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Thousands of children from South Korea have been adopted by Australian families over decades. In many cases, these children were raised to believe they were orphans – and their adoptive families believed they were doing something loving and selfless by giving them a home. But a much more sinister truth has been laid bare: South Korea’s own Truth and Reconciliation Commission exposed how many of those adoptions were built on falsified orphan records, and traced trafficking and forged documents back to the agencies involved. Today, associate editor for The Saturday Paper, Martin McKenzie-Murray, on the trafficking of fake orphans, and whether Australia is finally ready to confront its role in the trade. If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Associate editor for The Saturday Paper, Martin McKenzie-Murray. Photo: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
John Charles in conversation with Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti
Ben Tanzer - After Hours: Scorsese, Grief and the Grammar of Cinema. This is episode 759 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast. Emmy-award winner Ben Tanzer's acclaimed work includes the novel - The Missing, the short story collection UPSTATE, the science fiction novel Orphans and the essay collections Lost in Space and Be Cool. Ben is a Story South and Pushcart nominee, a finalist for the Annual National Indie Excellence and Eric Hoffer Book Awards, a winner of the Devil's Kitchen Literary Festival Nonfiction Prose Award and a Midwest Book Award. He also received an Honorable Mention at the Chicago Writers Association Book Awards for Traditional Non-Fiction and a Bronze Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. He's written for Hemispheres, Punk Planet, Men's Health, and The Arrow, AARP's GenX newsletter. He lives in Chicago with his family. Our focus today will be his latest work - After Hours: Scorsese, Grief and the Grammar of Cinema. Powerful writing. Engaging. Thought provoking. Please share. Thanks for listening! Before you go... You could help support this podcast by Buying Me A Coffee. Not really buying me something to drink but clicking on the link on my home page at https://stevenmiletto.com for Buy Me a Coffee or by going to this link Buy Me a Coffee. This would allow you to donate to help the show address the costs associated with producing the podcast from upgrading gear to the fees associated with producing the show. That would be cool. Thanks for thinking about it. Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you! You are AWESOME! Connect & Learn More: https://www.tanzerben.com https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-podcast-will-change-your-life/id564098800 https://twitter.com/BenTanzer https://www.instagram.com/tanzerben/ https://www.facebook.com/BenTanzer/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanzerben/ https://www.tiktok.com/@bentanzerauthor https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001JRXQDQ Length - 01:11:10
In this fourth installment of the Shepherds Series, good and evil collide in a battle that has raged for thousands of years, and Navy SEAL Jedidiah Johnson and his team are at the tip of the spear—fighting for humanity's future and the ones they love.Victor is dead. But out of the chaos, a new dark power rises …Only weeks ago, former Navy SEAL Jedidiah Johnson, head of Joshua Bravo team at the Shepherds, helped to defeat Victor, the leader of the devil's Dark Ones. Now, his boss, Ben Morvant, has tasked him with an even harder mission: Take a vacation.But before Jed has even managed to hit the beach in the Dominican Republic, he comes face-to-face with a new evil: Orphans are being abducted right off the streets of Santo Domingo. Are these disappearances just an unfortunate crime in an unfamiliar country, or do they hint at something bigger—a new threat emerging out of the power vacuum Victor left behind?When Jed needs help after a violent encounter, he finds himself with an unexpected new ally: CIA liaison Gayle James. Together, the two of them must follow the trail of the missing orphans before it runs cold. Soon they find themselves immersed in a dangerous world of murder, betrayal, and voodoo. Jed will need Gayle, the Watchers Sarah Beth and Corbin, his old friend Ben Morvant, and the entire team of Shepherds at his side to expose the new threat—and to prevent a new dark power from rising …Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jeremy Ambler is a character actor from "Walking Dead" the "Wrong Turn" remake, "Pro Wrestlers VS Zombies", "The Road", soon to be in "Don't Let The Cat Out", and many more motion pictures! This interview occurs on 7-21-2024, at The Tally Ho Theater in Leesburg, Virginia. The cosmic opportunity presented itself while Yachtley Crew was touring through town. Jeremy and his Mom brought along with them several printouts of a scene I appear in with the Orphans on the steps with Cab Calloway, in the movie "Blues Brothers". They also brought a few different sized toy replicas of The Bluesmobile from "Blues Brothers". It was an honour to be asked to sign all items! Jeremy was also kind enough to bring along printouts of his scenes in "Walking Dead", which were distributed to the other guys in the band. If you're a fan of the show "Walking Dead", stick around to learn about what goes on behind the scenes! Jeremy's Instagram - http://instagram.com/jeremyambler . Jeremy's Facebook - http://Facebook.com/JeremyAmbler . Here is his IMDb - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1923536/?ref_=fn_all_nme_9 . Video interview with Jeremy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq5XNqKg72c . Check out this happy Dad and Son, who receive an autograph from Jeremy in the mail - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrcbWG5Rk08 . Also in this episode, our friends, John Carl Pepe from Pep Talk and Frank Edward Nora from Overnightscape Underground Podcast, stop by to say hello. Richard T. Wilson from the "Halloween Girl" comic book series says hello. Henry D. Horse gives us an unexpected Fun Fact! Also, our Comedian friend Craig Spivek calls the hotline! You too, can be on the show! Call the voicemail at 561-203-9179. Tell us your paranormal stories, weird dreams, motivational poetry, funny anecdotes, deeply pondered theories or anything you want to share with the World!Check out John Carl Pepe's Pep Talk here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jcLNkfflDU&t=10s . Check out Frank Edward Nora's Overnightscape Underground here - https://onsug.com/archives/35883 . Check out Richard T. Wilsons' projects here - https://www.rtwfilms.com/halloween-girl.html . Henry D. Horse is found here - https://henrydhorse-blog.tumblr.com/image/119921750303 . Comedian Craig Spivek's books are available here - https://a.co/d/cfIhHXH .
The Ghosts of Harrenhal: A Song of Ice and Fire Podcast (ASOIAF)
Send us a textTyrion gets to know his new traveling companions, and, by dint of his cyvasse skills, some secrets about their mission. Mackelly and Simon consider their opening gambit.Chapter Review:Tyrion Lannister wakes early on the Shy Maid. He watches with undisguised interest as Septa Lemore bathes in the river. She shows signs of having given birth at some prior point, but remains an attractive woman. Ysilla makes breakfast and keeps all at bay, with the exception of Young Griff whom she plies with more than he needs.Duck spars with Young Griff, Haldon teaches him languages, geography, geometry, and history. It seems that Tyrion will contribute to this expansive education: he's been tasked with writing down all he can recall about raising and breeding dragons. Haldon offers Tyrion a game of cyvasse while Young Griff studies further with Septa Lemore. Haldon has beaten Tyrion every previous game, so he eagerly accepts Tyrion's wager that the loser must share some secrets. Tyrion hustles to victory and when a giant turtle, known as the Old Man of the River, bellows close by, Tyrion thinks that wonders often herald the arrival of kings.Characters/Places/Names/Events:Tyrion Lannister - Youngest son of Tywin Lannister whom he recently murdered. Brother to queen Cersei and Jamie Lannister. Former Hand of the King.Griff - Red-haired sellsword in service to Ilyrio Mopatis.Young Griff - Griff's son. Cared about by many.Haldon Half-Maester - One of Griff's men.Ser Rolly “Duck” Duckworth - Westerosi knight, who serves Griff.Septa Lemore - Septa who trains Young Griff in spiritual matters.Yandry and Ysilla - Owners of the Shy Maid. Orphans of the Greenblood.Ny Sar - City in Essos. Former home of Princess Nymeria before she led her people to Westeros.Rhoyne River - Rreatest river in Essos. Flows south to Volantis. Support the showSupport us: Buy us a Cup of Arbor Gold, or become a sustainer and receive cool perks Donate to our cause Use our exclusive URL for a free 30-day trial of Audible Buy or gift Marriott Bonvoy points through our affiliate link Rate and review us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, podchaser.com, and elsewhere.Find us on social media: Discord Twitter @GhostsHarrenhal Facebook Instagram YouTube All Music credits to Ross Bugden:INSTAGRAM! : https://instagram.com/rossbugden/ (rossbugden) TWITTER! : https://twitter.com/RossBugden (@rossbugden) YOUTUBE! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kthxycmF25M
Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda are back to conclude "Empire of Storms," book 5 in Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series. So in addition to having your tissues ready for that heart-wrenching cliffhanger, be prepared to remember why you love the Thirteen and why you should hate Aedion. Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe
Kay Hiramine chats with Steve Reiter. Welcome back to another episode of Holy Smokes! Welcome to the Holy Smokes Club podcast, where cigars, spirituality, and community converge. In this episode, we sit down with the founder of Holy Smokes, Kay Hiramine, alongside hosts Steve Reiter and Steve Reiter, for an engaging update from the Nashville-Franklin area. Kay highlights the exciting influx of dynamic individuals and organizations transforming this vibrant region into a new hub for creativity and collaboration. With a focus on private sector leadership and international influences, Kay discusses how Nashville-Franklin is shaping into a community rich with potential. He also teases his upcoming book, "Net Weaving," which reflects his approach to leadership and interconnectedness. With over 5,500 global members, the Holy Smokes community is thriving, and this episode uncovers stories of transformative journeys and initiatives. Join us for this insightful conversation filled with inspiration and fellowship. Outline: (00:00) Influx of People in Nashville (05:06) Private-Sector Leadership Influence (09:06) "Divine Calling to Franklin" (13:01) "Supporting Widows, Orphans, and Single Parents" (15:10) "Building a Community with Conservatories" (18:17) Prompted to Write a Book (22:21) "Exclusive Deals on Stylish Apparel" About the Guest: Kay Hiramine is an observer of the demographic shifts in the Nashville area, especially in Williamson County, where he has noticed a significant influx of talented individuals over the past five to seven years. A resident there for the past four years, Kay is impressed by the quality of newcomers settling in this vibrant region, particularly in the city of Franklin, a suburb of Nashville. Previously, Kay resided in Colorado Springs, the birthplace of the Holy Smokes community, before making the move to Tennessee. Through his experiences, Kay has gained a keen insight into the dynamic and evolving landscape of this Southern locale.
Big Idea: Loneliness is a setup for failure. Don't fear abandonment. Those who believe in Jesus Christ are not orphans and are never alone.
Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda are back with part 2 of "Empire of Storms," book 5 in Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series. Full disclosure: this is now part 2 of 3, and maybe that's a good thing, since we can get the "velvet-wrapped steel" conversation out of the way. Sorry for the cringe Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe
Discover Hope and Purpose Through Karen Hardin's Powerful Story of Redemption!What if the darkest parts of your past could become the foundation for your greatest impact? In this episode, Karen Hardin shares her deeply moving journey—from a childhood marked by trauma and fear to a life transformed by God's voice, guidance, and miraculous provision. As she stepped out in faith, from missions in Asia to moments of divine healing, Karen experienced how God redeems every chapter of our story for His glory.You'll be inspired by Karen's resilience and encouraged to believe that the same God who restored her life wants to work powerfully in yours. Learn how to recognize God's leading, say “yes” even when it's uncomfortable, and discover that ministry isn't about a platform—it's about obedience. Whether you're facing uncertainty or waiting for breakthrough, Karen's testimony will equip you with hope, courage, and fresh faith for your own journey. Rate the Show! Click here for SHOW NOTES!Start a Her God Story Podcast Club! Learn more here!Share this message with a friend and subscribe for weekly encouragement and inspiration! Check out HerGodStory.org for a FREE 6-WEEK DEVOTIONAL and to see upcoming guests. Want to help Widows and Orphans? Join our growing company of women meeting special needs of parentless children and nurturing their unique gifts so they can be ALL God has in mind for them! And help meet real needs of women who have given a lifetime of service to God! Support the Somebody Cares Widows and Orphan fund today! Learn more about the ministry at SomebodyCares.org, FOLLOW US ON:Facebook: @SomebodyCaresAmerica Youtube: SomebodyCaresAmerica Rumble: SomebodyCares X: _SomebodyCares.Instagram: SomebodyCaresAmericaLinkedIn: Somebody Cares America You can also receive periodic ministry updates or join our prayer team by signing up here!
