Podcasts about I Love

It's not the enemy. It's Me. Today won't be like yesterday. I Love you. For the full written message and corresponding Scriptures, head to CurlyNikki.com.This is moment-to-moment witnessing. I share as they come.This is no longer just GoOD mornings.This is the Eternal Dawn.COMPLETION.I love you

OH, TO BE A HOE… A HOE FOR H-B-OOOOO!   I KEN NOT get enough of my HBO shows right now! Between The Pitt, Industry, and the newest Game of Thrones spinoff (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), I am EATING! Time to dive into the latest patients to enter the emergency room, see how Henry Muck is holding up after losing the election, and so so SO much more! GIVE INDUSTRY IT'S PROPS! Download and listen today!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COLTON AND RAPAPORT WERE IN A LOSER-OFF WHILE THE HOUSEWIVES WERE IN A SCREAM-OFF! It's reunion time in Utah, and Lisa Barlow is in the hot seat, Meredith Marks is issuing veiled threats, Whitney is embarrassed by a drunken BravoCon, Angie has props in hand, Heather is dressed as the mother of the bride, Bronwyn is answering the legal questions, and Mary is being merry! Britani is just happy she was invited. Then we head over to THE TRAITORS. Colton is… still a loser, much like Michael Rapaport. And that needs to be discussed. DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TODAY! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Apple Podcasts! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Spotify! Follow Emily on Instagram! Subscribe to Emily's YouTube channel, where we go live every single Sunday! SPONSORED BY: Lumi Gummies Go to LumiGummies.com and use code KENDRICK for 30% off your order!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paulie Beladino is by far one of the best guitarists and kindest people I know. His debut solo album: “Always” is a fantastic voyage captained by a Rock & Roll junkie. I Love this album and it was such an honor to talk to Paulie to get a behind the scenes look into what it takes to write songs, and how he was influenced. We had an awesome conversation about music and Paulie told stories about rock and roll history. He gave me 5 influential Guitarists as well as what Albums he would take to a Desert Island. Paulie is just getting started and he will be back! Listen to Paulie's Album “Always”: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0U8h7cA8FYzJVoCvqa9EQW Follow Paulie on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/pauliepasta/?hl=enAnd https://www.instagram.com/paulbeladino/?hl=enIf you want to support Full Blast Support  Feder Knives - ( go buy a shirt )https://www.federknives.com/Go to CMA's website and check out the opportunities: https://centerformetalarts.org/Take a class: https://centerformetalarts.org/Follow CMA on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/centerformetalarts/?hl=enPlease subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends about the show. it helps me out a lot! Welcome aboard Phoenix Abrasives!Phoenixabrasives.com Phoenix abrasives supplies superior abrasive products for every application. Knifemaking, Metal fabrication, glass fab, floor sanding and Crankshaft! Belts, grinding and cutting discs, Flap Discs, surface conditioning FB10 at checkout gets 10% off your order at Check out.Welcome back! Nordic Edge:@nordic_edge on IG Nordicedge.com.auNordic Edge is about the joy of making something with your own hands. our one stop shop for tools, supplies and help when it comes to knife making, blacksmithing, leatherworking, spoon carving and other crafts where you get to take some time out for yourself and turn an idea into something tangible. Nordic Edge also holds hands-on workshops in the “lost arts” of blacksmithing, knife making and spoon carving. Come spend a day with us and go home with new skills and something you made with your own hands. They have the  guidance to help accelerate your creativity and the  Tools, products, supplies to help you manifest your ideas. NordicEdge.com.auThank you Baker Forge & Tool for your beautiful Steel. Go to Bakerforge.com to see all the incredible steels they offer. ‘FullBlast' gets you 10% off your order. CHECK OUT THE NEW ADDITIONS TO THE GATOR PISS LINE - GATOR PISS MAX & GATOR PISS HEAVYWelcome to our new Sponsor- EVENHEAT- Manufacturers of the best heat treating ovens available.  To find your next oven go to Evenheat-kiln.comFollow them on Instagram: Welcome aboard Texas Farrier Supply! For all your forging and knife making supplies go to www.texasfarriersupply.com   and get 10% off your order with PROMOCODE Knifetalk10Brodbeck Ironworks Makers of an Incredibly versatile grinder, with Many different attachmentsLeather sewing equipment and even abrasives Check out Brodbeck Ironworks for yourself:https://brodbeckironworks.com/“Knifetalk10” gets you 10% off Follow Brodbeck Ironworks on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/brodbeck_ironworks/Trojan Horse Forge Get your THF Stabile Rail knife finishing vise at https://www.trojanhorseforge.com/And when you use the promo code “FULLBLAST10 you get 10%off everything on the site.Follow them on instagram:https://www.instagram.com/trojan_horse_forge/ TotalBoatAdhesives, paints, primers and polishing compounds.Go to http://totalboat.com/FULLBLASTTo support the podcastG.L. Hansen & Sons On Instagramhttps://instagram.com/g.l._hansenandsons?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Gcarta.bigcartel.comG-Carta is unique composite of natural fibers and fabrics mixed with epoxy under pressure and heat Boofa, ripple cut, Tuxini, by Mikie, Mahi Mahi, Radio worm g-cartaPheasant by MikieColorama by MikieHoopla by MikeAmazing colors and razzle dazzle for your project. MARITIME KNIFE SUPPLIESMaritimeknifesupply.CAAll your knifemaking needs, belts abrasive, steals, kilns forges presses, heat treating ovens anvils and everything you need to get started or resupply. Including Dr. Thomas's book:“Knife Engineering”They're in Canada but ship to the US with ease and you can take advantage of the exchange rate The steel selection is always growing and Lawrence just got 3900 lbs. of steel in.10% off on abrasive belt packs of 10 get a hold of https://www.instagram.com/maritimeknifesupply/ and see what the fuss is about.Welcome Tormek as a sponsor to the show. Take your sharpening to a new level. I love these sharpening machines. Waterfed, easy to use. Jigs included. Definitely check out what they have to offer. If you need it sharpened, Tormek is definitely something for you:https://tormek.com/en/inspiration/woodworking--craftsVisit Tormek's website: https://tormek.com/enFollow Tormek on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/tormek_sharpening/?hl=enFollow Tormek on TikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@tormek_sharpening?lang=enGo look at the course curriculum at CMA:https://centerformetalarts.org/workshops/** Taking classes from some of the best in forging at one of the best facilities in the country is an excellent opportunity to propel yourself as a blacksmith. Not to be missed. And with housing on the campus it's a great way to get yourself to the next level. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

As an eBay seller, research is the lifeblood of your business. You have to know what you're selling in order to get top dollar! In this episode of the I Love to Be Selling podcast, you'll find out how to strike gold in your research by drilling down and going deeper. Tune in to also learn about a niche brand that others may overlook which sells for big bucks. In addition, you'll want to get in on I Love to Be Selling's FREE eBay New Year Sales Success Boot Camp, coming up January 19th at 2pm ET (1pm CT/12pm MT/11am PT). It all takes place in a pop-up Facebook group, and it will help you get 2026 off to a flying start on eBay. Sign up now at https://love2besellinginsider.com/. I'm Kathy, and I love to be selling!  

RAVEN AND I STARTED TALKING AND COULDN'T SHUT TF UP! YAY! Ranting and RAVEN herself (of “Bitch is Better” podcast) is here for the first time in 2026, so you know we had to talk… and talk… and talk! This is only HALF of the episode, so after you get through listening to this, head over to Raven's podcast (listed below) and listen to the rest of our conversation. We discuss everything from: Kandi & Todd's divorce getting messy, Nene's official return to Bravo, Ashley Darby's reveal (and Mia Thornton's comment), Katie Ginella OUT in OC, Ollie & AD are parents, Curtis is back (SIGH), and the latest Married to Medicine and Real Housewives of Potomac! Download and listen today! Listen to the “Bitch is Better” podcast on Apple Podcasts! Listen to the “Bitch is Better” podcast on Spotify! Follow Raven on Instagram! CHECK OUT RAVEN'S PATREON (for video version of the entire 2 hour episode)! SPONSORED BY: Lumi Gummies Go to LumiGummies.com and use code KENDRICK for 30% off your order!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don and Dude continue the “I Love the 80s” journey with a trip to 1981, a year when economic anxiety and political tension coexisted with malls, arcades, and cable TV escapism. Country and Pop both learned how to look and sound modern. One host brings a polished, harmony‑driven Country blockbuster from Alabama, while the other counters with a nervy, hook‑stuffed New Wave debut from Men at Work, tracing how crossover production, global pop, and quirky storytelling reshaped early‑'80s radio.The AlbumsAlabama – Feels So Right (1981) A smooth, harmony‑rich Country set that blends traditional instrumentation with Southern rock and soft‑rock polish, Feels So Right finds Alabama sanding down honky‑tonk grit into warm, radio‑ready crossover anthems. Built on Randy Owen's conversational vocals, tight three‑part harmonies, and clean electric arrangements, the record moves from intimate ballads to dark Hollywood cautionary tales, sketching how early‑'80s country stepped confidently into the pop mainstream without losing its storytelling roots.Men at Work – Business as Usual (1981) An off‑kilter, endlessly catchy debut, Business as Usual fuses New Wave, reggae‑rock, and pop hooks into anxious, witty songs about paranoia, identity, and global culture, all filtered through an unmistakably Australian lens. Colin Hay's nervy vocals, Greg Ham's iconic sax and flute lines, and the band's elastic grooves turn tales of door‑knocking strangers, daydreaming kids, and Vegemite‑fueled wanderers into one of the defining pop documents of the early '80s.Diggin' AlbumsOurs – Rocket's Red Glare (2025) The long‑running alt‑rock project from Jimmy Gnecco returns with a cinematic, emotionally charged set that pairs soaring vocals and guitar crunch with themes of love, loss, and resilience. Rocket's Red Glare channels late‑'90s melodrama into a mature, widescreen sound that feels tailor‑made for headphones and midnight drives.Red Rider – As Far As Siam (1981) Canadian rockers Red Rider deliver melodic, thoughtful heartland rock on this 1981 LP, balancing straight‑ahead riffs with introspective writing. Anchored by “Lunatic Fringe,” the album became a staple of AOR radio and helped cement Tom Cochrane's reputation as a songwriter with both punch and atmosphere.NITE – NITE (2025) Dallas twins Kyle and Myles Mendes push their darkwave/synthpop project into a sleek, shadowy new chapter on this self‑titled release, blending post‑punk guitars, electronic pulse, and emotive hooks. The record dives into pain, obsession, and alienation over nocturnal beats and synths, landing somewhere between dancefloor melancholy and bedroom confession.Ashes and Diamonds – Are Forever (2025) A supergroup of post‑punk and alt veterans, Daniel Ash, Bruce Smith, and Paul Spencer Denman, craft a moody, cinematic collage of glam, dark pop, and experimental electronics on Are Forever. Recorded after a page‑one restart, the album leans into Hollywood decadence, identity crises, and existential drift, its clipped‑headline lyrics and atmospheric production feeling like a neon‑lit fever dream for aging club kids.Follow the show on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Bluesky @albumnerds, and support by subscribing, rating, reviewing, and sharing.“We'll never fully understand the 80s until we admit they were equal parts escape fantasy and quiet panic—and the best records let both feelings live in the same song.” – Cameron Crowe

You are in constant contact with Me now.This is proof of impact.This is evidence of victory.Ordinary existence has passed over you.I Love you.For the full written message and corresponding Scriptures, head to CurlyNikki.com.This is moment-to-moment witnessing. I share as they come.This is no longer just GoOD mornings.This is the Eternal Dawn.COMPLETION.I love you.

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR WHEN I BECOME… AN H-B-HOE!   The premieres of The Pitt (season 2) and Industry (season 4) on HBO were EVERYTHING! Y'all are used to me covering Industry, but I've decided to create a special episode to cover a lot of HBO shows this year. Right now, I'll be covering both Industry and The Pitt! To all my fellow H-B-HOEs out there… IT'S OUR TIME TO SHINE! Download and listen today!   SPONSORED BY: Lumi Gummies Go to LumiGummies.com and use code KENDRICK for 30% off your order!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a eBay seller, you're constantly looking for ways to maximize your profit. In this episode of the I Love to Be Selling podcast, you'll discover three smart strategies for making more money on eBay. Tune in to find out how to optimize your listings and your business on eBay via a trio of practical tips that will boost your sales AND help you get top dollar for your items.   You'll also gain access to I Love to Be Selling's exclusive free eBay Promoted Listings Guide: 5 Tips to Keep You in the Game (and Protect Your Wallet!). It's your road map to navigating the upcoming increase in eBay's Promoted Listings fees. Download your complimentary copy today at https://ilovetobeselling.com/webinars-and-workshops/ebay-promoted-listings-fees-guide/.   I'm Kathy, and I love to be selling!

A CONTINUATION OF A WEEKLY WRAP-UP SO MASSIVE, WE SPLIT IT IN TWO! NOW... it's time to talk about THE TRAITORS! Season 4 of the Traitors is here, and we get everyone from Porsha Williams to Candiace Dillard to Stephen Colletti to Monet X Change! We got secret twists, EARLY banishments, and cliff hangers! DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TODAY! DON'T FORGET: This is part two of two, so head on over to part one to hear us discuss the Cult of the Real Housewife and the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City FINALE! ⁠Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Apple Podcasts!⁠ ⁠Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Spotify!⁠ ⁠Follow Emily on Instagram!⁠ ⁠Subscribe to Emily's YouTube channel, where we go live every single Sunday!⁠   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee?⁠ CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT⁠! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT ⁠IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM⁠! ⁠FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM⁠! ⁠FOLLOW ME ON THREADS!⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A WEEKLY WRAP-UP SO MASSIVE, WE SPLIT IT IN TWO! Apparently, in 2026… Emily and I have a LOT to say, mmkay?! IN THIS PART OF THE WEEKLY WRAP-UP, we discuss the Cult of the Real Housewife documentary and Mary's rebrand (Emily has now watched and has some major thoughts… and I think you know I do too), followed by the amazing season 6 finale of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City! Meredith is EXHAUSTED, Bronwyn is ANGRY, and the theater kids are WINNING! DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TODAY! DON'T FORGET: This is part one of two, so head on over to part two to hear us discuss the first 3 episodes of season 4 of… THE TRAITORS! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Apple Podcasts! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Spotify! Follow Emily on Instagram! Subscribe to Emily's YouTube channel, where we go live every single Sunday!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I sit down with Stephen Grayhm and Matt Dallas to unpack the real story behind Sheepdog. This is not just a film. It is a lived journey that took fourteen years to bring into the world and required confronting pain, resistance, and personal history at every step.We talk openly about trauma in the veteran experience, not as something to escape, but as the very force that forges clarity, purpose, and depth. Watching these men walk this path mirrored many moments in my own life. It became clear that what we label as trauma often carries the exact information needed for growth, leadership, and service.We explore the challenges of making a film that tells the truth, the internal battles that surfaced along the way, and what it means to keep going when the outcome is uncertain. This conversation is about resilience, responsibility, and discovering that there is life beyond the wound.This episode is for veterans, builders, and anyone who has been shaped by hardship and is ready to understand what that experience was preparing them for.Thank you and I Love you.

