs, they've hired teachers, they've, you know, brought in new clients. There's just all the things and we want that for you. Our mission is more bodies doing Pilates. And when we empower you to grow your business, it serves what what we're trying to do as well. And we also have a lot of fun, and it takes away a lot of that anxiety.Lesley Logan  It's so fun. In Fridays, especially because it's back fuck yeah Friday. It's always wins all the time. And even people are begrudgingly doing a win because they needed a moment before. Like it's always a win. So anyways, you if you want to book a exploratory call to see if Agency is right for you, then where do they go, Brad?Brad Crowell  Just go to, DM us either, DM us on the pod or you can reach out through the Profitable Pilates website, just go to the contact page and reach out and we will happily set up a call and you'll probably talk to me.Lesley Logan  Yeah. So but again, that starts January 1st, please don't call me on January 2nd, go, "Oh gosh, can I have the old rate?" You can't actually and here's why I won't let you do that in your business. And so I can't, I have to ... operate in that integrity so that I can help you operate in your integrity. So anyways, we like to give that announcement. And that is happening in January 1st.Brad Crowell  Yeah. Before we move on that we had an audience question. They said that the question was, hey LL, you said last year that you drove 7000 miles on your tour? And obviously we're on a tour right now. How the heck do you pass all that time while you're driving? I just couldn't imagine being in the car that long myself.Lesley Logan  I think people think that like you and I are just like chit chatting like 10 hours a day. You know what I mean? I think people are thinking about like the time you're in a van with other people and like, oh my God, so long on time.Brad Crowell  Yeah. Or they're imagining Chevy Chase is, you know, like family vacations (Lesley: Yes) something like that.Lesley Logan  Yes. So because it is 2022. And it's been, you know, the 20 the 2000s for quite some time. There's lots of ways you can like we are in the van. But we're often listen to different podcasts or different books. (Brad: Yeah) We actually, probably we do the exact same thing that we do now. We have coffee together. We have meals together. But ...Brad Crowell  Yeah. I take long phone calls.Lesley Logan  I hate that so much. But he has to and I won't do them. So it's fine.Brad Crowell  Yeah, I do a lot of like, work with our team. And the phone calls keep me up, like, focused and driving and, you know, helps me stay driving on the road. And like ... (Lesley: It is true, especially at night.) You want my mind to wander.Lesley Logan  Yeah, I love my mind to be able to wander like so when he's driving. He's really on calls. When I'm driving, I am listening often to books that I want to evaluate for being podcast guests, or for being part of the book club for Agency members who want to be in a book club and read business books, or just things that are I'm curious about for my own self development. So I listened to a lot of that, of course, I listened to some my favorite pod. It's also a great time to like reevaluate my pods. So because it's a long drive, what I'll do is I'll like download a bunch of podcasts. I'm thinking of being on the regular, and I'll let them I'll see if I listened to them. Or if I'm like, "No, actually, I'm not into this at all." Because it's like, it can happen in so many consecutive episodes so I can I can get a lot done. So we...Brad Crowell  I mean also too, it's not like we're I mean except for 2020 where we plowed through the drive in ...Lesley Logan  We did it in two and a half days each way.Brad Crowell  Yeah, yeah, it was it was insane. Like two three days to get there but two and a half days to come back. We did the whole drive from Philadelphia till Vegas in 55 hours. (Lesley: Yeah) And so it literally we just did not stop we were driving for like 14 hours a day and then we would sleep and I would drive late and then we would overlap our sleep she would get up at seven and keep driving. I mean, that was that was brutal. Not gonna lie. That one was not my ...Lesley Logan  It wasn't on a fun trip. (Brad: my preference but) We will stop it a lot of like, we'll go oh, "What's that thing?" And what like pullover ...Brad Crowell  Yeah we try to include some spontaneity. We also schedule in like, "Hey dinner with friends we only get to see once a year." Or lunch or stop at a dog park, we try to take the dogs to the dog parks literally every day. (Lesley: Yeah) Just drive around in different dog parks.Lesley Logan  Well, especially because they're like they're literally in the car not doing very much at all. (Brad: Yeah) And so we take and we try to find a dog park and then you'll toss a ball for them and then I'll try to get August to chase me it's not he does not exercise. (Brad: Not so much.) But I'll work out in the dog park so like I'm the one with the