Podcasts about Needless

Amy’s feeling a mix of fun, cool, vulnerable, and gladness in this episode after attending a hip hop dance class (sporting freshly lasered off brows) with her daughter and Kat introduces us to the term exhausterwhelmulated. Needless to say, there are a lot of feelings happening in this episode. Lastly, Amy’s son’s “nice and slow like hot butter” approach to dating has us cracking up and they discuss emergency contact problems after major life changes…like divorce. Watch us on Youtube HERE! Call and leave a voicemail: 877-207-2077 Email: heythere@feelingthingspodcast.com HOSTS: Amy Brown // RadioAmy.com // @RadioAmy Kat Van Buren // @KatVanburenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him, and everything Samuel said proved to be reliable.” (1 Samuel 3:19 NLT) In certain jobs, workers designate their hours of availability. That is, the times they can be scheduled to work. Employers consult these hours of availability to draw up weekly shifts and to determine whom to call to cover shifts for workers who are sick or on vacation or to lend support during times of heavy demand. Needless to say, workers who have a lot of availability are usually popular with their managers. The same principle applies to the Christian life, with a few important distinctions. First, the Christian life is more than a job; it’s an identity. It’s the single most important priority in our lives. If you’re new to the Christian faith, or if you’ve neglected your faith in the past, you need to understand that, as your faith goes, so goes your life. And that brings us to the second important distinction. If you’re a disciple of Christ, you don’t get to choose your hours of availability. Committing your life to the Lord means always being available to be used by Him. Our prayer should be, “Lord, You can use me whether it’s my day off or not. I may be out surfing or on the golf course or out snowboarding, but I want You to call upon me. I am available to represent You. Please call on me.” Availability pleases the Lord. The Old Testament tells the story of Samuel, a boy who served in the tabernacle. One night, the Lord called to him, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10 NLT). Samuel was ready to do anything the Lord instructed. He made it clear that he was available to serve. Nine verses later, we see the result of Samuel’s availability. “As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him, and everything Samuel said proved to be reliable” (1 Samuel 3:19 NLT). God does amazing things in the lives of those who make themselves available to Him. God doesn’t choose spiritual giants; He makes spiritual giants of people who give themselves to His service. David was a shepherd whose own father couldn’t picture him as a king. Gideon thought so little of himself that he asked God to perform two different miracles just to prove that there was no mistake. But they made themselves available to God. And God took it from there. It’s been said that ninety percent of success in life is showing up. In the Christian life, the percentage is one hundred percent. If you’re a Christian, the Holy Spirit dwells within you, guiding and directing you. So “showing up” in the Christian life is a matter of following His prompting, prioritizing God’s will, obeying the commands of Scripture, and living in a way that honors Christ. If you make yourself available to God in those ways, He will use you in ways you can’t imagine. Are you available to be used by God? If so, let Him know. And then listen for His call. Reflection question: How can you make yourself available to the Lord? Discuss Today's Devo in Harvest Discipleship! — The audio production of the podcast "Daily Devotions from Greg Laurie" utilizes Generative AI technology. This allows us to deliver consistent, high-quality content while preserving Harvest's mission to "know God and make Him known."All devotional content is written and owned by Pastor Greg Laurie. Listen to the Greg Laurie Podcast Become a Harvest PartnerSupport the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Editing more efficiently in Lightroom, using AI thoughtfully in your food photography, and developing a visual aesthetic that's uniquely yours with Roberta Dall'Alba. ----- Welcome to episode 529 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Roberta Dall'Alba. In this podcast interview, Bjork and Roberta discuss the importance of having your own distinct style or photography aesthetic to build your brand and why editing is such an essential part of this process. Roberta is an incredible food and travel photographer (trust me, you need to check out her food photographs!) and was a 2023 Lightroom Ambassador. Needless to say, she has spent a lot of time experimenting with Lightroom. Roberta dives into how she approaches editing food photos with integrity, efficiency, and her own unique style. From navigating AI tools responsibly to building a signature look in Lightroom, she offers practical tips to help creators stay authentic while working smarter. This is an excellent interview to help you take your photography and editing to the next level. Three episode takeaways: How to use AI thoughtfully in food photography and editing — Roberta shares her approach to using generative AI tools in editing. While she's open to retouching photos, she avoids adding anything artificial, always considering if edits will help readers successfully replicate the recipe and/or align with her values. Efficient editing leads to better results — Roberta walks through her streamlined Lightroom workflow, from importing and filtering/organizing, to color grading, taking a step back, and final reviews on mobile, to ensure efficient, high-quality results (and to avoid over-editing). Build a visual style that's truly yours — She emphasizes the importance of creating your own presets over buying someone else's, why you should deepen your understanding of color theory, and how to develop editing efficiencies that reflect your brand's unique style. Resources: Roberta Dall'Alba Photography Roberta's Lightroom Transforms Course — use code FBP10 for 10% off! Pinch of Yum Lightroom Photoshop Follow Roberta on Instagram and Other platform - facebook, youtube, tiktok, whatever seems most important for them Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group Thank you to our sponsors! This episode is sponsored by Clariti and Raptive. Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

So, here is one for the ladies and NO it's not a sex thing. It's all about how I busted my vagina and fixed it again! Needless to say this is a fun one. Also, I am about to shut the doors on my second Healthy, Wealthy and Kind Retreat in Bali at the end of August for those with ADHD. If you are interested check it out today!  https://healthywealthykindretreat.comBye for now,Lisa xMY OTHER FREE STUFFSalon Success Playbook https://salonsuccessplaybook.comFacebook https://www.facebook.com/lisaconwayzing/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lisa.conway_/TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@lisa_salonmentorMY PAID STUFFLisa Conway's Reboot Your Salon 28-Day Challenge  https://salonreboot.com/MY BOOKSThe Naked Salon, Your Salon Team, and Your Salon Retail Are essential reading for Salon owners are available in Paperback or Audio at Amazon, Audible, Kindle or from my store. https://www.thenakedsalon.comTo contact Lisa, just reach out to jess@zingcoach.com.au

How should we dress when presenting and does it actually matter?  Yep, it matters - particularly in Japan.  Japan is a very formal country, in love with ceremony, pomp and circumstance.  Always up your formality level in dress terms in Japan, compared to how formal you think will be enough.  This was a big shock for this Aussie boy from Brisbane, who spent a good chunk of his life wearing shorts and T-shirts or blue jeans and T-shirts.  Tokyo is not Silicon Valley, where dress down is de rigueur and where suits have gone the way of the Dodo.  This is a very well dressed, sophisticated capital city where serious money is spent on quality clothing. Business suits are a given when presenting.  Not even coat and slacks in the Italian style, but business suits.  The colour should be on the dark spectrum to fit in with the solemnity of your “aura and presence” as an expert, about to pontificate on your subject.  A serious speaker in a light coloured suit is an oxymoron in Japan.  Go dark.  The suits don't have to be the deepest black in colour, because darker greys and navies will work.  Now the odd thing is this applies in summer too.  The summer speech outfit will be a little lighter in colour than the winter suit, but not as light as the very light colours in summer suits.  It doesn't matter if they are three piece, double-breasted, or have one, two or three buttons. Needless to say the suit should fit well.  I have a very old and dear friend who has, like me, been in constant battle with his weight.  We take it off and then we put it all and more, back on again.  Very frustrating of course, but a painful reality.  The sight one day, of him giving a major speech, while only able to close the bottom suit button, rather than the top, was very sad.  It said to the audience, “I am fat, in denial and have not bothered to adjust my suits to match this reality”.   We all have our “fat suits” of course, for those occasions when we are losing the struggle against our expanding waistband, so that would be a good selection if you are carrying a few too many kilos. However, if even the reliable “fat suit” is now too tight, then go to the tailor and get it adjusted.  Better to be paying a small amount of money for that, then telling the world you are a loser in the battle of the bulge. The shoes will be formal, brogues are good, shined within an inch of their lives and never “down at heel”.  It would be rare to wear any other colour than black, because the suits are going to be dark.  The belt obviously must match the colour of the shoes and be in good condition, not looking like you have worn it to death.  I don't even know why I mention this, except that I often see some Japanese gentlemen messing it up, getting the colour coordination wrong and displaying a belt clearly on its last legs. The socks should match with the colour of the slacks and when presenting, avoid fascinating contrast colours that herald your rebellious and exciting individuality.  Save that funky revolution for the weekend.  They should be over the calf rather than ankle length.  When seated on stage, for say a panel discussion, there is nothing more alarming than the sight of a very hairy shin protruding from underneath the suit trousers. The shirt should be white, never coloured.  I know this seems very limiting and lacking in imagination, but there is a biological reason for it.  When we are on stage we can become nervous or the lighting on stage can really heat us up.  The consequence is we begin to perspire, and the neck area is one location where this happens very quickly.  That gorgeous Egyptian Giza 45 cotton shirt, in light blue, becomes a two-tone job, as soon as the sweat envelopes your collar and makes it turn dark blue.  Now the audience is losing touch with what you are saying and are fascinated by your unfolding two-tone colour gradation of your shirt.  For the same reason, NEVER take off your suit jacket.  I am soaked under my jacket, by the end of a 40-minute talk, because I am pumping out so much energy and heat.  If I had my jacket off, there would be a much darker colour running down the side of my body.  By the way, there is nothing more unpleasant than seeing someone in a shirt, sporting a saturated armpit, raise their arm so the waterfall armpit becomes visible to the audience.  Your tie collection may have some daring beauties but leave them at home.  At one stage, I was sporting some very ferocious Versace ties, with very vibrant colour combinations and adventurous patterns. I never wore them for speeches though, because they were competing with my face, for the attention of the audience.  Also, forget the power colours.  You don't need them, because your speech delivery should have power and authority to command the obedience of the assembled masses. The same daring do logic applies to pocket squares.  Especially fluffy, elaborate and exuberant little darlings grab the gaze of the crowd and they take their eyes off your face.  We don't want that. The plastic name badges you are given by the organisers are another trap.  Don't wear them when you get up to speak.  They reflect the lights and your body movement can set them off on a navy shipboard signal lamp training session.  We don't want anything competing with us when we are speaking. I am highly reticent to speak about ladies' fashion, because I have so little knowledge of this subject.  My wife tries to encourage me to become more expert, but there has been no great progress to date. My only advice would be basically adopt the same ideas – dark suits, white blouses, black shoes, no scarves, modest earrings and broaches and basic hair and makeup approaches.  This is not a runway fashion extravaganza, but a chance to drive home your message.  By the way, if it is a panel discussion, where you would be seated on stage, then a trouser suit may be easier.  Always make your face the centrepiece, so the audience is firmly focused there.  Our faces can transmit so much power through emotion to drive our messages, so we can't let anything compete with this awesome weapon

This is the VIC 4 VETS, Weekly Honored Veteran. William “Bill” Sabastian Salfen SUBMITTED BY: A regular listener _____________________________________________________________ Hi Vic and Ken! I hope this veteran will fit nicely into you and Vic's wonderful daily/soon-to-be-weekly tribute to veterans. I hope you can offer some acknowledgement of a local hometown hero from the past. As I stated before, I neither need nor desire recognition for offering his story - if you use it, can you just say a regular listener brought him to your attention? I worked in Bridgeton, Mo for 16 years, which was where I met Bill Salfen. He was a close, longtime friend of the business owner, and was around quite frequently in all of my years working there, dying the same year I left the business in 2014. Bill showed me multiple official documents regarding his service time, his capture and imprisonment, and eventual release. I have no reason to question his words. I spoke with Bill often about his WWII escapades as a B-24 Bomber Pilot who was shot down and captured by Nazis, then imprisoned at Stalag 1 as a POW. There are a couple different articles I've found stating his age (either 20 or 21) at capture, but Bill personally told me he was 20 when he was shot down - according to him (as well as other sources I've seen over the years) he was the youngest bomber pilot (NOT Co-Pilot) in the US Army Air Forces at the time. Regardless...he was just out of his teens, and Captaining (piloting) a US B-24 Bomber against an enemy force! After his war experiences, Bill became very active in Food Search type programs, and had a specially insulated van he would collect groceries in to distribute to the homeless, and to the food banks in the St. Louis area. In his own words, he told me that he did so because during his time in captivity, he found out all about real hunger, and knew firsthand the pain experienced from it. Bill told me that he had wires holding his jaw together from a German soldier "knocking his face loose" with the buttstock of a rifle during his capture, and true to his nature (as I knew him, anyway) he also said that he didn't blame the German soldier; "after all I (we, the US) was killing Germans and their families." Bill had visible scars all over both arms from German Shepard attacks he sustained during both his initial capture and his multiple escape attempts from Stalag 1. He told me he tried 3 times to escape, and was recaptured each time. The tip of one of his fingers was missing up to past the nail where, he told me, they put it in a bench vise and tortured him by squeezing it, then releasing it, then squeezing the damaged fingertip again the next day and the next, until, as he told me, he finally talked and they pinched the damaged fingertip completely off. He was unashamed about talking, and he had nothing to be ashamed of, in my opinion. I feel very honored to have met and known for years this man that I personally consider to be a true American Hero from WWII. He is a 69 year Founding member and first Captain of VFW POST 5077, O'Fallon MO, a 33 year volunteer at Operation Food Search St. Louis MO and St. Mary's Parish Bridgeton, MO, retired Teamster, union negotiator and 17 year subject of Wash U Memory and Aging Study. He donated his remains to that Study and to Washington University School of Medicine. -"William “Bill” Sabastian Salfen was born 16-Sept 1922 in Dardenne, St. Charles County Missouri. -His parents were Sebastian J "Boss" Salfen (1886–1961) and Josephine "Phinnie" Sattler (1893–1974). -He had one brother, Harold. William attended St. Charles High School. According to the Federal Census, the family lived on Main Street in O’Fallon in 1940. -William Salfen joined the Army Air Corps in June 1942. In September 1942, Bill completed a 12-week Flight Training course at Missouri University. " -"On 27-Jun 1943, William arrived at Corsicana Field from the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center. -William Received his Army Air Corps Silver Wings and 2nd Lieutenant commission at Frederick Field in Oklahoma on 11-Jan 1944. -William Salfen was assigned to the 44th Bomb Group, 506th Bomber Squadron (Heavy) of the 8th Air Force in England. -They were the first 8th Air Force Bomb Group to be equipped with B-24 Liberators. -On 7-Oct 1944, William Salfen’s plane was damaged, and the crew was forced to bailout. The U.S. Army's 44th Bomber Group Crash Report of the bombing states that his aircraft, #789, was last seen in vicinity of Kassel at 1224 hours. #1 and #2 engines had been knocked out by flak and it fell out of formation, under control. It was last heard from at approximately 1239 hours calling on VHF for fighter support." The following is a first-hand report from Lt. Donald B. Iden, the Co-Pilot: “Our plane was nicknamed "LAKANOOKIE", model B-24 (serial #42-50789), and it took flak which disrupted two of its engines. The bombing raid was on a German tank factory. We had just closed the bomb bay doors after releasing bombs over Kassel when our plane took two bursts of flak. One hit the left wing and the other went into the tail section. The hit in the wing took out the #1 and #2 engines, so that made it impossible to keep a heading without complete cross control of ailerons and rudders. Needless to say, loss of altitude was very rapid. We rode it down to 1,500 feet, at which time we bailed out and soon were captured. After Salfen and I bailed out, the aircraft entered a flat spin, crashed and burned. We were told that Robert Doherty's parachute failed to open and the seven-surviving crew of nine were captured by the Nazis.” William Salfen had been missing in action since 7-October 1944 and was a prisoner of war for 188 days. The St. Charles Weekly Banner reported on 24-May 1945, William Salfen in Stalag Luft 1 was liberated by the Russians. Thanks again to you and Vic for doing this for veterans! ________________________________________________________________ This Week’s VIC 4 VETS, Honored Veteran on NewsTalkSTL. With support from our friends at: Alamo Military Collectables, H.E.R.O.E.S. Care, Monical’s PizzaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the VIC 4 VETS, Weekly Honored Veteran. William “Bill” Sabastian Salfen SUBMITTED BY: A regular listener _____________________________________________________________ Hi Vic and Ken! I hope this veteran will fit nicely into you and Vic's wonderful daily/soon-to-be-weekly tribute to veterans. I hope you can offer some acknowledgement of a local hometown hero from the past. As I stated before, I neither need nor desire recognition for offering his story - if you use it, can you just say a regular listener brought him to your attention? I worked in Bridgeton, Mo for 16 years, which was where I met Bill Salfen. He was a close, longtime friend of the business owner, and was around quite frequently in all of my years working there, dying the same year I left the business in 2014. Bill showed me multiple official documents regarding his service time, his capture and imprisonment, and eventual release. I have no reason to question his words. I spoke with Bill often about his WWII escapades as a B-24 Bomber Pilot who was shot down and captured by Nazis, then imprisoned at Stalag 1 as a POW. There are a couple different articles I've found stating his age (either 20 or 21) at capture, but Bill personally told me he was 20 when he was shot down - according to him (as well as other sources I've seen over the years) he was the youngest bomber pilot (NOT Co-Pilot) in the US Army Air Forces at the time. Regardless...he was just out of his teens, and Captaining (piloting) a US B-24 Bomber against an enemy force! After his war experiences, Bill became very active in Food Search type programs, and had a specially insulated van he would collect groceries in to distribute to the homeless, and to the food banks in the St. Louis area. In his own words, he told me that he did so because during his time in captivity, he found out all about real hunger, and knew firsthand the pain experienced from it. Bill told me that he had wires holding his jaw together from a German soldier "knocking his face loose" with the buttstock of a rifle during his capture, and true to his nature (as I knew him, anyway) he also said that he didn't blame the German soldier; "after all I (we, the US) was killing Germans and their families." Bill had visible scars all over both arms from German Shepard attacks he sustained during both his initial capture and his multiple escape attempts from Stalag 1. He told me he tried 3 times to escape, and was recaptured each time. The tip of one of his fingers was missing up to past the nail where, he told me, they put it in a bench vise and tortured him by squeezing it, then releasing it, then squeezing the damaged fingertip again the next day and the next, until, as he told me, he finally talked and they pinched the damaged fingertip completely off. He was unashamed about talking, and he had nothing to be ashamed of, in my opinion. I feel very honored to have met and known for years this man that I personally consider to be a true American Hero from WWII. He is a 69 year Founding member and first Captain of VFW POST 5077, O'Fallon MO, a 33 year volunteer at Operation Food Search St. Louis MO and St. Mary's Parish Bridgeton, MO, retired Teamster, union negotiator and 17 year subject of Wash U Memory and Aging Study. He donated his remains to that Study and to Washington University School of Medicine. -"William “Bill” Sabastian Salfen was born 16-Sept 1922 in Dardenne, St. Charles County Missouri. -His parents were Sebastian J "Boss" Salfen (1886–1961) and Josephine "Phinnie" Sattler (1893–1974). -He had one brother, Harold. William attended St. Charles High School. According to the Federal Census, the family lived on Main Street in O’Fallon in 1940. -William Salfen joined the Army Air Corps in June 1942. In September 1942, Bill completed a 12-week Flight Training course at Missouri University. " -"On 27-Jun 1943, William arrived at Corsicana Field from the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center. -William Received his Army Air Corps Silver Wings and 2nd Lieutenant commission at Frederick Field in Oklahoma on 11-Jan 1944. -William Salfen was assigned to the 44th Bomb Group, 506th Bomber Squadron (Heavy) of the 8th Air Force in England. -They were the first 8th Air Force Bomb Group to be equipped with B-24 Liberators. -On 7-Oct 1944, William Salfen’s plane was damaged, and the crew was forced to bailout. The U.S. Army's 44th Bomber Group Crash Report of the bombing states that his aircraft, #789, was last seen in vicinity of Kassel at 1224 hours. #1 and #2 engines had been knocked out by flak and it fell out of formation, under control. It was last heard from at approximately 1239 hours calling on VHF for fighter support." The following is a first-hand report from Lt. Donald B. Iden, the Co-Pilot: “Our plane was nicknamed "LAKANOOKIE", model B-24 (serial #42-50789), and it took flak which disrupted two of its engines. The bombing raid was on a German tank factory. We had just closed the bomb bay doors after releasing bombs over Kassel when our plane took two bursts of flak. One hit the left wing and the other went into the tail section. The hit in the wing took out the #1 and #2 engines, so that made it impossible to keep a heading without complete cross control of ailerons and rudders. Needless to say, loss of altitude was very rapid. We rode it down to 1,500 feet, at which time we bailed out and soon were captured. After Salfen and I bailed out, the aircraft entered a flat spin, crashed and burned. We were told that Robert Doherty's parachute failed to open and the seven-surviving crew of nine were captured by the Nazis.” William Salfen had been missing in action since 7-October 1944 and was a prisoner of war for 188 days. The St. Charles Weekly Banner reported on 24-May 1945, William Salfen in Stalag Luft 1 was liberated by the Russians. Thanks again to you and Vic for doing this for veterans! ________________________________________________________________ This Week’s VIC 4 VETS, Honored Veteran on NewsTalkSTL. With support from our friends at: Alamo Military Collectables, H.E.R.O.E.S. Care, Monical’s PizzaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two Hot Takes host, Morgan, is joined by guest co-host Lauren! We get into a variety of stories that took some serious dedication, energy, or commitment from people involved. There's a woman who got an entire tree tattoo that was a copy of her situationship's.. and a couple who "solves" their problems by using martial arts moves. . Needless to say, some interesting dilemmas that we're going to need your takes on too! What would your take have been on these?! NEW MERCH: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shop.twohottakes.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Partners: Sol de Janeiro: Shop now at Sephora and http://soldejaneiro.com State Farm: Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the Personal Price Plan. https://www.statefarm.com Come to Justin's Upcoming show with me!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/-santi-camille-fleur-sean-massaro-luisa-vox-parkwild-tickets-1381152386969?aff=oddtdtcreator Bonus Content on Patreon including FREE stories/eps : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/TwoHotTakes ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ MERCH HERE ! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shop.twohottakes.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send us a letter? Our PO Box!! Two Hot Takes. 5042 Wilshire BLVD. #470. Los Angeles, CA 90036 WRITE IN TO US!!! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://reddit.app.link/twohottakes ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Full length Video episodes available on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/TwoHotTakes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Index: 00:00 -- Start 07:56 — Story 1 TW* 23:29 — Story 2  32:54 — Story 3  52:43 — Story 4  1:00:18 — Story 5 1:11:33 — Story 6 1:39:56 — Story 7  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thursday afternoon means a fresh episode of Real Life was recorded, edited, and is ready to help you wrap up your workweek. On today's podcast, the guys discussed old Nation Gear designs, reality TV, Eli on the Ferris wheel, AI-generated content, and more.The guys kicked off the Thursday episode of Real Life with a discussion about Nation Gear and whether Wanye and Baggedmilk have kept all of their old articles of clothing. After walking through some of the old designs, the conversation turned to how many hats everyone has and whether they wear them to death. Changing gears, Wanye wanted to talk about Reality TV and a very special episode of Hoarders that lives rent-free in his mind. That led the guys to wonder if there is anything in their lives they love so much that could turn into an unreasonable obsession. As you'll hear, everyone on the podcast is pretty boring apart from Wanye trying to adopt an all-day coffee routine that he heard a billionaire does daily.From there, Eli talked about his time on the Ferris wheel at K-Days, after spending over 20+ hours there with Chris Sheetz as he pushed to set the world record for the most time cruising around. After spending so much time spinning around, Eli had a bunch of funny stories from his time cruising around for the record attempt. That said, Eli also broke the news that not every record attempt is what we think it is. Finally, the guys wrapped up the Thursday episode of Real Life with a recap of the AI content Wanye made about Tyler over the last few weeks, and how we're only allowed to use the images he made while Tyler is away on his honeymoon. Needless to say, the boys were having fun with an array of random topics that left Yaremchuk invariably uncomfortable.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!