Bundle up, my spookies—this Best of 2025 episode of the Weekly Spooky horror podcast is a snow-choked compilation built for year-round bingeing: winter horror, blizzard dread, creature features, and a finale that pivots into true crime + folklore with a chilling Terrifying & True deep dive.Inside this Best of 2025 compilation:“I Love the Cold” — Jonathan Lumpkin • A quiet winter evening turns wrong when comfort gives way to a creeping, unnatural chill—and the cold starts to feel less like weather and more like a presence.“The Blizzard of '58: Never Meet Your Idols” — Bruce Haney • A fan's dream encounter collides with a historic storm, where admiration curdles into obsession and the whiteout becomes a trap you can't charm your way out of.“I Was Stalked by a Monster from the Woods” — Michael Kelso • From a porch with binoculars to a tree line that moves on purpose, this one escalates into full-tilt cryptid horror—the kind that makes you stop looking out the window at night. “The Wendigo Curse: A Legend of Greed and Destruction” (Terrifying & True) • We wrap with wendigo folklore, winter starvation terror, and the unsettling bridge between myth and documented history—where the legend becomes a warning… and the real world gets even darker. New here? These episodes stand alone—so hit play, lock the door, and tell us: which winter nightmare got under your skin the most?

On today's show, I have two great guests joining me. The legend Michael Ian Black comes on at about one hour and 12 minutes but before that at 49 minutes, I speak with Venezuela expert and NYU historian Dr. Alejandro Velasco.   Subscribe and Watch Interviews LIVE : On YOUTUBE.com/StandUpWithPete ON SubstackStandUpWithPete   Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. This show is Ad free and fully supported by listeners like you!   Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 750 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous soul Michael Ian Black is a multi-media talent who's starred in numerous films and TV series, written and/or directed two films, is a prolific author and commentator, and regularly tours the country performing his ribald brand of jokes and observations.  Subscribe to his substack       Support him on Patreon He most recently starred in TVLand's "The Jim Gaffigan Show" and Comedy Central's "Another Period." He also reprised one of his iconic film roles in Netflix's "Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later," and previously in "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp." His third standup comedy special, "Noted Expert," was released on Epix. Black's authored 11 books, including the recently released best seller, "A Child's First Book of Trump." He's written two well-received memoirs: "Navel Gazing: True Tales of Bodies, Mostly Mine (but also my mom's, which I know sounds weird)", and "You're Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death and Other Humiliations." In 2012, he collaborated with conservative Meghan McCain on "America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter to Freedom." He's the author of "My Custom Van (and 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays That Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face)," and seven children's books, including "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo-Bop!," "Naked", "Chicken Cheeks," "The Purple Kangaroo," "A Pig Parade Is A Terrible Idea" and "I'm Bored." He also writes book reviews for the New York Times. Previously, Black released two stand-up specials, "Very Famous" and "I Am A Wonderful Man." He and Tom Cavanagh host the popular podcast, "Mike and Tom Eat Snacks." He also writes and hosts a podcast with Michael Showalter, "Topics," and his own interview podcast, "How To Be Amazing." He hosts "Debate Wars" on SeeSo, and he recently hosted "Easiest Game Show Ever" on Pop TV. Sketch comedy fans know Black's work on "The State," "Viva Variety," "Stella" and "Michael and Michael Have Issues" all of which he co-created, wrote and starred in. Other TV credits include quirky bowling alley manager 'Phil' on the NBC series "Ed," and his hilarious commentary on cable's "I Love the..." series. He recently starred in two hit web series that migrated to cable TV: "Burning Love" on E! and "You're Whole" on Adult Swim. Black's movie roles include "Slash," "Smosh: The Movie," "They Came Together," "Hell Baby," "This is 40," "Wet Hot American Summer," "Take Me Home Tonight," "Reno 911!: Miami," "The Ten" and "The Baxter." Black wrote and directed the film "Wedding Daze," starring Jason Biggs and Isla Fisher. He also co-wrote the comedy "Run, Fatboy, Run," directed by David Schwimmer and starring Simon Pegg, Hank Azaria and Thandie Newton.  ___________________________________________________________ Alejandro Velasco holds joint appointments in the Gallatin School and the Department of History, and was Executive Editor of the NACLA Report on the Americas from 2015 to 2021. Before NYU, he taught at Hampshire College, where he was Five College Fellow, and at Duke University. His research in the areas of social movements, urban politics, and democratization has won support from the Social Science Research Council, the Ford and Mellon Foundations, and the American Historical Association, among others, and has appeared in journals including the Hispanic American Historical Review, the Latin American Research Review, Labor, and others. Velasco's first book Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela (University of California Press, 2015), won the 2016 Fernando Coronil Prize for best book on Venezuela, awarded biennially by the Section on Venezuelan Studies of the Latin American Studies Association. His teaching includes interdisciplinary courses on contemporary Latin America, among them seminars on human rights, cultural studies, and urban social movements; historical methods courses on 20th-century revolutions; graduate courses on urban political history and oral history; and workshops with primary and secondary school educators. A frequent media contributor, his editorials and analysis have appeared in NACLA, Nueva Sociedad, The Nation, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Current History, History News Network, BBC History Magazine, and others. Velasco also frequently contributes radio and television commentary in outlets including NPR, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, CBS, France 24, the BBC, and the CBC. On YOUTUBE.com/StandUpWithPete ON SubstackStandUpWithPete Listen rate and review on Apple Podcasts Listen rate and review on Spotify Pete On Instagram Pete on Blue Sky Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on Twitter Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page Gift a Subscription https://www.patreon.com/PeteDominick/gift Send Pete $ Directly on Venmo

FIRST SOLO EPISODE OF THE YEAR! LET'S DIVE INTO SOME REALITY TV HOT TOPICS!   Listen: it's the beginning of the new year, and we got PLENTY to talk about, INCLUDING: Porsha and Shamea BRAWLING, Simon Guobadia appreciating the WRONG year, Brit Eady left THAT MAN, Katie Rost is in “treatment,” Love Island USA's Nic targeted for a HIT (and an Etsy witch), Love Island All Stars cast revealed, and the latest Real Housewives of Potomac! BUT FIRST... STORY TIME! Download and listen today!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know I LOVE a good declutter sesh. Let me give you my BEST tips going into 2026! I GOT YOU!Let's be friends on Instagram! 

Don and Dude kick off a new year and a new series with the first “I Love the 80s” episode, zeroing in on 1980 as a hinge point between the shaggy experimentation of the 1970s and the sleeker, high-gloss sound that would define the decade. One host brings a Rock pick and the other counters with an R&B gem, sketching how guitars, grooves, and studio polish collided at the dawn of the 80s.The AlbumsGeorge Benson – Give Me the Night (1980) A sleek, radio-ready fusion of jazz, R&B, funk, and sophisticated pop that marks Benson's full crossover from respected jazz guitarist to smooth pop-soul star. Working with producer Quincy Jones and songwriter Rod Temperton, Benson wraps fluid guitar lines and intimate vocals around tight grooves, warm keys, and sparkling horns, creating a nocturnal soundtrack to city nightlife that helped shape early-80s quiet storm and smooth jazz.Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden (1980) A raw, fast, and street-level debut that helped launch the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, blending galloping bass lines, twin-guitar harmonies, and gritty, punk-leaning vocals. Recorded with minimal studio gloss, the album captures a young band playing loud and lean in smoke-filled pubs, turning dark urban tales, horror imagery, and medieval menace into a combustible new blueprint for 80s metal.Diggin' AlbumsGeese – Getting Killed (2025) A chaotic, inventive Brooklyn art-rock record produced by Kenny Beats, jumping from nervous, mathy rhythms to soulful swells and surreal lyrics, highlighting how adventurous guitar music still thrives in the streaming era.Prince – Dirty Mind (1980) A pivotal early statement from Prince that fuses stripped-down funk, new wave, and dance with provocatively frank lyrics, its raw, minimalist sound foreshadowing where 80s pop and R&B were headed.Donovan – what's a girl (2025) A long-shelved early-90s project finally released to celebrate Donovan's 60th anniversary, blending Gaelic romance, orchestral folk, grunge-leaning pop, and spoken poetry into a late-career “lost album” that reconnects him to his 60s roots.Cameron Crowe – The Uncool: A Memoir (2025) A long-awaited memoir tracing Crowe's teenage years as a rock journalist on the road with bands like Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, and David Bowie, revisiting the real-life stories that inspired Almost Famous while digging deeper into his family life and writing voice.Follow the show on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Bluesky @albumnerds, and support by subscribing, rating, reviewing, and sharing.“We are in a golden age of music. There will be a time when technology becomes so advanced that we'll rely on it to make music rather than raw talent, and music will lose its soul.” - Freddy Mercury

I LOVE the yearly tradition that consumes my garage fridge every winter. We call it Beervent, and it’s more than just a box filled with a different beer that I get to open each day – it’s a piece of the holidays that can’t be skipped. It starts my days (though… I don’t always get to drink the day’s beer until later), and I’m not sure that Christmas would feel right without it. For this year, I thought it’d be fun to chat about my favorites, to break down some themes, and to fill you in on WHY you need to get one for yourself next year! It’s a solo episode, with a can of Northern Row’s Hustler Helles… crack one open and enjoy it with me! This Episode’s Links Volume 8, Episode 12 – Higher Gravity Talks Beervent In July