kettlebell swings, if you see someone doing a workout in a dog park, Hi, it's me. Somewhere between here and Philly all the way back. But I think like it is correct, I think a lot of people think we're just doing like a natural and put things and we're just like sitting like looking out the window longingly. Like when does Colorado ever end? And is this Kansas? Or is this Colorado? Like, no, we, we there's we're there's still things that we're doing and we're quite creative people. (Brad: Yeah.) So our minds are always producing stuff.Brad Crowell  I love finding like fun little coffee shops and restaurants. So we spend time trying to find new new places to explore.Lesley Logan  So here here's so if you listen to the Rolf Potts episode, you heard how I talked about when we traveled we'll looks like gluten free options. (Brad: Sure.) When we're on the road, searching for oat milk, or gleif gluten free options will absolutely 1,000% help you find a locally owned business. (Brad: Yeah.) Even in these weird places were like, "No way LL did you find that there?" Yeah, I did. We found we found ... (Brad: ... we are in Texas.) No, we found that vegan place in South Carolina. Remember, we were in South Carolina. We were in guests with South Carolina. Remember we're like went to that ... (Brad: Oh yes.) It was, I don't know the name of the town but like I'm not ... I'm not ... and Brad so we're gonna have lunch there. I was like, "No, no way."Brad Crowell  Yeah, it was near outside the ... state park.Lesley Logan  Yeah, we have an incredible and I was like ... (Brad: We found a food truck one time.) A vegan food truck (Brad: Yeah) that was so unbelievable, I was actually sad how far away it was because I would have ordered again. And I was like, "Dude, more food truck somewhere else?" No, they didn't. But so use your like, unique thing you're interested in to find fun things to do a long road trips. We also love to shop at vintage stores.Brad Crowell  Yeah, that's fun, too. (Lesley: And) we try to go like, I think some of the craziest vintage stores we've been at or you know, like thrift shop slash vintage shops where in Texas. (Lesley: Oh yeah.) Like crazy stuff. You know like, "Wow, like how long has it been since anyone has picked this up and dusted it off?" Like ...Lesley Logan  Yeah, there's some funny things there. I also got like, shout out to downtown Tucson. (Brad: Yeah that's fun.) You have some cool ass shit. I've really loved it.Brad Crowell  There's like, there's no... there's like one street of cute funky like local (Lesley: Yeah) and all the things ...Lesley Logan  Yeah, there's (Brad: shops. Yeah.) Anyways, we are not, don't cry for us.Brad Crowell  Oh another thing we love to do is national parks.Lesley Logan  We do love a national park. (Brad: Yeah) We really really do.Brad Crowell  This trip we, well, we've already driven through Saguaro National Park in Arizona.Lesley Logan  We did that. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. We don't know which parks we're doing this trip. But I will say so just to go back to your to your question. Thank you for asking it. Trips don't have to be like about the destination. It is that cliche. It's the journey. It really is a journey. Like (Brad: Yeah, has to be.) I remember ...Brad Crowell  7000 miles is a lot of miles.Lesley Logan  Yeah. I I remember more about like, the things we do along the way, then oftentimes the thing we do when we get there best because we're wherever we're going. It's often like if we do the same thing every year sounds like that. But like I really do find it fun to find random coffee shops. And then sometimes we go the same route. So we're like, (Brad: Yeah, yeah.) "Oh, there's that place we can go." (Brad: Oh there's the shop we run at last time.) Yeah, that was so great and so it's it's so fun to do. But don't be afraid to like branch out, get off the beaten path. And then and then it is then when I do let my mind wander. It's not like I've been looking at this field for seven hours are still here, (Brad: Kansas) like fuck (Brad: Nebraska) But I've listened to some amazing books on tape. I mean, like just some really epic ones. If you're wondering what are some great roadtrip books to listen to Educated if you haven't yet listened to that and by Tara Westover. (Brad: Yeah) Amazing. I started with Brad trying to take a nap. And then I had to rewind so he could take it and then we literally wanted to finish the book. And so we were with your family like, oh, they come in in the car with us. We're taking our own car. We're taking our own car. Turn it on. So that one is so uniquely interesting.Brad Crowell  We also do like introspection, like reflection on the year, every drive, every drive and we we talk about like, what can we you know do to better serve our members that are an OPC and an Agency.Lesley Logan  We talked about a lot of ideas, we get rid a lot of ideas. (Brad: Yeah) We debate about ideas. Like, you'd be surprised how fast the day goes, even though