Podcasts about stone

On this episode of The Jon Gordon Podcast, I sit down with Steve Robinson, pastor, leadership practitioner, and author of the upcoming book Soul Leadership. Together, we dive deep into the vital connection between leadership, trauma, and healing, exploring how leaders can move from burnout and brokenness to wholeness and real impact. Steve opens up about his personal journey, sharing honestly about years of compounding trauma—including the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the intense pressures of leading a growing church. These experiences led him to the edge of burnout, and ultimately to a powerful path of healing and discovery. Drawing from research, theology, therapy, neuroscience, and his own life, Steve reveals why caring for a leader's soul is so central to personal and organizational success. Throughout our conversation, several key themes emerge: the difference between simple exhaustion and deeper trauma, the science behind how stress and adversity affect the brain, the critical role faith and community play in emotional healing, and how adversity can become the catalyst for wisdom, empathy, and post-traumatic growth. Steve breaks down practical strategies for building resilience, the process of healing both brain and mind, and why true leadership starts with inner wholeness and connection. If you're a leader navigating challenges or want to support those around you, this episode is packed with encouragement and insight. Steve's story and research are a powerful reminder that your pain can become your purpose—and that transformation is possible when you lean into healing, connection, and the power of your soul. You'll walk away inspired and equipped to face setbacks and emerge even stronger.   About Steve, Steve Robinson is a pastor, speaker, and author and the founding pastor of Church of the King—a growing multisite church with campuses spread across the US and internationally. Under his leadership, Church of the King has launched new locations from South Louisiana to Cape Town, South Africa, and built a thriving online community that reaches people around the world with a message of hope and purpose. A graduate of Tulane University with a Doctor of Ministry from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, Steve is passionate about helping people grow in their faith, discover their God-given potential, and live with clarity and resilience. He serves on the board of Equip, a global leadership organization founded by John Maxwell, and is the author of several books, including Decide to Thrive, Perspective Shift, and Hope Again. With a passion for helping people grow and thrive, Pastor Steve is dedicated to guiding others in their faith and everyday life. He and his wife, Jennifer, live in the New Orleans area and have four children—Isabelle and her husband, Stone, and Conrad, William, and Annaliese. Here's a few additional resources for you… Do you feel called to share your story with the world? Check out Gordon Publishing  Follow me on Instagram: @JonGordon11 Check out my new revised release of my book, The Power of Positive Leadership here! Every week, I send out a free Positive Tip newsletter via email. It's advice for your life, work and team. You can sign up now here and catch up on past newsletters. Ready to lead with greater clarity, confidence, and purpose? The Certified Positive Leader Program is for anyone who wants to grow as a leader from the inside out. It's a self-paced experience built around my most impactful leadership principles with tools you can apply right away to improve your mindset, relationships, and results. You'll discover what it really means to lead with positivity… and how to do it every day. Learn more here! Join me for my Day of Development! You'll learn proven strategies to develop confidence, improve your leadership and build a connected and committed team. You'll leave with an action plan to supercharge your growth and results. It's time to Create your Positive Advantage. Get details and sign up here. Do you feel called to do more? Would you like to impact more people as a leader, writer, speaker, coach and trainer? Get Jon Gordon Certified if you want to be mentored by me and my team to teach my proven frameworks principles, and programs for businesses, sports, education, healthcare!  

Let's take a journey into some of the most occult corners of the Enlightenment, all leading to contraband Gnostic and Hermetic secrets. For this tour, I am joined by art dealer and expert Christopher Bishop. He'll show us the hidden world of Enlightenment Naples through Fedele Fischetti's rediscovered masterpiece, The Triumph of Night, a rare visual record of secret networks where alchemy and Masonic philosophy intertwined. We'll also delve into the legacy of the painting's "extravagant" patron, Prince Raimondo di Sangro—a practicing alchemist and "necromancer"—who commissioned the work to encode a path toward the Philosopher's Stone and spiritual immortality. We will decode the painting's complex "hieroglyphic puzzle," tracing the four stages of the Magnum Opus through symbols ranging from the Egyptian god Harpocrates to the alchemical hermaphrodite. And that's just the tip of the revelatory ice berg. More on Christopher: https://www.christopherbishopfineart.com/ Get The Occult Elvis: https://amzn.to/4jnTjE4 Virtual Alexandria Academy: https://thegodabovegod.com/virtual-alexandria-academy/ Gnostic Tarot Readings: https://thegodabovegod.com/gnostic-tarot-reading/ The Gnostic Tarot: https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/synkrasis Homepage: https://thegodabovegod.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyte AB Prime: https://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/ Voice Over services: https://thegodabovegod.com/voice-talent/ Support with donation: https://buy.stripe.com/00g16Q8RK8D93mw288 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this interview, I chat with Gary J. Walters about White House Memories: 1970-2007⁠, his role as chief usher and what that role entails, planning for inauguration day and evening, his background, his impressions of the various administrations, behind-the-scenes glimpses into life at the White House, reliving his memories at the White House, and much more. Gary's recommended reads are: Books by Michel Connally Books by John Sandford A White House of Stone by William Seale Looking for some great winter reads? Check out my printable 17-page Winter Reading Guide ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for a tip of your choice or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for a set price here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ via credit card with over 40 new titles vetted by me that will provide great entertainment this winter and spring - a number of books you will not see on other guides. I also include mystery series recommendations, backlist picks, and fiction and nonfiction pairings. Purchase Kelly and my Shelf Ceremony ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. We discuss tons more great read from 2025. Thanks so much to those of you who have donated to the show. Donate to the podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Venmo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Want to know which new titles are publishing in January - May of 2026? Check out our fifth ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Literary Lookbook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠which contains a comprehensive but not exhaustive list all in one place so you can plan ahead, and we color-code by genre in this one!  Looking for something new to read? Here is my monthly ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buzz Reads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ column with five new recommendations each month. Connect with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It seems like every few weeks, another Christian leader falls—and many believers are left confused, discouraged, or even mocked for their faith.In this episode of Behind the Mike Podcast, Mike & Joshua Stone slow the conversation down and ask a deeper question: Why does this keep happening—and what does it reveal about where our faith is anchored?This is not a reaction video.This is not about piling on fallen leaders.And this is not about abandoning Christianity.Instead, we talk honestly about:• Why gifting is not the same as godliness• Why public platforms often hide private struggles• Why Christian celebrity culture is leaving people spiritually disoriented• And how to build a faith that survives disappointment, hypocrisy, and failureIf recent stories have left you wondering whether Christianity itself can be trusted—or if your faith feels shaken by the failures of others—this conversation is for you.Christianity was never built on impressive people.It was built on an unchanging Savior.Chapters:00:00 – Why So Many Christian Leaders Are FallingThe exhaustion, grief, and questions believers are feeling right now00:26 – Is It Okay to Feel Shaken in Your Faith?Why doubt after scandal doesn't mean weak faith00:50 – The Real Problem Behind Church ScandalsWhat we build our faith on before leaders fall01:17 – A College Student's Perspective on Church HypocrisyWhy this generation sees things differently01:55 – When Christian Failures Go PublicWhy repeated scandals damage trust and fuel mockery02:49 – The Stage Is Not the SoulPublic ministry vs. private faithfulness03:38 – When a Pastor Falls, People Lose Their FaithWhy many believers were never taught where faith belongs04:48 – Mentors vs. Messiahs in ChristianityWhy following people too closely can wreck faith06:04 – Why God's Word Will Never Fail YouScripture vs. celebrity Christianity07:16 – A Bible College Story That Changed EverythingWhen powerful preaching didn't match real-life character08:43 – How Christian Hypocrisy Hurts the Church's WitnessWhat unbelievers actually see when Christians fail09:32 – Spiritual Talk vs. Spiritual MaturityWhy holiness shows up under pressure, not on stage10:28 – What Young Christians Are Really Seeing TodayFaith, stress, and everyday behavior outside church11:47 – Why Putting Faith in People Always FailsEven well-meaning leaders will let you down12:55 – How Leaders Drift Before Moral FailureIsolation, secrecy, and success without accountability13:39 – Why Accountability Matters in the Christian LifeFaith was never meant to be lived alone14:53 – How Christians Should Respond When Leaders FallTruth, humility, and refusing to panic15:48 – Christianity Doesn't Collapse When Leaders FailWhy Jesus—not pastors—is the foundation16:18 – Where Your Faith Must Be AnchoredWhy CSend us a textSupport the showWatch these podcasts on YouTube!Follow Us!YouTube: @behindthemikepodcastInstagram: @behindthemikepodcastTikTok: @behind_the_mike_podcastFacebook: @behindthemikepodcast

Many Christians struggle with church commitment, but being connected to a local church is essential for spiritual growth. The enemy actively fights against church involvement because committed believers become powerful soldiers in God's army. Missing church can easily become a habit that causes you to miss divine appointments and God's movement. To break this pattern, get involved through serving rather than just attending, and build encouraging relationships with other believers. As we approach the end times, church commitment becomes even more critical for spiritual strength and community support.

