Podcasts about Maker

Join us for a memorable conversation with Greg Laurie, a nationally best-selling author and pastor who will draw lessons of hope and transformation in the perils of excess, the agonies of repentance, and the wonder of redemption found in the life stories of several icons of pop music and rock and roll. Join us as Greg traces the journeys, rise, fall, and sometimes the redemption of famous entertainers who were brought to their knees—a great place to look up and finally meet their Maker.Become a Parshall Partner: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/inthemarket/partnersSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Livestream the Abundance Summit: https://www.abundance360.com/livestream The hosts dive into OpenClaw's explosion—unleashing autonomous local agents on Mac minis that code, create content, and self-evolve 24/7—featuring expert Alex Finn's workflows, org charts of AI "employees," and visions for trillion-dollar agent economies. Get access to metatrends 10+ years before anyone else - https://qr.diamandis.com/metatrends   Alex Finn is the Founder/CEO of Creator Buddy & AI-app Maker. He is widely known as a powerhouse in AI coding Peter H. Diamandis, MD, is the Founder of XPRIZE, Singularity University, ZeroG, and A360 Salim Ismail is the founder of OpenExO Dave Blundin is the founder & GP of Link Ventures Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross is a computer scientist and founder of Reified – My companies: Apply to Dave's and my new fund:https://qr.diamandis.com/linkventureslanding      Go to Blitzy to book a free demo and start building today: https://qr.diamandis.com/blitzy   Your body is incredibly good at hiding disease. Schedule a call with Fountain Life to add healthy decades to your life, and to learn more about their Memberships: www.fountainlife.com/peter  _ Connect with Alex Finn X Linkedin Learn about Creator Buddy Connect with Peter: X Instagram Connect with Dave: X LinkedIn Connect with Salim: X Join Salim's Workshop to build your ExO  Connect with Alex Website LinkedIn X Email Substack  Spotify Threads Listen to MOONSHOTS: Apple YouTube – *Recorded on February 27th, 2026 *The views expressed by me and all guests are personal opinions and do not constitute Financial, Medical, or Legal advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This chapter highlights the command that all created things should praise their Maker.

Episode 288Special Guest:Evan Sklarhttps://www.instagram.com/evans_workshophttps://www.youtube.com/@intheshopwithevanOnefinity CNC:The industry standard for at home production CNCs. Ball screw and linear rail construction - No beltsCompatible with all popular software, 15 minute setup, infinitely upgradable, and world class tech support!And its made in Canada. Which means Maple Glazed Rails!One Machine - Infinite possibilitiesUse the link below to order:https://www.onefinitycnc.com/?ref=AWP Sign up for Patreon for Early access, and special Patreon-only content:https://www.patreon.com/anotherwoodshoppodcastPATREON GIVEAWAY!Donate to Maker's For St. JudeEvery $5 earns you an extra entry in the Patreon Giveaway (Paid Patrons Only)https://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR?px=8679481&fr_id=134326&pg=personal Whats on our bench:

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Send us your feedback — we're listeningPsalm 121:1–2 — Jesus, Lift My Eyes at Day's End and Remind My Heart Where My Help Truly Comes From Recorded Live from London, England — with Reverend Ben Cooper Psalm 121:1–2 (NIV) — “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Salmo 121:1–2 — “O meu socorro vem do Senhor, Criador do céu e da terra.” Hebrews 4:16 (NIV) — “Let us approach God's throne of grace… to find help in time of need.” Hebreus 4:16 — “Aproximemo-nos do trono da graça… para receber ajuda no momento da necessidade.” ajuda divina • confiança crescente • descanso ao entardecer — divine help, rising trust, evening rest ajuda divina • confiança crescente • descanso emocional — divine help, growing trust, emotional rest As the day begins to settle over London and over homes across Brazil, Cuba, America, Europe, and the world, this hour holds a quiet truth: we often reach the evening with more need than we started with. The mind feels stretched, the heart feels pulled, and the weight of the day rests heavier than expected. But into this moment, Psalm 121 lifts our eyes: help is not behind you; help is not lost; help comes from the Lord — your Maker, your Keeper, your constant source of strength. Jesus, You see the strain of these hours. You know the battles fought, the decisions made, the pressures carried, the thoughts that have run hard since morning. As evening descends, You do not grow distant — You draw closer, gently lifting the chin of every weary heart. Lord, teach us again to come boldly — aproximar-se com confiança — to the throne of grace. Let every listener feel the nearness of Your help. Let fear loosen. Let tension ease. Let the heart remember that it is held. For the one who feels undone by the day — lift them. For the one overwhelmed by needs — help them. For the one who feels unseen — surround them. For the one who is anxious — steady them. Jesus, eu levanto meus olhos para Ti agora. Meu socorro vem somente de Ti (Jesus, I lift my eyes to You now. My help comes from You alone.) Let this early-evening hour become an altar of peace, a place of reset, where help arrives, where confidence rises, and where the heart rests in the One who never leaves Psalm 121 prayer, oração socorro divino, evening devotional help, Hebrews 4:16 grace prayer, Brazilian Portuguese devotional, Reverend Ben Cooper London, dailyprayer.uk confiança crescente, oração descanso entardecer, divine help prayer, esperança noite oração Psalm 121 devotional • socorro divino oração • evening help prayer • graça e confiança Hebreus 4:16 • Brazilian Portuguese evening prayer • descanso emocional • London England prayer broadcast • dailyprayer.ukSupport the showDaily Prayer with Reverend Ben Cooper now reaches 184 countries and 2,968 cities worldwide through the Global Blend Radio network. This is a listener-funded global ministry. If these daily prayers strengthen your faith or help you through difficult seasons, would you consider becoming a monthly prayer partner for just £3 per month? Your support enables us to continue recording, hosting, and broadcasting daily biblical encouragement across the nations — keeping this ministry free and accessible to everyone who needs it. You can support today at GlobalBlendRadio.com. Together, we can keep prayer moving across the world. To submit a prayer request or connect with our global prayer community, visit DailyPrayer.uk. Buy me a Coffee

Host Jeff Goldsmith talks to screenwriter Colby Day about his latest film, In the Blink of an Eye. Download my podcast here Copyright © Unlikely Films, Inc. 2026. All rights reserved. For more great content check out Backstory Magazine @ Backstory.net

On this episode of Today In Space, we discuss the recent changes to the #ArtemisProgram by the new NASA administrator, bringing a variety of reactions among space advocates and fans.  We dive into my perspective as an Aerospace Engineer, Maker, and someone who has been covering Artemis at its beginning! Why is it good that #ArtemisII mission is delayed for now and what the new Artemis III and IV mean for the old way of doing things for our #returnToTheMoon.  Even if you've only been following along recently - this episode should help transform your understanding on why an engineer/maker likes this REMIXED NASA Artemis mission plan - even though some engineers may not. Timestamps: 00:00 NASA's Artemis Mission Remix: Introduction and Personal Perspective  01:21 Impact of Mission Change on Aerospace Employees  02:48 Evolution of Space Missions and Industry Changes  04:41 Rapid Iteration and the Advantages of 3D Printing 07:18 Challenges and Opportunities in the New Artemis Plan 11:55 Support for NASA and the Future of Space Exploration NASA Announcement of Artemis Program Remix: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-adds-mission-to-artemis-lunar-program-updates-architecture/ Video of NASA Administrator Announcing New Artemis Program Infrastructure changes: https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2027460193919827997?s=20 We'd like to thank our sponsors: AG3D Printing (go to ag3d-printing.com to learn more & start 3D printing today!) Support the podcast: • Buy a 3D printed gift from our shop - http://ag3dprinting.etsy.com Today In Space Merch: James Webb Space Telescope Model (3DPrinted) https://ag3dprinting.etsy.com/listing/1839142903 SpaceX Starship-Inspired Rocket Pen (3DPrinted) https://ag3dprinting.etsy.com/listing/1602850640  • Get a free quote on your next 3D printing project at http://ag3d-printing.com • Donate at todayinspace.net  

THE MAGAZINE OF THE MONTH CLUB — One of the things I've learned while hosting this podcast is that there are a lot of magazines out there. More than I imagined. Meaning there was never a “death of the magazine,” simply a realignment of dollars and attention. If anything, there are more magazines being published than ever.  But, and it's a big but, they are harder and harder to find. There are fewer magazine stores. There are almost no newsstands, at least in North America. And bookstores, well, ok, go to your local bookstore and good luck. Which brings us to Steve Watson. He worked in the industry and he lived what was happening to it. And so he created Stack which is, essentially, a discovery system. Or a club. Call it The Magazine of the Month Club. Join it and you receive random independent magazines from around the world, chosen by Steve—or curated, let's use the word—curated by Steve, and if you like the magazine, great, go out and subscribe to it, and you've just expanded your world.  I asked Steve about the changes in the industry, how he builds community and what the future of magazines might be. He's an optimist. And that makes me feel good about things. — This episode is made possible by our friends at Freeport Press. A production of Magazeum LLC ©2021–2025

Welcome to Day 2810 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2810 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 118:1-9 – Daily Wisdom Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2810 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2810 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. The title for today's Wisdom-Trek is: The Eternal Refuge – Stepping into the Wide-Open Spaces In our previous trek, we stood on the mountaintop of Psalm One Hundred Seventeen. We explored the shortest chapter in the entire Bible, and yet, we saw how it held the largest possible stage. It was a cosmic megaphone, calling all the disinherited nations, and all the diverse people groups of the earth, to return to their Creator. It reminded us that God's unfailing love is a prevailing flood, capable of washing over every cultural and geographical boundary. Today, we take our next momentous step. We are crossing the threshold into Psalm One Hundred Eighteen, and we will be focusing our attention on the first movement of this incredible song, covering verses one through nine, in the New Living Translation. This is a milestone moment in our journey. Psalm One Hundred Eighteen is the grand finale, the sweeping crescendo, of the Egyptian Hallel. This is the very last of the Passover psalms. When you picture Jesus and His disciples in the Upper Room, finishing the Last Supper, the Gospel of Matthew tells us that they sang a hymn before heading out to the Mount of Olives. This was that hymn. These were the very words that filled the mind of the Messiah, as He walked deliberately toward the darkness of Gethsemane, and the agony of the cross. As we read this psalm, we hear the sound of a massive, festive procession. We hear a worship leader crying out to the congregation, and we hear a deeply personal testimony of a leader who was surrounded by enemies, yet rescued by the overwhelming power of Yahweh. So, let us join the procession, and listen to the opening chorus. The first segment is: The Chorus of Unfailing Love. Psalm One Hundred Eighteen: verses one through four. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Let all Israel repeat: "His faithful love endures forever." Let Aaron's descendants, the priests, repeat: "His faithful love endures forever." Let all who fear the Lord repeat: "His faithful love endures forever." The psalm erupts with a joyful, booming command: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!" But this is not just a solo performance. The worship leader is actively conducting a massive, multi-part choir, stationed within the temple courts. He calls out to three specific, distinct groups, demanding that they lift their voices and repeat the core thesis of the entire biblical narrative: "His faithful love endures forever." If this grouping sounds familiar, it should! We saw this exact same three-part division back in Psalm One Hundred Fifteen. First, the leader calls out to all Israel. These are the covenant people, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are the ones who experienced the Exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, and the provision of manna in the wilderness. They, of all people, have the historical evidence to shout that God's faithful love endures. Next, he turns to Aaron's descendants, the priests. These are the spiritual leaders, the men who mediated between the holy God and the flawed nation. They worked the sacrifices; they saw the blood on the altar. They understood, intimately, the cost of forgiveness. They are commanded to publicly declare that the sacrificial system is upheld not by mechanics, but by God's enduring love. Finally, the leader casts a wide net to all who fear the Lord. This encompasses the Gentile converts, the foreigners, and the strangers from those diverse nations we talked about in Psalm One Hundred Seventeen. God's love is not geographically restricted. If you fear Yahweh, if you revere the Creator of the universe, you are invited into the choir. You are given a voice in the congregation. And what is the lyric they are all singing? It is the Hebrew word Hesed. This is God's loyal, stubborn, covenant-keeping affection. It is a love that does not quit when we fail. It is a love that outlasts empires, survives the darkness of the grave, and, as the psalm says, "endures forever." When Jesus walked toward the cross, He was holding onto this exact promise. The physical pain would be temporary, but the Hesed of the Father would be eternal. The second segment is: The Cry from the Narrow Place. Psalm One Hundred Eighteen: verse five. In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free. Suddenly, the perspective shifts. The sweeping, panoramic view of the massive choir fades into the background, and a single, solitary voice steps up to the microphone. The worship leader—perhaps the King, or perhaps a representation of the Messiah—shares a deeply personal testimony. "In my distress, I prayed to the Lord." The Hebrew word translated as "distress" is metsar. It literally means a narrow, tight, or constricted place. It paints a vivid, suffocating picture. Have you ever felt trapped? Have you ever felt like the walls of your life—your finances, your health, your relationships—were closing in on you, squeezing the very breath out of your lungs? That is the metsar. It is the spiritual claustrophobia of a crisis. The psalmist was pushed into a corner with no human escape route. But in that tight, suffocating space, he did the only thing left to do. He prayed. He cried out to Yahweh. And the response of God is breathtaking: "The Lord answered me and set me free." The literal Hebrew translation is incredibly poetic. It says, "The Lord answered me in a broad place," or "in a spacious place." God did not just pluck him out of the tight squeeze; God completely changed his environment. He moved him from the suffocating, narrow gorge of distress, and planted his feet in a wide, expansive, sunlit meadow of freedom. This is what Yahweh does. He takes our claustrophobic anxieties and replaces them with the wide-open spaces of His grace. He gives us room to breathe again. The third segment is: The Fearless Stance of the Redeemed. Psalm One Hundred Eighteen: verses six through seven. The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me. I will look in triumph at those who hate me. Because the psalmist has experienced this miraculous transfer from the narrow place to the spacious place, his entire psychological posture has changed. He stands tall, squares his shoulders, and makes a bold, defiant declaration: "The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear." This is the ultimate antidote to anxiety. If the Maker of heaven and earth, the Commander of the Divine Council, is actively standing on your side, fear becomes logically obsolete. He asks a rhetorical question: "What can mere people do to me?" When we look at this through the lens of the Ancient Israelite worldview, we understand that "mere people" are often pawns. Behind hostile human armies and corrupt human politicians, there are often dark, rebellious spiritual forces at work. The psalmist knows that he is not just fighting flesh and blood. But even so, if the Most High God—the uncreated Creator—is his helper, then the rebel gods and their human puppets are entirely powerless to change his eternal destiny. "What can mere people do to me?" They might insult me. They might steal my property. They might even, as Jesus knew, destroy my physical body. But they cannot touch my soul, and they cannot alter the enduring, forever nature of God's Hesed toward me. He repeats the truth to let it sink in deep: "Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me." The word for "help" here means to actively assist in battle. God is not a passive observer; He is a fellow warrior in the trenches. Because of this divine alliance, the psalmist is certain of the outcome: "I will look in triumph at those who hate me." He doesn't say he will seek bitter, petty revenge. He says he will look in triumph. He will stand in the wide-open space of God's deliverance, and he will see the hostile, chaotic forces of his enemies completely neutralized. The Fourth Segment is: The Superiority of the Divine Refuge. Psalm One Hundred Eighteen: verses eight through nine. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people. It is better to take refuge in the...