4/27/2025 - 1 Timothy 6 - Nathaniel Skelly: When God's Children Act Like Orphans by Pastor Dennis Fountain
What's the difference between a bank and a credit union? More than you might think.At first glance, banks and credit unions can seem pretty similar as they both offer valuable financial services. But dig a little deeper, and you'll find that credit unions can be a powerful partner for managing money. Aaron Caid joins us to explain why.Aaron Caid is the Chief Marketing Officer at Christian Community Credit Union, an underwriter of Faith & Finance. A Different Kind of Financial InstitutionCredit unions stand apart from traditional banks because they are not-for-profit cooperatives owned by their members. That means the focus is on long-term member relationships, and service is preeminent.However, Christian Community Credit Union (CCCU) goes a step further. Their mission is rooted in striving to serve and love others like Christ. This distinctly faith-based approach transforms everyday banking into a form of ministry that seeks to honor God and expand His Kingdom.At Christian Community Credit Union (CCCU), they help members align their finances with their biblical worldview. That includes offering loans to build churches and support Christ-centered ministries, turning ordinary financial tools into extraordinary Kingdom-building instruments.Surprising Strength in Rates and ServicesMany people assume credit unions can't compete with traditional banks regarding rates, but that's a misconception. Because credit unions don't exist to make profits for shareholders, they can return those profits to our members through better rates and lower fees.Here's a snapshot of Christian Community Credit Union's (CCCU) current offerings:Harvest High-Yield Checking: 4% APY on balances up to $5,000 with no maintenance feesHarvest High-Yield Savings: 5% APY on the first $5,000Welcome CD: 4.5%–4.75% APY on 5- and 10-month termsCash Back Credit Card: 1.5% cash back and a donation to Christian causes with every swipeCCCU also offers vehicle loans, mortgages, and home equity lines of credit at competitive rates, digital banking, and 24/7 member support.Beyond rates and products, CCCU is also committed to spiritual growth through financial stewardship. They provide resources from trusted partners like FaithFi and Compass Financial Ministry to help our members grow in their financial discipleship.It's not just about managing money well—it's about managing money faithfully.Funding Ministry and Fueling the GospelOne of the most inspiring aspects of CCCU is its direct support of ministry work. CCCU specializes in ministry lending, and with over $1 billion in ministry loans funded, it understands what churches and ministries need.From property and equipment loans to operating accounts and reserve fund solutions, CCCU partners with ministries financially and missionarily.Plus, their giving program has donated more than $6.5 million to Christian causes. That includes ministries fighting human trafficking, protecting vulnerable children, providing disaster relief, and sharing the gospel worldwide.Becoming a Member is EasySo, how can you join?Membership is open to Christians and Christian ministries nationwide. You can become a member through your church, school, a partner ministry like Christian Alliance for Orphans, or even through a family member.With a streamlined online process, starting banking with your values is easier than ever. When your money is aligned with your faith, it does more than grow—it gives, serves, and multiplies for God's glory.To learn more or become a member, visit joinchristiancommunity.com.On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions:I have a 401(k) at a place where I used to work about 15 years ago, at the University of North Chicago. It's about $15,000, and I have not been at that job for over 15 years. I want to know if it's a good idea to move it. Should I combine it with my current 401(k), or should I just leave it there?I have a stock in my portfolio that is losing between 40 and 47%. It has an F rating and is a large part of my portfolio. I want to sell it, but I want to know what to do with it after I sell it. I have it in Schwab, and I'm wondering if there's a better fund I could put it in since I have a lot sitting there.I'm contributing to an employer 457(b) plan. Those funds are going into a Roth plan, and I am contributing the maximum amount. I'm married and over 50. I'd like to know if I can also open a personal Roth IRA and a traditional Roth IRA.I would like to sell a piece of land, but I want to sell it to a developer, maybe someone who would be developing a spa, a hotel, or something similar. I want to know where I can go to access or look for developers who would be interested in purchasing my land.My husband and I didn't file taxes from 2016 to 2022, and sadly, he passed away recently. There are IRS notices with increased penalties and interest. Do I have to list the fact that there is a withholding on the IRS notices, even though I didn't have any income, and it was all his income?Resources Mentioned:Faithful Steward: FaithFi's New Quarterly MagazineChristian Community Credit Union (CCCU)Wisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on Money (Pre-Order)Look At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and AnxietyRich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich FoolFind a Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA) or Certified Christian Financial Counselor (CertCFC)FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions most days at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on the Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. Visit our website at FaithFi.com where you can join the FaithFi Community and give as we expand our outreach.
Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda are back with part 1 of "Empire of Storms," book 5 of Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series. But don't worry - it won't be until the next episode when the trauma begins. Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe
In this powerful sermon, I Will Not Leave You Orphans, Ps. Morgan explores the orphan spirit—a deep-seated sense of rejection, abandonment, and performance-based identity that stems from wounds, particularly from father figures. He explains that many people, despite knowing the right thing to do, remain stuck in destructive cycles because their core beliefs have been shaped by pain. This orphan spirit convinces individuals they must earn love, that they are unworthy of acceptance, and that they are ultimately alone. Through the lens of John 14:15-18, where Jesus promises not to leave His followers as orphans, Ps. Morgan emphasizes that healing begins when we replace these false beliefs with the truth of our identity as God's children.
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Christian Church Lexington, Ma Podcast
Today we are blessed to have Fr. Nicholas Andruchow who is the Executive Director of the Project Mexico St Innocent Orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.Fr. Nicholas offers the Main Sermon today and how we are not to forget those in need especially the orphans.Please listen to his words and we pray that you share this message so many can offer their support in all ways!
Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda wrap up "Queen of Shadows," book 4 in Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series. If you're a longtime listener, you know these ladies aren't shy about giving their opinions and they deliver in this episode. Listen now! Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe
Romans 8:14-17 | April 6, 2025 | Hanley Liuhttps://youtu.be/FJXrxktwv2s
Youth Pastor Jon-Michael Shelley demonstrates a theology of sin from the golden calf story in Exodus 32 and teaches on the gifts of Lent.
Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda are back with part 1 of "Queen of Shadows," book 4 in Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series. There's going to be LOTS of Chaol hate (sorry not sorry), lots of laughs, and mispronounced names. So a typical episode - listen now! Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe
When a single parent is trying to raise kids, it's easy for negative emotions to creep in. Pam Farrel and PeggySue Wells join Jim Daly to discuss something called the 5 R's that you have to watch out for. Plus, John and Danny share how we can sometimes misinterpret our kids' emotions. Find us online at focusonthefamily.com/parentingpodcast. Or call 1-800-A-FAMILY. Receive the book The 10 Best Decisions a Single Mom Can Make for your donation of any amount! Take the 7 Traits of Effective Parenting Assessment Listen Now Contact our Counseling Department Single Parent with Confidence Support This Show! If you've listened to any of our podcasts, please give us your feedback.
For those of us in the pews, it's easy to relate to older son's anger flowing from an orphan heart. When we live as the beloved sons and daughters, we experience love, joy, peace, and freedom from the lies of the enemy.Sunday for the 4th Sunday (Laetare) in Lent, Year C
Send us a textKrys tells of the Gettysburg Orphanage. This was started due to a picture of a family of a perished soldier in the area. Sergeant Amos Hurniston was the soldier that started this by dying with the picture of his fam. The orphanage was built to house the orphans of Union soldiers. While this began as a noble idea, this soon turned into something more sinister. Yeah, not good and a breeding ground for ghosts. Tori takes us to another battlefield, Yorktown. Seemed like it was time for Revolutionary War battlefields. This was the most well known as the last land battle of the Revolutionary War. This was a siege that finally gave the US its independence. Fun fact, The World Turned Upside Down is an actual British drinking song and not just a Hamilton reference. You want ghosts, they got ghosts. Our Sources:nps.gov, battlefields.org, colonialghosts.com, agreatbighunkofworld.com, pastlanetravels.com, gettysburgbattlefieldtours.com, achs-pa.org, usaghostadventures.com, gettysburgghosttours.com, truthorscares.com, civilwartalk.com, therebeghosts.com, imdb.comOur theme music: Camille Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre - Busy Strings by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.Support our show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trendylobotomypodcast Find us at FB/Instagram @TrendyLobotomyPod as well as our blog trendylobotomypodcast.blogspot.com Support the show
Michelle shares stories of her encounters with ghosts, the hatman, an unhuman hitchhiker, UFOs, and a possibly-demonic fireball.If you would like to help us continue to make Strange Familiars, get bonus content, t-shirts, stickers, and more rewards, you can become a patron: http://www.patreon.com/StrangeFamiliars If you would prefer a one-time payment to help us out, here is a PayPal.me link - you can change the number 25 in the URL to any amount: https://www.paypal.me/timothyrenner/25Strange Familiars merch: https://www.strangefamiliars.com/merchGIVE THE GIFT OF STRANGE FAMILIARS: https://www.patreon.com/StrangeFamiliars/giftOur Strange Familiars / Lost Grave etsy shop has art, books, patches, t-shirts, and more ... including original art done for Strange Familiars: https://lostgrave.etsy.comFollow us on Whatnot: https://whatnot.com/invite/strangefamiliarsEpisode 521 notes and links:ORDER I Have Never Minded the Loneliness here: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1846191158Episode artwork by Timothy:The original can be purchased here: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1894368875Strange Familiars Curiosity of the Week #144: SNAKE OIL!This item can be purchased from our etsy shop: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1880186942Please support Kiya.Life and their work at Pine Ridge.KIYA.LIFE: https://kiya.lifeLancaster Conservancy: https://www.lancasterconservancy.orgProtect Cuff's Run: https://www.lancasterconservancy.org/protect-cuffs-run/Riverbend Comics: https://www.riverbendcomics.comRiverbend Comics Instagram: @riverbendcomicsTimothy's books: https://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Renner/e/B072X44SD5Chad's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNB7MSJ2F1SRBPcQsEFLnvg (make sure to subscribe to Chad's channel, Ruck Rabbit Outdoors.)Chad's etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RuckRabbitOutdoorsTo help with the Capuchin Day Center's work with the homeless you can donate here: https://www.capuchindaycentre.ieand here: https://www.cskdetroit.orgContact us via email at: strangefamiliarspodcast@gmail.comhttp://www.facebook.com/strangefamiliarsJoin the Strange Familiars Gathering group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/strangefamiliars/instagram: @strangefamiliarshttp://www.strangefamiliars.comIntro and background music by Stone Breath. You can find more at http://stonebreath.bandcamp.comThe closing song is Sacred Heart of the Seventh Gate by Stone Breath from Greys and Orphans: https://stonebreath.bandcamp.com/album/greys-and-orphansSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/strange-familiars/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Finding a cause worth dying for is no great trick—the Universe is full of them. Finding one worth living for is the genuine problem! Orphans of the Void by Michael Shaara. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.How many vintage science fiction authors won a Pulitzer Prize? Ray Bradbury never won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but received a Pulitzer Special Citation in 2007 for his impact on literature. The answer is three. Booth Tarkington, MacKinlay Kantor and Michael Shaara. Booth Tarkington is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. Tarkington wrote only three short sci-fi stories. MacKinlay Kantor wrote eight short sci-fi stories and one science fiction novel If the South Had Won the Civil War released in 1961.Michael Shaara is the most well known of the three. Shaara was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1928. Before he began selling sci-fi for 2 cents a word in the 1950s he was a boxer and a police officer. He won his Pulitzer for his novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels which won the award in 1975, and was showcased on the big screen in the 1993 movie Gettysburg starring Tom Berenger and Martin Sheen.Shaara also wrote the 1991 novel For Love of the Game which was made into the 1999 film with the same name starring Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston. But it all began back in 1952. He wrote two dozen short sci-fi stories and this was his first. From Galaxy Science Fiction in June 1952, we will discover this tale of artificial intelligence, and the fate of a forgotten world on page 78, Orphans of the Void by Michael Shaara...Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Renwick, with too much time on his hands, was bored. He turned to Mead, in his discontent, only to discover some frightening aspects of his friend's hobby of collecting children's games and rhymes. Before the Fact by Zenna Henderson.☕ Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV===========================
In this powerful sermon, I Will Not Leave You Orphans, Ps. Morgan explores the orphan spirit—a deep-seated sense of rejection, abandonment, and performance-based identity that stems from wounds, particularly from father figures. He explains that many people, despite knowing the right thing to do, remain stuck in destructive cycles because their core beliefs have been shaped by pain. This orphan spirit convinces individuals they must earn love, that they are unworthy of acceptance, and that they are ultimately alone. Through the lens of John 14:15-18, where Jesus promises not to leave His followers as orphans, Ps. Morgan emphasizes that healing begins when we replace these false beliefs with the truth of our identity as God's children. He traces the orphan spirit's generational impact, showing how it manifests in biblical figures like Joseph, David, and Jacob, as well as in our own lives through insecurity, self-sabotage, and relational dysfunction. Ps. Morgan shares his personal journey of overcoming father wounds, explaining that true freedom doesn't come from trying harder or performing better but from fully surrendering to Christ. By recognizing the wound, restoring relationships, receiving God's love, and breaking generational cycles, we can move from an orphan mindset to sonship, embracing the wholeness and belonging that only God provides.