Debra Meyerson and the “Slow Fall Off a Cliff”: Aphasia After Stroke, Identity, and What Recovery Really Means There are stroke stories that arrive like lightning. And then there are the ones that feel like a quiet, terrifying slide hour by hour until you wake up and everything is different. For Debra Meyerson (also known as Deborah), that difference had a name: “the slow fall off a cliff.” Her husband Steve describes watching the change unfold overnight in the hospital, neurological tests every hour, skills fading, the unknown getting heavier with each check-in. And the scariest part? Not knowing where the bottom was. This episode isn't only about what Debra lost. It's about what she rebuilt with aphasia, with grief, with a fierce independence that made asking for help its own mountain, and with a new definition of recovery that doesn't depend on going back in time. When Stroke Doesn't “Hit”… It Develops One of the most jarring elements of Debra's experience was the way the stroke revealed itself. Steve shares that Debra left the emergency room still talking, slurring a little, but still planning. Still believing she'd be back teaching soon. Then the overnight monitoring began, and the decline became visible. From midnight to morning, her movement and speech changed dramatically. By morning, she couldn't move her right side. And she couldn't make a sound. That's what makes Debra's phrase so powerful: it captures the reality many survivors and families live through, watching ability disappear in stages, not all at once. It's not just a medical event. It's an emotional one. And it changes how you experience time. The mind starts bargaining. The heart starts bracing. The body is suddenly not predictable anymore. The Hidden Clue: Dissection, Headaches, and Near-Misses Debra's stroke was ischemic, but the cause wasn't a typical blood clot. Steve explains that it was due to a dissection, a tear in the inner wall of an artery. In the months leading up to the stroke, there were warning signs: severe headaches episodes where she nearly lost consciousness a moment where she told their son, “I think I'm having a stroke,” but the symptoms resolved before EMS arrived Steve describes a likely “opening and closing” pattern of temporary interruptions to blood flow that didn't show up clearly during exams because, in the moment, she appeared okay. This is one reason caregivers can feel so haunted after the fact: you did the right things, you sought help, you went to specialists… and the stroke still happened. That's not failure. That's reality. 20230922-GSE headshots at CERAS building in Stanford, CA Aphasia After Stroke: When Words Don't Do What You Want Aphasia isn't one experience. It's a spectrum, and Debra's challenge is word-finding, both in speaking and writing. When Bill asks whether writing is easier than speaking, Debra's answer is simple and blunt: it's hard either way. She also notes that dictation isn't a shortcut. What makes Debra's story especially moving is how Steve describes the long arc of speech returning: weeks before she could even form sounds a month or two before repeating words then, months later, the first original word that made it out unprompted, not as an exercise It happened during a normal moment at a table with family, searching for the name of the pig from a movie no one could remember. And Debra suddenly blurted out: “Babe.” It might sound small to someone who's never experienced aphasia. But for anyone who has, or for anyone who's loved someone through it, that moment is enormous. It's proof that the brain is still reaching for language. Proof that the person is still in there, still trying to connect. And yes, Steve mentions melodic intonation therapy, a method that attempts to engage the brain's musical/singing pathways to support speech. Debra's improvement, even years later, is described as gradual marginal gains that add up over time. The Identity Problem Nobody Prepares You For When Bill asks what part of her old identity was hardest to let go, Debra points to the heart of it: Stanford professor athlete fiercely independent skiing (a love that mattered deeply) the ability to do life without needing so much help This is the part many survivors don't see coming: you're not only recovering movement or speech. You're grieving a version of yourself that once felt automatic. And that grief can be complicated, because you might still look like you. Inside, everything is renegotiated. This is where Debra and Steve offer something that can change the trajectory of recovery: adaptation instead of abandonment. Debra couldn't ride a single bike anymore, but they began riding a tandem, and it became the thing they could do together vigorously, something athletic, meaningful, and shared. Not the same. But real. Cycles of Grief: Joy Can Trigger Loss Debra describes grief as something that shows up constantly, “every day… every hour.” Steve offers a powerful example: becoming grandparents. Debra was ecstatic. Over the moon. And then, the next morning, she was furious, spring-loaded into a bad mood, snapping at everything. Why? Because beneath the joy was a private inventory of what she couldn't do: hold the baby safely change a diaper be alone with their grandson the way she wanted to be chase a toddler the way she imagined This is what “cycles of grief” looks like. Not sadness replacing joy. Sadness sitting next to joy. And if survivors don't understand that's normal, they can interpret it as brokenness or failure. It's not. It's grief doing what grief does: reminding you of what mattered. The Care Partner Trap: Guilt, Burnout, and the “Fix It” Reflex Care partners often disappear inside the role. Steve names a different approach, one supported early by friends who told him plainly: if you don't take care of yourself, you're no use to Deb. So he set priorities: exercise eating well sleeping well He also acknowledges how support made that possible: family help, flexible work, and friends showing up. Then comes a line that many couples will recognize immediately: toxic positivity. Steve admits he struggles with sadness; he tends to solve problems, cheer people up, and push toward the bright side. But Debra doesn't always want to be talked out of it. Sometimes she needs space to grieve without being “fixed.” That's the lesson: Support isn't always uplifting someone. Sometimes support is staying present while they feel what they feel. “True Recovery Is Creating a Life of Meaning” Debra's philosophy shows up in the opening of her book and in the arc of this conversation: “True recovery is creating a life of meaning.” At first, recovery was about returning to who she used to be, therapy, effort, pushing hard. Then something shifted: writing a book became a turning point. It helped her stop using her old identity as the measuring stick and start asking a new question: “How do I rebuild a life I can feel good about with the cards I've been dealt?” That idea is the bridge for so many survivors: You don't have to pretend you're fine. You don't have to deny what you lost. But you also don't have to wait for a full return to start living again. Debra Meyerson: Aphasia After Stroke Interview Debra Meyerson's “slow fall off a cliff” stroke led to aphasia, grief, and a new definition of recovery: rebuilding identity with meaning. Stroke Onward: InstagramX.COMFacebookLinkedInYouTubeTikTokVimeo Debra Meyerson X.COMLinkedInFacebookInstagramSteve:LinkedIn Highlights: 00:00 Introduction and Background06:11 The Experience of a Stroke: A Slow Fall Off a Cliff22:45 Navigating Caregiving: Balancing Needs and Support32:01 Understanding Aphasia: A Spectrum of Experiences43:05 The Importance of Sadness in Healing50:08 Finding Purpose Through Advocacy53:31 Building the Stroke Onward Foundation57:12 Advice for New Stroke Survivors Transcript: Introduction and Background –  Steve Zuckerman and Debra Meyerson Bill Gasiamis (00:00)Welcome to the recovery after stroke podcast. name is Bill. And if you’re a stroke survivor or you love someone who is you’re in the right place before we begin a genuine thank you to my Patreon supporters. After more than 10 years of hosting this show solo, your support helps cover the costs of keeping it online and helps me keep showing up for stroke survivors who need hope and direction. And thank you to everyone who supports the show in the simple ways to YouTube comments, Spotify, Apple reviews. people who’ve grabbed my book, and even those who stick around and don’t skip the ads. It all matters more than you know. Today you’re going to meet Deborah Meyerson and her husband, Steve Zuckerman. Deborah describes her stroke as a slow fall off a cliff. And that phrase captures something so many stroke survivors experience but struggle to explain. We talk about aphasia after stroke, word finding. The moment a single word returned and what happens when recovery stops meaning going back and starts meaning rebuilding a life you can actually feel proud of. Deborah and Steve Myerson. Welcome to the podcast. Debra and Steve (01:08)Steve Zuckerman That’s okay. I don’t mind being Mr. Meyerson from time to time. Bill Gasiamis (01:17)Steve Zuckerman, of course. I mean, I’ve seen it on every email. I’ve seen it on every conversation we’ve had, but that’s okay. I mean, you’ve probably been called worst, Steve. Debra and Steve (01:29)Absolutely, much worse. Bill Gasiamis (01:32)Debra, before the stroke, how would you have described yourself professionally, socially and personally? Debra and Steve (01:39)Outgoing, social, comfortable, no time to to to other’s time. Not taking up other people’s time? Yes. In contrast to me. Bill Gasiamis (01:59)Yes, David, you’re very needy. Debra and Steve (02:02)Yeah, and ⁓ yeah, it’s really outgoing. Bill Gasiamis (02:09)Outgoing, yeah, fantastic. Debra and Steve (02:11)I’ll add, because you didn’t say it, a incredibly hardworking, self-demanding professional for whom good was never good enough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Bill Gasiamis (02:23)perfectionist. Fair enough Steve. What roles defined you back then? you’re a partner, you’re a father. How did you go about your day? Debra and Steve (02:37)I mean, I think, you know, very similar to Deb, we were both hard driving professionals who had serious careers. We had three kids that we were raising together and both took parenting very seriously. So worked really hard, you know, to not travel at the same time, to be home for dinner, ⁓ to be at sports games. And we were both very athletic. So both things we did together and things we did separately. I think, you know, before Deb’s stroke, most of our time and attention was focused on career and family and, you know, sort of friends were a third, but, ⁓ staying healthy and staying fit. So those were kind of all parts of, I think, who we both were. met mother, ⁓ athletic sailor, biker, ⁓ ⁓ family is first in academics. Bill Gasiamis (03:44)and academic and what field were you guys working in? Debra and Steve (03:48)No, am a, Steve is not academic. I am an academic. ⁓ Deb was, you know, immediately before the stroke. Deb was a tenured professor at Stanford. She had had lots of other academic jobs before that. ⁓ We met when I was in grad school for an MBA and Deb was getting her PhD. ⁓ So, you know, she is lot smarter than I am and was willing to work a lot harder academically than I ever was. ⁓ I’ve bounced back and forth between kind of nonprofit roles, nonprofit management roles, and a career in finance and business. So I sort of… have moved back and forth between for-profit and not-for-profit, but always sort of on the business side of things. Bill Gasiamis (04:50)often say when people meet my wife, Christine, for the first time and we talk about what we do and the things that we say. I always say to people that between me and my wife, we have four degrees. And then I qualify that. say, she has four and I have zero. And ⁓ she has a master’s in psychology, but ⁓ I never went to university. I never did any of that stuff. Debra and Steve (05:10)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (05:19)So it’s very interesting to meet somebody who’s very academic and to be a part of her life when she’s in the study zone. my gosh, like I have never studied that much, that intensely, that hard for anything. And it’s a sight to behold. And I’m not sure how people go through all the academic side, all the requirements. And then also Deb, being a mom, being a friend. being active in your community and doing all the things that you do. I just don’t know how people fit it in. So it’s a fascinating thing to experience and then to observe other people go through. Debra and Steve (05:57)It’s really that we had really a lot of time to talk. It was a full life. Debra Meyerson – The Experience of a Stroke: A Slow Fall Off a Cliff Bill Gasiamis (06:11)Yeah, fantastic. What you did, Deb has described the ⁓ stroke as a slow fall off a cliff. What did it actually feel like in the first moments that the stroke happened? Debra and Steve (06:28)Two weeks after my stroke, I am going to the, back to the classroom. I am really not aware of the damage. So right at the outset, Deb was kind of in denial. As the symptoms were first starting to set in, she was still talking about you know, okay, this is annoying, but in three weeks I’m starting the semester ⁓ and genuinely believed she would. actually the slow fall off a cliff was really how I described the first full night in the hospital. This was in Reno, Nevada. ⁓ And Deb sort of left the emergency room talking. slurring her words a little bit, but talking about how she was going to be back in the classroom. And then over the course of that night, from midnight to eight in the morning, they woke her every hour to do a neurological test, you move your arm, move your leg, point to this, you know, say this word and just her skills got worse and worse and worse. And in the morning, She couldn’t move her right side at all and couldn’t make a sound. And that was the, that’s what we called the slow fall off the cliff because we knew at midnight that there was significant brain damage, but we didn’t see the ramifications of that damage. sort of happened over that eight hour period. ⁓ that Deb really wasn’t aware of any of that. was. you know, kind of her brain was in survival mode. ⁓ But for myself and our oldest son, Danny, you know, that was sort of a feeling of helplessness. was watching the person you love kind of fade away or the capabilities fade away. And we didn’t know how low the bottom would be ⁓ without being able to do anything. Bill Gasiamis (08:53)Is there an explanation for that? Now, obviously Deb had a stroke, so that’s the overarching issue, the problem. But I’ve had a lot of stroke survivors explain their symptoms in that slow onset ⁓ situation, whereas mine were just there. I had a blade in my brain, the symptoms were there. Another person ⁓ had an ischemic stroke, bang, the symptoms were there. So why does it take so long for some people to, for the symptoms to develop? Debra and Steve (09:25)I had a dissection five months ago for this stroke. I had really bad headaches. Yeah, so five, six months before Deb’s stroke, she was having bad headaches. She had two episodes where she kind of almost lost consciousness. And one of them, she actually said to our son, call dad, I think I’m having a stroke. And by the time the EMS got there, she was fine. ⁓ Her stroke, it turned out was caused by a dissection, which is a tear. in the inner wall of the artery. So in some ways it’s like a blood clot. It is an ischemic stroke because it’s the blockage of blood flow. But unlike most ischemic strokes, it’s not because of a blood clot. It’s because of this flap of, it’s not biologically skin, but it’s like a flap of skin coming across and blocking off the blood flow. And what they think happened, and it’s really just educated guessing, is that for that six month period, the flap was there, but it kind of kept opening, closing, opening, closing. So she’d have temporary loss of blood flow to the brain, but not permanent loss. Bill Gasiamis (11:04)We’ll be back with more of Deborah Meyers’ remarkable story in just a moment, but I wanna pause here because what Deborah and Steve are describing is something a lot of us live with quietly. That feeling, you can be having a good moment and then grief shows up out of nowhere, or you’re working so hard to stay positive and it starts to feel like pressure instead of support. In the second half, we’ll go deeper into the cycles of grief. the trap of toxic positivity and the shift that changed everything for Deborah when she stopped measuring recovery by who she used to be and started rebuilding identity with meaning. If this podcast has helped you feel less alone, you can support it by sharing this episode with one person who needs it, leaving a comment or subscribing wherever you’re watching or listening. All right, back to Deborah and Steve. Debra and Steve (11:58)And when she had those two events, it was probably stayed closed a little bit longer, but then opened up. But she had a scan, she went to neurologists and because every time she was examined, it was okay. They didn’t find the problem. And then when she had the stroke, it was a permanent blockage that just didn’t open back up again. And Your question is a great one that I’ve never asked. I don’t know why, because what they told us was we can see the damage to the brain. The brain has been damaged. They can tell that on the scan, but that the impact of that damage, how it will affect your motion and your speech will play out over time. And I don’t know why that was true for Deb, whereas, as you say, for some people, it seems like the impact is immediate. And that’s a, that’s a good one. I’m going to, I’m going to Try to research that a little bit. Bill Gasiamis (12:58)That’s just a curious thing, isn’t it? to sort of understand the difference between one and the other. I’m not sure whether if we find out what the difference is, whether there’s say something that a stroke survivor listening can do or a caregiver can do in that situation, like what can be done? How can it be resolved? Maybe different steps that we need to take. I don’t know, but I’d love to know if there was a doctor or a neurologist or somebody who might be able to answer that. Maybe we need to find someone. Debra and Steve (13:29)The doctor and the neurologist didn’t see it. Yeah, in the period before the stroke, they didn’t see it. While we were in the hospital when the stroke was happening, what they told us was at that point, there really wasn’t anything that could be done. The damage was done. So no intervention. would lessen the damage. ⁓ again, we are far from doctors. So there’s a lot about that that we don’t know. Bill Gasiamis (14:08)understood. Deb, what part of your old identity was the hardest to let go? Debra and Steve (14:14)The Stanford professor, athlete, had really a lot of… One hand is so difficult and independent person. Bill Gasiamis (14:33)Yeah. Debra and Steve (14:34)I am, skiing is so, I really love to ski and I am not, I am really not able to ski. Bill Gasiamis (14:52)understood so you were a professor, you were independent, you were physically active and all that stuff has had to stop happening at this point in time. Debra and Steve (15:03)I am the…striking…crossing…cycling…we are the…the…Sieve and I… Bill Gasiamis (15:19)You guys used to do something tandem. Debra and Steve (15:21)Yes, a lot of time in the stroke across America. Well, so I think we’re sort of answering a couple of different questions at the same time. I think what Deb was saying was early on, kind of in that first three or four years, she really, you know, was giving up her role as a Stanford professor, giving up skiing, cycling, sailing, and just the… not being a fully independent person needing so much help. That was really a lot of the struggle early on. Deb did return to a lot of those things. And that was a big part of the recovery process was realizing that she may not be able to do them the same way she used to, but there were a lot of different things. And then the cycling, Deb can’t ride a single bike, but we started riding a tandem. And that adaptation has proven really important for us because it’s, it’s the thing we can now do together vigorously for long periods of time. That is really a, a sport that we can do together, ⁓ and love. And so that that’s really been a, an adaptive way to get back to something, not exactly the same way as she used to do it before the stroke, but in a way that is very meaningful. Bill Gasiamis (16:46)A lot of stroke survivors tend to have trouble with letting go of their old identity in that they feel like they need to completely pause it and put the whole identity aside rather than adapt it and change it so that you bring over the parts that you can and you make the most of them, know. And adaptive sport is the perfect way. You see a lot of people in the Paralympics becoming gold medalists after they’ve been injured. a sports person before their injury and now all of a sudden they’re champion gold medal winning athletes because they decided to adapt and find another way to participate. And that’s what I love about what you guys just said. That’s still able to meet the needs of that identity, but in a slightly different way. What about you, Steve? Like when Deb goes through a difficult time and she has a stroke and then you guys come home from hospital, you’re dealing with, ⁓ well, all the changes in your life as well because you become a care, while you guys describe it as a care partner, we’ll talk about that in a moment. But as a care partner, ⁓ how do you go about doing that without, and also at the same time, protecting a little bit of your needs and making sure that your needs are met? Because a lot of caregivers, care partners, put all their needs aside and then they make it about the person who is ⁓ recovering from stroke. And then it leads to two people becoming unwell in different ways. One potentially emotionally, mentally, and the other person physically and all the other things that stroke does. Debra and Steve (18:36)Yeah, I mean, I think, um, Kyle was lucky in a couple of ways. One, a very close friend very early on who had been through similar situations said, you know, don’t forget, you’ve got to take care of yourself. If you don’t, you’re of no use to Deb. And so from the very beginning, I had people reminding me. I also had a ton of support in supporting Deb. Deb’s mom, you know, came up and lived with us for six months. ⁓ So I could go back to work a lot sooner than I otherwise would have been able to go back to work. And I was fortunate that my job was fairly flexible. ⁓ But, you know, I loved my work and it meant I wasn’t focused on the caregiving or care partnering aspects of my role 24 seven. I got to go do something else independently. ⁓ We also had a lot of friends lend support as well. So, you know, I think I basically said, I’ve got to organize around supporting Deb, no question about it. But with guidance from friends, I sort of said, okay, my three priorities are going to be exercising, eating well, and sleeping well. And I really just set those out as my goals and I created ways to do that. wall and that was sort of my physical health but also my mental health. And so, you know, sort of a problem solver and compartmentalizer by nature. So I guess maybe I was lucky that dividing up those roles was a little more natural to me than maybe it is for others. But it also took, you know, took deliberate choice to make sure not to let myself get sucked so far into the caring piece. that I got in healthy and was lucky enough to have support so that I was able to not let that happen. Bill Gasiamis (20:42)Yeah, a lot of people feel guilt like this unnecessary guilt that, I can’t leave that person alone or I can’t ⁓ look after myself or take some time to myself because the other person needs me more than I need me. And that’s an interesting thing to experience people talk about in the caregiver role where they become so overwhelmed with the need to help support the other person that they… ⁓ that they have guilt any time that they step away and allocate some care to themselves. They see caring as a role that they play, not as a thing that they also need to practice. Debra and Steve (21:29)Yeah, yeah. Well, I think I was also lucky because Deb is so fiercely independent that she wanted as little help as she could possibly get away with. So ⁓ she was not the kind of stroke survivor that was sort of getting mad when I walked out of the room. It was like she was trying to kick me out of the room at times that I shouldn’t leave the room. And so, you know, again, ⁓ Deb was not a demanding, again, she just wanted as little help as she could possibly survive with. And that probably made it easier for me to not feel guilty because it’s like, well, that’s what she wants. She wants me to get out of here as long as she was safe. Navigating Caregiving: Balancing Needs and Support Bill Gasiamis (22:16)That mindset is a really useful one. It makes it possible for people to activate neural plasticity in the most ⁓ positive way. Because some people don’t realize that when it’s hard to do something and then the easier thing is to say, Steve, can you go get me that or can you do this for me? That neural plasticity is also activated, but in a negative way. ⁓ How does your recovery or your definition of recovery evolve over time? How did it change over time? Debra and Steve (22:57)⁓ How did how you think about recovery change over time? The realizing I had to build realizing I had the of my identity and my life. The same past and writing a book. ⁓ Three, four years ago, four years after my stroke, really, well, ⁓ I am really, I am so committed to doing the best. No. I mean, you know, the first three or four years after Deb’s stroke, it really was all about trying to get back to who she used to be. Therapy, therapy, therapy, therapy, therapy, work hard, we’ll get back to life as we do it. And when Deb said, when she lost tenure and said she wanted to write a book, I thought she was nuts. was like, you know, her speech wasn’t as good then as it is now. you I was at her side when she wrote her first academic book and that was brutal and she didn’t have aphasia. So I was like, I really thought she was nuts. But in hindsight, it really was that process of writing a book that got her to turn her knowledge about identity onto herself. that really changed her view of what recovery meant. She sort of started to let go of recovery means getting back to everything I used to be doing and recovery means how do I rebuild an identity that I can feel good about? May not be the one I’d ideally want, but in the face of my disabilities, how do I rebuild that identity so that I can rebuild a good and purposeful and meaningful life? that really was an evolution for both of us. over the five-year book writing period. I sometimes say it was the longest, cheapest therapy session we could have gotten because it really was that kind of therapeutic journey for us. And really a lot of the 25 people are in the book and the friends and colleagues are in the book, really a lot of the colleagues. Deb was a social scientist and a researcher and she didn’t want to write a memoir. She wanted to write a research book. It has elements of a memoir because her story and our story is threaded throughout. But, you know, we learned so much from the interviews Deb did and and I was not involved in the interviewing process, but having that diversity of stories and understanding some of the things that were very common for stroke survivors and other things that were so different from survivor to survivor helped her, helped us on our journey. So that book writing process had so many benefits. Bill Gasiamis (26:49)Very therapeutic, isn’t it? I went on a similar journey with my book when I wrote it and it was about, again, sharing other people’s stories, a little bit about mine, but sharing what we had in common, know, how did we all kind of work down this path of being able to say later on that stroke was the best thing that happened. Clearly not from a health perspective or from a ⁓ life, ⁓ you know. the risk of life perspective, from a growth perspective, from this ability to be able to ⁓ look at the situation and try and work out like, is there any silver linings? What are the silver linings? And I get a sense that you guys are, your idea of the book was in a similar nature. Do you guys happen to have a copy of the book there? Debra and Steve (27:39)Yes. Of course. Don’t we have it everywhere? Bill Gasiamis (27:42)Yeah, I hope so. Identity theft, yep. I’ve got my copy here somewhere as well. Now, how come I didn’t bring it to the desk? One second, let me bring mine. Yes. There you go, there’s mine as well. I’ve got it here as well. So it’s a really lovely book. ⁓ Hard copy. ⁓ Debra and Steve (27:52)Yeah. You must have the first edition not the second edition. Because we didn’t print the second edition in hard copy so it’s not a white cover can’t tell in the photo. Bill Gasiamis (28:07)okay, that’s why. That is a blue cover. Debra and Steve (28:17)⁓ No, the paper cover on the front. Bill Gasiamis (28:20)The paper cover is a white cover. Debra and Steve (28:22)Yeah. So that’s actually the first edition of the book that came out in 2019. And then the second edition just came out about two months ago. ⁓ And they are largely the same. But the second edition has a new preface that sort of, because we wrote that in 2019 and then had five years of working on Stroke Onward and learning more, we kind of brought our story up to 2020. 2024 and then two chapters at the end, one with some of the insights we’ve learned ⁓ kind of since writing the first book and a final chapter about what we think might need to change in the US healthcare system to better support stroke survivors. So we’ll have to get you a copy of the new one. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (29:13)Yeah, why not? Signed copy, thank you very much. ⁓ Debra and Steve (29:15)Yeah, and the Julia Wieland. ⁓ It’s available on audiobook as well via, we were fortunate to be able to work with a great narrator named Julia Wieland, who’s an award winning audiobook narrator and actually has a business called Audio Brary that she started to really honor narrators and help promote the narrating of audio. the narrators of audio books. ⁓ well, make sure you send us an email with the right mailing address and we’ll get you new copy. Bill Gasiamis (29:55)Yeah, that’d be lovely. So what I’ll do also is on the show notes, there’ll be all the links for where people can buy the book, right? We won’t need to talk about that. We’ll just ensure that they’re included on the show notes. I love the opening page in the book. ⁓ It’s written, I imagine, I believe that’s Deborah’s writing. Debra and Steve (30:14)⁓ yeah, yeah. yes, we have a signed copy of the first edition. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (30:20)So it says true recovery is creating a life of meaning. Deborah Meyerson. Yeah, you guys sent me that quite a while ago. By the time we actually connected, so much time had passed. There was a lot of people involved in getting us together. And you know, I’m a stroke survivor too. So things slipped my mind and we began this conversation to try and get together literally, I think about a year earlier. So I love that I have this. this copy and I’m looking forward to the updated one. ⁓ And it’s just great that one of the first things that Deb decided to do was write a book after all the troubles. Now your particular aphasia Deb, I’m wondering is that also, does that make it difficult for you to get words out of your head in your writing as well and typing? Debra and Steve (31:13)Yes, dictation is my dictation. It’s so hard. Speaking and writing isn’t the same. Bill Gasiamis (31:31)Speaking and writing is the same kind of level of difficulty. Understanding Aphasia: A Spectrum of Experiences Debra and Steve (31:35)Yeah, and the ⁓ other survivors in aphasia didn’t, Michael is. Want me to help? Yeah. Yeah, just that, and I think you know that there are so many different ways aphasia manifests itself and word finding is Deb’s challenge and it’s true whether she’s speaking or writing. other people and a guy who rode cross country with us, Michael Obellomiya, he has fluent aphasia. So he speaks very fluently, but sometimes the words that come out aren’t what he means them to be. So the meaning of what he says, even though he says it very fluently, and he also has, I think, some degree of receptive aphasia so that he hears what people are saying, but sometimes the instruction or the detail doesn’t. register for him and so aphasia can be very very different for different people. Bill Gasiamis (32:37)Yeah, there’s definitely a spectrum of aphasia. then sometimes I get to interview people really early on in their journey with aphasia and, ⁓ and speech is extremely difficult. And then later on, if I meet them again, a few years down the track, they have ⁓ an improvement somewhat. ⁓ perhaps there’s still some difficulty there, but they can often improve. ⁓ how much different was the Debra and Steve (33:08)15 years ago? I don’t know speech at all. Bill Gasiamis (33:23)No speech at all. Debra and Steve (33:24)Yeah. So Deb, it took several weeks for her to even be able to create sounds, maybe a month or two before she was sort of repeating words. ⁓ We have a great story of the first time Deb actually produced a word out of her brain. So it wasn’t an answer to a question or a therapy exercise. but we were sitting around a table and a bunch of people who hadn’t had strokes were saying, what’s that? No, my family. Yeah, with your brother. No, our family. Yeah. Danny and… Okay, anyway. We were talking about, what was that movie where the guy trained a pig to… do a dog show and what was the pig’s name and none of us could remember it and Deb just blurted out, babe. And it was like we started screaming and shouting because it was the first time that something that started as an original thought in her head actually got out. And that was like four months after her stroke. ⁓ A year after her stroke, it was really just isolated words. ⁓ She then did a clinical trial with something called melodic intonation, a kind of speech therapy that tries to tap into the other side of the brain, the singing side of the brain. And then I would say, you know, it’s been, mean, Deb’s speech is still getting better. So it’s just marginal improvement ⁓ over time. Bill Gasiamis (35:10)Yeah, Deb, what parts of Professor Deborah Meyerson remain and what’s entirely new now? Debra and Steve (35:19)⁓ The sharing knowledge and trading knowledge is the same. The new is how I do it. More constraints, I need help. really help and I am so bad at asking. Really bad at asking. I have really a lot of phases of classes and Ballroom classes, you know ballroom dancing. Yeah, no In the work we do Deb’s favorite thing to do is to teach so we’ve been invited, you know ⁓ Quite a few speech therapists in the United States are using identity theft as part of the curriculum in their aphasia course in the speech language pathology programs Bill Gasiamis (36:28)So speaker-2 (36:28)I’ll be. Debra and Steve (36:48)⁓ and we’ve been invited to visit and talk in classes. And Deb just loves that because it’s back to sharing knowledge. It’s a different kind of knowledge. It’s not about the work she did before her stroke, but it’s about the work and the life experience since. that is still, Professor Deb is still very much with us. Bill Gasiamis (37:14)Yeah, Professor Deb, fiercely independent, ⁓ doesn’t like to ask for help, ⁓ still prefers to kind of battle on and get things done as much as possible and suffer through the difficulty of that and then eventually ask for help. Do you kind of eventually? Debra and Steve (37:32)Yeah, yeah, you skipped the part about correcting everything her husband says. That’s not quite exactly right. Bill Gasiamis (37:40)Well, that’s part of the course there, Steve. That’s exactly how it’s meant to be. And you should be better at being more accurate with what you have to say. Debra and Steve (37:49)I thought we’d be on the same side on this one. Bill Gasiamis (37:53)Sometimes, sometimes as a host, you know, I have to pick my hero and as a husband, I truly and totally get you. Deb, you describe experiencing cycles of grief. ⁓ What does that actually look like in a day-to-day life now? And I kind of get a sense of what cycles of grief would mean, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, your version of what that means. Debra and Steve (38:22)Every day, hour every day, small ways and big ways. Like one year ago, Well, grandmothers. Can I correct you? It was 16 months ago. I’m going to get her back. Yeah. That’s what she does to me all the time. I am really happy. Make sure you explain. don’t know if they would have caught what it was that made you so happy. Grandmother. Sarah, Danny and Vivian. I know, you don’t have to tell me. Just that we became grandparents for the first time. And Deb was ecstatic. I am so happy and also really frustrated. And I don’t… crawling… no. You want me to help? I mean, you know, it’s sort of the day we got there, the day after the baby was born in New York and Deb was over the moon and the next morning… We were walking back to the hospital and Deb was just spring-loaded to the pissed off position. She was getting mad at me for everything and anything and she was clearly in an unbelievably bad mood. And when I could finally get her to say what was wrong, it was that she had been playing all night and all morning all the ways in which she couldn’t be the grandmother she wanted to be. She couldn’t hold the baby. She couldn’t change a diaper. She couldn’t, you know, spell the kids later on to give them a break by herself because she wouldn’t be able to chase no one is our grandson around. And so she had had really kind of gone into grieving about what she had lost just in the moment when she was experiencing the greatest joy in her life. And that’s an extreme example of a cycle of grief. And but it happens, as Deb was saying, it happens. every hour, maybe three times an hour where you’re doing something that’s good, but then it reminds you of how you used to do that same thing. so, you know, when we talk about and write about cycles of grief, it’s the importance of giving yourself that space to grieve because it’s human. You lost something important and it’s human to let yourself acknowledge that. But then how do you get through that and get back to the good part and not let that grief trap you? And that story from 16 months ago in New York is sort of the, that’s the poster child, but it happens in big ways and small ways every day, 10 times a day. Bill Gasiamis (42:00)Sadness is a thing that happens to people all the time and it’s about knowing how to navigate it. And I think people generally lack the tools to navigate sadness. They lack the tools to ⁓ deal with it, to know what to do with it. But I think there needs to be some kind of information put out there. Like you’re sad. Okay. So what does it mean? What can it mean? What can you do with it? How can you transform it? Is it okay to sit in it? ⁓ What have you guys learned about the need for sadness in healing? Debra and Steve (42:35)grief and sadness is so important and through the really once it’s an hour. The Importance of Sadness in Healing From my perspective, I have learned a ton about sadness because I don’t have a good relationship with sadness. In most cases, it’s a great thing. just, you know, I’m a cup is nine tenths full person all the time and I tend to see the positive and that’s often very good. But it makes it really hard for me to live with other people’s sadness without trying to solve the problem. Bill Gasiamis (43:12)Hmm. Debra and Steve (43:35)And we actually came up with a phrase because sometimes if I get positive when Deb is sad, it just pisses her off. She doesn’t want to be talked out of it. And so we now talk about that dynamic as toxic positivity because, you know, most people think of positivity as such a positive thing. And yet If someone needs to just live in sadness for a little while, positivity can be really toxic. And I think that’s been my greatest learning, maybe growth is sort of understanding that better. I still fall into the trap all the time. devil tell you there are way too many times when, you know, my attempts to cheer her up are not welcomed. but at least I’m aware of it now. ⁓ And a little less likely to go there quite as quickly. Bill Gasiamis (44:38)Hmm. What I, what I noticed when people were coming to see me is that it was about them. They would come to see me about them. It wasn’t about me and what they made them do. What made what their instinct was, was to, if I felt better, they felt better and all they wanted to do was feel better and not be uncomfortable and not be struggling in their own ⁓ mind about what it’s like. to visit Bill who’s unwell. And that was the interesting part. It’s like, no, no, I am feeling unwell. I am going to remain feeling unwell. And your problem with it is your problem with it. You need to deal with how you feel about me feeling unwell. And I appreciate the empathy, the sympathy, the care I do. But actually, when you visit me, it shouldn’t be about you. It shouldn’t be, I’m gonna go and visit Bill. and I hope he’s well because I don’t want to experience him being unwell. It should be about you’re just gonna go visit Bill however you find him, whatever state he’s in, whatever condition he’s in, and therefore ⁓ that I think creates an opportunity for growth and that person needs to consider how they need to grow to adapt to this new relationship that they have with Bill. ⁓ which is based now around Bill’s challenges, Bill’s problems, Bill’s surgery, Bill’s pos- the possibility that Bill won’t be around in a few months or whatever. Do you know what I mean? So it’s like, ⁓ all, all the, ⁓ the well-meaning part of it is well received, but then it’s about everyone has a, has to step up and experience growth in this new relationship that we have. And some people are not willing to do it and then they don’t come at all. They’re the people who I find other most interesting and maybe ⁓ the most follow their instincts better than everybody where they might go, well, I’m going to go and say, Bill, he’s all messed up. ⁓ I don’t know how I’m going to deal with that. can’t cope with that. And rather than going there and being a party pooper or not knowing what to say or saying the wrong thing, maybe I won’t go at all. And they kind of create space. Debra and Steve (46:58)So. Bill Gasiamis (47:01)for your recovery to happen without you having to experience their version of it. Debra and Steve (47:09)Yeah, that’s it. That’s really interesting to hear you talk about it that way. And I would say very generous to hear you talk about it that way, because most of the time when we’ve heard people talk about it’s that because people talk about the fact that because other people don’t know what to say, they don’t say anything or they don’t come. But that then creates an isolation that’s unwanted. You’re talking about it as a, maybe that’s a good thing. They’re giving me space, given their skill or willingness to deal with it. Whereas I think a lot of people feel that when people just disappear because they don’t know what to say, that’s a lack of caring and a lack of engagement. ⁓ interesting to hear your take on it. think there’s a close cousin to this that Deb felt very intensely is that some people in the attempt to be understanding and supportive really took on an air of pity. And that there were some people that that we had to ask not to come if they couldn’t change how they were relating to Deb because it was such a like, ⁓ you poor thing that was incredibly disempowering. Whereas there were other people who had the skill to be empathetic in a supportive way. And so, I mean, in some ways, I think we’ve learned a lot, not that we necessarily do it right all the time, but we’ve learned a lot about how to try to support other people by what has and hasn’t worked in supporting us. Bill Gasiamis (49:20)Yeah, it’s a deeply interesting conversation because people get offended when they need people the most that don’t turn up. And I, and I understand that part of it as well. And then in, in time, ⁓ I was, I was like that at the beginning, but then in time, I kind of realized that, okay, this is actually not about me. It’s about them. They’re the ones struggling with my condition. They don’t know how to be. And maybe it’s okay for them. not to be around me because I wouldn’t be able to deal with their energy anyway. ⁓ yeah. So Deb, what made you turn to advocacy? What made you decide that you’re gonna be an advocate in this space? Finding Purpose Through Advocacy Debra and Steve (50:08)⁓ Feeling purpose and meaning. Survivors? Yes. And caregivers? Yes. Really a lot of risky is really… ⁓ medical, medical. Yeah. I mean, I I, I know what Deb is trying to say, which is, you know, once she got past the life threatening part and kind of on her way and was relatively independent, she was drawn back to saying, I want to live a life that has meaning and purpose. And so how in this new state, can I do that? And Deb, as I’m sure you know by now, doesn’t think small, she thinks big. And so what she’s saying is, yes, I want to help other people, other survivors, other care partners, but really we need a better system. Like I can only help so many people by myself, but if we can actually advocate for a better healthcare system in the United States that treats stroke differently. then maybe we can make a difference for a lot of people. that’s kind of the journey we’re on now. the survivors and caregivers, advocacy is so important to California or even the state. Building the Stroke Onward Foundation Bill Gasiamis (52:05)Yeah, advocacy is very important ⁓ and I love that I Love that you become an advocate and then you find your purpose and your meaning you don’t set out to Find your purpose and your meaning and then think what should I do to find my purpose of my meaning it tends to catch Catch go around the other way. I’m gonna go and help other people and then all of a sudden it’s like, ⁓ this is really meaningful I’m enjoying doing this and raising awareness about that condition that we’ve experienced and the challenges that we are facing. And wow, why don’t we make a change on a as big a scale as possible? Why don’t we try to influence the system to take a different approach because it’s maybe missing something that we see because we’re in a different, we have a different perspective than the people who are providing the healthcare, even though they’ve got a very big kind of, you know, their purpose is to help people as well. their perspective comes from a different angle and lived experience, I think is tremendously important and ⁓ missed and it’s a big missed opportunity if ⁓ lived experience is not part of that defining of how to offer services to people experiencing or recovering a stroke or how to support people after they’ve experienced or recovering from a stroke. ⁓ I love that. So that led you guys to develop the foundation, stroke onward. it a foundation? it a, tell us a little bit about stroke onward. Debra and Steve (53:42)In US jargon, we’d call it a nonprofit. Generally, foundations are entities that have a big endowment and give money away. We wish we had a big endowment, but we don’t. We need to find people who want to support our work and make donations to our nonprofit. And yeah, we now have a small team. ⁓ Deb and I given our age, given that we’re grandparents, we were hoping not to be 24 sevens. So needed people who were good at building nonprofits who were a little earlier in their careers. And we’ve got a small team, a CEO, a program manager and a couple of part-time people ⁓ who are running a bunch of programs. We’re trying to stay focused. We’re trying to build community with stroke survivors, care partners, medical professionals. We’ve got an online community called the Stroke Onward Community Circle that we just launched earlier this year. We’re hosting events, ⁓ some in medical settings that we call Stroke Care Onward to really talk with both ⁓ a diverse group of medical professionals, as well as survivors and care partners about what’s missing in the system and how it can be improved. ⁓ And then a program that we call the Stroke Monologues, which is sort of a a TEDx for stroke survivors where survivors, care partners, medical professionals can really tell their story of the emotional journey in recovery. And we want to use all of that to sort of build a platform to drive system change. That’s kind of what we’re trying to build with Stroke Onward. Bill Gasiamis (55:32)I love that. I love that TEDx component of it. ⁓ People actually get to talk about it and put out stories and content in that way as well. Debra and Steve (55:35)Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. Denver, Pittsburgh, ⁓ Boston, and Oakland and San Francisco. We’ve now done six shows of the stroke monologues and a big part about our work in the coming year. is really trying to think about how that might scale. can we, you know, it’s a very time consuming and therefore expensive to host events all the time. So how we can work with other organizations and leverage the idea ⁓ so that more people can get on stage and tell their story. ⁓ Also how we capture those stories on video and how we can do it virtually. So that’s a big part of what the team is thinking about is, you know, how do we Cause you know, at the end of the day, we can only do as much as we can raise the money to hire the people to do. So, that, that developing a strategy that hopefully can scale and track the resources that it takes to make more impact. That’s kind of job one for 2026. Bill Gasiamis (57:05)Yeah, I love it. Lucky you haven’t got enough jobs. That’s a good job to have though, right? ⁓ So if you were sitting, if you guys were both sitting with a couple just beginning this journey, what would you want them to know? What’s the first thing that you would want them to know? Debra Meyerson – Advice for New Stroke Survivors Debra and Steve (57:12)Yeah. Don’t have a stroke. Bill Gasiamis (57:28)Profound. Debra and Steve (57:29)Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it’s a journey and think of it as a journey and try to get as much as much of your capabilities back as you can. But don’t think of recovery as just that. It’s a much broader journey than that. It’s rebuilding identity. It’s finding ways to adapt. to do the things you love to do, to do the things that bring you meaning and purpose and create that journey for yourself. Nobody else’s journey is gonna be the right model for yours. So give yourself the time, space, learn from others, but learn from what’s in your heart as to the life you wanna build with the cards you’ve been dealt. Bill Gasiamis (58:25)Yeah. What are some of the practices or habits that have helped you guys as a couple, as partners stay connected? Debra and Steve (58:34)⁓ It’s, it’s hard. mean, and we’ve gone through phases, ⁓ where I think, you know, in some ways early on after the stroke, we may have been as close or closer than we’ve ever been. as Deb got better ironically and wanted to do more. Bill Gasiamis (58:39)You Debra and Steve (59:01)that created a different kind of stress for us. ⁓ stress is the key. No, stress is not the beauty. I had so much stress. Yeah. And sometimes I say stress is a function of the gap between aspiration and capability and while Deb’s capabilities keep growing, I think maybe her aspirations grow faster. And the question then says, how do you fill that gap? And so I think Deb struggles with that. And then for me, a big struggle is, so how much do I change my life to support Deb in filling that gap versus the things I might want to do that I still can do? So. You know, when Deb decided to write a book, I really wasn’t willing to give up my other nonprofit career, which was very meaningful to me. And I felt like I was midstream, but we had to find other ways in addition to my help nights and weekends to get Deb help so she could write the book she wanted to write. Whereas when the book came out and we decided to create Stroke Onward, that was a different point in time. And I was sort of willing to. cut back from that career to come build something with Deb. So I think again, we hate to give advice because everybody’s journey is different, but things change and go with that change. Don’t get locked into a view of what the balance in relationship should be. Recognize that that’s gonna be a never ending process of creating and recreating and recreating a balance that works for both of us. Bill Gasiamis (1:01:04)Hmm. What’s interesting. Some of the things that I’ve gone through with my wife is that I’ve kind of understood that she can’t be all things that I needed to be for me. And I can’t be all things that she needs me to be for her. And we need to seek that things where we lack the ability to deal to provide those things for the other person. The other person needs to find a way to accomplish those tasks needs, have those needs met, whatever with in some other way. for example, my whole thing was feeling sad and I needed someone to talk me through it and my wife wasn’t skilled enough to talk me through it, well, it would be necessary for me to seek that support from somebody else, a counselor, a coach, whomever, rather than trying to get blood out of a stone, somebody who doesn’t have the capability to support me in that way. Why would I expect that person to… all of a sudden step up while they’re doing all these other things to get through the difficult time that we were going on to that we’re dealing with. So that was kind of my learning. was like, I can’t expect my wife to be everything I need from her. There’ll be other people who can do that. Who are they? And that’s why the podcast happened because I’ve been talking about this since 2012 and since 2012 and ⁓ well, yeah, that’s 2012 as well. 2012 anyhow. ⁓ I’ve been talking about it since. Debra and Steve (1:02:41)You’re both our roles. You’re saying it and then correcting yourself. Bill Gasiamis (1:02:45)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have a part of me that corrects me as I go along in life. Yeah. Sometimes I don’t listen to it. ⁓ but today was a good one. The thing about it is I have a need, a deep need to talk about it all the time. That’s why I’ve done nearly 400 episodes and those 400 episodes are therapy sessions. Every time I sit down and have a conversation with somebody and I, and even though my wife has a I, ⁓ masters in psychology. I wouldn’t put her through 400 conversations about my stroke every single day or every second day. You know, it’s not fair because it’s not her role. I, ⁓ I talked to her about the things that we can discuss that are important, for the relationship and for how we go about our business as a couple. But then there’s those other things that. she can’t offer her perspective because only stroke survivors know how to do that. And I would never want her to know how to ⁓ relate to me having had a stroke and having the deficits that I have and how it feels to be in my body. I would never want her to be able to relate to me. So ⁓ it’s, that’s kind of how I see, you know, the couple dynamic has to play out. have to just honor the things that each of us can bring to the table and then go elsewhere to ⁓ have our needs met if there’s needs that are left unmet. Debra and Steve (1:04:23)Yeah. Really. Well, it’s good to know that if this is a ⁓ helpful therapy session for you, you won’t mind if we send you a bill. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (1:04:32)Yeah. Yeah. Send it along with the book. Just put it in the front cover and then, and then I’ll make a payment. ⁓ Well guys, it’s really lovely to meet you in person and have a conversation with you. Have the opportunity to share your mission as well. Raise awareness about the book, raise awareness about stroke onward. I love your work. ⁓ And I wish you all the best with all of your endeavors, personal, professional, not for profit. And yeah, I just love the way that this is another example of how you can respond to stroke as individuals and then also as a couple. Debra and Steve (1:05:18)Yeah, thank you. Well, and we hope you’ll join our online community and that includes the opportunity to do live events. yes. And maybe there are some additional therapy sessions. Yes. On our platform and chat with people and well, all over the place. So yeah, please join us. Bill Gasiamis (1:05:43)That sounds like a plan. Well, that’s a wrap on my conversation with Deborah and Steve. If Deborah’s slow fall off a cliff description resonated with you, leave a comment and tell me what part of your recovery has been the hardest to explain to other people. And if you’re a care partner, I’d love to hear what you needed most early on. You’ll find the links to Deborah and Steve’s work, their book, identity theft and their nonprofit stroke onward in the show notes. And if you’d like to go deeper with me, grab my book, The Unexpected Way That a Stroke Became the Best Thing That Happened via recoveryafterstroke.com/book. Also, you can support the podcast on Patreon by going to patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. Thank you for being here. And remember, you’re not alone in this journey. Importantly, we present many podcasts designed to give you an insight and understanding into the experiences of other individuals. Opinions and treatment protocols discussed during any podcast are the individual’s own experience, and we do not necessarily share the same opinion, nor do we recommend any treatment protocol discussed. All content on this website and any linked blog, podcast or video material controlled this website or content is created and produced for informational purposes only and is largely based on the personal experience of Bill Gassiamus. Content is intended to complement your medical treatment and support healing. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health advice. The information is general and may not be suitable for your personal injuries, circumstances or health objectives. Do not use our content as a standalone resource to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease for therapeutic purposes or as a substitute for the advice of a health professional. Never delay seeking advice or disregard the advice of a medical professional, your doctor or your rehabilitator. program based on our content. you have any questions or concerns about your health or medical condition, please seek guidance from a doctor or other medical professional. If you are experiencing a health emergency or think you might be, call 000 if in Australia or your local emergency number immediately for emergency assistance or go to the nearest hospital emergency department. Medical information changes constantly. While we aim to provide current quality information in our content, we do not provide any guarantees and assume no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, currency or completeness of the content. If you choose to rely on any information within our content, you do so solely at your own risk. We are careful with links we provide. However, third party links from our website are followed at your own risk and we are not responsible for any information you find there.   The post Debra Meyerson and the “Slow Fall Off a Cliff”: Aphasia After Stroke, Identity, and What Recovery Really Means appeared first on Recovery After Stroke.