Send a textTurn your expertise into income after 50.  Retirement looks different now. With more women exploring second acts - whether driven by economic shifts, changing timelines, or simply a desire for more - many are asking: Where do I start? The answer may already be in you.In this episode of the Ageless Glamour Girls™ Podcast, we explore how seasoned professionals can reposition decades of experience into authority, income, and impact.  Roz Miller-Choice, founder of The Expert Maker® and author of Know It. Share It. Profit., joins us to discuss:• Why experience may be your greatest untapped asset • Moving from employee thinking to expert positioning • Mindset shifts required to monetize what you know • Why your expertise was never meant to be a best-kept secretIf you're navigating midlife reinvention, career repositioning, or building income after 50, this conversation is for you. Cheers to healthy aging and joyful living, Luvvies!ABOUT OUR GUEST:  Roz Miller-Choice - The Expert Maker® is a personal brand strategist, TEDx speaker, author, and award-winning TV host who helps professionals turn knowledge into credible, profitable brands — earning her the name The Expert Maker®.  A former TV anchor, reporter, and producer with CNN, CBS, NBC, and FOX, Roz combines decades of media experience with entrepreneurship training from Cornell University and Harvard Business School. She is the author of the upcoming book Know It. Share It. Profit.: The 3-Step Branding and Marketing Plan to Turn Your Expertise into Profit and leads a creative team that helps experts build visible, authority-driven brands.Her television series The Expert Maker TV is a winner of the 43rd Annual Telly Awards for branding excellence.                                Guest Links:   Pre-Order Book: https://ksp-book.com/Course: knowitshareitprofit.com TEDx Talk: https://youtu.be/fWcK5itKSSYSpecial thanks to our sponsor, Bricker Labs - makers of Liquid Vitamin B12 Blast and Folic Acid, supporting energy and focus in this season. Visit BrickerLabs.com and use our AGG savings code: AGG10. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.Support the showSupport Ageless Glamour Girls™: www.agelessglamourgirls.com www.linkedin.com/in/marqueetacurtishaynes https://www.shopltk.com/explore/AgelessGlamourGirls https://www.youtube.com/@agelessglamourgirls Instagram @agelessglamourgirls Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agelessglamourgirls Private (AGG) FB Group: The Ageless Café: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theagelesscafe TikTok: @agelessglamourgirls Podcast Producers: Ageless Glamour Girls™ and Purple Tulip Media, LLC

When you look at Jesus, what do you see?It is a question that refuses to sit quietly in the corner of the mind. It presses forward. For to look at Jesus is not merely to observe a figure in history, nor to admire a moral teacher whose sayings decorate greeting cards. It is to stand before a Person who demands to be reckoned with.Some see only a carpenter's son: a man of dusty roads and rough hands, who spoke kindly to children and sternly to hypocrites. They see compassion, certainly; courage, perhaps; even genius. But nothing more. He becomes, in their sight, an admirable chap, someone nice and maybe wise.But if you look longer, if you allow the Gospels to speak without interruption, you begin to notice something unsettling. The authority in His voice is not borrowed. He does not argue as though piecing together secondhand truths; He speaks as though Truth were His native tongue. He forgives sins as though they were committed against Himself. He commands storms as one might quiet a restless dog. He speaks of God not merely as Father, but as His Father, in a manner that places Him on the very side of the throne.And then there is His humility.Here lies the great stumbling block and the great splendor. For if He were merely divine in the sense of distant and untouchable, we might admire Him from afar and remain unchanged. But this is a divinity wrapped in swaddling clothes, kneeling to wash feet, sweating blood in a garden. It is a majesty that stoops. A glory that bleeds. If this is not God, it is blasphemy of the highest order. If it is God, then we are looking at the very heart of reality.Can you see His divinity?It is not always visible in the way lightning is visible. Often it is more like the sun behind a veil of clouds, perceived not by staring at it directly, but by the way everything else is illuminated. Stand near Him long enough and you begin to see yourself more clearly: your pride, your hunger, your longing for a love you cannot manufacture. His presence exposes and heals in the same breath.To see His divinity is not merely to conclude that He is God. Even the demons, we are told, reached that conclusion. It is to behold in Him the startling claim that the Author of all things has written Himself into the story. That the Maker of the stars allowed nails to fasten Him to wood He Himself designed.When you look at Jesus, you are not simply looking at an example. You are looking at an invasion—heaven breaking into earth, mercy interrupting rebellion, love refusing to remain abstract.And here is the quiet wonder: the more clearly you see His divinity, the less crushed you feel by it. For this is not a cold omnipotence, but a wounded one. Not a tyrant's power, but a shepherd's. His divinity does not diminish His tenderness; it guarantees it.So I ask again: when you look at Jesus, what do you see?If you see only a teacher, you may admire Him. If you see only a martyr, you may pity Him. But if you see God—God with scars—then you will do something far more dangerous and far more glorious. You will worship. --- Help Spread the Good News --- Father Brian's homilies are shared freely thanks to generous listeners like you. If his words have blessed you, consider supporting this volunteer effort. Every gift helps us continue recording and sharing the hope of Jesus—one homily at a time. Give Here: https://frbriansoliven.org/give

Learn about the latest in local public affairs in about the time it takes for a coffee break! Brian Callanan of Seattle Channel and David Kroman of the Seattle Times discuss a fast-approach maximum levy limit for the City of Seattle, Mayor Katie Wilson's call for budget cuts, the City Council's potential reversal of a controversial affordable housing decision after a legal clash with the Port of Seattle, a new transportation hub planned for Westlake Park, and concerns over transportation accessibility during World Cup matches in Seattle this summer. If you like this podcast, please support it on Patreon!This episode of Seattle News, Views & Brews is presented by Phillips Law Firm. Injured? Their Seattle personal injury lawyers will fight for what you really deserve. 

Host Jeff Goldsmith interviews writers Clint Bentley, Robert Kaplow and Will Tracy about their Oscar® nominated screenplays. Download my podcast here Copyright © Unlikely Films, Inc. 2026. All rights reserved. For more great content check out Backstory Magazine @ Backstory.net

We're both back to entertain! Hear all about Jerid's trip, his explosive electronics and everything else going on in our shops!Your hosts:Denis Tyrell of Tyrell Knifeworks:IG: @tyrellknifeworksYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TyrellKnifeworksWebsite: https://www.tyrellknifeworks.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Tyrell-Knifeworks/61558767232017/Jerid Sandoval of Echo Blades:IG: @echo_bladesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Echo-Blades/100085394408004/Maker's Spotlight: https://www.instagram.com/lucasperesknives/ https://www.instagram.com/ruggedmountainbladesOur sponsors:Two Basterds Tx Smithy & Supplies: @twobasterdshammersMaritime Knife Supply: http://maritimeknifesupply.comPelican Paste: https://pelicanpaste.com (Use TTT10 for 10% off!)Baker Forge and Tool: https://www.bakerforge.com (Use TTT10 for 10% off!)Grip Tech Composites: https://rocksolidscales.com/ (Use TTT10 for 10% off!)Evenheat Kilns: Https://Evenheatkilns.com/Ameribrade: https://www.ameribrade.com/The Drop Point: https://thedroppoint.com/Podcasts we think you'll like: Hustle and Grind Work For It Fire and Steel KnifeTalk FullBlast ForgeSideChat Artisans of Steel Knife Perspective

Yes !! The mic is back on. After over a year away, I Make Sex Toys returns for Season 2 - and we've got a lot to talk about. Industry Challenges, Expansions, New ideas. New Experiences. New plans. And the biggest chapter yet for E-Stim Systems. Same honest, behind-the-scenes look at life inside a British sex toy company. Season 2 starts soon -  hit subscribe so you don't miss it.Drop us a message, we cannot reply directly but it would be great to here from you"I make sex toys" is the personal podcast of Wayne Allen, the Director of E-Stim Systems. Creating E-Stim Technology since 2004, Find out what really happens behind the doors of a specialist sex toy company. Please Note the content of these podcasts are not designed to be Explicit or Erotic but we may discuss adult topics and therefore these podcasts are not suitable for children or those of a nervous disposition. You have been warned.If you are interested in E-Stim Systems the company, or any of our products, have a look at https://estim.store

Welcome to Day 2808 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2808 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 117:1-2 – Daily Wisdom Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2808 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day two thousand eight hundred eight of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. The Title for Today's Wisdom-Trek is: The Shortest Song with the Largest Stage – Calling the Nations Home Today, we are undertaking a fascinating and entirely unique stage of our journey. We are stepping into the absolute center of the Bible to explore Psalm One Hundred Seventeen, covering its entirety—which is just verses one through two, in the New Living Translation. This is a milestone for a couple of reasons. First, Psalm One Hundred Seventeen holds the distinct title of being the shortest chapter in the entire Bible. It consists of only two verses and, in the original Hebrew, a mere seventeen words. Second, it is widely considered the middle chapter of the Protestant Bible. But do not let its brevity fool you. What this psalm lacks in word count, it makes up for in cosmic, earth-shaking theology. In our previous trek through Psalm One Hundred Sixteen, we listened to an intensely personal, intimate testimony. We heard the voice of a single, desperate individual who had been wrapped in the terrifying cords of death. We saw Yahweh, the Most High God, stoop down from heaven to listen to one man's whispered cry for help. It was a beautiful picture of individual salvation, ending with the psalmist paying his vows in the temple courts of Jerusalem. Today, the camera pans out. We move from the microscopic to the macroscopic. The single voice of the rescued individual in Psalm One Hundred Sixteen suddenly turns into a megaphone, broadcasting a summons to the entire planet. Psalm One Hundred Seventeen is still part of the "Egyptian Hallel," the songs sung during the Passover festival. But here, the focus breaks completely out of the borders of Israel. It is a trumpet blast directed at the pagan world. It is a declaration of cosmic warfare, and a radical invitation of grace. So, let us unpack these two massive, monumental verses together. The First Segment is: The Cosmic Summons: Reclaiming the Disinherited. Psalm One Hundred Seventeen: verse one. Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise him, all you people of the earth. The psalm explodes right out of the gate with a command: "Praise the Lord, all you nations." To modern ears, this sounds like a standard, generic call to worship. But to the Ancient Israelite, singing this in the courts of the temple, this was a jaw-dropping, radical statement. It requires us to look through the lens of the Ancient Israelite Divine Council worldview, as taught by scholars like Dr. Michael S. Heiser. We must go all the way back to Genesis Chapter Eleven and the Tower of Babel. At Babel, humanity rebelled against Yahweh, refusing to spread out and fill the earth. In response, God judged the nations. But He didn't just confuse their languages; He disinherited them. According to Deuteronomy Chapter Thirty-two, verses eight through nine, God divided the nations and placed them under the authority of lesser spiritual beings—the "sons of God," or the divine council. Yahweh then stepped back and started over with one man, Abraham, to create His own special portion: Israel. From that moment on, the "nations" (the goyim) were viewed as foreign territory. They were under the jurisdiction of rebel gods, hostile principalities, and dark spiritual forces. They worshipped idols of wood and stone, which we saw mocked so thoroughly back in Psalm One Hundred Fifteen. So, when the psalmist stands up and shouts, "Praise Yahweh, all you nations!" he is doing something incredibly audacious. He is crossing enemy lines. He is essentially serving an eviction notice to the rebel gods. He is looking at the people of Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, and Assyria, and he is saying, "Your gods have failed you. They are dead. The time of your exile from the Creator is coming to an end. Yahweh is calling you back!" The parallel phrase, "Praise him, all you people of the earth," uses the Hebrew word ummim, which refers to tribes, clans, and people groups. The psalmist leaves no one out. The invitation is universal. God is not content to simply be the local deity of a small strip of land in the Middle East. He is the Maker of Heaven and Earth, and He demands, and invites, the adoration of every human being on the planet. This is why the Apostle Paul quotes this exact verse in Romans Chapter Fifteen, verse eleven. Paul uses Psalm One Hundred Seventeen to prove to the early church that the inclusion of the Gentiles—the non-Jewish people—was not a New Testament "Plan B." It was God's plan all along. The ultimate goal of choosing Israel was to create a beacon of light that would eventually draw all the disinherited nations back into the family of God. The Second Segment is: The Gravity of Grace: Why the Nations Should Sing. Psalm One Hundred Seventeen: verse two. For his unfailing love for us is powerful; the Lord's faithfulness endures forever. Praise the Lord! If verse one is the Command, verse two provides the Reason. Why should the pagan nations, who have spent centuries worshipping other gods, suddenly turn and praise Yahweh? The psalmist gives two reasons, rooted in two of the most important words in the Hebrew Bible: Unfailing Love (Hesed) and Faithfulness (Emet). Let us look closely at the first phrase: "For his unfailing love for us is powerful." Hesed is God's loyal, covenant-keeping, relentless love. But notice the direction of this love. The psalmist says His love for "us" is powerful. "Us" refers to Israel. This raises a fascinating question. Why should the nations praise God for the love He showed to Israel? If you are a Babylonian, why do you care that God loves the Jewish people? The answer lies in the promise given to Abraham in Genesis Chapter Twelve: "I will bless you... and all the families on earth will be blessed through you." Israel was never meant to be a reservoir of God's grace; they were meant to be a river. God's Hesed toward Israel—rescuing them from Egypt, giving them the law, protecting them from enemies, and bearing patiently with their constant rebellion—was the vehicle through which salvation would reach the rest of the world. When the nations look at how Yahweh treated Israel, they see a God who keeps His promises. They see a God who does not annihilate His people when they mess up. And they realize, "If this God is that intensely loyal and loving to Israel, maybe there is hope for us, too. Maybe we can be grafted into that same covenant." Furthermore, the word translated as "powerful" (gabar) is an incredibly muscular word. It means to prevail, to be mighty, or to overwhelm. It is the same word used in the story of Noah's Ark, when the floodwaters "prevailed" over the tops of the highest mountains. The psalmist is saying that God's unfailing love is a flood. It cannot be contained by the borders of Israel. It prevails over human sin. It prevails over the rebellious spiritual principalities of the Divine Council. It overtops the highest mountains of human resistance, and spills out to cover the entire globe. The Third Segment is: The Eternal Echo: Truth That Outlasts Time. The second half of the reason is just as anchoring: "...the Lord's faithfulness endures forever." The word for faithfulness is Emet, which means truth, reliability, and stability. In a world governed by chaotic pagan gods who were unpredictable, petty, and easily angered, the concept of a God whose truth "endures forever" was revolutionary. The gods of the nations rose and fell with their empires. Where is Marduk today? Where is Baal? They are buried in the dust of history, remembered only in museums and archaeological digs. But the faithfulness of Yahweh remains. His truth does not have an expiration date. Because His love is overwhelmingly powerful, and His truth is eternally stable, the nations have a solid rock upon which to stand. They are invited to leave the shifting sands of the world's chaos, and step into the eternal security of the Creator's household. The psalm concludes with the great bookend of the Hallel: "Praise the Lord!" Or, Hallelujah! When Jesus sang this psalm with His disciples on the night of the Last Supper, He knew exactly what He was about to do. He was about to walk to the cross to demonstrate the ultimate, prevailing power of God's Hesed. He was...