Thursday afternoon means a fresh episode of Real Life was recorded, edited, and is ready to help you wrap up your workweek. On today's podcast, the guys discussed old Nation Gear designs, reality TV, Eli on the Ferris wheel, AI-generated content, and more.The guys kicked off the Thursday episode of Real Life with a discussion about Nation Gear and whether Wanye and Baggedmilk have kept all of their old articles of clothing. After walking through some of the old designs, the conversation turned to how many hats everyone has and whether they wear them to death. Changing gears, Wanye wanted to talk about Reality TV and a very special episode of Hoarders that lives rent-free in his mind. That led the guys to wonder if there is anything in their lives they love so much that could turn into an unreasonable obsession. As you'll hear, everyone on the podcast is pretty boring apart from Wanye trying to adopt an all-day coffee routine that he heard a billionaire does daily.From there, Eli talked about his time on the Ferris wheel at K-Days, after spending over 20+ hours there with Chris Sheetz as he pushed to set the world record for the most time cruising around. After spending so much time spinning around, Eli had a bunch of funny stories from his time cruising around for the record attempt. That said, Eli also broke the news that not every record attempt is what we think it is. Finally, the guys wrapped up the Thursday episode of Real Life with a recap of the AI content Wanye made about Tyler over the last few weeks, and how we're only allowed to use the images he made while Tyler is away on his honeymoon. Needless to say, the boys were having fun with an array of random topics that left Yaremchuk invariably uncomfortable.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!

In a world where kindness is a weakness, where we're saturated with negativity, and where are heroes reflect who are and and not who we strive to be, James Gunn restarts the DCU with SUPERMAN.Nani and I have different perspectives about Superman as a character, but one thing is true: we haven't been the biggest fans of his portrayal as of late. Needless to say we came into this film with cautious optimism.SUPERMAN showed us that there are still innovative and honest superhero stories to tell. Join us as we travel to Metropolis and we discover that kindness is the new punk rock.• • •TRIAD Of The FORCE is a STAR WARS+ podcast hosted by Gus, Nani, & Chase—Puerto Rican and queer creators sharing deep dives, and heartfelt conversations from a galaxy far, far away. Featured on the STAR WARS CELEBRATION Podcast Stage (2022 & 2023), we explore STAR WARS, fantasy, comic books, and other POP-culture media honestly. We engage in inclusive commentary across film, TV, books, comics, and beyond with humor, critical analysis, and cultural perspective (without the toxicity).Follow TRIAD Of The FORCE at:BlueSky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/triadoftheforce.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/triadoftheforce/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/TriadoftheForce/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you like us, get some merch and help the channel:TeePublic: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/user/triad-of-the-force⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• • •Acknowledgement: The Intro and Outro music is the Triad of the Force Theme, composed and performed by Grushkov with full permission for use by Grushkov (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/Grushkov⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠).• • •This channel is not affiliated in any way with Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, The Walt Disney Company, or any of their affiliates or subsidiaries.

 A pair of letters from life down under. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Story 1:  Can I Hold Your Hand The guy who had something extra, gives it to her. By Baztrachian My name is Dennis. Growing up on our ranch in Western Australia, I lived a pretty isolated life. Starting at around age twelve, I was bussed into town, and had to adjust to big classrooms, and girls. Some of them were already well developed by the time I hit my, shall we call it, ‘growth spurt'?  I noticed I had a weird effect on girls but more so on women. If they touched my hands they'd act weird and sometimes just get quiet and stare at me. It was weird so I didn't tell my parents but by the time I was thirteen I wore gloves all the time. That way I could do all the normal things everyone else did like shake hands and stuff like that without causing a problem. At first, Folks assumed I had an injury or skin rash.Soon folks thought I had some OCD about germs. Yes, as hard as it was to wear gloves all the time it was even harder not to wear them. You never know how much people touch each other with their hands until you can't do it. Try refusing to shake someone's hands sometime. You'll see. Fortunately for me the hand thing had no effect on my own household members, including my mother & sister. Perhaps it's a pheromone thing, I don't know? At a family reunion when I was 14, my female cousins went numb like the girls at school, so after that, I always wore gloves around them. Unless I wanted them to shut up, then it was kind of handy! As I transitioned from middle school to high school, the female reactions to my touch brought on more immediate & expressive sexual attraction. The younger girls were confused by their feelings, the older and sexually active girls weren't confused at all. They knew they were horny. Granted, I took off the gloves like when I was out with my Boy Scout troop, playing sports at school, and some other social events where there were no women around. Avoiding girls as a practice, made some people think I was gay; so it was a relief when I went off to Perth for Curtin University, where being weird was much more acceptable. But more to the point here, is I wasn't gay. I really did want a girlfriend. In my speech class I met a cute girl named Melody. She was perky, a little offbeat, average in size, and she wore her dark hair in very feminine pixie cut that showed off her sexy neck. Taking a chance, I started to hang out more with Melody and her group of friends from Bunbury, a city further south on Australia's west coast. One night she came to a rugby game I was in. Afterward, she came down on the field & impulsively leaned in and kissed me on the lips, before going home with her gals. I discovered that I could kiss her and she was just fine, with no odd side effects. A month later, a few of us were in her off-campus apartment after class, for lunch. After eating, the others suddenly left for class, leaving just the two of us. Mel was looking at my gloved hands. She asked why I wore gloves around campus, but not in always? She even saw me at Rugby practice last week without gloves on. I tried brushing it off with a witty joke. I had several rehearsed one-liners ready, for such inquiries. She laughed, then added; “But seriously; why? I tried a tall-tale far-fetched narrative for my next come back. That didn't deter her persistency either. I paused, then decided to risk it and just explain to her about the gloves and the true impact of my hands, but I think she thought the truth was just an even crazier tale to cover for some Obsessive Cumpulsive thing on my part. "Dennis, do you think it would be okay for me to touch your hands without the gloves? Do you trust me?" It had been a few years since the last time I'd deliberately touched a woman, and that was in another place, hours away from college. Maybe here & now it would be okay? Besides, I was longing to touch her and feel her lovely skin. "Alright, but don't say I didn't tell you what might happen." With that I removed my gloves. "Your hands look so soft! I've never seen a guy with hands as soft as yours..." and that's where her sentence ended. Mel had her hand on mine and now she had that glazed-over look, which I remembered so well. As she sat there staring at me, I took the chance to gently touch her face and then steal a caress of her gorgeous neck. That stirred her up a bit. "Oh, my God; that's amazing!" she finally said. Then her face turned a little red. "What's it like?" I asked her. Hate to admit but I was really curious about it. "It's like riding a roller coaster and getting that feeling you get when it goes over a hill!" She squirmed in her seat. "Oh, that's doing things for me!" Then she got up and strided over to her bathroom. I got up and cleared the table, grabbed my gloves, then sat on the couch. A couple minutes later she came back out, looking calmer. She sat down by me and said; “I thought I might have peed my panties. False alarm; sort of.” She sat back down at the table & looked at me in wonder as the effect started to wear off. "Fuck, Dennis! You weren't lying were you? Oh my God, that must have been a bitch to grow up with that. You poor thing." Her hands impulsively went to mine again, and she touched me before I had a chance to react. Her head dropped back against the backrest, & her jaw went slack. She just seemed to melt into the couch. I let go of her hands and her recovery was a little faster this time. She was definitely experiencing it pretty intensely. She was looking at me like she was starving and I was a bacon cheeseburger. (Yeah, virgin Dennis was stupid enough not to realize that she was sexually aroused.) "Oh, my. I think we need to explore this a little more..." she said as she reached for me again. This time I pulled my hands back and slipped on my gloves. "Mel, I think I'm gonna to the library, and maybe let you get yourself together, okay?" I stood up and left her on her couch. She looked a little confused so I left, to let her recover in private. It was maybe twenty minutes later when she texted me, asking me to come back to her place. I sighed and texted back that I was on my way. I figured if she was okay enough to text me then she was okay, right?  I guess I had some responsibility to make sure she was okay. It was twenty minutes for me to walk back to her place. When she opened the door for me, I caught my breath. The object of my desire was standing before me in a long t-shirt. I immediately noticed her stiff nipples, and concluded that the t-shirt was perhaps the only thing she was wearing. She still had that craving hungry look. She managed to compose herself & politely invite me in, and had me sit on her couch. "I think we need to talk." she said, as she sat down next to me and let her soft boob lean against my horny arm. "Okay,” I said. “About what?" Then she looked me in the eyes and boldly said; "I think you need to fuck me so we can find out what this does." She said this with an impish smile while reaching for down my cock, which was hard. To be honest, I'd been very smitten by Mel since we first met on campus. Hence, it was usually hard when I was around Mel, so this wasn't all that remarkable. What was remarkable was my virgin cock getting its first female attention. I immediately decided that I liked this. Loved this. Quite a lot. "Mel, this is probably going to be a very bad idea. Are you sure you want to do this, because I know I do." She bit her lip and in a very exaggerated nod, said; “God, yes.” Leading me to her bedroom, she unbuttoned my shirt and pushed it off my shoulders. My shorts came next and I let them drop as I stepped out of my sandals. I was almost naked except for my gloves. Mel pulled her t-shirt over her head, and there she was. In all her feminine glory! She smiled at me and then kissed me lightly on the lips. Her hands went to my gloves. "Mel, I have to tell you something..." She looked a little surprised and she smiled. "Okay, the hand thing wasn't enough? What else? And please don't tell me you have herpes." "I'm a virgin." She giggled and smiled as she held her hands against her chest, "So am I! Isn't this crazy? I was planning to wait, but now all I can think about is you!" She yanked my arm and tugged me to the bedroom. Then she pulled back the blankets and climbed onto the middle of the waterbed. Patting on the bed she meant for me to join her. My cock jutted out from my body like a diving board. I briefly had an ethical discussion with myself about what I was doing and if it was fair to Mel. I quickly realized that I loved her, I wanted to be with her, and sooner or later we were going to have sex so why not now? Besides, she liked me, right? I went to get on the bed and had one knee on the blankets when she held up her hand. "Gloves. Off. Now." I drew in a breath for the moment of truth and took off my gloves. Being careful not to touch her too soon I got onto the bed next to her and laid on my side. She rolled over to face me, we rocked a bit from the waves. "Touch me." she said. "Where?" She smiled. "Any damn where you want. But do it now." I slowly moved my hand to her breast and then gently palmed it. Her reaction was instant. She sighed as a feeling of arousal and euphoria swept over her. I may have been a virgin but I knew what serious arousal looked like and this was it! Her face was flush, again. The glassy look in her eyes returned, but she held it together better. We kissed and started making out. Her hands were all over me and my hands were all over her. I noticed that her pelvis was rhythmically rocking. I don't think she knew. It wasn't maybe even two or three minutes when she rolled onto her back and pulled me on top of her. I had no idea what I was doing but my cock certainly knew where it wanted to be and I started pushing and prodding. "Here." she said, as she reached between us and firmly grabbed my rod and guided me until my sensitive tip felt her warm cunt. She moved my cock across her furrow a few times and then suddenly I felt the silky smooth wetness of her treasures. I hesitated and looked into her eyes. "Please." she lusted. I slipped into her glorious heaven. It was snug and tight and shallow, but with a twerk of her hips, she burst open her depths. “Ah, ahah!” she groaned for a moment, her eyes expressing some pain. And then she rocked her hips up and swallowed my full length. It was wet, warm, & snug. And it blew my mind to finally have my cock inside the girl of my dreams. "Oh, Jesus...fuck..." she uttered as I started to fuck her. Her eyes rolled back and then she closed them, panting heavily. She fell limp as my hips rose and fell on hers. I'd love to tell you it went on and on but, you know...virgin. I was new to this, and too soon I felt my cum rising. I think my last wet dream last longer than this. The college health class came back to me at that moment. I briefly thought about stopping. Then looking at Mel, my desire took over and I pressed deep into her and let loose! It felt so great to cum in her. We laid there embracing for a few more minutes as her breathing relaxed. “Look at me, Dennis,” she said. As I looked at her, she started twitching and moaning. Her hips moved to meet mine and I shot out another few squirts of cum. We did this routine again, until my cock and balls were starting to feel a little sore from the effort. When I was done, Mel lay there senseless. She was still twitching and moaning, and now her hands felt her own body. It was amazingly erotic. This thing she was doing went on and on, but then tapered off for several minutes at which point she fell soundly asleep. I got up and turned around to look at the lovely woman who gave herself to me. I looked down at my spent dick. It had a bit of a blood stain at the base. I guess this is what's referred to as ‘popping her cherry?' I grabbed my clothes and took a quick rinse in her shower, then got dressed enough to be presentable. Sitting down in her living room I fiddled with my hands and eventually turned on the TV. The sun set in the west. Right around eight o'clock  I heard her stirring. When she came out of the bedroom she had this silly smile on her face. And the t-shirt. Just the t-shirt. I could tell she was still aroused. Anyone would have seen that. "Lover, that was absolutely fucking ah, mazing!" "You're okay?" Really I was concerned for her. I loved her after all. She sat down on the couch next to me and kissed me. "I'm fine. I had no idea that was what sex was supposed to be like. Fuck." Her hand went to my chest. "Dennis, you're like the best psych drug ever invented!" "You've done drugs?" I asked. "Only when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. And this was way the fuck better than that! When your dick touched me it was like the whole world felt at peace and everything was going to be wonderful and then you started fucking me. Damn, that was intense! When you came in me it was like getting injected with a rainbow!" She went on and on about the experience, and as she did it was pretty clear she wanted more. I touched her face and she flushed with arousal; and this time we didn't even make it back to the bed. I fucked her right there on the couch. I lasted a little longer before I felt the unstoppable urge to cum in her. This time she gave a little cry and then fell limp. It took me a little time to calm down and when I did, I picked up Mel and carried her to the bedroom. She was totally passed out and I figured to let her sleep it off so after covering her up I got dressed and headed to my dorm. She called me late the next morning, explaining how she'd slept in and missed her morning classes. She didn't seem to care about it too much, and told me she would make her afternoon classes. But she also insisted I had to come over for dinner. Naturally I spent my time in class thinking about Mel. By the time I made it to her place I was getting hard before I got to her door; with the near certainty that I was going to get laid. When she opened her door for me she radiated sexiness. Her movements were different and she simply appeared more beautiful than before. It harkened to me some classic literature references to ‘the power of a woman's glamour', her charms, as another author phrased it. She was a new woman. A viral woman, a woman awakened to seduction and seducing. There was also a resoluteness to her now, and she made clear that she desired me. I knew that most of this was from my condition, the potent effect of my bare hands upon a female prospect. Still, it was getting me laid, right? We made it through dinner and then we managed to talk for a short time. Mel was amazed at herself for what she was doing with me. She said it was totally against her nature and upbringing to have given up her virginity, and to keep risking pregnancy with me; but she couldn't help herself. Twenty minutes later she passed out after I'd filled her cunt again. As she lay there sleeping it off I realized that when she got a dose of my cum it was sedating her, so the little swimmers in my semen would have time to travel upstream into her womb. I looked at the sleeping girl and realized that my cum was doing double duty trying to get her pregnant. When she woke up, she wanted to go again and so did my cock. In due time, she quit school because she didn't care about it anymore. And then the day she told me she was pregnant, the tears were flowing and she was crying...right until I took off my gloves and touched her face. I took her to visit my parents that next weekend; apprehensive of my parents' reaction. My father spoke first; “Son, this is a huge relief. My health issues require that I stop ranching, or get a lot of help. I was hoping to delay the matter until you finish college, but I was going to ask you to come home and take over the business. If the two of you could settle down here with us, I'll get the home builders out here, next week. We'd just gotten our first royalty check from the new natural gas wells that were drilled last year. Dad needed a way to reinvest it in the ranch, or he'd have to pay some very high taxes on the windfall. We got married the following month in Mel's home town. Then my parents threw a big reception at the family ranch a few weeks later. As the baby grew Mel became very calm and tranquil. She definitely had a ‘baby glow'. We'd still fuck and it still had the same effect on her; but even when we weren't fucking she'd still be very Zen-like. I understood it, when the baby was born; and Mel would get a sedated, glazed-over expression whenever little Gary (named after my father), put his hands on her tits and latched on to suckle them. It didn't sexually arouse her, but it still sent her into a trance-like condition. My boy was going to be a chip off the old block! I nicknamed him ‘Chip'. By Baztrachian for Literotica Story 2: New Step Siblings In Aussie Lockdown Teens meet in Melbourne for their parents' wedding, then get left together in locked-down Australia. By Baztrachian When my father told me that he was getting married again I accepted it as good news. He'd been alone and depressed since the divorce and when he met Debbie she clearly brought back his smile and his joy. So of course I was happy for him. It was just after Thanksgiving in 2019 when they decided on getting married the following June. The plan was for four of us to take a family trip together instead of doing the traditional honeymoon vacation. The four of us included my father, Debbie, myself, and my new step-sister, Taylor. The June date was set to coincide with Taylor graduating high school. Taylor was pretty happy about the plan to take a trip to Australia because their drinking laws would allow even a freshly minted eighteen year old to enjoy a visit to a bar. Over the ensuing months I got to know Taylor fairly well and we ended up getting along despite some serious differences. Where I was a devoted outdoorsman who loved hiking, off-road sports, climbing, and working out Taylor was your typical ginger. She was alabaster white and would get sunburned if she was in the sun for much more than a few minutes. She was also nearsighted and she had to wear glasses to see past her arm. She was cute in a dorky sort of way and I had no problem enjoying her company. The news of COVID started up in January but most everyone I knew dismissed it as being an overhyped flu. Granted, we took it more seriously as time went on but we still had plans to visit Australia and we kept to them. The wedding took place the weekend after Taylor's graduation. The next morning was a flurry of activity as we headed off to the airport. There had been a lockdown in Melbourne that May but it ended soon enough that our plans were not affected. It wasn't easy to get into Australia but we did and when we arrived we headed off to the house we'd rented for the vacation. We'd be there three weeks and we'd head home on July 9th just as planned. One thing we quickly discovered is that July is in the depths of winter, for the Aussies. The rental house was pretty amazing. It was in the town of Port Campbell situated on the ocean and that meant I had quite a lot to do every day. I quickly found myself a kayak and spent several of my days exploring the coast and getting in some decent fishing. My father and Debbie had a good time, of course, and Taylor made the best of it staying in the shade and catching up on her books. You know how when you go on vacation you allow yourself to detach from the world and not have much care for the news? Yep, that was our mistake. Living in our little vacation bubble we had no idea that not only had COVID not blown over but it was getting worse. We only got an idea that things were getting serious when my father got a toothache and decided to cut the honeymoon short by a couple days and go home. Turned out that a lot of Americans were trying to get out of Australia at that point, so airline seats were at a premium. The best my father could pull off were two seats for himself and Debbie. Taylor and I would have to wait for our flight on July 9th before we'd get home. Where we'd only be waiting a couple days for the flight my father paid for me and Taylor to stay in a decent enough Melbourne apartment with a view of the beach and the cruise pier. It was a great location and even though we'd just be there a couple days I was looking forward to making the most of the winter-time beach. The airport situation was a little crazy so we ended up saying our goodbyes at the apartment and then Taylor and I watched as the taxi took our parents away. That afternoon we went to a local store to get a few things and noticed that the other shoppers were all stocking up. Something about their faces alarmed me. "What're you doing?" asked Taylor as I put down our handbasket and instead took a 'trolley' as they call grocery carts down under. "I'm just being cautious is all. Look at these people, they're all freaked out and getting ready to hunker down. I don't know what's really happening but I want to make sure we've got everything we might need just in case." Taylor was a little irritated as I started picking up sundries, snacks, toiletries, and enough food for a couple weeks. I told her that if nothing happened then I'd just leave the stuff out for someone else. She made a remark about how I was wasting my money and I ignored her. On the way back to our apartment I slipped into a liquor store and picked up two cases of beer, six liters of vodka, six liters of whisky, and assorted mixers. Just in case, of course. The news that evening confirmed my fears. Melbourne was going into six weeks of lockdown. We were going to be shut into our apartment and only allowed outside for two hours of exercise and one hour to go visit a store. I made a few frantic calls to the airline and it was the seventh time I tried that I got through to find out our flight was cancelled. A few more calls followed and I confirmed we weren't going to be allowed to leave for at least the entirety of the six weeks. That led to calling my father back at home in the US. He handled the news with aplomb as if this was no big deal. I appreciated his confidence and doubly appreciated his promise to drop enough money in my account to see me and Taylor through the six weeks of lockdown. I felt better when I got off the phone and shared this news with Taylor. The next day was the start of the lockdown and it was immediately apparent that the police were in no mood to play with anyone. We looked over the balcony of the apartment and saw people on the beach getting chased away or even arrested by the aggressive police. At one point one of the cops even yelled at us to go inside or get arrested! It was really shocking to see the city become a big prison. You just don't expect that kind of thing to happen in a Western country and in this case it had happened so fast that there wasn't even time for anyone to protest. Although we were supposedly allowed to go out to exercise I convinced Taylor to stay in due to wanting to avoid a problem with the police. Where we were set on food for a while I also decided against going shopping until we absolutely had to. When we'd arranged for the apartment I was sleeping on the couch and Taylor had the bed. But a couple days into the lockdown Taylor had me switch because the bed was going to be more comfortable for me. Hate to say, but I didn't argue with her about that. We passed our time talking a lot. I got to hear about her high school experience, her debate club victories, her attempts at art, and her plans to study higher mathematics in college. Taylor got to hear about my hiking trip to Nepal, my fishing adventure in the Red Sea, my close encounter with a bear in Alaska, and etc. We even made it six days before I opened a case of beer. Despite the cold weather we made a point of sitting out on the balcony at night. We would sit and chat and sip a drink and enjoy breaking one of the oppressive rules. Naturally we stayed out of sight because even though we were rebels we didn't want to push our luck. An odd thing took place during our confinement as we tacitly agreed on some domestic practices. We never had to discuss it as we started doing laundry, cleaning dishes, and doing all of the normal things you do when you live together. For whatever reason we got along well as roommates and one day we both acknowledged this fact and each considered ourselves fortunate to have family we could like. I don't recall precisely which day it was but a day came along where we didn't need to leave the apartment and neither of us bothered to get dressed. I spent the day in a t-shirt and boxers, and Taylor spent the day in her night-time chemise and panties. That started a habit with us of being rather casual around the apartment. I'd be lying if I didn't admit to giving her body serious consideration. I did my best to play it off but when I was in the shower by myself I found her to be the object of my fantasies as I'd relieve my pent-up needs. July 31st was a Friday, and that particular day stood out to me. Taylor and I had been into drinking a bit more than usual and when it came time for bed she followed me into the bedroom. It was cold and cloudy outside and the apartment had a bit of a chill to it so Taylor's explanation made sense. "It's too fucking cold to sleep on the couch," she slurred, "hope you don't mind but I'm in here tonight." It was the first time I'd heard her swear. Myself, I didn't mind the prospect of her company so I held up the blanket and let her slide in. Then I cuddled up behind her and my prescription from Doctor Johnny Walker put me to sleep. In the morning I woke to feeling Taylor's warm ass pressing against my body. It was a couple moments before I realized that my cock was out of my boxers and snugly gripped by Taylor's panty-protected thigh gap. I really had to fight back the urge to try to fuck her but at the same time it just wasn't right. She gently moved against me as I withdrew my cock. I swore she was wanting me, but I had to tell my ego to calm down. I got up from the warm bed and headed out to the kitchen to make some much needed coffee. As the coffee was brewing I went out on the balcony to get some cold air. That helped me wake up and it also settled down the spike jutting out from between my legs. The day that followed was more or less normal. I was quietly relieved when Taylor didn't speak of what my cock had been up to during the night and I was quite set on making sure there were no repeat performances. At the same time the thought that my cock had been separated from Taylor's cunt by just a flimsy bit of fabric had me somewhat aroused all day. Around noon there was a knock on the door from one of our neighbors. I opened the door after putting on the requisite mask and the cheerful fellow mentioned how he'd overheard us on the balcony talking about vodka. He needed some and we had it. A trade was completed and now we had a bottle of gin and a couple bottles of tonic water. That night Taylor and myself sat down watching Sky News mostly because they were the only channel with news from the USA. At a certain point Taylor got up and made two pint glasses full of gin and tonic. Needless to say by bedtime we were both toasted and the two drinks were just a bit more than half gone. I made my move getting up to go to bed while Taylor put the two leftover drinks in the fridge. When she joined me in bed she had me spoon up behind her and then she snuggled into me. I have to admit that it was really nice. When I put my arm around her she didn't mind that my hand ended up holding her tit. Sleep overtook me before anything else happened and at the moment I was grateful. Sometime during the night I woke to feeling Taylor's ass pushing back at me. It was a very gentle motion but it was enough that my cock was responding. I couldn't help myself but to pull her tight against myself and strain to push my crotch at hers. She pulled away just enough to get her hand between us. She went right to my cock and rubbed it under my shorts. Again, she was very gentle but she was also making clear what she wanted. Fishing around my shorts she found the opening and I sighed as her soft hand wrapped around my pole and pulled it out of my shorts. Her hand exited the space between us and I felt her ass push up against me again. My cock rubbed between her ass cheeks. They felt silky and smooth. She moved again and this time lifted a leg to allow my cock to fit between us. The tip of my cock rubbed against something warm and moist. I woke up a bit more and did an exploratory thrust and realized that she wasn't wearing panties. "Taylor?" I asked. "Yeah?" she huskily replied. "Do you want me to stop?" She didn't hesitate. "No." She pressed her ass at me and I couldn't help myself but to thrust. We bumped a few times and then we both caught our breath as my cock found the right place. My cock was just pressed into the mouth of her cunt. I took a moment to savor the feeling and then felt her press back. I didn't move and instead felt her body open up for me as the first inch or so of my cock entered her. My instincts took over at this point. "Uh, ah!" she exclaimed as I started to drive myself into her. I felt her body twitch as I tried to get deeper. "Oh, God." she uttered as she moved her hips allowing me to plunge all the way inside of her. Between the effects of the alcohol and my need I wasn't the least bit interested in being gentle. All I knew was my cock was in her cunt and it was absolute Heaven! I started fucking her hard and my hands wrapped around her. I mashed one of her tits while she grunted from getting her cunt slammed. She put a hand on my hip to try to push me back a little and all I did was fuck harder. Taylor cried out as I drove deep and started spewing my load into her. She tried to move away from me and I held her tight until I was done shooting my cum into her. She was silent in the aftermath of our coupling. When my cock finally relaxed and slipped from her body she moved away from me just enough to get some space. As I started to feel the embrace of sleep I swore I could hear her quietly sobbing. It was a bit before sunrise when I awoke. The memory of the evening flooded in on me and I had that brief moment of disbelief where I thought it could have been a dream. During the night Taylor had moved to where she was sleeping a little away from me. I explored her body with a hand and felt her bare thigh. Moving up I found her bare hip and the fact that she was naked below the waist made me hard again. I brushed her hair with my hand and then caressed her cheek. "Taylor? You awake?" I asked. Her snoozing continued informing me she was deep in sleep. My hand moved down her body. I undid the ties on her chemise and treated myself to feeling the soft skin of her breasts. She gave a pleasant little purr as my fingers played over her nipples. I removed my hand and let her go back to snoozing. Taking her hip with my hand I gently pulled her against me. As her body moved against me my cock neatly fit into her thigh gap again. She lay quietly as I gently rutted against her. When I poked her in the right place she moaned and moved her leg. I stopped for a moment and then started gently moving again as I heard her moan in approval. When she'd moved her leg she exposed her cunt to me and it wasn't long before I felt her moisture on my cock. As gently as I could I changed my angle and pushed. Her cunt opened for me and I stifled a moan as I slipped into her again. I was determined to be gentle and took my time getting myself fully embedded in her. Taking a little time just to savor the moment I started a very slow and deliberate rhythm. Somewhere along the line Taylor stirred. She reached between us to where our bodies met and explored. Then she just relaxed and let me keep going. Soon enough I felt her hips moving in response to mine and then I felt her tense. "Fuck..." she whispered as she came. I felt her cunt clench around my cock and that did it for me as I unloaded my cum into her again. We had a moment where I just held her but then she was up and off to the shower. When she was done she excused herself to the kitchen and it was my turn to clean up. I needed it. And after I was dressed decently I went out to talk to her. "Good morning." I said, wondering what her response would be. She smiled at me. "It is." Naturally we had to talk about our new relationship. And that's what we did for a while before deciding to take a walk together. It was eerie to be in a big city and have it so quiet. We got over to the beach but between signs saying the beach was closed and glares from the police we decided to stay close to the apartment. Lunch was a simple affair of bread and cheese. While we ate I asked Taylor why she'd wanted to be more to me than just a step-sister. "I guess I never would have known you if our parents didn't get married. You're like the total opposite of me. But being around you I got to know you and then there's the thing where you're not so hard to look at, Mister." I smiled at her. "You're not so hard to look at yourself." When I asked her about the possibility of pregnancy she just shrugged. "I can go to the store if you want me to." I offered. "What if I didn't want you to?" she asked. "You mean you don't want to have sex anymore? I can understand that." She shook her head, "No, what if I just want us to keep doing this; whatever it is. Would you be okay with that?" I looked in her pale green eyes and realized that I was looking at the woman I'd marry. "Of course I would." And that, my friends, was the closest we ever came to a marriage proposal. After that it was just a given that we would marry and have a family. Naturally, it was no surprise that when we were finally allowed to return to the USA, Taylor was sporting a very modest bulge. I guess my biggest surprise in all of this was when we got home and broke the news to our parents. They looked at each other, smiled, and then my new step-mom says, "Yeah, we kind of figured you two would find a way to pass the time." By Baztrachian for Literotica