First, Octavian and Timothy present the story of Dr. Dady – who played part in a conspiracy that featured a ghost in black, a ghost in white, strange rituals, a dulcimer elixir, and other weird elements. Next, we hear two tales of phantom fiddlers from Pennsylvania. If you would like to help us continue to make Strange Familiars, get bonus content, t-shirts, stickers, and more rewards, you can become a patron: http://www.patreon.com/StrangeFamiliars If you would prefer a one-time payment to help us out, here is a PayPal.me link - you can change the number 25 in the URL to any amount: https://www.paypal.me/timothyrenner/25Strange Familiars merch: https://www.strangefamiliars.com/merchGIVE THE GIFT OF STRANGE FAMILIARS: https://www.patreon.com/StrangeFamiliars/giftOur Strange Familiars / Lost Grave etsy shop has art, books, patches, t-shirts, and more ... including original art done for Strange Familiars: https://lostgrave.etsy.comFollow us on Whatnot: https://whatnot.com/invite/strangefamiliarsEpisode 520 notes and links:ORDER I Have Never Minded the Loneliness here: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1846191158Episode artwork by Timothy:The original can be purchased from our etsy shop: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1877192223Please support Kiya.Life and their work at Pine Ridge.KIYA.LIFE: https://kiya.lifeLancaster Conservancy: https://www.lancasterconservancy.orgProtect Cuff's Run: https://www.lancasterconservancy.org/protect-cuffs-run/Riverbend Comics: https://www.riverbendcomics.comRiverbend Comics Instagram: @riverbendcomicsTimothy's books: https://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Renner/e/B072X44SD5Chad's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNB7MSJ2F1SRBPcQsEFLnvg (make sure to subscribe to Chad's channel, Ruck Rabbit Outdoors.)Chad's etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RuckRabbitOutdoorsTo help with the Capuchin Day Center's work with the homeless you can donate here: https://www.capuchindaycentre.ieand here: https://www.cskdetroit.orgContact us via email at: strangefamiliarspodcast@gmail.comhttp://www.facebook.com/strangefamiliarsJoin the Strange Familiars Gathering group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/strangefamiliars/instagram: @strangefamiliarshttp://www.strangefamiliars.comIntro and background music by Stone Breath. You can find more at http://stonebreath.bandcamp.comThe closing song is The Corday Waltz from Greys and Orphans: https://stonebreath.bandcamp.com/album/greys-and-orphansSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/strange-familiars/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
An Earthman and Earthwoman are hurled through worlds within worlds by a diabolical weapon! Beyond Annihilation by Henry Kuttner. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Henry Kuttner has been on the podcast before in episode 82, 9 Kinda Short Sci-Fi Stories which was published on July 13th, 2023. Let's jump in our time machine and spin the dials to April 1939, the publication, Thrilling Wonder Stories, which billed itself as The Magazine of Prophetic Fiction, the story begins on page 37, Beyond Annihilation by Henry Kuttner…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Finding a cause worth dying for is no great trick—the Universe is full of them. Finding one worth living for is the genuine problem! Orphans of the Void by Michael Shaara.☕ Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV===========================
"And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'" - Matthew 25:40Millions of people around the world need the basic necessities of life, but even more importantly—they need the Gospel. One organization is helping them receive both. Kelly Miller joins us with an impact report.Kelly Miller is the CEO and President of Cross International, an underwriter of Faith & Finance.A Ministry Model Built on PartnershipCross International's approach to global missions is unique. Instead of working independently, they partner with local Christian organizations, churches, and nonprofits in the countries where they serve.These local partners know their communities far better than we do, and Cross International's role is to walk alongside them and help them expand on what God has already called them to do.This collaborative model not only maximizes impact but also reflects the unity of the Body of Christ as believers across the globe work together to serve those in desperate need.An Impact Report: What God is Doing Through Cross InternationalCross International's mission goes beyond charity. It is about sharing Jesus' love while addressing critical physical needs.Here's a snapshot of what God is doing through their ministry:40,000 children and adults receive food support annuallyOver 3 million servings of fortified rice were provided last year16,000 people gained access to clean, safe drinking waterHundreds of thousands received medical supplies and essential medicinesEach of these numbers represents real lives being changed—people who are now experiencing hope, stability, and the love of Christ.Serving in Crisis: Cross International's Work in HaitiHaiti has endured political instability, gang violence, and natural disasters, yet in the midst of turmoil, Cross International continues to bring hope.Key Ministries in Haiti:Primary education for thousands of childrenTutoring and vocational training to prepare young people for employmentDaily nutritious meals—often the only meal a child will eat all-dayDespite the negative news headlines, God is moving in Haiti, and Cross International is at the forefront of that transformation.Caring for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in AfricaIn many African nations, AIDS, poverty, and natural disasters have left countless children orphaned and homeless. Through their partnerships, Cross International provides:Education and tutoring for at-risk childrenDaily meal support for children without food securityHome rebuilding for families living in unstable, mud-based housingBy offering stable housing, education, and nourishment, Cross International is breaking the cycle of poverty for these children and their families.One of the most inspiring aspects of Cross International's work is how it transforms entire communities.Take Malawi, for example—a country where child malnutrition and extreme poverty are common. Without the feeding program, many children would not go to school. The cycle of poverty would continue. In many cases, young girls would be married off at 11 or 12 years old because their families cannot afford to feed them. This program is breaking that cycle.Through Cross International's work in Tanganyika, Malawi, over 500 children receive food, education, and discipleship—offering them a new future filled with hope and purpose.Meeting Spiritual Needs Alongside Physical OnesCross International provides food, water, and education, but it also shares the life-changing truth of the Gospel with its beneficiaries.Children need to be rooted in God's Word from a young age because navigating life becomes much harder without it. When they learn early on, they grow up with the unshakable truth that God is their provider, guiding and sustaining them through every season of life.Cross International's faith-centered mission is a direct response to 1 John 3:17, which reminds us that true love for God is demonstrated in how we care for those in need.How You Can Partner with Cross InternationalCross International has launched the Thriving Kids Initiative, a program designed to help orphaned, vulnerable, and disabled children not only survive but thrive.By focusing on three key areas:Strengthening familiesBuilding faith communitiesProviding essential resources (food, water, shelter, education)Cross International creates a foundation for long-term stability and spiritual growth.For just $62 a month, you can provide:Nutritious mealsClean and safe drinking waterEducation and discipleshipVisit crossinternational.org/faith to become a monthly partner.As believers, we are called to use our financial resources for God's purposes. Partnering with Cross International is a tangible way to invest in lives, eternity, and the Kingdom of God.God entrusts us with wealth so we can join Him in His work, using our resources to further His Kingdom. As the Body of Christ, let's come together to transform lives and bring the hope of Jesus to those in greatest need.On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions:I have a question about rebalancing for 401(k) accounts. My husband and I are both retired now, and our advisor is advising us to rebalance. I'm not sure what the pros and cons are of rebalancing. What should I know about it?I have a few hundred thousand dollars that I want to invest, but I don't know where to start. I have about $100,000 in a savings account and another $100,000 in an 18-month CD, earning 4.5%. What should I do with this money to start investing it?I have a question about how Social Security benefits are calculated. Do they base them on my last employment or my highest income during my working years?Resources Mentioned:Faithful Steward: FaithFi's New Quarterly MagazineCross InternationalSavingForCollege.comWisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on Money (Pre-Order)Look At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and AnxietyRich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich FoolFind a Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA) or Certified Christian Financial Counselor (CertCFC)FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions most days at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on the Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. Visit our website at FaithFi.com where you can join the FaithFi Community and give as we expand our outreach.
It's time to take a trip back in time to the crime-scorched hellscape of NYC circa 1979 in Walter Hill's The Warriors! Join us as we bop from the Bronx to Coney Island, taking on the many gangs of clowns and theater kids that run these New York City streets. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 128: The Warriors (1979) (00:00:55) - Intro. (00:04:08) - Trying to dial into the tone of this movie, and how it compares to the source material. (00:09:39) - Digging into the nature of the various gangs. (00:13:28) - Talking production history. (00:21:39) - On the subject of Fox. (00:26:30) - The troubles of the theatrical run, and the movie's long cultural shadow. (00:31:45) - Our cast of Warriors, and the killer opening credits intro. (00:41:22) - The Bronx conclave. (00:52:15) - Break! (00:52:43) - We're back, and the chase is on. (01:01:14) - The first test. (01:04:52) - The Orphans. (01:14:29) - These actors look like real-ass people, and how average people respond to these characters. (01:17:34) - Fox gets got, and the gang splits. (01:22:08) - Goodbye Ajax. (01:24:48) - The Lizzies, and Swan and Mercy have it out. (01:31:28) - Onto Union Square, the Punks, and a gnarly bathroom fight. (01:35:51) - Making a less than triumphant return to Coney. (01:41:39) - Luther and the Rogues come clankin'. (01:49:50) - Final thoughts. (01:56:24) - On next week's movie (and Vinny's Warriors ranking). (02:00:57) - Outro.
Olga Seredyuk is a creative and missional soul with a big heart for orphans.In this interview, Olga shares about decorating easter eggs in the tradition of her Ukrainian homeland (known as Psyanky) and her work with YouthReach International. Olga covers some rich territory - - - including an exploration of the unique power and resonance of the songs we sing and the possibilities of living a life of deep connection and place when you have more than one home. Here is a link to where you can purchase the book that includes the essay by Olga featured in the podcast:Hope for the Holidays on AmazonOlga is also a contributor to Autio. Here is a link to one of the articles she has written about the Salzburger Settlement at Ebenezer: Ebenezer; a Salzburger SanctuaryOther Links:Living Creatures CalendarDare to Ukraine: LvivThanks for your support of this podcast! Your listenership is important. https://podcast.feedspot.com/savannah_podcasts/
We may be orphans in this world with no family or friends who are there for us, but In Christ we go from being Orphans to Children of God.Time:MorningMinister:Rev. Daniel VenturaTexts:John 14:1–24Series:Gospel Culture in the Upper Room
Divina and Jeff share stories of seeing UFOs, ghost hunting, deja vu, and dream visitors – including a possible Flannel Man. If you would like to help us continue to make Strange Familiars, get bonus content, t-shirts, stickers, and more rewards, you can become a patron: http://www.patreon.com/StrangeFamiliars If you would prefer a one-time payment to help us out, here is a PayPal.me link - you can change the number 25 in the URL to any amount: https://www.paypal.me/timothyrenner/25Strange Familiars merch: https://www.strangefamiliars.com/merchGIVE THE GIFT OF STRANGE FAMILIARS: https://www.patreon.com/StrangeFamiliars/giftOur Strange Familiars / Lost Grave etsy shop has art, books, patches, t-shirts, and more ... including original art done for Strange Familiars: https://lostgrave.etsy.comFollow us on Whatnot: https://whatnot.com/invite/strangefamiliarsEpisode 519 notes and links:ORDER I Have Never Minded the Loneliness here: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1846191158Please support Kiya.Life and their work at Pine Ridge.KIYA.LIFE: https://kiya.lifeLancaster Conservancy: https://www.lancasterconservancy.orgProtect Cuff's Run: https://www.lancasterconservancy.org/protect-cuffs-run/Riverbend Comics: https://www.riverbendcomics.comRiverbend Comics Instagram: @riverbendcomicsTimothy's books: https://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Renner/e/B072X44SD5Chad's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNB7MSJ2F1SRBPcQsEFLnvg (make sure to subscribe to Chad's channel, Ruck Rabbit Outdoors.)Chad's etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RuckRabbitOutdoorsTo help with the Capuchin Day Center's work with the homeless you can donate here: https://www.capuchindaycentre.ieand here: https://www.cskdetroit.orgContact us via email at: strangefamiliarspodcast@gmail.comhttp://www.facebook.com/strangefamiliarsJoin the Strange Familiars Gathering group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/strangefamiliars/instagram: @strangefamiliarshttp://www.strangefamiliars.comIntro and background music by Stone Breath. You can find more at http://stonebreath.bandcamp.comThe closing song is One Day It will Come To Pass from Greys and Orphans: https://stonebreath.bandcamp.com/album/greys-and-orphansSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/strange-familiars/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
2 more lavin: prohibition to embarras someones else (lengthy illustration how this can lead to many more lavin), and the sensitivity with orphans and widows we must have
Israel defense and finance ministers have announced plans to expand financial support for spouses and children of those who fell serving in the IDF and Israel's security services. Shlomi Nahumson, CEO of the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization spoke to KAN reporter Naomi Segal about the developments, stressing that much more is needed for society to support this population. (Photo: Courtesy IDF Widows and Orphans Organization)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Amie shares stories of a blacker-than-black bigfoot sighting from her youth; her son's complaints of the Hahas – frightening, floating, bodiless heads; a helpful voice; and more. If you would like to help us continue to make Strange Familiars, get bonus content, t-shirts, stickers, and more rewards, you can become a patron: http://www.patreon.com/StrangeFamiliars If you would prefer a one-time payment to help us out, here is a PayPal.me link - you can change the number 25 in the URL to any amount: https://www.paypal.me/timothyrenner/25Strange Familiars merch: https://www.strangefamiliars.com/merchGIVE THE GIFT OF STRANGE FAMILIARS: https://www.patreon.com/StrangeFamiliars/giftOur Strange Familiars / Lost Grave etsy shop has art, books, patches, t-shirts, and more ... including original art done for Strange Familiars: https://lostgrave.etsy.comFollow us on Whatnot: https://whatnot.com/invite/strangefamiliarsEpisode 517 notes and links:ORDER I Have Never Minded the Loneliness here: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1846191158Episode artwork by Timothy: You can purchase the original art on etsy: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1884109181Strange Familiars Curiosity of the Week #143: Ambrotype photographYou can purchase this item from our etsy shop: https://lostgrave.etsy.com/listing/1869927564Please support Kiya.Life and their work at Pine Ridge.KIYA.LIFE: https://kiya.lifeLancaster Conservancy: https://www.lancasterconservancy.orgProtect Cuff's Run: https://www.lancasterconservancy.org/protect-cuffs-run/Riverbend Comics: https://www.riverbendcomics.comRiverbend Comics Instagram: @riverbendcomicsTimothy's books: https://www.amazon.com/Timothy-Renner/e/B072X44SD5Chad's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNB7MSJ2F1SRBPcQsEFLnvg (make sure to subscribe to Chad's channel, Ruck Rabbit Outdoors.)Chad's etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RuckRabbitOutdoorsTo help with the Capuchin Day Center's work with the homeless you can donate here: https://www.capuchindaycentre.ieand here: https://www.cskdetroit.orgMaynard's GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/maynard-walk-againContact us via email at: strangefamiliarspodcast@gmail.comhttp://www.facebook.com/strangefamiliarsJoin the Strange Familiars Gathering group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/strangefamiliars/instagram: @strangefamiliarshttp://www.strangefamiliars.comIntro and background music by Stone Breath. You can find more at http://stonebreath.bandcamp.comThe closing song is The Blood-Red God by Stone Breath from Greys and Orphans: https://stonebreath.bandcamp.com/album/greys-and-orphansSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/strange-familiars/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Author Talia Carner discusses her new historical novel, The Boy with the Star Tattoo. This story combines two real-life events that took place in France: (1) the 1946 Youth Aliya search for Jewish orphans who were hidden in the European countryside during WWII, and (2) the Israeli naval action off the coast of Cherbourg, in Normandy, during the French arms embargo in 1969. In this novel, the assistant to an Israeli naval officer stationed in Cherbourg uncovers the truth about her boss's mysterious past and his connection to the Youth Aliya program over two decades earlier. Talia undertook years of research for this book, including interviews with the navy admiral who orchestrated the Cherbourg naval operation.
