Podcasts about Guideposts

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here.Yesterday, Southern California Edison (SCE), the utility whose power lines may have started the devastating Eaton Fire, announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program. Under the program, people affected by the fire can receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in compensation, in a matter of months rather than years—but in exchange, they must give up their right to sue.It should come as no surprise that SCE, in designing the program, sought the help of Kenneth Feinberg. For more than 40 years, often in the wake of tragedy or disaster, Feinberg has helped mediate and resolve seemingly intractable crises. He's most well-known for how he and his colleague Camille Biros designed and administered the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. But he has worked on many other headline-making matters over the years, including the Agent Orange product liability litigation, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust, the multidistrict litigation involving Monsanto's Roundup weed killer—and now, of course, the Eaton Fire.How did Ken develop such a fascinating and unique practice? What is the most difficult aspect of administering these giant compensation funds? Do these funds represent the wave of the future, as an alternative to (increasingly expensive) litigation? Having just turned 80, does he have any plans to retire?Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ken—the day after his 80th birthday—and we covered all these topics. The result is what I found to be one of the most moving conversations I've ever had on this podcast.Thanks to Ken Feinberg for joining me—and, of course, for his many years of service as America's go-to mediator in times of crisis.Show Notes:* Kenneth Feinberg bio, Wikipedia* Kenneth Feinberg profile, Chambers and Partners* L.A. Fire Victims Face a Choice, by Jill Cowan for The New York TimesPrefer reading to listening? For paid subscribers, a transcript of the entire episode appears below.Sponsored by:NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com.Three quick notes about this transcript. First, it has been cleaned up from the audio in ways that don't alter substance—e.g., by deleting verbal filler or adding a word here or there to clarify meaning. Second, my interviewee has not reviewed this transcript, and any errors are mine. Third, because of length constraints, this newsletter may be truncated in email; to view the entire post, simply click on “View entire message” in your email app.David Lat: Welcome to the Original Jurisdiction podcast. I'm your host, David Lat, author of a Substack newsletter about law and the legal profession also named Original Jurisdiction, which you can read and subscribe to at davidlat.substack.com. You're listening to the eighty-fourth episode of this podcast, recorded on Friday, October 24.Thanks to this podcast's sponsor, NexFirm. NexFirm helps Biglaw attorneys become founding partners. To learn more about how NexFirm can help you launch your firm, call 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com. Want to know who the guest will be for the next Original Jurisdiction podcast? Follow NexFirm on LinkedIn for a preview.I like to think that I've produced some good podcast episodes over the past three-plus years, but I feel that this latest one is a standout. I'm hard-pressed to think of an interview that was more emotionally affecting to me than what you're about to hear.Kenneth Feinberg is a leading figure in the world of mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He is most well-known for having served as special master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund—and for me, as someone who was in New York City on September 11, I found his discussion of that work profoundly moving. But he has handled many major matters over the years, such as the Agent Orange product liability litigation to the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. And he's working right now on a matter that's in the headlines: the California wildfires. Ken has been hired by Southern California Edison to help design a compensation program for victims of the 2025 Eaton fire. Ken has written about his fascinating work in two books: What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 and Who Gets What: Fair Compensation after Tragedy and Financial Upheaval. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Ken Feinberg.Ken, thank you so much for joining me.Ken Feinberg: Thank you very much; it's an honor to be here.DL: We are recording this shortly after your 80th birthday, so happy birthday!KF: Thank you very much.DL: Let's go back to your birth; let's start at the beginning. You grew up in Massachusetts, I believe.KF: That's right: Brockton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of Boston.DL: Your parents weren't lawyers. Tell us about what they did.KF: My parents were blue-collar workers from Massachusetts, second-generation immigrants. My father ran a wholesale tire distributorship, my mother was a bookkeeper, and we grew up in the 1940s and ‘50s, even the early ‘60s, in a town where there was great optimism, a very vibrant Jewish community, three different synagogues, a very optimistic time in American history—post-World War II, pre-Vietnam, and a time when communitarianism, working together to advance the collective good, was a prominent characteristic of Brockton, and most of the country, during the time that I was in elementary school and high school in Brockton.DL: Did the time in which you grow up shape or influence your decision to go into law?KF: Yes. More than law—the time growing up had a great impact on my decision to give back to the community from which I came. You've got to remember, when I was a teenager, the president of the United States was John F. Kennedy, and I'll never forget because it had a tremendous impact on me—President Kennedy reminding everybody that public service is a noble undertaking, government is not a dirty word, and especially his famous quote (or one of his many quotes), “Every individual can make a difference.” I never forgot that, and it had a personal impact on me and has had an impact on me throughout my life. [Ed. note: The quotation generally attributed to JFK is, “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” Whether he actually said these exact words is unclear, but it's certainly consistent with many other sentiments he expressed throughout his life.]DL: When you went to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, what did you study?KF: I studied history and political science. I was very interested in how individuals over the centuries change history, the theory of historians that great individuals articulate history and drive it in a certain direction—for good, like President Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, or for ill, like Adolf Hitler or Mussolini. And so it was history that I really delved into in my undergraduate years.DL: What led you then to turn to law school?KF: I always enjoyed acting on the stage—theater, comedies, musicals, dramas—and at the University of Massachusetts, I did quite a bit of that. In my senior year, I anticipated going to drama school at Yale, or some other academic master's program in theater. My father gave me very good advice. He said, “Ken, most actors end up waiting on restaurant tables in Manhattan, waiting for a big break that never comes. Why don't you turn your skills on the stage to a career in the courtroom, in litigation, talking to juries and convincing judges?” That was very sound advice from my father, and I ended up attending NYU Law School and having a career in the law.DL: Yes—and you recount that story in your book, and I just love that. It's really interesting to hear what parents think of our careers. But anyway, you did very well in law school, you were on the law review, and then your first job out of law school was something that we might expect out of someone who did well in law school.KF: Yes. I was a law clerk to the chief judge of New York State, Stanley Fuld, a very famous state jurist, and he had his chambers in New York City. For one week, every six or seven weeks, we would go to the state capitol in Albany to hear cases, and it was Judge Fuld who was my transition from law school to the practice of law.DL: I view clerking as a form of government service—and then you continued in service after that.KF: That's right. Remembering what my father had suggested, I then turned my attention to the courtroom and became an assistant United States attorney, a federal prosecutor, in New York City. I served as a prosecutor and as a trial lawyer for a little over three years. And then I had a wonderful opportunity to go to work for Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington and stayed with him for about five years.DL: You talk about this also in your books—you worked on a pretty diverse range of issues for the senator, right?KF: That's right. For the first three years I worked on his staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with some excellent colleagues—soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer was with me, noted litigator David Boies was in the office—and for the first three years, it was law-related issues. Then in 1978, Senator Kennedy asked me to be his chief of staff, and once I went over and became his chief of staff, the issues of course mushroomed. He was running for president, so there were issues of education, health, international relations—a wide diversity of issues, very broad-based.DL: I recall that you didn't love the chief of staff's duties.KF: No. Operations or administration was not my priority. I loved substance, issues—whatever the issues were, trying to work out legislative compromises, trying to give back something in the way of legislation to the people. And internal operations and administration, I quickly discovered, was not my forte. It was not something that excited me.DL: Although it's interesting: what you are most well-known for is overseeing and administering these large funds and compensating victims of these horrific tragedies, and there's a huge amount of administration involved in that.KF: Yes, but I'm a very good delegator. In fact, if you look at the track record of my career in designing and administering these programs—9/11 or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the Patriots' Day Marathon bombings in Boston—I was indeed fortunate in all of those matters to have at my side, for over 40 years, Camille Biros. She's not a lawyer, but she's the nation's expert on designing, administering, and operating these programs, and as you delve into what I've done and haven't done, her expertise has been invaluable.DL: I would call Camille your secret weapon, except she's not secret. She's been profiled in The New York Times, and she's a well-known figure in her own right.KF: That is correct. She was just in the last few months named one of the 50 Women Over 50 that have had such an impact in the country—that list by Forbes that comes out every year. She's prominently featured in that magazine.DL: Shifting back to your career, where did you go after your time in the Senate?KF: I opened up a Washington office for a prominent New York law firm, and for the next decade or more, that was the center of my professional activity.DL: So that was Kaye Scholer, now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. What led you to go from your career in the public sector, where you spent a number of your years right out of law school, into so-called Biglaw?KF: Practicality and financial considerations. I had worked for over a decade in public service. I now had a wife, I had three young children, and it was time to give them financial security. And “Biglaw,” as you put it—Biglaw in Washington was lucrative, and it was something that gave me a financial base from which I could try and expand my different interests professionally. And that was the reason that for about 12 years I was in private practice for a major firm, Kaye Scholer.DL: And then tell us what happened next.KF: A great lesson in not planning too far ahead. In 1984, I got a call from a former clerk of Judge Fuld whom I knew from the clerk network: Judge Jack Weinstein, a nationally recognized jurist from Brooklyn, the Eastern District, and a federal judge. He had on his docket the Vietnam veterans' Agent Orange class action.You may recall that there were about 250,000 Vietnam veterans who came home claiming illness or injury or death due to the herbicide Agent Orange, which had been dropped by the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam to burn the foliage and vegetation where the Viet Cong enemy might be hiding. Those Vietnam veterans came home suffering terrible diseases, including cancer and chloracne (a sort of acne on the skin), and they brought a lawsuit. Judge Weinstein had the case. Weinstein realized that if that case went to trial, it could be 10 years before there'd be a result, with appeals and all of that.So he appointed me as mediator, called the “special master,” whose job it was to try and settle the case, all as a mediator. Well, after eight weeks of trying, we were successful. There was a master settlement totaling about $250 million—at the time, one of the largest tort verdicts in history. And that one case, front-page news around the nation, set me on a different track. Instead of remaining a Washington lawyer involved in regulatory and legislative matters, I became a mediator, an individual retained by the courts or by the parties to help resolve a case. And that was the beginning. That one Agent Orange case transformed my entire professional career and moved me in a different direction completely.DL: So you knew the late Judge Weinstein through Fuld alumni circles. What background did you have in mediation already, before you handled this gigantic case?KF: None. I told Judge Weinstein, “Judge, I never took a course in mediation at law school (there wasn't one then), and I don't know anything about bringing the parties together, trying to get them to settle.” He said, “I know you. I know your background. I've followed your career. You worked for Senator Kennedy. You are the perfect person.” And until the day I die, I'm beholden to Judge Weinstein for having faith in me to take this on.DL: And over the years, you actually worked on a number of matters at the request of Judge Weinstein.KF: A dozen. I worked on tobacco cases, on asbestos cases, on drug and medical device cases. I even worked for Judge Weinstein mediating the closing of the Shoreham nuclear plant on Long Island. I handled a wide range of cases where he called on me to act as his court-appointed mediator to resolve cases on his docket.DL: You've carved out a very unique and fascinating niche within the law, and I'm guessing that most people who meet you nowadays know who you are. But say you're in a foreign country or something, and some total stranger is chatting with you and asks what you do for a living. What would you say?KF: I would say I'm a lawyer, and I specialize in dispute resolution. It might be mediation, it might be arbitration, or it might even be negotiation, where somebody asks me to negotiate on their behalf. So I just tell people there is a growing field of law in the United States called ADR—alternative dispute resolution—and that it is, as you say, David, my niche, my focus when called upon.DL: And I think it's fair to say that you're one of the founding people in this field or early pioneers—or I don't know how you would describe it.KF: I think that's right. When I began with Agent Orange, there was no mediation to speak of. It certainly wasn't institutionalized; it wasn't streamlined. Today, in 2025, the American Bar Association has a special section on alternative dispute resolution, it's taught in every law school in the United States, there are thousands of mediators and arbitrators, and it's become a major leg in law school of different disciplines and specialties.DL: One question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter you are most proud of?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the hardest matter you've ever had to deal with?” Another question I often ask my guests is, “What is the matter that you're most well-known for?” And I feel in your case, the same matter is responsive to all three of those questions.KF: That's correct. The most difficult, the most challenging, the most rewarding matter, the one that's given me the most exposure, was the federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, when I was appointed by President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft to implement, design, and administer a very unique federal law that had been enacted right after 9/11.DL: I got chills as you were just even stating that, very factually, because I was in New York on 9/11, and a lot of us remember the trauma and difficulty of that time. And you basically had to live with that and talk to hundreds, even thousands, of people—survivors, family members—for almost three years. And you did it pro bono. So let me ask you this: what were you thinking?KF: What triggered my interest was the law itself. Thirteen days after the attacks, Congress passed this law, unique in American history, setting up a no-fault administrator compensation system. Don't go to court. Those who volunteer—families of the dead, those who were physically injured at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon—you can voluntarily seek compensation from a taxpayer-funded law. Now, if you don't want it, you don't have to go. It's a voluntary program.The key will be whether the special master or the administrator will be able to convince people that it is a better avenue to pursue than a long, delayed, uncertain lawsuit. And based on my previous experience for the last 15 years, starting with Agent Orange and asbestos and these other tragedies, I volunteered. I went to Senator Kennedy and said, “What about this?” He said, “Leave it to me.” He called President Bush. He knew Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was his former colleague in the U.S. Senate, and he had great admiration for Senator Ashcroft. And so I was invited by the attorney general for an interview, and I told him I was interested. I told him I would only do it pro bono. You can't get paid for a job like this; it's patriotism. And he said, “Go for it.” And he turned out to be my biggest, strongest ally during the 33 months of the program.DL: Are you the managing partner of a boutique or midsize firm? If so, you know that your most important job is attracting and retaining top talent. It's not easy, especially if your benefits don't match up well with those of Biglaw firms or if your HR process feels “small time.” NexFirm has created an onboarding and benefits experience that rivals an Am Law 100 firm, so you can compete for the best talent at a price your firm can afford. Want to learn more? Contact NexFirm at 212-292-1002 or email betterbenefits@nexfirm.com.You talk about this in your books: you were recommended by a very prominent Democratic politician, and the administration at the time was Republican. George W. Bush was president, and John Ashcroft was the attorney general. Why wouldn't they have picked a Republican for this project?KF: Very good question. Senator Kennedy told both of them, “You better be careful here. This is a very, very uncertain program, with taxpayer money used to pay only certain victims. This could be a disaster. And you would be well-advised to pick someone who is not a prominent friend of yours, who is not perceived as just a Republican arm of the Justice Department or the White House. And I've got the perfect person. You couldn't pick a more opposite politician than my former chief of staff, Ken Feinberg. But look at what he's done.” And I think to Senator Kennedy's credit, and certainly to President Bush and to John Ashcroft's, they selected me.DL: As you would expect with a program of this size and complexity, there was controversy and certainly criticism over the years. But overall, looking back, I think people regard it widely as a huge success. Do you have a sense or an estimate of what percentage of people in the position to accept settlements through the program did that, rather than litigate? Because in accepting funds from the program, they did waive their right to bring all sorts of lawsuits.KF: That's correct. If you look at the statistics, if the statistics are a barometer of success, 5,300 applicants were eligible, because of death—about 2,950, somewhere in there—and the remaining claims were for physical injury. Of the 5,300, 97 percent voluntarily accepted the compensation. Only 94 people, 3 percent, opted out, and they all settled their cases five years later. There was never a trial on who was responsible in the law for 9/11. So if statistics are an indication—and I think they are a good indication—the program was a stunning success in accomplishing Congress's objective, which was diverting people voluntarily out of the court system.DL: Absolutely. And that's just a striking statistic. It was really successful in getting funds to families that needed it. They had lost breadwinners; they had lost loved ones. It was hugely successful, and it did not take a decade, as some of these cases involving just thousands of victims often do.I was struck by one thing you just said. You mentioned there was really no trial. And in reading your accounts of your work on this, it seemed almost like people viewed talking to you and your colleagues, Camille and others on this—I think they almost viewed that as their opportunity to be heard, since there wasn't a trial where they would get to testify.KF: That's correct. The primary reason for the success of the 9/11 Fund, and a valuable lesson for me thereafter, was this: give victims the opportunity to be heard, not only in public town-hall meetings where collectively people can vent, but in private, with doors closed. It's just the victim and Feinberg or his designee, Camille. We were the face of the government here. You can't get a meeting with the secretary of defense or the attorney general, the head of the Department of Justice. What you can get is an opportunity behind closed doors to express your anger, your frustration, your disappointment, your sense of uncertainty, with the government official responsible for cutting the checks. And that had an enormous difference in assuring the success of the program.DL: What would you say was the hardest aspect of your work on the Fund?KF: The hardest part of the 9/11 Fund, which I'll never recover from, was not calculating the value of a life. Judges and juries do that every day, David, in every court, in New Jersey and 49 other states. That is not a difficult assignment. What would the victim have earned over a work life? Add something for pain and suffering and emotional distress, and there's your check.The hardest part in any of these funds, starting with 9/11—the most difficult aspect, the challenge—is empathy, and your willingness to sit for over 900 separate hearings, me alone with family members or victims, to hear what they want to tell you, and to make that meeting, from their perspective, worthwhile and constructive. That's the hard part.DL: Did you find it sometimes difficult to remain emotionally composed? Or did you, after a while, develop a sort of thick skin?KF: You remain composed. You are a professional. You have a job to do, for the president of the United States. You can't start wailing and crying in the presence of somebody who was also wailing and crying, so you have to compose yourself. But I tell people who say, “Could I do what you did?” I say, “Sure. There are plenty of people in this country that can do what I did—if you can brace yourself for the emotional trauma that comes with meeting with victim after victim after victim and hearing their stories, which are...” You can't make them up. They're so heart-wrenching and so tragic.I'll give you one example. A lady came to see me, 26 years old, sobbing—one of hundreds of people I met with. “Mr. Feinberg, I lost my husband. He was a fireman at the World Trade Center. He died on 9/11. And he left me with our two children, six and four. Now, Mr. Feinberg, you've calculated and told me I'm going to receive $2.4 million, tax-free, from this 9/11 Fund. I want it in 30 days.”I said to Mrs. Jones, “This is public, taxpayer money. We have to go down to the U.S. Treasury. They've got to cut the checks; they've got to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. It may be 60 days or 90 days, but you'll get your money.”