 A pair of letters from life down under. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Story 1:  Can I Hold Your Hand The guy who had something extra, gives it to her. By Baztrachian My name is Dennis. Growing up on our ranch in Western Australia, I lived a pretty isolated life. Starting at around age twelve, I was bussed into town, and had to adjust to big classrooms, and girls. Some of them were already well developed by the time I hit my, shall we call it, ‘growth spurt'?  I noticed I had a weird effect on girls but more so on women. If they touched my hands they'd act weird and sometimes just get quiet and stare at me. It was weird so I didn't tell my parents but by the time I was thirteen I wore gloves all the time. That way I could do all the normal things everyone else did like shake hands and stuff like that without causing a problem. At first, Folks assumed I had an injury or skin rash.Soon folks thought I had some OCD about germs. Yes, as hard as it was to wear gloves all the time it was even harder not to wear them. You never know how much people touch each other with their hands until you can't do it. Try refusing to shake someone's hands sometime. You'll see. Fortunately for me the hand thing had no effect on my own household members, including my mother & sister. Perhaps it's a pheromone thing, I don't know? At a family reunion when I was 14, my female cousins went numb like the girls at school, so after that, I always wore gloves around them. Unless I wanted them to shut up, then it was kind of handy! As I transitioned from middle school to high school, the female reactions to my touch brought on more immediate & expressive sexual attraction. The younger girls were confused by their feelings, the older and sexually active girls weren't confused at all. They knew they were horny. Granted, I took off the gloves like when I was out with my Boy Scout troop, playing sports at school, and some other social events where there were no women around. Avoiding girls as a practice, made some people think I was gay; so it was a relief when I went off to Perth for Curtin University, where being weird was much more acceptable. But more to the point here, is I wasn't gay. I really did want a girlfriend. In my speech class I met a cute girl named Melody. She was perky, a little offbeat, average in size, and she wore her dark hair in very feminine pixie cut that showed off her sexy neck. Taking a chance, I started to hang out more with Melody and her group of friends from Bunbury, a city further south on Australia's west coast. One night she came to a rugby game I was in. Afterward, she came down on the field & impulsively leaned in and kissed me on the lips, before going home with her gals. I discovered that I could kiss her and she was just fine, with no odd side effects. A month later, a few of us were in her off-campus apartment after class, for lunch. After eating, the others suddenly left for class, leaving just the two of us. Mel was looking at my gloved hands. She asked why I wore gloves around campus, but not in always? She even saw me at Rugby practice last week without gloves on. I tried brushing it off with a witty joke. I had several rehearsed one-liners ready, for such inquiries. She laughed, then added; “But seriously; why? I tried a tall-tale far-fetched narrative for my next come back. That didn't deter her persistency either. I paused, then decided to risk it and just explain to her about the gloves and the true impact of my hands, but I think she thought the truth was just an even crazier tale to cover for some Obsessive Cumpulsive thing on my part. "Dennis, do you think it would be okay for me to touch your hands without the gloves? Do you trust me?" It had been a few years since the last time I'd deliberately touched a woman, and that was in another place, hours away from college. Maybe here & now it would be okay? Besides, I was longing to touch her and feel her lovely skin. "Alright, but don't say I didn't tell you what might happen." With that I removed my gloves. "Your hands look so soft! I've never seen a guy with hands as soft as yours..." and that's where her sentence ended. Mel had her hand on mine and now she had that glazed-over look, which I remembered so well. As she sat there staring at me, I took the chance to gently touch her face and then steal a caress of her gorgeous neck. That stirred her up a bit. "Oh, my God; that's amazing!" she finally said. Then her face turned a little red. "What's it like?" I asked her. Hate to admit but I was really curious about it. "It's like riding a roller coaster and getting that feeling you get when it goes over a hill!" She squirmed in her seat. "Oh, that's doing things for me!" Then she got up and strided over to her bathroom. I got up and cleared the table, grabbed my gloves, then sat on the couch. A couple minutes later she came back out, looking calmer. She sat down by me and said; “I thought I might have peed my panties. False alarm; sort of.” She sat back down at the table & looked at me in wonder as the effect started to wear off. "Fuck, Dennis! You weren't lying were you? Oh my God, that must have been a bitch to grow up with that. You poor thing." Her hands impulsively went to mine again, and she touched me before I had a chance to react. Her head dropped back against the backrest, & her jaw went slack. She just seemed to melt into the couch. I let go of her hands and her recovery was a little faster this time. She was definitely experiencing it pretty intensely. She was looking at me like she was starving and I was a bacon cheeseburger. (Yeah, virgin Dennis was stupid enough not to realize that she was sexually aroused.) "Oh, my. I think we need to explore this a little more..." she said as she reached for me again. This time I pulled my hands back and slipped on my gloves. "Mel, I think I'm gonna to the library, and maybe let you get yourself together, okay?" I stood up and left her on her couch. She looked a little confused so I left, to let her recover in private. It was maybe twenty minutes later when she texted me, asking me to come back to her place. I sighed and texted back that I was on my way. I figured if she was okay enough to text me then she was okay, right?  I guess I had some responsibility to make sure she was okay. It was twenty minutes for me to walk back to her place. When she opened the door for me, I caught my breath. The object of my desire was standing before me in a long t-shirt. I immediately noticed her stiff nipples, and concluded that the t-shirt was perhaps the only thing she was wearing. She still had that craving hungry look. She managed to compose herself & politely invite me in, and had me sit on her couch. "I think we need to talk." she said, as she sat down next to me and let her soft boob lean against my horny arm. "Okay,” I said. “About what?" Then she looked me in the eyes and boldly said; "I think you need to fuck me so we can find out what this does." She said this with an impish smile while reaching for down my cock, which was hard. To be honest, I'd been very smitten by Mel since we first met on campus. Hence, it was usually hard when I was around Mel, so this wasn't all that remarkable. What was remarkable was my virgin cock getting its first female attention. I immediately decided that I liked this. Loved this. Quite a lot. "Mel, this is probably going to be a very bad idea. Are you sure you want to do this, because I know I do." She bit her lip and in a very exaggerated nod, said; “God, yes.” Leading me to her bedroom, she unbuttoned my shirt and pushed it off my shoulders. My shorts came next and I let them drop as I stepped out of my sandals. I was almost naked except for my gloves. Mel pulled her t-shirt over her head, and there she was. In all her feminine glory! She smiled at me and then kissed me lightly on the lips. Her hands went to my gloves. "Mel, I have to tell you something..." She looked a little surprised and she smiled. "Okay, the hand thing wasn't enough? What else? And please don't tell me you have herpes." "I'm a virgin." She giggled and smiled as she held her hands against her chest, "So am I! Isn't this crazy? I was planning to wait, but now all I can think about is you!" She yanked my arm and tugged me to the bedroom. Then she pulled back the blankets and climbed onto the middle of the waterbed. Patting on the bed she meant for me to join her. My cock jutted out from my body like a diving board. I briefly had an ethical discussion with myself about what I was doing and if it was fair to Mel. I quickly realized that I loved her, I wanted to be with her, and sooner or later we were going to have sex so why not now? Besides, she liked me, right? I went to get on the bed and had one knee on the blankets when she held up her hand. "Gloves. Off. Now." I drew in a breath for the moment of truth and took off my gloves. Being careful not to touch her too soon I got onto the bed next to her and laid on my side. She rolled over to face me, we rocked a bit from the waves. "Touch me." she said. "Where?" She smiled. "Any damn where you want. But do it now." I slowly moved my hand to her breast and then gently palmed it. Her reaction was instant. She sighed as a feeling of arousal and euphoria swept over her. I may have been a virgin but I knew what serious arousal looked like and this was it! Her face was flush, again. The glassy look in her eyes returned, but she held it together better. We kissed and started making out. Her hands were all over me and my hands were all over her. I noticed that her pelvis was rhythmically rocking. I don't think she knew. It wasn't maybe even two or three minutes when she rolled onto her back and pulled me on top of her. I had no idea what I was doing but my cock certainly knew where it wanted to be and I started pushing and prodding. "Here." she said, as she reached between us and firmly grabbed my rod and guided me until my sensitive tip felt her warm cunt. She moved my cock across her furrow a few times and then suddenly I felt the silky smooth wetness of her treasures. I hesitated and looked into her eyes. "Please." she lusted. I slipped into her glorious heaven. It was snug and tight and shallow, but with a twerk of her hips, she burst open her depths. “Ah, ahah!” she groaned for a moment, her eyes expressing some pain. And then she rocked her hips up and swallowed my full length. It was wet, warm, & snug. And it blew my mind to finally have my cock inside the girl of my dreams. "Oh, Jesus...fuck..." she uttered as I started to fuck her. Her eyes rolled back and then she closed them, panting heavily. She fell limp as my hips rose and fell on hers. I'd love to tell you it went on and on but, you know...virgin. I was new to this, and too soon I felt my cum rising. I think my last wet dream last longer than this. The college health class came back to me at that moment. I briefly thought about stopping. Then looking at Mel, my desire took over and I pressed deep into her and let loose! It felt so great to cum in her. We laid there embracing for a few more minutes as her breathing relaxed. “Look at me, Dennis,” she said. As I looked at her, she started twitching and moaning. Her hips moved to meet mine and I shot out another few squirts of cum. We did this routine again, until my cock and balls were starting to feel a little sore from the effort. When I was done, Mel lay there senseless. She was still twitching and moaning, and now her hands felt her own body. It was amazingly erotic. This thing she was doing went on and on, but then tapered off for several minutes at which point she fell soundly asleep. I got up and turned around to look at the lovely woman who gave herself to me. I looked down at my spent dick. It had a bit of a blood stain at the base. I guess this is what's referred to as ‘popping her cherry?' I grabbed my clothes and took a quick rinse in her shower, then got dressed enough to be presentable. Sitting down in her living room I fiddled with my hands and eventually turned on the TV. The sun set in the west. Right around eight o'clock  I heard her stirring. When she came out of the bedroom she had this silly smile on her face. And the t-shirt. Just the t-shirt. I could tell she was still aroused. Anyone would have seen that. "Lover, that was absolutely fucking ah, mazing!" "You're okay?" Really I was concerned for her. I loved her after all. She sat down on the couch next to me and kissed me. "I'm fine. I had no idea that was what sex was supposed to be like. Fuck." Her hand went to my chest. "Dennis, you're like the best psych drug ever invented!" "You've done drugs?" I asked. "Only when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. And this was way the fuck better than that! When your dick touched me it was like the whole world felt at peace and everything was going to be wonderful and then you started fucking me. Damn, that was intense! When you came in me it was like getting injected with a rainbow!" She went on and on about the experience, and as she did it was pretty clear she wanted more. I touched her face and she flushed with arousal; and this time we didn't even make it back to the bed. I fucked her right there on the couch. I lasted a little longer before I felt the unstoppable urge to cum in her. This time she gave a little cry and then fell limp. It took me a little time to calm down and when I did, I picked up Mel and carried her to the bedroom. She was totally passed out and I figured to let her sleep it off so after covering her up I got dressed and headed to my dorm. She called me late the next morning, explaining how she'd slept in and missed her morning classes. She didn't seem to care about it too much, and told me she would make her afternoon classes. But she also insisted I had to come over for dinner. Naturally I spent my time in class thinking about Mel. By the time I made it to her place I was getting hard before I got to her door; with the near certainty that I was going to get laid. When she opened her door for me she radiated sexiness. Her movements were different and she simply appeared more beautiful than before. It harkened to me some classic literature references to ‘the power of a woman's glamour', her charms, as another author phrased it. She was a new woman. A viral woman, a woman awakened to seduction and seducing. There was also a resoluteness to her now, and she made clear that she desired me. I knew that most of this was from my condition, the potent effect of my bare hands upon a female prospect. Still, it was getting me laid, right? We made it through dinner and then we managed to talk for a short time. Mel was amazed at herself for what she was doing with me. She said it was totally against her nature and upbringing to have given up her virginity, and to keep risking pregnancy with me; but she couldn't help herself. Twenty minutes later she passed out after I'd filled her cunt again. As she lay there sleeping it off I realized that when she got a dose of my cum it was sedating her, so the little swimmers in my semen would have time to travel upstream into her womb. I looked at the sleeping girl and realized that my cum was doing double duty trying to get her pregnant. When she woke up, she wanted to go again and so did my cock. In due time, she quit school because she didn't care about it anymore. And then the day she told me she was pregnant, the tears were flowing and she was crying...right until I took off my gloves and touched her face. I took her to visit my parents that next weekend; apprehensive of my parents' reaction. My father spoke first; “Son, this is a huge relief. My health issues require that I stop ranching, or get a lot of help. I was hoping to delay the matter until you finish college, but I was going to ask you to come home and take over the business. If the two of you could settle down here with us, I'll get the home builders out here, next week. We'd just gotten our first royalty check from the new natural gas wells that were drilled last year. Dad needed a way to reinvest it in the ranch, or he'd have to pay some very high taxes on the windfall. We got married the following month in Mel's home town. Then my parents threw a big reception at the family ranch a few weeks later. As the baby grew Mel became very calm and tranquil. She definitely had a ‘baby glow'. We'd still fuck and it still had the same effect on her; but even when we weren't fucking she'd still be very Zen-like. I understood it, when the baby was born; and Mel would get a sedated, glazed-over expression whenever little Gary (named after my father), put his hands on her tits and latched on to suckle them. It didn't sexually arouse her, but it still sent her into a trance-like condition. My boy was going to be a chip off the old block! I nicknamed him ‘Chip'. By Baztrachian for Literotica Story 2: New Step Siblings In Aussie Lockdown Teens meet in Melbourne for their parents' wedding, then get left together in locked-down Australia. By Baztrachian When my father told me that he was getting married again I accepted it as good news. He'd been alone and depressed since the divorce and when he met Debbie she clearly brought back his smile and his joy. So of course I was happy for him. It was just after Thanksgiving in 2019 when they decided on getting married the following June. The plan was for four of us to take a family trip together instead of doing the traditional honeymoon vacation. The four of us included my father, Debbie, myself, and my new step-sister, Taylor. The June date was set to coincide with Taylor graduating high school. Taylor was pretty happy about the plan to take a trip to Australia because their drinking laws would allow even a freshly minted eighteen year old to enjoy a visit to a bar. Over the ensuing months I got to know Taylor fairly well and we ended up getting along despite some serious differences. Where I was a devoted outdoorsman who loved hiking, off-road sports, climbing, and working out Taylor was your typical ginger. She was alabaster white and would get sunburned if she was in the sun for much more than a few minutes. She was also nearsighted and she had to wear glasses to see past her arm. She was cute in a dorky sort of way and I had no problem enjoying her company. The news of COVID started up in January but most everyone I knew dismissed it as being an overhyped flu. Granted, we took it more seriously as time went on but we still had plans to visit Australia and we kept to them. The wedding took place the weekend after Taylor's graduation. The next morning was a flurry of activity as we headed off to the airport. There had been a lockdown in Melbourne that May but it ended soon enough that our plans were not affected. It wasn't easy to get into Australia but we did and when we arrived we headed off to the house we'd rented for the vacation. We'd be there three weeks and we'd head home on July 9th just as planned. One thing we quickly discovered is that July is in the depths of winter, for the Aussies. The rental house was pretty amazing. It was in the town of Port Campbell situated on the ocean and that meant I had quite a lot to do every day. I quickly found myself a kayak and spent several of my days exploring the coast and getting in some decent fishing. My father and Debbie had a good time, of course, and Taylor made the best of it staying in the shade and catching up on her books. You know how when you go on vacation you allow yourself to detach from the world and not have much care for the news? Yep, that was our mistake. Living in our little vacation bubble we had no idea that not only had COVID not blown over but it was getting worse. We only got an idea that things were getting serious when my father got a toothache and decided to cut the honeymoon short by a couple days and go home. Turned out that a lot of Americans were trying to get out of Australia at that point, so airline seats were at a premium. The best my father could pull off were two seats for himself and Debbie. Taylor and I would have to wait for our flight on July 9th before we'd get home. Where we'd only be waiting a couple days for the flight my father paid for me and Taylor to stay in a decent enough Melbourne apartment with a view of the beach and the cruise pier. It was a great location and even though we'd just be there a couple days I was looking forward to making the most of the winter-time beach. The airport situation was a little crazy so we ended up saying our goodbyes at the apartment and then Taylor and I watched as the taxi took our parents away. That afternoon we went to a local store to get a few things and noticed that the other shoppers were all stocking up. Something about their faces alarmed me. "What're you doing?" asked Taylor as I put down our handbasket and instead took a 'trolley' as they call grocery carts down under. "I'm just being cautious is all. Look at these people, they're all freaked out and getting ready to hunker down. I don't know what's really happening but I want to make sure we've got everything we might need just in case." Taylor was a little irritated as I started picking up sundries, snacks, toiletries, and enough food for a couple weeks. I told her that if nothing happened then I'd just leave the stuff out for someone else. She made a remark about how I was wasting my money and I ignored her. On the way back to our apartment I slipped into a liquor store and picked up two cases of beer, six liters of vodka, six liters of whisky, and assorted mixers. Just in case, of course. The news that evening confirmed my fears. Melbourne was going into six weeks of lockdown. We were going to be shut into our apartment and only allowed outside for two hours of exercise and one hour to go visit a store. I made a few frantic calls to the airline and it was the seventh time I tried that I got through to find out our flight was cancelled. A few more calls followed and I confirmed we weren't going to be allowed to leave for at least the entirety of the six weeks. That led to calling my father back at home in the US. He handled the news with aplomb as if this was no big deal. I appreciated his confidence and doubly appreciated his promise to drop enough money in my account to see me and Taylor through the six weeks of lockdown. I felt better when I got off the phone and shared this news with Taylor. The next day was the start of the lockdown and it was immediately apparent that the police were in no mood to play with anyone. We looked over the balcony of the apartment and saw people on the beach getting chased away or even arrested by the aggressive police. At one point one of the cops even yelled at us to go inside or get arrested! It was really shocking to see the city become a big prison. You just don't expect that kind of thing to happen in a Western country and in this case it had happened so fast that there wasn't even time for anyone to protest. Although we were supposedly allowed to go out to exercise I convinced Taylor to stay in due to wanting to avoid a problem with the police. Where we were set on food for a while I also decided against going shopping until we absolutely had to. When we'd arranged for the apartment I was sleeping on the couch and Taylor had the bed. But a couple days into the lockdown Taylor had me switch because the bed was going to be more comfortable for me. Hate to say, but I didn't argue with her about that. We passed our time talking a lot. I got to hear about her high school experience, her debate club victories, her attempts at art, and her plans to study higher mathematics in college. Taylor got to hear about my hiking trip to Nepal, my fishing adventure in the Red Sea, my close encounter with a bear in Alaska, and etc. We even made it six days before I opened a case of beer. Despite the cold weather we made a point of sitting out on the balcony at night. We would sit and chat and sip a drink and enjoy breaking one of the oppressive rules. Naturally we stayed out of sight because even though we were rebels we didn't want to push our luck. An odd thing took place during our confinement as we tacitly agreed on some domestic practices. We never had to discuss it as we started doing laundry, cleaning dishes, and doing all of the normal things you do when you live together. For whatever reason we got along well as roommates and one day we both acknowledged this fact and each considered ourselves fortunate to have family we could like. I don't recall precisely which day it was but a day came along where we didn't need to leave the apartment and neither of us bothered to get dressed. I spent the day in a t-shirt and boxers, and Taylor spent the day in her night-time chemise and panties. That started a habit with us of being rather casual around the apartment. I'd be lying if I didn't admit to giving her body serious consideration. I did my best to play it off but when I was in the shower by myself I found her to be the object of my fantasies as I'd relieve my pent-up needs. July 31st was a Friday, and that particular day stood out to me. Taylor and I had been into drinking a bit more than usual and when it came time for bed she followed me into the bedroom. It was cold and cloudy outside and the apartment had a bit of a chill to it so Taylor's explanation made sense. "It's too fucking cold to sleep on the couch," she slurred, "hope you don't mind but I'm in here tonight." It was the first time I'd heard her swear. Myself, I didn't mind the prospect of her company so I held up the blanket and let her slide in. Then I cuddled up behind her and my prescription from Doctor Johnny Walker put me to sleep. In the morning I woke to feeling Taylor's warm ass pressing against my body. It was a couple moments before I realized that my cock was out of my boxers and snugly gripped by Taylor's panty-protected thigh gap. I really had to fight back the urge to try to fuck her but at the same time it just wasn't right. She gently moved against me as I withdrew my cock. I swore she was wanting me, but I had to tell my ego to calm down. I got up from the warm bed and headed out to the kitchen to make some much needed coffee. As the coffee was brewing I went out on the balcony to get some cold air. That helped me wake up and it also settled down the spike jutting out from between my legs. The day that followed was more or less normal. I was quietly relieved when Taylor didn't speak of what my cock had been up to during the night and I was quite set on making sure there were no repeat performances. At the same time the thought that my cock had been separated from Taylor's cunt by just a flimsy bit of fabric had me somewhat aroused all day. Around noon there was a knock on the door from one of our neighbors. I opened the door after putting on the requisite mask and the cheerful fellow mentioned how he'd overheard us on the balcony talking about vodka. He needed some and we had it. A trade was completed and now we had a bottle of gin and a couple bottles of tonic water. That night Taylor and myself sat down watching Sky News mostly because they were the only channel with news from the USA. At a certain point Taylor got up and made two pint glasses full of gin and tonic. Needless to say by bedtime we were both toasted and the two drinks were just a bit more than half gone. I made my move getting up to go to bed while Taylor put the two leftover drinks in the fridge. When she joined me in bed she had me spoon up behind her and then she snuggled into me. I have to admit that it was really nice. When I put my arm around her she didn't mind that my hand ended up holding her tit. Sleep overtook me before anything else happened and at the moment I was grateful. Sometime during the night I woke to feeling Taylor's ass pushing back at me. It was a very gentle motion but it was enough that my cock was responding. I couldn't help myself but to pull her tight against myself and strain to push my crotch at hers. She pulled away just enough to get her hand between us. She went right to my cock and rubbed it under my shorts. Again, she was very gentle but she was also making clear what she wanted. Fishing around my shorts she found the opening and I sighed as her soft hand wrapped around my pole and pulled it out of my shorts. Her hand exited the space between us and I felt her ass push up against me again. My cock rubbed between her ass cheeks. They felt silky and smooth. She moved again and this time lifted a leg to allow my cock to fit between us. The tip of my cock rubbed against something warm and moist. I woke up a bit more and did an exploratory thrust and realized that she wasn't wearing panties. "Taylor?" I asked. "Yeah?" she huskily replied. "Do you want me to stop?" She didn't hesitate. "No." She pressed her ass at me and I couldn't help myself but to thrust. We bumped a few times and then we both caught our breath as my cock found the right place. My cock was just pressed into the mouth of her cunt. I took a moment to savor the feeling and then felt her press back. I didn't move and instead felt her body open up for me as the first inch or so of my cock entered her. My instincts took over at this point. "Uh, ah!" she exclaimed as I started to drive myself into her. I felt her body twitch as I tried to get deeper. "Oh, God." she uttered as she moved her hips allowing me to plunge all the way inside of her. Between the effects of the alcohol and my need I wasn't the least bit interested in being gentle. All I knew was my cock was in her cunt and it was absolute Heaven! I started fucking her hard and my hands wrapped around her. I mashed one of her tits while she grunted from getting her cunt slammed. She put a hand on my hip to try to push me back a little and all I did was fuck harder. Taylor cried out as I drove deep and started spewing my load into her. She tried to move away from me and I held her tight until I was done shooting my cum into her. She was silent in the aftermath of our coupling. When my cock finally relaxed and slipped from her body she moved away from me just enough to get some space. As I started to feel the embrace of sleep I swore I could hear her quietly sobbing. It was a bit before sunrise when I awoke. The memory of the evening flooded in on me and I had that brief moment of disbelief where I thought it could have been a dream. During the night Taylor had moved to where she was sleeping a little away from me. I explored her body with a hand and felt her bare thigh. Moving up I found her bare hip and the fact that she was naked below the waist made me hard again. I brushed her hair with my hand and then caressed her cheek. "Taylor? You awake?" I asked. Her snoozing continued informing me she was deep in sleep. My hand moved down her body. I undid the ties on her chemise and treated myself to feeling the soft skin of her breasts. She gave a pleasant little purr as my fingers played over her nipples. I removed my hand and let her go back to snoozing. Taking her hip with my hand I gently pulled her against me. As her body moved against me my cock neatly fit into her thigh gap again. She lay quietly as I gently rutted against her. When I poked her in the right place she moaned and moved her leg. I stopped for a moment and then started gently moving again as I heard her moan in approval. When she'd moved her leg she exposed her cunt to me and it wasn't long before I felt her moisture on my cock. As gently as I could I changed my angle and pushed. Her cunt opened for me and I stifled a moan as I slipped into her again. I was determined to be gentle and took my time getting myself fully embedded in her. Taking a little time just to savor the moment I started a very slow and deliberate rhythm. Somewhere along the line Taylor stirred. She reached between us to where our bodies met and explored. Then she just relaxed and let me keep going. Soon enough I felt her hips moving in response to mine and then I felt her tense. "Fuck..." she whispered as she came. I felt her cunt clench around my cock and that did it for me as I unloaded my cum into her again. We had a moment where I just held her but then she was up and off to the shower. When she was done she excused herself to the kitchen and it was my turn to clean up. I needed it. And after I was dressed decently I went out to talk to her. "Good morning." I said, wondering what her response would be. She smiled at me. "It is." Naturally we had to talk about our new relationship. And that's what we did for a while before deciding to take a walk together. It was eerie to be in a big city and have it so quiet. We got over to the beach but between signs saying the beach was closed and glares from the police we decided to stay close to the apartment. Lunch was a simple affair of bread and cheese. While we ate I asked Taylor why she'd wanted to be more to me than just a step-sister. "I guess I never would have known you if our parents didn't get married. You're like the total opposite of me. But being around you I got to know you and then there's the thing where you're not so hard to look at, Mister." I smiled at her. "You're not so hard to look at yourself." When I asked her about the possibility of pregnancy she just shrugged. "I can go to the store if you want me to." I offered. "What if I didn't want you to?" she asked. "You mean you don't want to have sex anymore? I can understand that." She shook her head, "No, what if I just want us to keep doing this; whatever it is. Would you be okay with that?" I looked in her pale green eyes and realized that I was looking at the woman I'd marry. "Of course I would." And that, my friends, was the closest we ever came to a marriage proposal. After that it was just a given that we would marry and have a family. Naturally, it was no surprise that when we were finally allowed to return to the USA, Taylor was sporting a very modest bulge. I guess my biggest surprise in all of this was when we got home and broke the news to our parents. They looked at each other, smiled, and then my new step-mom says, "Yeah, we kind of figured you two would find a way to pass the time." By Baztrachian for Literotica