Dr. Gary Null provides a commentary on "Universal Healthcare" Universal Healthcare is the Solution to a Broken Medical System Gary Null, PhD Progressive Radio Network, March 3, 2025 For over 50 years, there has been no concerted or successful effort to bring down medical costs in the American healthcare system. Nor are the federal health agencies making disease prevention a priority. Regardless whether the political left or right sponsors proposals for reform, such measures are repeatedly defeated by both parties in Congress. As a result, the nation's healthcare system remains one of the most expensive and least efficient in the developed world. For the past 30 years, medical bills contributing to personal debt regularly rank among the top three causes of personal bankruptcy. This is a reality that reflects not only the financial strain on ordinary Americans but the systemic failure of the healthcare system itself. The urgent question is: If President Trump and his administration are truly seeking to reduce the nation's $36 trillion deficit, why is there no serious effort to reform the most bloated and corrupt sector of the economy? A key obstacle is the widespread misinformation campaign that falsely claims universal health care would cost an additional $2 trillion annually and further balloon the national debt. However, a more honest assessment reveals the opposite. If the US adopted a universal single-payer system, the nation could actually save up to $20 trillion over the next 10 years rather than add to the deficit. Even with the most ambitious efforts by people like Elon Musk to rein in federal spending or optimize government efficiency, the estimated savings would only amount to $500 billion. This is only a fraction of what could be achieved through comprehensive healthcare reform alone. Healthcare is the largest single expenditure of the federal budget. A careful examination of where the $5 trillion spent annually on healthcare actually goes reveals massive systemic fraud and inefficiency. Aside from emergency medicine, which accounts for only 10-12 percent of total healthcare expenditures, the bulk of this spending does not deliver better health outcomes nor reduce trends in physical and mental illness. Applying Ockham's Razor, the principle that the simplest solution is often the best, the obvious conclusion is that America's astronomical healthcare costs are the direct result of price gouging on an unimaginable scale. For example, in most small businesses, profit margins range between 1.6 and 2.5 percent, such as in grocery retail. Yet the pharmaceutical industrial complex routinely operates on markup rates as high as 150,000 percent for many prescription drugs. The chart below highlights the astronomical gap between the retail price of some top-selling patented pharmaceutical medications and their generic equivalents. Drug Condition Patent Price (per unit) Generic Price Estimated Manufacture Cost Markup Source Insulin (Humalog) Diabetes $300 $30 $3 10,000% Rand (2021) EpiPen Allergic reactions $600 $30 $10 6,000% BMJ (2022) Daraprim Toxoplasmosis $750/pill $2 $0.50 150,000% JAMA (2019) Harvoni Hepatitis C $94,500 (12 weeks) $30,000 $200 47,000% WHO Report (2018) Lipitor Cholesterol $150 $10 $0.50 29,900% Health Affairs (2020) Xarelto Blood Thinner $450 $25 $1.50 30,000% NEJM (2020) Abilify Schizophrenia $800 (30 tablets) $15 $2 39,900% AJMC (2019) Revlimid Cancer $16,000/mo $450 $150 10,500% Kaiser Health News (2021) Humira Arthritis $2,984/dose $400 $50 5,868% Rand (2021) Sovaldi Hepatitis C $1,000/pill $10 $2 49,900% JAMA (2021) Xolair Asthma $2,400/dose $300 $50 4,800% NEJM (2020) Gleevec Leukemia $10,000/mo $350 $200 4,900% Harvard Public Health Review (2020) OxyContin Pain Relief $600 (30 tablets) $15 $0.50 119,900% BMJ (2022) Remdesivir Covid-19 $3,120 (5 doses) N/A $10 31,100% The Lancet (2020) The corruption extends far beyond price gouging. Many pharmaceutical companies convince federal health agencies to fund their basic research and drug development with taxpayer dollars. Yet when these companies bring successful products to market, the profits are kept entirely by the corporations or shared with the agencies or groups of government scientists. On the other hand, the public, who funded the research, receives no financial return. This amounts to a systemic betrayal of the public trust on a scale of hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Another significant contributor to rising healthcare costs is the widespread practice of defensive medicine that is driven by the constant threat of litigation. Over the past 40 years, defensive medicine has become a cottage industry. Physicians order excessive diagnostic tests and unnecessary treatments simply to protect themselves from lawsuits. Study after study has shown that these over-performed procedures not only inflate costs but lead to iatrogenesis or medical injury and death caused by the medical system and practices itself. The solution is simple: adopting no-fault healthcare coverage for everyone where patients receive care without needing to sue and thereby freeing doctors from the burden of excessive malpractice insurance. A single-payer universal healthcare system could fundamentally transform the entire industry by capping profits at every level — from drug manufacturers to hospitals to medical equipment suppliers. The Department of Health and Human Services would have the authority to set profit margins for medical procedures. This would ensure that healthcare is determined by outcomes, not profits. Additionally, the growing influence of private equity firms and vulture capitalists buying up hospitals and medical clinics across America must be reined in. These equity firms prioritize profit extraction over improving the quality of care. They often slash staff, raise prices, and dictate medical procedures based on what will yield the highest returns. Another vital reform would be to provide free medical education for doctors and nurses in exchange for five years of service under the universal system. Medical professionals would earn a realistic salary cap to prevent them from being lured into equity partnerships or charging exorbitant rates. The biggest single expense in the current system, however, is the private health insurance industry, which consumes 33 percent of the $5 trillion healthcare budget. Health insurance CEOs consistently rank among the highest-paid executives in the country. Their companies, who are nothing more than bean counters, decide what procedures and drugs will be covered, partially covered, or denied altogether. This entire industry is designed to place profits above patients' lives. If the US dismantled its existing insurance-based system and replaced it with a fully reformed national healthcare model, the country could save $2.7 trillion annually while simultaneously improving health outcomes. Over the course of 10 years, those savings would amount to $27 trillion. This could wipe out nearly the entire national debt in a short time. This solution has been available for decades but has been systematically blocked by corporate lobbying and bipartisan corruption in Washington. The path forward is clear but only if American citizens demand a system where healthcare is valued as a public service and not a commodity. The national healthcare crisis is not just a fiscal issue. It is a crucial moral failure of the highest order. With the right reforms, the nation could simultaneously restore its financial health and deliver the kind of healthcare system its citizens have long deserved. American Healthcare: Corrupt, Broken and Lethal Richard Gale and Gary Null Progressive Radio Network, March 3, 2025 For a nation that prides itself on being the world's wealthiest, most innovative and technologically advanced, the US' healthcare system is nothing less than a disaster and disgrace. Not only are Americans the least healthy among the most developed nations, but the US' health system ranks dead last among high-income countries. Despite rising costs and our unshakeable faith in American medical exceptionalism, average life expectancy in the US has remained lower than other OECD nations for many years and continues to decline. The United Nations recognizes healthcare as a human right. In 2018, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the American healthcare system as "politically and morally wrong." During the pandemic it is estimated that two to three years was lost on average life expectancy. On the other hand, before the Covid-19 pandemic, countries with universal healthcare coverage found their average life expectancy stable or slowly increasing. The fundamental problem in the U.S. is that politics have been far too beholden to the pharmaceutical, HMO and private insurance industries. Neither party has made any concerted effort to reign in the corruption of corporate campaign funding and do what is sensible, financially feasible and morally correct to improve Americans' quality of health and well-being. The fact that our healthcare system is horribly broken is proof that moneyed interests have become so powerful to keep single-payer debate out of the media spotlight and censored. Poll after poll shows that the American public favors the expansion of public health coverage. Other incremental proposals, including Medicare and Medicaid buy-in plans, are also widely preferred to the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare mess we are currently stuck with. It is not difficult to understand how the dismal state of American medicine is the result of a system that has been sold out to the free-market and the bottom line interests of drug makers and an inflated private insurance industry. How advanced and ethically sound can a healthcare system be if tens of millions of people have no access to medical care because it is financially out of their reach? The figures speak for themselves. The U.S. is burdened with a $41 trillion Medicare liability. The number of uninsured has declined during the past several years but still lingers around 25 million. An additional 30-35 million are underinsured. There are currently 65 million Medicare enrollees and 89 million Medicaid recipients. This is an extremely unhealthy snapshot of the country's ability to provide affordable healthcare and it is certainly unsustainable. The system is a public economic failure, benefiting no one except the large and increasingly consolidated insurance and pharmaceutical firms at the top that supervise the racket. Our political parties have wrestled with single-payer or universal healthcare for decades. Obama ran his first 2008 presidential campaign on a single-payer platform. Since 1985, his campaign health adviser, the late Dr. Quentin Young from the University of Illinois Medical School, was one of the nation's leading voices calling for universal health coverage. During a private conversation with Dr. Young shortly before his passing in 2016, he conveyed his sense of betrayal at the hands of the Obama administration. Dr. Young was in his 80s when he joined the Obama campaign team to help lead the young Senator to victory on a promise that America would finally catch up with other nations. The doctor sounded defeated. He shared how he was manipulated, and that Obama held no sincere intention to make universal healthcare a part of his administration's agenda. During the closed-door negotiations, which spawned the weak and compromised Affordable Care Act, Dr. Young was neither consulted nor invited to participate. In fact, he told us that he never heard from Obama again after his White House victory. Past efforts to even raise the issue have been viciously attacked. A huge army of private interests is determined to keep the public enslaved to private insurers and high medical costs. The failure of our healthcare is in no small measure due to it being a fully for-profit operation. Last year, private health insurance accounted for 65 percent of coverage. Consider that there are over 900 private insurance companies in the US. National Health Expenditures (NHE) grew to $4.5 trillion in 2022, which was 17.3 percent of GDP. Older corporate rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans argue that a single-payer or socialized medical program is unaffordable. However, not only is single-payer affordable, it will end bankruptcies due to unpayable medical debt. In addition, universal healthcare, structured on a preventative model, will reduce disease rates at the outset. Corporate Democrats argue that Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) was a positive step inching the country towards complete public coverage. However, aside from providing coverage to the poorest of Americans, Obamacare turned into another financial anchor around the necks of millions more. According to the health policy research group KFF, the average annual health insurance premium for single coverage is $8,400 and almost $24,000 for a family. In addition, patient out-of-pocket costs continue to increase, a 6.6% increase to $471 billion in 2022. Rather than healthcare spending falling, it has exploded, and the Trump and Biden administrations made matters worse. Clearly, a universal healthcare program will require flipping the script on the entire private insurance industry, which employed over half a million people last year. Obviously, the most volatile debate concerning a national universal healthcare system concerns cost. Although there is already a socialized healthcare system in place -- every federal legislator, bureaucrat, government employee and veteran benefits from it -- fiscal Republican conservatives and groups such as the Koch Brothers network are single-mindedly dedicated to preventing the expansion of Medicare and Medicaid. A Koch-funded Mercatus analysis made the outrageous claim that a single-payer system would increase federal health spending by $32 trillion in ten years. However, analyses and reviews by the Congressional Budget Office in the early 1990s concluded that such a system would only increase spending at the start; enormous savings would quickly offset it as the years pass. In one analysis, "the savings in administrative costs [10 percent of health spending] would be more than enough to offset the expense of universal coverage." Defenders of those advocating for funding a National Health Program argue this can primarily be accomplished by raising taxes to levels comparable to other developed nations. This was a platform Senator Bernie Sanders and some of the younger progressive Democrats in the House campaigned on. The strategy was to tax the highest multimillion-dollar earners 60-70 percent. Despite the outrage of its critics, including old rank-and-file multi-millionaire Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, this is still far less than in the past. During the Korean War, the top tax rate was 91 percent; it declined to 70 percent in the late 1960s. Throughout most of the 1970s, those in the lowest income bracket were taxed at 14 percent. We are not advocating for this strategy because it ignores where the funding is going, and the corruption in the system that is contributing to exorbitant waste. But Democratic supporters of the ACA who oppose a universal healthcare plan ignore the additional taxes Obama levied to pay for the program. These included surtaxes on investment income, Medicare taxes from those earning over $200,000, taxes on tanning services, an excise tax on medical equipment, and a 40 percent tax on health coverage for costs over the designated cap that applied to flexible savings and health savings accounts. The entire ACA was reckless, sloppy and unnecessarily complicated from the start. The fact that Obamacare further strengthened the distinctions between two parallel systems -- federal and private -- with entirely different economic structures created a labyrinth of red tape, rules, and wasteful bureaucracy. Since the ACA went into effect, over 150 new boards, agencies and programs have had to be established to monitor its 2,700 pages of gibberish. A federal single-payer system would easily eliminate this bureaucracy and waste. A medical New Deal to establish universal healthcare coverage is a decisive step in the correct direction. But we must look at the crisis holistically and in a systematic way. Simply shuffling private insurance into a federal Medicare-for-all or buy-in program, funded by taxing the wealthiest of citizens, would only temporarily reduce costs. It will neither curtail nor slash escalating disease rates e. Any effective healthcare reform must also tackle the underlying reasons for Americans' poor state of health. We cannot shy away from examining the social illnesses infecting our entire free-market capitalist culture and its addiction to deregulation. A viable healthcare model would have to structurally transform how the medical economy operates. Finally, a successful medical New Deal must honestly evaluate the best and most reliable scientific evidence in order to effectively redirect public health spending. For example, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Obama healthcare adviser, observed that AIDS-HIV measures consume the most public health spending, even though the disease "ranked 75th on the list of diseases by personal health expenditures." On the other hand, according to the American Medical Association, a large percentage of the nation's $3.4 trillion healthcare spending goes towards treating preventable diseases, notably diabetes, common forms of heart disease, and back and neck pain conditions. In 2016, these three conditions were the most costly and accounted for approximately $277 billion in spending. Last year, the CDC announced the autism rate is now 1 in 36 children compared to 1 in 44 two years ago. A retracted study by Mark Blaxill, an autism activist at the Holland Center and a friend of the authors, estimates that ASD costs will reach $589 billion annually by 2030. There are no signs that this alarming trend will reverse and decline; and yet, our entire federal health system has failed to conscientiously investigate the underlying causes of this epidemic. All explanations that might interfere with the pharmaceutical industry's unchecked growth, such as over-vaccination, are ignored and viciously discredited without any sound scientific evidence. Therefore, a proper medical New Deal will require a systemic overhaul and reform of our federal health agencies, especially the HHS, CDC and FDA. Only the Robert Kennedy Jr presidential campaign is even addressing the crisis and has an inexpensive and comprehensive plan to deal with it. For any medical revolution to succeed in advancing universal healthcare, the plan must prioritize spending in a manner that serves public health and not private interests. It will also require reshuffling private corporate interests and their lobbyists to the sidelines, away from any strategic planning, in order to break up the private interests' control over federal agencies and its revolving door policies. Aside from those who