“No. Thirty days.”I said, “Mrs. Jones, why do you need the money in 30 days?”She said, “Why? I'll tell you why, Mr. Feinberg. I have terminal cancer. I have 10 weeks to live. My husband was going to survive me and take care of our two children. Now they're going to be orphans. I have got to get this money, find a guardian, make sure the money's safe, prepare for the kids' schooling. I don't have a lot of time. I need your help.”Well, we ran down to the U.S. Treasury and helped process the check in record time. We got her the money in 30 days—and eight weeks later, she died. Now when you hear story after story like this, you get some indication of the emotional pressure that builds and is debilitating, frankly. And we managed to get through it.DL: Wow. I got a little choked up just even hearing you tell that. Wow—I really don't know what to say.When you were working on the 9/11 Fund, did you have time for any other matters, or was this pretty much exclusively what you were working on for the 33 months?KF: Professionally, it was exclusive. Now what I did was, I stayed in my law firm, so I had a living. Other people in the firm were generating income for the firm; I wasn't on the dole. But it was exclusive. During the day, you are swamped with these individual requests, decisions that have to be made, checks that have to be cut. At night, I escaped: opera, orchestral concerts, chamber music, art museums—the height of civilization. During the day, in the depths of horror of civilization; at night, an escape, an opportunity to just enjoy the benefits of civilization. You better have a loving family, as I did, that stands behind you—because you never get over it, really.DL: That's such an important lesson, to actually have that time—because if you wanted to, you could have worked on this 24/7. But it is important to have some time to just clear your head or spend time with your family, especially just given what you were dealing with day-to-day.KF: That's right. And of course, during the day, we made a point of that as well. If we were holding hearings like the one I just explained, we'd take a one-hour break, go for a walk, go into Central Park or into downtown Washington, buy an ice cream cone, see the kids playing in playgrounds and laughing. You've got to let the steam out of the pressure cooker, or it'll kill you. And that was the most difficult part of the whole program. In all of these programs, that's the common denominator: emotional stress and unhappiness on the part of the victims.DL: One last question, before we turn to some other matters. There was also a very large logistical apparatus associated with this, right? For example, PricewaterhouseCoopers. It wasn't just you and Camille trying to deal with these thousands of survivors and claimants; you did have support.KF: That's right. Pricewaterhouse won the bid at the Justice Department. This is public: Pricewaterhouse, for something like around $100 million, put 450 people to work with us to help us process claims, appraise values, do the research. Pricewaterhouse was a tremendous ally and has gone on, since 9/11, to handle claims design and claims administration, as one of its many specialties. Emily Kent, Chuck Hacker, people like that we worked with for years, very much experts in these areas.DL: So after your work on the 9/11 Fund, you've worked on a number of these types of matters. Is there one that you would say ranks second in terms of complexity or difficulty or meaningfulness to you?KF: Yes. Deepwater Horizon in 2011, 2012—that oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico blew up and killed about, I don't know, 15 to 20 people in the explosion. But the real challenge in that program was how we received, in 16 months, about 1,250,000 claims for business interruption, business losses, property damage. We received over a million claims from 50 states. I think we got probably a dozen claims from New Jersey; I didn't know the oil had gotten to New Jersey. We received claims from 35 foreign countries. And the sheer volume of the disaster overwhelmed us. We had, at one point, something like 40,000 people—vendors—working for us. We had 35 offices throughout the Gulf of Mexico, from Galveston, Texas, all the way to Mobile Bay, Alabama. Nevertheless, in 16 months, on behalf of BP, Deepwater Horizon, we paid out all BP money, a little over $7 billion, to 550,000 eligible claimants. And that, I would say, other than 9/11, had the greatest impact and was the most satisfying.DL: You mentioned some claims coming from some pretty far-flung jurisdictions. In these programs, how much of a problem is fraud?KF: Not much. First of all, with death claims like 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombings or the 20 first-graders who died in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, at the hands of a deranged gunmen—most of the time, in traumatic death and injury, you've got records. No one can beat the system; you have to have a death certificate. In 9/11, where are your military records, if you were at the Pentagon? Where are the airplane manifests? You've got to be on the manifest if you were flying on that plane.Now, the problem becomes more pronounced in something like BP, where you've got over a million claims, and you wonder, how many people can claim injury from this explosion? There we had an anti-fraud unit—Guidepost, Bart Schwartz's company—and they did a tremendous job of spot-checking claims. I think that out of over a million claims, there may have been 25,000 that were suspicious. And we sent those claims to the Justice Department, and they prosecuted a fair number of people. But it wasn't a huge problem. I think the fraud rate was something like 3 percent; that's nothing. So overall, we haven't found—and we have to be ever-vigilant, you're right—but we haven't found much in the way of fraud.DL: I'm glad to hear that, because it would really be very depressing to think that there were people trying to profiteer off these terrible disasters and tragedies. Speaking of continuing disasters and tragedies, turning to current events, you are now working with Southern California Edison in dealing with claims related to the Eaton Fire. And this is a pending matter, so of course you may have some limits in terms of what you can discuss, but what can you say in a general sense about this undertaking?KF: This is the Los Angeles wildfires that everybody knows about, from the last nine or ten months—the tremendous fire damage in Los Angeles. One of the fires, or one of the selected hubs of the fire, was the Eaton Fire. Southern California Edison, the utility involved in the litigation and finger-pointing, decided to set up, à la 9/11, a voluntary claims program. Not so much to deal with death—there were about 19 deaths, and a handful of physical injuries—but terrible fire damage, destroyed homes, damaged businesses, smoke and ash and soot, for miles in every direction. And the utility decided, its executive decided, “We want to do the right thing here. We may be held liable or we may not be held liable for the fire, but we think the right thing to do is nip in the bud this idea of extended litigation. Look at 9/11: only 94 people ended up suing. We want to set up a program.”They came to Camille and me. Over the last eight weeks, we've designed the program, and I think in the last week of October or the first week of November, you will see publicly, “Here is the protocol; here is the claim form. Please submit your claims, and we'll get them paid within 90 days.” And if history is an indicator, Camille and I think that the Eaton Fire Protocol will be a success, and the great bulk of the thousands of victims will voluntarily decide to come into the program. We'll see. [Ed. note: On Wednesday, a few days after Ken and I recorded this episode, Southern California Edison announced its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program.]DL: That raises a question that I'm curious about. How would you describe the relationship between the work that you and Camille and your colleagues do and the traditional work of the courts, in terms of in-the-trenches litigation? Because I do wonder whether the growth in your field is perhaps related to some developments in litigation, in terms of litigation becoming more expensive over the decades (in a way that far outstrips inflation), more complicated, or more protracted. How would you characterize that relationship?KF: I would say that the programs that we design and administer—like 9/11, like BP, plus the Eaton wildfires—are an exception to the rule. Nobody should think that these programs that we have worked on are the wave of the future. They are not the wave of the future; they are isolated, unique examples, where a company—or in 9/11, the U.S. government—decides, “We ought to set up a special program where the courts aren't involved, certainly not directly.” In 9/11, they were prohibited to be involved, by statute; in some of these other programs, like BP, the courts have a relationship, but they don't interfere with the day-to-day administration of the program.And I think the American people have a lot of faith in the litigation system that you correctly point out can be uncertain, very inefficient, and very costly. But the American people, since the founding of the country, think, “You pick your lawyer, I'll pick my lawyer, and we'll have a judge and jury decide.” That's the American rule of law; I don't think it's going to change. But occasionally there is a groundswell of public pressure to come up with a program, or there'll be a company—like the utility, like BP—that decides to have a program.And I'll give you one other example: the Catholic Church confronted thousands of claims of sexual abuse by priests. It came to us, and we set up a program—just like 9/11, just like BP—where we invited, voluntarily, any minor—any minor from decades ago, now an adult—who had been abused by the church to come into this voluntary program. We paid out, I think, $700 million to $800 million, to victims in dioceses around the country. So there's another example—Camille did most of that—but these programs are all relatively rare. There are thousands of litigations every day, and nothing's going to change that.DL: I had a guest on a few weeks ago, Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss, who does a lot of work in the mass-tort space. It's interesting: I feel that that space has evolved, and maybe in some ways it's more efficient than it used to be. They have these multi-district litigation panels, they have these bellwether trials, and then things often get settled, once people have a sense of the values. That system and your approach seem to have some similarities, in the sense that you're not individually trying each one of these cases, and you're having somebody with liability come forward and voluntarily pay out money, after some kind of negotiation.KF: Well, there's certainly negotiation in what Chris Seeger does; I'm not sure we have much negotiation. We say, “Here's the amount under the administrative scheme.” It's like in workers' compensation: here's the amount. You don't have to take it. There's nothing to really talk about, unless you have new evidence that we're not aware of. And those programs, when we do design them, seem to work very efficiently.Again, if you ask Camille Biros what was the toughest part of valuing individual claims of sexual-abuse directed at minors, she would say, “These hearings: we gave every person who wanted an opportunity to be heard.” And when they come to see Camille, they don't come to talk about money; they want validation for what they went through. “Believe me, will you? Ken, Camille, believe me.” And when Camille says, “We do believe you,” they immediately, or almost immediately, accept the compensation and sign a release: “I will not sue the Catholic diocese.”DL: So you mentioned there isn't really much negotiation, but you did talk in the book about these sort of “appeals.” You had these two tracks, “Appeals A” and “Appeals B.” Can you talk about that? Did you ever revisit what you had set as the award for a particular victim's family, after hearing from them in person?KF: Sure. Now, remember, those appeals came back to us, not to a court; there's no court involvement. But in 9/11, in BP, if somebody said, “You made a mistake—you didn't account for these profits or this revenue, or you didn't take into account this contract that my dead firefighter husband had that would've given him a lot more money”—of course, we'll revisit that. We invited that. But that's an internal appeals process. The people who calculated the value of the claim are the same people that are going to be looking at revisiting the claim. But again, that's due process, and that's something that we thought was important.DL: You and Camille have been doing this really important work for decades. Since this is, of course, shortly after your 80th birthday, I should ask: do you have future plans? You're tackling some of the most complicated matters, headline-making matters. Would you ever want to retire at some point?KF: I have no intention of retiring. I do agree that when you reach a certain pinnacle in what you've done, you do slow down. We are much more selective in what we do. I used to have maybe 15 mediations going on at once; now, we have one or two matters, like the Los Angeles wildfires. As long as I'm capable, as long as Camille's willing, we'll continue to do it, but we'll be very careful about what we select to do. We don't travel much. The Los Angeles wildfires was largely Zooms, going back and forth. And we're not going to administer that program. We had administered 9/11 and BP; we're trying to move away from that. It's very time-consuming and stressful. So we've accomplished a great deal over the last 50 years—but as long as we can do it, we'll continue to do it.DL: Do you have any junior colleagues who would take over what you and Camille have built?KF: We don't have junior colleagues. There's just the two of us and Cindy Sanzotta, our receptionist. But it's an interesting question: “Who's after Feinberg? Who's next in doing this?” I think there are thousands of people in this country who could do what we do. It is not rocket science. It really isn't. I'll tell you what's difficult: the emotion. If somebody wants to do what we do, you better brace yourself for the emotion, the anger, the frustration, the finger pointing. It goes with the territory. And if you don't have the psychological ability to handle this type of stress, stay away. But I'm sure somebody will be there, and no one's irreplaceable.DL: Well, I know I personally could not handle it. I worked when I was at a law firm on civil litigation over insurance proceeds related to the World Trade Center, and that was a very draining case, and I was very glad to no longer be on it. So I could not do what you and Camille do. But let me ask you, to end this section on a positive note: what would you say is the most rewarding or meaningful or satisfying aspect of the work that you do on these programs?KF: Giving back to the community. Public service. Helping the community heal. Not so much the individuals; the individuals are part of the community. “Every individual can make a difference.” I remember that every day, what John F. Kennedy said: government service is a noble undertaking. So what's most rewarding for me is that although I'm a private practitioner—I am no longer in government service, since my days with Senator Kennedy—I'd like to think that I performed a valuable service for the community, the resilience of the community, the charity exhibited by the community. And that gives me a great sense of self-satisfaction.DL: You absolutely have. It's been amazing, and I'm so grateful for you taking the time to join me.So now, onto our speed round. These are four questions that are standardized. My first question is, what do you like the least about the law? And this can either be the practice of law or law in a more abstract sense.KF: Uncertainty. What I don't like about the law is—and I guess maybe it's the flip side of the best way to get to a result—I don't like the uncertainty of the law. I don't like the fact that until the very end of the process, you don't know if your view and opinion will prevail. And I think losing control over your destiny in that regard is problematic.DL: My second question—and maybe we touched on this a little bit, when we talked about your father's opinions—what would you be if you were not a lawyer?KF: Probably an actor. As I say, I almost became an actor. And I still love theater and the movies and Broadway shows. If my father hadn't given me that advice, I was on the cusp of pursuing a career in the theater.DL: Have you dabbled in anything in your (probably limited) spare time—community theater, anything like that?KF: No, but I certainly have prioritized in my spare time classical music and the peace and optimism it brings to the listener. It's been an important part of my life.DL: My third question is, how much sleep do you get each night?KF: Well, it varies from program to program. I'd like to get seven hours. That's what my doctors tell me: “Ken, very important—more important than pills and exercise and diet—is sleep. Your body needs a minimum of seven hours.” Well, for me, seven hours is rare—it's more like six or even five, and during 9/11 or during Eaton wildfires, it might be more like four or five. And that's not enough, and that is a problem.DL: My last question is, any final words of wisdom, such as career advice or life advice, for my listeners?KF: Yes, I'll give you some career and life advice. It's very simple: don't plan too far ahead. People have this view—you may think you know what you want to do with your career. You may think you know what life holds for you. You don't know. If I've learned anything over the last decades, life has a way of changing the best-laid plans. These 9/11 husbands and wives said goodbye to their children, “we'll see you for dinner,” a perfunctory wave—and they never saw them again. Dust, not even a body. And the idea I tell law students—who say, ”I'm going to be a corporate lawyer,” or “I'm going to be a litigator”—I tell them, “You have no idea what your legal career will look like. Look at Feinberg; he never planned on this. He never thought, in his wildest dreams, that this would be his chosen avenue of the law.”My advice: enjoy the moment. Do what you like now. Don't worry too much about what you'll be doing two years, five years, 10 years, a lifetime ahead of you. It doesn't work that way. Everybody gets thrown curveballs, and that's advice I give to everybody.DL: Well, you did not plan out your career, but it has turned out wonderfully, and the country is better for it. Thank you, Ken, both for your work on all these matters over the years and for joining me today.KF: A privilege and an honor. Thanks, David.DL: Thanks so much to Ken for joining me—and, of course, for his decades of work resolving some of the thorniest disputes in the country, which is truly a form of public service.Thanks to NexFirm for sponsoring the Original Jurisdiction podcast. NexFirm has helped many attorneys to leave Biglaw and launch firms of their own. To explore this opportunity, please contact NexFirm at 212-292-1000 or email careerdevelopment@nexfirm.com to learn more.Thanks to Tommy Harron, my sound engineer here at Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to you, my listeners and readers. To connect with me, please email me at davidlat@substack.com, or find me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, at davidlat, and on Instagram and Threads at davidbenjaminlat.If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. Please subscribe to the Original Jurisdiction newsletter if you don't already, over at davidlat.substack.com. This podcast is free, but it's made possible by paid subscriptions to the newsletter.The next episode should appear on or about Wednesday, November 12. Until then, may your thinking be original and your jurisdiction free of defects.Thanks for reading Original Jurisdiction, and thanks to my paid subscribers for making this publication possible. Subscribers get (1) access to Judicial Notice, my time-saving weekly roundup of the most notable news in the legal world; (2) additional stories reserved for paid subscribers; (3) transcripts of podcast interviews; and (4) the ability to comment on posts. You can email me at davidlat@substack.com with questions or comments, and you can share this post or subscribe using the buttons below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davidlat.substack.com/subscribe