I'm joined by Bernadette Nulty, VP International Financial Services at IDA Ireland, for this episode of The Aquest Podcast. I was interested to learn about the types of financial services firms which are exploring the possibility of establish a presence in Ireland at the moment and the trends that IDA Ireland is seeing. I also wanted to understand the key factors that cause firms to choose Ireland and the ways in which IDA Ireland can support these firms on their journey. Bernadette and I discuss the continued support that IDA Ireland provides to inward-investing firms that set-up in Ireland and the areas of focus that are attracting their attention as they seek to grow and thrive here. Needless to say, AI, R&D and training are high on the list! Many thanks to Bernadette for sharing her knowledge and insight. Enjoy!

“If there is anything I would like to be remembered for, it is that I helped people understand that leadership is helping other people grow and succeed. To repeat myself, leadership is not just about you. It's about them.” – Jack Welch Check Out These Highlights: A few years ago. I had a client who was trying to build a client journey culture rooted in love, care, and respect to foster relationships that grow to the point where our clients become our best advocates, generating passive new business and revenue results. Great objective. A year in, we were discussing next steps to continue raising the bar and identifying areas where their salespeople needed to grow their communication skills to create a more profitable culture. Sounds great, right?  During these discussions, I was informed that the coaching was too challenging and they were going in a different direction. When asked about the new direction, I was told that coaching wasn't part of it because it was considered too complicated and time-consuming. WOW! Needless to say, they are no longer one of my clients, and the leadership team fell short of their original objectives. About Dr. Deepak Bhootra: Dr. Deepak is the founder of Jabulani Consulting and a USA National Bestselling Author. With over 25 years in sales leadership and deep expertise in sales performance psychology, Deepak blends neuroscience, Sandler methodology, and mental coaching to help founders, reps, and sales teams crush quota without crushing their spirit. How to Get in Touch with Dr. Deepak Bhootra: Website:  http://www.deepakbhootra.com Email: deepak@jabulaniconsulting.com Free Gift: https://storage.googleapis.com/msgsndr/nruK4Lkdw6o3h1FEj3vS/media/6813a81dac2c3f03d8629b0d.pdf Stalk me online! LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/conniewhitman Subscribe to the Changing the Sales Game Podcast on your favorite podcast streaming service or YouTube. New episodes are posted every week—listen as Connie delves into new sales and business topics or addresses problems you may have in your business.

Clarity and Brevity are the highest creativity. But “clear and brief” does not mean simple and predictable.One the most talented writers of advertising in the world would be surprised to hear me call him that. Jonathan Edward Durham is a novelist. He recently posted this random thought.“‘Why am I so sad today?' I ask myself after staring at my little handheld sadness machine and clicking all the sad little things that will definitely make me sad.”You may not agree with Durham's statement, but you will agree it was artfully crafted.What Durham gave us was clarity and brevity without predictability. This is the mark of a great ad writer.“Why am I so sad today?” immediately gets our attention. We are compelled to keep reading.We are surprised that he owns “a little handheld sadness machine.” But our cleverness allows us to translate it as “iPhone” and we receive a tiny spasm of delight.You have never heard of “a little handheld sadness machine” but you knew exactly what it was.His 30-word sentence demonstrated clarity, brevity, and creativity, but none of what Jonathan Edward Durham wrote was simple or predictable.Durham's ability to bring us – his readers, his listeners, his customers – into active participation in a one-way conversation is pure genius.Jonathan Edward Durham causes us to become engaged with what he is saying.You can do it, too.“Time + Place + Character + Emotion.” That's it. That's how Stephen Semple turns a weak story into a powerful one in his famous TED-X talk.Here's how Jonathan Edward Durham uses Time + Place + Character + Emotion to tell us a story in less than 30 seconds.“About two years ago, we moved across the country. It was a big, stressful move, and anxieties were high all around, and it had only been about six months since we rescued Jack, so he was really just beginning to adjust to having a forever home. Needless to say, Jack didn't understand why a bunch of strangers were taking all of our things, and he was having a very, very ruff time with the whole process.”“We want Jack to live forever. That's why we feed him The Wizard's Magic dog food.”Jonathan Edward Durham's wonderful story became an excellent ad with my addition of just 16 words. “We want Jack to live forever. That's why we feed him The Wizard's Magic dog food.”You already know how to write the 16 words. Now you need to learn how to tell a wonderful story in 76 words like Durham did.Time + Place + Character + Emotion. Give it a try.Roy H. WilliamsPS – Most people use too many words to make too small a point. The average writer wraps lots of words around a small idea. Inflated sentences are fluffy and empty like a hot air balloon. Good writers deliver a big idea quickly. Tight sentences hit hard. – Indy Beagle“Facts tell. Stories sell.” – Tom SchreiterWho do you call when you need your people to cooperate, innovate, and create? Meta, Google, Salesforce, and other big companies call a woman who has a golden reputation for legendary results. Her methods are unorthodox, unconventional, and irresistible. And her credentials are unique: she is an improv entertainer who trained to be a dancer at Juilliard. Her name is Melissa Dinwiddie and she can play the ukulele. Roving reporter Rotbart...