you're just like sitting around like it really does go fast. So anyways, if you need roadtrip books, I'm ha... reached out to the @be_it_pod. We'll put it in another solo episode, but ...Brad Crowell  And go listen to Rolf Potts (Lesley: Yes) episode, which was actually very recently it was (Lesley: very recently at the time ...) episode 151.Lesley Logan  Yeah, yeah. So go listen to that. And then, you know, if you are driving to your destination, try not to like drive. "Uhh i have to drive." What can be fun about the drive? And try to find something like, I remember one of the drives we're gonna do, we're gonna stop at a crystal place, like a ground where you could like dig up your own crystals. (Brad: Oh yeah) You know what I mean? Like, or, like find something fun along the way. I don't care if it's like the biggest haystack or the biggest corn maze I would never do that. But like nothing would give me more anxiety than being in one of those. But um, but try to like find something unique along the way, the internet is amazing y'all you can literally put in like things that no one would think to do in X place and they'll somebody from like eatery or you know, whatever, weird, whatever we are ...(Brad: the greatest) the greatest. I mean, like I Googled today, like, best Thanksgiving dinners in Las Vegas, and like I got 17 restaurants to choose from. So like, believe it or not, someone's probably curated something for you to do just look it up.Brad Crowell  Love it. Okay, now let's talk about Heather Monahan. When her retiring boss's daughter fired her. Heather Monahan began to bet on herself. In the past five years, she has become a best selling author, two times over. The podcast host of Creating Confidence, and was awarded the top 50 keynote speaker of 2022. (Lesley: That's huge.) Yeah, that's pretty crazy. And in 2020, she was top 40 keynote speaker. She does all of this while being an incredible single mom, to her son, and working to empower individuals to use their strengths to achieve success.Lesley Logan  Yeah, I I really, I really enjoy like what she's doing in this world. And I think it's, it's necessary and how cool that she had this career her whole life. And that's one area that she was a top dog in that, like she really was. And then because she was fired, and she couldn't just like, go get the same job somewhere else because of like, whatever those those clauses are, she had to bet on herself. And it allowed her to (Brad: Yeah) like completely switch (Brad: She is a non compete.) Yes, thank you. That's the exact word for it. She was able to like, just try out something completely different and new. And now she's a tough speaker. She's traveling the world. She was on the Dr. Phil show. You know what I mean? Like ... like, come on. So y'all literally like, if you know someone in your life who has been fired, and you probably like, "Oh my God, I can't let that happen that." Like we hear about our parents all the time all the time, like, "Oh, so one so got fired, so and so got laid off." I feel so bad for them. It's the what if it's the best fucking thing that ever happened for their life? (Brad: Yeah) What if it is? It probably is, I mean, we can go back to the last episode, last recap. Your divorce, ... clearly was the best thing that ever happened to you. You wouldn't met me, you would never marry me if you hadn't been through that. So like, I think we all have to, like, take a moment on and when we see someone having a worst experience, like, obviously see them and feel that but then also be there to like, remind them that they're gonna like, they can bet on themselves, just like she did. So one of the things that she I'm going to pre phrase what she said, atually. She said, you don't have to know the entire plan before trying something new. Yeah, that's right. Just keep moving forward with the faith that you'll figure it out because you don't know what you don't know. (Brad: Yeah) And ultimately, you can't connect the dots until you're looking back. So you have to keep moving forward. You know, y'allBrad Crowell  Yeah. So I think I think that the idea of you don't know what you don't know. You know, and then that really the it's the reflection on the past that allows you to decide like, you know, you can start to say, "Oh, I'm glad I did this. I'm glad I did that. I'm glad this." You won't know that until you do it.Lesley Logan  Well and correct. And you try it out and also like you might not realize what'd you do know? Like you don't know what you don't know. It doesn't have to be like it's not a bad thing. Like, you might not realize you have this like skill or talent like the other day when I like pick up the chopsticks my right hand. I was actually really amazing at it. I didn't know that. (Brad: You did?) Yeah, you were there.Brad Crowell  Oh, I didn't realize it was your right hand.Lesley Logan  Yeah. I was like ... look at me pick up this carpaccio with these with my right hand. I'm lucky to y'all. And I actually like treat