This week on Disney Dish, Jim Hill and Len Testa dig into a deceptively simple question with big implications for trip planning: when exactly did “summer vacation” stop being peak season at Walt Disney World? Using years of hotel pricing data as a proxy for crowd demand, Len walks through what the numbers say - and the results may surprise longtime fans. Then Jim takes listeners on a deep historical tour of one of the parks' most quietly beloved traditions, the Sword in the Stone ceremony, tracing its evolution across Disney parks worldwide. NEWS • Why Disney hotel pricing data suggests summer is no longer peak season at Walt Disney World • A breakdown of how demand has shifted from summer to fall travel, especially October • Updates on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishments and new cave effects • Casting and timing details for the upcoming Bluey experience at Disney's Animal Kingdom • Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge timeline expansion, adding characters from across all Star Wars eras FEATURE • The full history of the Sword in the Stone ceremony, from Disneyland in 1983 to parks around the globe • Why Imagineers were obsessed with The Sword in the Stone long before the ceremony debuted • How budget cuts slowly transformed a full-scale show into today's simpler experience • The true story of the guest who actually pulled the sword completely out of the stone For this episode's full show notes, click here. HOSTS • Jim Hill - IG: @JimHillMedia | X: @JimHillMedia | Website: JimHillMedia.com • Len Testa - IG: @len.testa | Website: TouringPlans.com FOLLOW • Facebook: JimHillMediaNews • Instagram: JimHillMedia • TikTok: JimHillMedia SUPPORT Support the show and access bonus episodes and additional content at Patreon.com/JimHillMedia. PRODUCTION CREDITS Edited by Dave Grey Produced by Eric Hersey - Strong Minded Agency SPONSOR This episode of Disney Dish is sponsored by UnlockedMagic.com, powered by our friends at DVC Rental Store. Save $50 or more per person on select multi-day Walt Disney World tickets and take the stress out of planning your next vacation. Visit UnlockedMagic.com for details. If you would like to sponsor a show on the Jim Hill Media Podcast Network, reach out today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Disney Dish, Jim Hill and Len Testa dig into a deceptively simple question with big implications for trip planning: when exactly did “summer vacation” stop being peak season at Walt Disney World? Using years of hotel pricing data as a proxy for crowd demand, Len walks through what the numbers say - and the results may surprise longtime fans. Then Jim takes listeners on a deep historical tour of one of the parks' most quietly beloved traditions, the Sword in the Stone ceremony, tracing its evolution across Disney parks worldwide. NEWS • Why Disney hotel pricing data suggests summer is no longer peak season at Walt Disney World • A breakdown of how demand has shifted from summer to fall travel, especially October • Updates on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad refurbishments and new cave effects • Casting and timing details for the upcoming Bluey experience at Disney's Animal Kingdom • Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge timeline expansion, adding characters from across all Star Wars eras FEATURE • The full history of the Sword in the Stone ceremony, from Disneyland in 1983 to parks around the globe • Why Imagineers were obsessed with The Sword in the Stone long before the ceremony debuted • How budget cuts slowly transformed a full-scale show into today's simpler experience • The true story of the guest who actually pulled the sword completely out of the stone For this episode's full show notes, click here. HOSTS • Jim Hill - IG: @JimHillMedia | X: @JimHillMedia | Website: JimHillMedia.com • Len Testa - IG: @len.testa | Website: TouringPlans.com FOLLOW • Facebook: JimHillMediaNews • Instagram: JimHillMedia • TikTok: JimHillMedia SUPPORT Support the show and access bonus episodes and additional content at Patreon.com/JimHillMedia. PRODUCTION CREDITS Edited by Dave Grey Produced by Eric Hersey - Strong Minded Agency SPONSOR This episode of Disney Dish is sponsored by UnlockedMagic.com, powered by our friends at DVC Rental Store. Save $50 or more per person on select multi-day Walt Disney World tickets and take the stress out of planning your next vacation. Visit UnlockedMagic.com for details. If you would like to sponsor a show on the Jim Hill Media Podcast Network, reach out today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the most transformative thing you can do for your writing craft and author business is to face what you fear? How can you can find gold in your Shadow in the year ahead? In this episode, I share chapters from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words. In the intro, curated book boxes from Bridgerton's Julia Quinn; Google's agentic shopping, and powering Apple's Siri; ChatGPT Ads; and Claude CoWork. Balancing Certainty and Uncertainty [MoonShots with Tony Robbins]; and three trends for authors with me and Orna Ross [Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast]; plus, Bones of the Deep, Business for Authors, and Indie Author Lab. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn  Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers, dark fantasy, and memoir as J.F. Penn. She's also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker. What is the Shadow? The ‘creative wound' and the Shadow in writing The Shadow in traditional publishing The Shadow in self-publishing or being an indie author The Shadow in work The Shadow in money You can find Writing the Shadow in all formats on all stores, as well as special edition, workbook and bundles at www.TheCreativePenn.com/shadowbook Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words The following chapters are excerpted from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words by Joanna Penn. Introduction. What is the Shadow? “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.” —C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul We all have a Shadow side and it is the work of a lifetime to recognise what lies within and spin that base material into gold. Think of it as a seedling in a little pot that you're given when you're young. It's a bit misshapen and weird, not something you would display in your living room, so you place it in a dark corner of the basement. You don't look at it for years. You almost forget about it. Then one day you notice tendrils of something wild poking up through the floorboards. They're ugly and don't fit with your Scandi-minimalist interior design. You chop the tendrils away and pour weedkiller on what's left, trying to hide the fact that they were ever there. But the creeping stems keep coming. At some point, you know you have to go down there and face the wild thing your seedling has become. When you eventually pluck up enough courage to go down into the basement, you discover that the plant has wound its roots deep into the foundations of your home. Its vines weave in and out of the cracks in the walls, and it has beautiful flowers and strange fruit. It holds your world together. Perhaps you don't need to destroy the wild tendrils. Perhaps you can let them wind up into the light and allow their rich beauty to weave through your home. It will change the look you have so carefully cultivated, but maybe that's just what the place needs. The Shadow in psychology Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychologist and the founder of analytical psychology. He described the Shadow as an unconscious aspect of the human personality, those parts of us that don't match up to what is expected of us by family and society, or to our own ideals. The Shadow is not necessarily evil or illegal or immoral, although of course it can be. It's also not necessarily caused by trauma, abuse, or any other severely damaging event, although again, it can be. It depends on the individual. What is in your Shadow is based on your life and your experiences, as well as your culture and society, so it will be different for everyone. Psychologist Connie Zweig, in The Inner Work of Age, explains, “The Shadow is that part of us that lies beneath or behind the light of awareness. It contains our rejected, unacceptable traits and feelings. It contains our hidden gifts and talents that have remained unexpressed or unlived. As Jung put it, the essence of the Shadow is pure gold.” To further illustrate the concept, Robert Bly, in A Little Book on the Human Shadow,uses the following metaphor: “When we are young, we carry behind us an invisible bag, into which we stuff any feelings, thoughts, or behaviours that bring disapproval or loss of love—anger, tears, neediness, laziness. By the time we go to school, our bags are already a mile long. In high school, our peer groups pressure us to stuff the bags with even more—individuality, sexuality, spontaneity, different opinions. We spend our life until we're twenty deciding which parts of ourselves to put into the bag and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again.” As authors, we can use what's in the ‘bag' to enrich our writing — but only if we can access it. My intention with this book is to help you venture into your Shadow and bring some of what's hidden into the light and into your words. I'll reveal aspects of my Shadow in these pages but ultimately, this book is about you. Your Shadow is unique. There may be elements we share, but much will be different. Each chapter has questions for you to consider that may help you explore at least the edges of your Shadow, but it's not easy. As Jung said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” But take heart, Creative. You don't need courage when things are easy. You need it when you know what you face will be difficult, but you do it anyway. We are authors. We know how to do hard things. We turn ideas into books. We manifest thoughts into ink on paper. We change lives with our writing. First, our own, then other people's. It's worth the effort to delve into Shadow, so I hope you will join me on the journey. The creative wound and the Shadow in writing “Whatever pain you can't get rid of, make it your creative offering.” —Susan Cain, Bittersweet  The more we long for something, the more extreme our desire, the more likely it is to have a Shadow side. For those of us who love books, the author life may well be a long-held dream and thus, it is filled with Shadow. Books have long been objects of desire, power, and authority. They hold a mythic status in our lives. We escaped into stories as children; we studied books at school and college; we read them now for escape and entertainment, education and inspiration. We collect beautiful books to put on our shelves. We go to them for solace and answers to the deepest questions of life. Writers are similarly held in high esteem. They shape culture, win literary prizes, give important speeches, and are quoted in the mainstream media. Their books are on the shelves in libraries and bookstores. Writers are revered, held up as rare, talented creatures made separate from us by their brilliance and insight. For bibliophile children, books were everything and to write one was a cherished dream. To become an author? Well, that would mean we might be someone special, someone worthy. Perhaps when you were young, you thought the dream of being a writer was possible — then you told someone about it. That's probably when you heard the first criticism of such a ridiculous idea, the first laughter, the first dismissal. So you abandoned the dream, pushed the idea of being a writer into the Shadow, and got on with your life. Or if it wasn't then, it came later, when you actually put pen to paper and someone — a parent, teacher, partner, or friend, perhaps even a literary agent or publisher, someone whose opinion you valued — told you it was worthless. Here are some things you might have heard: Writing is a hobby. Get a real job. You're not good enough. You don't have any writing talent. You don't have enough education. You don't know what you're doing. Your writing is derivative / unoriginal / boring / useless / doesn't make sense. The genre you write in is dead / worthless / unacceptable / morally wrong / frivolous / useless.  Who do you think you are? No one would want to read what you write. You can't even use proper grammar, so how could you write a whole book? You're wasting your time. You'll never make it as a writer. You shouldn't write those things (or even think about those things). Why don't you write something nice? Insert other derogatory comment here! Mark Pierce describes the effect of this experience in his book The Creative Wound, which “occurs when an event, or someone's actions or words, pierce you, causing a kind of rift in your soul. A comment—even offhand and unintentional—is enough to cause one.” He goes on to say that such words can inflict “damage to the core of who we are as creators. It is an attack on our artistic identity, resulting in us believing that whatever we make is somehow tainted or invalid, because shame has convinced us there is something intrinsically tainted or invalid about ourselves.” As adults, we might brush off such wounds, belittling them as unimportant in the grand scheme of things. We might even find ourselves saying the same words to other people. After all, it's easier to criticise than to create. But if you picture your younger self, bright eyed as you lose yourself in your favourite book, perhaps you might catch a glimpse of what you longed for before your dreams were dashed on the rocks of other people's reality. As Mark Pierce goes on to say, “A Creative Wound has the power to delay our pursuits—sometimes for years—and it can even derail our lives completely… Anything that makes us feel ashamed of ourselves or our work can render us incapable of the self-expression we yearn for.” This is certainly what happened to me, and it took decades to unwind. Your creative wounds will differ to mine but perhaps my experience will help you explore your own. To be clear, your Shadow may not reside in elements of horror as mine do, but hopefully you can use my example to consider where your creative wounds might lie. “You shouldn't write things like that.” It happened at secondary school around 1986 or 1987, so I would have been around eleven or twelve years old. English was one of my favourite subjects and the room we had our lessons in looked out onto a vibrant garden. I loved going to that class because it was all about books, and they were always my favourite things. One day, we were asked to write a story. I can't remember the specifics of what the teacher asked us to write, but I fictionalised a recurring nightmare. I stood in a dark room. On one side, my mum and my brother, Rod, were tied up next to a cauldron of boiling oil, ready to be thrown in. On the other side, my dad and my little sister, Lucy, were threatened with decapitation by men with machetes. I had to choose who would die. I always woke up, my heart pounding, before I had to choose. Looking back now, it clearly represented an internal conflict about having to pick sides between the two halves of my family. Not an unexpected issue from a child of divorce. Perhaps these days, I might have been sent to the school counsellor, but it was the eighties and I don't think we even had such a thing. Even so, the meaning of the story isn't the point. It was the reaction to it that left scars. “You shouldn't write things like that,” my teacher said, and I still remember her look of disappointment, even disgust. Certainly judgment. She said my writing was too dark. It wasn't a proper story. It wasn't appropriate for the class. As if horrible things never happened in stories — or in life. As if literature could not include dark tales. As if the only acceptable writing was the kind she approved of. We were taught The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie that year, which says a lot about the type of writing considered appropriate. Or perhaps the issue stemmed from the school motto, “So hateth she derknesse,” from Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women: “For fear of night, so she hates the darkness.” I had won a scholarship to a private girls' school, and their mission was to turn us all into proper young ladies. Horror was never on the curriculum. Perhaps if my teacher had encouraged me to write my darkness back then, my nightmares would have dissolved on the page. Perhaps if we had studied Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or H.P. Lovecraft stories, or Bram Stoker's Dracula, I could have embraced the darker side of literature earlier in my life. My need to push darker thoughts into my Shadow was compounded by my (wonderful) mum's best intentions. We were brought up on the principles of The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and she tried to shield me and my brother from anything harmful or horrible. We weren't allowed to watch TV much, and even the British school drama Grange Hill was deemed inappropriate. So much of what I've achieved is because my mum instilled in me a “can do” attitude that anything is possible. I'm so grateful to her for that. (I love you, Mum!) But all that happy positivity, my desire to please her, to be a good girl, to make my teachers proud, and to be acceptable to society, meant that I pushed my darker thoughts into Shadow. They were inappropriate. They were taboo. They must be repressed, kept secret, and I must be outwardly happy and positive at all times. You cannot hold back the darkness “The night is dark and full of terrors.” —George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords It turned out that horror was on the curriculum, much of it in the form of educational films we watched during lessons. In English Literature, we watched Romeo drink poison and Juliet stab herself in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. In Religious Studies, we watched Jesus beaten, tortured, and crucified in The Greatest Story Ever Told, and learned of the variety of gruesome ways that Christian saints were martyred. In Classical Civilisation, we watched gladiators slaughter each other in Spartacus. In Sex Education at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the mid-'80s, we were told of the many ways we could get infected and die. In History, we studied the Holocaust with images of skeletal bodies thrown into mass graves, medical experiments on humans, and grainy videos of marching soldiers giving the Nazi salute. One of my first overseas school field trips was to the World War I battlegrounds of Flanders Fields in Belgium, where we studied the inhuman conditions of the trenches, walked through mass graves, and read war poetry by candlelight. As John McCrae wrote: We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Did the teachers not realise how deeply a sensitive teenager might feel the darkness of that place? Or have I always been unusual in that places of blood echo deep inside me? And the horrors kept coming. We lived in Bristol, England back then and I learned at school how the city had been part of the slave trade, its wealth built on the backs of people stolen from their homes, sold, and worked to death in the colonies. I had been at school for a year in Malawi, Africa and imagined the Black people I knew drowning, being beaten, and dying on those ships. In my teenage years, the news was filled with ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and massacres during the Balkan wars, and images of bodies hacked apart during the Rwandan genocide. Evil committed by humans against other humans was not a historical aberration. I'm lucky and I certainly acknowledge my privilege. Nothing terrible or horrifying has happened to me — but bad things certainly happen to others. I wasn't bullied or abused. I wasn't raped or beaten or tortured. But you don't have to go through things to be afraid of them, and for your imagination to conjure the possibility of them. My mum doesn't read my fiction now as it gives her nightmares (Sorry, Mum!). I know she worries that somehow she's responsible for my darkness, but I've had a safe and (mostly) happy life, for which I'm truly grateful. But the world is not an entirely safe and happy place, and for a sensitive child with a vivid imagination, the world is dark and scary. It can be brutal and violent, and bad things happen, even to good people. No parent can shield their child from the reality of the world. They can only help them do their best to live in it, develop resilience, and find ways to deal with whatever comes. Story has always been a way that humans have used to learn how to live and deal with difficult times. The best authors, the ones that readers adore and can't get enough of, write their darkness into story to channel their experience, and help others who fear the same. In an interview on writing the Shadow on The Creative Penn Podcast, Michaelbrent Collings shared how he incorporated a personally devastating experience into his writing:  “My wife and I lost a child years back, and that became the root of one of my most terrifying books, Apparition. It's not terrifying because it's the greatest book of all time, but just the concept that there's this thing out there… like a demon, and it consumes the blood and fear of the children, and then it withdraws and consumes the madness of the parents… I wrote that in large measure as a way of working through what I was experiencing.” I've learned much from Michaelbrent. I've read many of his (excellent) books and he's been on my podcast multiple times talking about his depression and mental health issues, as well as difficulties in his author career. Writing darkness is not in Michaelbrent's Shadow and only he can say what lies there for him. But from his example, and from that of other authors, I too learned how to write my Shadow into my books. Twenty-three years after that English lesson, in November 2009, I did NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, and wrote five thousand words of what eventually became Stone of Fire, my first novel. In the initial chapter, I burned a nun alive on the ghats of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges River. I had watched the bodies burn by night on pyres from a boat bobbing in the current a few years before, and the image was still crystal clear in my mind. The only way to deal with how it made me feel about death was to write about it — and since then, I've never stopped writing. Returning to the nightmare from my school days, I've never had to choose between the two halves of my family, but the threat of losing them remains a theme in my fiction. In my ARKANE thriller series, Morgan Sierra will do anything to save her sister and her niece. Their safety drives her to continue to fight against evil. Our deepest fears emerge in our writing, and that's the safest place for them. I wish I'd been taught how to turn my nightmares into words back at school, but at least now I've learned to write my Shadow onto the page. I wish the same for you. The Shadow in traditional publishing If becoming an author is your dream, then publishing a book is deeply entwined with that. But as Mark Pierce says in The Creative Wound, “We feel pain the most where it matters the most… Desire highlights whatever we consider to be truly significant.” There is a lot of desire around publishing for those of us who love books! It can give you: Validation that your writing is good enough Status and credibility Acceptance by an industry held in esteem  The potential of financial reward and critical acclaim Support from a team of professionals who know how to make fantastic books A sense of belonging to an elite community Pride in achieving a long-held goal, resulting in a confidence boost and self-esteem Although not guaranteed, traditional publishing can give you all these things and more, but as with everything, there is a potential Shadow side. Denying it risks the potential of being disillusioned, disappointed, and even damaged. But remember, forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. Preparation can help you avoid potential issues and help you feel less alone if you encounter them. The myth of success… and the reality of experience There is a pervasive myth of success in the traditional publishing industry, perpetuated by media reporting on brand name and breakout authors, those few outliers whose experience is almost impossible to replicate. Because of such examples, many new traditionally published authors think that their first book will hit the top of the bestseller charts or win an award, as well as make them a million dollars — or at least a big chunk of cash. They will be able to leave their job, write in a beautiful house overlooking the ocean, and swan around the world attending conferences, while writing more bestselling books. It will be a charmed life. But that is not the reality. Perhaps it never was. Even so, the life of a traditionally published author represents a mythic career with the truth hidden behind a veil of obscurity. In April 2023, The Bookseller in the UK reported that “more than half of authors (54%) responding to a survey on their experiences of publishing their debut book have said the process negatively affected their mental health. Though views were mixed, just 22%… described a positive experience overall… Among the majority who said they had a negative experience of debut publication, anxiety, stress, depression and ‘lowered' self-esteem were cited, with lack of support, guidance or clear and professional communication from their publisher among the factors that contributed.” Many authors who have negative experiences around publishing will push them into the Shadow with denial or self-blame, preferring to keep the dream alive. They won't talk about things in public as this may negatively affect their careers, but private discussions are often held in the corners of writing conferences or social media groups online. Some of the issues are as follows: Repeated rejection by agents and publishers may lead to the author thinking they are not good enough as a writer, which can lead to feeling unworthy as a person. If an author gets a deal, the amount of advance and the name and status of the publisher compared to others create a hierarchy that impacts self-esteem. A deal for a book may be much lower than an author might have been expecting, with low or no advance, and the resulting experience with the publisher beneath expectations. The launch process may be disappointing, and the book may appear without fanfare, with few sales and no bestseller chart position. In The Bookseller report, one author described her launch day as “a total wasteland… You have expectations about what publication day will be like, but in reality, nothing really happens.” The book may receive negative reviews by critics or readers or more publicly on social media, which can make an author feel attacked. The book might not sell as well as expected, and the author may feel like it's their fault. Commercial success can sometimes feel tied to self-worth and an author can't help but compare their sales to others, with resulting embarrassment or shame. The communication from the publisher may be less than expected. One author in The Bookseller report said, “I was shocked by the lack of clarity and shared information and the cynicism that underlies the superficial charm of this industry.” There is often more of a focus on debut authors in publishing houses, so those who have been writing and publishing in the midlist for years can feel ignored and undervalued. In The Bookseller report, 48 percent of authors reported “their publisher supported them for less than a year,” with one saying, “I got no support and felt like a commodity, like the team had moved on completely to the next book.” If an author is not successful enough, the next deal may be lower than the last, less effort is made with marketing, and they may be let go. In The Bookseller report, “six authors—debut and otherwise—cited being dropped by their publisher, some with no explanation.” Even if everything goes well and an author is considered successful by others, they may experience imposter syndrome, feeling like a fraud when speaking at conferences or doing book signings. And the list goes on … All these things can lead to feelings of shame, inadequacy, and embarrassment; loss of status in the eyes of peers; and a sense of failure if a publishing career is not successful enough. The author feels like it's their fault, like they weren't good enough — although, of course, the reality is that the conditions were not right at the time. A failure of a book is not a failure of the person, but it can certainly feel like it! When you acknowledge the Shadow, it loses its power Despite all the potential negatives of traditional publishing, if you know what could happen, you can mitigate them. You can prepare yourself for various scenarios and protect yourself from potential fall-out. It's clear from The Bookseller report that too many authors have unrealistic expectations of the industry. But publishers are businesses, not charities. It's not their job to make you feel good as an author. It's their job to sell books and pay you. The best thing they can do is to continue to be a viable business so they can keep putting books on the shelves and keep paying authors, staff, and company shareholders. When you license your creative work to a publisher, you're giving up control of your intellectual property in exchange for money and status. Bring your fears and issues out of the Shadow, acknowledge them, and deal with them early, so they do not get pushed down and re-emerge later in blame and bitterness. Educate yourself on the business of publishing. Be clear on what you want to achieve with any deal. Empower yourself as an author, take responsibility for your career, and you will have a much better experience. The Shadow in self-publishing or being an indie author Self-publishing, or being an independent (indie) author, can be a fantastic, pro-active choice for getting your book into the world. Holding your first book in your hand and saying “I made this” is pretty exciting, and even after more than forty books, I still get excited about seeing ideas in my head turn into a physical product in the world. Self-publishing can give an author: Creative control over what to write, editorial and cover design choices, when and how often to publish, and how to market Empowerment over your author career and the ability to make choices that impact success without asking for permission Ownership and control of intellectual property assets, resulting in increased opportunity around licensing and new markets Independence and the potential for recurring income for the long term Autonomy and flexibility around timelines, publishing options, and the ability to easily pivot into new genres and business models Validation based on positive reader reviews and money earned Personal growth and learning through the acquisition of new skills, resulting in a boost in confidence and self-esteem A sense of belonging to an active and vibrant community of indie authors around the world Being an indie author can give you all this and more, but once again, there is a Shadow side and preparation can help you navigate potential issues. The myth of success… and the reality of experience As with traditional publishing, the indie author world has perpetuated a myth of success in the example of the breakout indie author like E.L. James with Fifty Shades of Grey, Hugh Howey with Wool, or Andy Weir with The Martian. The emphasis on financial success is also fuelled online by authors who share screenshots showing six-figure months or seven-figure years, without sharing marketing costs and other outgoings, or the amount of time spent on the business. Yes, these can inspire some, but it can also make others feel inadequate and potentially lead to bad choices about how to publish and market based on comparison. The indie author world is full of just as much ego and a desire for status and money as traditional publishing. This is not a surprise! Most authors, regardless of publishing choices, are a mix of massive ego and chronic self-doubt. We are human, so the same issues will re-occur. A different publishing method doesn't cure all ills. Some of the issues are as follows: You learn everything you need to know about writing and editing, only to find that you need to learn a whole new set of skills in order to self-publish and market your book. This can take a lot of time and effort you did not expect, and things change all the time so you have to keep learning. Being in control of every aspect of the publishing process, from writing to cover design to marketing, can be overwhelming, leading to indecision, perfectionism, stress, and even burnout as you try to do all the things. You try to find people to help, but building your team is a challenge, and working with others has its own difficulties. People say negative things about self-publishing that may arouse feelings of embarrassment or shame. These might be little niggles, but they needle you, nonetheless. You wonder whether you made the right choice. You struggle with self-doubt and if you go to an event with traditional published authors, you compare yourself to them and feel like an imposter. Are you good enough to be an author if a traditional publisher hasn't chosen you? Is it just vanity to self-publish? Are your books unworthy? Even though you worked with a professional editor, you still get one-star reviews and you hate criticism from readers. You wonder whether you're wasting your time. You might be ripped off by an author services company who promise the world, only to leave you with a pile of printed books in your garage and no way to sell them. When you finally publish your book, it languishes at the bottom of the charts while other authors hit the top of the list over and over, raking in the cash while you are left out of pocket. You don't admit to over-spending on marketing as it makes you ashamed. You resist book marketing and make critical comments about writers who embrace it. You believe that quality rises to the top and if a book is good enough, people will buy it anyway. This can lead to disappointment and disillusionment when you launch your book and it doesn't sell many copies because nobody knows about it. You try to do what everyone advises, but you still can't make decent money as an author. You're jealous of other authors' success and put it down to them ‘selling out' or writing things you can't or ‘using AI' or ‘using a ghostwriter' or having a specific business model you consider impossible to replicate. And the list goes on… When you acknowledge the Shadow, it loses its power Being in control of your books and your author career is a double-edged sword. Traditionally published authors can criticise their publishers or agents or the marketing team or the bookstores or the media, but indie authors have to take responsibility for it all. Sure, we can blame ‘the algorithms' or social media platforms, or criticise other authors for having more experience or more money to invest in marketing, or attribute their success to writing in a more popular genre — but we also know there are always people who do well regardless of the challenges. Once more, we're back to acknowledging and integrating the Shadow side of our choices. We are flawed humans. There will always be good times and bad, and difficulties to offset the high points. This too shall pass, as the old saying goes. I know that being an indie author has plenty of Shadow. I've been doing this since 2008 and despite the hard times, I'm still here. I'm still writing. I'm still publishing. This life is not for everyone, but it's my choice. You must make yours. The Shadow in work You work hard. You make a living. Nothing wrong with that attitude, right? It's what we're taught from an early age and, like so much of life, it's not a problem until it goes to extremes. Not achieving what you want to? Work harder. Can't get ahead? Work harder. Not making a good enough living? Work harder. People who don't work hard are lazy. They don't deserve handouts or benefits. People who don't work hard aren't useful, so they are not valued members of our culture and community. But what about the old or the sick, the mentally ill, or those with disabilities? What about children? What about the unemployed? The under-employed? What about those who are — or will be — displaced by technology, those called “the useless class” by historian Yuval Noah Harari in his book Homo Deus? What if we become one of these in the future? Who am I if I cannot work? The Shadow side of my attitude to work became clear when I caught COVID in the summer of 2021. I was the sickest I'd ever been. I spent two weeks in bed unable to even think properly, and six weeks after that, I was barely able to work more than an hour a day before lying in the dark and waiting for my energy to return. I was limited in what I could do for another six months after that. At times, I wondered if I would ever get better. Jonathan kept urging me to be patient and rest. But I don't know how to rest. I know how to work and how to sleep. I can do ‘active rest,' which usually involves walking a long way or traveling somewhere interesting, but those require a stronger mind and body than I had during those months. It struck me that even if I recovered from the virus, I had glimpsed my future self. One day, I will be weak in body and mind. If I'm lucky, that will be many years away and hopefully for a short time before I die — but it will happen. I am an animal. I will die. My body and mind will pass on and I will be no more. Before then I will be weak. Before then, I will be useless. Before then, I will be a burden. I will not be able to work… But who am I if I cannot work? What is the point of me? I can't answer these questions right now, because although I recognise them as part of my Shadow, I've not progressed far enough to have dealt with them entirely. My months of COVID gave me some much-needed empathy for those who cannot work, even if they want to. We need to reframe what work is as a society, and value humans for different things, especially as technology changes what work even means. That starts with each of us. “Illness, affliction of body and soul, can be life-altering. It has the potential to reveal the most fundamental conflict of the human condition: the tension between our infinite, glorious dreams and desires and our limited, vulnerable, decaying physicality.” —Connie Zweig, The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul The Shadow in money In the Greek myth, King Midas was a wealthy ruler who loved gold above all else. His palace was adorned with golden sculptures and furniture, and he took immense pleasure in his riches. Yet, despite his vast wealth, he yearned for more. After doing a favour for Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, Midas was granted a single wish. Intoxicated by greed, he wished that everything he touched would turn to gold — and it was so. At first, it was a lot of fun. Midas turned everything else in his palace to gold, even the trees and stones of his estate. After a morning of turning things to gold, he fancied a spot of lunch. But when he tried to eat, the food and drink turned to gold in his mouth. He became thirsty and hungry — and increasingly desperate. As he sat in despair on his golden throne, his beloved young daughter ran to comfort him. For a moment, he forgot his wish — and as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek, she turned into a golden statue, frozen in precious metal. King Midas cried out to the gods to forgive him, to reverse the wish. He renounced his greed and gave away all his wealth, and his daughter was returned to life. The moral of the story: Wealth and greed are bad. In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is described as a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner.” He's wealthy but does not share, considering Christmas spending to be frivolous and giving to charity to be worthless. He's saved by a confrontation with his lonely future and becomes a generous man and benefactor of the poor. Wealth is good if you share it with others. The gospel of Matthew, chapter 25: 14-30, tells the parable of the bags of gold, in which a rich man goes on a journey and entrusts his servants with varying amounts of gold. On his return, the servants who multiplied the gold through their efforts and investments are rewarded, while the one who merely returned the gold with no interest is punished: “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” Making money is good, making more money is even better. If you can't make any money, you don't deserve to have any. Within the same gospel, in Matthew 19:24, Jesus encounters a wealthy man and tells him to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor, which the man is unable to do. Jesus says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Wealth is bad. Give it all away and you'll go to heaven. With all these contradictory messages, no wonder we're so conflicted about money! How do you think and feel about money? While money is mostly tied to our work, it's far more than just a transactional object for most people. It's loaded with complex symbolism and judgment handed down by family, religion, and culture. You are likely to find elements of Shadow by examining your attitudes around money. Consider which of the following statements resonate with you or write your own. Money stresses me out. I don't want to talk about it or think about it. Some people hoard money, so there is inequality. Rich people are bad and we should take away their wealth and give it to the poor.  I can never make enough money to pay the bills, or to give my family what I want to provide. Money doesn't grow on trees.  It's wasteful to spend money as you might need it later, so I'm frugal and don't spend money unless absolutely necessary. It is better and more ethical to be poor than to be rich. I want more money. I read books and watch TV shows about rich people because I want to live like that. Sometimes I spend too much on things for a glimpse of what that might be like.  I buy lottery tickets and dream of winning all that money.  I'm jealous of people who have money. I want more of it and I resent those who have it. I'm no good with money. I don't like to look at my bank statement or credit card statement. I live off my overdraft and I'm in debt. I will never earn enough to get out of debt and start saving, so I don't think too much about it. I don't know enough about money. Talking about it makes me feel stupid, so I just ignore it. People like me aren't educated about money.  I need to make more money. If I can make lots of money, then people will look up to me. If I make lots of money, I will be secure, nothing can touch me, I will be safe.  I never want to be poor. I would be ashamed to be poor. I will never go on benefits. My net worth is my self worth. Money is good. We have the best standard of living in history because of the increase in wealth over time. Even the richest kings of the past didn't have what many middle-class people have today in terms of access to food, water, technology, healthcare, education, and more. The richest people give the most money to the poor through taxation and charity, as well as through building companies that employ people and invent new things. The very richest give away much of their fortunes. They provide far more benefit to the world than the poor.  I love money. Money loves me. Money comes easily and quickly to me. I attract money in multiple streams of income. It flows to me in so many ways. I spend money. I invest money. I give money. I'm happy and grateful for all that I receive. The Shadow around money for authors in particular Many writers and other creatives have issues around money and wealth. How often have you heard the following, and which do you agree with? You can't make money with your writing. You'll be a poor author in a garret, a starving artist.  You can't write ‘good quality' books and make money. If you make money writing, you're a hack, you're selling out. You are less worthy than someone who writes only for the Muse. Your books are commercial, not artistic. If you spend money on marketing, then your books are clearly not good enough to sell on their own. My agent / publisher / accountant / partner deals with the money side. I like to focus on the creative side of things. My money story Note: This is not financial or investment advice. Please talk to a professional about your situation. I've had money issues over the years — haven't we all! But I have been through a (long) process to bring money out of my Shadow and into the light. There will always be more to discover, but hopefully my money story will help you, or at least give you an opportunity to reflect. Like most people, I didn't grow up with a lot of money. My parents started out as teachers, but later my mum — who I lived with, along with my brother — became a change management consultant, moving to the USA and earning a lot more. I'm grateful that she moved into business because her example changed the way I saw money and provided some valuable lessons. (1) You can change your circumstances by learning more and then applying that to leverage opportunity into a new job or career Mum taught English at a school in Bristol when we moved back from Malawi, Africa, in the mid '80s but I remember how stressful it was for her, and how little money she made. She wanted a better future for us all, so she took a year out to do a master's degree in management. In the same way, when I wanted to change careers and leave consulting to become an author, I spent time and money learning about the writing craft and the business of publishing. I still invest a considerable chunk on continuous learning, as this industry changes all the time. (2) You might have to downsize in order to leap forward The year my mum did her degree, we lived in the attic of another family's house; we ate a lot of one-pot casserole and our treat was having a Yorkie bar on the walk back from the museum. We wore hand-me-down clothes, and I remember one day at school when another girl said I was wearing her dress. I denied it, of course, but there in back of the dress was her name tag. I still remember her name and I can still feel that flush of shame and embarrassment. I was determined to never feel like that again. But what I didn't realize at the time was that I was also learning the power of downsizing. Mum got her degree and then a new job in management in Bristol. She bought a house, and we settled for a few years. I had lots of different jobs as a teenager. My favourite was working in the delicatessen because we got a free lunch made from delicious produce. After I finished A-levels, I went to the University of Oxford, and my mum and brother moved to the USA for further opportunities. I've downsized multiple times over the years, taking a step back in order to take a step forward. The biggest was in 2010 when I decided to leave consulting. Jonathan and I sold our three-bedroom house and investments in Brisbane, Australia, and rented a one-bedroom flat in London, so we could be debt-free and live on less while I built up a new career. It was a decade before we bought another house. (3) Comparison can be deadly: there will always be people with more money than you Oxford was an education in many ways and relevant to this chapter is how much I didn't know about things people with money took for granted. I learned about formal hall and wine pairings, and how to make a perfect gin and tonic. I ate smoked salmon for the first time. I learned how to fit in with people who had a lot more money than I did, and I definitely wanted to have money of my own to play with. (4) Income is not wealth You can earn lots but have nothing to show for it after years of working. I learned this in my first few years of IT consulting after university. I earned a great salary and then went contracting, earning even more money at a daily rate. I had a wonderful time. I traveled, ate and drank and generally made merry, but I always had to go back to the day job when the money ran out. I couldn't work out how I could ever stop this cycle. Then I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, a book I still recommend, especially if you're from a family that values academic over financial education. I learned how to escape the rat race by building and/or accumulating assets that pay even when you're not working. It was a revelation! The ‘poor dad' in the book is a university professor. He knows so much about so many things, but he ends up poor as he did not educate himself about money. The ‘rich dad' has little formal education, but he knows about money and wealth because he learned about it, as we can do at any stage in our lives. (5) Not all investments suit every person, so find the right one for you Once I discovered the world of investing, I read all the books and did courses and in-person events. I joined communities and I up-skilled big time. Of course, I made mistakes and learned lots along the way. I tried property investing and renovated a couple of houses for rental (with more practical partners and skilled contractors). But while I could see that property investing might work for some people, I did not care enough about the details to make it work for me, and it was certainly not passive income. I tried other things. My first husband was a boat skipper and scuba diving instructor, so we started a charter. With the variable costs of fuel, the vagaries of New Zealand weather — and our divorce — it didn't last long! From all these experiments, I learned I wanted to run a business, but it needed to be online and not based on a physical location, physical premises, or other people. That was 2006, around the time that blogging started taking off and it became possible to make a living online. I could see the potential and a year later, the iPhone and the Amazon Kindle launched, which became the basis of my business as an author. (6) Boring, automatic saving and investing works best Between 2007 and 2011, I contracted in Australia, where they have compulsory superannuation contributions, meaning you have to save and invest a percentage of your salary or self-employed income. I'd never done that before, because I didn't understand it. I'd ploughed all my excess income into property or the business instead. But in Australia I didn't notice the money going out because it was automatic. I chose a particular fund and it auto-invested every month. The pot grew pretty fast since I didn't touch it, and years later, it's still growing. I discovered the power of compound interest and time in the market, both of which are super boring. This type of investing is not a get rich quick scheme. It's a slow process of automatically putting money into boring investments and doing that month in, month out, year in, year out, automatically for decades while you get on with your life. I still do this. I earn money as an author entrepreneur and I put a percentage of that into boring investments automatically every month. I also have a small amount which is for fun and higher risk investments, but mostly I'm a conservative, risk-averse investor planning ahead for the future. This is not financial advice, so I'm not giving any specifics. I have a list of recommended money books at www.TheCreativePenn.com/moneybooks if you want to learn more. Learning from the Shadow When I look back, my Shadow side around money eventually drove me to learn more and resulted in a better outcome (so far!). I was ashamed of being poor when I had to wear hand-me-down clothes at school. That drove a fear of not having any money, which partially explains my workaholism. I was embarrassed at Oxford because I didn't know how to behave in certain settings, and I wanted to be like the rich people I saw there. I spent too much money in my early years as a consultant because I wanted to experience a “rich” life and didn't understand saving and investing would lead to better things in the future. I invested too much in the wrong things because I didn't know myself well enough and I was trying to get rich quick so I could leave my job and ‘be happy.' But eventually, I discovered that I could grow my net worth with boring, long-term investments while doing a job I loved as an author entrepreneur. My only regret is that I didn't discover this earlier and put a percentage of my income into investments as soon as I started work. It took several decades to get started, but at least I did (eventually) start. My money story isn't over yet, and I keep learning new things, but hopefully my experience will help you reflect on your own and avoid the issue if it's still in Shadow. These chapters are excerpted from Writing the Shadow: Turn Your Inner Darkness Into Words by Joanna Penn  The post Writing The Shadow: The Creative Wound, Publishing, And Money, With Joanna Penn first appeared on The Creative Penn.