It's the kiss cam video everyone is talking about. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and his firm's HR officer, Kristin Cabot, caught canoodling on the jumbotron at a recent Coldplay concert. Needless to say, Byron has resigned and everyone can't stop talking about the scandal. But there are also a lot of conversations at workplaces nationwide when it comes to breaking the golden rule: no office place romances. We talked about this with employment attorney and Quinnipiac law professor, Gary Phelan. Image Credit: Getty Images

It's Friday afternoon, which means a fresh episode of Oilersnation Radio is ready to massage your eardrums with an hour of off-season Oilers talk. On today's podcast, the fellas discussed mid-summer rumours, new coaches, the 2025-26 NHL schedule, the new CBA, and much more.We kicked off the Friday episode of ONR with a delicious debate about the NHL rumour mill and whether any of the remaining names would be of interest here in Edmonton. While everyone thinks the roster is mostly set, that doesn't mean that Stan Bowman won't still be working the phones to seek potential upgrades regardless of the position. Will Bowman surprise us with a trade no one sees coming? Is he done making moves for now?Changing gears, we looked through some of the news that came down the pipe over the last week, and gave our takes on what's still left to be done. From the CBA being extended to the 2025-26 NHL schedule being released to where the Oilers are with their goalie search, the guys walked through all of the biggest stories in Edmonton. Needless to say, we're in the summer dead zone for NHL news, but that doesn't mean there isn't still plenty of Oilers topics to talk about. Finally, we wrapped up the Friday episode of ONR with another round of Ask the Idiots, betting talk for our friends at bet365, and Hot and Cold Performers to look back on the week. After punching their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final, the guys spent the bulk of the Friday episode talking about why we should feel confident heading into this rematch against Florida, and how the Oilers are a much different hockey team this time around. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don't drink the water! Maya finds out too late that she shouldn't drink the contaminated tap water in her 64 oz. tennis water jug. The water actually had a forced cell phone Amber Alert. Needless to say, she isn't going far from home today. Amy recaps the Nelly concert after the Twins game. You can always count on Nelly! Amy can't say a picture of the pitcher. Try it…it's tough. Maya went to Summerfest in Milwaukee on the 4th of July. She's never done something so not her. Long story short—she kicks it off with an interesting Uber ride, checks into a beautiful, haunted hotel, and dives headfirst into concerts at Milwaukee's Summerfest. Maya does festival math. The lineup is stacked…Everclear, Oates (of Hall & Oats), Chicago, Frost Children, a random cover band, and Fountains of Wayne. Oates' arrangement of the song Maneater is wild! Why are people waiting in the world's longest line for lemonade?!?!? Turns out Maya's demographic is still old men. They love to talk to a "young gal". Also, we just want to have a hot dog at a festival, for Pete's sake! After a lifetime of accommodating everyone, Amy finally puts her foot down and advocates for herself! Public Service Announcement: Just Listen to Chelsea Handler's Book, I'll Have What She's Having. It's a love letter to every woman. Finally, bring back the free summer concerts!

Send us a text30 min of free dragging of Aaron Phypers LIVE from the stunning Amalfi Coast, I dive deep into this weeks Reality TV scandals that has everyone talking, starting with Aaron Phypers' messy divorce filing from Denise Richards over Fourth of July and the devastating lawsuit that reveals he allegedly defrauded a cancer patient out of $62,000 at his wellness clinic while promising miracle cures with a "98% success rate." Needless to say, she died. I expose the pattern of questionable relationships this man has with successful women, from his brief marriage to Nicollette Sheridan (complete with mysterious recordings he was court-ordered to delete) to his financial dependency on Denise throughout their six-year marriage. But that's just the beginning – I reveal the most jaw-dropping excerpt from Scheana Shay's upcoming memoir "My Good Side" where she finally opens up about discovering Brock Davies cheated on her while she was pregnant, including the disturbing letter he wrote detailing every sordid aspect of his affair. RHOBH new cast discussions beside Rachel Zoe. Brandi Glanville drops the tea I have been saying for years LOL. Plus, I spill exclusive tea about Erika Jayne's surprising new romance with a Delta Force veteran known as "The Sheriff of Baghdad," and what is being said about him. A story about Next Gen NYC Gia Giudice drops and it lines up with some gossip I have heard recently about her mother. I tell you the whole story. Paige Desorbo is in Capri....To listen to all my shows and support my Youtube channel pay $6.00 per month here. https://www.patreon.com/DishingDramaWithDanaWilkeySupport the showDana is on Cameo!Follow Dana: @Wilkey_Dana$25,000 Song - Apple Music$25,000 Song - SpotifyTo support the show and listen to full episodes, become a member on PatreonTo learn more about sponsorships, email DDDWpodcast@gmail.comDana's YouTube Channel

Every now and then Luana suggests an unusual topic rather than bringing someone forward to speak with us.  In this case, she wanted to talk about the process of communication with people offstage. Jennifer speaks about her process, working with law enforcement, and how she gets information from people offstage and passes it along to a particular person who works with an agency - and then they take those visuals, impressions, and dig through the known aspects of a particular case. The law enforcement person is in charge of what information should be followed up on, what aspects of what Jennifer says that should be followed up.  Sometimes it's like working on a procedural television series - each week it's more information, more clues... sometimes it's given to her in a download,  as much information as possible. Sometimes it's bits and pieces as the person who is offstage is learning how to communicate.  Needless to say, the law enforcement cases are also driven by emotions and a time element, especially when someone is missing. Jennifer speaks of how she tries to not judge whatever comes in - and report objectively what she's hearing, sensing or seeing. In our work together, when someone comes in that is known to our "class" or group of individuals we've spoken to on the flipside, they are assisted by friends (and Luana) in how to translate their thoughts into visuals so that Jennifer can pick up what they're imparting and translate that into a sentence. As she notes, she can misinterpret a visual... or later, it becomes clear what that visual was meant to impart. Almost the way a translator takes language and turns it into sign language for the hard of hearing, or those without sound. Each gestures carries meaning, and we string together that is being said or passed along. We never plan what we're going to talk about prior to the session... unless something happens to me (Like sensing someone in the room, and hearing them say something like Brian Wilson did when I felt I heard him say "I'd be honored to be on your podcast." Odd way of saying "I'd like to pass messages along to my loved ones" but Brian was someone who spoke with a different vocabulary as everyone knows.  But for those who are curious why we "talk often to celebrities" - that's not always the case. Other than Luana, who is a pretty cool example of someone who is a celebrity on the flipside for her ability to help people communicate with loved ones onstage. To book a session with JenniferShaffer.com or to book a guided meditation with RichardMartini.com - we're both available for private conversations.

Another day in the resistance against Republican fascism. The so-called "Party of Personal Responsibility" takes no responsibility for the needless suffering and death they created in Texas. Corporate Dems attack Zohran Mamdani. and more! We discuss the madness __________________________________________________ Check out "The Tara Show" with Tara Devlin and Tara Dublin every Thursday 2PM EST on the Political Voices Network! www.youtube.com/@PoliticalVoicesNetwork Head on with Robyn Kincaid is on 5 nights a week! headon.live/ Tarabuster is among the independent media voices at APSRadioNews.com BECOME A "TARABUSTER" PATRON: www.patreon.com/taradevlin Subscribe to the Political Voices Substack: https://www.politicalvoicesnetwork.com/ Join the Tarabuster community on Discord too!! discord.gg/PRYDBx8 Buy some Resistance Merch and help support our progressive work! tarabustermerch.com/ Contact Tarabuster: tarabustershow@maskedfort.com Keep the REAL liberal media going and growing! Support Tarabuster: www.paypal.com/paypalme/taradacktyl

It's the return of the ZappaCast!! And what an incredible treat we have for you! In this episode, we do a DEEP DISH dive into the new Frank Zappa album and film, CHEAPER THAN CHEEP! A virtually unheard of gem seeing the light of day from the Zappa Vault for the first time, Cheaper Than Cheep consists of performance material from a video shoot that Frank and the Mothers performed at for a television special that never materialized. Needless to say, this is MEGA! Vaultmeister Joe takes us behind the scenes of the making of this amazing project, which is a true gift to Zappa fans everywhere and a loving testament to an unbelievably great and unique Mothers lineup!

In this week's episode we watched episodes 6-9, and man was it full of emotion. Needless to say I have fully fallen in love with this show, and it could have ended right here and I would have been happy. We unpack heartfelt storylines, robot-like emotional growth, and try to figure out how Violet manages it all while having a full-blown existential crisis.Our Links:Ian WolffeSend us a text

Life after Revision Surgery for an Amputee     I must have been crazy, right? To CHOOSE to revise my amputation! To go from being uber active to starting over?!?! Golfing on Kauai   Having fun catching waves   At the beginning of this interview process, to be eligible for the AMI procedure, I was very interested in the idea of being a part of something so "cutting edge" (pun intended) and chose to continue through the several interview steps to see if I was even eligible. When it came down to having to go out to Boston for a face to face interview I knew that it was getting very real and that the decision to have it done was going to be all mine. That's when I started to second guess myself and the reason why I would want to go through that again. Decisions need to be made, but with a good, clear reason and with no doubts. I couldn't do something like that again, and have my family be put out because of it... and what if? What if I was as good as I could get? What if I feel more phantom pains? What if, this time I get an infection and start down a harder road than ever before? I will tell you that I never put those questions in my head or spoke of them before the surgery, but the reality is, those are the concerns that hide in the dark, when you are anxious, vulnerable, weak. These are the doubts that create fear, and then stop us from charging forward and achieving greatness. Needless to say, my CT scan showed something that had to be dealt with that had nothing to do with the AMI and everything to do with the pains I had been dealing with for 6 years! THAT was what made my decision one I was at peace with. Now here I am 3 weeks post-op. Starting PT the day after surgery and having those flooding pains upon walking   My biggest support and the guy who has always had my back!

The show opens with more discussion over the DOJ's and the FBI's Sunday night memo claiming Epstein committed suicide and had no list of clients. Even CNN cannot buy it. Then, on top of it, we had a very irritated and condescending explanation from AG Pam Bondi on the whole premise. It was preceded by an even more condescending comment from President Trump. A radical activist judge now believes she has power over the Congress. The Leftist judge thinks she can cancel part of a law that demanded tax dollars will no longer be used to fund Planned Parenthood. We provide an example of how the Legacy/mainstream media are nothing but propagandist shills for their own Democrat party by showing us was MSNBC's Katy Tur said two weeks after Hurricane Helene versus three days after the storms in Texas. By the way, did you know a cloud-seeding company was working to make it rain in that part of Texas just two days earlier? The Judge in Milwaukee who tried to help an illegal avoid ICE has been told she does not have judicial immunity in the case. Thus, her trial will proceed. There is a new branding to the Deep State and it is called DemocracyAID. It is a group made of former members of USAID and the State Department, with the stated mission of toppling Donald Trump and this country via color revolution. 10 members of a radical Antifa movement in Texas will be charged with multiple felonies after plotting to kill ICE employees. Another radical judge believes Laken Riley's murderer needs to be checked for mental competency to see if he should get another trial. The NEA, the biggest public school teacher's union in the country seems to have adopted a new agenda for their members, all of it based on anti-Trump messaging. Pay attention to what the teachers are going to be telling your children this school year. Another investigation shows a group going by the 50501 label are all interconnected with Communist and violent extremist groups. Needless to say they are all aligned with the Democrats. Finally, it looks like the Secretary of Agriculture is moving to make sure the CCP and other adversarial nations cannot buy up our farmland. It's a common sense policy, so you can be assured most Democrats will try to stop it. Please take a moment to rate and review the show and then share the episode on social media. You can find me on Facebook, X, Instagram, GETTR,  TRUTH Social and YouTube by searching for The Alan Sanders Show. And, consider becoming a sponsor of the show by visiting my Patreon page!!

Day 7 of Wimbledon and the quarterfinals are shaping up with Carlos Alcaraz defeating Andrey Rublev to extend his unbeaten run at Wimbledon to 18. He will face another tough test in Cam Norrie who won an epic in possibly the match of the championships against Nicolas Jarry in 5 sets on Court One. Needless to say home hope Cam will have to trade his favourite court one for Centre court to face the two time defending Champion in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. Also making it through to the quarterfinals stage is Karen Khachanov and Taylor Fritz. Fritz playing just 10 games before Jordan Thompson was forced to retire through injury. Fritz will be hoping to go one better and make the Wimbledon semifinals after bowing out at this stage last year to Lorenzo Musetti. On the women's side, it is still very possible that another American woman might pick up a grand slam title after Amanda Anisimova set up match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who dashed British hopes by defeating Sonay Kartal despite the line calling system going down and going against the more seasoned competitor. World Number 1, Aryna Sabalenka who took out her former doubles partner Elise Mertens in round 4 and will face veteran Laura Siegemund in the quarters. Sabalenka will be hoping to add a Wimbledon title to her collection after missing the championships through injury last year. Kim and Joel also preview Day 8 of the Championships and reveal who is doing the best in Wimbledon Collect a Set challenge!BABOLATBabolat are an official partner of Wimbledon and their Wimbledon collaboration collection is available to purchase now from babolat.com SOCIALSFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, plus email the show tennisweeklypod@gmail.com.MERCHPurchase Tennis Weekly Merch through our Etsy store including limited edition designs by Krippa Design where all proceeds go towards the podcast so we can keep doing what we do!REVIEWS***Please take a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your pods. It really means a lot to us at HQ and helps make it easier for new listeners to discover us. Thanks!*** Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the post-race LIVE show. Needless to say that our heads are spinning after an epic British Grand Prix this Sunday at Silverstone. A big win for Lando Norris, a small disappointment for Oscar Piastri, but a major milestone for Nico Hulkenberg and team Sauber. Let's go! Share you thoughts in the comments below. Was Norris gifted a win by the FIA? How did Hulkenberg score his first podium - was it on merit? Did we see an emotional Piastri for the first time when he shamelessly asked for a swap with Norris? How did race tyre strategy unravel for Charles Leclerc & George Russell, also another retirement for Mercedes & Andrea Kimi Antonelli. And finally, was the FIA fair in penalising Piastri? And did they discuss this with the drivers in the briefing before setting a new precedent in race penalties? And for those who thought the Safety Car did more racing, in the first half of the race, boy did we get a show, including the position swaps by Lewis Hamilton. Join Soumil Arora and Kunal Shah on the Inside Line #F1 Podcast. (Season 2025, Episode 40) #F1 #Formula1 #F12025 #BritishGP #MaxVerstappen #Silverstone #F1 #Formula1 #BritishGP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

She threw a pea pod thing at my neck. F police. #Mesa #Phoenix #CrookedCops #FreedomOfSpeech

Our son had just arrived in the southwestern United States to begin his work with Native Americans there. In fact, his supervisor in his non-profit work was a Native American. And our son was eager to show that he was coming with a servant spirit, you know. He had a tremendous opportunity to do just that. His supervisor needed his help in cleaning out a septic system. The job began with our son's hands having to work in that sewage. But the job got more and more involved and so did his body. Before he was finished, he was in that septic sewage up to his waist! Needless to say, he never felt more disgusting in his life. And then came the shower; that long, wonderful, heavenly shower! He said "Dad, I have never felt so dirty in all my life, and it never felt so good to be clean!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "So Good To Be Clean." Getting really clean after you've felt really dirty is a great feeling; one that you might be ready for - on the inside. So many of us carry the awful burden of the mistakes we've made. We've got guilt and regrets that weigh us down, maybe for some destructive choices we've made or some compromises or some sin we wish we could go back and erase. Sometimes it can feel disgusting like all that dirt that covered our son that day. We wonder if there's any way to get really clean, to finally be free of the weight of it all, the dirt, the guilt, the shame. When Mark Twain was asked what were the two most important words in the English language, he said. "Not guilty." But when we know we are guilty, how can we ever experience the freedom of those two glorious words? There is wonderful, cleansing news today. Yes, it's in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. God is talking to people who've got a past. He mentions "the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, homosexual offenders, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers." And He delivers the bad news that those kind of people will never make it to heaven. It sounds hopeless until God turns on His cleansing shower in the next verse. He says, "And that is what some of you were." Did you get that? Were? You mean I can be free from the guilt and shame of the past? How? Well, He says, "But you were washed, you were sanctified (which means you were made special), you were justified (that means you were made right with God) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." The liberating message God has for you and me is this: whatever you've done, whatever you've become doesn't ever have to matter again. Jesus Christ offers you the shower of a lifetime, to forgive every sin you've ever committed, to declare you "not guilty," to open the doors of heaven to you as a new, spiritually clean person. The forgiveness Jesus died to give you becomes yours when you tell Jesus that you're trusting Him to be your Rescuer from your sin. And at that moment the shower of God washes you completely clean for the first time in your life - and clean forever. Don't you want that? The past erased from God's Book? It happens when you say, "Jesus, I'm yours. You died for my sin. I'm putting all my trust in You and what You did on that cross." I pray you'll go to that cross and get forgiven today. Listen, if you go to our website you will have all the information you need from God's Word to be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com. So many people have told me how they felt when they made this choice for Jesus. They've said, "It's like a huge weight was lifted off my back." That can happen to you right now, right where you are. And you can know how good it feels to finally be clean.

Greetings, Field Agents! Your Intrepid Trio have gathered this week to discuss not one, but TWO Marvel trailers that were recently released, Spider: Noir and Ironheart! Now, I have to warn you, there's a tangent or two…maybe three and an accidental fancasting. Needless to say, you'll need to strap in to pick up what were […]

today's episode, we have the pleasure of talking with pastor Aaron Harvie. Aaron is the senior pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. Prior to his role there, he served as a Church Planting Mobilizer with the North American Mission Board and taught at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has an extensive background in pastoring and planting churches in Kentucky and Philadelphia. Aaron and Allison have 5 children: John, Grace, Luke, Porter, and Claire. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Ouachita Baptist University in 1995 and a Master of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1998.   Needless to say, Aaron's a sharp dude. Not only that, he's a gold mine for dads who want to better disciple their kids. We get into some of his personal testimony, the importance of a close relationship with God's word, what it really means to "measure up" as a dad, and much more. You don't want to miss this one.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------   Support the show and upgrade your fatherhood swag. Shop Range Leather and get 15% OFF with code MJ15 Grab some fresh beans! https://rangecoffee.com/   Join the Fatherhood Guard as a monthly donor: https://manhoodjourney.org/donate/fatherhood-guard/     Buy Kent's latest book: Don't Bench Yourself on Amazon  Read the new State Of Biblical Fatherhood report here: http://manhoodjourney.org/sobf Find tools to share the report here: https://manhoodjourney.org/sobf-tools   Have a topic you want us to touch on? Well, get in touch! Send us an email at: info@manhoodjourney.org   -------------------------------------------------------------------------   About our hosts: Kent Evans is the Executive Director and co-founder of Manhood Journey, a ministry that helps dads become disciple-makers. After a twenty-year career as a business leader, he embarked on biblical Fatherhood ministry projects. He's appeared on television, radio, web outlets and podcasts. He's spoken at parenting and men's events. He's authored four books. The first, Wise Guys: Unlocking Hidden Wisdom from the Men Around You, was written to help men learn how to find mentors and wise counsel. The latest, Don't Bench Yourself: How to Stay in the Game Even When You Want to Quit, aims to help dads stay present in their roles as fathers and husbands even when they feel like giving up. Kent's life has been radically affected by godly mentors and his lovely wife, April. They have been married thirty years and have five sons and one daughter-in-law. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Lawson Brown is husband to his high school sweetheart, a father of two young adult daughters, has been a business leader since 1995, and is a former Marine. He served as a small group leader for teenage boys for many years, helped start the Christian media ministry City on a Hill Productions, then later Sanctuary – a new church in Kennesaw, GA – where he served as its leader for Men's Ministry. Lawson's journey of faith has always been centered in a grounding from his wife, Audrey, and supported throughout by many men whom he's found as brothers along the way. His family is nearing an empty nest phase and has recently relocated to the Florida Gulf Coast beaches area.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, threw out New York's Concealed Weapon Law – a law much like California's – as violative of the Second Amendment, and threw out former President Biden's student debt relief program.We asked our experts: what's next?Last year, the court granted presidential immunities once-thought unthinkable, held that the first amendment prohibits the Colorado Public-Accommodation Law from forcing a website designer to design a website for a same-sex wedding, stating it was against her religious beliefs, and found the Constitution's elections clause does not vest exclusive and independent authority in state legislatures to set the rules regarding federal elections..Again, we asked our experts: what's next?Needless to say, plenty to talk about the last few yearsThis year is also replete with activisim, politics, and a few surprises.YLR Host, Jeff Hayden, is joined by celebrated trial lawyer, Jim Brosnahan, to discuss this year's Supreme Court cases.Questions for Jeff and his guests? Please call, toll free, at (866) 798-8255.