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In this episode of the Alpha Male 2.0 Podcast, Caleb Jones recounts a pivotal post-divorce relationship that shaped his understanding of dating dynamics, commitment, and non-monogamous frameworks. Through real-world lessons and hard-earned insights, he explains what he did right, what he did wrong, and how these experiences helped refine the Alpha Male 2.0 model for long-term relationship success.

FIRST WEEKLY WRAP-UP OF THE YEAR, AND WE'RE SPENDING IT IN GREECE! Emily and I dive headfirst into the new year by discussing our overall thoughts on the Mary Cosby documentary that TLC released this past week. If you haven't heard my extended thoughts on all three episodes, check my podcast feed and find BOTH episodes! Then, we get into the latest episode of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, including: that insane ASMR spa fight, a tear-filled lunch, Heather's dragging for defending Britani, and much more!  DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TODAY! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Apple Podcasts! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Spotify! Follow Emily on Instagram! Subscribe to Emily's YouTube channel, where we go live every single Sunday! SPONSORED BY: RexMD Visit rexmd.com/KENDRICK to get started today and receive up to 95% off this holiday season!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15 But the free gift isnot like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much morethe grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, JesusChrist, abounded to many. 17 For if by the one man's offense death reignedthrough the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and ofthe gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) But wheresin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned indeath, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal lifethrough Jesus Christ our Lord.Wehave been talking about the spiritual disciplines and how they put us in thepath of God's grace. Notice in the above verses in Romans 5: 15-21 how manytimes the word grace is used. I trust that today's Pastor's Chat will encourageyou to make the choice every day to put yourself in the way of God's graceinstead of putting yourselves in the path of sin. Take a minute to read Psalm 1:1-3.The book of Psalms begins by telling us we should not be walking as the ungodlywalk, sitting and standing with them, but we should be delighting in God'sword. The discipline of walking in truth will put you in the path of God'sgrace.  InRomans 5:15–21, we find one of the great assurances of the Christian life: thegrace of God within the believer is far more powerful than the power of sinthat once ruled us. Grace is not merely God's favor shown to us in the past. Itis God's life-power actively at work in us every day through Jesus Christ. TheApostle Paul makes this unmistakably clear in Romans 5 as he contrasts thedevastating effects of Adam's sin with the overwhelming triumph of Christ'sgrace. Sin brought death, condemnation, and bondage. Grace bringsjustification, righteousness, and life. Paulrepeatedly emphasizes the word grace in these verses. As you look atthem again, you'll notice that Paul says we do not merely survive. My friend, hesays we reign in life. The believer who receives the abundance of grace is notdominated by sin but empowered to live victoriously through Jesus Christ. Sinmay still be present, but it is no longer supreme. Grace is greater. Pauldrives this point home again in Romans 5:20: “Where sin abounded, graceabounded much more.” Myfriend, no failure, no weakness, and no struggle ever outpaces the supply ofGod's grace. Grace always outdistances sin when we are walking in the path ofGod's grace. How do we put ourselves in the path of God's grace? We do thisthrough the spiritual disciplines God has lovingly given us:Readingand studying God's Word, where grace instructs, corrects, and renews our mindsPrayer,as we come boldly to the throne of grace to receive mercy and help. (Hebrews4:16)Worship,where grace lifts our hearts to adore the Giver.Fellowshipwith other believers, where grace is shared, strengthened, and encouraged.Givingunselfishly to God's work, where grace flows through us to othersObedientservice, where grace empowers us to walk in good works prepared by GodThesepractices do not create grace—but they place us where grace freely flows. Ilove what we read in 2 Corinthians 9:6–8: “He who sows sparingly will alsoreap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So leteach one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; forGod loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound towardyou, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have anabundance for every good work.” Didyou notice that language? All grace. All sufficiency. All things. Every goodwork. That'show it happens. As you practice these disciplines daily, you make a deliberatechoice—starting when you get out of bed in the morning—to spend time with Godin His Word and in prayer.  Godbless you and may you have a truly blessed and wonderful, wonderful day!

He's never far,you just think He is.Your dream isn't out of reach,you just think it is.That problem is not unsolvable,you just think so.So what must you do?You don't have to stop thinking.In the moment you hear Silence,you're not thinking.You're Causing.You're Seeing again,that the lessons are Blessings,that everything is Grace.All of It.Affirm: 'My whole life has changed'.Your whole life has changed.Watch.I Love you,Niknikki@curlynikki.comSupport the show:▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings__________________________________________Today's Quotes:"Blessings look like lessons from far away."-Pharrell Williams"At a distance you can only see My Light, come closer and know that I Am you."-Rumi"That moment didn't cause you to feel GoOD, in that moment you became aware of the Cause and that felt good. "-Nik"When you can't hear God, read God."-@SardineBread via IG "...He speaks, and the sound of His voice, is so sweet, the birds hush their singing, And the melody that He gave to me,within my Heart is ringing.And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own.And the joy we share as we tarry there,none other has ever known." -Yogananda"If you have ever been distant from God, but somehow found yourself praying again, praising again, thinking about him again, it's because god was working behind the scenes to bring you back to Him. He isn't letting you go." -@RefreshedQuotes via IG"Just as thoughts about your home crowd into your mind as you draw nearer to your dwelling place, so also the closer you get to God, the greater grows the joy derived from the ever increasing variety of experiences of the Divine." - Sri Anandamayi Ma"It is high time that we realized that it is pointless to praise the light and preach it if nobody can see it. It is much more needful to preach the art of seeing." -Carl Jung"Maybe if we chased God as hard as we chase people, God would give us people we don't have to chase. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all else will be added!" -@RefreshedQuotes via IG

Keep smiling at 'them', knowing that ‘they' are not 'them', that ‘they' are Him, and because you and the Father are one, that ‘they' ARE you.In today's episode I share a gorgeous story that touches on the power of faith and a dedicated mantra practice, and the Peace and Freedom found in remembering the difference between channels of supply and the Source of supply. Remember: focus on your relationship, your union with God, and all your seeming human relationships will be GoOD, too.I Love you and I'm with you! Happy Now- Here!Niknikki@curlynikki.com Support the show:▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings__________________________________________Today's Quotes:"If the Divine is in your favor, the whole world will be, too ."-Om Swami via The Power of the Gayatri Mantra"Take it from me, repetition of His name makes everything possible."-Anandamayi Ma"God became man that man might become God."-Athanasius

Happy New Year 2026! I love January and the opportunity to start afresh. I know it's arbitrary in some ways, but I measure my life by what I create, and I also measure it in years. At the beginning of each year, I publish an article (and podcast episode) here, which helps keep me accountable. If you'd like to share your goals, please add them in the comments below. 2026 is a transitional year as I will finish my Masters degree and continue the slow pivot that I started in December 2023 after 15 years as an author entrepreneur. Just to recap that, it was: From digitally-focused to creating beautiful physical books; From high-volume, low cost to premium products with higher Average Order Value; From retailer-centric to direct first; and From distance to presence, and From creating alone to the AI-Assisted Artisan Author. I've definitely stepped partially into all of those, and 2026 will continue in that same direction, but I also have an additional angle for Joanna Penn and The Creative Penn that I am excited about. If you'd like to join my community and support the show every month, you'll get access to my growing list of Patron videos and audio on all aspects of the author business — for the price of a black coffee (or two) a month. Join us at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn. Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author as J.F. Penn. She's also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Leaning into the Transformation Economy The Creative Penn Podcast and my Patreon Community Webinars and live events Finish my Masters in Death, Religion, and Culture Bones of the Deep — J.F. Penn Add merch to CreativePennBooks.com and JFPennBooks.com How to Write, Publish, and Market Short Stories and Short Story Collections — Joanna Penn Other possible books Experiment more with AI translation Ideally outsource more marketing to AI, but do more marketing anyway Double down on being human, health and travel You can find all my books as J.F. Penn and Joanna Penn on your favourite online store in all the usual formats, or order from your local library or bookstore. You can also buy direct from me at CreativePennBooks.com and JFPennBooks.com. I'm not really active on social media, but you can always see my photos at Instagram @jfpennauthor. Leaning into the Transformation Economy I've struggled with my identity as Joanna Penn and my Creative Penn brand for a few years now. When I started TheCreativePenn.com in 2008, the term ‘indie author' was new and self-publishing was considered ‘vanity press' and a sure way to damage your author career, rather than a conscious creative and business choice. It was the early days of the Kindle and iPhone (both launched in 2007), and podcasting and social media were also relatively new. While US authors could publish on KDP, the only option for international authors was Smashwords and the market for ebooks was tiny. Print-on-demand and digital audio were also just emerging as viable options. While it was the early era of blogging, there were very few blogs and barely any podcasts talking about self-publishing, so when I started TheCreativePenn.com in late 2008 and the podcast in March 2009, it was a new area. For several years, it was like howling into the wind. Barely any audience. Barely any traffic, and certainly very little income.  But I loved the freedom and the speed at which I could learn things and put them into practice. Consume and produce. That has always been my focus. I met people on Twitter and interviewed them for my show, and over those early years I met many of the people I consider dear friends even now. Since self-publishing was a relatively unexplored niche in those early years, I slowly found an audience and built up a reputation. I also started to make more money both as an author, and as a creative entrepreneur. Over the years since, pretty much everything has changed for indie authors and we have had more and more opportunity every year. I've shared everything I've learned along the way, and it's been a wonderful time.  But as self-publishing became more popular and more authors saw more success (which is FANTASTIC!), other voices joined the chorus and now, there are many thousands of authors of all different levels with all kinds of different experiences sharing their tips through articles, books, podcasting, and social media. I started to wonder whether my perspective was useful anymore. On top of the human competition, in November 2022, ChatGPT launched, and it became clear that prescriptive non-fiction and ‘how to' information could very easily be delivered by the AI tools, with the added benefit of personalisation. You can ask Chat or Claude or Gemini how you can self-publish your particular book and they will help you step by step through the process of any site. You can share your screen or upload screenshots and it can help with what fields to fill in (very useful with translations!), as well as writing sales descriptions, researching keywords, and offering marketing help targeted to your book and your niche, and tailored to your voice. Once again, I questioned what value I could offer the indie author community, and I've pulled back over the last few years as I've been noodling around this. But over the last few weeks, a penny has dropped. Here's my thinking in case it also helps you. Firstly, I want to be useful to people. I want to help. In my early days of speaking professionally, from 2005-ish, I wanted to be the British (introvert) Tony Robbins, someone who inspired people to change, to achieve things they didn't think they could. Writing a book is one of those things. Making a living from your writing is another. So I leaned into the self-help and how-to niche. But now that is now clearly commoditised. But recently, I realised that my message has always been one of transformation, and in the following four areas.  From someone who doesn't think they are creative but who desperately wants to write a book, to someone who holds their first book in their hand and proudly says, ‘I made this.' The New Author. From someone who has no confidence in their author voice, who wonders if they have anything to say, to someone who writes their story and transforms their own life, as well as other people's. The Confident Author. From an author with one or a handful of books who doesn't know much about business, to a successful author with a growing business heading towards their first six figure year. The Author-Entrepreneur. And finally, from a tech-phobic, fearful author who worries that AI makes it pointless to create anything and will steal all the jobs, to a confident AI-assisted creative who uses AI tools to enhance and amplify their message and their income. The AI-Assisted Artisan Author. These are four transformations I have been through myself, and with my work as Joanna Penn/The Creative Penn, I want to help you through them as well. So in 2026, I am repositioning myself as part of The Transformation Economy. What does this mean? There is a book out in February, The Transformation Economy by B. Joseph Pine II, who is also the author of The Experience Economy, which drove a lot of the last decade's shift in business models. I have the book on pre-order, but in the meantime, I am doing the following. I will revamp TheCreativePenn.com with ‘transformation' as the key frame and add pathways through my extensive material, rather than just categories of how to do things. I've already added navigation pages for The New Author, The Confident Author, The Author-Entrepreneur, and The AI-Assisted Artisan Author, and I will be adding to those over time. My content is basically the same, as I have always covered these topics, but the framing is now different. The intent is different. The Creative Penn Podcast will lean more heavily into transformation, rather than just information — And will focus on the first three of the categories above, the more creative, mindset and business things.  My Patreon will continue to cover all those things, and that's also where I post most of my AI-specific content, so if you're interested in The AI-Assisted Artisan Author transformation path, come on over to patreon.com/thecreativepenn I have more non-fiction books for authors coming, and lots more ideas now I am leaning into this angle. I'll also continue to do webinars on specific topics in 2026, and also add speaking back in 2027. It's harder to think about transformation when it comes to fiction, but it's also really important since fiction books in particular are highly commodified, and will become even more so with the high production speeds. Yes, all readers have a few favourite authors but most will also read a ton of other books without knowing or caring who the author is. Fiction can be transformational. Reader's aren't buying a ‘book.' They're buying a way to escape, to feel deeply, to experience things they never could in real life. A book can transform a day from ‘meh' into ‘fantastic!' My J.F. Penn fiction is mostly inspired by places, so my stories transport you into an adventure somewhere wonderful, and they all offer a deeper side of transformative contemplation of ‘memento mori' if you choose to read them in that way.  They also have elements of gothic and death culture that I am going to lean into with some merch in 2026, so more of an identity thing than just book sales. I'm not quite sure what this means yet, but no doubt it will emerge. I'll also shape my JFPennBooks.com site into more transformative paths, rather than just genre lists, as part of this shift. My memoir Pilgrimage always reflected a transformation, both reflecting my own midlife shift but I've also heard from many who it has inspired to walk alone, or to travel on pilgrimage themselves. Of course, transformation is not just for our readers or the people we serve as part of our businesses. It's also for us. One of the reasons why we are writers is because this is how we think. This is how we figure out our lives. This is how we get the stories and ideas out of our heads and into the world. Writing and creating are transformative for us, too. That is part of the point, and a great element of why we do this, and why we love this. Which is why I don't really understand the attraction of purely AI-generated books. There's no fun in that for me, and there's no transformation, either. Of course, I LOVE using Chat and Claude and Gemini Thinking models as my brainstorming partners, my research buddies, my marketing assistants, and as daily tools to keep me sparkly. I smiled as I wrote that (and yes, I human-wrote this!) because sparkly is how I feel when I work with these tools. Programmers use the term ‘vibe coding' which is going back and forth and collaborating together, sparking off each other. Perhaps that I am doing is ‘vibe creation.' I feel it as almost an effervescence, a fun experience that has me laughing out loud sometimes. I am more creative, I am more in flow. I am more ‘me' now I can create and think at a speed way faster than ever before. My mind has always worked at speed and my fingers are fast on the keys but working in this way makes me feel like I create in the high performance zone far more often. I intend to lean more into that in 2026 as part of my own transformation (and of course, I share my experiences mainly in the Community at patreon.com/thecreativepenn ). [Note, I pay for access to all models, and currently use ChatGPT 5.2 Thinking, Claude Opus 4.5, and Gemini 3 Pro). So that's the big shift this year, and the idea of the Transformation Economy will underpin everything else in terms of my content. The Creative Penn Podcast and my Patreon Community The Creative Penn Podcast continues in 2026, although I am intending to reduce my interviews to once every two weeks, with my intro and other content in between. We'll see how that goes as I am already finding some fascinating people to talk to!  Thank you for your comments, your pictures, and also for sharing the episodes that resonate with you with the wider community. Your reviews are also super useful wherever you are listening to this, so please leave a review wherever you're listening this as it helps with discovery.  Thanks also to everyone in my Patreon Community, which I really enjoy, especially as we have doubled down on being human through more live office hours. I will do more of those in 2026 and the first one of the year will blearily UK time so Aussies and Kiwis can come. I also share new content almost every week, either an article, a video or an audio episode around writing craft, author business, and lots on different use cases for AI tools.  If you join the Patreon, start on the Collections tab where you will find all the backlist content to explore. It's less than the price of a coffee a month so if you get value from the show, and you want more, come on over and join us at patreon.com/thecreativepenn My Books and Travel Podcast is on hiatus for interviews, since the Masters is taking up the time I would have had for that. However I plan to post some solo episodes in 2026, and I also post travel articles there, like my visits to Gothic cathedrals and city breaks and things like that. Check it out at https://www.booksandtravel.page/blog/  Webinars and live events Along with my Patreon office hours, I'm enjoying the immediacy and energy of live webinars and they work with my focus on transformation, as well as on ‘doubling down on being human' in an age of AI, so I will be doing more this year. The first is on Business for Authors, coming on 10 and 24 January, which is aimed at helping you transform your author business in 2026, or if you're just getting started, then transform into someone who has even a small clue about business in general!Details at TheCreativePenn.com/live and Patrons get 25% off. In terms of live in-person events, it looks like I will be speaking at the Alliance of Independent Authors event at the London Book Fair in March, and I'll attend the Self-Publishing Show Live in June, although I won't be speaking. There might be other things that emerge, but in general, I'm not doing much speaking in 2026 because I need to … Finish my Masters in Death, Religion, and Culture This represents a lot of work as I am doing the course full-time. I should be finished in September, and much of the middle of the year will be focused on a dissertation. I'm planning on doing something around AI and death, so that will no doubt lead into some fiction at a later stage! Talking of fiction … Bones of the Deep — J.F. Penn The Masters is pretty serious, as is academic research and writing in general, and I found myself desperate to write a rollicking fun story over the holiday break between terms. I've talked about this ‘tall-ship' story for a while and now I'm committing to it. Back in 1999, I sailed on the tall-ship Soren Larsen from Fiji to Vanuatu, one of the three trips that shaped my life. It was the first time I'd been to the South Pacific, the first time I sailed blue water (with no land in sight), and I kept a journal and drew maps of the trip. It also helped me a make a decision to leave the UK and I headed for Australia nine months later in early 2000, and ended up being away 11 years in Australia and New Zealand. I came home to visit of course, but only moved back to the UK in 2011, so that trip was memorable and pivotal in many ways and has stuck in my mind. The story is based on that crossing, but of course, as J.F. Penn my imagination turns it into essentially a ‘locked room,' there is no escape out there, especially if the danger comes from the sea. Another strand of the story comes from a recent academic essay for my Masters, when I wrote about the changes in museum ethics around human remains and medical specimens i.e. body parts in jars, and how some remains have been repatriated to the indigenous peoples they were stolen from. I've also talked before about how I love ‘merfolk' horror like Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant, All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter, and Merfolk by Jeremy Bates. These are no smiling fantasy mermaids and mermen. They are predators. What might happen if the remains of a mer-saint were stolen from the deep, and what might happen to the ship that the remains are being transported in, and the people on board?  I'm about a third in, and I am having great fun! It will actually be a thriller, with a supernatural edge, rather than horror, and it is called Bones of the Deep, and it will be out on Kickstarter in April, and everywhere by the summer.  You can check out the Kickstarter pre-launch page with photos from my 1999 trip, the cover for the book, and the sales description at JFPenn.com/bones Add merch to CreativePennBooks.com and JFPennBooks.com I've dipped my toe into merch a number of times and then removed the products, but now I'm clear on my message of transformation, I want to revisit this. My books remain core for both sites, but for CreativePennBooks, I also want to add other products with what are essentially affirmations — ‘Creative,' ‘I am creative, I am an author,' and variants of the poster I have had on my wall for years, ‘Measure your life by what you create.' This is the affirmation I had in my wallet for years! For JFPennBooks, the items will be gothic/memento mori/skull-related. Everything will be print-on-demand. I will not be shipping anything myself, so I'm working with my designer Jane on this and then need to order test samples, and then get them added to the store. Likely mid-year at this rate! How to Write, Publish, and Market Short Stories and Short Story Collections — Joanna Penn I have a draft of this already which I expanded from the transcript of a webinar I did on this topic as part of The Buried and the Drowned campaign. It turns out I've learned a lot about this over the years, and also on how to make a collection, so I will get that out at some point this year. I won't do a Kickstarter for it, but I will do direct sales for at least a month and include a special edition, workbook, and bundles on my store first before putting it wide. I will also human-narrate that audiobook. Other possible books I'm an intuitive creative and discovery writer, so I don't plan out what I will write in a year. The books tend to emerge and then I pick the next one that feels the most important. After the ones above, there are a few candidates. Crown of Thorns, ARKANE thriller #14. Regular readers and listeners will know how much I love religious relics, and it's about time for a big one! I have a trip to Paris planned in the spring, as the Crown of Thorns is at Notre Dame, and I have some other locations to visit. My ARKANE thrillers always emerge from in-person travels, so I am looking forward to that. Maybe late 2026, maybe 2027. AI + religion technothriller/short stories. I already have some ideas sketched out for this and my Masters thesis will be something around AI, religion, and death, so I expect something will emerge from all that study and academic writing. Not sure what, but it will be interesting! The Gothic Cathedral Book. I have tens of thousands of words written, and lots of research and photos and thoughts. But it is still in the creative chaos phase (which I love!) and as yet has not emerged into anything coherent. Perhaps it will in 2026, and the plan is to re-focus on it after my Masters dissertation.  I feel like the Masters study and the academic research process will make this an even better book, But I am holding my plans for this lightly, as it feels like another ‘big' book for me, like my ‘shadow book' (which became Writing the Shadow) and took more than a decade to write! How to be Creative. I have also written bits and bobs on this over many years, but it feels like it is re-emerging as part of my focus on transformation. Probably unlikely for 2026 but now back on the list … Experiment more with AI translation AI-assisted translation has been around for years now in various forms, and I have experimented with some of the services, as well as working with human narrators and editors in different languages, as well as licensing books in translation. But when Amazon launched Kindle Translate in November 2025, it made me think that AI-assisted translation will become a lot more popular in 2026. AI audiobook narration became good enough for many audiobooks in 2025, and it seems like AI-translation will be the same in 2026. Yes, of course, human translation is still the gold standard, as is human narration, and that would be the primary choice for all of us — if it was affordable. But frankly, it's not affordable for most indie authors, and indeed many small publishers. Many books don't get an audiobook edition and most books don't get translated into every language. It costs thousands per book for a human translator, and so it is a premium option. I have only ever made a small profit on the books that I paid for with human translators and it took years, and while I have a few nice translation deals on some books, I'm planning to experiment more with AI translation in 2026. More languages, more markets, more opportunities to reach readers. More on this in the next episode when I'll cover trends for 2026. Ideally outsource more marketing to AI, but do more marketing anyway You have to reach readers somehow, and you have to pay for book marketing with your time and/or your money. Those authors killing it on TikTok pay with their time, and those leaning heavily on ads are paying with money. Most of us do a bit of both. There is no passive income from books, and even a backlist has to be marketed if you want to see any return. But I, like most authors, am not excited about book marketing. I'd rather be working on new books, or thinking about the ramifications of the changes ahead and writing or talking about that in my Patreon Community or here on the podcast. However, my book sales income remains about the same even as I (slowly) produce more books, so I need to do more book marketing in 2026. I said that last year of course, and didn't do much more than I did in 2024, so here I am again promising to do a better job! Every year, I hope to have my “AI book marketing assistant” up and running, and maybe this will be the year it happens. My measure is to be able to upload a book and specify a budget and say, ‘Go market this,' and then the AI will action the marketing, without me having to cobble together workflows between systems. Of course, it will present plans for me to approve but it will do the work itself on the various platforms and monitor and optimize things for me. We have something like that already with Amazon auto-ads, but that is specific to Amazon Advertising and only works with certain books in certain genres. I have auto-ads running for a couple of non-fiction books, but not for any fiction. I'd also ideally like more sales on my direct stores, JFPennBooks.com and CreativePennBooks.com which means a different kind of marketing. Perhaps this will happen through ChatGPT shopping or other AI-assisted e-commerce, which should be increasing in 2026. More on that in trends for the year to come in the next show. Double down on being human, health and travel I have a lot of plans for travel both for book research and also holidays with Jonathan but he has to finish his MBA and then we have some family things that take priority, so I am not sure where or when yet, but it will happen! Paris will definitely happen as part of the research for Crown of Thorns, hopefully in the spring. I've been to Paris many times as it's just across the Channel and we can go by train but it's always wonderful to visit again. Health-wise, I'll continue with powerlifting and weight training twice a week as well as walking every day. It's my happy place! What about you? If you'd like to share your goals for 2026, please add them in the comments below — and remember, I'm a full-time author entrepreneur so my goals are substantial. Don't worry if yours are as simple as ‘Finish the first draft of my book,' as that still takes a lot of work and commitment! All the best for 2026 — let's get into it! The post My 2026 Creative And Business Goals With Joanna Penn first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Get your copy of Wake Up to Love, today!Watch Love the way you'd watch an unexpected lizard friend on the wall of your bedroom! Don't lose sight of It for nothing!I Love you,Niknikki@curlynikki.comSupport the show:▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings__________________________________________Today's Quotes:**Love Your Breath meditation inspired by Ram Dass"Just as a lamp in a windless place does not flicker, so the disciplined mind of a yogi remains steady in meditation on the Self."-Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6:19Self = God = Loving Awareness = What you truly are"As the golden flame of the candle burns steadily, without flicker or wavering, so shall My Flame burn ever more in your heart. It shall burn out all dross of the mortal mind, smallness of nature, meanness of spirit, vindictiveness, jealousy. It shall burn out all carelessness of your habits, in the outer realms of your being. My Law and My Order can then function perfectly in your life. Then and then only will you be a worthy vessel for the inflow of My Spirit. Then and then only can My Spirit flow through you to other of My children. Likewise shall all disease be burned from the physical body, that nothing shall interfere with My Plan for your life. As the sigh of your spirit disturbs the flame and makes the candle drip, so the faintest wavering of your feet from the path of attainment causes a less steady burning of My Flame in your heart, and My Work goes on in imperfection. Oh, My Beloved, how necessary that you live with the eye single, to the high purpose of your calling. But you have many helpers. No soul who enters the path is left to walk alone. So go on, day by day, with the light and assurance of My Love in your face. Mighty Ones whom you see not, are by your side. And the forces of darkness shall touch you not."-Eva Bell Werber, ‘Quiet Talks the Master'"Dear God, help me to not lose sight of your presence when things are going well."-UnknownSupport the show