The Chicago Bears magical season came to an end last night with a 20-17 overtime loss against the Rams. Where do they go from here? We recap the game and look at the free agent list. Plus, Eric Bienemy is leaving the Bears and returning to the Chiefs for their Offensive Coordinator position.  The Bills have fired Sean McDermott. Is he immediately the most sought-after free agent coach? We dig into the latest coaching carousel. Evan has a College Football National Championship "Etched in Stone" bet that might shock you. And we announce the next category in our Tuesday Drafts.

Tonight on On Trial, Mark Radulich and Jesse Starcher put two divorces in the dock: Danny DeVito's The War of the Roses (1989) vs. Jay Roach's pseudo-remake The Roses (2025). DeVito's film—adapted from Warren Adler's 1981 novel, scripted by Michael J. Leeson and produced by James L. Brooks and Arnon Milchan—reunites Romancing the Stone stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, with DeVito as the couple's lawyer. A pitch-black farce of marital escalation, it cost about $26M and grossed about $160M worldwide. Roach and writer Tony McNamara retool the premise for modern resentment: Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, plus Allison Janney, Kate McKinnon, Andy Samberg, and Ncuti Gatwa, as careers invert and the gloves come off. Released Aug. 29, 2025, it opened around $6.3M domestically and has earned about $15.3M in the U.S./Canada on an estimated $35M budget. We break down what each version keeps, what it softens, and whether satire or therapy-era realism lands harder in 2026Disclaimer: The following may contain offensive language, adult humor, and/or content that some viewers may find offensive – The views and opinions expressed by any one speaker does not explicitly or necessarily reflect or represent those of Mark Radulich or W2M Network.Mark Radulich and his wacky podcast on all the things:https://linktr.ee/markkind76alsohttps://www.teepublic.com/user/radulich-in-broadcasting-networkFB Messenger: Mark Radulich LCSWTiktok: @markradulichtwitter: @MarkRadulichInstagram: markkind76RIBN Album Playlist: https://suno.com/playlist/91d704c9-d1ea-45a0-9ffe-5069497bad59 

The guys discuss a two-story stone structure located in Portland, Oregon's Forest Park, near the junction of the Lower Macleay Trail and the Wildwood Trail…Stone House!!!https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-witches-castle-portland-oregonhttps://portlandghosts.com/the-witchs-castle/https://search.brave.com/search?q=witch+castles+around+the+country&summary=1&conversation=072435da215a426a15f646https://m.youtube.com/shorts/qUx5T-S44To

This week we take a trip to Homestead, Florida and discuss a man named Edward Leedskalnin and his project called the Coral Castle! How did he do it? Did he know something we don't?SponsorMe Undies – MeUndies.com/graveyard (Code: graveyard) Check outCowboy Revolution Apparelhttps://cowboyrevolution.com/?ref=adamgytCode: ADAMGYT  Check out our sources below for more info and to continue learning!Please Rate & Review us wherever you get your Podcasts! Mail us something: GYT PodcastPO Box 542762Grand Prairie, TX 75054Leave us a Voicemail or shoot us a text!430-558-1304Our WebsiteWWW.GraveYardPodcast.comPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/GraveYardTalesYoutube: Youtube.com/c/GraveYardTalesRumble – GraveYard Tales PodcastDo you want GraveYard Merch?!?!Go to https://graveyardtales.dashery.com/ to get you some! Thank You Darron for our Logo!! You can get in touch with Darron for artwork by searching Darron DuBose on Facebook or Emailing him at art_injector@yahoo.comThank you to Brandon Adams for our music tracks!! If you want to hear more from Brandon check him out at:Soundcloud.com/brandonadamsjYoutube.com/brandonadams93Or to get in touch with him for compositions email him at Brandon_adams@earthlink.net Our ContactsWWW.GraveYardPodcast.comEmail us at: GraveYardTalesPodcast@gmail.comFind us on social media:X(Twitter): @GrveYrdPodcastFacebook: @GraveYardTalesPodcastInstagram: @GraveYardTalesPodcastSourceshttps://unusualplaces.org/edward-leedskalnin-and-his-coral-palace/https://coralcastle.com/about-ed/https://commons.und.edu/fast-as-eln/index.8.htmlhttps://science2be.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/edward-leedskalnin/https://www.leedskalnin.com/LeedskalninsWritings.htmlhttps://www.scribd.com/doc/55687383/Ed-Leedskalnin-Magnetismhttps://www.leedskalnin.com/https://www.ellipsisrarebooks.com/product/magnetic-current-edward-leedskalnin-1945/https://www.abebooks.com/9781684931798/Collected-Writings-Edward-Leedskalnin-Magnetic-1684931797/plphttps://www.slipperyrockgazette.net/index.cfm/pageId/2014/How%20Was%20the%20Mysterious%20Coral%20Castle%20Built%3F/https://www.livescience.com/41075-coral-castle.htmlhttps://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/overcoming-gravity-enigma-coral-castle-005051https://bittersoutherner.com/coral-castle-a-haunting-monument-to-love-or-aliens-or-limestone-coral-castlehttps://www.livescience.com/41075-coral-castle.htmlhttps://www.slipperyrockgazette.net/index.cfm/pageId/2014/How%20Was%20the%20Mysterious%20Coral%20Castle%20Built%3F/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_LeedskalninLevitating 1000 Tons of Stone? - The Coral Castle (Full Documentary)

Our guy Carson Gourdie from WICS-TV and Fox Illinois joins us to preview Illinois vs Minnesota. Carson has great insight and statistical breakdowns as always. Plus we talk about the Illinois football transfer portal and some of the odd pictures on Carson's Facebook page. Evan went 2-2 last night in Etched in Stone and is over .500 for 2026. Find out which basketball games he likes for tonight. We make our predictions for the NFL Divisional round and are completely split. Who did we pick and who do you agree with? Plus, our big Friday Toasts!

Can you guess how many Super Bowls the Top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL have won? The number might surprise you. Evan has done the research and explains why overpaying a QB won't win a championship. Sean Payton did not like a reporter's question about Dre Greenlaw's return and made that very clear. Was he out of line? Have a listen and judge for yourself. We take a look at the Bears vs Rams injury report, and if the weather makes a difference this Sunday night. Plus FOUR bets from Evan in "Etched in Stone."

Featured playlist: The Church (That Meets in My Home) — https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5Yobt1jZDd9Zzn8Ufa-BNciyYv04Cl6mMy books:Exalted: Putting Jesus in His Place — https://www.amazon.com/Exalted-Putting-Jesus-His-Place/dp/0985118709/ref=tmm_pap_title_0God's Design for Marriage (Married Edition) — https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Design-Marriage-Married-Amazing/dp/0998786306/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493422125&sr=1-4&keywords=god%27s+design+for+marriageGod's Design for Marriage (Pre-married Edition) — https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Design-Marriage-What-Before/dp/0985118725/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_topSupport us - become a CTC Partner: https://crosstocrown.org/partners/crosstocrown.org@DougGoodin

If you want your body to stay healthy, you must learn to get the bad stuff out and keep the good stuff in. Eddie Stone is helping people do exactly that through their healthy supplements at Touchstone Essentials. He joins Zach Gurick to share how he leads the charge in making pure, clean, and whole food nutrition easily accessible through their organic products, allowing people to live vibrant lives inside out. Eddie also breaks down different biomarkers to monitor and daily activities you can do to further boost the effect of your healthy supplements.The information presented in Fully Alive is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before making changes to your health regimen. Guests' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the podcast host, production team, or sponsors.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, & share! https://www.shellpoint.org/podcast/

Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Chris Welsh joins the Stone Shields Show for an exclusive interview. Stone and Chris dive into the Reds' offseason moves so far, expectations for the 2026 season, and Welsh's early impressions of Terry Francona in year one at the helm. Plus, Chris shares his favorite George Grande story and plenty more insight from inside the broadcast booth. A must-listen for Reds fans.   Go to https://www.OmahaSteaks.com to get 50% off sitewide during their End of Season Sale. And use promo code CHATTERBOX at checkout for an extra $35 off. Minimum purchase may apply. Thanks to Omaha Steaks for sponsoring us!   Today's Episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lKOzWExJBQ      OTHER CHATTERBOX PROGRAMING:   Chatterbox Bengals: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chatterbox-bengals-a-cincinnati-bengals-nfl-podcast/id1652732141  Chatterbox Bearcats: https://chatterboxbearcats.podbean.com/  The Stone Shields Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/west-4th-and-long/id1828384424  Off The Bench: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/off-the-bench-by-chatterbox-sports/id1643010062  The Flyin Lion (FC Cincinnati): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-flyin-lion-fc-cincinnati-podcast/id1701368522  513 Golf: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjPJjEFaBD7VUSfdVvGjbr1_CmCepLWpr    DSC Commodities: https://deepsouthcommodities.com/  CALL OR TEXT 988 FOR HELP DAY OR NIGHT: https://mantherapy.org

Send us a textIn today's episode, I'm chatting with Amanda Wen. Amanda Wen's novels have released to both reader and critical acclaim. Her second novel, The Songs That Could Have Been, won both the Selah and the Carol Awards, and her debut, Roots of Wood and Stone, was a finalist for the Christy Award. In addition to her writing, Amanda is an accomplished professional cellist and pianist who frequently performs with orchestras, chamber groups, and her church's worship team, as well as serving as a choral accompanist. A lifelong denizen of the flatlands, Amanda currently lives in Kansas with her patient, loving, and hilarious husband, their three adorable Wenlets, and a snuggly Siamese cat. Today we are here today to discuss her latest novel, Echoes of a Silent Song.Episode Highlights:Life in the flatlands of the Midwest and how place shapes story.The setting and inspiration behind the next book in her Melodies and Memories duology.Balancing full-time creative work as a musician, writer, wife, and mom.How Amanda realistically fits writing into a very full life.Why kids are often unintentionally funnier than adults.The way music and writing inform and strengthen each other.Research fears, perfectionism, and the pressure of getting details right.A deeper look at Echoes of a Silent Song and the heart behind the story.Amanda also shares a book flight featuring novels about musicians across different genres of music—perfect for readers who love stories where art and storytelling intertwine.Connect with Amanda:InstagramFacebookWebsiteShow NotesSome links are affiliate links, which are no extra cost to you but do help to support the show.Books and authors mentioned in the episode:O Little Town by Amanda Wen, Janyre Tromp, Deborah RaneyMy Friends by Fredrik BackmanThe 2026 Bookish Flights Reading Challenge is here - a simple, nostalgic way to be intentional with your reading. One book per month, with options for individuals and families. Download it at https://www.bookishflights.com/read/2026readingchallengeSpeculative Fiction Writing Made Simple: Write, Edit, and Publish Your Debut NovelMost writing podcasts just inspire. This one teaches the craft skills that hook readers.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the showBe sure to join the Bookish Flights community on social media. Happy listening! Instagram Facebook Website

A commuter service for older and disabled Vermonters may see some service changes, Montpelier residents will choose a new mayor in March and a Vermont stone carver works to keep the tradition alive through mentorship.

On this episode we crack a bottle of Hook or By Crooke by W.D. O'Connell as we chat about our sort of winter, Sheboygan WI, Nick's winter flops, HDT NDT and HGTV, Driving Mr Waldrep, the first independently bottled Powerscourt, Irish Whiskey DNA, not being afraid to be experimental, we've got to trust the bottler, AirBNB versus Hotel, negative hotel experiences, a place to lay your head, unpacking in a hotel room, the moral issue of AirBNB, Florence Italy or Alabama, pulling the sketchy alarm cord, where at least I've got AC, a Drep and Stone approved bottling, and making a ton of people really happy. Support Us On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrepandStone We'd love to hear from you! https://linktr.ee/DrepandStone Don't forget to subscribe! Music by @joakimkarudmusic Episode #329

Have you ever heard of Lake Natron? It’s located in Tanzania, Africa, and, if you believe the internet, it can instantly petrify anything that touches it. Lucky for us, we have a direct line to the Hoax Hunters (aka Sanden and Marc) - they love myths, and they hate getting tricked. Along the way to saying yea or nay to this stoney phenomenon, the Hoax Hunters speak with Neovitus Sianga. Not only does he have firsthand knowledge of the lake, but he works for African People and Wildlife, where he helps protect the environment around Lake Natron. We also have a brand new Mystery Sound… and Marc and Sanden start a cleaning service?!? Guest: Neovitus Sianga Want to support Brains On and all of the shows in the Brains On Universe? Sign up for Smarty Pass. You'll get ad-free episodes of all our shows, bonus content, virtual hangouts, discounts on merch and more! Click here for a transcript of this episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sail north with Gone Medieval to Orkney's storm-lashed islands, where saints, shipwrecks, blood-feuds and tax disputes all unfold in the Sagas of the Earls of Orkney. Dr Eleanor Janega is joined by Professor Judith Jesch to explore Saint Magnus, turf-cutting Viking Earls, miracle-working dice games, and how a new translation reshapes this Norse world for modern readers.MOREScotland's Stone of SconeListen on AppleListen on SpotifyViking Warrior WomenListen on AppleListen on SpotifyGone Medieval is presented by Dr. Eleanor Janega. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producers are Rob Weinberg and Amy Haddow. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Breaking news: The Steelers and Mike Tomlin have parted ways after 19 years. Where will he go next and who will be the Steelers 4th Head Coach in franchise history? How about Curt Cignetti? Another Cardinals star is on the move. St. Louis traded Nolan Arenado to the Arizona Diamondbacks for right handed pitcher Jack Martinez. Jeremiah Cox covers the Redbirds and joins us to discuss the move. Plus, Etched in Stone is on fire! Get tonight's bet from Evan.

It was today in history in 1404 that Henry IV issued the Act Against Multipliers, a ban on the mysterious art of creating or duplicating gold, more commonly known as alchemy. It came at an odd time for European science because the widespread efforts to transform so-called base metals, such as lead or copper, into noble metals, such as silver or gold, while futile, actually aided the discovery of things like combustion and gunpowder. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discuss the connection between the science of multiplying metals and religion; explain why the Ancient Greek notion of the four elements – fire, earth, air, and water – was so resilient; and reveal why plenty of people before Harry Potter were interested in the Philosopher's Stone… Further Reading: • ‘When Chemistry Was Outlawed' (Vice, 2015): https://www.vice.com/en/article/3dk7mj/when-chemistry-was-outlawed • ‘The Day England Outlawed Alchemy' (Forbes, 2018): https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2018/01/13/the-day-england-outlawed-alchemy/?sh=11c1170539bd • ‘How Alchemy Led to Modern-Day Chemistry & Medicine' (SciShow, 2022):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maQ_Gd7TapI #1400s #UK #Science This episode first aired in 2023 Love the show? Support us!  Join 

True faith in Jesus is transformational and cannot be hidden. It's more than a simple prayer or one-time decision—it's a life built on the solid foundation of Christ. When genuine faith takes root, it shows in how you live, speak, and respond to challenges. Real faith is tested not on Sunday mornings, but when bills pile up, relationships crumble, or health crises hit. You can't build a lasting Christian life on borrowed beliefs or secondhand knowledge. Eventually, you need to know what you believe and why you believe it through personal Bible study, small groups, and learning from mature believers.

In today's episode, I make a stop at one of my favorite neighborhood spots, Millwood Grocery and Spirits, talk about why local convenience stores matter, and somehow turn a routine car wash into its own little adventure. I also share a parenting moment that came out of watching the Golden Globes, which turns into a bigger conversation about kids, pop culture, and the stuff we grew up on.I also shout out a couple podcasts close to my heart—Disney Junkie, where we're diving into Sword in the Stone, and Super Nineties Brothers, where we keep reliving the movies that shaped us. A little Spokane, a little nostalgia, and a few reminders to enjoy the small moments along the way. Peace.Show Flow00:00 Spokane Thing: Convenience Stores03:16 Queen Latifah or Dakota Fanning?06:00 Studio Thing: Disney Junkie Podcast08:03 Car Wash Adventures12:24 Pop Culture Thing: Super 90's Brothers20:57 Peace

The Scale Test: Is Your Business Built Like Straw, Sticks, or Stone?What would actually happen if your business doubled or tripled overnight?Would it hold… or would it crack?In this episode, we're using a childhood classic, The Three Little Pigs, as a diagnostic tool to evaluate the true scalability of your business. It's a simple framework that reveals, fast, whether your systems, team, delivery model, and operations are built to withstand growth or whether the “big bad wolf” of demand would blow everything down.Most founders assume they're ready for growth until they imagine scaling without changing anything. Then they see the truth:Some parts of the business are made of straw.Some are made of sticks.And a few, if they're lucky, are built of stone.This episode will help you spot the difference and understand exactly what needs to evolve so your business can scale sustainably instead of stressfully.In This Episode You'll Learn:The telltale signs your systems are “made of straw” and would collapse under rapid growthWhy “shortcuts for now” turn into major problems laterWhat it really takes to build a business made of stone that can support long-term scalabilityNext Steps:If you're listening to this and you're tired of guessing your way to the next level, I created a roadmap that shows you exactly how to scale to consistent hundred-thousand-dollar months with more freedom and far less stress.This is the operating system behind sustainable growth, the same structure I teach my clients to help them step out of the weeds and actually enjoy their business again.If you want it, DM me “ROADMAP” on Instagram and I'll send it to you.Explore more to help you build unshakable:Check out free trainings and tools hereConnect with Kathryn on InstagramWhere we can Connect:Follow the Podcast Follow The Unshakable Company on InstagramFollow The Unshakable Company on FacebookEnjoying the Podcast?Are you following Building Unshakable? If not, I'd love for you to follow today so you don't miss any future episodes. I have so many powerful topics coming your way—and I don't want you to miss a single one.Click here to follow on Apple Podcasts.Loving the show? I'd be so grateful if you'd leave a rating and review. I read every one—and your feedback helps more business owners like you discover the podcast.How to leave a review:Click here to open the showScroll to “Ratings and Reviews”Tap ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Tap “Write a Review” and share what you're enjoyingIt's simple, quick, and so appreciated.

Kimberly Tarlton is the Co-Founder & CEO of Story & Stone, a creative strategist, communications consultant, and a church girl at heart with over 28 years of experience helping ministries grow their impact—online and in-person.Kim's expertise spans digital, print, and live, leading church teams with a mix of creative spark and practical know-how. Her integrated marketing work has helped churches increase engagement, clarify their messaging, and confidently reach new guests.She's known for leading cross-functional teams with heart and humor—and always with an eye on the metrics. A certified Working Genius Facilitator, a triple-certified HubSpot pro in Social Media, Content, and Email Marketing, and a sought-after speaker for conferences and podcasts on topics like church communications, guest strategy, and ministry development.Kimberly and Dale discuss the importance of mission clarity as the foundation of your communications efforts in today's 95Podcast. Their conversation is filled with leadership nuggets to help you create an effective communication environment within your ministry.Show Notes: https://95network.org/creating-effective-communication-within-your-ministry-w-kimberly-tarlton-episode-320/Support the show

Stone carver Heather Milne Ritchie is mentoring a new generation of women artists at her central Vermont studio.