benefit from this medical corruption, the overwhelming majority of Americans would agree with this criticism. However, there is a complete lack of national trust that our legislators, including the so-called progressives, would be willing to undertake such actions. In addition, America's healthcare system ignores the single most critical initiative to reduce costs - that is, preventative efforts and programs instead of deregulation and closing loopholes designed to protect the drug and insurance industries' bottom line. Prevention can begin with banning toxic chemicals that are proven health hazards associated with current disease epidemics, and it can begin by removing a 1,000-plus toxins already banned in Europe. This should be a no-brainer for any legislator who cares for public health. For example, Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, notes that "the policy approach in the US and Europe is dramatically different" when it comes to chemical allowances in cosmetic products. Whereas the EU has banned 1,328 toxic substances from the cosmetic industry alone, the US has banned only 11. The US continues to allow carcinogenic formaldehyde, petroleum, forever chemicals, many parabens (an estrogen mimicker and endocrine hormone destroyer), the highly allergenic p-phenylenediamine or PBD, triclosan, which has been associated with the rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria, avobenzone, and many others to be used in cosmetics, sunscreens, shampoo and hair dyes. Next, the food Americans consume can be reevaluated for its health benefits. There should be no hesitation to tax the unhealthiest foods, such as commercial junk food, sodas and candy relying on high fructose corn syrup, products that contain ingredients proven to be toxic, and meat products laden with dangerous chemicals including growth hormones and antibiotics. The scientific evidence that the average American diet is contributing to rising disease trends is indisputable. We could also implement additional taxes on the public advertising of these demonstrably unhealthy products. All such tax revenue would accrue to a national universal health program to offset medical expenditures associated with the very illnesses linked to these products. Although such tax measures would help pay for a new medical New Deal, it may be combined with programs to educate the public about healthy nutrition if it is to produce a reduction in the most common preventable diseases. In fact, comprehensive nutrition courses in medical schools should be mandatory because the average physician receives no education in this crucial subject. In addition, preventative health education should be mandatory throughout public school systems. Private insurers force hospitals, clinics and private physicians into financial corners, and this is contributing to prodigious waste in money and resources. Annually, healthcare spending towards medical liability insurance costs tens of billions of dollars. In particular, this economic burden has taxed small clinics and physicians. It is well past the time that physician liability insurance is replaced with no-fault options. Today's doctors are spending an inordinate amount of money to protect themselves. Legions of liability and trial lawyers seek big paydays for themselves stemming from physician error. This has created a culture of fear among doctors and hospitals, resulting in the overly cautious practice of defensive medicine, driving up costs and insurance premiums just to avoid lawsuits. Doctors are forced to order unnecessary tests and prescribe more medications and medical procedures just to cover their backsides. No-fault insurance is a common-sense plan that enables physicians to pursue their profession in a manner that will reduce iatrogenic injuries and costs. Individual cases requiring additional medical intervention and loss of income would still be compensated. This would generate huge savings. No other nation suffers from the scourge of excessive drug price gouging like the US. After many years of haggling to lower prices and increase access to generic drugs, only a minute amount of progress has been made in recent years. A 60 Minutes feature about the Affordable Care Act reported an "orgy of lobbying and backroom deals in which just about everyone with a stake in the $3-trillion-a-year health industry came out ahead—except the taxpayers.” For example, Life Extension magazine reported that an antiviral cream (acyclovir), which had lost its patent protection, "was being sold to pharmacies for 7,500% over the active ingredient cost. The active ingredient (acyclovir) costs only 8 pennies, yet pharmacies are paying a generic maker $600 for this drug and selling it to consumers for around $700." Other examples include the antibiotic Doxycycline. The price per pill averages 7 cents to $3.36 but has a 5,300 percent markup when it reaches the consumer. The antidepressant Clomipramine is marked up 3,780 percent, and the anti-hypertensive drug Captopril's mark-up is 2,850 percent. And these are generic drugs! Medication costs need to be dramatically cut to allow drug manufacturers a reasonable but not obscene profit margin. By capping profits approximately 100 percent above all costs, we would save our system hundreds of billions of dollars. Such a measure would also extirpate the growing corporate misdemeanors of pricing fraud, which forces patients to pay out-of-pocket in order to make up for the costs insurers are unwilling to pay. Finally, we can acknowledge that our healthcare is fundamentally a despotic rationing system based upon high insurance costs vis-a-vis a toss of the dice to determine where a person sits on the economic ladder. For the past three decades it has contributed to inequality. The present insurance-based economic metrics cast millions of Americans out of coverage because private insurance costs are beyond their means. Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton University political economist, has called our system "brutal" because it "rations [people] out of the system." He defined rationing as "withholding something from someone that is beneficial." Discriminatory healthcare rationing now affects upwards to 60 million people who have been either priced out of the system or under insured. They make too much to qualify for Medicare under Obamacare, yet earn far too little to afford private insurance costs and premiums. In the final analysis, the entire system is discriminatory and predatory. However, we must be realistic. Almost every member of Congress has benefited from Big Pharma and private insurance lobbyists. The only way to begin to bring our healthcare program up to the level of a truly developed nation is to remove the drug industry's rampant and unnecessary profiteering from the equation. How did Fauci memory-hole a cure for AIDS and get away with it? By Helen Buyniski Over 700,000 Americans have died of AIDS since 1981, with the disease claiming some 42.3 million victims worldwide. While an HIV diagnosis is no longer considered a certain death sentence, the disease looms large in the public imagination and in public health funding, with contemporary treatments running into thousands of dollars per patient annually. But was there a cure for AIDS all this time - an affordable and safe treatment that was ruthlessly suppressed and attacked by the US public health bureaucracy and its agents? Could this have saved millions of lives and billions of dollars spent on AZT, ddI and failed HIV vaccine trials? What could possibly justify the decision to disappear a safe and effective approach down the memory hole? The inventor of the cure, Gary Null, already had several decades of experience creating healing protocols for physicians to help patients not responding well to conventional treatments by the time AIDS was officially defined in 1981. Null, a registered dietitian and board-certified nutritionist with a PhD in human nutrition and public health science, was a senior research fellow and Director of Anti-Aging Medicine at the Institute of Applied Biology for 36 years and has published over 950 papers, conducting groundbreaking experiments in reversing biological aging as confirmed with DNA methylation testing. Additionally, Null is a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker, bestselling author, and investigative journalist whose work exposing crimes against humanity over the last 50 years has highlighted abuses by Big Pharma, the military-industrial complex, the financial industry, and the permanent government stay-behind networks that have come to be known as the Deep State. Null was contacted in 1974 by Dr. Stephen Caiazza, a physician working with a subculture of gay men in New York living the so-called “fast track” lifestyle, an extreme manifestation of the gay liberation movement that began with the Stonewall riots. Defined by rampant sexual promiscuity and copious use of illegal and prescription drugs, including heavy antibiotic use for a cornucopia of sexually-transmitted diseases, the fast-track never included more than about two percent of gay men, though these dominated many of the bathhouses and clubs that defined gay nightlife in the era. These patients had become seriously ill as a result of their indulgence, generally arriving at the clinic with multiple STDs including cytomegalovirus and several types of herpes and hepatitis, along with candida overgrowth, nutritional deficiencies, gut issues, and recurring pneumonia. Every week for the next 10 years, Null would counsel two or three of these men - a total of 800 patients - on how to detoxify their bodies and de-stress their lives, tracking their progress with Caiazza and the other providers at weekly feedback meetings that he credits with allowing the team to quickly evaluate which treatments were most effective. He observed that it only took about two years on the “fast track” for a healthy young person to begin seeing muscle loss and the recurrent, lingering opportunistic infections that would later come to be associated with AIDS - while those willing to commit to a healthier lifestyle could regain their health in about a year. It was with this background that Null established the Tri-State Healing Center in Manhattan in 1980, staffing the facility with what would eventually run to 22 certified health professionals to offer safe, natural, and effective low- and no-cost treatments to thousands of patients with HIV and AIDS-defining conditions. Null and his staff used variations of the protocols he had perfected with Caiazza's patients, a multifactorial patient-tailored approach that included high-dose vitamin C drips, intravenous ozone therapy, juicing and nutritional improvements and supplementation, aspects of homeopathy and naturopathy with some Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic practices. Additional services offered on-site included acupuncture and holistic dentistry, while peer support groups were also held at the facility so that patients could find community and a positive environment, healing their minds and spirits while they healed their bodies. “Instead of trying to kill the virus with antiretroviral pharmaceuticals designed to stop viral replication before it kills patients, we focused on what benefits could be gained by building up the patients' natural immunity and restoring biochemical integrity so the body could fight for itself,” Null wrote in a 2014 article describing the philosophy behind the Center's approach, which was wholly at odds with the pharmaceutical model.1 Patients were comprehensively tested every week, with any “recovery” defined solely by the labs, which documented AIDS patient after patient - 1,200 of them - returning to good health and reversing their debilitating conditions. Null claims to have never lost an AIDS patient in the Center's care, even as the death toll for the disease - and its pharmaceutical standard of care AZT - reached an all-time high in the early 1990s. Eight patients who had opted for a more intensive course of treatment - visiting the Center six days a week rather than one - actually sero-deconverted, with repeated subsequent testing showing no trace of HIV in their bodies. As an experienced clinical researcher himself, Null recognized that any claims made by the Center would be massively scrutinized, challenging as they did the prevailing scientific consensus that AIDS was an incurable, terminal illness. He freely gave his protocols to any medical practitioner who asked, understanding that his own work could be considered scientifically valid only if others could replicate it under the same conditions. After weeks of daily observational visits to the Center, Dr. Robert Cathcart took the protocols back to San Francisco, where he excitedly reported that patients were no longer dying in his care. Null's own colleague at the Institute of Applied Biology, senior research fellow Elana Avram, set up IV drip rooms at the Institute and used his intensive protocols to sero-deconvert 10 patients over a two-year period. While the experiment had been conducted in secret, as the Institute had been funded by Big Pharma since its inception half a century earlier, Avram had hoped she would be able to publish a journal article to further publicize Null's protocols and potentially help AIDS patients, who were still dying at incredibly high rates thanks to Burroughs Wellcome's noxious but profitable AZT. But as she would later explain in a 2019 letter to Null, their groundbreaking research never made it into print - despite meticulous documentation of their successes - because the Institute's director and board feared their pharmaceutical benefactors would withdraw the funding on which they depended, given that Null's protocols did not involve any patentable or otherwise profitable drugs. When Avram approached them about publication, the board vetoed the idea, arguing that it would “draw negative attention because [the work] was contrary to standard drug treatments.” With no real point in continuing experiments along those lines without institutional support and no hope of obtaining funding from elsewhere, the department she had created specifically for these experiments shut down after a two-year followup with her test subjects - all of whom remained alive and healthy - was completed.2 While the Center was receiving regular visits by this time from medical professionals and, increasingly, black celebrities like Stokely Carmichael and Isaac Hayes, who would occasionally perform for the patients, the news was spreading by word of mouth alone - not a single media outlet had dared to document the clinic that was curing AIDS patients for free. Instead, they gave airtime to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, who had for years been spreading baseless, hysteria-fueling claims about HIV and AIDS to any news outlet that would put him on. His claim that children could contract the virus from “ordinary household conduct” with an infected relative proved so outrageous he had to walk it back,3 and he never really stopped insisting the deadly plague associated with gays and drug users was about to explode like a nuclear bomb among the law-abiding heterosexual population. Fauci by this time controlled all government science funding through NIAID, and his zero-tolerance approach to dissent on the HIV/AIDS front had already seen prominent scientists like virologist Peter Duesberg stripped of the resources they needed for their work because they had dared to question his commandment: There is no cause of AIDS but HIV, and AZT is its treatment. Even the AIDS activist groups, which by then had been coopted by Big Pharma and essentially reduced to astroturfing for the toxic failed chemotherapy drug AZT backed by the institutional might of Fauci's NIAID,4 didn't seem to want to hear that there was a cure. Unconcerned with the irrationality of denouncing the man touting his free AIDS cure as an “AIDS denier,” they warned journalists that platforming Null or anyone else rejecting the mainstream medical line would be met with organized demands for their firing. Determined to breach the institutional iron curtain and get his message to the masses, Null and his team staged a press conference in New York, inviting scientists and doctors from around the world to share their research on alternative approaches to HIV and AIDS in 1993. To emphasize the sound scientific basis of the Center's protocols and encourage guests to adopt them into their own practices, Null printed out thousands of abstracts in support of each nutrient and treatment being used. However, despite over 7,000 invitations sent three times to major media, government figures, scientists, and activists, almost none of the intended audience members showed up. Over 100 AIDS patients and their doctors, whose charts exhaustively documented their improvements using natural and nontoxic modalities over the preceding 12 months, gave filmed testimonials, declaring that the feared disease was no longer a death sentence, but the conference had effectively been silenced. Bill Tatum, publisher of the Amsterdam News, suggested Null and his patients would find a more welcoming audience in his home neighborhood of Harlem - specifically, its iconic Apollo Theatre. For three nights, the theater was packed to capacity. Hit especially hard by the epidemic and distrustful of a medical system that had only recently stopped being openly racist (the Tuskegee syphilis experiment only ended in 1972), black Americans, at least, did not seem to care what Anthony Fauci would do if he found out they were investigating alternatives to AZT and death. PBS journalist Tony Brown, having obtained a copy of the video of patient testimonials from the failed press conference, was among a handful of black journalists who began visiting the Center to investigate the legitimacy of Null's claims. Satisfied they had something significant to offer his audience, Brown invited eight patients - along with Null himself - onto his program over the course of several episodes to discuss the work. It was the first time these protocols had received any attention in the media, despite Null having released nearly two dozen articles and multiple documentaries on the subject by that time. A typical patient on one program, Al, a recovered IV drug user who was diagnosed with AIDS at age 32, described how he “panicked,” saw a doctor and started taking AZT despite his misgivings - only to be forced to discontinue the drug after just a few weeks due to his condition deteriorating rapidly. Researching alternatives brought him to Null, and after six months of “detoxing [his] lifestyle,” he observed his initial symptoms - swollen lymph nodes and weight loss - begin to reverse, culminating with sero-deconversion. On Bill McCreary's Channel 5 program, a married couple diagnosed with HIV described how they watched their T-cell counts increase as they cut out sugar, caffeine, smoking, and drinking and began eating a healthy diet. They also saw the virus leave their bodies. For HIV-positive