1 Timothy 4:8 NIV “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”   *Transcription Below*   Brian Smith, author of The Christian Athlete: Glorifying God in Sports, is a staff member with Athletes in Action and a cross-country coach at Lowell High School. A former collegiate runner at Wake Forest University, he earned a BA in Communications and Journalism before completing his MA in Theology and Sports Studies at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary. Brian lives in Lowell, MI with his wife and three children. You can find him on Twitter @BrianSmithAIA.   Ed Uszynski is an author, speaker, and sports minister with over three decades' experience discipling college and professional athletes. With a heart for reconciliation and justice, he also works as a racial literacy consultant and marriage conference speaker, blending Biblical wisdom with practical living in the midst of complex cultural realities. He has two theological degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a PhD in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. He and his wife Amy have four children and live in Xenia, Ohio.   The Christian Athlete Website   Thank You to Our Sponsor:  Sam Leman Eureka   Questions and Topics We Cover: What is one of kids' greatest game day complaints?  Is it true that young athletic success is a predictor of adult athletic success? What are a few tips for instilling a heart of gratitude in our young athlete, rather than entitlement?   Related Savvy Sauce Episode: 230 Intentional Parenting in All The Stages with Dr. Rob Rienow   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:11)   Laura Dugger: (0:12 - 1:51) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   The principles of honesty and integrity that Sam Leman founded his business on continue today, over 55 years later, at Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka.   Owned and operated by the Bertschi family, Sam Leman and Eureka appreciates the support they've received from their customers all over Central Illinois and beyond. Visit them today at lemangm.com.   Brian Smith and Ed Uszynski are my guests for today.   They are co-authors of this recent amazing book entitled, A Way Game, A Christian Parents Guide to Navigating Youth Sports. And from the very beginning, I was captivated, even with one of the endorsements from Matt Martens, who's the president and CEO of Awana, and he summed it up this way, A Way Game provides a much needed perspective shift on one of the most sacred idols in our culture, youth sports. So, Brian and Ed are all for youth sports, and yet you're going to hear there's a different way to approach it than what we've been trained in culture.   And they're going to share some wonderful and very practical insights. I can't wait to share this with you. Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Ed and Brian.   Ed Uszynski & Brian Smith: (1:51 - 1:54) Thanks for having us, Laura. Yeah, good to be here, Laura.   Laura Dugger: (1:54 - 2:04) So, excited about this chat. And will the two of you just start us off by sharing your family's stage of life and your involvement in sports?   Brian Smith: (2:05 - 3:29) Yeah, there could be a lot on the back end of that question. I'll start with sports, then get into family. I've been involved in sports my entire life, played every sport imaginable growing up, got cut from just about every single sport my freshman year of high school, ended up running track and cross country because it was the only sports that you could not get cut from at my high school.   And I ended up being pretty good at it by the time I was a senior, won some state championships, ended up getting a scholarship to run at Wake Forest University. So, I did that for four years right out of college. I coached a little bit collegiately.   Soon after that, I joined staff with a sports ministry called Athletes in Action that Ed and I have a combined 50 years with Athletes in Action. And really, that's been my life ever since. I've been ministering to college and pro athletes, discipling them, helping them figure out what does that actually look like to integrate faith in sport.   Even today, I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I coach high school cross country while I'm still on staff with Athletes in Action. I have a middle school Bible study that I run on Wednesday mornings.   Been married to my wife, who I actually met in high school. She was a distance runner too, and she ran at Wisconsin. So, we've been married for 20 years.   We have three kids, a high schooler, a middle schooler, and an elementary schooler who are all involved in sport at some level, some way, shape, or form.   Laura Dugger: (3:30 - 3:34) Wow, that's incredible. Thank you, Brian. And Ed, what about you?   Ed Uszynski: (3:34 - 5:04) Well, my story is very parallel to Brian's, just different sports and some different numbers. Just tack on 15 years. Yeah, I was a basketball player.   Grew up on the west side of Cleveland with a high school football coach. My dad was, but I was a basketball player. I played at high levels all the way through my 20s, got to play overseas.   I mean, this was a long time ago, but I got everything I could out of that sport. And as soon as I graduated from college, though, I started to work with that Athletes in Action ministry that Brian mentioned. So, I've been working with college and professional athletes for 34 years now.   And same, coached at different levels, have four kids. Amy and I have been married for 26 years. We have four kids, three are in college, and one's in ninth grade, who has a game this afternoon, actually.   So, we've just been going to games and have been involved in going to sports stuff for the last 20 years with our kids. And really what happened with Brian, and I is that we looked up a decade ago and realized this youth sports thing was a fast train that was moving in directions that we weren't used to ourselves, even though we've been around sports our whole life. It's like, there's something different happening now.   And then thinking about it as Christians, like, how do we do this well as Christ followers? We don't want to separate from it. We don't want to just go for the ride. How do we do this as Christian people? And that's what got us talking about it and eventually led to this book.   Laura Dugger: (5:05 - 5:23) Well, the book was easy to read and incredible. And I'd like to start there where you begin, even where you go back before going forward. So, when you're looking back, what are the factors at play that changed youth sports over time?   Ed Uszynski: (5:26 - 6:17) Well, I'll say this and then Brian, maybe you jump in and throw a couple of them out there. I mean, youth sports is a $40 billion industry today, which is wild to think about. It's four times how much money gets spent on the NFL, which is just staggering.   I can't even hardly believe that that's true, but it is. And it's really just in the last 20 years that that's happened. I mean, 50 years ago, you couldn't have had the youth sport industrial complex, as we refer to it.   You couldn't have had it. There were a bunch of things that had to happen culturally, as is true with any new movement or any paradigm shift that happens in culture. You've got to have certain things be true all at the same time that make it possible.   So, Brian, what were a couple of those? Again, I'll throw it over to you. There's six of them that we talk about in the book. And I think it's really fascinating because I'm a history guy.   Brian Smith: (6:18 - 8:40) Yeah. And we can obviously double click on any of these, Laura, that you want to, but we talk about how the college admissions process became an avenue where youth sports parents saw, man, if we can get our kids involved in some extracurriculars and kind of tag on high level athlete to their resume, it actually helps with the college admissions process. And so even the idea of college scholarships became an opportunity for youth sports parents to get their kids involved.   And then, yeah, maybe sports can actually get them into college. We talk about the economic shifts that happen, the rise of safetyism and helicopter parenting. ESPN was a massive one in 1979.   This thing called ESPN starts, and we get 24-7 coverage of sports, which they started exploring even early on. What does it look like to give coverage to something like Little League World Series and saw that it didn't really matter how young the sport was, it's going to draw a national audience. And so, we've almost been discipled by ESPN really over the last 50 years with this consistent coverage.   We talk about the rise of the sports complex. This one to me is like the most fascinating out of all of them. In 1997, Disney decided to try to get more people to come to their parks.   They built a sports complex, just a massive sports complex. The idea was, are the older kids getting sick of the Buzz Lightyear ride and the Disney princesses? So, let's build a sports complex and maybe it'll be something else that will draw this older crowd too.   And what happened was, I mean, a lot of people started coming to it, but kind of the stake in the ground game changer was when 9-11 hit. In the months and years after that, they saw a lot less people go to their parks, but population actually doubled going to the sports complex, which is wild to think that people were afraid to go to theme parks for a vacation, but they were willing to travel across state lines to play sports at the Disney complex. So other cities and municipalities took notice of that.   Today, there's over 30,000 sports complexes like Disney's, which again, this is all adding to the system of the youth sports industrial complex. Did I miss any, Ed?   Ed Uszynski: (8:41 - 10:47) Well, no, and that's good. And the reason why we even put all that on the table, again, everybody kind of intuitively knows if you're involved, you know, something's not right. But I think it's important to say this is not normal what's happening.   It's a new normal that's been manufactured by a bunch of cultural trends, by a bunch of entrepreneurs that are doing what entrepreneurs do, and they're taking advantage of the moment, and they are generating lots of money around it. So, it should be encouraging. If it's not normal, that means actually there's a counter way of going about this.   There really can be reformation. But when all this money gets involved, the two biggest consequences that come out of that is our kids start getting treated like commodities, which they are, and we could talk the whole time even just about what that means. But maybe even more importantly, or what comes out of that is that beyond their physical development, most coaches and clubs are not paying any attention to their emotional development, their psychological development, their spiritual development, all the different aspects of what it means to be human that, frankly, used to be paid quite a bit more attention to in youth leagues when I was growing up.   I'm 58 now, so I was playing in the 70s and the 80s. And it used to be expected, at least at some level, even among non-Christian people, that you would take those aspects of a kid's life seriously. And now those just aren't prioritized.   And so, what do we do about that? Again, that's kind of our whole point is, well, as Christian people, we're really supposed to be our kid's first discipler anyways. And part of that role and part of taking on that identity is that we would be asking, what is God trying to do in the wholeness of their life, the entirety of their life, even in the context of sports?   So again, I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but that's why we're trying to poke into that to say, oh, we could actually make change. We may not change the whole system. In fact, we won't. Most of us won't be expected to do that, but we can make significant change in our corner of the bleachers and what happens with our kids.   Laura Dugger: (10:48 - 11:05) That's good. And just like you said, to double-click on a few places, first of all, real quick, the 30,000 number, I remember that shocking me in the book, but I'm forgetting now, is that worldwide, the amount of sports complexes or is that just in America?   Brian Smith: (11:05 - 11:06) That's domestically in the US.   Laura Dugger: (11:07 - 11:52) Yeah. That is staggering. And then one other piece, all of this history was new to me as you brought it all together, but it was also fascinated.   This is from page 32. I'll just read your quote. The American youth sports ball began rolling when a British movement fusing spiritual development with physical activity made its way across the Atlantic Ocean at the turn of the last century.   And Ed, that's kind of what you were touching on, that they were mixing, I'm sure, spiritual, psychological discipleship, physical. Can you elaborate more on what was happening and where it originated? Because we've come very far from our origins.   Ed Uszynski: (11:53 - 13:18) Yeah. And there's been a bunch of really great books written about this topic called muscular Christianity. This idea, like you just said, Laura, of wedding physical activity through sports with our spiritual development and expecting and anticipating that somebody that was taking care of their body and that was engaging in sport activity, that was the closest thing to godliness.   That opened up the door for you to also be developing spiritually. And there was an expectation that both of those are going on at the same time. A bunch of criticism about that movement, but it was taken seriously.   The YMCA is actually a huge byproduct of the muscular Christianity movement. The Young Men's Christian Association created space for sports and for athletic activity to take place under the banner of you're also going to grow spiritually as you're doing this. So again, that was a hundred years ago.   And that's not really what AAU stands for today. The different clubs and leagues that we get involved in just don't talk that way anymore. Of course, culture just in general has shifted away from sort of a Judeo-Christian ethic guiding a North Star for us.   Even if we're not Christian people, that used to be more of a North Star. That's gone now. And so, it really is not expected in sports anymore.   Brian Smith: (13:18 - 13:55) And what we're saying is we cannot expect organizations to own that process for our kids. We can't outsource the discipleship of our kids to the youth sports industrial complex or the YMCA or the AAU. It really does start with us as Christian parents to be the primary discipler of our kids.   And there is a way to take what's happening on the field or the court or the pool and turn it into really amazing discipleship opportunities. But it means, and Ed is starting to tease this out, it means we need to change our perspective as parents when we sit in the bleachers or on the sidelines of what we're looking for and even the conversations we have with our kids on the back end.   Laura Dugger: (13:57 - 15:29) And now a brief message from our sponsor.   Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka has been owned and operated by the Bertschi family for over 25 years. A lot has changed in the car business since Sam and Stephen's grandfather, Sam Leman, opened his first Chevrolet dealership over 55 years ago.   If you visit their dealership today though, you'll find that not everything has changed. They still operate their dealership like their grandfather did, with honesty and integrity. Sam and Stephen understand that you have many different choices in where you buy or service your vehicle.   This is why they do everything they can to make the car buying process as easy and hassle-free as possible. They are thankful for the many lasting friendships that began with a simple welcome to Sam Leman's. Their customers keep coming back because they experience something different.   I've known Sam and Stephen and their wives my entire life and I can vouch for their character and integrity, which makes it easy to highly recommend you check them out today. Your car buying process doesn't have to be something you dread, so come see for yourself at Sam Leman Chevrolet in Eureka. Sam and Stephen would love to see you and they appreciate your business.   Learn more at their website, LemanEureka.com or visit them on Facebook by searching for Sam Leman Eureka. You can also call them on 309-467-2351. Thanks for your sponsorship.   Laura Dugger: (15:30 - 15:31) And I want to continue getting into more of those practicals. Do you want to give us just a taste or an example or story of what that might look like?   Brian Smith: (15:32 - 16:54) We keep saying, we keep talking about the importance of the car ride home that it's tempting for us and not us broadly in the U.S., tempting for us, Ed and I, as people who have done this for 50 plus years and who should know better, it's tempting for us as discipled by an ESPN over analyzing everything culture and want to talk about sports to get in the car ride home with our kids and all we want to talk about is how game went, what they did right, what they did wrong, what they could fix next time.   Maybe instead of passing to Tim, they should take the shot next time because they're wide open. They just hit three in a row. So, and what our kids need from us in those moments is less coaching, less criticizing, less critiquing, and they just need us to connect with them.   The stats on kids quitting youth sports is crazy right now. Its 70 percent are quitting before the age of 13, in large part because it's not fun, and a lot of kids are attaching this idea of it not being fun to the car ride home with their parents who, let's say this too, most of us are well-intentioned parents. We're not trying to screw our kids up.   We want what's best for our kids, but the data and the research and the lived experience continues to tell us what our kids need from us is just to take a deep breath, connect with them, less coaching. Ed keeps saying less coaching, more slurpees.   Laura Dugger: (16:55 - 17:07) I like that. And that ties in. Is it called the peak-end principle that you discovered why kids are resisting that critique on the way home?   Brian Smith: (17:07 - 18:17) Yeah, absolutely. The peak-end rule in psychology is known as this: we, just as humans in general, not just kids, we largely remember things in our lives based on the peak moment of that event, but also how the event ends. And so, the peak moment in sport can be anything from something that goes really well, like they scored a goal or made a basket or something that did not go well, just like a massive event that took place that they're going to remember.   But then it's also married to how that event ends. So, if you think for kids, how does every youth sport experience end? It ends with the car ride home.   So, if they're experiencing the car ride home as I did not live up to mom and dad's standards, or there's fear getting into the car because they don't know what their parents are going to say, how are they remembering the totality of their youth sport experience? It is, I didn't, I didn't measure up. I wasn't enough.   It felt like sports was a place that I needed to perform for my parents or my coach. And I always feel a little bit short. We want to help parents see like there's a different path forward that can be more joyful for you, but hopefully more joyful for your kid as well.   Ed Uszynski: (18:17 - 21:37) Well, and, and I'll just, let me keep going with that, Brian. I thought you really articulated all that so well. I can just imagine a parent maybe thinking, was there never a time to correct?   Is there never a time to give input? And we would say, well, of course there, there is, they need far less of it from us than we think they need when it comes to their sport. And again, we can talk about that.   They need far less of that from us. They need us to be their parents, not to be their coaches. Even if we are their coach, they need us to be more their parents.   But there is a time to do it. We're just saying the car ride home is the worst time to do it. And that's usually the time that most of us, you know, we've got two hours of stuff to download with them.   And that's just, it's not a good time. But the other thing that Brian and I keep talking about is how about, what if we had some different metrics that we were even trying to measure? So, most of the time our metrics have to do with their performance.   