chopsticks like, like a fork. So anyways, I think that that whole section that was just talking about is like such a key, a key thing to remind yourself and you haven't seen the episode yet, save it, you can go back to that. Because on your worst day can feel like this is the worst that ever happened to me, it truly can't be the best if you just keep taking the next step forward. And, and trusting that it's okay if you don't know the entire plan. Like when we're coaching people in Agency, like I keep feeling like I take two steps forward. And then one step back. And I'm like, yeah, what if it was to review the dots, so you can take the next few steps forward in the right direction?Brad Crowell  Yeah. I think there was another section a part of this year, though, that I thought was interesting was, you know, to move forward with the faith, that you're going to be serving yourself well. Because you will figure it out as you go along. You know, but the idea that you clearly don't know the future, you know, and unless someone has predetermined the path for you, and like shared your career plan, sometimes that might happen, but usually not. You know, what, as you move forward, if you know where you want to get to, along the way, you don't know how will happen to get there. But you know, you kind of have this big future vision down the road. And when you move forward, it's with the intention of getting to that end game, you know, just the bet... in between, you don't really you don't have any idea what's going to happen. SoLesley Logan  Yeah. And that's okay. (Brad: Yeah) It's, it's actually kind of fun, it's going back to our road trip, like, we know, we're gonna get to Philly. We know we have stops along the way. We don't know which stores we might stop at, or what people we might run into or like, what could happen. And that's what makes it the most fun. That's why we keep doing it. (Brad: Yeah) What did you love?Brad Crowell  I really loved when she talked about confidence and that it ebbs and flows. And I thought that was interesting, because, you know, obviously, her podcast is about confidence, her first book is about confidence. And you just associate confidence with certain people. And you never imagined that there, you just think, "Oh, that person is confident." So they're clearly always confident 100% of the time. And she said, "No, that's not that's not how it works." you know. For her specifically, she said she felt super confident in her work in her career, she had spent 20 years climbing, you know, the corporate ladder in the world of radio doing sales. And but she said she didn't feel so confident in her relationships. You know, that afterwards, she could, you know, quit and land on her feet. So there was like, a lot of uncertainty there. And she said, there's not nobody is confident in all situations, there's always self doubt, that self doubt is actually part of the growth process.Lesley Logan  Yeah, I think I think it's just being aware of where you feel less confident in your life is more important than were like going, "I'm not confidnent in that." It's like, just the going like thinking about Lena Franklin. Awareness is actually part of enlightenment. And so if you can understand like, "Oh, I'm super confident at work. I'm not confident at relationships." Okay. So you're less confident in relationships. And that means that there's room for growth. You know, what I mean? I feel I feel like it's really easy for us to put a label on ourselves especially around confidence and then therefore we're just not confident there. So we don't work on that there but it's like if you can have that awareness and be okay with your confidence ebbing and flowing, a) you'll be a real human being, people actually like you just like people like Heather she is like the queen of these things. And she's an all this stuff and like she's a likable person. You know, people want to be friends with her, people want to have her around on the things, because she actually is a real human being who is okay with her confidence ebbing and flowing. And understand that some areas she feels stronger than others. And then you ...Brad Crowell  Lena's episode was 77, by the way.Lesley Logan  77. Oh, what it like that's like a good number for her. Like so anyway, I really enjoyed both of our whole conversation. I thought there's a lot that we can take away from it.Brad Crowell  Yeah, yeah. And I think that, you know, in in my my personal experience, you know, having been on stage. Confidence was something that was built. (Lesley: I think confident) And definitely I wasn't confident the first time I got on stage.Lesley Logan  And so then what you got on stage again? (Brad: Yeah) You got on stage again? (Brad: Yeah) And like we ...Brad Crowell  Because I saw myself being a performer. I was like, "I am that person." And in order for me to get to that place where I am that person, I gotta practice, I gotta do it.Lesley Logan  Right. If you are a person who is onstage