You are hidden, not forgotten.Stay in touch with this Love,and you'll see that God can see you,and that's all that matters.Because God is all...When you make it to that stage,there's an audience of One ,appearing as many,but you have one Listener,one Readerone Clientone Customerone Contractone Covenantand giving Him your attention,the whole world smiles.*singing in Lauryn Hill* it could all be so simple :)I Love you,niknikki@curlynikki.comSupport the show:▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings__________________________________________Today's Quotes:Title quote- @prophetess.maggie via IG"You never know how and whenthe Existence will start using you for Its purpose.You never know how and whenyou will be filled with abundanceand you will start rainingquenching the thirst of many.You never know how and when you will be full of fruits and shadeand travelers will takeshelter and food from you,You never know how and when you will be full with Love and Lightand you will start spreadingthe fragrance of beauty to everyone.You never know how and whenthe death will come and make you deathlessand life will startflowing out of youyou never knowhow & when...really."-Sri Sri Ravi Shankar"Keep going.You never know what's right around the corner."-@SisterCody via IG"I want to speak to the hidden people for a moment...I don't find it coincidental that many of God's servants were found in the most unconventional & ambiguous places.They weren't found in Synagogues, or popular gather places but fields, deserts, at home, mangers, or at work.The settings we find them I'm sure are strategic in that they develop certain skills, and traits that would translate to their callings but also I can't help but think because it was one of the last places men would look for where a move of God would come from next.He often tucked them away, but in plain sight but hidden.Where everyone could see, but could not yet SEE.What a mystery of the Gospel.If you feel hidden, do not despise your present status. If you are busy wondering when God is going to do the things you've heard & envisioned -be patient.The time is coming sooner than you thought. And you'll look back at this 'hidden' time of consecration & private development with longing.When God 'reveals' you, He wants to make sure you have the capacity in character, to remain where He calls.It's not your gifts that will sustain you, but your character.That's what's being carefully curated, carefully molded, privately developed, and carefully grown.Do not despise this time.The hidden time is protection.This time + the lessons are invaluable, and it will be the key to being able to remain & go higher."For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light." - Mark 4:22- @prophetess.maggie via IG"Waiting is just a gift of time in disguise - a time to pray wrapped up in a ribbon of patience - because is the Lord ever late?-Ann Voskamp via IG @worshipblog"Don't try to stop thinking, let it happen. Just recognize that which is not thinking."-Adyashanti

I'VE NOW SEEN THE REST OF TLC'S MARY COSBY DOCUMENTARY!   I got the rest of the screeners for “The Cult of the Real Housewife” recently, and it's time to dive into them! These last two episodes (there are 3 total) focus on Mary's grandmother's legacy and the beginnings of Faith Temple, Robert Sr. entering the picture, the marriage heard round the world, many tales of alleged financial, verbal, and sexual abuse, and so much more! It feels like required supplemental viewing for the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, so let's dive back in and get ready for its premiere on New Years Day! Download and listen today!   SPONSORED BY: RexMD Visit rexmd.com/KENDRICK to get started today and receive up to 95% off this holiday season!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As an eBay seller, you don't want to leave money on the table. In this episode of the I Love to Be Selling podcast, you'll discover savvy strategies for getting top dollar while still selling your items quickly. Tune in as real-life eBay listings are analyzed to show why those sellers could raise their prices.   You'll also get access to I Love to Be Selling's free eBay Promoted Listings Fees Guide: 5 Tips to Keep You in the Game (and Protect Your Wallet!). Download your complimentary copy now at https://ilovetobeselling.com/webinars-and-workshops/ebay-promoted-listings-fees-guide/.   I'm Kathy, and I love to be selling!

Like those burglar alarms that make no noise,that aren't audible to the trespasser, but sound somewhere else...when I feel invaded by thought,I close my eyes and I Hear.I hear this Silence sounding,and in that Emptiness,in that Quiet Space,help gets deployed,problems get solved,the right people show up.This Silence is the helper.It is the Comforter.It is Love.If you could just stop leaving this Love,if you could just stop forgetting to hear this Love,you'd start seeing changes.You'd start seeing yourself as Love,knowing only Love Is here,only this Weight,that has no form,that has no shape,that has no 'weight', is here.But here where you are, It's experienced as a Joyful Gravity,pulling what's for you,Destiny,into Your orbit.I Love you,NikSupport the show:▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings__________________________________________Today's Quotes:“For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”-2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT"Your struggles are not because you didn't pray the right way or because you didn't pray enough, or because you have weak faith or insufficient intercessors. It is because God is using you in ways that you may not understand now, but one day you will. One day you will see how God used your affliction to prepare you for an incomparable weight of glory."-@Therealsweetspot Derrika Danielle"A million speak of love, yet how few know, True love is not to lose remembrance even for an instant."-Kabir"I used to think that in order to abide in Christ,I had to read my bible every day,pray everyday,and share my faith every single day.My abiding was depending on me doing something,but this is just wrong.Abiding in Christ is not another work that needs to be performed,but it's a reality to live in.In the same way that one lives in a house, and only need not leave in order to remain in the house,you are in Christ. And abiding in Hm is simply the decision to not walk away."-@Jkjoe via IG

LET'S WRAP UP 2025 SO WE CAN SQUEEZE 2026'S BOOTY REAL TIGHT! No new Real Housewives of Salt Lake City this week, and that's ok! Emily and I are wrapping up the year with the LAST WEEKLY WRAP-UP OF 2025! We look back at our favorite moments in TV and pop culture, as well as revisit some of must watch true crime documentaries (and the crime cases we all followed). Everything from the Menendez Brothers to Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show and Beyonce's Cowboy Carter tour to White Lotus and Severance AND SO MUCH MORE! DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TODAY! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Apple Podcasts! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Spotify! Follow Emily on Instagram! Subscribe to Emily's YouTube channel, where we go live every single Sunday!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LET'S CONTINUE WRAPPING UP 2025 SO WE CAN HUG 2026 LIKE A CLUB BADDIE! THIS IS PART TWO of the LAST weekly wrap-up of the year! Again, no new Real Housewives of Salt Lake City this week, so Emily and I are wrapping up 2025 instead! We look back at our favorite moments in TV and pop culture, as well as revisit some of must watch true crime documentaries (and the crime cases we all followed). Everything from the Menendez Brothers to Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show and Beyonce's Cowboy Carter tour to White Lotus and Severance AND SO MUCH MORE! DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TODAY! ⁠Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Apple Podcasts!⁠ ⁠Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Spotify!⁠ ⁠Follow Emily on Instagram!⁠ ⁠Subscribe to Emily's YouTube channel, where we go live every single Sunday!⁠   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee?⁠ CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT⁠! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT I⁠KENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM⁠! ⁠FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM⁠! ⁠FOLLOW ME ON THREADS!⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You are ChosenAffirm: I Am chosen. My past couldn't have been any other way.My future will be what I choose today,and today, I choose Him.I chose this Love.I choose this PeaceI choose this Sound--to let It inform my thoughts,to let It inform my actions,to let It inform me that It is more real than the world.Where you're sitting or standing,where you're breathing,is Holy Ground.Drop your head down to your heartand Hear.(and watch The Chosen on Amazon Prime!!!)I Love you,Nik nikki@curlynikki.com--Our new book, 'Wake Up to Love' is HERE! Get your copy. Share a copy. Be the Love you wake up to!_______________Support GoOD Mornings on Patreon -https://www.patreon.com/c/goodmorningsQUOTES"Your life is perfect..It is a perfect plan and it isa spontaneous miracle every moment." -SriSri Ravi Shankar via IG @sarikajgd"The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world, and make that man holy and put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it."-Leonard Ravenhill via IG @WorshipBlog"Jesus was not sent here to teach the people to build magnificent churches and temples amidst the cold wretched huts and dismal hovels. He came to make the human heart a temple, and the soul an altar, and the mind a priest!"-Kahlil Gibran"God's answer is some form of peace. All pain Is healed; all misery replaced with joy. All prison doors are opened. And all sin is understood as merely a mistake."-A Course in Miracles LESSON 359"Live in such a way that you're constantly free from the past and unbothered by the future. Observe the voices in your head, but don't join the conversation. Be the silent detached awareness, and your mind will slowly quiet down."-Via IG @LessonToSelf"In the end it's all very simple. Either we give ourselves to Silence or we don't."-Adyashanti"I was afraid of being rejectedUntil I learned to never reject myselfI was afraid of being abandonedUntil I learned to never abandon myself...I was afraid of the darknessUntil I remembered that I was the LightAnd I was afraid of lifeUntil I remembered who I was."-Excerpt from Tahlia Hunter"We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us."-Rumi"He's not an "I told you so" kind of GodHe's a'Come hereWelcome homeI'll keep you safeI'll keep you warmLet me hold youLet me heal youI love youI have so much for you I am not mad at youTrust meI will never leave youMy grace will never run outStay with me'Kind of God.At this very moment, go to Him in your heart and He will meet you there with His Peace."-@HerTrueWorth