On June 20, 2025, the Fifth Circuit returned its decision in the Louisiana Ten Commandments case (here), upholding the District Courts order blocking the law from going into effect. This was followed by a petition on June 26 for a rehearing en banc by the State (here). At the same time, Texas passed its on bill (here) requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. On June 24, that law was challenged in the Northern District of Texas (here) by a group of parents seeking to stop the bill from going into effect. Needless to say, our topic today is very timely, discussing the history of public displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools. My guests are Mark David Hall and Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, who wrote an article on the topic pending publication in the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal entitled Ten Commandments in the Public Square and Public Schools (draft here). Mark David Hall (bio) joined the faculty of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in 2023. He is one of the most outstanding scholars of early America, whose many distinguished publications have argued persuasively for the crucial importance of Christianity in the flourishing of America's experiment in ordered liberty. Andrea Picciotti-Bayer (bio) is Director of the Conscience Project. A Stanford-educated lawyer, she has dedicated her legal career to civil rights and appellate advocacy. She got her start as a trial and appellate attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to leading the Conscience Project, she served as the legal advisor for the Catholic Association, filing amicus briefs with federal courts of appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court in key religious freedom and free speech cases. Resources noted by the guests: RFI, John Witte's book, and The Sacred Rights of Conscience (Liberty Fund) book. Cross & Gavel is a production of CHRISTIAN LEGAL SOCIETY. The episode was produced by Josh Deng, with music from Vexento.

Hi, I'm John Sorensen, President of Evangelism Explosion International, and you're listening to Share Life Today. I met a pastor a few years ago who told me that evangelism doesn't work anymore. He told me you can't go and talk to people because the culture doesn't approve. Do you know where this pastor was from? The African nation of Zambia. Unfortunately, that is a common statement we often hear around the world. However, I asked this pastor if he'd be open to come to a training near his home in Zambia and test his theory. Well, during that week, the Gospel was shared with 234 people with 158 giving their lives to Christ. Needless to say, he not only had a change of heart but a renewed passion for sharing the Gospel. And this is what we want to happen in our country. Sharing the Gospel is still effective. People are open to hearing the Good News of the Gospel…so let's share! For resources to help you share your faith, visit our website at sharelife.today. That's sharelife.today.

The show opens with a presser from yesterday detailing a massive investigation and arrest for committing over $14.6 billion dollars in Medicare fraud. The Senate Parliamentarian stripped out the no Medicaid for illegals so it forced the Senate to need a 60 vote count to add it as an amendment. Needless to say it did not pass. So, Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) suggests DHS find all illegals on Medicaid and deporting them immediately. The One Big Beautiful Bill did pass, but it took VP JD Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote. James Fishback explains to CNN why the BBB is actually a great step in the right direction. We continue to look at the Democrats new rising communist star and how even Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) is all-in for more Dems running as Marxist-socialists. Tom Homan pushes back against raids that scoop up those who were “just working,” and then lamented on how CNN ran a 90 second infomercial on an anti-ICE app. The 82 year old woman set ablaze by the Egyptian illegal has died. We also discuss how entry visas are a privilege and not a right and music act Bob Vylan has only himself to blame for losing the ability to hit 19 cities in a US tour after his ghastly call for death to the IDF at a Glastonbury festival. Trump's polling continues to climb and his supporters continue to feel strongly in his agenda. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is helping with the deportation issue and is looking for a 2026 redo of the US Census. Finally, we end with a hand written not from Trump to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Please take a moment to rate and review the show and then share the episode on social media. You can find me on Facebook, X, Instagram, GETTR,  TRUTH Social and YouTube by searching for The Alan Sanders Show. And, consider becoming a sponsor of the show by visiting my Patreon page!!

For the Glory KC is back with the 138th episode of the show!Sporting Kansas City returned to action for a double game week, but before we get to the games, we have to talk about the MLSPA salary release that included a lot of new numbers for Sporting KC players and a lot of updates to existing players. Needless to say, there are some shocking numbers that are both too high and frankly, too low.After that, we moved to the two games from the week, first tackling the 2-1 come from behind victory over Charlotte FC. The game featured two stoppage time goals, including Mason Toye's first ever for SKC and Dejan Joveljic's hamstring injury/cramp inducing 11th! At the beginning of both sequences, you'll find Manu Garcia pulling the strings. That's despite a nasty head injury he picked up.We also sufficiently got off top with an update to why Khiry Shelton's hair was pink, Wilfried Zaha somehow avoiding a dissent yellow and John Pulskamp heroics.For Real Salt Lake's 1-1 draw against Kansas City, we had to discuss the return of Johnny Russell and William Agada. Including Russell's beautiful (if painful to watch) header and his new haircut. Sheena's favorite topics often have nothing to do with soccer, so Erik Thommy's goal celebration seemed to evolve into the "bowling arrow."Matt Besler also went on the wall and shared some parallels with both Jansen Miller and Jacob Bartlett. The lineup found SKC short-handed and led to the first ever MLS start for 17-year-old Ian James at center back.But no Sporting KC game would be complete without refereeing controversy. While Jake Davis being sent off got a lot of the attention, that actually appeared to be the right call. It was what happened to Davis just before his sending off that left us baffled. How Gozo remained in the game is unbelievable.The KC Current are in their summer break, but they make an appearance in the Digital Crawl with the key re-signing of Michelle Cooper to a long-term deal through 2028.In the Digital Crawl, we also touch on a few more topics, including:USMNT drama against Costa RicaRonaldo's new contractOur Benny Feilhaber updateAnd Kansas City World Cup base camp news, including a story tying England to KCHere is a rundown of topics and start times:New Sporting KC Salaries are out! - 5:26SKC have an epic comeback against Charlotte - 34:13A not quite as complete SKC comeback against RSL - 55:04Digital Crawl - 1:25:22Upcoming GamesUSMNT vs. Guatemala, Wednesday, July 2nd at 6:00PM CDT (in St. Louis)Sporting KC @ Colorado Rapids, Friday, July 4th at 8:30PM SKC II vs. Portland Timbers 2, Saturday, July 5th at 12:00PMGold Cup Final is Sunday at 6:00PMAs a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

Dave is a husband, a father & has spent 22 years in the US Army. He has served in a variety of roles from commanding tanks to medicine. He has spent the later half of his career as a Physician Assistant in the Special Operations community. Needless to say, being physically prepared for unknown challenges is critical in his occupation. This is his story.

You know, when I was growing up, it was a pretty long trip to get to the ocean. I grew up in Illinois, so we didn't have a lot of ocean experience. Needless to say, when I lived along the East Coast for over 20 years, I became fascinated with the ocean. I still love to watch it, I love to walk along the beach, I love to romp in the waves a little, but I haven't gotten used to those big breakers rolling in. Hey, listen, I'm a lake boy, okay; a pool kid. But those big old waves, they make me feel as if they could pick me up and carry me all the way to England, which I would rather fly to anyway than go by way of the Atlantic Ocean. But I have good friends who really know what to do with those giant waves. They've taught me that what you do is you surf on it if you know how, and they're good at it. They wait for that big old curl to come roaring down on them, they leap on their surfboard and they ride that wave. Now, I see a mega wave as a threat. My friends? They see it as a vehicle. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Surfing the Wave That Could Sink You." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 8, and it talks about the day that a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem. All except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. It really sounds like a large wave coming in against God's people. But listen to what they did with it. "Those who had been scattered," chapter 8, verse 4 says, "preached the Word wherever they went." Now, here is this violent enemy attack on the infant church, and it forces the believers out of their little nest in Jerusalem. Probably losing their home, and their family connections, and possibly their job. What did they do? Did they sink? No, they surfed on that big wave! They started spreading the Gospel in all the places they were forced to go. Now, that's just what God had predicted in Acts 1:8, when He said, "You'll be My witnesses in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth." But they weren't leaving Jerusalem until this persecution hit. See, the attacks of the enemy often end up facilitating the plans of God (don't you love it?), because of how believers handle the heavy waves of crisis that come crashing toward them. You could do that. It's called capturing your crisis for Christ. This type of believer surfs on a wave of trouble instead of sinking under it. Let's fast-forward 2,000 years from the book of Acts to your life right now. You've got pressure. What's the wave that's coming in at you right now? You've got stress, you've got some anxiety. Can you see it? There's a crisis that's threatening you, or maybe a disappointment, or a disease, a disaster. Capture your crisis for Christ. Do what these early Christians did. They used it as a platform to proclaim Jesus. They said, "Well, if the crisis has forced me into a place I never wanted to be, I'm going to use this as a place to proclaim Christ." Basically, they believed that their situation was their assignment wherever God put them. See, the crises of life put us in positions where a lot of folks are watching what we do; where we meet new people, where we can find a platform for saying, "Jesus is enough, even in this; especially in this situation." Now, the enemy would love to use this wave that you see coming at you to sink you, but don't go down under it. Remember, your situation is your assignment from God. Do what the great surfers do! Ride on top of this wave; surf on it. Capture it for Christ.

Thursday afternoon means a fresh episode of Real Life was recorded, edited, and is ready to help you get through what's left of your workweek. On today's podcast, the guys discussed getting struck by lightning, Jay and Baggedmilk's trip to Toronto, Tyler's bachelor party, and more.The guys kicked off the Thursday episode of Real Life by discussing theories about getting struck by lightning. While certainly improbable, the boys offered Tyler a few different scenarios about what it would take from him to accept a lightning strike. Talking golf then led to a discussion about equipment costs in sports, and how much a person can spend on marginal upgrades in their game. From there, Jay and Baggedmilk recapped their trip to Toronto, describing it as an eventful one, complete with meetings, hard work, and a pair of sweeping power outages. From some fun meetings with the crew at La Poche Bleue to hearing NHL stories from Max Lapierre to sweating through multiple shirts on a daily basis, it was a quick trip to Toronto that was as eventful as it was sweaty. Needless to say, it was 48 eventful hours on the road for the boys. Finally, the podcast wrapped with a story of Jay finally getting his wish of missing out on Tyler's bachelor party after Little Brick's 10th anniversary events got in the way. As you'll hear, the conversation is about whether Jay should still go for a shortened weekend or if he should give up his spot to Tyler's dad. In the end, Jay's media responsibilities ended up getting in the way, and the result is that Ross has been given the green light to replace him.

This week, the Beans reconvene to discuss our need for validation - where it comes from, how it works, and what you can do to heal that part of yourself which needs safety and security. As it happens, both Beans have recently had transformative experiences. Mory just returned from a restorative trip to Bali where she's reconnected with her purpose; Melissa just returned from painting a step in her garage. Needless to say, your wonderful hosts are primed to dig into all things validation, from its role in social media to the tangible practices you can do to mitigate an addiction. What happens when you check in with yourself before searching for external approval?For All Things Signal:To submit questions for future Signal episodes: https://forms.gle/ZhSKGveWox33GvFq6Follow Signal on Instagram @signalwithmoryandmelissa https://www.instagram.com/signalwithmoryandmelissaFollow Mory on Instagram @moryfontanez https://www.instagram.com/moryfontanez/Order Mory's Book: “Higher Self: Reclaiming The Power of Your Intuition" using the links below!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063309998/keywords=self%2Bhelp%2Bbooks?tag=harpercollinsus-20Target: https://www.target.com/p/higher-self-by-mory-fontanez-hardcover/-/A-93091557#lnk=sametabWalmart:https://www.walmart.com/ip/Higher-Self-Reclaiming-the-Power-of-Your-Intuition-Hardcover-9780063309999/8883157124?classType=REGULAR&from=/search

Needless to say, Brian is not prepared for Season Four of 'The Bear'. Chicago’s best morning radio show now has a podcast! Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and remember that the conversation always lives on the Q101 Facebook page. Brian & Kenzie are live every morning from 6a-10a on Q101. Subscribe to our channel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@Q101 Like Q101 on Facebook HERE: https://www.facebook.com/q101chicago Follow Q101 on Twitter HERE: https://twitter.com/Q101Chicago Follow Q101 on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/q101chicago/?hl=en Follow Q101 on TikTok HERE: https://www.tiktok.com/@q101chicago?lang=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Unbelievable, Panthers win, and are in the NHL finals. Needless to say, Neil is very happy. Panther Coach Doug MacLean calls in.