Like what, what are we grading them on? Again, depending on what the sport is, there's these different things that we're looking for to say, how you did today is based on whether you did this or you didn't do that and whatnot. And we're saying as parents, and again, starting with us, we needed some other metrics that were actually more concerned about what was going on in their soul.   So again, I'm sure we'll talk more about this, but the virtues, how did love show up in the way they competed today? Where that usually is tied to them noticing somebody else. Do I, am I even asking them any questions about that?   Are they experiencing peace in the midst of all this chaos and anxiety that shows up at every game? How do we teach them to experience peace? How do they become other-centered instead of just self-centered all the time in a culture, a sport culture that's teaching them to always be the center of attention and try to be?   So, we just have needed to exchange some of what we had on that performance list, like tamper that down a little bit and maybe expand the list of categories that we're looking for that actually will matter when they're 25. And we keep saying this, our goal is that they'd come home for Thanksgiving when they're 25. And so, we need to stay relationally connected to them and how we act on the car ride home day after day after day after day, year after year is doing something to our relationship.   But we also are recognizing that it's really not going to matter whether Trey finishes with his left hand at the game today when he's 25, it's not going to matter. It's not going to matter probably a year from now, but how he goes through the handshake line after the game and the way he addresses other people, and whether or not he's learning to submit to authority, whether or not he's learning to embrace other people's humanity. Yes, even in the context of sports, that's really going to matter when he's 25.   It's going to matter when he's married. Those are the things that will matter. And we say that as people who are older and have been involved in ministry and have worked with college athletes and see what happens in their lives even after they're finished, and they have no idea who they are anymore.   And this thing that's dominated their life has not actually prepared them well to do life. And that's a problem that we say, let's start changing that when they're six and not hope they're figuring it out when they're 22.   Laura Dugger: (21:38 - 22:11) I love that because that's such a theme throughout those virtues that you talked about, but discipleship and sports are a tool or a way that we can disciple our kids. I also love that you give various questions throughout the book and even quick phrases. So to close that conversation on the car ride home, if we say, okay, that's what I've been coaching the whole way home, what is a question we could ask our child afterwards and a statement we could say and leave it at that and do it a better way?   Brian Smith: (22:12 - 23:56) The question I have consistently asked my kids after learning that I've been doing this the wrong way for a long time, I tweet my question to they get in the car and I say, is there anything that happened today from the game that you want to talk about? And it's frustrating to me because 99% of the time they say, no, can we listen to the radio? And we listen to the radio, or they play a on my phone, but I'm respecting their desire that they're done with what just happened and they're ready to move on to the next thing, even though I really want to talk about what just happened.   And then the statement that I want to make sure that I'm consistently saying that they're hearing is I love you and I'm proud of you. So, game didn't go well. Yeah, you did play well today.   That's okay. Hey, I love you and I'm proud of you. Game went well today.   Awesome. Great job. Hey, I love you and I'm proud of you.   So I want that to be the consistent theme that they're hearing for me, which is hopefully going to help them better understand the gospel later in life, that as they get older and older, hopefully they'll begin to realize it seemed like the way that my mom and dad interacted with me when I was performing in sport, but their love was not attached to my performance. That seems really similar to what I'm learning more and more that Jesus does for me, that I'm trying to do all these things that are good. But from what I'm understanding about the gospel, it seems like Jesus loves me in spite of what I do.   He loves me just because He's connected to me, that God loves me because I'm a son or daughter, not because I'm performing as a son or a daughter. So, in a very real way, I really am hoping that I'm giving a good teaser for my kids now for when they fully experience the gospel as they go through the life.   Ed Uszynski: (23:56 - 24:47) Another really good connecting question. I love how you said all that, Brian, is if they don't want to talk about the game, is it okay, did you have fun today? And they can only go in one of two directions.   No. Well, tell me about that. Why not?   And it opens up the door to talk about, well, because I didn't get to play or because something bad happened. And again, tell me more about that. Tell me more about that.   Or they say, yes, great. What happened that was fun? And it creates a very different conversation in the car.   And it opens up, again, relational possibilities that go way beyond, why do you keep passing it when you should be shooting it? Wow. And just all the different ways that that comes out of us, depending on sport, depending on their age.   But those are great questions. Go ahead, Brian.   Brian Smith: (24:47 - 25:41) I just asked my son this morning. He's a freshman. His wrestling season is almost done.   And I just asked, like, what has been most fun for you in wrestling this year? And his first thing was, I feel like I'm learning a lot. And that's really fun for me, which he's on a really good team.   He's had a lot of success. He's made a lot of good friends. But even that gave me a window into his characters.   My son enjoys and I knew this is true about him. But my son enjoys learning, which means he enjoys the process of getting better and better and better, which can happen in school, it can happen doing stuff in the yard, it can it can also happen in sport. But for me to remember moving forward, yeah, he he's probably going to have a different metric for what's fun in sport than I often do for him.   Yeah, like I wanted to learn. I want him to win though, too. He's happy with learning right now.   So, I need to be happy with that for him.   Ed Uszynski: (25:41 - 26:34) If I can say this, too, again, I don't want to be vulnerable on your behalf. But then knowing this, he's lost a lot this year to really good kids. Yeah.   And so much of the learning has been in the context of losing. So, you as a dad, actually, you could be crushing him because of those losses and what he needs to do to fix that and what he needs to do so that that doesn't happen again. And it's like he's already committed to learning.   How do you just how do you celebrate the loss? Like he took the risk to try something new in this movie. He tried to survive an extra period.   That's a process when and it's we just need to get better at that. Like you genuinely can celebrate that. That's not just a that's not like a participation trophy.   It's acknowledging now, do you're taking you're taking the right steps that are actually making you a winner, even if you don't have more points at the end of the game right now.   Laura Dugger: (26:34 - 26:54) Yeah. Yeah. And that long term win that you're talking about, even with character and you've talked about fun and asking them about fun.   Is it true that that's the main reason kids are dropping out of sports at such a rapid rate before age 13 is that it's just not fun anymore?   Ed Uszynski: (26:55 - 28:58) Yeah. Yeah. And why is it not fun?   And again, this is where Brian and I are always getting in each other's business. And we know that this conversation gets in all of our business as adults. But why is it not fun?   It's not fun because of the coaches and it's not fun because of the parents. We are creating stress. We are creating again collectively because we're all in different places on the on the spectrum on this in terms of what we're actually doing when we show up at games.   But if you even just go to any soccer game and you be quiet and just listen to what's happening and everybody's shouting and screaming things and there's contradictory messages being sent and there's angst at every turn and there's an incredible celebration because this eight year old was able to get the ball to go across the line for another goal. And what that's doing inside the kids is it is creating a not fun atmosphere. Let's just say it like that.   That's a not fun atmosphere when you're eight, when you're 10, when you're trying to figure out how to make your body work. You're trying to learn the game that you're unfamiliar with and you're trying to do what this coach is telling you to do. And you're also trying to do what all the parents are telling you what to do.   And if it's a team sport, you're trying to interact and play with other kids who are all in that same state of disarray, which is very stressful and frustrating. And we're just adding to it. So instead of removing it, instead of playing a role that says, we're going to keep diffusing that stress.   And again, I'll speak for myself. Too often, I have been the one that's actually adding to it. And so, kids are just like, why would I do this?   Why would I want to get in that car again with you? It's not fun. This is a game.   And so, there's a million other things that I can do with my time where I don't have everybody yelling at me and I don't have to listen to you correct me for two hours.   Laura Dugger: (29:00 - 29:21) Well, and one other thing that surprised me, maybe why kids are dropping out, you share on page 47, a quote that research reveals a strange correlation. The more we spend, the less our kids actually enjoy their sport. So, did you have any more insight into that?   Brian Smith: (29:21 - 30:50) Yeah, this was a real study that was done at Utah State. Researchers found that the more money parents are spending, again, let's say well-intentioned parents, the more we're spending in sports, the less our kids are enjoying. And the more they have dug into it, they're finding, and intuitively it makes sense.   If you buy your kid a $600 baseball bat, what's the expectation that they're supposed to do with this really expensive bat? When they swing, they better hit the ball, and they better get on base. If we're going to buy you this expensive of a bat, you can't just have process goals with it.   You better swing and hit it. And that's causing stress for kids. If you travel across state lines and you go to Disney to play at their sports complex, you're not there for vacation.   You're there to perform. So even if parents are saying we're trying to have fun, kids know when you're traveling and you're getting all this good equipment and you're on the elite team and you're receiving the best of the best stuff, they know it comes with some sort of an expectation. College athletes can barely handle that type of pressure and expectations, but we've placed this professional on youth sports from fifth five-year-olds to 15-year-olds, and it's just crushing them.   It's crushing them. Again, college athletes and professional athletes can barely handle it. They need mental health coaches for sports, but we're expecting that our five-year-olds can handle it, and they can't.   Ed Uszynski: (30:51 - 31:19) And they may not even be able to articulate it. So that's the other thing. They may not be able to identify what's actually going on inside and put it into words.   So again, that's why we're trying to sound the alarm for ourselves and for others who are listening, because we can do it different. Again, just to even keep spinning it back in an encouraging direction, we can do this different. We can change this this week in our corner of the bleachers.   We can start over again.   Laura Dugger: (31:21 - 31:48) Absolutely and make a difference. And before we talk about even more of the pros with sports, I think it's also necessary to reflect and maybe even grieve a few things. So, what would you say are some things families are missing out on when they choose youth sports to overfill their calendar, that that's all that they make time for?   What do you think they're missing out on?   Brian Smith: (31:51 - 33:16) Yeah, I think a couple that come to mind are family dinners are a big one. That's big for us in the Smith house, is just having the ability after a long day to sit at the dinner table together, to eat food together, and to process the day and be with one another. But when my kids' practice goes late, it means we're either eating almost towards bedtime or we're eating in different shifts.   And so that's something that we grieve. I think for me, when my schedule is full, I'm tempted to adopt the mindset that what's happening on the wrestling mat or on the track matters more than it actually does. And it robs me of the ability to just take a deep breath and smile and enjoy watching my kids play sports.   That without an intervention or a pregame devotional in the car for myself, I risk sitting in the stands or being on the sidelines, being stressed out and putting pressure on myself and pressure on my kids and gossiping about why the coach didn't put this kid into the people next to me, instead of just enjoying the gift that is sports and watching my kid try and succeed and try and fail. That is a gift available to me as a dad to watch my kid do that. But the busyness often robs me of that perspective.   Ed Uszynski: (33:17 - 36:06) Well, and the busyness robs, again, if you're married, that busyness eventually wears away at your relationship. And it's not just sports. I mean, busyness, we can fill our schedule, overfill our schedules with any number of things.   We can overfill our schedules with church stuff to a point where it becomes detrimental to our relationship. If we don't set boundaries so that we're making sure we're doing what we need to do to be face-to-face and to be going to areas beneath the surface with each other in our relationship and being able to do that with our kids as well, eventually there's negative consequences to that. It may not happen right away, but I've definitely experienced that.   We've experienced that in our home where it's easy to maybe chase one kid around for a while, but what happens when you add three into the mix and you haven't really done a time budget or paid attention to the fact that when we sign up for all these things, you get a month into it and you realize, oh, we have to be in different places at the same time. So, we're not even watching stuff together anymore. We're just running.   I can endure anything for a season, but what youth sports wants now in every sport from the youngest ages is that it becomes a year-round commitment. So, you're not even signing up to play a season anymore. You're signing up for a year in most cases because after the games, then they're going to have training.   They're going to have this other thing going on. And so again, can we say, well, we'll play the actual season, but then we're not going to do the additional training over these next three months. Again, we want to give parents' permission that you can say no to that.   Well, we paid for it. Well, it's okay. If you want your kid to be on that team and you like this club or whatever, then you pay the money and you just say, we're going to sit those three months out and we're going to use those three months actually to have people over our house for dinner.   Again, whatever's on the list, Laura, that you said about being more holistic and not letting sport operate like an idol in our life where it's taken on, it's washed out everything else in our life. We can get back in control of that by just saying no a little bit. You can go to church on Sunday.   Even if there's tournament games going on on Sunday, you can go to the coach early and say, hey, we just, in our family, we just don't want to be available before 12. Are you okay with that? And most of the time coaches will be.   The kid might have to sit extra maybe for not being, whatever. Okay. That's not going to be the end of the world that they had to sit out an extra game or had to sit out a half because they weren't available on Sunday morning.   It might actually make a huge difference that they weren't at church for two and a half years in the most formative time of their life.   Laura Dugger: (36:07 - 37:36) And a lot of times the way of wisdom includes reflection, getting alone with the Lord and asking, have we overstuffed our schedule this conversation today? Let's talk specifically with youth sports. Is that trumping everything else?   Because what if we're putting it in a place it was never intended to be as an idol where we sacrifice hospitality or discipleship or community or even just a more biblical way of life? I think we have to bring wisdom into the conversation for what you've mentioned. Whether it's worth it, if they're even enjoying it, how much we're spending on it, and do we have the budget to allocate our finances that way and evaluating the time just to see and make sure that it's rightly ordered.   Did you know you could receive a free email with monthly encouragement, practical tips, and plenty of questions to ask to take your conversation a level deeper, whether that's in parenting or on date nights? Make sure you access all of this at thesavvysauce.com by clicking the button that says join our email list so that you can follow the prompts and begin receiving these emails at the beginning of each month. Enjoy!   But if we flip that to if youth sports are rightly ordered, then what are some things that we can celebrate or reasons that you would want families to give this a try?   Brian Smith: (37:37 - 40:09) The massive positive that we keep coming back to is we have a front row seat to see our kids go through every possible emotion in sport, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And then if we have the right perspective, we are armed with awesome opportunities and awesome information that we're seeing. We get to see what our kids are really good at.   We get to see their character gaps. And then we get to be the ones who, again, who are their primary response, primary disciplers. It really goes back to like, are we trusting youth sports for too little in our kids' lives?   Like many of us are trusting that our investment is going to get them a spot on a team, or maybe they get an opportunity in high school, maybe in college. And what we're saying is, yeah, that maybe. And that's not a bad end goal.   But if that's everything that you're investing into youth sports, it's not enough. Like what you have available to you every single day is to ask your kid if they showed somebody else's dignity on the field. You don't know if your kid's going to hit a home run today.   That may not be available to them their entire life. What's available to them every single day is to ask a question to their teammate, to see somebody and show dignity to them. And that's really, it's like, it's almost the opportunity of a lifetime for us as parents who, when our kids get home from school, we really don't know what happened most of the day.   We asked them how it went and we get the one-word answer. In sports, we don't have to guess. We get to see everything that happens.   And again, if we are actually trusting youth sports for discipleship investment, that's a good ROI. That's a good return on our investment. But we need a consistent intervention almost daily to say, no, this is why they're in sports.   Yes, I want to see them get better. I want to see them have fun, but Holy Spirit, would you help me see things today that I normally don't see? Holy Spirit, would you put them in circumstances and relationships today and in the season that's going to help them look more and more like Jesus by the time the season's done?   