For our final episode of 2025, we asked our Patrons to send in their favorite - and unlikely - musical collaborations. As usual, they did NOT disappoint! Songs discussed in this episode: Wanted Man (Take 1) - Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash; Living Doll - Cliff Richard and The Young Ones; Mama - My Chemical Romance w/Liza Minnelli; Perfect Day - Lou Reed & Luciano Pavarotti; Don't Give Up - Willie Nelson & Sinéad O'Connor; Mad John - The Small Faces; Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie; Untitled (Hash Jar Tempo) - Bardo Pond and Roy Montgomery; Morning High - Tommy Ambrose & Bruno Gerussi (Fuzzy Love); Kid Fears - Indigo Girls w/Michael Stipe; Lazyitis - Happy Mondays w/Karl Denver; World Destruction - Time Zone (Afrika Bambaataa & John Lydon); Est-Ce Que Tu - Dusty Trails (Vivian Trimble and Josephine Wiggs); Gloria - Van Morrison w/John Lee Hooker; Riding With The King - Eric Clapton & BB King; Don't Hurt Yourself - Beyonce & Jack White; Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart - Marc Almond & Gene Pitney; I Love you, Mary Jane - Cypress Hill & Sonic Youth; Sometimes Always - Jesus and Mary Chain w/Hope Sandoval; Death Is Not The End - Nick Cave with Anita Lane, Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey, and Shane MacGowan; NYCNY - Darryl Hall w/Robert Fripp; Bring The Noise - Anthrax/Public Enemy

You can call off the search.(T)here is no other Voice but this One.There is no other Silence.There is no other God.There is no other awakening experience.When your mind is telling you that you're not 'there' yet,you're hearing it from 'there'.This is It.You're hearing THE Voice.You are the Voice.This Silence is what you are.This silence is what I Am (is).Affirm that, 'This Silence is what I Am."The first few times with words, and then drop the words.Your whole being is singing, SHREEMing, 'I Am' without words...being the silence I Am,being the Love I Am,being That, I Am. (Exodus 3:14) I Love you,niknikki@curlynikki.com--Our new book, 'Wake Up to Love' is HERE! Get your copy. Share a copy. Be the Love you wake up to!_______________Support GoOD Mornings on Patreon -https://www.patreon.com/c/goodmorningsQUOTESMeditation excerpt from the 'Little Book of Life and Death' by Douglas Harding"There is no instrument other than deep meditation that can detect the presence of that almighty Grace within. Still the body, withdraw the energy from the senses into the brain, calm the heart: Christ will be there; you will feel the divine joy of the Infinite Christ."-YoganandaReading from, 'Voice of the Masters' by Eva Bell Werber

"Everyday I say to myself, today I will begin." - St. Anthony of the DesertToday, we begin. This very moment, we begin... remembering that we ARE what's appearing as this moment, we are the substratum of the Now, we are the Christ. We celebrate the birth of Jesus today, the birth of the awareness of the Christ among us, and now, the birth of our awareness of the Christ within us.Repeat this mantra by Herb Fitch, "I am not man or woman, I live the day as I, Spirit", and notice how you're already, effortlessly detached from the body. There's some space (t)here, naturally. You, as Awareness, don't have to try to detangle your Self from the body, you already are the witness. You already are Love. Be That, by feeling It and remembering to feel It all day. "Blessed is he who came into being before he came into being." (Gospel of Thomas)Merry Christmas! I Love you,Niknikki@curlynikki.comnikki@curlynikki.com--Our new book, 'Wake Up to Love' is HERE! Get your copy. Share a copy. Be the Love you wake up to!_______________Support GoOD Mornings on Patreon -https://www.patreon.com/c/goodmornings

Galatians 4:4-7 Every parent has had this thought: “I wish my kinds understood how much I LOVE them.” What do you do if you're GOD? Galatians 4:4-7 (pg. 1,813) v.4: “When the SET TIME had fully come, God sent His SON, born of a WOMAN, born under the LAW, to REDEEM those UNDER the Law…” […]

Whatever you're feeling... it's okay. It's just inner weather. You couldn't be feeling any other way. Breathe. Sway. Let's chat about how to take Shelter and ride it out, together. God is here, even now. Feel It and know.I Love you,Niknikki@curlynikki.com--Our new book, 'Wake Up to Love' is HERE! Get your copy. Share a copy. Be the Love you wake up to!_______________Support GoOD Mornings on Patreon -https://www.patreon.com/c/goodmornings

Lovingly affirm:"I am immersed in the flame-The flame of time,The flame of love,The flame of life.The universal fire flows through me."*The Living God is appearing as you and every seeming thing. I feel Light(er) when you get this. And you're getting this. I Love you, nik"Everything exposed to the light itself becomes light" (Ephesians 5:13). In prayer, we merely keep returning the divine gaze and we become its reflection, almost in spite of ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:18). The word prayer has often been trivialized by making it into a way of getting what we want. But I use prayer as the umbrella word for any interior journeys or practices that allow us to experience faith, hope, and love within ourselves. It is not a technique for getting things, a pious exercise that somehow makes God happy, or a requirement for entry into heaven. It is much more like practicing heaven now.+Adapted from The Naked Now: Learning to Seeas the Mystics See, pp. 22-23."Live for a few days in the meditation,"I am immersed in the flame-The flame of time, The flame of love, The flame of life.The universal fire flows through me."Step into that fire. wholeheartedly,Starting with the big toe,Then, surrendering everywhere.Only the not-self,Which doesn't exist anyway,Burns away.Attend to this continually And awaken into tranquility.Your essence is renewed in the flame, For it is flame and knows itself as flame Since the first heartbeat of creation.Imagine the entire world consumed by flame.Stay steady, do not waver,As fire transmutes form into light.The soul reveals itself."To itself as Radiance.- the Radiance Sutras

Try me ONCE… try me TWICE… try me THREE TIMES, and the Memphis tongue lashing emerges!   What did Monique Samuels say in the opening credits of the Real Housewives of Potomac? MAYBE IF YOU TRIED JESUS… YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO TRY ME! It's a rare day that I publicly address a comment or review (we all get or encounter them), but this one in particular… needed to be addressed. I gave y'all the option on social media: “Should Kendrick be naughty or nice for the holidays?” Well, clearly, y'all overwhelmingly voted NAUGHTY, so a holiday READ you get! PLUS: Marvel dropped a trailer, Stacey Rusch takes TOP HONORS, Wendy & Eddie Osefo's finances will be exposed, Kelli of the Real Housewives of Atlanta gets a victory (thanks to Phaedra Parks), and more! Download and listen today!   Listen to me on “The Mix with Mani” on Apple Podcasts! Listen to me on “The Mix with Mani” on Spotify! Watch the Avengers: Doomsday Teaser Trailer! Watch Stacey Rusch on “Reality with the King!”   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A meditation to help you IMMEDIATELY surrender negative thoughts. It's useful not just during 'formal' meditation, but in every moment you find yourself fearful or worried. You shift from being aware of being 'you', to being aware AS the Christ Light that you truly are. You shift out of your mind, and into the mind that was in Christ. Into the no-mind of the Buddha. How does that mind sound? Is it thinking about your troubles, your past, your future? Or is It silent... steady? How does It feel? Stay (t)here. I Love you,Niknikki@curlynikki.comSupport the show!▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings_________________________________Today's Quotes:"Constantly have this mind among yourselves which was in Christ Jesus."-Philippians 2:5-11"Just as a lamp in a windless place does not flicker, so the disciplined mind of a yogi remains steady in meditation on the Self."-Bhagavad Gita"People come to me to ask for blessings, they don't understand the knowledge that one is not the body, but the consciousness within, is the blessing."-Nisargadatta Maharaj"Having realized that I am with, and yet beyond the world, I became free from all desire and fear. I did not reason out that I should be free, I found myself free, unexpectedly, without the least effort. Spontaneity became a way of life, the real became natural and the natural became real. And above all, infinite affection, love, dark and quiet, radiating in all directions, embracing all, making all interesting and beautiful, significant and auspicious."-Nisargadatta MaharajSupport the show

WE GOT SALT LAKE CITY THEATRICS IN GREECE AND TONS OF TV CONVO! The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City are still in Greece, and Meredith is putting on a full SHOW in the most Broadway dramatic way possible! Before jumping into a recap of the newest episode, Emily finally shows me a Meredith Marks DJing video that is… odd. Yes, odd is the best way to describe it. But then, we end the episode with a discussion of what we're watching on TV and what we're looking forward to. Everything from The Traitors to Real Housewives of Potomac (and Beverly Hills) to Top Chef! DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TODAY! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Apple Podcasts! Listen to “She's Speaking with Emily Hanks” podcast on Spotify! Follow Emily on Instagram! Subscribe to Emily's YouTube channel, where we go live every single Sunday! SPONSORED BY: RexMD Visit rexmd.com/KENDRICK to get started today and receive up to 95% off this holiday season! SPONSORED BY: Lumi Gummies Go to LumiGummies.com and use code KENDRICK for 30% off your order!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That Joy you're feeling again makes the impossible possible. That dream, that vision, that flashes sometimes, that feels very much out of reach right now, is right in front of you. But you still see it as that familiar space,or as those familiar faces. Keep smiling at the familiar,look lovingly at the familiar.That's how it changes. I Love younik Support the show:▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings"The roar of joy that set the worlds in motion is reverberating in your body and the space betweem all bodies. Beloved, listen." - The Radiance Sutras "You must learn to proceed without certainty." - IG @Interconnctd"Elaborate rituals and garish imagesMay be useful in meditation when your mind is whirling with thoughtsOf sex, money, and power, wandering like an elephantin heat.Go ahead and use these tools, yet know, Beating drums and blaring trumpetsCannot summon the One who is already present.I am not a collection of incantationsKnown only to experts.I am not a ladder to be climbed.A sequence for piercing energy centers in your body. lam not to be found at the end of a long road.I am right here.Sacred texts sing of my reality, But I cannot be found in them, For I am the one listening.I am always closer than breath.Heat and fire are not two separate things.These are just verbal distinctions.The Goddess and the One who holds HerAre one and the same.We are inseparable.The way to me is through Her." - The Radiance Sutras

A FEW STORIES CAUGHT MY ATTENTION THIS WEEK… LET'S DISCUSS!   Is Lennethia Monique Leakes aka NENE LEAKES headed back to Bravo?! All signs are pointing to yes! Well… maybe? Not at all? I DON'T KNOW, BUT LET'S SPIRAL TOGETHER! Plus: Vicki Gunvalson has some thoughts on the direction of the Real Housewives of Orange County, Heather Dubrow might be leaving, Porsha Williams and Drew Sidora are in business together again, and Dorinda Medley fighting Mama Kelce on The Traitors?! Download and listen today!   Listen to Neace Robinson's “I Wish That Heaven Had a Phone”! It's… addicting, right?!   SPONSORED BY: RexMD Visit rexmd.com/KENDRICK to get started today and receive up to 95% off this holiday season!   SPONSORED BY: Lumi Gummies Go to LumiGummies.com and use code KENDRICK for 30% off your order!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'VE SEEN THE FIRST EPISODE OF TLC'S MARY COSBY DOCUMENTARY!!   I got the screener for “The Cult of the Real Housewife,” which is TLC's documentary about the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's Mary Cosby, her church, her wealth, her relationship with Robert Sr. and the members of the congregation, alleged affairs, and SO MUCH MORE! I give you my honest thoughts about the documentary and why it's worth a watch! PLUS: I convince you to also watch the Danish Deception on TikTok! We love a good “Reesa Teesa” cheater brand! Download and listen today!   Listen to the Danish Deception HERE!   SPONSORED BY: RexMD Visit rexmd.com/KENDRICK to get started today and receive up to 95% off this holiday season!   SPONSORED BY: Lumi Gummies Go to LumiGummies.com and use code KENDRICK for 30% off your order!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “I Ken Not with Kendrick Tucker” are released weekly!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT IKENNOTPODCAST@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! FOLLOW ME ON THREADS! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a season of Stillness, but I'm still here. ❤️‍

In a season of Stillness, but I'm still here. ❤️‍

Join us in Vegas for Podjam 3! Subscribe and Watch Interviews LIVE : On YOUTUBE.com/StandUpWithPete ON SubstackStandUpWithPete Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. This show is Ad free and fully supported by listeners like you! Venmo at the bottom! Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 750 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous soul Subscribe to Christian's Music NewsLetter "New Music for Olds" Hi there! if you want to buy Christian a coffee, send it to Christian-finnegan-1 (if it asks for the last four digits of his phone number it's 1814) Christian Finnegan  is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor based in New York City. BUY HIS NEW ALBUM--- "Show Your Work: Live at QED" Finnegan is perhaps best known as one of the original panelists on VH1's Best Week Ever and as Chad, the only white roommate in the "Mad Real World" sketch on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show. Additional television appearances as himself or performing stand up have included "Conan", "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson", "Would You Rather...with Graham Norton", "Good Afternoon America" and multiple times on The Today Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and on History's I Love the 1880s. He hosted TV Land's game show "Game Time". As an actor, Finnegan portrayed the supporting role of "Carl" in the film Eden Court, a ticket agent in "Knight and Day" and several guest roles including a talk show host on "The Good Wife". In October 2006, Finnegan's debut stand up comedy CD titled Two For Flinching was released by Comedy Central Records, with a follow-up national tour of college campuses from January to April 2007. "Au Contraire!" was released by Warner Bros. Records in 2009. His third special "The Fun Part" was filmed at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston on April 4, 2013 and debuted on Netflix on April 15, 2014. On YOUTUBE.com/StandUpWithPete ON SubstackStandUpWithPete Pete on Blue Sky Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on YouTube  Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page   Gift a Subscription https://www.patreon.com/PeteDominick/gift Send Pete $ Directly on Venmo