performing, then you have to get on stages and perform. (Brad: Yeah) Like, like, we were just listening on the other day. (Brad: I was just thinking about this.) So we're listening to Chelsea Handler, (Brad: Yeah) and she gives advice. We also listen to Iliza Shlesinger and just in case you're listening because I want you on the show. Hi, I love I love I love listening to the questions I get. I love the ... I really resonate with a lot of their answers. But there was a woman, a person who wanted to become a comedian. (Brad: Yes) And in ...Brad Crowell  ... she already was a comedian. (Lesley: She already a comedian.) But she had an upcoming gig and she was worried about she was opening for someone and she was like, "How do I gain confidence in this?"Lesley Logan  Yeah, because where they live, there's like one Comedy Club and like, "I've got two weeks to get my confidence up." (Brad: Right.) And Chelsea was like, okay, well, normally, I'd say like, go get on every stage, you can. But there's one stage to be on, and you're about to be on it. So you need to go to the grocery store and the park and just do your set in front of people. It's like ...Brad Crowell  Yeah. She said, "Do it, do, do your set in front of your parents."Lesley Logan  Do you ... Yeah. Do you set likeBrad Crowell  And she said, "Well, I don't think they'll appreciate my humor." And the response was perfect. All the more reason you should do it in front of your parents.Lesley Logan  Yeah, yeah. Cuz that will create confidence, because you'll have done in front of people who don't appreciate it and like, so the reality is, is that confidence comes from putting yourself in a situation where you feel less confident. And then following through with the thing that you said you were going to do. (Brad: Yeah) End of story if (Brad: Yeah) you don't feel like you're a runner, you have to go, you have to say, "I'm gonna go for a run for one block." And then you run one block. And guess what, you just dropped money in your confidence bucket of running, and I'm a runner. And so yeah, you didn't run your marathon. But we're not working to that confidence, yet. We're just actually trying to show up for the thing we said we're gonna do and do the thing.Brad Crowell  And even even with this ebbing and flowing that she was talking about, nobody's confident in all situations. I had been on stage for 10 years, when I got invited to a birthday party of a dear friend of mine, and I decided to write a song and perform it on stage, but solo. (Lesley: Oh) And my whole career had been with the band. And in the band, I wasn't singing. I mean, I was singing, but it wasn't the lead person. I was like, second, and that was, you know, that was fine. I, but I had been on stage like, put me on stage with a group of people anytime. And I'm like, "I'm in. It's totally okay." But put me on stage alone. And I was like, whoa. And I was like, really feeling that one. I was not confident.Lesley Logan  You know what, that's so funny. Because remember when we were at Momentum Fest, and it was a first year of Momentum Fest, and I had like 80 plus people in this room. And it was pre pandemic. So it was like, had a break from teaching and all. And there's like my peers in the front row. And there's people like who hire me for things in the front row. And then there's all these people who were so excited to be in that room. And you were miking me up and I was like, "Is this thing on?" You're like, "No." And I said, "I'm really, like, I'm really nervous." (Brad: Yeah) And he's like you said, "Why? What is, this is what you do all the time." And it's so funny. I think sometimes we forget that we we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, which then makes us doubt ourselves, even in situations where we would normally be confident. And (Brad: Sure) so I think if you're finding your competence ebbing and flowing in areas where you normally are confident, it's just time to take a look back and it probably means you really care about that particular moment. (Brad: Right) And then look back at the wins you've had in other moments like it and you can draw on that confidence.Brad Crowell  It goes back to your favorite takeaway, where ultimately you can't connect the dots until you're looking back.Lesley Logan  I know I just connected a bunch.Brad Crowell  Yeah. I love it. All right, so finally, let's talk about those BE IT action items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Heather Monahan?Lesley Logan  Well, she had a three step process and it's from her recent book, so you all go get Overcome Your Villains. Especially if you like, feel like you have a villain in your life. You gotta you gotta read this book. And it's called B A K.Brad Crowell  Yeah, she called it BAK.Lesley Logan  Yeah, BAK. So it is. Number one, what is your belief? Oh, did we talk about beliefs last week. We did. Sorry, you don't get to get over this. What is your belief? Number two, immediately take action. So for example, when she was fired, she immediately posted on social media," I've just been fired."Brad Crowell  Yeah. And then let's do all three. So what is your belief, immediately take action and then what is the knowledge you surround yourself with is number three.Lesley Logan  Okay. (Brad: Yeah) So you got all three everyone, what is your belief? Immediately take action. And then what is your knowledge? So belief, action, knowledge. Okay, so she had been fired. And and so going, "Oh I've been fired. Nobody likes me. What am I gonna do?" She actually was like, "Hey, everyone, if I've ever helped you in any way, I need to hear from you now."Brad Crowell  She posted that on social media, "Hi, I've been fired," period. Wow, that takes guts, right. Like that talk about confidence right there. And like just taking action. Because if I've ever helped you in any way, I need to hear from you now, when she when she posted that someone that she had helped, reached out to her and invited her to go on the Elvis Duran show. And that changed her life.Lesley Logan  Change her life. And also like, can we just go back to betting on yourself? So be it till you see it like she bet on herself. She didn't know what's going to happen. But she acted as if like, I'm gonna bet on myself. And if I bet on myself, I'm gonna put this thing out there that I'm only going to get great things. And something good is going to come from this, like, you know what I mean? Like, I love that. So then and then what knowledge can you surround yourself with? So don't just consume information from randos. We've talked about this before y'all on the podcast. Don't ask your your Uncle Joe, information, like advice around something that they're not knowledgeable in. (Brad: Right) And, and I've even mentioned this on one of the podcasts like, make sure you're really clear on whose opinions of you matter. Because in our family, we love them so much. And many of them listening to this, hi guys. But some people like it's not that I don't care about what they have to say about me, but they don't actually understand what we do want on a day to day basis. And so some of the things that they say, come from fear and worry (Brad: Yeah) around us. It's not, it's not that they don't actually want us to succeed. It's not about holding us back, but they're worried for us. So then they share that fear. And then (Brad: Right and that) it's knowledge I didn't need right now. You know.Brad Crowell  Yeah, I mean, I think also it's like, you know, you, you know, why would you ask a golfer about to running on a track? You know, why would you ask someone who's had a, you know, job for their whole career about being an entrepreneur, like, you know, it's, it seems obvious when you say it that way, like you're like, well, duh, wouldn't, they're not a professional swimmer. And I'm trying to be in the Olympics.Lesley Logan  But you do it all the time. (Brad: But we do it all the time.) You have that friend that you've kept too long. You kept them way too long. Ladies, we keep our friends too long. I don't understand that. And then they say something. And then if you really took a step back, you go, "I know they always say mean things to me." Then why are you like actually using their opinion to weigh in on the things that you're doing? I'm asking, it's not a rhetorical question. You need to answer out loud. I can't hear you. But you can hear you. Because it all has an impact on your life.Brad Crowell  Yeah, totally does. So anyway, the three step BAK process, beliefs, action, and knowledge. What is your belief, take immediate action and then three was the knowledge that you surround yourself with. I thought those made a whole lot of sense.Lesley Logan  Oh, easily, easily actionable (Brad: Yeah) actions. You know how I love that. So you guys get her books. (Brad: Yeah, check those out.) And listen to her podcast.Brad Crowell  And thanks for joining us today.Lesley Logan  Yeah, really. We are so happy that you're here. (Brad: Yeah) And thank you all. Y'all know, we have some of the most reviews of any podcasts in our age, (Brad: Yeah) not our age, like personally, but the age of the podcast. Like it's insane. So we couldn't have done that without you ...Brad Crowell  No ... You know, we need each and every one of you. Thank you.Lesley Logan  And thank you for sharing this with your friends. I know sometimes we were like, I actually heard you say, tag a friend. How do I do that? That's a great question. So if you don't know how to tag a friend and you want to know how to tag a friend, will you DM me on the platform you're trying to tag a friend? What does that mean? It means like, letting that person know that this is for them. (Brad: DM means direct message.) And DM means direct message. So if you will find the Be It pod on the platform, you like to use that's Facebook (Brad: Oh, actually we ...) TikTok or Instagram.Brad Crowell  We set up an email, you can email us now (Lesley: Oh) at beit@bloompods.netLesley Logan  Check that out, (Brad: Yeah) beit@bloompods.net. So so tell us which platform you are wanting to share or tag a friend. And also tell us which platform you listen to your podcasts on. Is it YouTube? Is it Spotify? Is it Amazon, but Amazon, yeah you can listen to Amazon. Is it Apple? Is it Google Play? Is it 17 other options out there? There's so many we're on every single thing. But if you do that we have someone who will help you, literally tell you how to do it. So because we want we know that you actually want to share them. So we want to help you do that. We just need to know a couple of details. And thank you for doing that. (Brad: Yeah) Until next time, Be It Till You See It.Brad Crowell  Bye for now.Lesley Logan  Be It Till You See It is a production of Bloom Podcast Network.  Brad Crowell  It's written, produced, filmed and recorded by your host Lesley Logan. And me Brad Crowell. Our associate producer is Amanda Frattarelli.  Lesley Logan   Kevin Perez at Disenyo handles all of our audio editing.  Brad Crowell  Our theme music is by Ali at APEX Production Music. And our branding by designer and artist, Gianranco Cioffi.  Lesley Logan  Special thanks to our designer Mesh Herico for creating all of our visuals, (which you can't see because this is a podcast) and our digital producer, Jay Pedroso for editing all the video each week, so you can. Brad Crowell  And to Angelina Herico for transcribing each episode, so you can find it on our website. And finally to Meridith Crowell for keeping us all on point and on timeTranscribed by https://otter.aiSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Wake the Faith up Slayer… This is Garth Heckman with the David Alliance and you can reach me at TDAgiantslayer@gmail.com    Brought to you by wellbuiltbody.com Gym Apparel for men and women that rocks and shocks and ain't for everybody - but just might be for you. wellbuiltbody.com   My highest downloaded podcast this year was on systems… so I thought I would hit that topic again.  Where am I going today with it? Well, Some call it the technique of systemization. Systemization is the skill of developing a process around a set of common tasks or goals.  Goals are great, but they are limited in how much you can improve them… however systems are the key.  Goals have a tendency to have a start and immediately an end… and the middle is messy and very little attention is given to it. But that middle part is the system… its the guts, it what's cuts through the ifs and or butts… its a must.  This was more or less popularized by Dr. Edward W. dimming after WW2 in Japan. You can study much of it by looking into him and the concept Constant and never ending improvement Or Kaizen. But for the sake of argument it rebuilt Japan into a business juggernaut.    How much can you improve a system to achieve your goals. Lets say you have a goal to read more… that is not enough. Even if you say, lets read 10 pages a day… still not a system. You say, ok, lets read 5 pages in the morning and 5 in the evening. Still not a system.  You must understand it is extremely important to build the system with the right framework because once you do it - it will function correctly 99% of the time.  And again, goals for the sake of goals lead to haphazard random results.  You say ok Garth what is the system for reading 10 pages a day (or to do anything for that matter) First you need a why for what you are trying to do? Why you ask do you need a why? Because the why is the source of power behind the system you are creating. Look- to just read 10 pages in order to say at parties I read about 10 pages a day… is pointless. You might as well just say I pick my nose 10 times a day. But the power is in the WHY I read.  So lets say your why is so that you can do better in business.  Ok, now what is the system.  Now that we have the why we can start with the What?What should you read, are there particular books, magazines, in your field of business? I would bet yes.  Next is How should you read? Read alone, with a pad of paper to take notes, read in good lighting. Where? Maybe in your office, coffee shop, in your car during coffee breaks and lunch. Who… who should you be reading. Are there authors that are more valuable to read than others.  Now here is where the mindset of systems comes into place… you can now improve all of these by doing more homework. Ask other people in your field, what and who they read. look at your calendar and see if you can find a few more minutes to read a few more pages. Figure out a better way to take notes on what you read… is there an app that allows you to capture your notes or html text? (BTW try camscanner its my favorite for this) Can you listen to books on tape, are there youtube pages covering in depth what you are reading…  Now is the system done? Not even close. Remember systems are built on never ending improvement.  