Holy Spirit, would you convict me in the moment when I am being a little too mouthy and saying things that I shouldn't? Would you help me to repent? And God, in those moments where I'm actually doing wrong on behalf of my kid, would you help me to humble myself and apologize to them?   And God, would you repair our relationship that way? So again, all of these options are available just because our kid's shooting a ball or they're on the field with somebody else tackling other people. We're trusting youth sports for too little.   Ed Uszynski: (40:10 - 41:10) That's all big boy and big girl stuff. It just is. I don't normally naturally do any of that.   I have to be coached into that. I have to be discipled myself. I have to work through my own issues, my own baggage, my own fears about the future, my own idolatrous holding onto this imagined future that I have for my kid, irrespective of what God may or may not want.   I've got my own resentment. I've got my own regrets from the past. I wish things had gone differently for me, so I'm going to make sure they go different for you when it comes to sports.   And it's hard to look in the mirror and admit that I have anger issues. I mean, youth sports create a great opportunity for me to get up all my pent-up frustration from the day. We've given ourselves permission to do that, in most cases, to just yell and yell at refs and gripe about coaches and yell at kids.   Brian Smith: (41:10 - 41:31) Because that's what we do at the TV, right? When our favorite team is playing, we've conditioned ourselves to say, awful call, that was terrible. Then we get on social media and we complain about it.   We are discipling ourselves to this is how it's normative to respond within the context of sports. Then we carry all that baggage to our six-year-old soccer game.   Laura Dugger: (41:33 - 42:02) Well, I love how you keep pointing it back toward character and discipleship. You clearly state throughout the book, sports don't develop character, people do. But could you maybe elaborate on that a little bit more and share more now that we've listed pros and cons, you still list a completely different way that we can meaningfully participate while also pushing back?   Brian Smith: (42:04 - 43:49) I'll start with the first part, and then you can answer the second. We use the handshake line as a great example of why character needs to be taught to our kids. If you just watch a normal handshake line left without coaching, the kids are going through it, especially the ones who lose with their head down, they have limp hands, there's no eye contact, and they're mumbling good game, good game.   Sometimes they don't even say it, they'll say GG stands for good game. They don't just learn character by going through the handshake line. If anything, that's going through it like that without any sort of intervention or coaching, that's malforming their character.   That's teaching them when things don't go well, that it's okay for them not to be a big boy or a big girl and look somebody in the eye and congratulate them. What needs to happen? An adult needs to step in and say, hey, as we go through the handshake line, whether you win or lose, here's how we do it with class.   We shake somebody's hand, we look them in the eye, and we say good game. Even if in those moments we don't actually mean it, we still show them dignity and honor. And then when we're done going through the handshake line, guess what we're going to do?   We're going to run down the refs who are trying to get in their car and get out of here, and we're going to give them a high five and say, thank you so much for reffing today. That stuff needs to be taught. Our kids don't just come out of the womb knowing how to do that.   We have to teach them how to do it. Sometimes good coaches will do that, but the more and more we get sucked up into the sports industrial complex, we're getting well-intentioned coaches, but we're getting coaches who care more about the big W, the win, than the character formation stuff that happens.   Ed Uszynski: (43:49 - 45:27) They need to keep hearing it over and over again. I have a ninth grade Bible study in my house the other day with athletes and a whole bunch of my son's basketball team. Exactly what Brian just said, I actually was like, wow, I've got them here.   There was a big blow up at a game the other day, and we wound up talking about it. I said, I'm going to take this opportunity actually to say what Brian just said. When you go through a handshake line, this is how you go through it.   I watched what happened in the game a couple days later. Basically, they did the exact opposite of what I told them to do, and they lost. It was just what Brian said.   They went through limp handed. They didn't look anybody in the face, and they weren't even saying anything. I just chuckled to myself, and you know how this is as a parent.   They may or may not do it. Of course, those aren't my kids. I have more stewardship over my child, who actually, he is doing what I've asked him to do because I've re-emphasized it across time now.   It's not a failure because they didn't do what I said. Again, the pouty side of me wants to be like, forget it. I'm just not even going to try anymore.   It's like, no, they're kids. That was the first time they've heard that. They're going to do what their patterns have, the muscle memory that's been created by their patterns, just like we do as adults.   The next time I have a chance to bring that up again, I'm not going to shame them. I'm just going to go over it again with them. Here's how we do it.   It's super hard to do this, guys, when you just want to be violent with people or you want to cry. You got to pull yourself together. That's what big men do.   That's what big women do in life. They pull themselves together in those moments and do the right thing.   Brian Smith: (45:28 - 46:01) You don't know whether the fifth time you say it is going to stick or the 50th time. Your responsibility as the Christ-following parent is to do it the sixth time and the seventh time and the seventh time and trust that God is going to take those moments and do what he does. We're ultimately not responsible for our kids' behavior.   We're responsible for pointing them in the right direction, and then hopefully, yeah, the Holy Spirit steps in and transforms and changes and convicts in those moments, but it might take some time.   Ed Uszynski: (46:02 - 47:47) Tom Bilyeu So that's how you push back, Laura. You were asking that. How do we push back without being just completely involved in it or going for the same ride that everybody else is going for?   There's just little moments like that scattered throughout. Literally, every day that my kids are involved in youth sports, the car ride over, what happens on the way home, how we talk about it, what happens during the game and what we wind up talking about out of that, the side conversations that happen that just get brought up apart from games of how we interact with people and so-and-so looks like they're struggling. What do you know about that?   That's how we push back, that in our corner of the bleachers, oh, how we interact with other parents. We haven't even talked about that yet, that I can take an interest in more than just my own kid in the bleachers and spend way more energy actually in cheering for other kids and just trying to give them confidence and spend way less time trying to direct that at my own child who knows that I'm there. In fact, my side kid has said he doesn't want to hear my voice during the game.   It distracts him. He's like, I'd much rather that you cheer for other people. It's like, okay.   Having questions ready for other parents during timeouts and as you sit there for hours together, what do you talk about? Well, I could be the one that actually initiates substantive conversations over time with them and asks them about what's going on in different parts of their life. And in having done that, people want to talk.   They want a safe place actually to share what's going on in their So let me be the sports minister. Let me take on that identity and actually care about other people.   Laura Dugger: (47:49 - 49:47) I love that. Even that practical idea of just coming to each game, maybe with a different question, ready to open up those conversations. And I'll share a quick story as well.   Our two oldest daughters recently just gave cheerleading a try at a local Christian school that allows homeschool kids to participate. And this is an overt way that somebody chooses the different way. So, it's the coach of the basketball team.   His name is Cole. And at the end of every game, we saw him consistently throughout this season when it was a home game, whether their team won or lost, he would ask them, okay, shut off the scoreboard. It's all blank.   He gathers both teams. As soon as the game is over teams, cheerleaders, the stands stay filled with all the parents. And he says, this is not our identity.   The world and Satan, our enemy, who's very real. He wants us to put our identity here, but it's not here. You made us better tonight by the way that you played and you were able to shine Jesus.   And we're going to go a step further and we're going to do what we call attaways. So, he's like, all right, boys, you open it up. And his team is trained.   They say to the other team, Hey, number 23, what's your name? I loved how you pushed me so much harder tonight and says, my name's Ben. And so, their Attaway is, Hey, Ben.   And everybody goes, Hey, Ben. Yeah, Ben. Yeah, Ben Attaway.   And everybody just erupts in clapping. And the other team is always blown away and they are just grinning, whether they just lost. So, the boys go through that for a while and then they open it up to the other team and they start sharing Attaways.   And then they open it up to the crowd and the parents are able to say, I see the way you modeled Jesus by being selfless with the ball or whatever it is. So, Cole said that his college coach did that many years ago and he's passed that on. And I love that's one way to redeem the game.   Ed Uszynski: (49:47 - 51:39) Wow. Beautiful. Beautiful.   Yeah. That's amazing. And, you know, I, so Brian and I talk about this too.   And I coached at a Christian school. So, we, we think that it's really important if you're going to play sports and you're going to be a Christian coach that you actually take the game seriously. And that we actually are here to compete and we are here to try to win.   There's nothing wrong with that. And we're going to pursue excellence when we show up with our bodies, and we train for this sport and we're going to try to win. Cause I think sometimes we end up kind of going all or nothing, especially within our Christian circles.   We're uncomfortable with that. And it's like, yes, do that. And on the backside of that to do what that coach did is amazing.   It's that, that is, that is exactly what we're saying. We're also going to try to form our souls in the midst of this. We're going to try to win on the scoreboard.   Okay. The game's over, we lost, we won, whatever. There's more going on here than just that. And can we access that together? And again, that's so rare. Probably everybody listening has never even heard of anything like what you just said.   It would be amazing if a bunch of people did, but that's what we're saying. Let's do more of that. Let's find ways to have more of those conversations in our sphere of influence.   Maybe we're not the coach, but we can do that in our car. We can do that when we're at dinners with the other, with other players and other team, you know, we, we can do that. We can take that kind of initiative.   If we have those categories in our mind, instead of just being frustrated that my kid didn't get to play as much tonight. And I'm that bugs me. It's like, okay, it can bug you.   And now I gotta, I gotta be a big boy and get more out of this than just being frustrated that he or she didn't get to play as much. It's hard.   Laura Dugger: (51:40 - 52:11) Absolutely. Well, and like you guys are doing having Bible studies outside of the, the team that you can instill values in that way and share scripture that they're memorizing to go out there with excellence for the Lord. So, I love all of that.   And I've got just a few quick questions, just kind of for perspective. I want to draw out something from the book. Is it true that young athletic success predicts adult athletic success?   Brian Smith: (52:13 - 53:51) It is not true. This is, this is not a hot take. This is researched back more and more research they're doing on this.   And they're finding that there's not a direct correlation between a young elite athlete and them continuing that up into the right trajectory and being an elite athlete later in life in large part, because when puberty hits, like everything is a game changer. So, this is, I found this fascinating and this is probably going to be new to you too. This just came out today.   At the time we're doing this podcast, the winter Olympics is going on in Norway. It's just like, they're killing it. Nor Norway's youth sports system.   This is wild. They give participation trophies for all the kids. They don't keep score until 13 years old.   They don't do any national travel competitions, no posting youth sports results online. So, there's no online presence of youth sport results. And their country motto is joy of sport for all.   And they're, they're killing it right now in the Olympics. So, like, that's not to say, like you got to follow their model and then you're going to win all these gold medals, but it is, there is something to just let the kids have fun. And the longer they play sport, because it's fun, the better opportunity you're actually going to have to see them blossom and develop some of these God-given gifts that they might have.   Don't expect it to come out before they're 13. Even if it does, there's no guarantee that it's going to continue on until they're 23. Just let them have fun.   Ed Uszynski: (53:52 - 55:55) Brian, we, Brian and I got to speak at a church the other day about this topic. And there was a couple that came up afterwards and they asked the question of what, so when do you think we should let our kids play organized sports or structured sports? And so again, Brian and I are careful.   Like I, there's no, there's no one size fits all answer to that. We would suggest as late as possible, wait as long as possible. Because once you start doing structured sport where there's a coach and you have to be at practices and the games are structured and there's reps, it just cuts away all the possibility they have to just play and just to go up to the YMCA and just play for three hours at whatever it is that they like to do.   And they said, well, it's encouraging to hear that they said, because we, we actually are way more into just developing their bodies physically. And so, we do dance with them, and we do rock climbing and they were kind of outdoorsy people, and they just started listing off all these things they do because we want them to become strong in their bodies, and learn to love activity like that. And I just thought, again, that's, that probably would cause a lot of people to freak out to hear that, that they have eight, nine-year-olds that aren't on teams yet.   They're just, they're training their bodies to appreciate physicality and to become coordinated and to, you know, to get better at movement. And it's like, what sport is that not going to be super helpful in five years from now, even when they're 12, 13 years old. And now they really do want to play one sport, and they do want to be on a team.   They're going to be way ahead of the kids actually that just sat on benches or stood in the outfield, you know, day after day after day at practices. Again, that's maybe hard to hear, but maybe there's some adjustments that need to be made again; to give ourselves permission to say, we don't have to get on that train right now. You don't have to, your kid's not going to be behind.   They actually could be ahead. If you do the kinds of things we just talked about.   Laura Dugger: (55:56 - 56:11) I love that. And even that example with what it looks like played out with Norway and also, do you have any other quick tips just for instilling and cultivating a heart of gratitude and youth sports rather than entitlement?   Brian Smith: (56:13 - 57:33) I'm a high school cross country and track coach, and I have kids on my team who want to get faster at running, but instead of running, they want to lift weights and they want to do plier metrics. So, there's, yes, there's a spot for that. But the way you get better at running is to run.   You got to run more miles and more miles. And I think gratitude is similar. That gratitude, part of it is a, it's a feeling, but it's also a muscle that we can flex even if we don't feel it.   And so, I would encourage parents who are trying to instill gratitude into their kids to give them practical things like, hey, after practice, just go shake your coach's hand or give them a fist bump and tell them, thanks for practice today, coach. That that's a disciplined way to practice gratitude that will hopefully build the muscle where they're, they're using it later in life. After a game, I taught my kids this when they were young and they still do it today.   Go shake a ref's hand. I mentioned this earlier, just a really, really practical way to show thankfulness and gratitude to somebody who really doesn't get a whole lot of gratitude pointed at them during a game or after a game. If anything, they have people chasing them through the parking lot for other reasons.   I want my kids to be chasing them down to give them a fist bump or a high five. And so, gratitude is something that we can just practice practically. And hopefully the discipline practice will lead to a delight and actually doing it.   Ed Uszynski: (57:34 - 59:39) And how do we cultivate an inner posture? Cause I tend to be a cup half empty type person. I'm a, I'm a whiner by nature and a continuous improvement.   There's always something wrong. And I'm, it's easy for me to find those things just as a person. I'm not even saying that as a dad or a coach or anything.   And it's been super helpful to me in the last decade, even to just like, I can choose to shift that. There, there is, there's a list of things that are broke, but there is always a list of things that are good. There's always something good here to be found.   And even as I've tried to like, again, tip the scales more in that direction, I can keep pushing that out of my kids. So, so this, you know, my ninth-grade son tends to just like, he doesn't like a whole bunch of what's going on in basketball right now. So, I keep asking him if he's having fun.   He says, no, like, why not? Or like, who did, why did you not have fun today? So, it's just the same thing every day.   I'm like, okay, who did you enjoy even being with today? Nobody. And I'm like, dude, I don't believe that actually.   I just, I don't believe that. There was somebody that you had some moment with today that you enjoyed, or you wouldn't want to keep going back up there because, and he does. So, give me a name.   Okay. Lenny. What happened with Lenny that was fun? And I make him name it. Like I'm, I'm, I'm trying to coach him through it. And sure enough, he does have some sentences of what was fun today.   And it's like, good, let's, let's at least hold onto that in the midst of all the other stuff that's not right. Let's choose to see the thing that was good and that you enjoyed and that we could be thankful for. Not everybody got to have that today.   Again, I have to have my, I have to be the parent. I have to be the discipler. I have to be in, you know, in charge of my own soul that wants to be negative all the time and say, nope, we're going to, we're going to choose gratitude today because the Bible tells us to do that.   There's something about that posture that opens the door for the gospel to be expressed through us. So, let's practice.   Laura Dugger: (59:40 - 59:50) Well said, and there's so much we could continue learning from both of you. Where can we go after this chat to learn more from each one of you?   Brian Smith: (59:52 - 1:00:14) Yeah, we do a lot of our writing online at thechristianathlete.com. And so, if you go there, you can see articles that are specifically written for parents, for coaches, for athletes, all around this idea of what does it look like to integrate faith and sport together? So, the