Don't call it a Podcast! This show plays dirty. Eric, Brad and Danny are joined by Pop Culture podcaster and enthusiast Fanacek and Movie Critic Robert Baum to discuss the 1973 Michael Winner directed Stone Killer!!!

This week on Disney Dish, Jim Hill is joined by mind reader and showman Chris Cox, who steps in for Len Testa and immediately finds himself in the middle of some very Disney-sized mishaps. From a runaway Indiana Jones boulder at Disney's Hollywood Studios to the surprisingly fragile roof of Sleeping Beauty Castle, the conversation explores what happens when iconic park moments go just a little too far. Along the way, Jim and Chris dig into forgotten ceremonies, cutback entertainment, and the Imagineering decisions that quietly shaped Disneyland over the decades. NEWS • A 400-pound boulder goes off track during a performance of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and what that means for show safety going forward • The temporary removal of the iconic boulder scene and why Disney is famously cautious after incidents like this • The Atlantic Dance Hall at Disney's BoardWalk cuts back to a three-night schedule and what that signals about nightlife at the resort • Listener mail on working New Year's Eve at Disney parks and why January 1 might secretly be the best day to visit FEATURE • The long and surprisingly complicated history of the Sword in the Stone ceremony and how it really worked behind the scenes • How Imagineer Kim Irvine subtly transformed Sleeping Beauty Castle over four decades without sparking guest outrage • Why holiday overlays and anniversary bling eventually caused serious structural damage to the castle roof • The 60th anniversary decorations that led to a six-figure repair and a full castle roof replacement HOSTS • Jim Hill - IG: @JimHillMedia | X: @JimHillMedia | Website: JimHillMedia.com • Chris Cox - IG: @magiccox | X: @bigcox | Website: magiccox.com FOLLOW • Facebook: JimHillMediaNews • Instagram: JimHillMedia • TikTok: JimHillMedia SUPPORT Support the show and access bonus episodes and additional content at Patreon.com/JimHillMedia. PRODUCTION CREDITS Edited by Dave Grey Produced by Eric Hersey - Strong Minded Agency If you would like to sponsor a show on the Jim Hill Media Podcast Network, reach out today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Disney Dish, Jim Hill is joined by mind reader and showman Chris Cox, who steps in for Len Testa and immediately finds himself in the middle of some very Disney-sized mishaps. From a runaway Indiana Jones boulder at Disney's Hollywood Studios to the surprisingly fragile roof of Sleeping Beauty Castle, the conversation explores what happens when iconic park moments go just a little too far. Along the way, Jim and Chris dig into forgotten ceremonies, cutback entertainment, and the Imagineering decisions that quietly shaped Disneyland over the decades. NEWS • A 400-pound boulder goes off track during a performance of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and what that means for show safety going forward • The temporary removal of the iconic boulder scene and why Disney is famously cautious after incidents like this • The Atlantic Dance Hall at Disney's BoardWalk cuts back to a three-night schedule and what that signals about nightlife at the resort • Listener mail on working New Year's Eve at Disney parks and why January 1 might secretly be the best day to visit FEATURE • The long and surprisingly complicated history of the Sword in the Stone ceremony and how it really worked behind the scenes • How Imagineer Kim Irvine subtly transformed Sleeping Beauty Castle over four decades without sparking guest outrage • Why holiday overlays and anniversary bling eventually caused serious structural damage to the castle roof • The 60th anniversary decorations that led to a six-figure repair and a full castle roof replacement HOSTS • Jim Hill - IG: @JimHillMedia | X: @JimHillMedia | Website: JimHillMedia.com • Chris Cox - IG: @magiccox | X: @bigcox | Website: magiccox.com FOLLOW • Facebook: JimHillMediaNews • Instagram: JimHillMedia • TikTok: JimHillMedia SUPPORT Support the show and access bonus episodes and additional content at Patreon.com/JimHillMedia. PRODUCTION CREDITS Edited by Dave Grey Produced by Eric Hersey - Strong Minded Agency If you would like to sponsor a show on the Jim Hill Media Podcast Network, reach out today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this return appearance on the podcast, demographer Lyman Stone joins Aaron Renn to discuss the latest global fertility and marriage trends as of 2026. While U.S. birth rates and marriage rates have shown relative stability at low levels, the picture elsewhere is far bleaker—sharp declines in East Asia and Eastern Europe, with South Korea hitting historic lows.They explore the long-term consequences: aging societies, loss of dynamism, military vulnerabilities, and whether the United States could emerge as demographic "last man standing" in a world of collapsing birth rates. The conversation covers housing affordability, young men's declining economic prospects, marriage penalties in public policy, ineffective pronatalist interventions, and why cash incentives do work—but at a steep price. Stone also critiques "billionaire baby fetishes," calls for fixing marriage disincentives, and highlights practical ideas like family-friendly airports and better child tax credit design.CHAPTERS(00:00 – Introduction)(00:25 – What's changed in fertility/marriage trends recently?)(02:19 – U.S. stability vs. global plunges (Eastern Europe, East Asia))(04:05 – Underlying drivers aren't reversing: gender polarization, young men's economic status, housing)(07:18 – Long-term implications: from military staffing crises to loss of community dynamism)(09:51 – Why declining population feels bad even when GDP rises)(13:48 – Aging societies, boomer interests, and anti-family tax policies)(17:49 – Do cash incentives work? Yes—but expensive)(21:30 – Immigration and AI as supposed fixes (and why they fall short))(23:41 – America as potential “last man standing” in a century)(27:12 – Rising elite fertility and the K-shaped economy's impact on family formation)(35:51 – Economic shifts delaying peak earnings and complicating mate selection)(38:05 – Pronatalism: intact families matter, fixing marriage penalties, child tax credit reform)(46:12 – Corporate interests, stay-at-home parents, and policy failures)(49:43 – Critique of billionaire “sperm spamming” and surrogacy tourism)LYMAN STONE LINKS:

280. Implementing the ONE Lifestyle Change that Improves All Aspects of Health with Sue Becker   Isaiah 61:1 AMP “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed and commissioned me To bring good news to the humble and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up [the wounds of] the brokenhearted, To proclaim release [from confinement and condemnation] to the [physical and spiritual] captives And freedom to prisoners,”   *Transcription Below*   Sue Becker is a gifted speaker and teacher, with a passion to share principles of healthy living in an encouraging way.  She is the co-owner of The Bread Beckers and founder of the ministry, Real Bread Outreach, all dedicated to promoting whole grain nutrition. Sue has a degree in Food Science from UGA and is the author of The Essential Home Ground Flour Book. Sue is a veteran home-schooling mom with 9 children and 13 grandchildren. She and her husband Brad, live in Canton, GA. Through her teaching, countless families have found improved health.   Sue's Instagram: @suebreadbeckers Sue's Website Sue's Podcast   Questions and Topics We Cover: You've supplied us with the knowledge, so now let's move on to the wisdom, which is learning how to apply what we now know. What equipment and grain do we need to get started so that this is possible to incorporate into our lifestyle? Once we mill the grain, how long do we have to use it before it loses its nutritional benefits? How long does it typically take to experience benefits from this lifestyle change and what health benefits can we expect to experience?   Related Episodes from The Savvy Sauce: 14 Simple Changes for Healthier Living with Leslie Sexton and Vasu Thorpe 26 Practical Tips to Eating Dinner Together as a Family with Blogger and Cookbook Co-Author, Rachel Tiemeyer 33 Pursuing Health with Functional Medicine Specialist, Dr. Jill Carnahan 129 Healthy Living with Dr. Tonya Khouri 205 Power of Movement with Alisa Keeton (Revelation Wellness) 212 School Series: Benefits of Homeschooling with Jodi Mockabee 256 Gut Health, Allergies, Inflammation and Proactive Solutions with Emily Macleod-Wolfe 261 Edible Theology with Kendall Vanderslice 270 Female Sex Hormones, Periods, and Perimenopause with Emily Macleod-Wolfe 275 Raising Healthy Kids: Free Tips with Emily Johnson   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:11)   Laura Dugger: (0:12 - 1:45) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   Thank you to the Sue Neihouser Team for sponsoring this episode.   If you're looking to buy or sell a home this season, make sure you reach out to Sue at 309-229-8831. Sue would love to walk alongside you as you unlock new doors.   I'm thrilled to get to be back with Sue Becker as my guest today. Make sure you go back and listen to part one, which we recorded last week. She was incredible explaining the one nutritional difference that will change everything. And now today, we're going to learn all of the practicals of how to actually implement this into our lifestyle.   Here's our chat. Welcome back to The Savvy Sauce, Sue.   Sue Becker: (1:45 - 1:46) Thank you. It's so good to be with you again. I can't wait to share even more.   Laura Dugger: (1:46 - 1:52) Well, last time you shared just incredible testimonies of the powerful difference that one nutritional change can make. And you root everything even back in the Bible, and God has really led you on this journey. So biblical passages about bread or grain or wheat appear hundreds of times throughout the Bible. But do you have any specific ones that come to mind that God has highlighted in your own life?   Sue Becker: (1:53 - 11:48) Yes, for sure. Shortly after, you know, I think I mentioned there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death. And we don't necessarily relate that to bread, but it certainly does describe what happened, you know, when the steel rolling mills displaced the local miller.   And then one, another one is Proverbs 23, verses 1 through 3, I think somewhere thereabouts. You know, white bread has always been around. The wealthy, the royalty, they wanted fluffier bread and they found a way.   And they knew that they could make these sieves, if you would, out of reeds, and they would sift the bran and germ out to produce fluffier bread. But only the wealthy could afford that. Two reasons.   Only the wealthy could afford servants or slaves or bakers, you know, to bake their bread for them. That was the royalty. But then also the poor people, when they sift the bran and germ away, they lose about 25% of the flour.   So, for 100 bag of grain or, you know, 100 pounds of grain, you are going to end up with 75 pounds of flour, 25 pounds of bran and germ. They couldn't give that up. You know, they couldn't just throw away, discard that food source.   So, they ate what was called dirty bread or peasant bread or whatever that we now pay extra money to get back to. But, you know, when I started milling and I read Proverbs 23 in a different light, because what happened with the steel rolling mills, when the white flour came on the scene for the first time in the history of the world, which you won't read about this in a history book, white bread, white flour became food for rich and poor alike. And that's why we began to see sickness and disease.   The wealthy had it. And, you know, the royalty had it. But Proverbs 23 says, “Be careful when you sit down to the king's table. Do not crave his dainties and his delicacies.” And I always thought that might be things like, you know, squid or, you know, eyeballs or foods that caviar, you know, things that we couldn't afford. But dainties and delicacies to me now describes white flour, fluffy things, bread and pastries and cakes.   So, God says don't crave his dainties and delicacies. They are deceitful food. And it even says put a knife to your throat lest you be given the gluttony.   We talked last time about bread. People thinking, you know, gaining weight. Well, you know, the white flour dainties and delicacies.   Yes, they lead to gluttony. So that was one that really came to mind. And then, of course, Isaiah 55 verse two. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for what does not satisfy?” And so, I always thought, oh, Lord, I didn't know it wasn't bread. You know, I didn't know that's what I was spending my money on.   But just a few weeks ago, I was thinking about that verse again in a little different light. Like He was saying, why are you spending your money for that which is not bread? We're spending all this money moving away from bread on food, the keto, the fat, the all these the meat.   You know, we're spending our money on all these things that aren't bread. They don't satisfy like bread does. So that was a little different light.   Yes, on the one hand, what I thought I was spending my money on. I didn't know it wasn't bread. But then now all these anti-bread, anti-grain diets.   Why are you God saying, why are you spending your money on all of that on and your earnings for what does not satisfy? So that was a little different light on that picture. And of course, then Haggai chapter one, verse five says, “You sow much, but you reap little you eat, but no one is full. You drink, but you never have enough. And he who earns wages, earns it to put it in a bag with holes in it.” And you may be going, how does that relate to bread?   We spend all this money on food, and I air quotes “food stuff” that is taking our health away, making us sick. To me, that's a bag with holes in it. Because then what do we spend the rest of our money on health care, medicine, whatever.   So those were some, some pretty profound scriptures that God showed me. And 1 Timothy 4:1-3. It says that the Holy Spirit declares that on the last day, some will turn away from the faith and pay attention to deceitful spirits.   And listen to these doctrines of demons. This is the scripture saying this misled by the hypocrisy of liars who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe and have a clear knowledge of the truth. That's pretty powerful.   That's pretty powerful because you can grill yourself a steak. You can eat an apple all by yourself. You can eat fruits and vegetables all by yourself.   You're not going to make one roll. You're not going to make one piece of bread. Bread was made to be shared. And even the word companion means with bread. Did you ever think about that? So, um, that's, that's pretty powerful that in the end times and, you know, wherever you are with that, but we have to believe that there are teachings that are teaching us to for, you know, to not eat foods that God created to be shared and bread is at the top of that list.   So those are some powerful bread scriptures that that have just ministered to me. There's, there's just so many, you know, and Jesus John 6:35, I typically sign my book that way. Jesus says, “I am the real bread of life. And he who comes to me shall be satisfied” in Isaiah 61. That's a verse the Lord gave me so many years ago. And, you know, most people know it, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel, you know, and I'll never forget.   I had the great privilege of sharing the gospel one time, which is not something I normally do. And at a women's homeless shelter in Atlanta, and I saw in seven or eight people after I shared gave their life to the Lord. And I was like, oh, this is what I want to do.   I don't want to talk constipation and poop anymore. And surely it's not important. And I really got kind of down about it.   I was like, yes, I want to go share the gospel. This can't be important. And a couple of days later, after that wonderful, glorious experience, I mean, I literally wanted to go hand tracks out on the street corner.   I just wanted to be one of those people. And I was supposed to be going to speak at a women's Bible study, giving my what my children lovingly call mom's poop talk. And I got up and I was like; I didn't want to do it.   And I just cried out to the Lord. I was like, I don't want to talk poop anymore. There's so much more in me besides this.   And surely this can't be important. And again, cried out to the Lord. Again, just turned to my regular Bible reading.   And my verse of the day on my calendar was Isaiah 61, one through three or four, whatever it is. The spirit of the Lord God is upon you. He's anointed and qualified me to preach the gospel.   And I was like, yes. And it says to bind up and heal the broken heart. And I was like, yes, that was those ladies.   I know this is what you want me to do. And then it said, proclaim Liberty to the captives. And in my Amplified version in parentheses, it said spiritual and physical.   And what God spoke so to my heart, he goes, the message that I'm sending you to speak today is to set my people physical captives free. He said, my people aren't spiritually captive. Their physical captives held in captivity by every kind of sickness, disease, snotty nose, constipation, irritable bowel, diverticulitis, whatever.   Big ones and little ones, you know, health issues. And that I got up and I just renewed my passion. And I was like, okay, Lord, this is what you've called me to do.   So that was that was the real game changer. It kind of a game changer for me. I was beginning to see the unimportance of it.   And now, after all these years, I mean, when people hug you and with tears in their eyes, sorry, and tell you that you that you're teaching save their life. Now, I know what God was talking about. And I still love to share the gospel.   I still love to teach the word. And I know God's anointed me to do that as well. But this is definitely where God has called me.   And another time when I was out speaking, he shared and I was, you know, kind of questioning. And it says in Matthew, when the multitudes, when Jesus saw the multitudes coming to him to heal him, you know, to seek healing. It says he had compassion on them because they were harassed, distressed, bewildered and helpless and dejected like sheep without a shepherd.   And it said, and then he goes on to say, and he's telling his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And he spoke to me then and he said, the laborers are few. There's not many out there at that time.   There were not many people out there teaching what I teach, teaching other things, maybe, but not about the bread, real bread. So those have been some life-changing scriptures that have just given me a heart and a passion to keep going. And then, of course, it's the bread stories that just come.   Laura Dugger: (11:49 - 12:19) So it's incredible. So profound. And I'm with you.   I love the Amplified version. Yes. You've supplied us with so much knowledge today and last week.   But now I'd love to move on to the wisdom portion, which is learning how to apply what we now know. So Sue, if we're just getting started, what equipment do we need? And then how is that going to be possible for us to incorporate it into our lives?   Sue Becker: (12:20 - 17:03) So like I said last time, I think we ended with keep it simple. Grain mill, top of the list. I once heard a lady.   She taught a little bit on milling, too. And she said, “I tell everybody you want to change the health of your family. Start with a grain mill.”   And like I say, over and over, I have never seen one dietary change make such profound and extensive, immediate, noticeable, across the board health benefits. So start with a grain mill and you don't have to have a barn. You don't have to have a live by a creek and a gristmill and all of that.   It will sit right on your counter. And still today, after 34 years of milling my own grain, my grain mill still has prime real estate on my counter. And it's the most valuable kitchen tool in my kitchen.   I love the Wonder Mill particularly. We do sell other mills. The NutriMill is a great mill as well.   I like the stainless steel milling heads because they're fast, they're very clean, and they just get the job done very quickly. Stone mills have gotten very trendy and popular. We sell those as well.   They're slower, might be better for a smaller family. They do, you know, have a broader spectrum of from pre-cracking, cracking the grain to very fine flour. And that's why some people are attracted to that.   But if I want cracked grain or coarse ground grain, I just use my blender, which I don't think too many people don't have a blender. You know, we all have blenders. So that's an easy fix for me.   And it's just, to me, the micronizing or the stainless steel milling head mills, the Wonder Mill, the NutriMill, they're just so easy to use. Put them together. I mean, they just snap together, turn it on, pour the grain in.   There's no calibrating, no, you know, adjusting the milling heads and everything. They're just easy, and they're fast, and they mill a lot of flour at once. So if you have a large family like mine, you know, I milled 12 cups of flour in less than a minute by the time I've got my other ingredients ready.   So that's top of your list. And then you're going to have to have some kind of grain. So, like I said, that was the next thing people go, where do I get grain?   And I'm like, well, I guess we need to sell grain, too. So we sell just about every kind of grain or bean here at Bread Beckers. We sell it in food-grade plastic buckets so that it is storable.   You want to keep your grain protected from moisture and bugs and, of course, rodents. So it's grown outside, so there could be bugs undetected in your grain that you might buy in a bag or something like that. But it's really important to protect your investment.   Hard wheat is going to be your grain for yeast bread. So we have hard red and hard white. We do sell also kamut and spelt.   Like my sourdough bread I've got working on right now is a combination of kamut and red wheat, which is one I really, really like. But those are more ancient grains. Those are in the bread-making category of wheat, so you could do that.   And then if you know you're going to make cakes and cookies and things like that, I highly recommend getting some soft wheat. Well, we get ours is grown in Montana, but they have to irrigate to make it soft wheat, so it is grown. We do have a soft red wheat that is grown here in Georgia that we sell and then a soft white wheat that we also sell.   And that's good for your cakes, cookies, brownies, biscuits, things like that. And then corn, mill your own corn. You've never tasted cornbread until you mill your own.   These are just easy quick bread recipes. You can find them all in my book, The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book. So that's it.   And then, of course, basic list of getting started items. Beyond that, you might already have oil. We use extra virgin olive oil.   That's just my oil of choice. There's some other sunflower seed oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil. Those are good oils.   I just don't need another oil. We import our olive oil from Greece, and it is truly extra virgin olive oil. Unfortunately, the olive oil industry is not very reputable, so you have to know what you're getting.   And we actually were able to visit the olive oil factory and I guess you call them orchards, the fields, two years ago. And that was really great. It's Creighton Mills.   It's a fifth-generation family-owned olive oil company and very, very reputable. And so we know that what we're getting is truly extra virgin. Yeah, you had a question?   Laura Dugger: (17:04 - 17:13) Yeah, just with that, because it is such a corrupt industry, can you elaborate a little bit more about what's special about that?   Sue Becker: (17:13 - 21:07) Yeah, so to be labeled or designated extra virgin olive oil, it has to have a percent acidity. And I do have a podcast on my Sue's Healthy Minutes, “The Fact About Fats”, and I explain what that means. It's not a pH, but it's a percent acidity of 0.8%. And that's a measurement of the, and I'll go into more detail in my podcast, but simply it's just a measurement of the amount of oxidation of those fatty acids that are found in the olives that has taken place. So, 0.8 means that it's a measurement of how much there. And so, it has to meet that requirement to be extra virgin olive oil. Anything less than that is just better and better, you know.   So, our olive oil, excuse me, from the Isle of Crete is where our olive oil comes from in Greece. The basic one we have, the Agrelia, they guarantee that it's 0.8 or less. Most of the time it's 0.5. Then we have one that's 0.2 and so on. And we do have a certified organic. The problem is, and I know not everybody's going to run out and get their olive oil from us, but here's what you want to look for. You want to look for an olive oil that is bottled in the country of origin.   Because the disreputable oil companies, when they bring the olive oil in in barrels and take it, it might be checked there at the dock or whatever. But then when they take it to their factory and bottle it, no one pays attention there. So, they are mixing it with other oils oftentimes.   We used to sell oil that was labeled extra virgin cold pressed olive oil. We had it tested and the results came back that it was less than 1% olive oil. So that tells you it's, you know, the oils you're buying on the shelf, chances are if they're bottled here in America.   Now that I know California makes some. There's actually an olive oil company in South Georgia around Vidalia. They've learned that olives will grow there very well.   And so there's some reputable companies in the United States. So, you know, you just need to know your company. But typically, if it comes from another country and bottled here, you might need to be cautious about that.   So, yeah. So that's what you need to look for. So, I love olive oil.   Contrary to what people try to say that they are selling other oils, olive oil has a perfectly fine smoke point. And you can fry in it. I stir fry in it.   I fry my doughnuts in it. You can take it up to 400 degrees without any issues at all. I do use coconut oil from time to time.   If I'm trying to make something non-dairy, you know, I'll use it in place of butter. But then I also use real butter. So those are my fats that I look for.   And like I said, there's, you know, grapeseed oil is fine. Avocado oil is fine. I think we do sell an avocado oil.   But I don't need a lot of other. Those three, olive oil, coconut oil, and butter are just fine. Yeah.   Okay. And then raw unpasteurized honey. I sweeten my bread with honey and bake with honey if honey will work.   And in most places it will. Where it gets a little tricky working with honey is cakes and cookies and brownies, things like that. I tell people things that have more sugar than flour, you might want to eat in moderation.   And that's where, you know, some alternatives, less refined sweeteners. And we use honey granules and sucanat products for brown sugar and white sugar. So those are just some simple things.   Laura Dugger: (21:08 - 24:17) And now a brief message from our sponsor.   With over 28 years of experience in real estate, Sue Neihouser of the Sue Neihouser Team is a RE-MAX agent of Central Illinois. And she loves to walk alongside her clients as they unlock new doors.   For anyone local, I highly recommend you call Sue today at 309-229-8831. And you can ask her any real estate questions. Sue lives in Central Illinois and loves this community and all that it has to offer.   When unlocking new doors with her clients, Sue works hard to gain a depth of understanding of their motivations and dreams and interests in buying and selling their home. And then she commits to extensive market research that will give them confidence in their decision. Sue truly cares for each of her clients and the relationship she forms with each family along the entire home buying or selling process.   This was absolutely our experience when we worked with Sue and her team. The house that we desired at the time was actually not even on the market. But Sue had a connection and was able to ask those homeowners if they would be willing to sell.   She was timely in her response as she walked us through this whole process. And she helped us sell our home with the right offer coming in hours after it was listed. We kept saying she thought of everything.   And Sue's continued generosity was astonishing. I remember one afternoon after we had settled into our new home and she was knocking on the door dropping off a goodie bag for our family that came from the local bakery. Our daughters also loved getting to know Ms. Sue as she assisted us in finding truly our dream home. So whether you're looking to buy a home for the first time or looking to upgrade or downsize or making the big decision to move to an assisted living from your home of many years Sue will be there to help you navigate the big emotions and ensure the process is smooth and stress-free and that the new doors to be unlocked are ready and waiting for more memories to be made. So, call her today at 309-229-8831 or visit her website at sueneihouser.com.    Thanks for your sponsorship.   I'd love to go into a few of the other ingredients but first if we're even just thinking of the grain ideally we would get to come and visit you and get it from you. We've gone through all the steps.   But if we live elsewhere, two questions. How would we start a co-op so that we could have grain or how do we find out if one's already in our area? And then also are there any fear of glyphosate or any other issues with grain?   Sue Becker: (24:17 - 32:44) Oh wow, that's a loaded question. So, first of all, let's just say if you don't live close to us, we ship buckets of grain every day. UPS, we do.   But the shipping is quite expensive. UPS does not care about the cost of the product. They care about the weight.   And so, once we get it boxed up in the box that we have to ship it in, it's 49 pounds. So, it can cost anywhere from $25 to $30 just in shipping for that bucket of grain. Our grain prices are still very competitive, a lot less than a lot of people out there.   And we do carbon dioxide package our buckets of grain. So, we guarantee that they are bug free. You don't have to put your grain in the freezer.   You don't have to put diatomaceous earth or bay leaves. We've already done it. That's what the carbon dioxide gas has done.   And once it does its job, it's done its job. It doesn't matter now if you open the bucket and go in and out, in and out, in and out. But we realized back, I think I shared our Joseph vision of providing God's people with grain.   Way back, we started something called co-ops. As we traveled and spoke, people would ask that very question. Okay, great.   I'm buying the grain from you now, but what do I do when you leave? You know, I'm in Richmond, Virginia. I'm in Miami, Florida or Orlando, whatever.   So, we developed co-ops. And you can go on our website, breadbeckerscoop.com, and find co-ops in your area. And what that is, we have a coordinator, some person that kind of handles and facilitates the ordering.   If you join a co-op that's the closest to you, you'll get on, you know, there's no cost to join. And you're never obligated to order. If you don't need to order in that cycle, that's fine.   We deliver to each area four times a year. I'm sorry, three times a year, every four months. And so, you'll get an email saying your ordering window is this month.   So, you order, say, in August for a September delivery or June for a July delivery. And everybody's on a schedule. We have them grouped together.   And then you can order as much or as little as you want. And it greatly reduces the shipping cost per bucket. And you typically get a discount for ordering with the co-op as a group.   So that's a great advantage of a co-op. If you can't find one in your area, then email support@breadbeckers.com, and we'll send you the information of starting a co-op in your area. Pretty much all you have to do, because it's pretty streamlined, when people order they just go online, order, and pay us.   But then it's put together as your co-op. And you just have to facilitate the delivery and then making sure everybody knows to come get their product from you. But that's the way it works.   So that would be a great opportunity to get grain and whatever. And like I said, we ship anything on our website you can get through the co-op, most everything, really, really saves on shipping. And then we have certified organic grain here.   And, of course, it can have no chemical, herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers used at all. Contrary to what you may read and hear and see on the internet, wheat is not genetically modified, not at all. Now it was approved for testing and trials last year in August, but up until that point none at all was here in the United States.   And it's still in the trial and testing. I'm praying that it never comes out on the commercial market. But right now, there is no genetically modified wheat, especially that we offer or that's offered out there commercially.   That being said, that means wheat is not roundup ready. If it was sprayed with glyphosate, it would kill the plant. Now, non-organic farmers can use it on their soil to kill, you know, whatever's been growing.   So pre-planting, then once they harvest it, they can use it after harvest. So, there is an issue with, you know, using glyphosates in our non-organic farming techniques. It is very uncommon, contrary to what you hear people say, for a wheat farmer to use roundup or glyphosate as a desiccant to harvest their grain.   It's very, very uncommon in the United States. Colder climates where there's a chance they might lose it to bad weather or whatever, they may. But even still there's other things they prefer to do instead of that because that's expensive.   It's not cheap. You know, you're talking 30,000-acre farms, these, you know, big wheat farmers. So, it's very, very uncommon.   And you can even find that information on the USDA website, that it's less than 3% ever use it like that. Now, like I said, there are other crops and farmers that use it pre and post harvest, but we're very comfortable with our grain suppliers. Most of our wheat comes from Montana.   It's cold. And they still practice pretty traditional farming methods, tilling things under and planting cover crops and things like that. But if you're really, really concerned, then buy certified organic.   I mean, you know, for the price difference, yes, I think it's like $12, but that's for 42 pounds of grain. So, you know, but like I said, we are very comfortable with our farmers, with our suppliers. Our oat supplier says that they spot check and make sure that, you know, no glyphosate is used even on their non-organics.   I think the problem with there, and people are going to say, oh, yeah, but they tested all these cereals and these oat products and found that they all had residual glyphosate. You've got to remember; those are your big food companies. Those are your big pharma, your big, the other pharma, F-A-R-M-E, you know, M-A.   There's no telling, you know, what they do. But, you know, glyphosate use is a significant issue. I want people to understand that.   But it's more in the farming techniques of desiccating after harvest, instead of used to farmers after harvest, the stubbles all there and corn stalks are all there. They would till it all under and then that would decay and, you know, help nourish the soil. Now they're going in, and this is non-organic farming, they're going in and spraying the fields and then just using seed drills.   Not as prevalent, I don't believe, with wheat, but it is used a lot with soybeans, corn, what else, cotton. Cotton is really bad. And there's not a lot you can do.   I mean, we just have to stay informed. But I hate it when I see people passing on misinformation about making it sound like it's just a blanket procedure that's done of desiccating these massive wheat fields, you know. And I've seen pictures; people will show them dead in the field.   Well, the wheat turns very golden and dries out, you know, before harvest. And then once they harvest it, it dies right there in the field. So, it's just kind of a misnomer.   But when in doubt, buy organic. So there. But, you know, I tell people if you're going to avoid toxins and glyphosate the way it's being used in our country today, you would basically have to never leave your house, go naked and probably never eat any food at all, you know.   And think about like lawns and golf courses and things like that. If you live around that, you're being exposed a good bit. So, wheat is actually detoxifying.   So, it passes through the body absorbing toxins. So, I think you're safe with wheat and, you know. But again, buy organic if you're concerned.   Laura Dugger: (32:45 - 32:57) Love that explanation. And then because I think of the other ingredients and bread and even the offerings that you have, what should we be aware of when it comes to salt and emulsifiers?   Sue Becker: (32:58 - 36:23) Yeah. So salt is something I studied later, you know, after I, you know, I, it made sense why they started, you know, separating the bran and germ from the flour too. So, the flour wouldn't spoil, but I'm like, salt doesn't spoil.   Why would they refine salt and do some digging and do some research and you find that natural mined mineral salt has trace minerals that we need, but it's the sodium chloride that makes the salty flavor. So, they, they have learned that they can extract those trace minerals out of the mind mineral salt and sell that to other industries for minerals and leave us with the sodium chloride and it's perfectly salty. So why not do that?   And then so that it will rain, well, it will, you know, “when it rains, it pours” the, you, you're probably too young to know that slogan, but that was a big one when I was growing up. They heat treat the salt so that it does not readily absorb moisture. So the crystals are harder so that when it rains or it's humid, it will pour unlike your unrefined salt that will tend to clump up if it's humid.   So that's what started happening to our salt. And I didn't believe this, but I did just a few weeks ago, go to the store because I haven't bought salt in years. Cause I get it.   We sell Redmond's natural mined mineral salt that comes from Utah, but I went to the store and sure enough, they put anti-caking agents sometimes in some of the brands of salt, dextrose, which is a sugar. Who would have thought that? And just know that you know, the heat treatment is makes it where it doesn't readily absorb moisture.   So that's why you tend to hold fluids when you eat a lot of salty foods. So, it's trying to help your body be able to utilize it. And while we're on salt, I hear a lot of people, they'll ask me, can I make the bread without salt?   My doctors put me on a low salt diet. First of all, that's concerning, but I want to say to you, just getting rid of processed foods, it will greatly diminish your sodium intake from bread to they have, you know, when things are so denatured that they, you know, they smash it, they cook it, they boil it, they take all this out and that out. Well, then it's flavorless.   So, they have to sweeten it and salt it to make you want to even buy it again. So, if you look at ingredient or not ingredient labels, but nutrition labels on processed foods, and I'm talking canned fruits, vegetables, bread products, and all these things, you will see that the sodium levels are much higher than the potassium levels. Well, in nature, that is not the way it is in, in your fresh fruits and vegetables.   Your potassium level is typically twice your sodium level where, so read your labels on your food and you'll see that sodium is typically twice the potassium in processed foods. So that's what I encourage people. You know, you can make bread without salt.   You probably won't like it. It'll be kind of tasteless. If you need to read, if you feel more comfortable reducing the amount of salt, then do that.   But most importantly, quit eating processed foods. That's going to greatly reduce your salt intake and then use a natural mind mineral salt that your body can utilize. So that's salt.   What was the other thing?   Laura Dugger: (36:24 - 36:25) Emulsifier.   Sue Becker: (36:25 - 40:36) Raw unpasteurized honey is what I use. I recommend. And then the emulsifier.   I think you must be talking about lecithin. Lecithin is totally an optional ingredient. You can make great bread without lecithin, but I'm going to tell you, you can make really great bread by adding a little bit of lecithin to your bread dough.   It's a natural emulsifier. It is what's called a phospholipid. It has an acetylcholine that is what it's made of.   And it, it, what it does in your body, it breaks down fat and cholesterol into small enough particles that can get through your capillary wall and into your bloodstream and into your cells and your tissue. It is found in any type of unrefined food that has oil. So, your eggs, your milk, your oils, your unrefined keyword, unrefined oils, and guess where else?   Grains and beans. It's in the, the germ portion of your grains and beans. And that is the nutrient that even without adding it to your bread, it is there already.   And that's the nutrient that I discovered brought brings down cholesterol, blood level cholesterol, because, and somebody kind of argued when I said that one time and I'm like, no, no, no, no. I didn't say cholesterol was bad. Cholesterol is not a bad guy.   I like the way one biochemist puts it. She said, it's just the pig that got stuck in the barn door. It actually does.   It gets stuck in our blood vessels because its big fat molecules are typically big. We need that lecithin in unrefined foods that have oil grains being one of those. And one of the most nutrient dense ones is, is your grains and beans and sources of lecithin, so it breaks those down into small enough particles so that they can get out of our blood and into our tissues and our cells where it is so needed.   Cholesterol is a precursor of just about all your sex hormones, all your anti-inflammatory hormones that your body can make. If it has lecithin it helps vitamin D be converted. The sunshine be converted to vitamin D and our body and it makes; it's a part of the fat and protein layer of every cell in your body.   The cell membrane of every cell in your body. So, it's very, very important to get that cholesterol out of the blood into the cell. So that's lecithin okay.   That was a lot of information. What does it do to our bread? The very same thing it does in your body.   It breaks the oil down. You've all heard the saying oil and water don't mix. Well, it breaks the oil down so that it is small enough particles.   So, it will go mix into your dough a little better and it will make your dough very smooth, very silky. It will make your bread so very soft. And it's the same.   It's the reason they use it in the food industry. They put it in salad dressings so that oil and vinegar will, will mix and stay mixed a little bit better. They started using it in the margarine industry because they're mixing milk and, and milk fats and water.   So, they put the lecithin in there. Now I'm not saying don't eat margarine. That's not what I said.   They put it in Reese's peanut butter cups. That's what makes that chocolate so smooth and creamy. I'm not saying don't eat Reese's peanut butter cups to get your lecithin, but I'm just explaining that's what it does.   It's in your body and outside of your body and your food, and it will make your bread and rolls so soft. And we actually learned when we had a bakery years ago that it helps your bread retain moisture. It keeps it from drying out so quickly. But it's one of those things in Haiti and Tanzania, they don't make bread with lecithin that's an expense that we don't need. But if you want some really, really soft bread and really help my tortilla dough be really smooth and silky and make those tortillas just press out really well. So that's, that's why we use it there.   You can use an egg has lecithin as well. I use both an egg and lecithin, and I have really, really soft bread. So just depends on what you're going for.   I don't typically put it in my sourdough cause that's a different texture. And I don't typically put oil in my sourdough bread.   Laura Dugger: (40:36 - 41:26) So yeah, it just depends on what you're doing there. Okay. That's so good to know.   And with the fresh milled grain, I know that it loses nutritional value each day. And I think you've recommended don't let it go more than three days. You'll have to discard it if you don't use it in that time.   And it makes me just wonder, then I'm going to link to a previous episode that we did on preparing food for our family, because one of the practices I'm thinking of was whatever you're making, make double and freeze half. So, Sue, I'm curious then with the nutritional value, if the freshly milled grain that we use as the flour is used in our baked goods or our bread, but then we put it in the freezer to be consumed at a later time. Does that compromise any of the nutritional value?   Sue Becker: (41:27 - 45:57) Right? Not in, not that I have read and studied what we have to know that as soon as that grain is milled into flour, then now you've exposed the nutrients, the oil and all these to the air and oxidation begins to take place. You might not see it in flour, but you've all seen it in a banana or apple.   You cut it, it starts turning dark right away. So, there's a lot of discrepancy and different viewpoints out there on how long that flour until the flour spoils. Well, that would be kind of like that apple is not spoiled, but definitely oxidation has taken place.   So, years ago, I read some information that in the first day, you can lose as much as 45% by the third day, maybe as much as 90%. I don't, I don't have that information anymore. You know, I never thought I'd be speaking and teaching, so I don't quote it a lot, but I did contact a university, and they said most of the oxidation is going to take place in those first few days after milling.   So exact numbers they didn't give me. But now I will say this, I would never throw flour away. So, I'm not going to say it's bad for you.   And some people say six months to a year is the shelf life of that flour. You're not going to lose your protein. You're not going to lose your fiber.   It's still probably the most nutrient dense flour that you can use and buy. But I will say this, your best bet is once the bread is baked from everything I have studied, the nutritional loss is minimal. So, if you need to make bread ahead, have a baking day, then bake your bread, freeze your bread or whatever you need to do so that it, most of the time, my bread will last for five or six days.   Well, I say it won't mold in that time. Most of the time we eat it before then. So that would, that would be your best bet.   Also storing bread, you want to either freeze it or leave it at room temperature. You don't want to store bread at refrigeration in the refrigerator. It will dry it out and cause it to go stale.   Now, of course, if you have meat or something like that in there that needs to be refrigerated, of course, refrigerated muffins, little higher moisture. So, if you're not going to eat those in the, in a day or two or three, they, they might mold. So put them in the refrigerator.   I have learned a little trick with storing muffins, put a paper towel in the container, either the bag or the container that you're storing them in. It'll really keep them from turning gooey. And of course, always let your bread muffins, whatever completely cool before you package them.   But I never throw flour away. If typically, I travel with a grain mill or with bread, if I'm going on a short trip where I'm not taking my mill or whatever with me, then I'll, I'll take bread with me camping. Our family used to camp one.   Can't take my milk. We did more primitive camping, can't tent camping, can't take my mill with me. So, I would mill up a pail of flour to make pancakes and, and things, you know, while we were camping.   So, we would camp a week. I'm certainly not going to go home. I can't use this.   It's older than three days. So, it's not going to hurt you to go that long, but it's, it's the best is mill the flour, bake your bread, mill your flour when you're ready to do your baking and then freeze or store or whatever. But sometimes that's not always possible.   We went snow skiing a few years ago and we did take the bread machine. We went with my daughter and her family and we took, we opted to take the bread machine and we just milled flour and put it in a pail and we made bread every day. So, we couldn't take both.   So, we did it that way. So certainly there's, there's, there's options. So, yeah, but I never throw flour away.   And if I, if I happened to over mill and I have, you know, some charts that show you about how much grain to mill to get, how much flour. So, I rarely over mill, but sometimes you mill and go, Oh, I can't, you know, emergency have to leave. I would bag it, put it in the refrigerator and just try to use it, you know, as first before you use other things.   Or if I have a little bit leftover, I'll keep it in the refrigerator and use it to dust my countertop or whatever, when I'm rolling my bread or dump it in my, you know, with a big batch of bread I'm using and just not worry about it. But 90% of the bread, no more than that, probably 99% of the bread I eat. I mill the flour, make the bread or the muffins or the pancakes or whatever.   Laura Dugger: (45:57 - 47:00) So I'm so grateful for that clarification. I definitely have information. So that is awesome.   I just wanted to let you know, there are now multiple ways to give when you visit TheSavvySauce.com. We now have a donation button on our website and you can find it under the donate page, which is under the tab entitled support. Our mailing address is also provided.   If you would prefer to save us the processing fee and send a check that is tax deductible, either way, you'll be supporting the work of Savvy Sauce Charities and helping us continue to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ. Make sure you visit TheSavvySauce.com today. Thanks for your support.   So, let's say we've gathered our ingredients. We've made our first recipe. How long does it typically take to experience the benefits from this lifestyle change?   And just to recap, what are some of the health benefits that you may experience?   Sue Becker: (47:01 - 58:28) Well, bowel issues are going to be corrected pretty quickly. For me, constipation was my issue. It was done first day, I ate bread.   Like I said, poop the next morning. A lot of people go, oh, constipation is not my problem. I'm going five times a day or 10 times a day.   So that's more irritable bowel, spastic colon or chronic diarrhea. That may take a week to 10 days to correct, but we've seen people very quickly correct those bowel issues. So, bowel issues are probably the number one, the fastest that you might see.   And I, I, you, I love this story that I tell on a lady, and I used to year. I've been telling it for about 20 years. And I used to call her an older lady, but I'm older than she is.   Then she was then when I called her an older lady. So, this very young lady, she was the mother of a customer of ours. And the customer was her and her husband were missionaries and they were here on furlough.   And she came into the store. Her mother lived in Boston, I believe. And she said, Sue, my mother's having a terrible time.   She it's been on steroids for 10 years for her bowel issues. That you should never do that. And she said, but every time they try to wean her off, she has horrible issues.   She now has bleeding bowels. She can't sleep through the night. She's getting up five times in the night to go to the bathroom.   She can't leave her house. and I hear this a lot. I've had a fella gave testimonies, construction worker.   He goes, “Do you know what? The number one thing I have to find out when I go to check on the job, I have to know where the port-a-john is. I, cause I have to go.”   So anyway, back to this story. They, you know, And she was going to go to the hospital. And that was right about the time.   The gluten-free stuff was coming out. And she said, so she's been told maybe you need to go gluten-free. And she came in and, As a missionary budget, limited budget.   And I said, “You know what? Our ministry will give your mother a grain mill.” She was going.   The daughter was going to spend two weeks with her. And she goes, I'll teach her how to make bread. She thought about it for a minute.   And she goes, I do not know how to make gluten-free bread. Just give me a bucket of red wheat. It can't hurt her.   She's already got bleeding bowels. and if it makes it worse, we'll just stop. She emailed me and said in five days of real bread, her mother was sleeping through the night, no longer having the bowel episodes.   In two weeks while they were there, everything had normalized and her mother had her life back. That's pretty amazing. So, you're gonna see bowel issues correct pretty, pretty quickly.   We've seen that so many times. And then for me, sinus congestion, when your bowels are moving. And we talked about toxins in your colon, sitting in your colon.   We talked about the cancer relationship. But another thing that a lot of people don't realize, what's dumped in your colon and your bowels to be eliminated every day is the stuff your body doesn't want. It's toxic waste, whatever.   And if it's not eliminated every day, it's gonna sit there and get absorbed into your body. And one of your body's reaction to toxins is to make mucus so you can blow it out your nose or cough it up. You know, think about it logically.   When we get sick with a cold or a flu, that organism has made a toxin that our body is trying to get rid of. So, we make all this mucus and that's why you get congestion and you sneeze and you're coughing, you know, so your body can get rid of it. Well, what I learned when I realized I was no longer congested, I started studying.   I was like, how is this happening? Well, that's what I learned, that now that my bowels were dumping and eliminating toxins out of my body every day, I was no longer getting that toxic response of the excess mucus. My body was doing what it needed.   I no longer needed the antihistamines and the decongestants. So that was a big one for me. Of course, the wart story is pretty amazing.   People laughed at me when I told that in the beginning. I knew that it was the bread, that one of my children's warts that he had had for three years went away in the first month. And I discovered that it was the vitamin E that protects every cell in our body and from lots of things, but from being compromised by oxidation.   And if your cell is compromised, it is more susceptible to viral invasion. Viruses are caused by warts. So now that our body, the richest food source of vitamin E is wheat, but it has to be freshly milled.   So now our body was now getting this abundant source of vitamin E, which by the way, we had our bread tested. And one slice provides 100% of your daily vitamin E need. Wow.   Now, I don't necessarily agree with the daily requirement, but still one slice, which no amount of vitamin E was ever put back in enriched bread. But anyway, so I knew that this was the vitamin E protecting the cells and making us less susceptible to viral invasion. And my son's warts went away that he had had for years and in just the first month.   So, we tell that, I would tell that story. And we have now hundreds of wart stories, hundreds of wart stories. The most profound one was lady heard me speak at a homeschool show.   I only have 45 minutes to speak at a homeschool show. And I'm like, woo, a lot of information in that. So, I talk really, really fast.   And sometimes I share this and sometimes I don't. I started to skip my wart story. The Lord, the Holy Spirit just had me stop, tell my wart story.   And I finished that day a little earlier than normal. I never finish early. And I just said, well, you know, does anybody have anything to share?   Two people shared their wart stories. Unbeknownst to me, mom was in my class, walking down the hall to go to another class because there's lots of workshops at these shows, you know. And the Lord told her to come in mine.   There, when I left the room, she was standing outside and told me that. She with tears in her eyes said that she had been praying that God would send her an answer that her daughter had over 500 warts on her. She had had them for, since she was 12 years old, she was now 17.   They had had them all burned off, which they didn't treat the virus. So, they all came back, of course. They had been on different medications.   She goes; they currently have her on ulcer medication saying that maybe it's caused by stress. Okay, so she follows me back to our table where we're making bread. She eats the bread.   She goes, it's delicious. She goes how much is a mill? I told her and she goes; I've paid more than that for one prescription drug that didn't work.   What have I got to lose? I like to cook. We have to eat.   We'll see. Two and a half weeks, two and a half weeks, every wart on that child's body was gone. She had her life back.   She was ashamed. She was embarrassed that she had these nasty patches of warts on her. She wouldn't wear shorts.   She wouldn't swim in public with her friends because she was embarrassed and ashamed. And so that's more than just a wart story. And I tell that the wart story because, I mean, like I said, we have hundreds.   One little girl prayed that God would take her wart away and they heard about the bread and it went away, you know? And because here's my thought. If this bread can improve your resistance to a virus that causes warts that you've had for five, some people 10 years, what other viruses will it protect you from?   That's important to know. And that's what I saw with our, we rarely had colds. We rarely caught flus, you know, from other people.   Not saying we never did, but when we did, we got well very quickly and typically, you know, faster than others. Skin issues. Had a mom in here the other day just say that her, she said, we call your bread, the miracle bread.   Her son had eczema all behind his ears and on his arms, all cleared up. I had another young man come from; he had heard me speak. His wife heard me speak at a conference in Missouri.   They were traveling through, they came to a class, and he came up and said, “Can I hug you?” And I was like, “Well, sure, yeah, go ahead.” And he said, “My wife heard you speak.”   And he said, “what you didn't know is I had this rash on my body and it was stinging. It was burning. Doctor after doctor, medication, steroids, nothing ever helped.”   And he said, “It feels, it felt like fire ants burning me. Had it for years and nothing worked.” His wife heard me speak.   I don't know if she thought, made the correlation with pellagra. I don't know. But anyway, she bought the mill, bought the mixer.   She didn't say anything to me. And he said, within a month, the rash was completely gone. But here's one thing he said.   He goes, “It was so painful. I had gotten to the point where I wanted to die.” That's pretty significant.   And talk, you know, and now within a month, what doctors couldn't fix, the bread did, the nutrients, the B vitamins, the vitamin E, whatever else was in that bread cured his skin issues. And we hear psoriasis, people with psoriasis, it completely goes away in a matter of a few months. Depression, anxiety.   One little girl struggled with depression, and they told her to go gluten-free and it got worse. She was so fearful. She couldn't even sleep in her bedroom.   She had to sleep on the floor in her parents' room. And the mom with tears in her eyes said, within, they decided to not go gluten-free and to try freshly milling. And the little girl is happy and excited and has her life back.   So, I could go on and on and on. And we, you know, just the health of children is powerful to me. And we've seen heart disease.   God says in Psalm 104 that he gave man bread to strengthen and nourish the heart. We've had people say, I mean, well, one lady in particular, this was years ago, I wish I had taken her name to follow up with her, but she said her husband in one month and all she changed was the bread, came off the heart transplant list. She said, the doctor says he's not out of the woods yet, but his heart muscle is functioning so well, can't justify being on the heart transplant list.   And, you know, I read the works of Dr. Wilfred Schutt, world renowned cardiologist. Do you know what he used to treat heart disease? Vitamin E.   And in his book that has nothing to do with milling your own grain and making your own bread, do you know what he attributes heart disease to? When the white flour came on the scene and they started taking the bran and germ out of our flour. He said, we lost the most potent antithrombin, blood thinning and vitamin E for the strength of the heart muscle.   So yeah, we've seen a lot in 35 years or 34 years. It's been amazing. And people write and say, “I know you must get tired of hearing this.” I never get tired of hearing testimonies and stories. And I call them “it's the bread stories” because they tell me it's the bread that's all I've changed and this is what I've seen. And so, and it's, yeah, it's powerful.   Laura Dugger: (58:29 - 58:56) Well, I love because even before we recorded this conversation, we prayed that God would do more than we could ever ask or imagine. And I feel like that's what he has done with bread too. There's still so much more, but you're just to encapsulate a few things, the improved energy, the supported hormones, the ailments that are corrected, there's so much.   And if we want to get started, then can you remind us of your website and what our first step could be today?   Sue Becker: (58:56 - 1:00:59) Yeah, first step, buy a grain mill, buy some grain, start milling your bread. And if you're scared of yeast bread, then make muffins and make pancakes. Machines help, you might all have a mixer that you can go ahead and use to make your yeast breads, but muffins, pancakes, coffee cake, three of my basic ingredients, I mean, my recipes that I started with, that's a wire whisk in a bowl.   You don't need to knead; you don't need to worry about letting it rise. Buy the tools that help you make this a lifestyle. Bread machine, you might see the Zojirushi bread machine behind you, that, I mean, five minutes, mill the flour, five minutes, dump it in, all your ingredients, come back to a baked loaf of bread.   You know, push the start button, come back to a baked loaf of bread. Mixer, for my family, the mixer worked very well because I would mix up dough to make six to nine loaves of bread or six loaves of bread at a time. And I did that twice a week, interspersed with muffins, pancakes, and all of that.   So, keep it simple, get a grain mill, get some grain and get a recipe book that you enjoy and just dive in. You won't be sorry. Go to breadbeckers.com.   You can find a lot of information. Go to our YouTube channel, Bread Beckers YouTube channel. Lots of videos and how-tos and classes, our getting started classes on there.   There's a couple of videos, a basic list of getting started items where I explain to you the hard wheat, the soft wheat, the red wheat, the white wheat, and those things. And I highly recommend, it's a long video, it's three and a half hours long, but it's called Real Bread, the Staff of Life. You can watch it in segments.   Pause me if you need to come back later, but it's very profound information. It's 30 years of studying and research and gleaning the scriptures and science and textbooks. And then Instagram, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.   And then of course, Sue's Healthy Minutes podcast. You will be blessed by all the information there as well as the testimonies that are shared.   Laura Dugger: (1:01:00 - 1:01:19) Incredible. We'll add all of those links in the show notes for today's episode. And Sue, as you remember last time, we are called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge or insight.   And so, as my final question for you again today, what is your savvy sauce?   Sue Becker: (1:01:19 - 1:04:32) So what I want to encourage people today is seek the truth. Use your common sense that God has given you. I want to read a quote by a doctor that promotes healthy living, but I want you to listen to what he says.   Here's the quote. “Damage to the gastrointestinal tract from the overuse of antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil or Aleve, acid blocking drugs, we talked about that last time, like Prilosec or Nexium, combined with our low fiber, high sugar diet leads to the development of celiac disease and gluten intolerance or sensitivity and the resultant inflammation.” Did you hear that?   I absolutely agree with that. All those things cause damage to the gastrointestinal tract and lead to allergies and things like that. “This is why,” now there's where I want you to listen and use your common sense.   “This is why the elimination of gluten can be a powerful way to prevent and reverse this and many other chronic diseases.” Next sentence. “The biggest problem is wheat, the major source of gluten in our diet.”   Did you hear wheat or gluten listed in his causes? No, you did not. He is making an illogical conclusion to his own truth that he just presented.   Wheat didn't cause that. Wheat can actually cure that. And you asked me about a verse that has meant so much to me and powerful, profound verse in the scripture, Deuteronomy 24:6.   In that scripture, it's the law. Sometimes you get bogged down in Deuteronomy. I will never forget when I stumbled, didn't stumble, but I was reading this verse and what God showed me.   In that chapter or in that verse, God gave a law for what you could take as a pledge when someone borrowed something from you. In those days, if someone was gonna borrow something, they would leave you with something of value of theirs as a pledge. I'm gonna return what I borrowed from you or I'm gonna pay you back or whatever.   Listen to God's law. He says, “Do not take a man's upper millstone as a pledge for you would be taking his life.” That is pretty profound.   Someone in the early 1900s took our milling stones, took our mills out of our home and we've been losing our health and our life ever since. Wheat is not the biggest problem. Wheat is the answer.   Freshly milled, of course. So contrary to popular belief, everything you read on the internet is not true. So, dig into God's word, find the discrepancy from what you're hearing in the world and what God's word says and let his truth rule and reign in your life.   That would be my advice.   Laura Dugger: (1:04:33 - 1:05:03) That is so good again, Sue, and thank you for getting mills back in our home and thank you for being my returning energetic and intelligent and faithful guest. You're so humble in your approach and you'r

On May 18, 2017, Chris Cornell — the iconic singer, songwriter, and one of the most powerful voices in rock history — passed away at the age of 52. Rising to prominence as the frontman of Soundgarden, Cornell helped define the Seattle grunge movement of the late 1980s and 1990s with his soaring vocal range and emotionally raw songwriting. He later expanded his legacy with Audioslave and Temple of the Dog, while also building a deeply personal solo career that showcased his versatility across rock, acoustic, and orchestral styles. Songs like “Black Hole Sun,” “Fell on Black Days,” and “Like a Stone” cemented his reputation as both a fearless artist and a poetic storyteller. By the time of his passing, Cornell was revered not just as a rock star, but as a generational voice whose music gave shape to pain, beauty, and vulnerability for millions around the world. Hosts: Jason Beckerman & Eric Colley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fr Calum and Joel talk with returning guest Fr Thomas Plant about Darwell Stone's case for mere Catholicity. Fr Thomas has recently written an introduction to a new (and handsome) edition of Stone's concise systematic theology, Christian Dogma: Outlines of Orthodox Anglican Theology. Stone was Principal of Pusey House, Oxford from 1909 to 1934. Fr Thomas recently gave a talk on Stone at a conference at Pusey House on the 20th-century principals of the house.See more of Fr Thomas' work on his Substack, Ghostly Counsel.You can email us at holycofe@gmail.com or follow us on X at @holycofe1.