so keep pushing forward… Who can you discuss with regarding the books and articles you read. Can you teach it to someone in order to even better understand it? Could you write a book? Can you meet any of the authors or at least reach out to them on social media. Is there a conference with any of the authors or topics you are studying up on?  Always focus on the system. You can add just one little extra detail every few days and it will pay off big time.  Remember your why? it was so that you could do better in business.  If you started a goal 6 months ago… with no system… where would you be. But if you started a system for a WHY… where would you be?  The amazing thing about having a system mindset is that you begin to practice it in every area of your life.  So again your why was “so that I can do better in business”. What is your guess as to how much farther you would be in 6 months working a system rather than just working a goal?  This is the difference between people who achieve more in life… its not just prayer, and fasting and reading your bible more and hoping God gives you favor or you earn his blessing- its knowing how to build a system around these things.  James 2:17So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead. 18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.… That word deed in the greek ‘er-gon has a strong meaning of work with intention… again always intending to improve my work… a system if you will.  And you could easily insert the word goal with the word faith for even greater clarity. How does it sound? Lets read it again…  So too Goals by itself if it does not result in action is dead. But I will show you my life goals with a system/action.  Paul is throwing down with a put up or shut up.. he is calling them out. Show me your goals, i will show you my action my system. So get your SYS-tem together, get it going and make life happen! 

Jodi Krangle's voiceover journey began with singing —since around the time she started talking. Music has always been a way her family connects. When she was little, her dad would pull out his trusty guitar and her mom would sing to her sister and her at bedtime.Fast forward to 1993. Through gaming (Dungeons and Dragons, to be exact), she was introduced to “Filk” music—the music that's played at science fiction/fantasy conventions. In 1994, she joined two friends from the fandom world to form an acoustic band called Urban Tapestry. In their time together, they've headlined at music conventions in Canada, the U.S., and Europe.Her first voiceover work was in 1995 when she spent a year in a volunteer position with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) creating books on tape. And by tape, she means real “tape.”—reel to reel, baby. Several years later, she took the leap to venture out on her own, and boy, has it been rewarding.Jodi has done voiceover work in the healthcare, corporate, hospitality, political, and non-profit sectors, among others. No matter your specific need, know that she's a reliable partner in your business and she provides super quick turn-arounds – because she knows how fast your business moves. Her number one goal is to make you look good!More Info: Voiceoversandvocals.comSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/masterleadership. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

PUBLIC VERSION. Writer, Producer, Creator, Actress, and Geek Culture Icon Felicia Day (THE GUILD, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG, SUPERNATURAL, EUREKA, THE FLOG, TABLE TOP) joins Adam, Joe, and Arwen to discuss her incredible career journey. From her game changing decision to stop waiting for opportunities to come her way and create her own award winning and ground breaking web series THE GUILD (now featured in the Smithsonian)… to becoming an artistic hero and paving the way for so many others to stop waiting and start creating… to learning the harsh reality that the Hollywood system doesn't know what to make of “outside of the box” talent and that being a self-made success doesn't exactly translate to feature film and TV series deals with the major studios and networks…  to launching her own content platform GEEK & SUNDRY and the immense pressures that came with producing 40 hours of weekly content with extremely limited resources for the monumental task at hand… to coming to the realization that being a healthy human being would make her a much better artist than just being a work-a-holic and making the difficult decision to walk away from GEEK & SUNDRY… to how the exhausting experience disenchanted her desire to write for almost 5 years… to Felicia's process for recording books on tape and why she felt the need to give trigger warnings to her fan base with her latest audio-book THE HONEY TRAP (now available on audible)… Felicia is one of the most inspirational examples of an artist who stopped waiting for permission and started doing her art, her way. Dr. Arwen provides “Hollywood Therapy” for a filmmaker who managed to scare away their previous therapist and Felicia and the boys geek out over their shared love for THE WRAITH (1986) in this incredible conversation with a true creative titan.