John presents Christ as divine Creator; do you recognize Him as your Maker? Pastor Lance lays out how a true Christian responds to and remembers their Creator. Text: John 1:1-5. For more messages and resources, visit us at www.ccc-online.org.

Jeff and Brian are joined by director Rod Blackhurst about his forthcoming independent horror film Dolly, releasing in theaters only on March 6, 2026. Blackhurst explains how horror can produce joy by confronting internal dread—identity loss, isolation, and moral extremity—through a cinematic language that bypasses reason and provokes visceral response. He describes Dolly as an extreme, unrelenting film rooted in a real person's fears about inheriting a “monster” mother's traits, and as a collision between opposing views of motherhood and family. Dolls function as uncanny stand-ins for children and chosen family, with a larger, partially withheld mythology. Blackhurst discusses casting, including Sean William Scott's dramatic role and Fabianne Therese's demanding lead performance, emphasizing actor safety, and he rejects “torture porn” as his aim. He also reflects on gatekeeping, genre labels, influences like Barbarian, and using proof-of-concept shorts (Baby Girl, Night Swim) to get features made.

Kevin, Grayson, and The Chief decide if Saturdays loss to Minnesota was worth freaking out about, and if the 2025 impression was just an early season fluke or a sign of things to come. And why not examine the goal and decide if it really should have stood or not? In Part Two it's a lovely little chat with Shwy from Jim Trace and Maker's about the 10th Annual Rock 'N' Revival For The Cure featuring live music from across the city and even Kevin's brother. Then in Part Three it's listener questions debating ideal pets and terrible concerts.    Timestamps:  (24:09) - Minnesota United Review and Reactions (1:16:22) - Jim Trace and the Makers's Shwy! (1:52:00) - Listener Questions!   Links:  10th Annual Rock 'N' Revival For The Cure  Looking for an MLS podcast? Check out The World's GAM Visit our friends at Streetside Brewery Check out The Post at www.thepostcincy.com Music by Jim Trace and the Makers Join the Discord Server and jump into the conversation Follow us on BlueSky, Twitter,  Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ThePostCincy

Hey daar lieve luisteraar, Lou hier, sámen met mijn zus Marieke, aka Tika, voor de laatste keer live vanuit Costa Rica

Episode 287WTB WoodworkingCheck out WTBwoodworking.com for all your woodworking needs! In store specials, Giveaways, custom wood milling, and more!Huntingdon Valley PA Store now open!Enter the giveaway by going to:https://www.wtbwoodworking.com/giveaway Sign up for Patreon for Early access, and special Patreon-only content:https://www.patreon.com/anotherwoodshoppodcastPATREON GIVEAWAY!Donate to Maker's For St. JudeEvery $5 earns you an extra entry in the Patreon Giveaway (Paid Patrons Only)https://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR?px=8679481&fr_id=134326&pg=personal Whats on our bench:

Have you ever felt like the more you learn about music production, the harder it actually gets to finish a song? You aren't alone. In this episode, I'm sharing the 5 biggest mental blocks I've faced, from "tutorial paralysis" to the crushing weight of trying to be a "Great Artist," and the practical shifts I used to break through them. After 6 years of the Jamuary challenge, I've learned that the secret to finishing more music isn't a new plugin or more music theory; it's about moving from a romanticized "Artist" identity to a prolific "Maker" mindset. In this episode, we discuss:  The "Quantity Over Quality" Hack: Why having a routine allows you to fail safely. The Skills of Finishing: Why completing "bad" music is the only way to prepare for your best work. Learning by Doing: How to escape the "Tutorial Junkie" cycle and get your hands dirty. Killing the "Artist" Label: Why viewing your work as a "body of work" is more freeing than chasing a single masterpiece. Stop overthinking, start creating, and let's get those ideas out of your DAW and into the world.  Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Links: Brian Funk Website - https://brianfunk.com Music Production Club - https://brianfunk.com/mpc  5-Minute Music Producer - https://brianfunk.com/book Intro Music Made with 16-Bit Ableton Live Pack - https://brianfunk.com/blog/16-bit Music Production Podcast - https://brianfunk.com/podcast Save 25% on Ableton Live Packs at my store with the code: PODCAST - https://brianfunk.com/store Thank you for listening.  Please review the Music Production Podcast on your favorite podcast provider! And don't forget to visit my site https://BrianFunk.com for music production tutorials, videos, and sound packs. Brian Funk

Have you ever wondered what true, transformative worship looks like? In this powerful final message of his worship series, Pastor Dave reveals how authentic praise isn't just singing songs – it's a full-body, whole-hearted response to God's goodness. Drawing from King David's example, he unpacks the Hebrew word "Shabbat," showing how biblical worship involves triumphant shouting, dancing, and celebrating even before we see the victory. Through personal stories and Scripture from Psalms, Pastor Dave challenges us to move beyond spectating to active participation – whether through lifted hands, joyful dancing, or unashamed praise. His core message? When we truly grasp what God has done in saving us from darkness, bringing us into light, and working all things for our good, we can't help but worship with everything we have. The sermon culminates in a powerful altar call where lives are transformed, demonstrating that authentic worship leads to real life change. If you're ready to break free from religious constraints and enter into genuine, biblical worship, this message will revolutionize your understanding of praise.Psalms 63:3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,My lips shall praise You.Psalms 106:47 Save us, O Lord our God,And gather us from among the Gentiles,To give thanks to Your holy name,To triumph in Your praise.Psalm 145:4 One generation shall praise shaback Your works to another,And shall declare Your mighty acts.Psalm 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.Psalms 47:1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!Shout to God with the voice of triumph!Psalms 134:2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary,And bless the Lord.Psalms 63:4 Thus I will bless You while I live;I will lift up my hands in Your name.Psalms 66:1-2 Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!2 Sing out the honor of His name;Make His praise glorious.Psalms 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times;His praise shall continually be in my mouth.Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.2 Samuel 6:14 Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. 16 Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.20 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”21 So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord.

Have you ever felt like your creative self (your inner Maker) and your get-it-done, logistical self (your inner Manager) are constantly battling it out? We all need both of these energies to create a sustainable, joyful life—but getting them to play nicely together is the real trick. In this episode, I dive deep into the Maker vs. Manager dynamic, including my own recent creative block, and share four practical ways to finally get them working in sync. Learn how to reorient your inner Manager to become an enthusiastic Artist Manager—someone who is dedicated to creating the perfect conditions for your inner artist to thrive. Links Become a Joyster (Paid Supporter) on Patreon: Get access to hours of creative discovery and recovery content, including the monthly Joyster meet-up from Friday, Feb 13th, Filling the Well Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Tell me what you think of this episode via IG @artistsforjoy or via email hello@artistsforjoy.org Pre-order Art Is How God Loves Us and read the latest sample chapter on Substack now!