I invited Christa Parodi on the podcast to talk about Brené Brown's Guidepost #10: Cultivating Laughter, Song, and Dance—letting go of being cool and “always in control.”In this heartwarming episode, Christa and I explore the transformative power of joy, creativity, and self-trust. We talk about the journey from high-stakes living to embracing play and spontaneity, sharing personal stories and insights on cultivating laughter, song, and dance.Join us for an inspiring conversation that invites you to find freedom and healing through creativity and connection.Find out more about Christa Parodi here: https://www.christaparodi.com/Follow Christa on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christaparodi/Get your free Wholehearted Living journal prompts. https://calm-sun-843.myflodesk.com/x5yo2oyoyuBook a free discovery coaching call: www.ella-hooper.comFollow me on Instagram:@ella.hooper__

Millikin President Dean Pribbenow and Dr. Kris Mickelson joined Byers & Co to talk about their enthusiasm about Millikin's future and how they are building connections and partnership with community leaders. Dr. Pribbenow also talks about his Guideposts: the 3 “Ps”. Listen to the podcat now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week I speak with Kate Battistelli who is a bestselling author, speaker, and co-host of the Mom to Mom Podcast. She's written The After Party of the Empty Nest, The After Party Devotional Companion, The God Dare, and Growing Great Kids, and her words appear in the (In)courage Bible for Women, Guideposts, and more. Once a Broadway actress starring opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I, Kate traded the stage for her first big “God Dare”—a life of homeschooling, home business, and ministry. She lives in Franklin, TN, close to her daughter Francesca and seven beautiful grandchildren. We look at her childhood up to the present to find the beautiful thread of Jesus in her life. You won't want to miss this inspiring episode! KateBattistelli.com*Theme Music “Blessed Time” by Ketsa

Yes, everyone has a story worth sharing and you will love Marci's stories and inspiration on today's Living a Legacy Life Podcast.    Marci Seither's writing career began after her humor article was published in a small-town newspaper. Since then, she has authored two books and hundreds of articles for local papers as well as Guideposts and Focus On The Family. And she now hosts the radio show and podcast: The Biscuit Book Club - how cute is that? Today we are offering two giveaways: Marci's new magazine for readers, eaters and writers, as she says. As well has her beautiful hard back retreat at the lake devotional called Lake Side Retreat. Besides writing, she enjoys teaching workshops, speaking, and photography, and she just launched a radio show, "The Biscuit Book Club," with her friend Shelly Sulfridge.  Her biggest joy, besides being married to John, raising six kids who have all flown the nest, and creating memories and messes with her seven grandkiddos, is baking anything that includes butter. Some gems from our conversation:   You can hear someone's story from asking simple questions like, "Tell me about your lunch box growing up?" or "Have you ever felt lost?" If you feel stuck in taking the next step in doing what meant you to do, start where you are standing right now. Start observing more—if you see a need, fill a need.  If there's room on the floor, there's room for one more—invite! Volunteering is a gift to yourself. You can impact someone by simply showing up in the messy middle of your own life. Don't wait until the timing is just right to move forward—that right time may never happen.  The "red pen" mentality can keep you from writing your story and that might mean your story is lost forever.    Be sure to comment to win this lovely devotional.   LINKS https://wrjz.com/onair/     Saturday mornings at 10:30 am https://marciseither.com/ https://www.instagram.com/marci_seither/ https://www.focusonthefamily.com/episodes/broadcast/preparing-for-the-empty-nest-years/   Everyone gets a free Printable Download of Marci's latest Southern Christian Writer Magazine—as she says, a magazine for readers, eaters and writers.  If you prefer a printed one (totally worth it, by the way - for the recipes, alone - contact Marci.) Catch her radio show and podcast HERE.

This week I speak with Theresa Rowe who is a nationally certified fitness professional, author, speaker, and the founder of Shaped by Faith, a ministry dedicated to whole-person wellness—spirit, mind, and body—while shaping bodies and hearts for God's purposes. With over 35 years of experience, she has impacted countless lives globally through her faith-based fitness programs, heart-centered workouts, and inspiring testimony of transformation. Her TV show, Shaped by Faith with Theresa Rowe, airs on 15 networks, reaching nearly 800 million viewers worldwide. She also hosts a globally recognized radio show and podcast, and her writing is featured in newspapers and online platforms, including Inspiration Ministries. Guideposts published her book Shaped by Faith, and she has produced several faith-based fitness DVDs. Her upcoming devotional, Shaped by Faith: A Devotional for Strengthening Your Spirit, Mind & Body, continues her mission of helping people break free from limitations and embrace their identity in Christ. Theresa's powerful testimony—including overcoming health challenges, adoption, healing, and single motherhood—is a testament to God's faithfulness. Through every platform, she inspires others to trust God fully, strengthen their spirit, mind, and body, and boldly walk in the life He has called them to live. We look at her childhood up to the present to find the beautiful thread of Jesus in her life. You won't want to miss this encouraging episode!https://www.shapedbyfaith.com/?fbclid=IwVERDUAM-mYRleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHqUT9kK1lZIZdXh4tQzFSQLTbcASDOO8GLT2-8wtT17CEPdZHDYQVbGtfW0o_aem_9trmDSiKn4g1Nv0C9E1pBg*Theme Music “Blessed Time” by Ketsa

What did you think of this episode? Are you a fiction writer with little to no medical background or familiarity with medicine? Today's guest is gonna open your eyes to mistakes you can't afford to pen…we're talking novel malpractice, my friends. Welcome to Your Best Writing Life, an extension of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference held in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. I'm your host, Linda Goldfarb. Each week, I bring tips and strategies from writing and publishing industry experts to help you excel in your craft. I'm so glad you're listening in. During this episode, you'll learn about … Medical mistakes in fiction and how to prevent them.My industry expert is… Dr. Ronda Wells. A physician and award-winning author of The Christmas Cherub, Ronda Wells, writes “Heartfelt Stories from the Heartland.” Her Killer Nashville Magazine column, Novel Malpractice website, and her blogs, Novel Malpractice and Historical Novel Malpractice, offer authentic medical information for authors. Dr. Wells is a contributor to Guideposts, and she writes devotions for Crossmap and Arise Daily.Linda - Alright, let's head into our content for today… WARNING! Laughter will ensue.Why did you get started with Novel Malpractice?What's the most frequent mistake you see in books and movies?What can writers do to prevent making medical mistakes in their novels?LINKSAre you committing novel malpractice? quiz - https://novelmalpractice.com/quiz/ As we wrap up – The Christmas Cherub, at https://a.co/d/8g3RpCyYou can find out more about Ronda in our show notes as well.https://novelmalpractice.com https://rondawellsbooks.comLink for The Christmas Cherub: https://a.co/d/8g3RpCyX    https://x.com/RondaWellsBooksFB author page https://www.facebook.com/RondaWellsWriter/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rondawellsbooks/Threads https://www.threads.com/@rondawellsbooksPinterest https://www.pinterest.com/rondawellsbooks/Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/rondawellsbooks/Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/57306481.Ronda_WellsBookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ronda-wellsVisit Your Best Writing Life website.Join our Facebook group, Your Best Writing LifeYour host - Linda Goldfarb#1 Podcast in the "Top 50+ Must-Have Tools and Resources for Christian Writers in 2024". Awarded the Spark Media 2022 Most Binge-Worthy PodcastAwarded the Spark Media 2023 Fan Favorites Best Solo Podcast

September 16, 2025 ~ Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard discusses the Guidepost Solutions report on the Oxford High School shooting. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In a world that can leave us skeptical, stressed and overwhelmed - all of us can use some humor, a dose of wisdom and a reminder that God is at work in our lives. Jenny's guest, Marci Seither shares it's about learning to spot pivotal points when He's moving us and saying “yes” to HIM.  Marci Seither is a storyteller, radio & podcast host of “The Biscuit Club,” Editor for “Southern Christian Writer” and Author of four books and hundreds of articles for local papers as well as written for Guideposts, Light & Life, and been a guest on Focus On The Family. And a mom and grandmother!! Besides writing, she's a blogger, teaches workshops, she's a speaker, enjoys food photography, canning, and anything that involves using real butter!! Get connected with Marci at marciseither.com. and you can find more about her books and articles and see her video from her appearance on “Focus on the Family.” Her show “The Biscuit Club” airs Saturdays at 10:30 am and is on podcast. Two book-loving friends—having a cozy, front-porch-style talking about books, biscuits, and everything in between! Thanks to our Title Sponsor & Ministry Partner @Campbell Dental Care and @Denise King, Noble Realty. Crossroads With Jenny Bushkell 5pm-6pm 5pm - 6pm EST, Fri. & Sat. and 10 pm Sun. evening on JOY 620WRJZ. 620AM, 102.5FM, 99.5 Sevier County, streaming live at wrjz.com or download our JOY620 App! You can hear this on Podcast next week wherever you listen to your Podcasts.