viewers surrounded by fear and negativity, watching healthy-looking, cheerful “AIDS patients” detail their recovery while Null backed up their claims with charts must have been balm for the soul. But the TV programs were also a form of outreach to the medical community, with patients' charts always on hand to convince skeptics the cure was scientifically valid. Null brought patients' charts to every program, urging them to keep an open mind: “Other physicians and public health officials should know that there's good science in the alternative perspective. It may not be a therapy that they're familiar with, because they're just not trained in it, but if the results are positive, and you can document them…” He challenged doubters to send in charts from their own sero-deconverted patients on AZT, and volunteered to debate proponents of the orthodox treatment paradigm - though the NIH and WHO both refused to participate in such a debate on Tony Brown's Journal, following Fauci's directive prohibiting engagement with forbidden ideas. Aside from those few TV programs and Null's own films, suppression of Null's AIDS cure beyond word of mouth was total. The 2021 documentary The Cost of Denial, produced by the Society for Independent Journalists, tells the story of the Tri-State Healing Center and the medical paradigm that sought to destroy it, lamenting the loss of the lives that might have been saved in a more enlightened society. Nurse practitioner Luanne Pennesi, who treated many of the AIDS patients at the Center, speculated in the film that the refusal by the scientific establishment and AIDS activists to accept their successes was financially motivated. “It was as if they didn't want this information to get out. Understand that our healthcare system as we know it is a corporation, it's a corporate model, and it's about generating revenue. My concern was that maybe they couldn't generate enough revenue from these natural approaches.”5 Funding was certainly the main disciplinary tool Fauci's NIAID used to keep the scientific community in line. Despite the massive community interest in the work being done at the Center, no foundation or institution would defy Fauci and risk getting itself blacklisted, leaving Null to continue funding the operation out of his pocket with the profits from book sales. After 15 years, he left the Center in 1995, convinced the mainstream model had so thoroughly been institutionalized that there was no chance of overthrowing it. He has continued to counsel patients and advocate for a reappraisal of the HIV=AIDS hypothesis and its pharmaceutical treatments, highlighting the deeply flawed science underpinning the model of the disease espoused by the scientific establishment in 39 articles, six documentaries and a 700-page textbook on AIDS, but the Center's achievements have been effectively memory-holed by Fauci's multi-billion-dollar propaganda apparatus. FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE To understand just how much of a threat Null's work was to the HIV/AIDS establishment, it is instructive to revisit the 1984 paper, published by Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute, that established HIV as the sole cause of AIDS. The CDC's official recognition of AIDS in 1981 had done little to quell the mounting public panic over the mysterious illness afflicting gay men in the US, as the agency had effectively admitted it had no idea what was causing them to sicken and die. As years passed with no progress determining the causative agent of the plague, activist groups like Gay Men's Health Crisis disrupted public events and threatened further mass civil disobedience as they excoriated the NIH for its sluggish allocation of government science funding to uncovering the cause of the “gay cancer.”6 When Gallo published his paper declaring that the retrovirus we now know as HIV was the sole “probable” cause of AIDS, its simple, single-factor hypothesis was the answer to the scientific establishment's prayers. This was particularly true for Fauci, as the NIAID chief was able to claim the hot new disease as his agency's own domain in what has been described as a “dramatic confrontation” with his rival Sam Broder at the National Cancer Institute. After all, Fauci pointed out, Gallo's findings - presented by Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler as if they were gospel truth before any other scientists had had a chance to inspect them, never mind conduct a full peer review - clearly classified AIDS as an infectious disease, and not a cancer like the Kaposi's sarcoma which was at the time its most visible manifestation. Money and media attention began pouring in, even as funding for the investigation of other potential causes of AIDS dried up. Having already patented a diagnostic test for “his” retrovirus before introducing it to the world, Gallo was poised for a financial windfall, while Fauci was busily leveraging the discovery into full bureaucratic empire of the US scientific apparatus. While it would serve as the sole basis for all US government-backed AIDS research to follow - quickly turning Gallo into the most-cited scientist in the world during the 1980s,7 Gallo's “discovery” of HIV was deeply problematic. The sample that yielded the momentous discovery actually belonged to Prof. Luc Montagnier of the French Institut Pasteur, a fact Gallo finally admitted in 1991, four years after a lawsuit from the French government challenged his patent on the HIV antibody test, forcing the US government to negotiate a hasty profit-sharing agreement between Gallo's and Montagnier's labs. That lawsuit triggered a cascade of official investigations into scientific misconduct by Gallo, and evidence submitted during one of these probes, unearthed in 2008 by journalist Janine Roberts, revealed a much deeper problem with the seminal “discovery.” While Gallo's co-author, Mikulas Popovic, had concluded after numerous experiments with the French samples that the virus they contained was not the cause of AIDS, Gallo had drastically altered the paper's conclusion, scribbling his notes in the margins, and submitted it for publication to the journal Science without informing his co-author. After Roberts shared her discovery with contacts in the scientific community, 37 scientific experts wrote to the journal demanding that Gallo's career-defining HIV paper be retracted from Science for lacking scientific integrity.8 Their call, backed by an endorsement from the 2,600-member scientific organization Rethinking AIDS, was ignored by the publication and by the rest of mainstream science despite - or perhaps because of - its profound implications. That 2008 letter, addressed to Science editor-in-chief Bruce Alberts and copied to American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Alan Leshner, is worth reproducing here in its entirety, as it utterly dismantles Gallo's hypothesis - and with them the entire HIV is the sole cause of AIDS dogma upon which the contemporary medical model of the disease rests: On May 4, 1984 your journal published four papers by a group led by Dr. Robert Gallo. We are writing to express our serious concerns with regard to the integrity and veracity of the lead paper among these four of which Dr. Mikulas Popovic is the lead author.[1] The other three are also of concern because they rely upon the conclusions of the lead paper .[2][3][4] In the early 1990s, several highly critical reports on the research underlying these papers were produced as a result of governmental inquiries working under the supervision of scientists nominated by the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. The Office of Research Integrity of the US Department of Health and Human Services concluded that the lead paper was “fraught with false and erroneous statements,” and that the “ORI believes that the careless and unacceptable keeping of research records...reflects irresponsible laboratory management that has permanently impaired the ability to retrace the important steps taken.”[5] Further, a Congressional Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations led by US Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan produced a staff report on the papers which contains scathing criticisms of their integrity.[6] Despite the publically available record of challenges to their veracity, these papers have remained uncorrected and continue to be part of the scientific record. What prompts our communication today is the recent revelation of an astonishing number of previously unreported deletions and unjustified alterations made by Gallo to the lead paper. There are several documents originating from Gallo's laboratory that, while available for some time, have only recently been fully analyzed. These include a draft of the lead paper typewritten by Popovic which contains handwritten changes made to it by Gallo.[7] This draft was the key evidence used in the above described inquiries to establish that Gallo had concealed his laboratory's use of a cell culture sample (known as LAV) which it received from the Institut Pasteur. These earlier inquiries verified that the typed manuscript draft was produced by Popovic who had carried out the recorded experiment while his laboratory chief, Gallo, was in Europe and that, upon his return, Gallo changed the document by hand a few days before it was submitted to Science on March 30, 1984. According to the ORI investigation, “Dr. Gallo systematically rewrote the manuscript for what would become a renowned LTCB [Gallo's laboratory at the National Cancer Institute] paper.”[5] This document provided the important evidence that established the basis for awarding Dr. Luc Montagnier and Dr. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of the AIDS virus by proving it was their samples of LAV that Popovic used in his key experiment. The draft reveals that Popovic had forthrightly admitted using the French samples of LAV renamed as Gallo's virus, HTLV-III, and that Gallo had deleted this admission, concealing their use of LAV. However, it has not been previously reported that on page three of this same document Gallo had also deleted Popovic's unambiguous statement that, "Despite intensive research efforts, the causative agent of AIDS has not yet been identified,” replacing it in the published paper with a statement that said practically the opposite, namely, “That a retrovirus of the HTLV family might be an etiologic agent of AIDS was suggested by the findings.” It is clear that the rest of Popovic's typed paper is entirely consistent with his statement that the cause of AIDS had not been found, despite his use of the French LAV. Popovic's final conclusion was that the culture he produced “provides the possibility” for detailed studies. He claimed to have achieved nothing more. At no point in his paper did Popovic attempt to prove that any virus caused AIDS, and it is evident that Gallo concealed these key elements in Popovic's experimental findings. It is astonishing now to discover these unreported changes to such a seminal document. We can only assume that Gallo's alterations of Popovic's conclusions were not highlighted by earlier inquiries because the focus at the time was on establishing that the sample used by Gallo's lab came from Montagnier and was not independently collected by Gallo. In fact, the only attention paid to the deletions made by Gallo pertains to his effort to hide the identity of the sample. The questions of whether Gallo and Popovic's research proved that LAV or any other virus was the cause of AIDS were clearly not considered. Related to these questions are other long overlooked documents that merit your attention. One of these is a letter from Dr. Matthew A. Gonda, then Head of the Electron Microscopy Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute, which is addressed to Popovic, copied to Gallo and dated just four days prior to Gallo's submission to Science.[8] In this letter, Gonda remarks on samples he had been sent for imaging because “Dr Gallo wanted these micrographs for publication because they contain HTLV.” He states, “I do not believe any of the particles photographed are of HTLV-I, II or III.” According to Gonda, one sample contained cellular debris, while another had no particles near the size of a retrovirus. Despite Gonda's clearly worded statement, Science published on May 4, 1984 papers attributed to Gallo et al with micrographs attributed to Gonda and described unequivocally as HTLV-III. In another letter by Gallo, dated one day before he submitted his papers to Science, Gallo states, “It's extremely rare to find fresh cells [from AIDS patients] expressing the virus... cell culture seems to be necessary to induce virus,” a statement which raises the possibility he was working with a laboratory artifact. [9] Included here are copies of these documents and links to the same. The very serious flaws they reveal in the preparation of the lead paper published in your journal in 1984 prompts our request that this paper be withdrawn. It appears that key experimental findings have been concealed. We further request that the three associated papers published on the same date also be withdrawn as they depend on the accuracy of this paper. For the scientific record to be reliable, it is vital that papers shown to be flawed, or falsified be retracted. Because a very public record now exists showing that the Gallo papers drew unjustified conclusions, their withdrawal from Science is all the more important to maintain integrity. Future researchers must also understand they cannot rely on the 1984 Gallo papers for statements about HIV and AIDS, and all authors of papers that previously relied on this set of four papers should have the opportunity to consider whether their own conclusions are weakened by these revelations. Gallo's handwritten revision, submitted without his colleague's knowledge despite multiple experiments that failed to support the new conclusion, was the sole foundation for the HIV=AIDS hypothesis. Had Science published the manuscript the way Popovic had typed it, there would be no AIDS “pandemic” - merely small clusters of people with AIDS. Without a viral hypothesis backing the development of expensive and deadly pharmaceuticals, would Fauci have allowed these patients to learn about the cure that existed all along? Faced with a potential rebellion, Fauci marshaled the full resources under his control to squelch the publication of the investigations into Gallo and restrict any discussion of competing hypotheses in the scientific and mainstream press, which had been running virus-scare stories full-time since 1984. The effect was total, according to biochemist Dr. Kary Mullis, inventor of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedure. In a 2009 interview, Mullis recalled his own shock when he attempted to unearth the experimental basis for the HIV=AIDS hypothesis. Despite his extensive inquiry into the literature, “there wasn't a scientific reference…[that] said ‘here's how come we know that HIV is the probable cause of AIDS.' There was nothing out there like that.”9 This yawning void at the core of HIV/AIDS “science" turned him into a strident critic of AIDS dogma - and those views made him persona non grata where the scientific press was concerned, suddenly unable to publish a single paper despite having won the Nobel Prize for his invention of the PCR test just weeks before. 10 DISSENT BECOMES “DENIAL” While many of those who dissent from the orthodox HIV=AIDS view believe HIV plays a role in the development of AIDS, they point to lifestyle and other co-factors as being equally if not more important. Individuals who test positive for HIV can live for decades in perfect health - so long as they don't take AZT or the other toxic antivirals fast-tracked by Fauci's NIAID - but those who developed full-blown AIDS generally engaged in highly risky behaviors like extreme promiscuity and prodigious drug abuse, contracting STDs they took large quantities of antibiotics to treat, further running down their immune systems. While AIDS was largely portrayed as a “gay disease,” it was only the “fast track” gays, hooking up with dozens of partners nightly in sex marathons fueled by “poppers” (nitrate inhalants notorious for their own devastating effects on the immune system), who became sick. Kaposi's sarcoma, one of the original AIDS-defining conditions, was widespread among poppers-using gay men, but never appeared among IV drug users or hemophiliacs, the other two main risk groups during the early years of the epidemic. Even Robert Gallo himself, at a 1994 conference on poppers held by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, would admit that the previously-rare form of skin cancer surging among gay men was not primarily caused by HIV - and that it was immune stimulation, rather than suppression, that was likely responsible.11 Similarly, IV drug users are often riddled with opportunistic infections as their habit depresses the immune system and their focus on maintaining their addiction means that healthier habits - like good nutrition and even basic hygiene - fall by the wayside. Supporting the call for revising the HIV=AIDS hypothesis to include co-factors is the fact that the mass heterosexual outbreaks long predicted by Fauci and his ilk in seemingly every country on Earth have failed to materialize, except - supposedly - in Africa, where the diagnostic standard for AIDS differs dramatically from those of the West. Given the prohibitively high cost of HIV testing for poor African nations, the WHO in 1985 crafted a diagnostic loophole that became known as the “Bangui definition,” allowing medical professionals to diagnose AIDS in the absence of a test using just clinical symptoms: high fever, persistent cough, at least 30 days of diarrhea, and the loss of 10% of one's body weight within two months. Often suffering from malnutrition and without access to clean drinking water, many of the inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa fit the bill, especially when the WHO added tuberculosis to the list of AIDS-defining illnesses in 1993 - a move which may be responsible for as many as one half of African “AIDS” cases, according to journalist Christine Johnson. The WHO's former Chief of Global HIV Surveillance, James Chin, acknowledged their manipulation of statistics, but stressed that it was the entire AIDS industry - not just his organization - perpetrating the fraud. “There's the saying that, if you knew what sausages are made of, most people would hesitate to sort of eat them, because they wouldn't like what's in it. And if you knew how HIV/AIDS numbers are cooked, or made up, you would use them with extreme caution,” Chin told an interviewer in 2009.12 With infected numbers stubbornly remaining constant in the US despite Fauci's fearmongering projections of the looming heterosexually-transmitted plague, the CDC in 1993 broadened its definition of AIDS to include asymptomatic (that is, healthy) HIV-positive people with low T-cell counts - an absurd criteria given that