Highbrow, Brilliant: The Adam Moss Approval Matrix — Adam Moss is probably painting today. He's not ready to share it. He may never be ready to share it. You see, this ASME Hall of Famer unabashedly labels himself as “tenth rate” with the brush. And he's okay with that. As Moss explains, it's not about the painting. After decades of creating some of the world's great magazines, he is throttling down. He's working with canvas, paint, and brush — and reveling in the thrill of making something, finally, for an audience of one.  It hasn't always been this way for Moss. Like most accomplished editors — like most serious creatives — Moss spent the better part of his career obsessed. Obsession is essential, he says, to the making of something great. Growing up on Long Island, Moss became obsessed with Esquire and New York magazines. “My parents were subscribers,” he says. “I was in the suburbs. I'd open them and it was my invitation to New York City. And to cosmopolitan life. And to sophistication.” And knowing that it was all happening just a short subway ride away made it irresistible. Moss's publishing portfolio is rotten with blue-blood brands: Rolling Stone, Esquire, The New York Times, and New York magazine. He's collaborated with editorial legends. In 1987 Moss decided to create something of his own. Invited to pitch an idea for a new magazine to the owners of The Village Voice, Moss did his song and dance. The folks in the boardroom were … unmoved. Afterwards, Moss retreated to the men's room to ponder his humiliation. Minutes later, Leonard Stern, the Voice's owner, took a spot at the next urinal, where he turned to Moss and said, “Okay, we'll do your magazine.” What Moss pitched was a city magazine called 7 Days. It only lasted two years. But two weeks after ceasing publication, 7 Days was presented the National Magazine Award for general excellence. The splash it created propelled Moss to The New York Times, where, in a few short years, he transformed the paper's Sunday supplement into an editorial magnet for creative talent, the Esquire or New York magazine of the 1990s. In 2004 Moss joined another venerable brand, New York magazine, where he not only completely reimagined the print magazine, he bear-hugged the encroaching internet menace, creating more than 20 new digital-only brands, five of which — Vulture, The Cut, Intelligencer, The Strategist, and Grub Street — remain heavyweights of modern online editorial. In 2019, Adam Moss ended his 15-year run at New York, saying, “I want to see what else I can do.” So … painting. — This episode is made possible by our friends at Commercial Type and Freeport Press. A production of Magazeum LLC ©2021–2025

Ever have one of those days you’d gladly return for a refund? Maybe it starts with something small — and inconvenient. Then another thing piles on. And another. Before long, you’re wondering if staying in bed would’ve been the wiser spiritual decision. In this episode, we talk about how to handle the days that hit hard — the ones filled with disappointment, frustration, or unexpected blows. Psalm 118 doesn’t give us an escape clause. It doesn’t say, “Rejoice when it’s going well.” It simply says: this is the day the Lord has made. Even this one. So what does it actually look like to rejoice when the day feels anything but joyful? What We Discuss Why bad days feel so overwhelming The difference between denial and biblical rejoicing How perspective shifts emotional response The role of humor in spiritual resilience Choosing gratitude when circumstances don’t cooperate Letting God shape us through daily frustrations This episode is sponsored by Trinity Debt Management. If you are struggling with debt call Trinity today. Trinity's counselors have the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Our intention is to help people become debt-free, and most importantly, remain debt-free for keeps!" If your debt has you down, we should talk. Call us at 1-800-793-8548 | https://trinitycredit.org TrinityCredit – Call us at 1-800-793-8548. Whether we're helping people pay off their unsecured debt or offering assistance to those behind in their mortgage payments. https://trinitycredit.org Full Transcript Below: When It's One of Those DaysBy Cindi McMenamin Bible Reading: "This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24 ESV). Do you know what it’s like to have one of those days you wish you could do over? My friend Holly recalls that her day like that started at 4:30 a.m. when she opened the door of her house to pick up the newspaper, which was usually on her welcome mat waiting for her. But as she opened the door, and before she even had a chance to look down on her welcome mat…Thunk! The newspaper delivery person, unknowingly, chucked that newspaper through the early morning still-dark air, and it pelted her right in the chest. She never even saw it coming! Stumbling over a bit, she regained her composure and just stood there. Nice aim, she thought, sarcastically, and turned around and closed the door. The rest of the day didn’t get much better. One disappointing situation after another. Until pretty soon, she wished she hadn’t even gotten out of bed that morning. Fortunately for Holly, she kept her sense of humor and laughed about it with several women in her exercise class at the end of the day. We all have days when we get pelted with something right in the chest. A stinging insult. An action by a co-worker or friend that leaves us shocked. Some news that causes us to stumble or double over. Sometimes it’s from someone, unknowingly, chucking something through the air that happens to hit us. And other times it’s a direct hit from someone with a pretty good aim! Whether it’s one incident after another that seems to be giving you a bad day or circumstances in which you are the one who is clearly messing up, there is a way to get through it. God's Word gives us simple instructions for handling the “bad days.” "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it," the psalmist said. But how can we rejoice? That word creates a picture in my mind of a person jumping up in the air and shouting for joy. Are we to do that when we’re having one of those days? Evidently so. It’s interesting that God’s Word doesn’t say: “This is the day the Lord accidentally let slip through the heavens; let us tolerate it and be done with it.” Rather, God’s Word specifically states that this day—even the one in which you get plunked right in the chest—is a day that He has made and therefore it is one worth rejoicing in. Intersecting Faith & Life: I suppose God wants us to realize that even when uncomfortable or hurtful or downright disastrous things happen, it is still a day in which we live, breathe, and exist. It is still a day in which we can choose to see the brighter side of things and acknowledge that He’s in control. It’s still a day in which we can, like Holly, keep a sense of humor and laugh at the day’s events by sundown. There is still something in this day worth rejoicing about because it is a day given to us by the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Can you, my friend, find something in this day worth rejoicing about? If not, then simply rejoice. This is the day the Lord has made—for you to live it with Him and become the kind of person He desires you to be. Rejoice in it, my friend. And see if it doesn’t change your outlook—and your day. Thank You, Lord, for this day—regardless of what it brings or has already brought my way. Today is a day that I live and breathe and exist. May I do so with a song in my heart simply because You have given me life. And may You be pleased by my attitude, my gratitude, and my praise. Thank You that You can grow me, mature me, sharpen me, and shape me through whatever comes my way. I surrender it all to You, Lord Jesus. In Your name, I pray this. Amen. Further Reading:1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 For daily perspective and reasons to praise, see Cindi’s book, The New Loneliness Devotional: 50 Days to a Closer Connection with God. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

All of creation reveals the Designer and the Maker of it and that is why the Lord Jesus Christ is the Master Builder of it all.

There is a world of supplements at the store, but what are some of these things that have big names? What are the best ones to take? Dan Chapman from Shine.FM Impact Partner Sunrise Health Foods and Redd Remedies joins Megan for the very first video podcast of The Home & The Maker and answers some questions about supplements and shares about the miraculous bodies God made for us!

Welcome to Day 2805 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2805 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 114:1-14 – Daily Wisdom Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2805 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day two thousand eight hundred five of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. The Title for Today's Wisdom-Trek is: The Cup of Salvation – Rescued from the Cords of Death Today, we are continuing our profound journey through the Egyptian Hallel. This is the collection of praise songs, sung by the Jewish people during the Passover festival, commemorating their deliverance from slavery. We are stepping into the deeply personal territory of Psalm One Hundred Sixteen, covering verses one through fourteen, in the New Living Translation. To fully appreciate where we are standing today, we must look back at the trail we just hiked in Psalm One Hundred Fifteen. In that previous trek, we stood amidst the great, living choir of Israel. We heard the worship leader call out to the nation, the priests, and all who fear the Lord, commanding them to trust in the Maker of heaven and earth. We learned that the heavens belong to Yahweh, but the earth has been given to humanity, as His authorized representatives. The psalm ended with a stark reminder: the dead cannot sing praises; therefore, we must praise the Lord while we still have breath in our lungs. Psalm One Hundred Sixteen takes that final thought about life, death, and praise, and turns it into a vivid, first-hand testimony. If Psalm One Hundred Fifteen was a massive, public choir singing about the theology of God, Psalm One Hundred Sixteen is a single, trembling voice, singing about the intimacy of God. The psalmist has just survived a near-death experience. He was standing on the absolute brink of the grave, staring into the abyss, and God reached down and pulled him back. As we read this, remember that this was sung by Jesus and His disciples on the very night He was betrayed. Jesus sang these words about the "snares of death," knowing that within hours, He would be facing the cross. So, let us walk closely with the psalmist, and discover what it means to lift the cup of salvation. The first segment is: Psalm One Hundred Sixteen: verses one through four I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! Death wrapped its ropes around me; the terrors of the grave overtook me. I saw only trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: "Please, Lord, save me!" The psalm begins with a raw, unfiltered declaration of affection: "I love the Lord." It is actually quite rare in the Psalms for the writer to begin with such a blunt, personal statement of love. But why does he love God? "Because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy." Notice the beautiful, physical imagery the psalmist uses to describe God's attentiveness:...

This week on the podcast we return to our series More than a Maker, which focuses on the intersection of mental health and creativity. Today's guest Mike Griffin is based in Naples, NY where he has dual careers as a golf pro and ceramic artist. In our interview we talk about his hand building process, the ways creativity counter balances ADHD, and dealing with self-doubt in the studio. Mike is also the host of Between Two Ewers, a video podcast where he interviews ceramic artists while they make work together.   Today's episode is brought to you by the following sponsors: Monkey Stuff www.monkeystuff.com The Rosenfield Collection of Functional Ceramic Art www.Rosenfieldcollection.com Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program www.snowfarm.org  

When I met Emily Boksenbaum at our Maker's Day 2025 conference in Chicago, I knew I had to get her on the Shoecast.Emily's always made stuff. First it was art growing up, which led to a focus on fiber material studies in art school. Next came leather tooling, prop-making and other “creative odd jobs,” before going into corporate footwear design. That didn't quite hit for her, which meant it was finally time to figure out how to make some cowboy boots. After training under some of the great makers and teachers in the space, she moved to Boulder, Colorado to open a custom boot shop dubbed Underhill Leather out of her garage, which she shares with one of our favorite former Shoecast guests, fellow cowboy bootmaker Holly Henry.This one goes ALL sorts of places, as Emily gets deep into navigating different materials, machinery, and mindsets; the emotional and dare we say metaphysical layers of creation; that time she woke up to flood of DMs from eager customers thanks to a bass guitarist who loved her boots; and what it means to be a maker in a world that's forgotten how to make things.Oh and Zagnuts! Of course we got into Zagnuts.Here's Emily Boksenbaum, on the Shoecast Support the Shoecast, get full bonus episode access, and join the most interesting shoe-and-boot-loving community on the internet with a Stitchdown Premium membershiphttps://www.stitchdown.com/join-stitchdown-premium/A website. We have one.https://www.stitchdown.com/We'd better see you at Stitchdown Chicago 2026—the world's fair of shoes and boots and leather and more—Nov 6-7 at Artifact Events.https://www.stitchdownbootcamp.com/

President Trump made claims about the U.S. economy, foreign policy and immigration during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. CBS News political contributors Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist, and Terry Sullivan, a Republican strategist, break down what the president said. CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger and CBS News medical contributor Dr. Celine Gounder join "CBS Mornings" to break down President Trump's claims during his State of the Union address, from the U.S. economy to health care. Actor and comedian Martin Short has postponed upcoming dates of his comedy tour with longtime friend Steve Martin as he grieves the sudden death of his 42-year-old daughter, Katherine. Vladimir Duthiers reports. Testimony continued in the trial of Kouri Richins, the Utah mother accused of killing her husband before writing a children's book about grief. Witnesses testified Tuesday about what was in her husband's system when he died. Richins denies allegations that she gave her husband a deadly dose of fentanyl. The Pentagon and pioneering tech company Anthropic are in a tense standoff over artificial intelligence, sources tell CBS News. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told Anthropic to give the military full access to an AI model by Friday, but the company's CEO is pushing back. Jo Ling Kent explains. Popular parenting expert Dr. Becky Kennedy joins "CBS Mornings" to advise parents on how to help children who are what she calls "deeply feeling kids." Kennedy provides strategies to navigate children's big emotions and discusses the reasons behind their actions. "Survivor" returns Wednesday for its 50th season, featuring fan-favorite contestants over the past 25 years. "CBS Mornings" has a preview of the historic season. In the series "The Dish," a young, rising chef shows how he's making a name for himself and highlighting Black culinary excellence at a D.C. restaurant founded by a Food Network star. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Send a textGary finds some hidden gems under a layer of rock. Tune in to find out what on earth he's talking about!PlaylistElias Alexander, Eamon Sefton, Kathleen Parks and Patrick Bowling with Grammy's Trip to Oregon, Antrim Rose and The Knowledge Drop Karate Chop from BywaterMetro Toronto Police Pipe Band with Bonnie Dundee, Steamboat, The Bugle Horn and the Atholl Highlanders from On the Beat.  Berroguetto with Vilalbalcan II from Navicularia  Donald MacPherson with Donald Gruamach's March from Donald MacPherson: a Living Legend. Fraser Fifield and John Mulhearn with The Ardoch Polka, EYP Live Recording University of Edinburgh, February 2026. Tony McManus with Inveran, The Devil in the Kitchen and Locheil's Awa Tae France from The Maker's MarkHamish Moore with Mrs Hamilton of Pencaitland from Stepping on the Bridge   P/M Alasdair Gillies with The Miller of Drone, the 74th Highlanders, the Rusty Gun, Alex Currie's, The Road to Balquhidder, the Lintie, Molly on the Shore, Rossie Castle from the Winter Storm Festival Concert, 2009 Nuallan with Donald James MacDonnell, P/M Donald MacLean of Lewis, Alice and Grace Twa and The Swaggering Jig  from Nuallan: Piping from Cape Breton Island.  LinksElias Alexander Tour Dates    Support the show

In this episode, we speak with Frank and Laura Pasquini, owners of Maker's Marketplace at 900 in the iconic 900 building in Kingston. They describe the boutique-style marketplace featuring 40–50 mostly local NEPA vendors offering handmade and vintage goods, including candles, soaps, ceramics, jewelry, art, and more. Vendors rent and manage their own spaces while the store handles sales and marketing. Laura shares her background in Etsy and laser engraving, the challenge of curating vendors and rotating inventory, and highlights their kid-focused "mini makers" section. They also discuss the "splatter room," a sensory-friendly paint-throwing experience used for sessions and parties, with upcoming glow-in-the-dark options, plus major building events like Deck the Halls and a planned Spring Social.If you or someone you know wants to be featured in our next podcast, message us on Facebook!

In this episode of Creative Guts, co-hosts Becky Barsi and Laura Harper Lake  sit down with Erin Sweeney, an artist, educator, and founder of BrickHouse Arts.  Erin's practice bridges book arts, printmaking, fiber arts, and installation, with work rooted in storytelling and a deep appreciation for craftsmanship. In this episode we learn about Erin's journey as a creative, and how teaching at Plymouth State University, running her creative studio, and connecting with her community fuel her artistic journey. Learn more about Erin and her work at www.erinsweeney.net, www.instagram.com/brickhousearts, and https://www.plymouth.edu/person/erin-sweeney. Listen to this episode wherever you listen to podcasts or on our website www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com. Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Discord. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter at creativegutspod.substack.com.  If you love listening, consider making a donation to Creative Guts! Our budget is tiny, so donations of any size make a big difference. Learn more about us and make a tax-deductible donation at www.CreativeGutsPodcast.com.  Thank you to Kennebunk Savings Bank for being an official sponsor of the podcast! Thank you to our friends at Art Up Front Street Studios and Gallery in Exeter, NH and the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, NH for their support of the show!  Any views or opinions expressed by our hosts or guests do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Creative Guts.