Our Universal, Transcendent Purpose as spiritual practitioners is to know God as all of life…period. This week we explore three guideposts that are sure to support this knowing, peace, purpose and passion. Feeling a little lost, uncertain or even fearful? Have we got something for you that is sure to help!

Guest Bio: Rachel Britton is a British-born author, speaker, and blogger. Her passion is to help women become comfortable and confident in their conversation with God. Rachel has lived in the United States since 1995. Her career began in newspaper and magazine publishing in London. She worked for BBC Worldwide before moving to the USA. Rachel is a contributing author in a number of traditionally published books, Guidepost publications, and online material with Bible Study Tools. Her most recent book, “Pray Naturally,” released January 7, 2025, with Our Daily Bread Publishing. Rachel is the creator and writer of an Amazon Alexa skill app—“Alexa, say a prayer”—which receives approximately 1,500 requests per day. Rachel holds a master's in religion from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She is Director of reNEW ~ spiritual retreat for writers and speakers held annually in the northeast which she operates through her nonprofit organization, Rachel Britton Ministries. Rachel is married with three young adult children spread over too many time zones. She loves to escape to the mountains of Colorado to write, hike, and ski. She blogs on prayer regularly at her online home, rachelbritton.com.   Show Summary: When you're facing a big challenge or transition in your life, is it hard to pray? Often, we forget about God in the stress and anxiety of whatever life throws at us, but He is right there waiting for you to talk to Him. Rachel Britton felt hopeless when she and her husband moved to the United States from Britain. As she faced the biggest transition of her life, she remembered God and cried out to Him. Now, Rachel encourages women to pray naturally with God through whatever they face. Join hosts Elisa Morgan and Eryn Eddy Adkins as they learn how to pray naturally with Rachel during this God Hears Her conversation.   Notes and Quotes:   “I realized that God had taken me from all the things that distracted me from Him. He moved me across the Atlantic, and it was like He stood in front of me and said, ‘Rachel, would you now take notice of me?' I didn't see it as punishment; I saw it as love. Love that He cared so much about me that He would take me away from the things that kept me from Him.” —Rachel Britton  “God knows what is going on in our minds and our hearts, and He honors that and He hears and He helps us. In those times spent with Him, that's when we grow in our faith, and He grows us so that those fears start to get less.” —Rachel Britton   “He knows what we're thinking anyhow. He knows what's in our hearts anyhow, so we can bring it to Him, however it sounds.” —Rachel Britton  “We have to hold onto those times when God has come through for us. If He's done it before, He'll do it again.” —Rachel Britton  Verses:   Exodus 2 - Moses being hidden as a baby  Hebrews 11:23  Joshua 2 – Rahab hiding the spies   Related Episodes: GHH Ep 6 – How We Hear from God with Eryn and Elisa: https://godhearsher.org/podcast/how-we-hear-from-god/ GHH Ep 86 – When We Pray Like Jesus with Elisa and Eryn: https://godhearsher.org/podcast/when-we-pray-like-jesus/ GHH Ep 99 – Conversations with God with Lori Hatcher: https://godhearsher.org/podcast/conversations-with-god/  Links:  Rachel Britton's Website: https://rachelbritton.com/ Rachel's Book Pray Naturally: https://a.co/d/1PIIxNP Unshakable Moxie BOGO Deal: https://go.odb.org/bogo God Hears Her website: https://go.odb.org/ghh191  Subscribe to the God Hears Her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@GodHearsHerODBM Share Your Story:  https://godhearsher.org/share-your-story/ God Hears Her email sign-up: https://go.odb.org/ghh-sign-upsfmc191   

Guest Bio: Rachel Britton is a British-born author, speaker, and blogger. Her passion is to help women become comfortable and confident in their conversation with God. Rachel has lived in the United States since 1995. Her career began in newspaper and magazine publishing in London. She worked for BBC Worldwide before moving to the USA. Rachel is a contributing author in a number of traditionally published books, Guidepost publications, and online material with Bible Study Tools. Her most recent book, “Pray Naturally,” released January 7, 2025, with Our Daily Bread Publishing. Rachel is the creator and writer of an Amazon Alexa skill app—“Alexa, say a prayer”—which receives approximately 1,500 requests per day. Rachel holds a master's in religion from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She is Director of reNEW ~ spiritual retreat for writers and speakers held annually in the northeast which she operates through her nonprofit organization, Rachel Britton Ministries. Rachel is married with three young adult children spread over too many time zones. She loves to escape to the mountains of Colorado to write, hike, and ski. She blogs on prayer regularly at her online home, rachelbritton.com.   Show Summary: When you're facing a big challenge or transition in your life, is it hard to pray? Often, we forget about God in the stress and anxiety of whatever life throws at us, but He is right there waiting for you to talk to Him. Rachel Britton felt hopeless when she and her husband moved to the United States from Britain. As she faced the biggest transition of her life, she remembered God and cried out to Him. Now, Rachel encourages women to pray naturally with God through whatever they face. Join hosts Elisa Morgan and Eryn Eddy Adkins as they learn how to pray naturally with Rachel during this God Hears Her conversation.   Notes and Quotes:   “I realized that God had taken me from all the things that distracted me from Him. He moved me across the Atlantic, and it was like He stood in front of me and said, ‘Rachel, would you now take notice of me?' I didn't see it as punishment; I saw it as love. Love that He cared so much about me that He would take me away from the things that kept me from Him.” —Rachel Britton  “God knows what is going on in our minds and our hearts, and He honors that and He hears and He helps us. In those times spent with Him, that's when we grow in our faith, and He grows us so that those fears start to get less.” —Rachel Britton   “He knows what we're thinking anyhow. He knows what's in our hearts anyhow, so we can bring it to Him, however it sounds.” —Rachel Britton  “We have to hold onto those times when God has come through for us. If He's done it before, He'll do it again.” —Rachel Britton  Verses:   Exodus 2 - Moses being hidden as a baby  Hebrews 11:23  Joshua 2 – Rahab hiding the spies   Related Episodes: GHH Ep 6 – How We Hear from God with Eryn and Elisa: https://godhearsher.org/podcast/how-we-hear-from-god/ GHH Ep 86 – When We Pray Like Jesus with Elisa and Eryn: https://godhearsher.org/podcast/when-we-pray-like-jesus/ GHH Ep 99 – Conversations with God with Lori Hatcher: https://godhearsher.org/podcast/conversations-with-god/  Links:  Rachel Britton's Website: https://rachelbritton.com/ Rachel's Book Pray Naturally: https://a.co/d/1PIIxNP Unshakable Moxie BOGO Deal: https://go.odb.org/bogo God Hears Her website: https://go.odb.org/ghh191  Subscribe to the God Hears Her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@GodHearsHerODBM Share Your Story:  https://godhearsher.org/share-your-story/ God Hears Her email sign-up: https://go.odb.org/ghh-sign-upsfmc191   

Derek Champagne talks with Terry Healey, author of The Resilience Mindset: How Adversity Can Strengthen, Individuals, Teams, & Leaders. A survivor of a permanent facial difference and life-threatening cancer, Terry Healey is anauthor, keynote speaker, and business strategist. Healey challenges audiences to face theiradversities and apply his framework of four key principles to gain confidence, build resilience,and find joy in their personal and professional lives.Having endured more than thirty surgical procedures to reconstruct his face while in his earlytwenties, Healey discovered tools that could help him transform his changed life. He sharesways to take control, overcome challenges, build trust and teams, embrace change, and learnthe value of acceptance and tolerance. He views the lessons he learned as gifts, and believeshis greatest reward is being able to teach others how to overcome any kind of adversity andcelebrate life.His experience led him to a successful thirty-five-year career as a high-tech sales and marketingexecutive, including being on the founding team of a company that had a successful initialpublic offering. His popular programs are presented to healthcare organizations, corporations,educational institutions, associations, and nonprofits nationwide. They include Cisco Systems,Inc., Charles Schwab, the University of California Berkeley football team, Santa Clara University,Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Genomic Health, Perkin Elmer, Stanford University, UC San Francisco,Kaiser Permanente, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Greater Baltimore Medical Center,Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and many others.A graduate of UC Berkeley, Healey is the author of The Resilience Mindset: How Adversity CanStrengthen Individuals, Teams, and Leaders [September 2025], and his previous title, At FaceValue: My Triumph over a Disfiguring Cancer, and is a contributing author to Open My Eyes,Open My Soul: Celebrating Our Common Humanity; Make Your Own Miracle: SurvivingCancer, an Anthology; and Reading Lips and Other Ways to Overcome a Disability.His work has appeared in Psychology Today, Metro UK, The San Francisco Chronicle,Guideposts, NurseWeek, U.S. News and World Report, Sales and Marketing Magazine, Copingand CURE Today. He has appeared on dozens of national and local TV networks and has beeninterviewed on more than seventy-five radio stations across the U.S. and Canada.Order a copy of The Resiliance Mindset here: https://terryhealey.com/product/the-resilience-mindset/Business Leadership Series Intro and Outro music provided by Just Off Turner: https://music.apple.com/za/album/the-long-walk-back/268386576

(Guidepost 4)Gratitude and joy aren't just feel-good emotions—they are spiritual practices and nervous system tools for living a wholehearted life. In this episode, we explore what it means to let go of scarcity and fear of the dark and instead lean into the beauty and presence of joy, even when it feels risky.Ella shares personal reflections, including how “glimmers”—small moments of safety and delight—helped retrain her nervous system to receive joy after years of powerlessness. We talk about how joy softens hard days, why we often resist feeling good, and how to notice what's good on purpose.You'll hear:What glimmers are and why they matter for trauma healingWhy we resist joy (hello, foreboding joy and upper limits)The science of gratitude and how it rewires your brainHow to begin scheduling joy as a deliberate act of self-connectionHow to make space for emotional safety, even when life is hardThis episode is your invitation to stop waiting for joy to arrive and start making room for it—to let gratitude pull you back to the present and remind you: you are safe enough to feel good, even here.Get your free Wholehearted Living journal prompts. https://calm-sun-843.myflodesk.com/x5yo2oyoyuBook a free discovery coaching call: www.ella-hooper.comFollow me on Instagram:@ella.hooper__

Pastor Feere | Sunday Morning, August 24, 2025

Today I met for a hot coffee and blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese with my friend Caroline S. Cooper (author, speaker, mental health peer specialist). It was so fun. Caroline is a wealth of resources for writers and speakers, and she is emailing me a list of places where I can find out more about getting articles published, such as hers in the Guideposts book compilation, Living the Word, which can be preordered on Amazon.In this episode, I share about the spiritual gifts and my upcoming Unveiled Online Book/Bible study/training, beginning September 15, 2025. It will be once a week on Mondays at 11 am CST, and there will be recording replays. I'll also have other video bonuses and resources to share with you. I'd love to have you join me as we study the gifts and learn how to use them and mature in them. You can find out more about the online study here:https://www.bethjones.net/giftsScripture:1 Peter 4:10, NLT*******Beth M. Jones is an International Speaker, Author of 32 books, wife to paramedic Ray, and mom of 3 beautiful daughters, Heather, Eden, and Leah. She also has two adorable cats, Natalya and Nichodemus, who follow her everywhere. Beth helps women overcome fear and embrace faith in Jesus by sharing her powerful story and Biblical truths about God's love and the freedom we have through Christ. Learn more about Beth's speaking at women's conferences, retreats, and online events at https://www.BethJones.net and explore her books on her Amazon Author Page at https://www.amazon.com/author/bethmjones.You can follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @bethmjones and on Instagram @beth_mjones.

Send us a textAre you in the middle of the empty nest season, wondering what your next step should be? Is that season coming soon whether you like it or not, and you don't feel prepared?  Whether you're in the middle of it, preparing for it, or even walking into a new empty NEXT season, you'll want to grab a copy of Kate Battistelli's book, The After Party of the Empty Nest: Mom is not your Only Name. Kate is a best-selling author, speaker, podcaster, honoree with She Leads Tennessee, former actress in the Broadway theatre world, and mom of GRAMMY Award-winning Christian recording artist Francesca Battistelli Goodwin. Today she's on the show to share about her fascinating life and her beautiful new book, perfect for those preparing for the empty nest, or right in the middle of it. You will be inspired and encouraged!The After Party reminds moms that there is a second act, a future with your name on it filled with hope and surprises you can't imagine … if you plan for it, believe in it, and walk fearlessly into it.Be sure to check out Kate's links and order a copy of her book, either for yourself or someone you know! Links:Website: https://katebattistelli.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katebattistelli/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KateBattistelli/Amazon link to The After Party of the Empty Nest:  https://amzn.to/4c37fknKate Battistelli is the author of The After Party of the Empty Nest: Mom is Not Your Only Name, the bestseller, The God Dare: Will You Choose to Believe the Impossible, and Growing Great Kids: Partner with God to Cultivate His Purpose in Your Child's Life. She's a contributing writer to the (In)courage Bible for Women and The Spirt-Led Woman's Bible, and her writing has appeared in Guideposts, The Joyful Life magazine, The Better Mom, and more. She is one-third of the popular Mom to Mom Podcast. In addition, she is an honoree with She Leads Tennessee. As a young actress in New York City, Kate had a life-changing experience, going from understudy to starring as Anna in the Broadway National Tour of The King and I opposite Yul Brynner for more than 1,000 performances. Kate and her husband laid down their careers in the Broadway theatre in answer to their first “God Dare,” moving out of New York City and into a life of homeschooling and home business. She lives in Franklin, TN, near her daughter Francesca and seven grandchildren.  Love this episode? Leave a positive rating/review by scrolling down to the bottom of this page. Your reviews are so important and so appreciated! Please share this episode with a friend ❤️ For more information and helpful resources, visit our websites at: https://www.karenferg.com/ https://www.sandrakaychambers.com/ Find our books on Amazon: Karen Ferguson: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Karen-Ferguson/author/B075SHZ1WV?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Sandra Chambers: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sandra-Chambers/author/B00OHLARMO?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1740085397&sr=1-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM! @karenfergusonauthor @sandrakaychambers.com

Recorded 6-22-2025 Pastor Larry Stephens presents a sermon on the importance of building worshipful foundations for the future of the church.    • Obedience to the commands from scripture, Love and serve God with your whole being, not just giving Jesus the scraps of your life.  • We do not forsake our brothers and sisters in their distraught or need  • We raise awareness of rightful/meaningful worship and raise warnings when worship is  distorted.  • We become far sighted instead of exclusively short sighted with regards to worship.   • To build an everlasting guidepost for future worship, we must continue to exclusively point towards Christ Jesus. 

Send us a textToday we welcome writer and author Kelly Wilson Mize to 5-Minute Parenting! Kelly is a wife, mother of two young adults, and proud cat mom with 25 years of experience as a published author. A former educator with a master's degree in education, Kelly has written an extensive collection of stories, articles, devotions, interviews, and curriculum projects for various publishers including Lifeway, PragerU Kids, Bethany House, Guideposts, (in)courage, and others. She is also a contributing author of twelve books. In 2021, Kelly published her first independent project, a picture book for all ages titled The Beautiful Story Within Me. Listen in as Kelly shares her writing journey, the meaningful message behind her children's book, and uses her experience and expertise as a former educator and librarian to answer the question: How can parents help instill a love for reading in their kids?Visit Kelly's website for links to her book and to stay up-to-date on events and special projects: https://www.kellywilsonmize.com/ Love this episode? Leave a positive rating/review by scrolling down to the bottom of this page. Your reviews are so important and so appreciated! Please share this episode with a friend ❤️ For more information and helpful resources, visit our websites at: https://www.karenferg.com/ https://www.sandrakaychambers.com/ Find our books on Amazon: Karen Ferguson: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Karen-Ferguson/author/B075SHZ1WV?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Sandra Chambers: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sandra-Chambers/author/B00OHLARMO?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1740085397&sr=1-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM! @karenfergusonauthor @sandrakaychambers.com

Adam Cramer is the CEO of the Outdoor Alliance, a coalition that brings together human-powered outdoor recreation groups to protect public lands and waters. With a deep understanding of both policy and recreation, Adam has helped position the Outdoor Alliance as a powerful voice in the national conservation movement—bridging the gap between grassroots outdoor communities and high-level decision-making in Washington, DC. Before launching into public lands advocacy, Adam spent years working as an attorney in DC. But outside the office, his life was centered on outdoor adventure—he started as a skateboarder, then became a climber, and eventually a whitewater kayaker. A chance encounter in a river parking area led to his first pro bono conservation case, and that spark ultimately evolved into his full-time vocation. Adam's story is a testament to the idea that if you care deeply about a place, there's a way to use your unique skills to help protect it. In this conversation, we talked about the origins of the Outdoor Alliance, Adam's evolution from attorney to coalition-builder, and why generosity—not dominance—is his guiding principle for leadership. We discussed why civic engagement matters more than ever, how outdoor recreation can build bipartisan bridges, and why showing up—even when it feels small—can make a real difference.  It's worth noting that we recorded this conversation in early June 2025, just as a wave of new legislation and political turbulence was rolling across the public lands landscape. Since then, things have continued to change rapidly. If you care about the future of outdoor recreation and conservation in this country, I highly recommend signing up for the Outdoor Alliance's newsletter or following them on social media to stay informed and involved.  Again, a big thanks to the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation for introducing me to Adam, and another big thanks to Patagonia Denver for generously letting us use their community room to record this conversation. Enjoy! --- Adam Cramer Outdoor Alliance Outdoor Alliance - TAKE ACTION The latest from the Outdoor Alliance (as of 6.16.25) Outdoor Alliance on Instagram Sign up for Action Alerts Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/adam-cramer/ --- This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation. To whom much is given, much is expected. This value guides the philosophy behind the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation today. Committed to its cause and infused with an entrepreneurial spirit, Mighty Arrow aims to invest in solutions that take action on climate change to build a more vibrant future, repair relationships from farm to market to table, heal our connection to the lands and waters we call home, and demand a more just and equitable society. To learn more about Mighty Arrow's forward-thinking, optimistic, and visionary work here in the American West and beyond, please visit www.mightyarrow.org. --- TOPICS DISCUSSED: 3:05 – Intro (with a jiu jitsu connection) 6:45 – Law school, then what? 8:01 – The individuality of skateboarding 10:38 – Billdering 11:45 – Beginning of kayaking and the end of a relationship 13:40 – A type of code switching 16:26 – Giving back to the places 23:03 – How Outdoor Alliance came together 27:51 – Sticking points 30:46 – Attorney mindset to strategy point-person 33:13 – Leadership inspiration 37:24 – A generous mindset 42:49 – Who's pro selling off public lands? 45:21 – Guidepost goals 49:04 – The reason Adam got on the plane to Colorado, where he's talking with Ed 48:14 - Why you should engage with your elected officials 58:30 - Evidence the world doesn't totally suck 59:43 - Optimistic? 1:03:40 - How to get involved 1:05:06 - Book recs --- ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE: Mountain & Prairie - All Episodes Mountain & Prairie Shop Mountain & Prairie on Instagram Upcoming Events About Ed Roberson Support Mountain & Prairie Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts

Kimberlyn and Leilani discuss what it means to cultivate meaningful work at work, at home, in relationships, and in their spiritual practice.Their check-ins: Kimberlyn re-experiences EFT as an healing modality; Leilani practices non-attachment through throwing ceramics elementally.Mentioned in the episode:  Brené Brown's Gifts of Imperfection; Patrick Buggy's 10 Guideposts for Wholehearted Living (An Actionable Guide); Rose Cook's, “A Poem for Someone Who is Juggling Her Life”Get exclusive content and support us on Patreon:http://www.patreon.com/WitchyWitFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/WitchyWitPodcastInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/Witchy_WitSpotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3azUkFVlECTlTZQVX5jl1X?si=8WufnXueQrugGDIYWbgc3AApple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/witchy-wit/id1533482466Pandora:https://pandora.app.link/nNsuNrSKnebGoogle Podcast:Witchy Wit (google.com)

In this powerful episode, I'm joined by author Julie Sunne, who reminds us what it looks like to hold on to hope when life doesn't look like we imagined. Julie opens up about her journey through five miscarriages, the deep grief that followed, and the unexpected path of parenting a child with disabilities. She shares how her faith, which once felt more like a Sunday habit, was transformed into an anchored trust in the character of God.Julie's book, Sometimes I Forget: Reminders of Hope for Your Hard Days, isn't just words on a page—it's a reflection of the battles she's walked through and the unchanging God who walked with her.

In this heartfelt and awe-inspiring episode of Spirit Speakeasy, I'm sharing my own childhood experience of being rescued by what I now believe was an angel in human form—plus four other real-life stories that will open your heart and expand your view of what's possible.

When we get married or enter into a long-term relationship, we soon realize the stark differences between ourselves and our mate. The flaws that were invisible to us at the beginning are now, perhaps, all we see. This goes both ways because our significant other sees those flaws in us as well. Couples tend to spend a great deal of energy looking for ways to "change" their mate, when, in fact, they don't have the power to create change in others. So, what do you do? How can you encourage your partner to make positive changes?  Our guest on this episode has written two amazing devotional books that help us answer that question. She is a lovely person who is wise and so incredibly insightful. You will want to listen and take notes! Guest Info Amanda Hayhurst is a Christian author and speaker with a Master's in Biblical and Theological Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. She has been featured in Guidepost, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Focus on the Family. She is the author of the best-selling devotionals Pray for Him and Pray for Her, which have helped thousands move from fix and control to surrender and prayer. She has a passion for encouraging others and considers herself a hype woman for other women. She has been married to her husband, Marcus, for fifteen years and gives God all the glory. They cherish every moment spent with their two young boys and adult bonus daughter. You can purchase Amanda's Devotions from Amazon through these links: Pray For Him: https://a.co/d/he3Wcsm Pray for Her: https://a.co/d/3AcIS0q Visit her website here: https://www.amandahayhurstwrites.com/  

In this episode Adam reviews the table contents of "The Gifts of Imperfection" by Dr. Brene Brown, which outlines the 10 Guideposts to Wholehearted Living. 

About The After Party of the Empty NestThe empty nest can be one of the toughest parts of parenting. It's a holy, hard giving-back, a sacred release of our children into God's care and their next chapter. But you, too, have a new chapter, and you can find peace as you transition from mom to empty nest mom and rediscover that mom is not your only name.Have you asked yourself:• Who am I now?• What is my purpose now that my children are gone?• What gifts and talents do I have to offer?• What should my priorities be?• How do I become something more than “Mom?”You're not alone, mama. Among the tears and apprehension of this brand-new season or the joy and celebration that you finally have your house back, you can find a new purpose as one mothering era ends and another begins. You'll discover your life is more than carpooling, laundry, and cries of “Where are my shoes?” And you'll find freedom to act on the dreams you deferred while handling the responsibilities of raising your children.There is a second act, a future with your name on it, different from your children's but filled with hope and surprises you cannot begin to imagine…if you plan for it, believe in it, and, with the Lord's help, walk fearlessly into it.You are cordially invited to the After Party…because Mom is not your only name.Purchase a copy of The After Party of the Empty Nest here.Connect with Kate Battistelliwebsite | Facebook | Instagram | XKate Battistelli is the author of The After Party of the Empty Nest: Mom is Not Your Only Name, the bestseller, The God Dare: Will You Choose to Believe the Impossible, and Growing Great Kids: Partner with God to Cultivate His Purpose in Your Child's Life. She is a contributing writer to the (in)courage Bible for Women and The Spirit-Led Woman's Bible, and her writing has appeared in Guideposts, The Joyful Life magazine, The Better Mom, Mici magazine, and more. She is one-third of the popular Mom to Mom Podcast. In addition, she is an honoree with She LeadsTennessee.As a young actress in New York City, Kate had a life-changing experience, going from understudy to starring as Anna in the Broadway National Tour of The King and I opposite Yul Brynner for more than 1,000 performances. Kate and her husband laid down their careers in the Broadway theatre in answer to their first “God Dare,” moving out of New York City and into a life of homeschooling and home business. She lives in Franklin, TN, near her daughter, contemporary Christian recording artist Francesca Battistelli, and seven precious grandchildren. Kate serves women by encouraging them to step out of their safe space and into His irresistible future.If you are enjoying the show, I have a quick favor to ask! If you haven't yet hit the subscribe button and left a rating and a review on iTunes, please take a moment and do so! I love reading your reviews and it keeps the algorithms happy so new listeners can find the podcast as well!

What did you think of this episode?How effective is your brainstorming? Today's guest shares tips to help you tap into your creativity by brainstorming banana peels.Welcome to Your Best Writing Life, an extension of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference held in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. I'm your host, Linda Goldfarb. Each week, I bring tips and strategies from writing and publishing industry experts to help you excel in your craft. I'm so glad you're listening in. During this episode, you'll learn the Value of Brainstorming for Writers. My industry expert is Marci Seither. Marci started her writing adventure after her family-humor article was printed in their small-town paper. She has written hundreds of newspaper articles and articles for Focus on the Family, Guideposts, and WORLD magazine. She is a speaker and author of four books.Alright, let's head into our content for today… Value of Brainstorming for Writers series - Part One: To Connect with Readers This is a Free resource on Brainstorming Banana PeelsCheck out Marci's website to receive your copy of the Southern Christian Writer Magazine  You can find out more about Marci Seither below.Marci Seither websiteMarci Seither on FacebookMarci Seither on InstagramMarci Seither on AmazonVisit Your Best Writing Life website.Join our Facebook group, Your Best Writing LifeYour host - Linda Goldfarb#1 Podcast in the "Top 50+ Must-Have Tools and Resources for Christian Writers in 2024". Awarded the Spark Media 2022 Most Binge-Worthy PodcastAwarded the Spark Media 2023 Fan Favorites Best Solo Podcast

Jonathan Merkh is the President and Publisher at Forefront Books. Andrea Fleck-Nesbit, president of the Independent Book Publishers Association and a previous podcast guest, introduced Merkh to the host. Merkh previously served as vice president and publisher at Thomas Nelson Publishers, led Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, and Guidepost. Jonathan has published nearly 100 New York Times bestsellers. In 2023, Publishers Weekly recognized Forefront Books as the second fastest-growing publisher in the United States, and Inc. Magazine included Forefront Books among the nation's top fastest-growing companies. In this episode, we discuss the history of publishing, the need to have a platform as an author, the specialty niche that Forefront Books specializes in, and tips for writers of fiction and nonfiction. Learn more at www.forefrontbooks.com/

Jonathan Merkh is the President and Publisher at Forefront Books. Andrea Fleck-Nesbit, president of the Independent Book Publishers Association and a previous podcast guest, introduced Merkh to the host. Merkh previously served as vice president and publisher at Thomas Nelson Publishers, led Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, and Guidepost. Jonathan has published nearly 100 New York Times bestsellers. In 2023, Publishers Weekly recognized Forefront Books as the second fastest-growing publisher in the United States, and Inc. Magazine included Forefront Books among the nation's top fastest-growing companies. In this episode, we discuss the history of publishing, the need to have a platform as an author, the specialty niche that Forefront Books specializes in, and tips for writers of fiction and nonfiction. Learn more at www.forefrontbooks.com/

In today's episode, I am chatting with my friend, Kate Battistelli, author of The After Party of the Empty Nest. Kate shares her inspiring journey of faith, obedience, and the unexpected joys that come in the later seasons of life. With a background in Broadway and a career in the arts, Kate's life was turned upside down when God called her to lay down her dreams and step into a new season of family and ministry.After navigating personal challenges, including having an abortion at 18 and an unexpected season of infertility, Kate found a renewed sense of purpose. Now, in her book, The After Party of the Empty Nest, Kate helps guide women through the emotional journey of the empty nest and what it means to rediscover purpose in this next season.Key Takeaways: 1. Obedience Over Comfort – Kate shares her journey of surrendering her career in the arts to pursue a calling from God. When you listen for His voice and obey, God honors that obedience, leading you into new seasons of blessing and purpose. 2. Embrace the Empty Nest – The empty nest doesn't have to feel like the end of your purpose. Instead, it can be the beginning of a new chapter, filled with opportunities for growth, travel, hobbies, and connection. 3. The Power of Gratitude – Whether you're facing infertility, anxiety, or relationship struggles, learning to be grateful in the midst of hardship allows you to see God's purpose and blessings, even in the toughest moments.Kate's story is a powerful reminder that even in the most unexpected seasons of life, God's plan for us is full of purpose and promise. She demonstrates how God can take our most difficult moments and turn them into a foundation for new beginnings. Her story encourages us to listen for God's voice, trust in His timing, and step into the fullness of what He has for us in every season. If you're in a transition or looking for guidance in your next chapter, Kate's message is a beacon of hope and inspiration. Remember, the best is yet to come.Bio:Kate Battistelli is the author of The After Party of the Empty Nest: Mom is Not Your Only Name, the bestseller, The God Dare: Will You Choose to Believe the Impossible, and Growing Great Kids: Partner with God to Cultivate His Purpose in Your Child's Life. She is a contributing writer to the (in)courage Bible for Women and The Spirit-Led Woman's Bible, and her writing has appeared in Guideposts, The Joyful Life magazine, The Better Mom, Mici magazine, and more. She is one-third of the popular Mom to Mom Podcast. In addition, she is an honoree with She Leads Tennessee. As a young actress in New York City, Kate had a life-changing experience, going from understudy to starring as Anna in the Broadway National Tour of The King and I opposite Yul Brynner for more than 1,000 performances. Kate and her husband laid down their careers in the Broadway theatre in answer to their first “God Dare,” moving out of New York City and into a life of homeschooling and home business. She lives in Franklin, TN near her daughter, contemporary Christian recording artist Francesca Battistelli, and seven precious grandchildren. Kate serves women by encouraging them to step out of their safe space and into His irresistible future.Anchor Verses:Psalm 16:5-8Connect with Kate:Website: https://katebattistelli.comIG: https://www.instagram.com/katebattistelli/LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/katebattistelliGet the introduction and first chapter of her book by texting “AFTERPARTY” to 44144!***We love hearing from you! Your reviews help our podcast community and keep these important conversations going. If this episode inspired you, challenged you, or gave you a fresh perspective, we'd be so grateful if you'd take a moment to leave a review. Just head to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and share your thoughts—it's a simple way to make a big impact!***

Episode Summary: In this episode of Your Hope-Filled Perspective, we are continuing the Sacred Scar Story Series during which I’ve had the blessing to interview many people who have experienced some very painful wounds, but then saw God heal and do a redemptive work and bring about beautiful sacred scars. Maureen Miller shares about her devastatingly painful wound when she had dreamed of becoming a mother since early childhood only to have doctors report that short of the miraculous, she would be unable to conceive. She shares how she coped with her pain and her grief, and how God ultimately fulfilled her dream of motherhood through adoption. Quotables from the episode: Everyone has a story about something that has wounded them and caused pain. My scars have been more emotional scars having to do with the loss of a dream since I was a little girl, of being mom and so looking forward to having children and being able to do all the things that moms love to do with their kids. I married my high school sweetheart and not long after that we realized we were going to have difficulty conceiving. It was painful to hear a doctor say that short of the miraculous, you will never have children biologically. Those words felt like the death of a dream and cut very deeply. Having been raised in a Christian home, and having a good grounding in biblical truth and God’s promises, it wasn’t long before I really began seeking the Lord and asking him how he might use this pain for something good and bring something beautiful out of my broken body. I mourned and I grieved the death of that childhood dream that I had held onto so tightly. There was a season when I shook my fist at God, but it wasn’t a long season. As I began to delight myself in the Lord, and be real with him, and at times even shake my fist, he can not only handle all my doubts and fears and anger, but he can even pry open my hands that were clenching that dream. He began to show me that as I prayed with my hands up and open, he could either take that dream away and replace it with something better, or he could grant me that dream in some miraculous way. As I meditated on the scripture and began to delight in the Lord, it didn’t mean that God would always answer our prayers in the way we wanted them answered, but he would actually fill our hearts with the dreams he had for us first and those would become our dream. As I mourned then sought the Lord and delighted in Him first, He began to show me that it was his dream for me to be a mom—it just didn’t look like I thought it would. We have the choice when we are wounded to either turn toward God and seek him or turn away and walk in the other direction. There was shame because I had to really remind myself that my identity as a woman was not wrapped up in me being a life-giver. My identity came in Christ and who he created me to be. The Lord confirmed for me that I was “blessed in my barrenness.” Our pain became a catalyst for me to offer sympathy, comfort, and help for those he places in our paths. I realized I had the ability to minister to birth mothers who chose life for their children, carry them for 9 months, and then give others the greatest gift of life they could ever give. When God impressed upon me that I was “blessed in my barrenness,” I realized my condition wasn’t a mistake and that God had given me a heart to sympathize and empathize with those who are hurting. Over time we were able to adopt three children, but we also experienced the pain of two failed adoptions that have their own sacred scars and round out our story. It’s a beautiful thing when we’re able to hold up our dream and offer it to God and say “Take this dream if it’s not yours, and you have something better, or if it is your dream, confirm it so I can walk it out in faith and joy knowing it’s according to your will.” Delight yourself in the Lord. Spend time with Him in His Word. Spend time with God in prayer. Surround yourself with Christian brothers and sisters who can really speak into your life and confirm the truth. Know your identity in Christ and surround yourself with people who will remind you of that. Trust that according to Romans 8:28, God will work all things together for good for those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. Journal so you can go back and look at the “stones of remembrance” and you can remember how God answered prayers. Once I surrender my will and my way, God has the freedom to work His perfect will, in His perfect way, and in His perfect timing. Scripture References: Psalm 37:4-6 NIV “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” Romans 8:28 NIV “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Recommended Resources: Sacred Scars: Resting in God’s Promise That Your Past Is Not Wasted by Dr. Michelle Bengtson The Hem of His Garment: Reaching Out To God When Pain Overwhelms by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner AWSA 2024 Golden Scroll Christian Living Book of the Year and the 2024 Christian Literary Awards Reader’s Choice Award in the Christian Living and Non-Fiction categories YouVersion 5-Day Devotional Reaching Out To God When Pain Overwhelms Today is Going to be a Good Day: 90 Promises from God to Start Your Day Off Right by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, AWSA Member of the Year, winner of the AWSA 2023 Inspirational Gift Book of the Year Award, the 2024 Christian Literary Awards Reader’s Choice Award in the Devotional category, the 2023 Christian Literary Awards Reader’s Choice Award in four categories, and the Christian Literary Awards Henri Award for Devotionals YouVersion Devotional, Today is Going to be a Good Day version 1 YouVersion Devotional, Today is Going to be a Good Day version 2 Revive & Thrive Women’s Online Conference Revive & Thrive Summit 2 Trusting God through Cancer Summit 1 Trusting God through Cancer Summit 2 Breaking Anxiety’s Grip: How to Reclaim the Peace God Promises by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the AWSA 2020 Best Christian Living Book First Place, the first place winner for the Best Christian Living Book, the 2020 Carolina Christian Writer’s Conference Contest winner for nonfiction, and winner of the 2021 Christian Literary Award’s Reader’s Choice Award in all four categories for which it was nominated (Non-Fiction Victorious Living, Christian Living Day By Day, Inspirational Breaking Free and Testimonial Justified by Grace categories.) YouVersion Bible Reading Plan for Breaking Anxiety’s Grip Breaking Anxiety’s Grip Free Study Guide Free PDF Resource: How to Fight Fearful/Anxious Thoughts and Win Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctor’s Personal Journey Through Depression by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Henri and Reader’s Choice Award Hope Prevails Bible Study by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader’s Choice Award Free Webinar: Help for When You’re Feeling Blue Social Media Links for Host and Guest: Connect with Maureen Miller: Website / Facebook For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at: Order Book Sacred Scars / Order Book The Hem of His Garment / Order Book Today is Going to be a Good Day / Order Book Breaking Anxiety’s Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails / Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson) / LinkedIn / Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube / Podcast on Apple Guest: Maureen Miller has been married to her childhood sweetheart Bill for 35 years. Together they have three born-in-their-hearts children and three grand-girls and share life on Selah Farm, a hobby homestead in western NC. She writes for Guideposts, her local newspaper, and several online devotion sites, and her debut novel, Gideon’s Book, is due to release later this year. Hosted By: Dr. Michelle Bengtson Audio Technical Support: Bryce Bengtson Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Hey listeners! I'm popping into you podcast feed with a surprise! Starting now, I'll be releasing solo episodes every other week to share some of my life experiences and Jesus moments with you! I'll still be doing interviews but thought it would be fun to be able to talk directly to you about my struggles and triumphs. And I'm calling these episodes The Kitchen Table. So why the kitchen table? I'm so glad you asked! I believe the dinner table is an important ingredient in the glue that helps us build strong families. My siblings and my children would agree. And so, these solo episodes that I'll bring to you, hopefully every 2 weeks, will be short stories of how I've seen God work in my own life through sometimes mundane, and other times amazing, experiences and how those experiences have grown my faith. Just like if you came to my house and we sat around my kitchen table enjoying a snack and a cup of coffee (or hot tea for me!). I may even share some things I'm learning in the Word that might encourage you. And since we're talking about the dinner table, you might have heard that one of my favorite recipes to make for a crowd is baked spaghetti. It's the meal my husband and I shared the first time we met, at a church youth group progressive dinner on New Year's Eve, 1979. My mother-in-law shared the recipe with me years ago and I've always made this my go-to meal when I need to feed a lot of people, especially when I had lots of kids over for youth group events or parties. Guideposts magazine picked up our story and even printed the recipe for the baked spaghetti that has kind of become my trademark. So, if you'd like to receive that recipe, go to the link below and sign up and you'll receive an email where you can download it. You'll also receive weekly updates about podcast episodes as well as any other events that might be happening and maybe even some of my thoughts on faith and family. You'll also be able to see a few Instagram posts from recent days. So, let me know what you think about this Kitchen Table episode and if you have a question or an idea about something you'd like for me to discuss, please don't hesitate to email me at buidingstronghomes@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you! I'll have a link to that in the show notes. Show notes and link to baked spaghetti recipe CarolRoper.org/podcast

In this powerful episode, I sit down with Brenda Yoder as she shares her deeply personal journey of overcoming food addiction, battling reactionary emotions, and learning to live authentically. Brenda opens up about her struggles with anorexia and bulimia, how she found healing through her faith, and the transformative moment when she realized she needed to break the cycle for her daughter's sake.We also discuss:✨ The importance of recognizing unhealthy coping mechanisms✨ How 1 Corinthians 10:23 & 10:13 shaped her journey to freedom✨ Learning to regulate emotions instead of reacting✨ Finding healing through faith and intentional choices✨ The power of authenticity, humility, and setting boundariesBrenda also shares insights from her book, Uncomplicated: Simple Secrets for a Compelling Life, specifically her chapter on humility and authenticity. We talk about the challenge of being genuine in a world that often rewards curated images and highlight reels. How do we balance what we share? How do we stay true to who we are, whether we're in public or behind closed doors? Brenda gives practical wisdom on how to set healthy boundaries while remaining real and relatable.If you've ever struggled with addiction, unhealthy habits, or the tension between transparency and privacy, this conversation will encourage you to seek God's freedom and take steps toward healing. Bio:Brenda L. Yoder, LMHC, is a counselor, speaker, author, and educator. She is the author of Uncomplicated: Simple Secrets for a Compelling Life; and Fledge: Launching Your Kids without Losing Your Mind. She's the cohost of the Midlife Moms Podcast and Facebook community. She also hosts and writes the Life Beyond the Picket Fence podcast and blog, covering a variety of topics on faith, life, and family beyond the storybook image.Brenda writes for Guideposts, Mornings with Jesus, and has been featured in: The Washington Post, Publisher's Weekly, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Every Woman's Bible, For the Family, and For Every MomAs a teacher, Brenda twice received the Touchstone Award for teachers. Brenda is currently a part-time elementary counselor and therapist in private practice. She and her husband, Ron, are parents to four adult children and two daughters-in-law and grandparents to three grandsons with whom they love creating new memories. Brenda and Ron live on a farm in Shipshewana, Indiana, where she loves gardening and spending evenings sitting on her front porch rocker.Anchor Verse:1 Corinthians 10: 131 Corinthians 10: 23Connect with Brenda:Website: https://brendayoder.comEmail: brenda@brendayoder.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendayoderspeaksFB: https://www.facebook.com/brendayoderspeakerLinktree: https://linktr.ee/brendayoderspeaks***We're thrilled to hear from our listeners! Sharing your thoughts through reviews is a fantastic way to become part of our podcast community and contribute to the conversation. If you've enjoyed our podcast, leaving a review is a quick and easy process. Simply head to Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening and share your feedback. Your input makes a significant difference!***

Grief isn't just about losing a loved one or experiencing life's biggest losses. In this episode, I sit down with Natasha Smith to explore the often-overlooked grief we carry in our everyday lives. From unmet expectations to life transitions, we discuss why acknowledging these losses matters and how we can find healing in the small moments. Whether you're navigating a major loss or simply feeling the weight of unspoken grief, this conversation will help you give yourself permission to process, heal, and move forward with grace. Natasha Smith is a certified grief educator, advocate, wife, mother, and former engineer turned homeschooler. Now a two-time published author and a native of North Carolina, she is also a speaker and podcaster, sharing stories on faith, family, and grief. Natasha's work has been featured in Propel Women, Influence Magazine, Her View from Home, Focus on the Family, TODAY Parents, and other online publications. She has contributed essays to books with Guideposts and in So God Made A Grandma, a new release from Her View From Home. Natasha's books, Can You Just Sit with Me: Healthy Grieving for the Losses of Life (September 2023, IVPress) and Black Woman Grief: A Guide to Hope and Wholeness (February 2025, IVPress), are available wherever books are sold.  Connect with her on social media @imnatashasmith. BOOK INFO: https://www.ivpress.com/black-woman-grief PRESS KIT: https://www.ivpress.com/Media/Default/Press-Kits/A0964-press.pdf EXCERPT: https://www.ivpress.com/Media/Default/Downloads/Excerpts-and-Samples/A0964-excerpt.pdf BIO: https://www.ivpress.com/natasha-smith Listen to her podcast and read her blog at imnatashasmith.com. Follow her on Twitter: @imnatashasmith     Connect with me: Dr. Zoe Shaw on Instagram Dr. Zoe Shaw on Facebook Dr. Zoe Shaw Website

Wednesday March 5, 2025 Guidepost Solutions Chosen as TD Bank Monitor

God's power can help us to lead out, solve problems, nurture humanity, and strengthen relationships. One way we can access His power is in temple worship. In fact, President Nelson promised us this in his most recent General Conference address: “Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple. You will find His mercy. You will find answers to your most vexing questions. You will better comprehend the joy of His gospel.” And as women of faith, this is what we want! More Jesus in our lives. Because with Him, all things are possible.    Rosemary Wixom joins Brooke Walker in this episode as she shares three spiritual guideposts that have helped her find Jesus in the temple.   Join us on Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter!

A Conversation on Grief and Honoring Your Emotions with Natasha Smith During this episode, we are learning how to trust God with the fullness of our emotions.ROMANS 12:9-15 ESVLet love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,[a] serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.MEET NATASHA SMITHNatasha Smith is a wife, mom, and NC native. She is a writer, speaker, and podcaster, who shares stories on faith, family, and grief. She has inspired others through her writing for over 12 years. Her work has appeared in Guideposts and Focus on the Family print publications. And Her View From Home, TODAY Parents, Pray with Confidence, and other e-publications. You can find her online at imnatashasmith.comRESOURCESConnect with Natasha on IGPurchase Black Woman GriefGrab Liv's Resource to Shift Your Shallow Bible Study to a Sincere One Connect with Me on IGGrab Your Copy of Selah hereFind the Complete Show Notes HereSELAH: A STUDY OF 1 AND 2 SAMUELPurchase your copy of Selah: A Study of 1 and 2 Samuel

Purchase Spring Sings here Discover the way ahead at Indiana Wesleyan University. Learn more here. Purchase What Will You Teach Me here Listen to the Happy Home Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Arlene's book, Making Marriage Easier: How to love (and like) your spouse for life is now available https://makingmarriageeasier.com/ How do you protect your marriage from the many temptations surrounding you? New York Times bestselling author Jerry Jenkins has found a way to protect his marriage of more than 40 years. He shares how husbands can love their wives and protect them by planting hedges - not in your garden, but in your heart. Jerry shares from his book, Hedges: 7 Ways to Love Your Wife and Protect Your Marriage. On today's episode, you'll learn: 2:50 Meeting his spouse… love at third site 9:06 How to “build a hedge” in your marriage 15:00 The difference between a male and female mindset 20:15 How do we help the younger generation appreciate the vow of marriage 23:23 Leaving the legacy of “building hedges” 27:00 How to keep loving your spouse, even when you don't feel like it Jerry Jenkins is the author of more than 195 books with sales of over 70 million copies, including the best-selling Left Behind series. Jerry's writing has appeared in Time, Reader's Digest, Parade, Guideposts, and dozens of Christian periodicals. Twenty-one of his books have reached The New York Times best-seller list (seven debuting number one). Jerry trains writers online at http://jerryjenkins.com/ Get Jerry's book, Hedges: 7 Ways to Love Your Wife and Protect Your Marriage https://www.amazon.com/Hedges-Ways-Love-Protect-Marriage/dp/164607128X Get Arlene's new book, Making Marriage Easier: How to Love (and Like) Your Spouse for Life https://makingmarriageeasier.com/ Get free date night ideas whether you have 15 minutes or one hour,...

What did you think of this episode?Are you struggling to get your writing started? Award-winning author Lori Hatcher shares five tips to help us increase our writing output. Welcome to Your Best Writing Life, an extension of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference held in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. I'm your host, Linda Goldfarb. Each week, I bring tips and strategies from writing and publishing industry experts to help you excel in your craft. I'm so glad you're listening in. During this episode, you'll learn Five Tips to Increase Your Writing Productivity. My industry expert is Lori Hatcher. Lori inspires and equips others by sharing high-impact stories for spiritual transformation. A popular women's ministry speaker and writing/speaking instructor, Lori is an Advanced Communicator Gold and Advanced Leader Bronze with Toastmasters International. She writes for Our Daily Bread, Guideposts, Revive Our Hearts, and Crosswalk.com.Lori, welcome to Your Best Writing Life!Five Tips to Increase Your Writing Productivity Tip one – Write in order of priorities, not preferences. Release the tyranny of the urgent: at the end of the day, what is most important for me to accomplish today?Tip two – Use the four-bucket method, with either hard copies or digital folders. Notes app for iOS:Bucket of ideas: choose the one that resonates.Bucket of first drafts: write 500 words or one timer's worth (check this bucket first).Bucket of ready-to-edit: a complete piece (go to this second).Bucket of ready-to-submit: a go-to list of places to submit or in your book manuscript. Tip three: Use the Pomodoro method, intentionally moving up and down. Work for 25 minutes, then take 5 minutes off. Write in sprints (or more, perhaps 55 minutes on, followed by a 15-minute mental break during which you change locations and physical positions). Tip four: Create a page or word count goal for each chapter or element to ensure cohesiveness. This will also help you write tightly.Tip five: Pray before you write. God knows the words we need. Pray while you write, and pray after you write. Make time with God a top priority and release your work to Him. He always accomplishes what we need to do. Ask Him to give us His heart for our writing readers.LINKS A WORD FOR YOUR DAY: 66 DEVOTIONS TO REFRESH YOUR MIND, from Our Daily Bread PublishingLORIHATCHER.COM Visit Your Best Writing Life website.Join our Facebook group, Your Best Writing LifeYour host - Linda Goldfarb#1 Podcast in the "Top 50+ Must-Have Tools and Resources for Christian Writers in 2024". Awarded the Spark Media 2022 Most Binge-Worthy PodcastAwarded the Spark Media 2023 Fan Favorites Best Solo Podcast

In this special episode of The Guidepost, guest host Nick Jones welcomes a true titan of the fly fishing world, Keith Rose-Innes. As the Managing Director and co-founder of one of the most renowned fishing outfits on the planet, Keith shares his extraordinary journey—from pioneering remote fisheries to championing conservation efforts in the pristine atolls of the Seychelles. Dive into Keith's decades of experience as he reveals the secrets behind targeting iconic species like Giant Trevally, milkfish, and Indo-Pacific permit. Keith discusses groundbreaking scientific projects like the Giant Trevally acoustic telemetry study and the challenges and triumphs of creating sustainable, world-class fisheries. Discover how Keith and his team have balanced adventure tourism with rigorous conservation, leaving a legacy of thriving ecosystems and unparalleled fishing opportunities...

A writer of faith by day and mystery by night, Patricia Raybon is a Christy Award-winning author and essayist who writes the Annalee Spain Mystery Series and authors devotional writing for Our Daily Bread. A newspaper journalist right out of the gate, Patricia turned to mystery fiction during the pandemic and hasn't looked back. Her debut novel, “All That Is Secret,” won a Christy Award for First Novel and was picked by NBA All-Star Steph Curry as a Literati Book Club selection. The series' second installment, “Double the Lies,” won the Christianity Today Book Award for Fiction. The third in the series, “Truth Be Told,” was a New York Times Book Review pick among “4 Great Fictional Detectives.”Patricia cut her writing teeth in high-pressure newsrooms and won multiple awards for feature writing during her years at The Denver Post, where she was editor of the Sunday Contemporary Magazine, and later at the Scripps Howard Rocky Mountain News. Mid-career she taught print journalism for 15 years to bright graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Colorado at Boulder.Her personal essays have been published in the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, USA Weekend, Guideposts, In Touch Magazine, Christianity Today, the Washington Post, and for National Public Radio's Weekend Edition.A lifelong Colorado resident, Patricia lives near Denver with her husband Dan, a retired educator. With two grown daughters and five grandchildren, they enjoy movies, popcorn, college hoops, and Masterpiece Theatre historical mysteries on PBS. They also love spoiling their grand-dog Max and grand-kitty Mittens.https://www.patriciaraybon.com/ https://www.facebook.com/patricia.raybonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciaraybon/https://x.com/patriciaraybon*********************************************************Judy is the CEO & Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group. She helps her clients design, build, and implement fully integrated and coordinated financial plans from today through life expectancy and legacy.She is an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner who specializes in Wealth Decumulation Strategies. Judy is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, Life and Health Insurance Licensed, and Long-Term Care Certified.Judy's mission is to educate and empower her clients with an all-inclusive financial plan that encourages and motivates them to pursue their lifetime financial goals and dreams.Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, an SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-patricia-raybon-christy-award-winning-author-of-books-devotionals-and-novels

We're back after the Christmas/ New Year's break! Did you miss us much?  One of our first texts this morning made sure we didn't miss the Guideposts devotional for today which mentions the radio station.  We spent some time recap our time spent on the holiday break. Dave had plans to go to Louisiana but had to miss out when his wife needed to make another trip to the hospital.  Bill has missed going to the gym as he went through physical therapy. But now he needs an excuse...

After searching for a nicely shaped Christmas tree, our family decided to bring one home that represents the Colorado wilderness! Enjoy our favorite Christmas storybook, Why Christmas Tree's Aren't Perfect, and hear my kids' favorite Christmas memories.See our Ponderosa pine Christmas tree: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDXP83NRggm/Order your copy of Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Christmas-Trees-Arent-Perfect/dp/1501825836Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect was read and recorded with permission from Guideposts books.

On today's program, Chateauroux Fellowship claims to connect billionaires with Christian ministries…but we were not able to confirm with any ministries that they had received any of the funds. We'll have details.  And, a small reformed denomination commissioned a report by Guidepost solutions to investigate handling of sexual abuse cases…then it reversed its decision. We'll take a look at what happened. Plus, a new study finds that Christians are the most charitable…and the happiest. But first, California revokes Olivet University's approval to operate—but the school says it plans to stay open anyway. The producer for today's program is Jeff McIntosh. We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today's program include Kim Roberts, Jessica Eturralde, Scott Bauer, Tony Mator, Heather Hahn, Diana Chandler, Brittany Smith, Christina Darnell—and you, Warren. A special thanks to Baptist Press and United Methodist News for contributing material for this week's podcast. Until next time, may God bless you.   MANUSCRIPT:   FIRST SEGMENT Warren: Hello everybody. I'm Warren Smith, coming to you from Charlotte, North Carolina, and wishing you a merry Christmas! Natasha: And I'm Natasha Cowden, coming to you from Denver, Colorado. And we'd like to welcome you to the MinistryWatch podcast. Warren: On today's program, Chateauroux Fellowship claims to connect billionaires with Christian ministries…but we were not able to confirm with any ministries that they had received any of the funds. We'll have details. And, a small reformed denomination commissioned a report by Guidepost solutions to investigate handling of sexual abuse cases…then it reversed its decision. We'll take a look at what happened. Plus, a new study finds that Christians are the most charitable…and the happiest. Natasha: But first, California revokes Olivet University's approval to operate—but the school says it plans to stay open anyway. Warren: The California Department of Consumer Affairs Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education has ordered that Olivet University's approval to operate be revoked. The order also requires the school to pay $64,432 to cover the costs of the investigation and prosecution. Because of this action, Olivet must cease enrolling new students and must propose a planned “teach out” current students. Natasha: What's the background to Olivet? Warren: Olivet, founded by controversial figure David Jang, was approved to operate by the state in 2005, but that approval expired in 2014 and has not been renewed. In March 2023, a complaint was filed against Olivet, seeking a revocation or suspension of its approval to operate. It included 14 reasons the state should revoke the approval, including failing to include a face-to-face instructional component, failing to provide all the courses included in the approval, failing to have necessary evaluations of faculty, and failing to demonstrate that Olivet has required financial resources. Last year, a group of former Olivet students sued Jang and the university, claiming they were part of an international labor trafficking scheme run by Jang and his disciples. According to reporting by Newsweek, Olivet University is also under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for money laundering, human trafficking, and visa fraud. By the way, every time we write about Olivet University, we get emails asking if this is the same as Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois. It is not. The two schools are not related in any way. Natasha: What's our next story? Warren: If the plan of the Chateauroux Fellowship and its director Christian Thomas Lee comes to pass as promised, it would likely be the largest philanthropic initiative aimed at Christian ministries in American history. According to the group's own website,

In this final episode in the Rock is Lit Season 4 Reading Series, Suzanne Mattaboni discusses her debut novel, ‘Once in a Lifetime', and shares excerpts from the story. Set in 1984, where punk reigns and Andy Warhol rules, 20-year-old art student Jessica longs for a life beyond her reach. Dreaming of an avant-garde study program in London, she's stuck waitressing and navigating drama with her boyfriend Drew, who wants to date others. Life takes a turn when she meets Whit, a magnetic guitarist, and dives into a post-punk scene full of quirky characters—cheating waiters, mystics, a military drag queen, and a Svengali bouncer—all while grappling with the specter of AIDS. Jessica must decide if chasing her dreams is worth risking heartbreak and self-discovery. With a smart, edgy '80s vibe, ‘Once in a Lifetime' is a coming-of-age story exploring friendship, love, and ambition. Suzanne Mattaboni is a former Newsday reporter and a Pushcart Prize-nominated author of women's fiction, horror, and pop culture essays. She's also a retro podcaster and a past winner of Seventeen magazine's Art and Fiction Contest. Her work has also appeared in The Huffington Post, Chicken Soup For The Soul, Mysterious Ways, Guideposts.com, Seventeen, Child, Parents, Motherwell, Dark Dossier, Turtle, Humpty Dumpty's, Long Island Weddings, and LA Parent. She's had pieces featured in anthologies including Pizza Parties and Poltergeist (horror stories set in the 1980s), Writes of Passage, The Little Demon Digest, and The Running Wild Anthology of Stories.   MUSIC IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: Rock is Lit theme music [Guitar Instrumental Beat] Sad Rock [Free Use Music] Punch Deck—“I Can't Stop” “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads “Catch Me I'm Falling” by Real Life “Purple Rain” by Prince “Sweet Dreams” by The Eurythmics “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads Rock is Lit theme music   LINKS: Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Goodpods: https://goodpods.com/podcasts/rock-is-lit-212451 Leave a rating and comment for Rock is Lit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rock-is-lit/id1642987350 Suzanne's websites: https://www.suzannemattaboni.com/ and onceinalifetimenovel.com Suzanne on Facebook: facebook.com/suzanne.mattaboni Suzanne on X: @suzmattaboni Suzanne on Instagram: @suzannemattaboni80s Suzanne on TikTok: suzannemattabonibook ‘Once in a Lifetime' Spotify playlist Christy Alexander Hallberg's website: https://www.christyalexanderhallberg.com/rockislit Christy Alexander Hallberg on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube: @ChristyHallberg Rock is Lit on Instagram: @rockislitpodcast Rock is Lit on Bluesky: @rockislitpodcast.bsky.social Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan Shaw King, 71, is a strong, resilient woman whose courage led her to create illustrative works that live on in all of our memories. Her first mentor was her grandmother who taught her to see colors and shadows and be brave enough to follow her path. You may remember Ranger Bob and How the Big Bad Wolf Saved Christmas. Children's stories make up a major part of her portfolio. Jan's company, Wyld Blue Entertainment, develops imaginative art for theme parks and major movie studios. "My impressionistic paintings of sea turtles are dedicated to the awareness of these magnificent endangered species." - Jan Shaw King What she is most proud of is beating an extremely rare form of cancer that only 3% survive. Her book, Life Lines, Verses for Reflection and Recovery is a treasured collection of inspirational verses of love and hope drawn from her personal healing journey as a 27-year cancer survivor. More recently, Jan has nurtured her love of sea turtles, all 7 species, and uses her creativity and activism to create public awareness of the plight of these creatures due to climate change.Connect with Jan Shaw King:Email: Jan@WyldBlueEnt.comWyldBlue Entertainment | WyldBlue Digitalwww.WyldBlueEnt.com | www.WyldBlueDigital.comWyldBlueProduction | www.WyldBlueProduction.comWyldBlue Digital PressWBDigitalPress@gmail.comwww.WyldBlueDigitalPress.comjan@SeaTurtleRock.comwww.SeaTurtleRock.comjan@JanShawKing.comwww.JanShawKing.comLIFE LINES: Verses for Reflection and RecoveryLIFE LINES: Metamorphosis of Change: Guidelines for Recovery Workbook

In this episode of The Guidepost, guest host Nick Jones dives into a captivating discussion with Matt DeLorme—a talented artist, accomplished angler, and passionate conservation advocate. Matt shares his journey from fishing the coasts of Maine and Seattle to blending his love for art and the environment through intricate relief prints. The conversation explores parallels between the patience and skill required for fly fishing and creating art, as well as the impact of advocacy projects, including a significant conservation victory involving river restoration. Matt also previews an exciting upcoming event at The Compleat Angler in Darien, CT, where art and advocacy unite to support striped bass conservation. Join us as we celebrate community, creativity, and the importance of protecting our fisheries.

“In October 1975, I was shot six times. And while I was on the hospital gurney, doctor told me I was going to die. I heard a very clear voice that spoke to me and said, you're not going to die. You're going to be a chaplain at San Quentin prison.” (Chaplain Earl Smith) Chaplain Earl Smith believes that ministry to the incarcerated is about so much more than rehabilitation. It's about regeneration. Using the power of his own story of transformation from gang member to pastor, Chaplain Smith has maintained a faithful presence and witness for many decades of pastoral service to the incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, and now to professional athletes (including the Golden State Warriors, San Francisco 49ers, and the San Francisco Giants). Today on the show Mark Labberton and Chaplain Earl Smith discuss the moral and spiritual factors of prison chaplaincy and ministry for those on death row; the meaning of freedom and education; how he ministered to the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood; the difference that positive mentoring and coaching makes in young people's lives; and the transformative power of the gospel to go beyond rehabilitation to regeneration. About Earl Smith Born and reared in Stockton, California, the cycle of events in Earl's life came to a head in 1975 when he was shot 6 times while living the life of a minor gangster. Although expected to die, Earl's father's faith, prayers, and love seemed to bring him through. The words of his father have motivated him, since that event, “you are a rebel, but you are God's rebel, and God is going to use you to His glory.” In 1983, at the age of 27, Earl became the youngest person ever hired as a Protestant Chaplain by the California Department of Corrections. He is author of Death Row Chaplain: Unbelievable True Stories from America's Most Notorious Prison. Chaplain Smith currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Franklin Home, a Transition Living/Reentry Home for men and is the Team Pastor for the San Francisco 49ers' and the Golden State Warriors. From 1998 to 2006 Chaplain Smith was the Chapel Leader for the San Francisco Giants. Chaplain Smith has ministered to teams playing in NFL Super Bowls, MLB World Series and NBA Championships. In 2000, Chaplain Smith was recognized as the National Correctional Chaplain of the Year. Chaplain Smith has appeared on numerous broadcasts, including HBO, CNN, The 700 Club, Trinity Broadcasting Network and The History Channel. Earl has been featured in Christianity Today, Ebony, Guidepost, Ministry Today, Newsweek, People's Weekly, The African Americans and Time. Show Notes Get your copy of Death Row Chaplain: Unbelievable True Stories from America's Most Notorious Prison How Mark and Chaplain Smith met The value of education “I had to stop my education because of the execution schedule at San Quentin.” How Earl Smith got into prison chaplaincy “In October 1975, I was shot six times. And while I was on the hospital gurney, doctor told me I was going to die. I heard a very clear voice that spoke to me and said, you're not going to die. You're going to be a chaplain at San Quentin prison.” What San Quentin prison is like “We used to call San Quentin the Bastille by the Bay. The thing that really stood out for me was the fact that for 13 of the first 16 months I was there, the prison was locked down. The day I interviewed, two people were killed, so they stopped my interview twice. So I understood where I was. I understood the context of confinement. What I also went in there understanding was. It was not about rehabilitation. It was about regeneration.” “I believe that that's part of chaplaincy is not to allow the confines of the wall to dictate who you are.” A sense of liberty Fear and reality Earl Smith's ministry to the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood How faith shaped a capacity to be free from fear for the sake of love Mass incarceration and the new Jim Crow The drug epidemic and its impact on mass incarceration “How can you help us prepare these guys to come home?” “Whether you're on condemned role, if you have a life without the possibility of parole, or life sentence, or whatever it is, my job is still to share the same gospel message.” “Present your body as a living sacrifice.” Pastoral care in the prison system Calling prisoners by their first names instead of their numbers “When you've done it onto the least of these, you've done it to me, so there's a value in your presence.” Chaplaincy to professional athletes “The states that have the largest prison systems are also the states that send the most professional athletes in the pro sports.” Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers The difference that positive mentoring and coaching makes in young people's lives “Every man wants someone to acknowledge there's something positive in what you're doing.” “They May Know Your Number, But God Knows Your Name” (Clifton Jansky, country western singer) God's way of paying attention to us; “how vested God is in our pursuit of being fully human” (reference to Marilynne Robinson) Performance and identity (reference to Ben Houltberg) Jerry Rice, #80 and “who wore the number before you?” Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Athletes in Action “God is a relational God. … Sports is relational.” When did chaplaincy in sports become a thing? Pat Ritchie's chaplaincy Understanding the value and difference chaplaincy makes Documentary and Film Adaptation: Death Row Chaplain “A story not of rehabilitation but regeneration” “That's really what the story is about. Some of my yesterday, some of my today. And what I believe to be my tomorrow.” Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary.

Today we sit down with Heather Parady, the host of the top-ranked podcast Unconventional Leaders, to explore how outside-the-box leaders can scale their social impact in smarter ways. We dive into the art of storytelling, and why mastering this craft is your secret weapon. Heather shares how resistance, instead of being an obstacle, can actually serve as a guidepost in your journey. We also talk about the power of pivoting in your business, and why consistency doesn't always mean doing the same thing over and over—it's about being open to new approaches. Tune in for a conversation that goes beyond the surface and challenges conventional thinking. Takeaways Consistency doesn't mean doing the same thing over and over again. Data analysis is crucial for making informed decisions. It's important to pivot based on what the data shows. Testing multiple content series can lead to discovering what works best. Ideas should be nurtured and honored as living entities. Finding what lights you up is essential for creativity. Scripting helps in organizing thoughts and ensuring clarity. The order of information presentation affects understanding. Content should be recommendable to enhance shareability. Creativity often comes from connecting different ideas. Focus on the takeaway when creating content. Scripting can enhance the quality of your content. Storytelling is a craft that requires study and reverence. Chapters 00:00 The Power of Consistency and Pivoting 02:53 Data-Driven Decisions in Content Creation 06:00 The Importance of Organized Testing 08:54 Creative Ideation and Idea Management 11:51 Scripting for Success in Content Creation 21:57 Crafting Compelling Content: The Importance of Scripting 24:16 The Art of Storytelling: Developing a Reverence for the Craft 28:44 Creating Space for Change: The Power of Letting Go 33:43 Faith and Creativity: Reconnecting with God through Art 37:46 Understanding Resistance: A Guidepost for Growth

Guest Bio: Emily E. Ryan is a minister's wife, mother of four, and junior high English teacher who first dedicated her writing life to the Lord when she was a child. She quickly learned, however, that writing about Jesus could only come after walking with Him through hard times. In this season of life—full of teens, tweens, and all the beautiful noise and chaos that comes with them—she is familiar with the struggle to find those rare, quiet moments and claim them for Jesus. She writes about this struggle in her upcoming book Guilt-Free Quiet Times, where she encourages women with practical creativity to ditch guilt and embrace grace in their devotional time with the Lord. Emily and her family live in the great state of Texas, but you can find her online at emilyeryan.com or through her Guideposts devotions in ' Mornings with Jesus.   Show Summary: What comes to mind when you think of spending time with the Lord? Do you picture your favorite comfy chair with your Bible and a steaming mug of coffee? Or do you see yourself frantically running around the house apologizing to God while you chase a toddler who has interrupted your quiet time. . . .again. Emily E. Ryan wants to help women reimagine their quiet time with the Lord by lifting up the guilt we sometimes feel. The stigma of ‘quiet time' doesn't have to be silent time spent in your house with the Lord. Join hosts, Vivian Mabuni and Eryn Eddy Adkins, as they learn how to have guilt-free quiet time during this God Hears Her conversation.   Notes and Quotes:  “God shows Himself to us whenever we ask for our spiritual eyes to be opened.” —Emily E. Ryan “God promised something good from this, so I'm going to start looking for that.” —Emily E. Ryan “God is not calling us into this perfect, little checklist quiet time, He's calling us into a deeper, intimate relationship with Him.” —Emily E. Ryan The Lord has given us so much more choice into how we approach our spiritual disciples than we realize.” —Emily E. Ryan “Whenever we have conviction, it always leads to a solution. If the Holy Spirit convicts your heart, then He's doing so to lead you closer.” —Emily E. Ryan “The highs and lows are going to happen regardless. It's where they are leading you in the end. Are they leading you to the Lord, and is your faith growing?” —Emily E. Ryan   Verses:  Romans 8:28 Matthew 14:13-14 2 Peter 1:8   Links:  Emily's website Emily's book God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/ God Hears Her email sign-up: https://www.godhearsher.org/sign-upsfmc  Subscribe on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast Eryn's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eryneddy/ Vivian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vivmabuni/   MB013E5PNNJCDQX