an individual's T-cell count can fluctuate by hundreds within a single day. As a result, the number of “AIDS cases” in the US immediately doubled. Supervised by Fauci, the NIAID had been quietly piling on diseases into the “AIDS-related” category for years, bloating the list from just two conditions - pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and Kaposi's sarcoma - to 30 so fast it raised eyebrows among some of science's leading lights. Deeming the entire process “bizarre” and unprecedented, Kary Mullis wondered aloud why no one had called the AIDS establishment out: “There's something wrong here. And it's got to be financial.”13 Indeed, an early CDC public relations campaign was exposed by the Wall Street Journal in 1987 as having deliberately mischaracterized AIDS as a threat to the entire population so as to garner increased public and private funding for what was very much a niche issue, with the risk to average heterosexuals from a single act of sex “smaller than the risk of ever getting hit by lightning.” Ironically, the ads, which sought to humanize AIDS patients in an era when few Americans knew anyone with the disease and more than half the adult population thought infected people should be forced to carry cards warning of their status, could be seen as a reaction to the fear tactics deployed by Fauci early on.14 It's hard to tell where fraud ends and incompetence begins with Gallo's HIV antibody test. Much like Covid-19 would become a “pandemic of testing,” with murder victims and motorcycle crashes lumped into “Covid deaths” thanks to over-sensitized PCR tests that yielded as many as 90% false positives,15 HIV testing is fraught with false positives - and unlike with Covid-19, most people who hear they are HIV-positive still believe they are receiving a death sentence. Due to the difficulty of isolating HIV itself from human samples, the most common diagnostic tests, ELISA and the Western Blot, are designed to detect not the virus but antibodies to it, upending the traditional medical understanding that the presence of antibodies indicates only exposure - and often that the body has actually vanquished the pathogen. Patients are known to test positive for HIV antibodies in the absence of the virus due to at least 70 other conditions, including hepatitis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, syphilis, recent vaccination or even pregnancy. (https://www.chcfl.org/diseases-that-can-cause-a-false-positive-hiv-test/) Positive results are often followed up with a PCR “viral load” test, even though the inventor of the PCR technique Kary Mullis famously condemned its misuse as a tool for diagnosing infection. Packaging inserts for all three tests warn the user that they cannot be reliably used to diagnose HIV.16 The ELISA HIV antibody test explicitly states: “At present there is no recognized standard for establishing the presence and absence of HIV antibody in human blood.”17 That the public remains largely unaware of these and other massive holes in the supposedly airtight HIV=AIDS=DEATH paradigm is a testament to Fauci's multi-layered control of the press. Like the writers of the Great Barrington Declaration and other Covid-19 dissidents, scientists who question HIV/AIDS dogma have been brutally punished for their heresy, no matter how prestigious their prior standing in the field and no matter how much evidence they have for their own claims. In 1987, the year the FDA's approval of AZT made AIDS the most profitable epidemic yet (a dubious designation Covid-19 has since surpassed), Fauci made it clearer than ever that scientific inquiry and debate - the basis of the scientific method - would no longer be welcome in the American public health sector, eliminating retrovirologist Peter Duesberg, then one of the most prominent opponents of the HIV=AIDS hypothesis, from the scientific conversation with a professional disemboweling that would make a cartel hitman blush. Duesberg had just eviscerated Gallo's 1984 HIV paper with an article of his own in the journal Cancer Research, pointing out that retroviruses had never before been found to cause a single disease in humans - let alone 30 AIDS-defining diseases. Rather than allow Gallo or any of the other scientists in his camp to respond to the challenge, Fauci waged a scorched-earth campaign against Duesberg, who had until then been one of the most highly regarded researchers in his field. Every research grant he requested was denied; every media appearance was canceled or preempted. The University of California at Berkeley, unable to fully fire him due to tenure, took away his lab, his graduate students, and the rest of his funding. The few colleagues who dared speak up for him in public were also attacked, while enemies and opportunists were encouraged to slander Duesberg at the conferences he was barred from attending and in the journals that would no longer publish his replies. When Duesberg was summoned to the White House later that year by then-President Ronald Reagan to debate Fauci on the origins of AIDS, Fauci convinced the president to cancel, allegedly pulling rank on the Commander-in-Chief with an accusation that the “White House was interfering in scientific matters that belonged to the NIH and the Office of Science and Technology Assessment.” After seven years of this treatment, Duesberg was contacted by NIH official Stephen O'Brien and offered an escape from professional purgatory. He could have “everything back,” he was told, and shown a manuscript of a scientific paper - apparently commissioned by the editor of the journal Nature - “HIV Causes AIDS: Koch's Postulates Fulfilled” with his own name listed alongside O'Brien's as an author.18 His refusal to take the bribe effectively guaranteed the epithet “AIDS denier” will appear on his tombstone. The character assassination of Duesberg became a template that would be deployed to great effectiveness wherever Fauci encountered dissent - never debate, only demonize, deplatform and destroy. Even Luc Montagnier, the real discoverer of HIV, soon found himself on the wrong side of the Fauci machine. With his 1990 declaration that “the HIV virus [by itself] is harmless and passive, a benign virus,” Montagnier began distancing himself from Gallo's fraud, effectively placing a target on his own back. In a 1995 interview, he elaborated: “four factors that have come together to account for the sudden epidemic [of AIDS]: HIV presence, immune hyper-activation, increased sexually transmitted disease incidence, sexual behavior changes and other behavioral changes” such as drug use, poor nutrition and stress - all of which he said had to occur “essentially simultaneously” for HIV to be transmitted, creating the modern epidemic. Like the professionals at the Tri-State Healing Center, Montagnier advocated for the use of antioxidants like vitamin C and N-acetyl cysteine, naming oxidative stress as a critical factor in the progression from HIV to AIDS.19 When Montagnier died in 2022, Fauci's media mouthpieces sneered that the scientist (who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2008 for his discovery of HIV, despite his flagging faith in that discovery's significance) “started espousing views devoid of a scientific basis” in the late 2000s, leading him to be “shunned by the scientific community.”20 In a particularly egregious jab, the Washington Post's obit sings the praises of Robert Gallo, implying it was the American scientist who really should have won the Nobel for HIV, while dismissing as “
If you grew up watching TV in the 80s, you may have noticed that there was a preponderance of… if not shows about orphans specifically then similar shows where the care of children was entrusted to people who weren't their parents and maybe didn't know how to raise kids. We're talking Diff'rent Strokes, Rags to Riches, Punky Brewster, Webster and Gimme a Break, but also The Facts of Life, Charles in Charge, My Two Dads, Full House, My Sister Sam, Silver Spoons, The Hogan Family and more. Sure, a lot of factors could explain these absent parents, but what if we told you there was a single patient zero for this whole trend? Because Drew thinks there is one, and its history stretches back to the 19th century. Links to previous episodes mentioned in this one: Gimme a Break Meets Yet Another 80s Orphan Gimme a Break Transformed Into a Lesbian Perfect Strangers Backdoor Pilots: Diff'rent Strokes Spins Mrs. Garrett into Facts of Life Weirdest Episode Ever: Day by Day Has a Very Brady Nightmare Superstore Is Queerer Than You Think And if you want to watch the video version of the Seinfeld addiction/cashmere examination at the end of this episode, click here.
Hey there, hello to you today. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. Today's subject matter is of the utmost importance, but not necessarily something that is talked about enough within the Christian community. And that's our tendency to live like orphans even though we are now part of God's family thanks to Jesus. God's promises devotional on Amazon Good verses to read about your true identity: Psalm 17:8 Isaiah 43:4 Psalm 147:3 Psalm 18, verses 2, 18 & 19, 28, 32, 35 & 36 Romans 12 John 8 We have so many promises from the Lord to assure and reassure us of our new identity in Christ, and yet we struggle with feeling unseen, abandoned, alone, wondering about unanswered prayers and the things in life, big and small, that wear on us and weigh us down. How do we reconcile the way we feel with the promises God has given us? That's the heart of this episode of the podcast. You're listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast, which can be found on the EDIFI app, an all Christian content podcast option - as well as anywhere else you listen to podcasts. This is episode number 204. If I could give a definition of a believer living more like an orphan than like a child of the Most High God, I would put it like this: there is a strong and sometimes even extreme sense of aloneness and possibly abandonment that can at times define some aspects of a person's character, their attitudes, thoughts, feeling, beliefs and intentions. This sense of aloneness and possibly feeling abandoned almost seems to operate on its own, like it has its own life force or something, working to mold the person's self-image, actions and reactions. Sometimes it may seem like the words someone speaks are misheard and interpreted very differently than what was being conveyed (which can lead to strong reactions). Decisions may be made based on feeling orphaned. This can also lead to rapid decisions and reactions, as in too quick and not thought out or prayed over. Ready, fire, aim sort of a thing. We have a God who loves us and because of that love for us and because of our love for Jesus, we have an enemy, Satan. And I think our enemy works to get us feeling alone, abandoned, orphaned. The devil is in the details, isn't that the saying? And the devil also works in darkness and tries to push God's children into darkness as well. Operating in the darkness and pushing that orphan-like feeling on people is an attempt to manipulate people. And to keep the evil influence secret. Satan doesn't want us to know that he is harassing us; he would like us to wrongly believe that the problem lies within us. The father of lies, the devil, always lies to us because it is his native tongue (that's what Jesus said in John 8:44). Some of the things our enemy often does is try to hide what's actually going on from the Lord's followers. He lies, he deceives, he manipulates. Now what if a person starts to counter the sense of aloneness with the truth from God's word? Does the devil ever try to push back on the truth? Yeah, he probably does. So what are we to do? One thing I know for sure; Jesus died to give us freedom, and when we bump up against areas in our life where our freedom has been stolen or where we maybe have given our freedom away, we don't want to just give up. Pray and keep on praying, isn't that what Jesus taught His followers in Luke chapter 18? It can be so hard to keep on fighting the good fight of our faith in prayer sometimes. But I really want to encourage you to keep fighting. Keep praying. Keep your Bible open. Keep believing, even if it feels like it's hard to believe those promises. Pray and don't give up. Paul wrote about this in 1 Thessalonians - pray without ceasing. God won't lie to you, leave you or forsake you. And you are not an orphan. When we read Galatians chapter five, we get this beautiful picture of freedom. Not just freedom like we celebrate on the Fourth of July here in America. But freedom in Christ, next level freedom, freedom that impacts our life here and now but carries over into all eternity. It's not a temporary freedom, there is no way that it can be taken from us (in spite of the fact that at times we may not feel free, our freedom in Jesus isn't something that ebbs and flows, that comes and goes - it is permanent and eternal and everlasting, while our feelings don't alway speak the truth). From the J. B. Phillips translation, Galatians 5 verse 1 says this: Plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery. As I read that verse once more, imagine yourself being freed from literal shackles of slavery and then think about letting yourself be re-shackled and enslaved. That is what we are told not to do. Plant your feet firmly with the freedom Christ won for you. Stay planted, rooted in Him. And don't move out of that place of being planted, don't move to a place where Satan has the chance to put those shackles back on your ankles. Keep your feet in the right place and don't let him get your feet moving off that place, the Rock which is Christ Jesus. Freedom is what Jesus gave to you. He bought it for you. It's yours. That's an absolute iron-clad promise. Don't forget it! If you ever feel like you're being pushed and pulled and prodded in a super stressful way, like you're just being driven and driven and driven, that could be the enemy harassing you. Why do I think that? Because that driven driven driven feeling is in direct opposition to the Galatians 5:1 freedom that Jesus secured for us. And the Lord sure isn't giving us the exact opposite of what He died to grant us. When you feel like you're being driven, pause and pray, pray that the promised freedom God clearly talks about in Galatians would be your immediate reality and that the liar the devil would be rendered ineffective in his harassment. Satan loves to drive people. Jesus never drives people. Satan wants everybody to live like they've been orphaned, but he doesn't want anyone to talk about it. But when we talk to the Lord about it, we bring it into the light and God's truth lands on it and that is really effective at keeping us free. Because the truth, said Jesus, will set you free. John 8:31-32. Genesis 18:14 says this: Is anything too hard for the LORD? The Lord said these words to Abraham when Sarah laughed when He promised that she would have a son in about a year's time. It's one thing to hear me pose the question, “Is anything too hard for God?” But it's quite another when the Lord speaks for Himself and asks, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” in direct response to one of His dearly loved children wondering whether or not He will keep His promise. Is God maybe asking you today, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” How can you apply this verse to your situation? What's your answer to His question? We have some weapons in our spiritual arsenal. Weapons like prayer, like fasting, like choosing belief and refusing doubt, the weapon of worship, and of course the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). Luke 24:13-35 tells us that Jesus walks with us and comforts us when we are traveling on a difficult path in this life. That indicates that He never wants us to feel abandoned or orphaned on those hard roads. He wants us to know that He is walking alongside us. In John 16:24, Jesus described the Holy Spirit as our Helper, Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor, Counselor, Strengthener and Standby (Amplified). This verse reminds us to ask and keep on asking in order that we might receive and have our joy be complete. Pray things through to their very final end. Please don't give up on praying! Never stop praying! And keep believing every single promise God gives you in the Bible. He loves you with great tenderness and he wants you to have a rich, full, joyous life as His child. Secure, at peace, resting in His love and care. Not a trouble free life - that's not possible in this world, and Jesus Himself said that in this world we will have trouble, but to take heart, for He has overcome the world (John 16:33). 1 Peter 1:4 says that we have been born into an inheritance that is beyond the reach of change. Orphans don't have an inheritance and they live in constant fear of change. Satan is so lying when he tells us differently than this verse promises! And 1 Peter 2:9-10 is proof of our non-orphaned status. 9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests,[g] a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 10 “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God's people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God's mercy.”[h] We are chosen, consecrated, set apart, a special people for God's own possession, called out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Once we were not a people, but that time in our lives is over and done with. I'm going to list off a few more verses you are welcome to read for yourself if you'd like. The truths in these verses are promises that can cement in your heart and mind how the Lord really, truly feels about you. Psalm 17:8 Isaiah 43:4 Psalm 147:3 Psalm 18, verses 2, 18 & 19, 28, 32, 35 & 36 And the entire twelfth chapter of Romans. That's an excellent piece of the Bible to read! Freedom comes at a cost. But Jesus paid the price in full. And he or she who has been set free by the Son is free indeed. John 8:36 My prayer for you today is that the Lord will move by the power of His Holy Spirit to fully set you free, to bless you, guide you, speak to you so loudly that you know for certain He is right here with you. Delivering you from the enemy's evil attacks, bringing total healing and freedom and restoration and redemption into your life. That's a prayer I believe He will absolutely answer. Thanks for listening to this episode, and I'll share a link to my devotional about God's promises which is available on Amazon if that's something you'd like to check out. The Power of God's Will: 40 Days of God's Promises Devotional: Burt, Jan L.: 9798573528939: Amazon.com: Books Keep expecting God to keep all His promises. He's got those hard situations, and He's holding you safe and secure in the palm of His hands today. How could He ever forget you when He has engraved you on the palms of His hands? Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, getting the promises of God into the people of God, right where they belong. I'll see ya next time. Bye bye.