Marcia Bjornerud is an American structural geologist and writer. She is the Walter Schober Professor of Environmental Studies and Professor of Geosciences at Lawrence University. She is also the author of Timefulness, Reading The Rocks, and Turning To Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks. On this episode of Nature Revisited, Bjornerud helps us interpret the language of the rocks that surround us, and reveals how our lives can be enriched by understanding our heritage on this old and creative planet. Earth has been reinventing itself for more than four billion years and rocks are the hidden infrastructure that keep the planet functioning, from sandstone aquifers purifying the water we drink to basalt formations slowly regulating global climate. Turning To Stone book: https://www.amazon.com/Turning-Stone-Discovering-Subtle-Wisdom/dp/1250875897 Listen to Nature Revisited on your favorite podcast apps, on YouTube, or at https://noordenproductions.com Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/bdz4s9d7 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5n7yx28t Subscribe on Youtube Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bddd55v9 Podlink: https://pod.link/1456657951 Support Nature Revisited https://noordenproductions.com/support Nature Revisited is produced by Stefan van Norden and Charles Geoghegan. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions - contact us at https://noordenproductions.com/contact

Pastor Killian Teaches On Luke 20:9-20 Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Coming Home for Christmas: 1517 Advent Devotional Face to Face: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms by Chad Bird Remembering Your Baptism: A 40-Day Devotional by Kathryn Morales Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug More from the hosts: Edward Killian Darrin Sheek Bob Hiller Brian W. Thomas

The Captain is back with Bob St Pierre and they're joined by Gabe Stone, Stan Tekiela, and Tackle Terry!

The Captain is back with Bob St Pierre and they're joined by Gabe Stone, Stan Tekiela, and Tackle Terry!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dry January/Hobbies/Food Pyramid/Girl Scout Cookies/Sports.

Chris Kwiecinski from Fox32 Chicago joins the show to preview Bears vs Packers III in this weekend's Wildcard matchup. Has the Bears magic run out or is this where they turn the tide in the NFL's oldes rivalry? Plus NFL Wildcard Weekend predictions - Kurtis and Evan are completely split in one division. Etched in Stone hit again! Did you cash in? Evan has 2 more bets tonight. And we give our Friday Toasts! Cheers!

 There's a powerful story behind a stone marker in Japan, offering a stark tsunami warning. This marker, a silent sentinel, speaks volumes about the enduring risk of the ocean. For generations, its message was heeded, but eventually, the warning was forgotten. When the next earthquake and tsunami struck, the stone stood firm, a poignant reminder of nature's power. Like, subscribe, and tell us your thoughts on this incredible piece of world history.Long before modern data storage, humans carved their most important warnings into stone.In coastal Japan, centuries-old markers warned communities not to build below a certain line. For generations, people listened. Then memory faded, confidence grew, and the boundaries moved—until the water returned.This episode explores how warnings work, why they're ignored once they succeed, and what happens when we forget why a line was drawn in the first place.

Kids/Vacations/Dry Skin/Food/Farts.

Send us a textDr. Heather Stone is a returning guest on our show! Be sure to check out her first appearance on episode 833 of BBR!Dr. Heather Stone, DC is one of the most successful functional medicine practitioners in the world. She has spent the last twenty-one years helping patients reverse various chronic diseases. Her focus is on helping women return to the person they know themselves to be by experiencing a total thyroid transformation. She is passionate about health, longevity, gardening, cooking, regenerative farming, and raising her animals on her ranch.Dr. Heather also currently runs two functional medicine clinics, as well as Born To Heal Ranch & Retreat, which is a functional medicine retreat center for women dealing with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's.Throughout her career, Dr. Heather has been instrumental in showing tens of thousands of patients how to reverse long-standing health problems with a focus on type 2 diabetes, hypothyroidism, and cognitive decline. She is also the author of her amazing book Thyroid Transformation Blueprint.Dr. Heather is married and has two sons, Cam and Cannon, and currently lives on her ranch in Texas with her family and two dogs. When she is not working, she is reading, meditating, cooking, or traveling the world.Find Dr. Heather at-https://reversemycondition.com/FB Page- Happy, Healthy and Lean- Women Overcoming Low Thyroid!IG- @drheatherstonehttps://www.borntohealranchandretreat.com/Find Boundless Body at- myboundlessbody.com Book a session with us here!

Brad Underwood met with the media ahead of the Illinois vs Rutgers game at State Farm Center. Hear the latest from the Illini head coach. Evan's "Etched in Stone" bet looks at Duquesne vs St. Joseph's. And who won our Best QB Of All Time draft?!

Send us a textIn today's episode, I'm chatting with Katie Bernet. Katie is an author living in Dallas, Texas. She's an award-winning creative director, a long-standing member of the DFW Writer's Workshop, and the director of the 2025 DFW Writer's Conference. The oldest of three sisters, she's a diehard fan of Little Women. We are here today to discuss her debut novel, Beth is Dead.Episode Highlights:Writing Beth is Dead while living with her sisters, and how those real-life dynamics quietly found their way onto the page.A simple but powerful writing exercise that helped her move past resistance: making a love/hate list and choosing to write toward what felt hard.What changed for her when she reached the end of revisions and realized she understood Beth March in an entirely new way.She talks about which March sister was the most challenging character to write.A gentle reminder that creativity isn't exclusive or earned - it's something we all carry.Connect with Katie:InstagramWebsiteShow NotesSome links are affiliate links, which are no extra cost to you but do help to support the show.Books and authors mentioned in the episode:The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara KingsolverDemon Copperhead by Barbara KingsolverHarry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by J.K. Rowling (full-cast audio)Enchantment by Orson Scott CardGirl Dinner by Olivia BlakeThe Scammer by Tiffany D. JacksonBook FlightLittle Women by Louise May AlcottSo Many Beginnings by Bethany C. MorrowLittle Monsters by Máire RocheThe 2026 Bookish Flights Reading Challenge is here - a simple, nostalgic way to be intentional with your reading. One book per month, with options for individuals and families. Download it at https://www.bookishflights.com/read/2026readingchallengeSupport the showBe sure to join the Bookish Flights community on social media. Happy listening! Instagram Facebook Website

Mary & Blake recap and give their reaction to episode 1.05 of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, entitled "Needfire" They break down Ellen being crowned May Queen while secretly handfasting with Brian (and yes… doing the business in a church), the show's gorgeous "hands" visual motif, and why this episode finally feels like classic early-Outlander magic again. Meanwhile, Julia and Henry keep missing each other by inches, Davina detonates the pregnancy truth, Lord Lovett gets nastier, and Murtagh—day-drunk and heartbroken—pulls the most catastrophic "wrong name" slip possible. Plus: the Stone of Destiny, the creepy prophecy vibes (two yolks, anyone?), and Blake's Outlandish Theory of the Week about a prophecy misread that could be pointing straight at Claire + Jamie. And of course, Five Questions closes it out with bonfire drinks, Beltane vs. Fourth of July chaos, and Mary's absolutely unhinged candy-cane party confession. Also in this episode: Beltane as a turning-point episode: liminal, smoky, romantic, and loaded with consequences Ellen & Brian fully ignite: handfasting, passion, and why their bond finally clicks Murtagh's spiral: rejection, humiliation, and the "Ellen" slip heard 'round the Highlands Julia's mounting danger: the pregnancy reveal, Davina's heartbreak, and Lovett's threats The witchy woman & prophecy: double-yolk symbolism, Claire callouts, and uneasy foreshadowing Stone of Destiny talk: myth, destiny, and whether the show is winking at the parent series Segments you love: Kilt Ratings, BomB Impact, Good/Bad/Great, Outlandish Theory, and Five Questions   SUBSCRIBE TO OUTLANDER CAST: AN OUTLANDER PODCAST Apple Podcasts YouTube Spotify CONNECT WITH MARY & BLAKE  Like Our Facebook Page Join Our Facebook Group Join The #NerdClan Follow On Twitter  Follow On Instagram  UNLOCK BONUS EPISODES, PREMIUM PODCASTS & MORE -- www.JoinTheNerdClan.com Sign up  HERE for Blake's Book Club: DRUMS OF AUTUMN CHECK OUT THE BEST MERCH ON THE PLANET: THE MARY & BLAKE STORE Shop for all of our podcasts, sayings, and listener inspired designs in one easy place. FOLLOW ALL OF OUR PODCASTS AT MARY & BLAKE: This Is Us Too: A This Is Us Podcast The Pokemon Pokedex With Rhys & Felicity: A Pokemon Podcast The Percy Jackson Prophecy: A Percy Jackson Podcast The MCU Diaries: Essays On Marvel Television Podcast  Bridgerton With Mary & Blake: A Bridgerton Podcast Keep Calm And Crown On: The Crown Podcast Minute With Mary: A Younique Network Marketing Podcast Rise Up!: A Hamilton Podcast The Leftovers Podcast: The Living Reminders The North Remembers: A Game Of Thrones Podcast Wicked Rhody: A Podcast About Rhode Island Events and Life You've Been Gilmored: A Gilmore Girls Podcast ParentCast: A Podcast For New Parents Outlander Cast: An Outlander Podcast The Potterverse: A Harry Potter Podcast The Last Kingdom With Mary & Blake: A Podcast For The Last Kingdom House Of The Dragon With Mary & Blake: A Podcast For House Of The Dragon The Rings Of Power With Mary & Blake: A Rings Of Power Podcast READ OUR LATEST BLOGS AT MARY & BLAKE: Mary & Blake's Blog The MCU Diaries The Handmaid's Diaries Minute With Mary Outlander Cast Blog A huge thank you to all of our members at the #NERDCLAN for helping to make this podcast possible. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Anne Gavin, Bobbi Franchella, Dana Mott-Bronson, Dena Kendig, Kathleen, Kirstie Wilson, Martha, Michael McGarry, Siobhan M. O'Connor, SuzyQ, Vicki Adams CO - PRODUCERS Angie L, Barbara Falk, Debbie Stelluto, Donna Walsh, Gloria Hernon, Jennifer Richie, Katelyn Cassidy, Kathy McKibben, Pamela Phelps Smith, Tracy W, Agnieszka Widłaszewska, Allyssa Sullivan, Brenda Lowrie, Candy Hartsock, Cary Robinson, Christina P, Christina T, Christine Milleker, Janice Parmelee, Jenny Rogers, Karen Snelling, Laura Roche, Marilyn L Neenan, Mary Avila, Norma Perez, Roberta R, Shonna Chapman, Suzanne Moss, Tracy E ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS Amanda, BSue Tunstall, Corbin Wahl, Coreen Starr, GAY Kleven-Lundstrom, Heather Smallwood, iloveclarkk kent, Ines Donovan, Jennifer, Jordan Cook, Laura Larsen, Leah Prengaman, Lotte Andersen, Melissa Gillespie, Tina Twyman