The title fits, but not necessarily for the reasons you imagine. Barbara Leigh grew up in Wisconsin where she attended college and had a successful career. She tells us about her life and discusses getting married, having two children and over time watching her life choices basically and totally destroy her self esteem.   Barbara tells us how she, while growing up, was constantly described as a “smart girl”. She helped many figure out answers and learned along the way how to observe and research to learn whatever she needed to know. In 1995 when the internet was just coming into our sphere of experience, Barbara learned about it and created web pages and websites for the nonprofit for which she worked. Even with all the technical knowledge she amassed it took many years before she realized that even with all her smarts she was becoming a person who was being reshaped by a partner with his own low esteem and who constantly blamed her for everything that went wrong.   Eventually Barbara realized that something was wrong and began to look in ernest at her life and behavior. She realized that she had to make choices and regain her own self confidence and constructive view of herself. She changed her life and outlook and began growing again emotionally. Barbara tells us about her journey and even includes lessons she learned and wants to pass on to others.   In 2024 Barbara wrote and published her book, “Why Smart Girls Get Into Bad Relationships and How Not To Do It Again”. She is quick to point out that the book is not just for women. It is for anyone who may be facing a “bad relationship”. Barbara shares nine conclusions and thoughts from the book that illustrate why her writings can be so important for so many.   This episode is full of many great life lessons and observations. I do hope you not only enjoy it, but that you also gain some positive life choice ideas from it.     About the Guest:   Barbara Leigh grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin and was considered in school to be a smart girl. She was not the type to get in trouble or make bad decisions. She was involved in lots of activities and did well in school.   She went off to Ripon College where she majored in Speech Communication and worked in the library. After graduation, she got a job in a library at a nonprofit. While working toward a Masters in Library and Information Science at UW-Milwaukee in 1995, she was taking an online searching class and was recruited to build a web site for her employer, being one of only a few employees that had even heard of the World Wide Web.   From there, Barbara built a career as a web developer and eventually moved to online learning and LMS integrations. In each career step she moved toward content, but eventually was directed back to the technical.   In the midst of all that, Barbara got married and had two children. She entered and contributed to bad relationships in her marriage, career and family until one day she decided to just stop. She has spent the last twenty years figuring out what it means to stop, how to continue living, and how to do it better. In 2024, she published a book, Why Smart Girls Get Into Bad Relationships and How Not To Do It Again, and in 2025, she took early retirement to get fully into content and do more writing. She currently writes the Helpfulmess blog which posts weekly. Ways to connect with Barbara:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbaraleighauthor/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbaraleighauthor Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/barbaraleighauthor.bsky.social Website: https://www.barbaraleighauthor.com     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hello, everyone, wherever you happen to be today, around the world or in space, whatever the case happens to be, we're all in space anyway, so I guess that counts for something. But I'm really glad that you are here, and we're really going to have, I think, an interesting conversation today, because we, we have a person who has written an interesting book, at least. I think it's an interesting book. The title of the book is, why do smart girls get into bad relationships, and how to and how not to do it again. I think that's an interesting title. Smart Girls, I gotta say, though, Barbara, who is our guest, Barbara Leigh, I don't know. I think they're more than smart girls that get into bad relationships or just do dumb things. I don't know. Why is it that most people do dumb things, but that's a different story, and probably not what we're really going to cover today. But anyway, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset, and we're glad you're   Barbara Leigh ** 02:19 here. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate   Michael Hingson ** 02:23 it. Yeah, well, it is probably true. Why do, why do so many people get into challenges? Ah, but we cope with what we have to right? Yes, we do. Well. Well, I'm glad you're here. Thanks for for being here and being on unstoppable mindset. Really looking forward to having a chance to really chat. Why don't we start? If we can by you telling us a little bit about kind of the early Barbara growing up and all that. Alright, well, I grew up. How's that for a great way to start.   Barbara Leigh ** 02:52 That's a great, great way to start. I grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin. I had two brothers and a sister, mom and dad and, you know, cats and a dog and cows. I lived in a small community. Everybody knew each other. Nothing really exciting about my childhood. I was in 4h and I was in lots of activities in school. I did great in school, and I was wildly shy as a small child, but I managed to get comfortable enough with that by being a 4h officer and being in in leadership positions in the activities that I was in. I went to off to college in Ripon, and I been busy working on being me ever since,   Michael Hingson ** 03:56 well, so you, you, you don't sound like you're very shy today,   Barbara Leigh ** 04:06 like I said, I tried to get past that. I'm still wildly introverted, but I'm at least, you know, able to speak in public. That's a   Michael Hingson ** 04:15 start. Well, that's a good you know, I'm I've always been amazed, and I hear it so often that the top fear today is public speaking. And I've never really, I know it's me, but I've never understood why it is, because I've always been somewhat used to doing it, but I think that people approach public speaking oftentimes with kind of the wrong idea, because I find that if people fear it, what they're really saying is they're afraid of the audience and what the audience might do. But I find that audiences generally don't tend to really want to view a speaker as being bad. They want speaker. To succeed. So it's always been a puzzlement to be as to why people are afraid of public speaking.   Barbara Leigh ** 05:07 Yeah, that is true. I was a Speech Communication major in college, and had to take public speaking as a course, and we had a guy in there that was just shook. His whole body. Shook it when he started out, and he by the end of the course, he was the best speaker there. I think he just needed to practice doing it and find out it's not so bad.   Michael Hingson ** 05:34 Well, what did he do? What do you have any notion of what what really eliminated his fear?   Barbara Leigh ** 05:41 I think he just got better each time. I think it really was just just getting up in front of people and finding out, yeah, they aren't gonna do anything. They're trying to do the same thing as me. They're trying to learn public speaking, and they're fine.   Michael Hingson ** 05:56 That's cool. Well, I know when I was a program director at our campus radio station at UC Irvine, I wanted everyone to listen to their their own shows. So we we wanted them to record the shows which they wouldn't do. So the engineer and I arranged for that to get done, and we made people listen to their shows, take the cassettes home and listen to them. And as I think about it, I think that probably more often than not, some of these people were in radio because they didn't have to stand up in front of an audience, and they didn't think about being in front of an audience and speaking so much. And so they did what they did, but when they were compelled, if you will, to listen to themselves, they got better. And they got better because they then heard what everybody else is hearing, and they taught themselves that they could really do better than than they thought they were doing, and that they thought that they could do. And I think that really makes a lot of difference. And some of those people actually ended up going into broadcasting as a as a career,   Barbara Leigh ** 07:01 that's great. Yeah, it really is. It's just a matter of getting used to your own voice. I mean, some people just really got annoyed, I guess is the word at their own voice, and they were like, I don't sound like that. Well, you don't sound like yourself inside your head. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 07:27 yeah. I know that when I hear myself talk, I do know that I sound different than I think I sound. And so again, that's part of what I work on. When I listen to recorded speeches, and I listen to what I say and how I say it, because I know what audiences like when they hear a speaker, so it gives me something to work toward. And that's a good thing. Yeah. So it is kind of fun. So you went off to school, you were in high school and all that and and did what? What people do in high school, I assume,   Barbara Leigh ** 08:07 yep, lots of groups. I was in library club and let's see Spanish club and music, musical and choir and various things. Yeah, normal stuff, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 08:23 yeah. I did some of that. I was in the science club, and there was a math club. Wasn't in too many clubs, but I was in those two and and had a lot of fun with that. So it's, it's a good thing. And then, of course, as many of us do, then you went on to college. Where did you go to college? Ripping College. I've never heard of that college,   Barbara Leigh ** 08:49 very small liberal arts college,   Michael Hingson ** 08:52 which is all the better I am. I'm a fan of smaller colleges. I read in the book David and Goliath, the guy who invented the tipping point, wrote this book, and he talks about the fact that if more people would go to small colleges, they would discover that they could actually be kind of a larger fish in a small pond, rather than being a fish that isn't necessarily as large a fish in a very large pond. So the value of people going to to places that are smaller adds a lot of value, and you do get a lot more attention. And that's why, one of the reasons I think I went to UC Irvine, we had 2200 excuse me, 2700 students when I went there. Now there are 32,000 freshmen. My gosh, I can't believe how large it is. No, it's University California, Irvine UCI, which they always say lovingly, really, truly means under construction indefinitely. They're always building new things on the college. So.   Barbara Leigh ** 10:01 Yeah, ripen is, is under 1000 students total. And   Michael Hingson ** 10:07 what did you major in? I knew all my professors. It   10:09 was great. And   Michael Hingson ** 10:10 that's, that's cool. And I did as well. I and I got to know some of them very well. Actually, a couple, one of them even came to my wedding when my wife and I got married. Some, seven or eight, well, eight years after I graduated, or, well, six years after I graduated, but he, we invited him, and he came to the wedding. So that was kind of cool. What did you major in   Barbara Leigh ** 10:33 speech communication with a religion minor? All right.   Michael Hingson ** 10:37 Wow, that's an interesting combination. Why? Why a religion minor with with that religion   Barbara Leigh ** 10:43 has always intrigued me. I guess it's I am interested in people, and religion has such a strong effect on people, and so I really just wanted to learn more about various religions and and how they work.   Michael Hingson ** 11:01 So what do you what do you think about religion and our world today, and how much of an effect it it has?   Barbara Leigh ** 11:11 It's probably very big question. Yes, yes, I have that's like, one of the ideas for one of my next books is to dig into that I'm I have several ideas of things I want to cover, and that's one of them. But, yeah, it just it floors me that there can be so much variation in people who seem to believe the same things.   Michael Hingson ** 11:44 Yeah, yeah. It is. It is fascinating. I I've said ever since escaping from the World Trade Center on September 11, that what happened, no matter what those terrorists say, was not a reflection on the whole world of Islam and the Muslim faith, those were thugs who decided that they wanted to try to make the world bend to their will, if you will, and and they they did a pretty good job for a little while, but it wasn't a religious war, because I think most Muslims are not that way. That's true, and we shouldn't demonize that religion as such, especially since we could always go back and talk about the crusades in, you know what, 1066, and so on. And if we want to talk about Christianity and what it did, yeah, the reality is, everybody tries to do things in the name of religion, and it just doesn't make sense at all. It doesn't. But people try to justify anyway, which is, which is truly unfortunate. Well, so what did you do after you got a degree?   Barbara Leigh ** 12:47 Oh, let's see. I went off to Well, I got married. There you go, after graduation, and moved to the town where my my husband was living, and we I started working at K Mart, and from there, I went to outlet mall. I was the retail store manager, and then I got my job at a nonprofit, and I've been at that nonprofit for 34 years, until I retired, just not too long ago.   Michael Hingson ** 13:24 Wow. What's the nonprofit? Or can you say   Barbara Leigh ** 13:28 it's the international foundation of employee benefit plans? Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 13:33 well, that sounds pretty useful. You were there a long time, huh? I was wow.   Barbara Leigh ** 13:39 I moved around to multiple departments, but I was able to keep growing later, so I stayed   Michael Hingson ** 13:46 so you you were there 34 years. Wow, that is a long time. What? What did you What did you learn about life being there for so long? Wow, I was out for a general question, yeah.   Barbara Leigh ** 14:06 Well, I learned, boy, so many things I have. The foundation is an Educational Association. So I learned the actual benefits. Part of it, I have a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist designation, but also I learned a lot about people and work environments and and getting along with people, and I learned a lot about technology when I started at the foundation the the World Wide Web was not public yet, and while I was there, I was going to graduate school at UW Milwaukee. I. For library and information science. And while I was doing that, I was taking a an online searching course. And my boss, well, I worked in the library, so my boss asked me if I would create a website for the foundation, because nobody else in the building really had even heard of the World Wide Web yet. Yeah. So I learned all about web development and programming and all of that, just because I happened to be the only one that   Michael Hingson ** 15:40 knew, and using tools like Netscape, remember Netscape? Oh, yes, absolutely,   Barbara Leigh ** 15:50 yeah, wow. So yeah, I learned a lot of that, and then from from the library, I went to it, and was in a web developer for many years, and then from it, I went to educational programs where I was working with our learning management system and the integration with with our association management system. So I was, I was doing integrations, basically and but the things that I learned in technology careers that have helped me thus far have been I was doing a lot of troubleshooting. So I would, you know, a lot of times, you know, if you're in technology, no garbage in, garbage out. So when I get to a problem, I say, you know, there's this, there's garbage coming out, or there's nothing coming out at all. And I work back word through the process to get to the source data. And learning that you finding the source data and making sure that the source data is correct is really important. So I learned about a lot about working my way through systems to find that and also making sure that the systems work. So that has helped me a lot in in my life, because when I got into the situation where I needed to write this book about I managed to work my way back to the source of of the problem. And so the the source of the problem was my beliefs about me, about relationships, about other people. And so it was really helpful for me to have that process already in place in my brain, that I could just work my way back to that and Okay, now I can start from better data.   Michael Hingson ** 18:13 Yeah, do you think that working a lot in technology and perhaps some of the other areas where you worked. Do you think that that taught you more about how to observe and look at things and better be able to analyze them and and remembering them? I just find that so often people don't observe things. And I think learning to observe is extremely important to do   Barbara Leigh ** 18:45 absolutely yes, yes, when that's that's like all of my career was observing and and like you said, analyzing, being able to put what I've observed into what I want to happen, or what I would I need to communicate with other people. I think a lot of my career was, was connecting the right people to the right either technology or the or the other people, or just get making those connections.   Michael Hingson ** 19:30 But you had to learn how to observe people and draw conclusions and get that information to make that happen.   Barbara Leigh ** 19:38 Oh yes. And, you know, it's a process, just in growing up and watching people in general. Like I said, you know, religion was, was my thing, because people fascinate me. So I I've always been a people watcher, not like, go sit at the mall and watch people, but, I mean, yeah. I just really try to understand where people are coming from. And I think once I was in a technology career, it was even more important, because a lot of times in those careers people don't expect the technology person to be able to do that, and for me, that was the most important part with understanding the people, understanding what they wanted, what they were actually saying was not exactly what they wanted, and to try to get it get to what they wanted, and then to work with the system to be able to get what they wanted to come out correctly.   Michael Hingson ** 20:53 How did you discover that? How did you discover that people weren't necessarily saying what they really wanted, or that somehow it wasn't being articulated on it. And I understand that's a really tricky sort of thing. I know in asking myself that I just kind of respond by saying, it's just something you gain from a lot of experience, but you have to think about it. But you know, what do you think   Barbara Leigh ** 21:21 exactly? It's trial and error. You keep having people ask you for one thing and then expecting something else, until you figure out that you know what that's really not what they want, and to get them to verbalize, okay, what is it you want coming out of this? Is it? It's tricky.   Michael Hingson ** 21:47 Yeah, yeah, it is and, and it is something where you got to be pretty careful about how you do it and, and to whom you you focus your attentions to make that happen. Or if you've got some people who are difficult to deal with, and again, I guess that that helps you stretch and grow and you learn how to even deal with those people a little bit better, so that they're comfortable in interacting with you.   Barbara Leigh ** 22:14 Yeah, absolutely. But a big part of my job is making people feel comfortable enough to talk to me and, you know, and a lot of times when I would get a project, I would go to the person that that's using, whatever it is, and ask them, okay, you know, where are you getting this data? What do you want it to look like? And, you know, and ask them deeper questions. And, and these are often the people who are, you know, low man on the totem pole, and don't ever get asked, but those are the people that I needed to get to to find out what you know, where things were coming from, to actually give them what was going to work for them.   Michael Hingson ** 23:10 And that's interesting. You're saying, like, the low person on the totem pole doesn't get asked, and they're the ones that would love to be asked to be able to offer their opinions, so that that opens up whole new opportunities when you convey that you're you're willing to listen, and of course, that also then deals with the whole issue of trust. Because if they tell you something and say, Well, I want this incompetence, and you have to keep it that way. Yes, absolutely, trust is, is such a fleeting thing today, even though it's all around us, everywhere we go And everywhere we look. I mean, we trust that the roofs on our houses aren't going to collapse while we're doing this interview, this well, this conversation, and we trust that the internet is going to continue to work. It might, we'll see. But, but we trust in so many ways, but yet, unfortunately, we also confront, or are confronted by situations that try to teach us not to trust and to be close to trust, which is too bad. Yeah, one of the things that, that, that I talk about, actually, in my latest book, live like a guide dog, is trust. I talk about the fact that, in general, the difference between a dog and a person is while dogs love unconditionally, and I think that's true, although they can be taught not to, obviously, but while dogs love unconditionally, they don't trust unconditionally. But the difference between a dog and a person is that dogs are much more open to trust because we have just learned, or we've drawn the conclusion that we can't trust people, and so we lose that skill of being open to trust and trust. Truly learning how to determine whether we can trust any individual or not, rather than just saying we're not going to trust   Barbara Leigh ** 25:07 Right, absolutely, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 25:10 which is, you know, which is so unfortunate? Well, I'm sure you've, you've encountered that a lot.   Barbara Leigh ** 25:17 I have, indeed, and you know that's that was part of my process, was learning how to trust again. And that's a slow, slow, hard process.   Michael Hingson ** 25:31 What, what caused you to start to learn not to trust? What? What happened in your life?   Barbara Leigh ** 25:38 Okay? Well, I want to talk about it, but, well, I won't go into too deep a detail, but yeah, I I was in a relationship where, you know, I was with a very a person has low self esteem, and because of that, I would get told that things were my fault, or things were if I hadn't done this, or if anything That happened really was was somehow brought back to me and as a person with higher self esteem, I took that as my personal responsibility, rather than looking at it as no, that's really Your choice, not, not something that I could cause, and that just kept eroding away at my confidence, and it ended up with me having no self esteem whatsoever. Wow. And then we, you know, I hit a point where an event happened, and I, you know, my brain went, nope, I don't deserve that. And that's where the light switch flipped, and I was to, you know, then I started looking around and going, you know what? I didn't deserve that, either or that, and that was not about me. And so then I started to measure against that, and go, Okay, I can set up boundaries now, because this is behavior that I won't accept anymore. And I was able to start making boundaries, and I was able to start standing up for myself. And, you know, as as that process went on, I was able to, I guess, it was motivate myself just by connecting, reconnecting with that higher self esteem person that I had been earlier. And so I would, you know, it honestly took a very long time, because I was at nothing, and at that point, I made a conscious effort to be gentle with myself and to be patient with myself and to accept myself and so with those being kind to myself thoughts, that's how I was able to move forward. And like I said, moving forward started motivating me, and I was able to bring myself back up to a higher self confidence.   Michael Hingson ** 29:02 Did you get? Oh, go ahead. Oh,   Barbara Leigh ** 29:04 but yeah. The the trust being gone was a trust for not just the person I was in a relationship with, but for so many things around me because I didn't trust myself. I didn't trust what I was believing about myself.   Michael Hingson ** 29:28 Did you hate yourself?   Barbara Leigh ** 29:31 I would not say that. I would say I just didn't understand myself. I would like I said, when I got to the bottom, I was able to say, I don't deserve that, so I wouldn't say hated myself. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 29:48 that's why I asked the question, because that was my impression of what from what you were saying. It wasn't a hate or a dislike, it was a recognition of what should be and what. And then how to deal with it?   Barbara Leigh ** 30:02 Yep, I was, you know, because I got there and, you know, the light switch went on, and I was like, how did I get here? How did this even happen? You know, it just, I couldn't understand.   Michael Hingson ** 30:18 But as you, as you progressed and as you learned about yourself, and that, of course, was part of it, is that you were learning about yourself and bringing yourself back the person you had a relationship with you weren't able to to, I gather, make positive steps to get them to to be a lot better than they were.   Barbara Leigh ** 30:43 That was not my focus. My focus was no boundaries, so that they couldn't hurt me anymore,   Michael Hingson ** 30:52 right, right? It wasn't a matter of you're trying to heal them, but setting boundaries and it would have it would have been nice if they had recognized what was going on. But that was the difference, is that you recognized and they did not right.   Barbara Leigh ** 31:06 And honestly, once I got to a place where I was back to being who I felt like me, he was able to look at that and take some motivation from that, and he actually went and got help through therapy as well. So it actually turned out way better than than expected, but   Michael Hingson ** 31:41 yeah, so are you guys still married? Yes, we are. Well, there you go. Okay, and that was what I was curious about. So he he did. It wasn't you can't, you can't fix everything because people have to fix themselves. But he was able to recognize that which was, which is so cool,   Barbara Leigh ** 32:02 yeah, honestly, I moved out twice. So, I mean, like I said, I set boundaries, yeah, but we made it work. I mean, like, like I said, when I first made the change I did. I was not strong enough to move to be on my own. I just wasn't. And so, you know, I just tried to be as patient with myself as possible, and and I just kept, kept those boundaries and okay, you can't talk to me like that. That's just not going to work. And as I moved forward, he kind of came along with me   Michael Hingson ** 32:47 well, and it sounds like you're both the better for it today.   Barbara Leigh ** 32:54 Oh, absolutely, yes, we've come a long way. I wouldn't say we're perfect for sure, but   Michael Hingson ** 33:01 it's a it's a process. Yes, it is. So what does he do for work or for a living?   Barbara Leigh ** 33:08 He is a sales person for a home improvement company.   Michael Hingson ** 33:11 Ah, ah, Home Improvement. Tim, the tool man, Taylor, but that's another story. Oh, gosh. Well, that's pretty cool. And does he do well at selling?   Barbara Leigh ** 33:25 Yes, he does that. He had his own business for for many years, and so it just comes pretty naturally to him.   Michael Hingson ** 33:34 Well, at the same time, if you're going to be good at sales, you have to learn to observe and and not take things too personally sometimes as well. I learned a lot about sales when I was confronted by needing to go into sales or finding another job, and then I took a Dale Carnegie sales course, and one of my favorite observations about sales is that the best salespeople are really counselors. They're teachers. They guide you in and help you make the right decision, rather than just trying to force something on you, which doesn't mean that they're not trying to make $1 and sell products, but you can also find that your product might not be what somebody wants, and if you push them into buying it, that's going to cost to cost you in the end anyway,   Barbara Leigh ** 34:24 right? And that's why he makes a good salesman, because he was he, he did the work for for 15 years, and at at his own company, and then he went, moved to sales, and just because his body was wearing out, and for because he knows how the product works, how it goes on the house or whatever, he can explain that to the customer, and that makes it so much easier for them to understand, you know, why they need what they need, and how it works.   Michael Hingson ** 34:59 Yeah. Yeah, and I have found that the better sales people really do understand how the product works, and they take the time to keep up with things, because that's going to make them better at what they do. Yes. So now you have children. How many children?   Barbara Leigh ** 35:16 Two, girl and a boy, and how old are they? 29 and 25   Michael Hingson ** 35:23 oh, they're just kids.   35:24 They're just kids   Michael Hingson ** 35:28 and and I know if they've gone into sales just checking no okay,   Barbara Leigh ** 35:36 and have no interest in doing that, what do they do? My daughter works in customer service, and my son is Air National Guard   Michael Hingson ** 35:47 member. Oh, okay, so it's hopefully it sounds like both of them have some really decent self esteem. Yes, they they learned that along the way from the two of you, which is good, which is a positive thing, which is, which is pretty cool, yeah. So you have retired from being with a nonprofit. You said you were there for 34 years, and what caused you to retire   Barbara Leigh ** 36:17 writing this book, I was, I'm looking at writing more and, you know, doing marketing and doing all the things book has been a lot to do and work full time, yeah, so I decided to give, give it my all.   Michael Hingson ** 36:35 Did you self publish or does the publisher publish it? Okay, yeah, which makes even more of a marketing responsibility for you. Although I think publishers are pushing more for most authors to do more to market their own books, rather than the publishers helping as much as perhaps they could. But nevertheless, well, tell us about the book. Then tell us, if you would tell us about that.   Barbara Leigh ** 37:01 Oh, it's why smart girls get into bad relationships, and how not to do it again. I started out with, well, basically the book is for people who want better relationships, not just women, but I. I started out with a smart girl title, because that is something I identify with. I think of it as an identity, because a lot of books on relationships are books written from the perspective of therapists or the perspective of people who have been abused or some kind of trauma or have addictions or something like that, and that's not, that's not who I am. And so I was trying to give a voice to, you know, average people have these problems too. So the smart girl identity is more about, really, like in high school, people would you know, who didn't know me? Well, what time I yearbook? You're so smart. Or people at work, thank you for fixing that. You're so smart, right? And I believed that. And what I believed was that reasonable humans make reasonable choices, and that's not always true, and so when I wrote the book here, or actually when I when I hit the bottom and I started looking back, I was like, I don't know how I got here. So how did I get here? I went through the process. I figured out that my beliefs weren't quite right, and they sounded good, but when I actually put them to action. They really didn't work. So the book is my process of of getting from bottom of the barrel self esteem back up to high self esteem, and looking at those beliefs and rewriting them.   Michael Hingson ** 39:23 So, um, how so like some of your beliefs that that didn't work. For example,   Barbara Leigh ** 39:28 I will read you a few of them if you don't mind. Okay, so, so you get the idea of where, where this goes. So Belief number there's nine of them. Belief number one, I can trust myself became, I can trust myself when I am being honest with myself, because I was lying to myself quite a bit of the time. It turns out, number two, I am a good helpful person became, I am a good helpful person, but that is not where I find my. Value, and that kind of blew me out of the water when I figured that one out. Number three, I'm smart, but I can't appear smarter than my partner. And that's where the focus on women comes in. It's kind of looks at the social oppression of women and how that affects your beliefs. You know, if you believe that stuff so, number three, became, I am smart and I don't have to hide it. Number four, I must guard my relationship, not only from outside, but from inside to became, I must guard my own boundaries to maintain my mental health and stay true to me. Number five, it is important to keep things steady and stable became keeping things steady and stable doesn't allow me to grow. Fear blocks my growth. Embracing the uncomfortable for a time helps me become better. That one was a hard one to learn how bad number six, self care is indulgent and not a priority. Became, self care is a high priority if I don't care take care of me, I can't be good at caring for anyone else. Numbers seven, I have emotional muscle, and I can muscle through anything became I have emotional muscle and I can use it to pull out of negative thoughts. I don't need to deny my emotions or wallow in them. Just recognize them, feel them, and continue to move all the way through them, and this one kind of hits home for my daughter. My daughter was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 20 months, and she used her emotional muscle to muscle through her pain, because she didn't want to see the reaction of people feeling sorry for her, and so she had a lot of of using that emotional muscle to just not show people her pain and and that has been something that we've had to work on for a long time.   Michael Hingson ** 42:33 What did she discover? What did she finally do?   Barbara Leigh ** 42:37 Well, it's been a process, but she's finally actually showing her pain. She because, like she's had a cyst that burst in it. It wrapped around some things, and she couldn't tell the doctor in charge that that she was having that much pain. She she didn't make it a 10 on the pain scale. So the doctor didn't think that she was that, that these complications had happened, because most people couldn't even walk with this pain, but she could, because she's super high pain tolerance. Yeah, and, you know, she learned that she doesn't need to hide her pain, which was, which was pretty life shaking for her, and she's learned that, you know, she can actually tell her doctors, yes, I'm, I'm actually having some pain, and I I really need to have you work on this or or give me medication for this, or whatever. But, yeah, she's she's really come a long way as far as being honest with herself and with other people. Yeah, let's see. Number eight, I can rely on my smartness to figure it out became I can rely on my smartness and problem solving ability. But life isn't always logical. Sometimes I'm starting starting from a faulty belief I don't have to be perfect. It's okay to ask for help when I don't understand and get stuck. And that one it, it seems very obvious, but that one was really ingrained and kept coming up in different ways. Number nine, partial is enough, I can and should fill in. The rest became I am a whole person with my own thoughts, emotions, talents, hopes, dreams and goals. So if I want to be in a relationship, my significant other should see me as a whole person and should be a whole person themselves.   Michael Hingson ** 45:10 Wow, some pretty deep concepts, needless to say, Yeah, but by the same but by the same token, you were willing to step back and observe and think about yourself, so you were able to to create these conclusions and make these changes, which is what it's really all about?   Barbara Leigh ** 45:36 Yeah, I think that's what's different about my book, is that it's not written by a therapist or somebody who's at the other side. It's somebody who's actually in it, um, digging through it and and feeling it and it makes the, you know, it. I pulled apart the process and was, you know, you have to hit all of the things that the you know, the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, social, all, all of the things to hold those beliefs out of all of the different places in your life where they stuck.   Michael Hingson ** 46:23 You think that people really have to, how do I say this? Go to the bottom or hit rock bottom before they can really start to learn?   Barbara Leigh ** 46:33 I hope not.   Michael Hingson ** 46:38 You did and I but I hear it a lot you really don't know until you hit rock bottom. And I'm not sure I totally buy that. It really depends on what you're able to learn and what you're able what conclusions you're able to draw. But a lot of times hitting rock bottom, if you will, maybe emotionally at least, brings people to where they need to be. But I am with you. I hope that it isn't always that way, and it doesn't need to always be that way,   Barbara Leigh ** 47:06 right? I think there's, there's different rock bottoms, you know? It's I got to the point where I needed to learn, and I learned, and that may not be what you and I would view as rock bottom to someone else, you know, but it's, you know, I finally, I finally flip the switch. And that's, you know, somebody else may have a switch at a different level than   Michael Hingson ** 47:40 or they may not see that there's a switch to flip which is, which is all about choice, yep. So what got you started down the road of writing the book?   Barbara Leigh ** 47:54 To be honest, I never thought I would write a book that was never, you know, a big goal in life for me, and I think it's totally a God thing, because I was, you know, my my daughter's been telling me, you need to write a book. You need to write a book for, you know, years. And I was like, yeah, yeah, sure, no product. And then all of a sudden it was time to write the book. And I was like, I don't know why it's time to write the book, but it's time to write the book. And honestly, it it flowed. I mean, I had all these great ideas for a book, and they went poof out the window when I wanted to start writing. I I just kind of sketched out an outline that was terrible, and showed it to a few people, and they're like, sure, you go. And I threw it away and just started writing. And once I started writing, it, it flowed. It actually just came out. And once I was in it a little, you know, a few chapters in, then I was able to organize it and figure out what I wanted to say and make an outline. But I couldn't do any of that until I just started writing. So I don't know, it was odd. And then I gave it to my son. I gave, like, the first two, two chapters, probably, to my son, and he read it, and he pushed it back over the table at me, and said big words. And I was like, okay, so I took it and I took out all the big words, and I made it more conversational. And now everybody who who has read it and and talk to me is like, you know, it just feels like a conversation with a good friend over a cup of   Michael Hingson ** 49:57 coffee. There you go for   Barbara Leigh ** 49:59 a glass of. Wine. So that's where it   Michael Hingson ** 50:03 got, yeah, it's, it's about not preaching, but presenting and teaching in a in a non confrontive way, which is what it's really about, which is what sales is about, Yeah, but that was very observant on his part to say that, yeah,   Barbara Leigh ** 50:24 you made it so much better.   Michael Hingson ** 50:28 When I wrote thunder dog, my first book I was I wrote it with someone. We collaborated. I had worked on it for a long time, or at least worked on ideas. And then Susie Flory called one day and she wanted, she was writing her own book, and she said, Tell me your story. And after I did, she said, You should write your own book, and I'll help you do it. And she did, one of the things that we had was that the book is about being in the World Trade Center, but it's also a lot about my life. And when we got it to the editor, because her agent, who became my agent, Chip McGregor, was able to sell it to Thomas Nelson publishing, which is now part of HarperCollins. But the editor said, My problem with this book is the transitions. And kind of said, well, what do you mean? He said, Well, you talk at the beginning of each chapter about an event on September 11, and then you you go back in your life, but you don't transition between the two. And then when you come back, you don't transition. And I get lost. And when he described that, it just immediately clicked what he was saying. And I actually then spent a weekend putting transitions in every chapter at the right places. And when he read that, he said, this is perfect. This is exactly what I was talking about. And when one of the major reviewers of the book, Kirkus, which reviews books for publishers and libraries and so on, when they reviewed it, they said one of the most powerful parts about it were the transitions. And so I appreciate what your son said, because sometimes the unexpected thing that someone says is what sends you down a road to make it a much better thought process and a much better book or a much better whatever than it would have been otherwise.   Barbara Leigh ** 52:22 Yeah, absolutely. I had a friend from college read it from an author perspective. So she's, she's written five books, and she gave me just, you know, really, she wrote fiction books so they weren't the same, but she gave me just really good authoring advice. As far as you know, you were used this word too many times, you know, things like that. And that was really, really helpful too to just, oh, okay, I get it. That would make it much more smooth. And you know, that was really helpful for me too, and it's just just to get feedback in any capacity is so helpful, I think,   Michael Hingson ** 53:12 well, and all of those comments that people give you help teach you how to write better. Yeah, absolutely. How has writing the book changed your perspective?   Barbara Leigh ** 53:24 Wow. Well, first thing, I had no idea about writing books or publishing or marketing or any of that, so that's been a whole big learning curve. But as far as you know, even even writing through the book helped teach me some things about the process as well. Just as far as relationships go, and talking through it with I had about a dozen people reading it at chapter by chapter as I got them done and and having getting that feedback from them, as far as you know, how it how it affected them, and it was really just so, I guess, helpful for me to learn what other people were were thinking when they're reading it. Because, you know, some of the things had never occurred to me, some of the things were for from friends who had been through some kind of childhood trauma. And I was kind of looking at, okay, I get what you're saying, and I think this that what you're telling me is you. This part is coming from your childhood trauma, but this other part is definitely something that I could add to my book, and I didn't want to make my book about trauma, because it really in my mind, was for the person that was just an average person, living an average life, having average relationship. However, my friends who have had childhood trauma have actually been the most affected by my book, which I find fascinating.   Michael Hingson ** 55:42 That's that's interesting, but it does make sense, because clearly you're trying to help people be more open about themselves, to themselves. And the people that that do that are the people that have been in situations where maybe they haven't, and they maybe intellectually realize that they need to grow and change, but they hadn't totally emotionally adopted that stance, and so you help them with that, which is cool.   Barbara Leigh ** 56:11 Yep, that's something I was expecting for sure.   Michael Hingson ** 56:15 No, understand. Now you have a blog also right, called helpfulness. Why is why is it called helpfulness? And what is it about?   Barbara Leigh ** 56:24 It is called helpful mess because when I was writing this book, I was writing about helpfulness and how that kind of steered me in the wrong direction, because that's where I was finding my value, and I had a typo that made it helpful. Mess, mess. Yeah, I said related to that mess. Yeah, it's like, that messy part. That's me. I So related to that that I ground onto that word. I was like, Okay, this word is mine,   Michael Hingson ** 56:56 well, and it really goes right along with the book and everything we've talked about today. Needless to say, Have you thought about doing things like starting a coaching program? Or do you do any of that?   Barbara Leigh ** 57:12 I do not. My daughter is, she is a life coach, and she has started a holistic nutrition program. So she's kind of doing that, that thing and, and I've never really been interested in doing that kind of thing. So I like you go. I will help you.   Michael Hingson ** 57:33 Okay, well, that's fair. I think we, we all do what we we feel we're best at, and it may come to the time where you'll suddenly discover that you're really better at it than you think, and that you could, you could coach people, or maybe not, but that's really something to look at.   Barbara Leigh ** 57:55 Yeah, I do want to focus on my writing for a while, but you know, when she's done with her program, maybe we'll get something   Michael Hingson ** 58:01 together. Well, there you go, and she lives close to you. Yeah,   Barbara Leigh ** 58:08 she's a half hour early, all right, so   Michael Hingson ** 58:10 Wisconsin home to everywhere, which is pretty cool. Well, so what would you advise? What kind of advice would you give to someone who's going through a lot of the things that you've gone through and so on? What would be the first thing that you would say to them to hopefully get them started down a different path of of life, rather than thinking so little of themselves and not really wanting to move forward,   Barbara Leigh ** 58:39 I would tell them they have options. You can leave your your value is not in how helpful you are, and be gentle and be kind to yourself and accept that you may not be coming from a belief that is true. And look, you know, try to see when you feel something that right, kind of off. Kind of look at your beliefs and you know, where is this coming from? Because a lot of times you can find it if you look hard enough, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 59:31 it's about teaching people to truly develop the skill of self analysis, if you will. Yeah, which is something that we, we all ought to do more of we, we tend not to really look at ourselves. And it goes back to the same thing as the whole concept of the fear of public speaking, if we, if we step out of ourselves and look at what happened, we beat up on ourselves rather than recognize. Amazing. This is a teaching moment, and we can learn from it, rather than allowing it to just be something that beats us   Barbara Leigh ** 1:00:07 up. Yes, absolutely,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:10 which makes a lot of sense. Well, I want to thank you for doing this. We've been we've been at this about an hour. Can you believe it? But I really enjoyed having you talk about it. Do you have any kind of last minute thoughts that you want to convey to people?   Barbara Leigh ** 1:00:30 Well, let's see. I guess if you think reasonable humans make reasonable choices, maybe rethink that. If you want to find my book, you can find it at my website. Let's see   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:48 and what's your website?   Barbara Leigh ** 1:00:51 Barbara Lee, author.com and Lee is l, e, i, G, H,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:56 so it's Barbara Lee, author.com, yeah, cool. Well, I hope people will find it, and we'll, we'll read it. Is it's available? Is it a hard copy or ebook, or both, or both? Okay,   Barbara Leigh ** 1:01:16 and available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble Ingram, Apple, Google, not all the places   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:24 they're they're an audible version or an audio version,   Barbara Leigh ** 1:01:27 not yet something to work on asking, yeah, absolutely. I know I have two people that have been asking, and I well, I have to start making money before I can spend money on that.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:43 Yeah, I hear you well, unless you read it yourself, which cuts the cost way down.   Barbara Leigh ** 1:01:49 Yeah, try that. I have no idea how to do that either, so that, you know, has added to my my pile of things I need to learn.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:56 There you go. It's an adventure.   Barbara Leigh ** 1:01:57 Yes, absolutely, it's on the list. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:00 Barbara, thank you for being here. I really appreciate it, and I want to thank all of you for listening. I hope that this has been not only enjoyable, but educational and worth your time. Love to hear your thoughts. Love to get your your thoughts about this. So any of you who would we'd love to hear from you, please email me at Michael H, i@accessibe.com that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, wherever you're listening, please give us a five star review. We really appreciate those reviews, and especially we love five star reviews. We want positive reviews, but you give us your honest thoughts. We love that. We appreciate it, and we value your comments very highly. If you know anyone who you think ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset, please let us know. And if, by the way, you aren't sure how to review or whatever, or you want to find another place to hear more podcasts in addition to wherever you're listening to it, today, you can go to Michael hingson.com/podcast that's m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, o n.com/podcast, and all of our episodes are there, but we really value your time. We value that you like what we're doing. We'll always love to hear from people, so please let us know and keep the emails coming and again. Barbara, I just want to thank you. We really appreciate your time and are so glad that you came and spent this time with us.   Barbara Leigh ** 1:03:32 Thank you, Michael, it's been great. I appreciate   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:40 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

It's Monday, June 23rd, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Christian persecution pervades Christian-majority nations in Africa & Latin America Many Christians across Africa and Latin America continue to suffer for their faith because of Islamic oppression, dictatorial paranoia, and criminal cartel organizations, reports International Christian Concern. Large populations in Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, and Nigeria are predominantly Christian. Yet, many Christ followers in these nations are often brutally attacked for following Christ, and their governments are failing to protect them.  In Congo, Christians represent 95% of the nation's population, yet they are being slaughtered at alarming rates. Much of the killing is being done by Islamist groups like ISIS-DRC, also known as the Allied Democratic Forces. Likewise, in Mozambique, 62% of the population is composed of Christians, yet Islamic extremists still target them for their faith. According to Open Doors, these extremists have “target[ed] Christian places of worship, abducted religious leaders, and killed numerous believers.”  And in Cuba, the Catholic Church estimates that 60% of the population practices Catholicism. Cuban churches that publicly oppose the government's human rights abuses are targeted by authorities for harassment and intimidation. British House of Commons passes dangerous bill legalizing assisted suicide Members of the British House of Commons voted Friday to pass a dangerous bill to legalize assisted suicide, reports LifeNews.com. In a vote of 314 to 291, Members of Parliament put their stamp of approval on the bill that will likely result in pressuring disabled and elderly people to kill themselves. Isaiah 59:7 says, “Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways.” Tim Dieppe, Head of Policy at Christian Concern, was outraged. DIEPPE: “Once you legalize assisted suicide, you will put pressure on vulnerable people. Vulnerable people will feel like they're a burden to others. People will be suggesting assisted suicide. Doctors could suggest it. I mean, that's horrific. You know, my wife died of cancer three years ago. I can't imagine what it would be like if her consultant had suggested suicide.” Labour legislator Diane Abbott said she's concerned that for-profit companies will run assisted dying businesses that take advantage of killing people for money. Members of Parliament had only 10 hours to consider over 130 amendments to the bill, or less than 5 minutes per change. America bombed Iran's nuclear facilities On Saturday, the U.S. military bombed three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel's effort to decapitate the country's nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran's threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict, reports the Associated Press. TRUMP: “A short time ago, the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. “Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. For 40 years, Iran has been saying, ‘Death to America, Death to Israel.'” The decision to directly involve the U.S. in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that aimed to systematically eradicate the country's air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. TRUMP: “I want to thank and congratulate [Israeli] Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.” (Learn more about the timeline that led up to America's bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities.) Iran threatens to block Strait of Hormuz, blocking 20% of oil shipments In response, Iran is reportedly saying it will block the Strait of Hormuz and stop oil shipments for what amounts to 20% of the world's daily oil flow and up to $1 billion, which will send oil prices soaring globally, reports NewsMax. Needless to say, Iran has no legal authority to block traffic through Hormuz, and blockage would mean direct combat with U.S. naval assets, including the U.S. Fifth Fleet warships patrolling the region. Dear Lord, We pray for peace. Amen. The 30,000-pound bunker bomb that made the difference In a post on TruthSocial, Trump said, “There is not another military in the world that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!” Indeed, America's 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground. Appearing on ABC News, Retired Lt. General Doug Lute explained. LUTE: “The original purpose of building this bomb was actually concern about the North Korean deeply buried nuclear related sites. So, this didn't originally have anything to do with Iran. But most recently, it's the only bomb in our inventory, or frankly, in the global inventory, that promises some prospect of actually penetrating the mountainside in which the crown jewel of the Iranian nuclear program, the Fordow site, is located. So, this is our best technological advantage in terms of trying to get to that site.” 90% of Trump Republicans say “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon” Appearing on Fox News Channel with Dana Perino, Chris Stirewalt summarized Trump's mindset about Iran. STIREWALT: “I think that Donald Trump has never wavered from the ultimate objective, which is that the Iranian nuclear program has to end. It has to be dismantled. It has to be destroyed. The only question has been whether it's done militarily or whether it's done voluntarily. “He gave them a 60-day deadline. They let the deadline pass, and so Israel began bombing on Day 61 and now he is basically holding out. ‘This is your last chance. The time for negotiation is over. There's not going to be any kind of deal.' “This is a question of whether Iran cries ‘amo,' which is Persian for ‘uncle,' and allows U.S. to come in and blow up Fordow from the inside, or we do it from without, from the skies above, with B2 bombers. But I think there is zero chance that the Fordow nuclear facility survives this encounter.” Stirewalt asserted that the Make America Great Again crowd is supportive of Trump's decision to bomb Iran. STIREWALT: “The idea that there's a schism in the Republican Party, or that the Trump Coalition is breaking up is completely absurd. The Reagan Institute is coming out with a new poll this weekend. 90% of self-described [Make America Great Again] Republicans say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. 80% say that Israel's security is vital to our security. 64% support Israel bombing the nuclear facilities. There is absolutely no daylight between Donald Trump and the  [Make America Great Again] movement. The MAGA movement is absolutely behind Donald Trump in getting rid of this nuclear program.” On Truth Social, President Trump posted, “I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal.” He concluded, “This is an historic moment for the United States of America, Israel, and the world. Iran must now agree to end this war.” Texas answers  “What is a Woman?” in state law Last Friday, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed into law the “What is a Woman Bill” also known as House Bill 229, reports Texas Values. Now, in Texas, men can no longer pretend to be women. The law accurately defines the terms “man”, “woman”, “boy”, and “girl” by scientific definitions and biological reality. The effect would be that biological  women will have their rights, opportunities, and privacy protected by law. Genesis 1:27 states,  “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” While Texas already has laws protecting women's sports, there have been many other threats to women's prisons, sororities, and private spaces like locker rooms.  Hockey player gives glory to God after winning Stanley Cup The Russian-born goaltender of the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers, Sergei Bobrovsky, gave glory to God upon his victory after his team won the famed Stanley Cup, the championship trophy in the NHL, for the second year in a row, reports LifeSiteNews.com. REPORTER: “What makes this one special?” BOBROVSKY: “I mean, it's amazing feeling, and I want to say glory to the father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. I want to thank him for everything I have, for my parents, for my family.” Worldview listener in California is grateful the whole family can listen I invited Worldview listeners to share what they enjoy about the newscast in 2-6 sentences by email.  You can share your thoughts — along with your full name, city and state — and send it to adam@TheWorldview.com Carri Andry in Morgan Hill, California wrote, “Hi Adam! My family really appreciates The Worldview in 5 Minutes. We discovered you through Kevin Swanson‘s Generations radio program and have enjoyed listening to what is going on in the world from an informative, Christian point of view. We're grateful for a newscast that the whole family can listen to. Keep up the great work!” 38 Worldview listeners gave $ 14,243.25 to fund our annual budget And finally, toward our $92,625 goal by this past weekend  to fund three-quarters of The Worldview newscast's annual budget for our 6-member team, 38 listeners stepped up to the plate. Our thanks to Felix, age 10, in Sexsmith, Alberta, Canada, who gave $2.25, Michelle in Lexington Park, Maryland who gave $20, Augustine in Auburn, California who gave $25, Cara in Mebane, North Carolina who gave $30, Ben in Eureka, California who gave $35, and Steve in Loveland, Colorado and Nathan in Cobleskill, New York – both of whom gave $50. We appreciate Kevin in North Bend, Oregon, James in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, Josiah in Tigard, Oregon, Trevor in Nikiski, Alaska, and David in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey – each of whom gave $100. We're grateful to God for Josie, age 16, in Sexsmith, Alberta, Canada who gave $146, Ursula in Great Falls, Montana who gave $150, Lorraine in Farmington, Maine and Joel and Heidi in Columbus, Nebraska – both of whom gave $200 as well as Kevin and Rachelle in Columbus, Nebraska who gave  $225 and Wade and Susan in Suffolk, Virginia who pledged $20/month for 12 months for a gift of $240. We appreciate the generosity of Todd in Davenport, Iowa and Joanne in Vasteras, Sweden – both of whom gave $250 as well as Sarah in Madera, California who gave $300, and Cathy in Fate, Texas, James in St Johns, Florida, and Stephen in Plainview, Texas – each of whom pledged $25/month for 12 months for a gift of  $300 each. We were touched by the gifts of Nicki in Carthage, Missouri who pledged $35/month for 12 months for a gift of $420, Zephaniah in Lomax, Illinois and Jennifer in Abingdon, Virginia – both of whom gave $500, Heather in Brenham, Texas, John in DeMotte, Indiana, Tim in Huffman, Texas, Louise in Middletown, Delaware, Charles in Sandpoint, Idaho, and Jennifer in West Milford, New Jersey – each of whom pledged $50/month for 12 months for a gift of $600 each. And we're grateful for the sacrifice of Todd and Kim in Monument, Colorado who gave $650, Mary in  Midlothian, Virginia who gave $1,200, Jill in Hendersonville, Tennessee who pledged $100/month for 12 months for a gift of $1,200 as well, and Scooter in Naples, Florida who will give $2,000. Those 38 Worldview listeners gave a total of $14,243.25 Ready for our new grand total? Drum roll please.  (Drum roll sound effect) $62,573.25 (People clapping and cheering sound effect)  That is the most donors and the largest amount given thus far this entire month. Wow!  We are amazed at God's goodness. Even 10-year-old Felix in Canada gave $2.25 of his own money.  That's awesome! Toward this past weekend's goal of $92,625, we missed it by $30,051.75. Would you be one of 13 people to pledge $100/month for 12 months for a gift of $1,200?  And another 25 people to pledge $50/month for 12 months for a gift of $600? Go to TheWorldview.com and click on Give on the top right.  Click on the recurring tab if you want to make it a monthly pledge. We're on the downhill slide to June 30th at which point we need to have raised $123,500 to fully fund our 6-member Worldview newscast team. What is the Lord asking you to do?  Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, June 23rd, in the year of our Lord 2025.  Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Here we come with banger after banger from the 90's, and after our rewatch of "Heat" we follow it up with a top-10 favorite film for at least one of us in Ron Howard's "Apollo 13." This isn't even an if you know you know type film, this is one of those movies that you NEED to know about. Apollo 13 represents what is great and truly magical about filmmaking.Needless to say, you are in store for a love fest, but we also enjoy some new beers and trivia so we know that fans of the show will love this as much as we did recording it.Thanks for listening, and find us at 20years4beers.com for more.Support the show

I open the doors once again for another ask-me-anything episode of the RDP podcast. In this weeks episode, I tackle what makes a good workout routine, why most dietary advice isn't all that effective, and tips to bring your isometric training to a whole new level.R.D.P. Books and equipment resources available at https://www.reddeltaproject.com

Almost one year ago, to the day, tonight's guest had an encounter that she's, just now, coming to terms with. You see, when she had her first encounter, she saw the Dogman. It was less than 30 feet from her when she laid eyes on it. Needless to say, she didn't waste any time getting away from it. What happened moments later, after she thought the two of them had gone their separate ways, however, was more traumatizing to her than when she had seen it at such a close distance, moments before. We hope you'll join us for tonight's livestream episode of the show, so you can listen to her describe what happened when she had both encounters. If you do, you'll understand why they traumatized her the way they did.MY NEW DOGMAN PODCAST!Tonight, at 9 PM Eastern Time, I'm going to publish 4 more new episodes for my new Dogman podcast. My new podcast is called "Dogman Tales.” It features fictional stories about Dogmen and people who have experiences with them. The podcast is only available for listening in podcast format. It is NOT available on YouTube.If you'd like to listen to it, you can find the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Dogman Tales is available for listening on every podcast app out there. If you don't have a go-to podcast app, here's a link to the Dogman Tales Podcast Page, on Spreaker...https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dogman-tales--6640134Premium memberships are now available! If you'd like to listen to the show without ads and have full access to premium content, please go to https://DogmanEncounters.com/Podcast to learn how to become a premium member.If you've had a Dogman encounter and need help or would like to be a guest on the show, please go to https://DogmanEncounters.com and submit a report. I'd love to hear from you.If you'd like to help support the show, by buying your own Dogman Encounters t-shirt, sweatshirt, tank top, or coffee mug, please visit the Dogman Encounters Show Store, by going to https://Dogman-Encounters.MyShopify.comIf you've had a Sasquatch sighting and would like to be a guest on My Bigfoot Sighting, please go to https://MyBigfootSighting.com and submit a report.I produce 4 other shows that are available on your favorite podcast app. If you haven't checked them out, here are links to all 4 channels on the Spreaker App...Dogman Tales...  https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dogman-tales--6640134My Bigfoot Sighting...  https://spreaker.page.link/xT7zh6zWsnCDaoVa7 Bigfoot Eyewitness Radio...  https://spreaker.page.link/WbtSccQm92TKBskT8 My Paranormal Experience https://www.spreaker.com/show/my-paranormal-experience Thanks for listening!

This is a reported phenomenon where if two copies of Claude talk to each other, they end up spiraling into rapturous discussion of spiritual bliss, Buddhism, and the nature of consciousness. From the system card: Anthropic swears they didn't do this on purpose; when they ask Claude why this keeps happening, Claude can't explain. Needless to say, this has made lots of people freak out / speculate wildly. I think there are already a few good partial explanations of this (especially Nostalgebraist here), but they deserve to be fleshed out and spread more fully. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-claude-bliss-attractor