What kind of legacy do you want to leave in the world? If you're seeking inspiration, this episode is for you! Join Deborah as she speaks with Lori Pappas about the transformative power of pause. Lori shares how curiosity and reflection have guided her through life's challenges, allowing her to forge new paths and create meaningful change. Tune in for a powerful conversation on growth, purpose, and the magic of self-discovery!Here are the things to expect in the episode:Lori's journey from a traumatic childhood to award-winning entrepreneur and charity founder in Africa.Lori's experiences working in one of the hardest places in the world, Ethiopia.How can curiosity and reflection help us navigate life's challenges?Women's empowerment and the impact Lori wants to leave behind.And much more! About Lori:I survived a traumatic childhood and learned to leverage the power of self-reflection to redefine my core beliefs and chart my own course. Lady Luck smiled on me in my 40s, and I became a national award-winning successful entrepreneur who mentored hundreds of employees and thousands of customers. After failing retirement in my 50s, I escaped my second unsatisfying marriage by moving to Africa and founding a charity. We helped over 100,000 highly marginalized people through initiatives in Water, Hygiene and Sanitation, Functional Adult Literacy, Reproductive Health, Women Empowerment, Environment, and Orphans and Vulnerable Children. I met and married the "love of my life" online in my 60s, and now, in my 70s, I have the time and mind space to identify patterns and extract lessons from my wild and unusual life.Connect with Lori Pappas!Website: https://www.loripappas.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-pappas-wise-woman/Wise Woman Sisterhood Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wisewomanorgInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/loripappas_/Threads: https://www.threads.net/@loripappas_Book Recommendation:The Magic of Yes: Embrace the Wise Woman Within by Lori Pappas https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-magic-of-yes-embrace-the-wise-woman-within-lori-pappas/21932518?ean=9798888246207&next=t&affiliate=103352 Connect with Deborah Kevin:Website: www.deborahkevin.comInstagram: www.instagram.com/debbykevinwriterLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-kevin/Book Recommendations: https://bookshop.org/shop/storytellher Check out Highlander Press:Website: www.highlanderpressbooks.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@highlanderpressInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/highlanderpressFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/highlanderpress
Hey, Heal Squad! Kels and Nat are back with another Regular Girl update, and this week, it's all about navigating life's curveballs with a mix of adventure, reflection, and a little humor. Natasha shares her experience at PodFest in Orlando, unpacking insights on podcasting, personal growth, and the power of community. Meanwhile, Kelsey takes us on her Nashville getaway, where donkeys, horses, and a much-needed nature reset helped her find balance during a chaotic time. Whether you're looking for inspiration, a mental reset, or just some good vibes, this episode has something for you! Thank you for tuning in and growing with us—we love you! Xo Kels & Nat Charities to donate to for LA Wildfires: CalFire Benevolent Foundation https://calfire.foundation/donations/ California Fire Foundation https://cpf.salsalabs.org/cff-donation/index.html Widows,Orphans & Disabled Firefighters Fund: https://www.wodff.org/ Pasadena Humane Society https://give.pasadenahumane.org/give/654134#!/donation/checkout Global Empowerment Mission https://www.globalempowermentmission.org/donate/ Baby2Baby https://donate.baby2baby.org/give/648067/#!/donation/checkout -- HEAL SQUAD SOCIALS IG: https://www.instagram.com/healsquad/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@healsquadxmaria HEAL SQUAD RESOURCES: Heal Squad Website: https://www.healsquad.com/ Maria Menounos Website: https://www.mariamenounos.com My Curated Macy's Page: Shop My Macy's Storefront AquaTru: https://aquatruwater.com/ code: HEALSQUAD AirDoctor: https://airdoctorpro.com/ code: HEALSQUAD Prenuvo: Prenuvo.com/MARIA for $300 off Sleep Number: https://www.sleepnumber.com/ ABOUT MARIA MENOUNOS: Emmy Award-winning journalist, TV personality, actress, 2x NYT best-selling author, former pro-wrestler and brain tumor survivor, Maria Menounos' passion is to see others heal and to get better in all areas of life. ABOUT HEAL SQUAD x MARIA MENOUNOS: A daily digital talk-show that brings you the world's leading healers, experts, and celebrities to share groundbreaking secrets and tips to getting better in all areas of life. DISCLAIMER: This Podcast and all related content ( published or distributed by or on behalf of Maria Menounos or Mariamenounos.com and healsquad.com ) is for informational purposes only and may include information that is general in nature and that is not specific to you. Any information or opinions provided by guest experts or hosts featured within website or on Company's Podcast are their own; not those of Maria Menounos or the Company. Accordingly, Maria Menounos and the Company cannot be responsible for any results or consequences or actions you may take based on such information or opinions. This podcast is presented for exploratory purposes only. Published content is not intended to be used for preventing, diagnosing, or treating a specific illness. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health-care emergency, please contact a qualified health care professional for treatment.
How for decades LA has been a reactive city and how the fires are no exception - AND nothing new. How we are reactive in our own daily lives and the reminder to be proactive. How we trip over the same extension cords, everyday, and the need for vigilance against that. How charities use donations for administrative costs and the best place and means to donate. The first thing most people lament about losing during disasters and this simple app and practice to avoid the loss. Haven't practiced any new year's resolutions or better haven't even had time to come up with any? How many of us are stuck right now and why we shouldn't feel bad. Charities to donate to for LA Wildfires: CalFire Benevolent Foundation https://calfire.foundation/donations/ California Fire Foundation https://cpf.salsalabs.org/cff-donation/index.html Widows,Orphans & Disabled Firefighters Fund: https://www.wodff.org/ Pasadena Humane Society https://give.pasadenahumane.org/give/654134#!/donation/checkout Global Empowerment Mission https://www.globalempowermentmission.org/donate/ Baby2Baby https://donate.baby2baby.org/give/648067/#!/donation/checkout -- HEAL SQUAD SOCIALS IG: https://www.instagram.com/healsquad/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@healsquadxmaria HEAL SQUAD RESOURCES: Heal Squad Website: https://www.healsquad.com/ Maria Menounos Website: https://www.mariamenounos.com My Curated Macy's Page: Shop My Macy's Storefront AquaTru: https://aquatruwater.com/ code: HEALSQUAD AirDoctor: https://airdoctorpro.com/ code: HEALSQUAD Prenuvo: Prenuvo.com/MARIA for $300 off Sleep Number: https://www.sleepnumber.com/ ABOUT MARIA MENOUNOS: Emmy Award-winning journalist, TV personality, actress, 2x NYT best-selling author, former pro-wrestler and brain tumor survivor, Maria Menounos' passion is to see others heal and to get better in all areas of life. ABOUT HEAL SQUAD x MARIA MENOUNOS: A daily digital talk-show that brings you the world's leading healers, experts, and celebrities to share groundbreaking secrets and tips to getting better in all areas of life. DISCLAIMER: This Podcast and all related content ( published or distributed by or on behalf of Maria Menounos or Mariamenounos.com and healsquad.com ) is for informational purposes only and may include information that is general in nature and that is not specific to you. Any information or opinions provided by guest experts or hosts featured within website or on Company's Podcast are their own; not those of Maria Menounos or the Company. Accordingly, Maria Menounos and the Company cannot be responsible for any results or consequences or actions you may take based on such information or opinions. This podcast is presented for exploratory purposes only. Published content is not intended to be used for preventing, diagnosing, or treating a specific illness. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health-care emergency, please contact a qualified health care professional for treatment.
Hey, Heal Squad! On this Throwback Thursday, we're continuing our food and nutrition series with Dr. Mark Hyman, 15x NYT best seller, physician, and international leader in the field of Functional Medicine. From his own personal health journey to helping countless patients transform their lives, Dr. Hyman reveals how food can truly be medicine—and how it can help you live a longer, healthier, and more vibrant life.He dives into the science behind reversing aging, optimizing gut health, and reducing inflammation. Get ready to learn why only 6% of Americans are metabolically healthy, how sugar and processed foods are sabotaging our well-being, and the small but mighty changes you can make to live your longest, healthiest life. HEALERS & HEAL-LINERS: Aging isn't inevitable—it's reversible. Understanding how your body works can help you slow down biological aging, giving you the tools to live longer and healthier. Your gut is the gateway to health. Optimizing your microbiome can rapidly reduce inflammation, heal chronic symptoms, and boost overall well-being. Small changes create big transformations. Simple lifestyle shifts like eating whole foods, incorporating supplements, and reducing stress can have profound, lasting effects on your health. Charities to donate to for LA Wildfires: CalFire Benevolent Foundation https://calfire.foundation/donations/ California Fire Foundation https://cpf.salsalabs.org/cff-donation/index.html Widows,Orphans & Disabled Firefighters Fund: https://www.wodff.org/ Pasadena Humane Society https://give.pasadenahumane.org/give/654134#!/donation/checkout Global Empowerment Mission https://www.globalempowermentmission.org/donate/ -- HEAL SQUAD SOCIALS IG: https://www.instagram.com/healsquad/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@healsquadxmaria HEAL SQUAD RESOURCES: Heal Squad Website: https://www.healsquad.com/ Maria Menounos Website: https://www.mariamenounos.com My Curated Macy's Page: Shop My Macy's Storefront AquaTru: https://aquatruwater.com/ code: HEALSQUAD AirDoctor: https://airdoctorpro.com/ code: HEALSQUAD Prenuvo: Prenuvo.com/MARIA for $300 off Sleep Number: https://www.sleepnumber.com/ Dr. Mark Hyman's Resources Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmarkhyman/?hl=en Website: https://drhyman.com/ ‘Young Forever' Book: https://drhyman.com/products/young-forever ABOUT MARIA MENOUNOS: Emmy Award-winning journalist, TV personality, actress, 2x NYT best-selling author, former pro-wrestler and brain tumor survivor, Maria Menounos' passion is to see others heal and to get better in all areas of life. ABOUT HEAL SQUAD x MARIA MENOUNOS: A daily digital talk-show that brings you the world's leading healers, experts, and celebrities to share groundbreaking secrets and tips to getting better in all areas of life. DISCLAIMER: This Podcast and all related content ( published or distributed by or on behalf of Maria Menounos or Mariamenounos.com and healsquad.com ) is for informational purposes only and may include information that is general in nature and that is not specific to you. Any information or opinions provided by guest experts or hosts featured within website or on Company's Podcast are their own; not those of Maria Menounos or the Company. Accordingly, Maria Menounos and the Company cannot be responsible for any results or consequences or actions you may take based on such information or opinions. This podcast is presented for exploratory purposes only. Published content is not intended to be used for preventing, diagnosing, or treating a specific illness. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health-care emergency, please contact a qualified health care professional for treatment.