IMatt sits down with Shane from Bow the Maker to talk about the tools every leatherworker thinks they need — and the ones that actually matter.From $12 Amazon pliers to top-shelf skiving knives, they break down which tools perform, which ones disappoint, and how to buy smarter without wasting money. The two also tackle social media “tool envy,” influencer reviews, and how to build a functional bench setup at any level.“You don't need the prettiest tools — you need the ones that work for you.”

Jesse Jackson died yesterday, at the age of 84. He was hailed at his passing for being a civil rights icon, but this brings up a delicate issue. Jackson has now gone to meet his Maker, but the definition of “rights” that he fought so hard to establish——and in many ways successfully—was a truly destructive view of rights. One of the very best things we could possibly do for everyone—blacks especially—is repeal the 1964 Civil Rights Act. For more from Doug, subscribe to Canon+: https://canonplus.com/

BRUTAL is a show that I do with Jack Luna that is only available on Patreon. It typically involves cases that are absolutely disgusting, vile, and what could be considered...."Too much"This episode, however...is Brutal for a completely different reason. You'll see.By the way...this is a gimmick. It's a gimmick to get you to come to Patreon so that you can listen to all the other Brutals.Just so we're clear.

Welcome to Day 2803 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2803 – Wisdom Nuggets – Psalm 115:19-18 – Daily Wisdom Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2803 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2803 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. The title for today's Wisdom-Trek is: The Living Choir – Trusting the Maker of Heaven and Earth Today, we are continuing our grand expedition through the Egyptian Hallel, that magnificent collection of praise songs sung by the Jewish people during the Passover festival. We are stepping into the second half of Psalm One Hundred Fifteen, covering verses nine through eighteen, in the New Living Translation. To properly set the stage, we must remember the theological fireworks from our previous trek. In the first eight verses of Psalm One Hundred Fifteen, the psalmist drew a sharp, mocking contrast between the God of Israel and the gods of the surrounding pagan nations. He declared that our God is in the heavens, doing whatever He pleases, while the idols of the nations are nothing more than dead blocks of wood, silver, and gold. They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see, and feet but cannot walk. The chilling warning was that those who make them, and trust in them, will become just like them—spiritually deaf, blind, and paralyzed. Now, in this second half of the psalm, the tone shifts from a theological argument, to a vibrant, liturgical choir. Having exposed the absolute uselessness of the pagan idols, the psalmist turns around to face the congregation of Israel. If the idols are dead, where should we put our trust? The answer rings out in a beautifully structured, responsive song. We will see the congregation divided into three distinct groups, receiving a threefold call to trust, followed by a threefold promise of blessing. Finally, the psalm concludes with a profound statement about cosmic geography, revealing our true human purpose on this earth, and the urgent necessity of praising God while we still have breath in our lungs. So, let us enter the temple courts, and join the choir. Psalm One Hundred Fifteen: verses nine through eleven O Israel, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. Imagine being in the temple courtyard. The worship leader, perhaps the High Priest, stands on the steps, and calls out to different sections of the gathered crowd. This is a responsive liturgy, designed to engage everyone present, regardless of their status or background. First, he addresses the entire covenant nation: "O Israel, trust the Lord!" This is the baseline of their identity. They are the people brought out of Egypt, the physical descendants of Jacob. In a world full of glittering, tempting idols, they are commanded to place their entire weight, their complete confidence, on Yahweh. Second, he turns to the religious leadership: "O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord!" The house of Aaron...

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: A listener named Derek asks, I am the CTO and cofounder of a startup. Now that vibecoding is a thing, our CEO has kind of gone rogue, and and he's vibecoding a bunch of random stuff, one of which he bought a domain for and has pushed a potential customer to pay for, without talking to our team. I feel like this is fragmenting our focus, but I don't want to ban our CEO from vibecoding and being creative. how should I handle this without damaging relationships? AdmiralFox asks, Hi Dave and Jamison! Longtime listener, first-time question asker here. After 14 years at a consultancy firm, I'm moving to a major retailer to become their Java Learning and Community Lead. Instead of shipping code, my new role will be shipping knowledge. I will be managing learning paths, organizing internal knowledge sharing events, and help managers screen candidates. Basically, I'm moving from a ‘Maker' role to a ‘Multiplier' role. I have 13 weeks of notice period (Standard European “I'm not leaving yet after 14 years” protocol) and I want to use my free evenings to prepare. My questions for you: How do I transition from “the guy with the technical answers” to “the guy who helps everyone else find the answers”? How can I use the remaining time of my notice period to prepare for the people side of this role? Love the show! Keep up the ‘quit-your-job' advice coming (although I've already taken it!)

BRUTAL is a show that I do with Jack Luna that is only available on Patreon. It typically involves cases that are absolutely disgusting, vile, and what could be considered...."Too much"This episode, however...is Brutal for a completely different reason. You'll see.By the way...this is a gimmick. It's a gimmick to get you to come to Patreon so that you can listen to all the other Brutals.Just so we're clear.

And, we're off! Thanks, everybody, for giving our renewed Lectionary.pro format a try. Please continue to offer your comments and suggestions. Just like the original Lectionary Lab, we want to be helpful to working preachers. (“Jesus and Nicodemus”, from the Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Discussion page)RCL Readings: • Genesis 12:1–4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1–5, 13–17; John 3:1–17Text Summaries• Genesis 12: 1-4aGod calls Abram to leave home, security, and everything familiar, and to trust a promise he cannot yet see fulfilled. The promise is bigger than Abram's private future: through him, God intends blessing for all families of the earth. Abram's obedience is strikingly simple — “So Abram went” — and that trustful response becomes the model of covenant faith. In Lent, this text frames discipleship as movement: leaving old certainties, walking by promise, and trusting God's future over present control.• Psalm 121This psalm is a confession of trust for travelers, pilgrims, and anyone feeling exposed. Help does not come from the hills themselves, but from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. The psalm repeats God's “keeping” care: God watches over going out and coming in, by day and by night, now and forever. Rather than denying danger, it places vulnerability inside God's faithful attention. In a Lenten key, it teaches believers to pray honestly about risk while resting in the God who does not slumber.• Romans 4:1–5, 13–17Paul presents Abraham as the prototype of faith: righteousness comes through trusting God's promise, not through human achievement or law-keeping. If inheritance depended on performance, promise would collapse; instead, it rests on grace so that it can include all who share Abraham's faith. God is described as the One “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist,” grounding Christian hope in God's creative power. During Lent, this text shifts the center from religious scorekeeping to grace-shaped trust and hope.• John 3:1–17Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, sincere yet confused, and Jesus tells him that entry into God's kingdom requires birth “from above” — a Spirit-given new beginning, not mere religious competence. Jesus draws on Israel's wilderness story (the lifted serpent) to show that healing and life come through looking in faith to what God provides. The passage climaxes in God's love for the world: the Son is given not to condemn but to save. For Lent, this gospel invites people out of spiritual nighttime into rebirth, faith, and the light of God's saving mercy.Major Themes1. Faith before sight, or perhaps through sight (looking) when our focus is on God2. Promise grounded in grace3. New birth, new life in Christ4. God's keeping care in uncertain journeys5. Salvation as gift, not achievementPreaching ArcThe Call → The Keeper → The Promise → The New Birth1. The Call (Genesis 12): God calls us forward before we have full clarity.2. The Keeper (Psalm 121): We are sustained on the road by God's watchful care.3. The Promise (Romans 4): Righteousness and the future are received by faith, not earned by performance.4. The New Birth (John 3): God doesn't just improve us; God makes us new in Christ.From uncertain beginnings to Spirit-born life, faith walks forward on promise, kept by grace.A Sermon Outline“Called Before We're Ready”Core Claim: God calls us forward by grace, keeps us on the road, and gives new life through Christ.1. Opening: the discomfort of being called into the unknown2. Genesis 12: Abram's yes before clarity3. Psalm 121: God keeps us while we travel4. Romans 4: promise by grace, received by faith5. John 3: new birth is God's work, not self-improvementApplication: one step of trust this weekClosing: we go because God is faithfulOne-sentence takeaway: In Christ, we are called, kept, and made new — so we can take the next faithful step even without full certainty.An Illustration: Does anybody remember the Dunkin' Donuts commercial that featured a bleary-eyed baker rising early every morning, saying, “Time to make the donuts?” Believe it or not, that's a basic illustration of faith in something intangible. A baker starts work at 2:00 a.m. There is no smell of fresh bread yet, no customers, no visible result — just measured ingredients, kneading, waiting, and trust in the process. Hours later, what was unseen becomes nourishment (of a sort) for many.Preaching Bridge: “Faith is often bakery work: done in the dark, trusted before dawn.” (Image from the Upper Room, Discipleship Study Guide)Narrative Lectionary Text: John 13:1-17Text SummaryAt the supper before his passion, Jesus rises, takes a towel, and washes the disciples' feet. Peter resists, then overcorrects, and Jesus teaches that receiving him means accepting this upside-down pattern of love. Jesus, their Lord and Teacher, performs a servant's task and commands them to do likewise. Greatness in his kingdom is expressed through humble, embodied service.Themes Present1. Servant leadership — authority in Jesus is expressed through self-giving care.2. Love made concrete — love is not sentiment; it takes the form of action.3. Receiving before doing — discipleship starts with letting Christ minister to us.4. Humility over status — the gospel dismantles rank-driven identity.5. Imitation of Christ — “as I have done for you” is the shape of Christian community.Preaching ArcIdentity → Humility → Command → Community1. Identity: Jesus knows who he is and where he is going.2. Humility: Secure in that identity, he kneels to wash feet.3. Command: “As I have done for you, you also should do.”4. Community: The church becomes recognizable by practical, mutual, humble love.Because Christ stoops to serve us, we are formed into a people who serve one another.A Sermon Outline“The Towel and the Basin”Core ClaimJesus redefines greatness through humble service, and discipleship means receiving his love and then embodying it toward others.Big MovementStatus → Surrender → Service → WitnessOutline (7–8 min)1. Opening: Our instinct for rank• We naturally measure importance by visibility and control.• Jesus gives a different picture at the table.2. John 13: The shock of the scene• Jesus knows who he is and where he is going.• Precisely from that security, he kneels and washes feet.• True authority is not threatened by service.3. Peter's resistance: Why this feels hard• Peter resists being served.• Discipleship begins with receiving grace, not performing for God.• We cannot give what we refuse to receive.4. “As I have done for you”• Jesus moves from act to command.• Foot washing as pattern: embodied, practical, inconvenient love.5. What this means for a small (or any) congregation• Hidden service is central ministry, not secondary work.• Church health is measured by how we treat one another in ordinary moments.• The towel may look like meals, rides, prayer, repair, listening, forgiveness.Application for the week• Receive: where do I need to let Christ serve and cleanse me?• Serve: one concrete act of humble care.• Repair: one relationship step that lowers pride and raises love.Closing• Jesus is most recognizable when kneeling with a towel.• The church is most faithful when it does the same.One-Sentence TakeawayIn Christ's kingdom, greatness looks like a towel and basin: we receive his love, then kneel to serve.An Illustration: “The CEO with a Mop”A story gets told in leadership circles about a company after a major event: everyone leaves, trash is everywhere, and the cleaning crew is short-handed. One employee comes in early and sees the CEO quietly pushing a mop and picking up cups. No announcement. No photo. No speech. Just service.That moment reshaped the office culture more than any memo did. People said, “If he can do that, none of us are above serving.”John 13 is deeper than leadership technique, but the point lands: Jesus, knowing exactly who he is, takes the towel. Real authority is not threatened by humility.Preaching bridge: In Christ's kingdom, the towel is not beneath us. The towel is how love becomes visible. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lectionarypro.substack.com

Episode 286Onefinity CNC:The industry standard for at home production CNCs. Ball screw and linear rail construction - No beltsCompatible with all popular software, 15 minute setup, infinitely upgradable, and world class tech support!And its made in Canada. Which means Maple Glazed Rails!One Machine - Infinite possibilitiesUse the link below to order:https://www.onefinitycnc.com/?ref=AWP Sign up for Patreon for Early access, and special Patreon-only content:https://www.patreon.com/anotherwoodshoppodcastPATREON GIVEAWAY!Donate to Maker's For St. JudeEvery $5 earns you an extra entry in the Patreon Giveaway (Paid Patrons Only)https://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR?px=8679481&fr_id=134326&pg=personal Whats on our bench:

Today we have a great conversation with Caleb Frazer Northern Iowa football player and former Maker.TOPICS COVERED1. Caleb talks about how he fell in love with football and realized he wanted to play in college.2. Caleb discusses some of the surprises he faced being a college football player3. Caleb shares his thoughts on coaching changes on dealing with multiple position coaches.4 We discuss making a position change from high school to college.5 Caleb gives his get your edge advice.If you enjoy the podcast please share it with your athletes- teachers- parents and other coaches.Help us grow our GET YOUR EDGE community and share the podcast.#chop-itGET YOUR EDGE PODCASTInstagram and X- @getyouredgepodDean Contactwww.foxvalleythrowsclub.comInstagram and X- @foxvalleythrowsBrian Contactwww.sportsadvantedge.comInstagram- @sportsadvantedge / @brianbott23X- @botter23 / @sportadvantedgeEmail- Brian@sportsadvantedge.comGraphics and Logo- Bailey MarashInstagram and X- @bmarasch13#foxvalleythrows #getyouredge #sportsadvantedge #hardwork #athlete #makernation #foxvalley #fireit #feedthecats #loadthedawgs #dynamicfitness

In this episode, we explore how Japanese toilet company Toto is becoming a key player in the AI component manufacturing space. We discuss how their advanced ceramic division, known for producing essential semiconductor manufacturing components, has led to a significant increase in their stock value and attracted activist investors.Chapters00:00 Toto: Unexpected AI Beneficiary01:57 Toto's Role in Semiconductor Manufacturing08:11 Investor Reaction and Market Dynamics11:51 Broader AI Industry Impact LinksGet the top 40+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: ⁠⁠https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle